It’s that time of year again—football season. While pro, college and pee wee football players and fans across the country prepare for the annual rituals of the game, questions of safety linger on the sidelines. A new study from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) finds that National Football League (NFL) players may be at a higher risk of death associated with Alzheimer’s and other impairments of the brain and nervous system than the general U.S. population. These results are consistent with recent studies by other research institutions that suggest an increased risk of neurodegenerative disease among professional football players.
Selected Category: Sports and entertainment
Brain Injury in the NFL
Categories: Sports and entertainment
September 6th, 2012 10:58 am ET - Everett Lehman, MS
Safety and Health in the Theater: Keeping Tragedy out of the Comedies…and Musicals…and Dramas
Categories: Chemicals, Construction, Ergonomics, Exposure, Hearing loss, Sports and entertainment
June 11th, 2012 11:05 am ET - Gregory A. Burr, CIH and Deborah Hornback, MS
On Sunday, the 2012 Tony Awards celebrated the year’s best offerings from “The Great White Way.” While the theater provides entertainment, the preparation and production of live performances can also pose hazards to those working in all aspects of the theater –from actors on stage to set designers behind the scenes and musicians in the orchestra pit. Some of these hazards were well publicized in recent years as multiple actors and stunt doubles were injured during the production of Spiderman, Turn off the Dark. These injuries included harness failure, injuries sustained during flying sequences and actors struck by equipment[i]. With the complexities of a theatrical production, there are numerous potential hazards. In fact, one hazard, a falling backdrop, is portrayed in the musical The Phantom of the Opera. But the Phantom wasn’t to blame when a large backdrop hit Bret Michaels on the head after performing with the cast of Rock of Ages during the 2009 Tony Awards [ii]. Other potential hazards in the theater include rigging and flying hazards, repetitive strain injuries among dancers and carpenters, solvent and chemical exposures, noise-induced hearing loss, electrical hazards, falls from heights, as well as most hazards found on a construction site.
NFL Players Tackling Heart Disease
Categories: Cancer, reproductive and cardiovascular diseases, Sports and entertainment
January 30th, 2012 9:53 am ET - Sherry Baron, MD, MPH
Many football players are essentially paid to be big—really big—especially those whose job is to block or stop the big guys on the other team. There is a good chance that these players weigh in at sizes that are classified as obese as defined by body mass index (BMI). In the general population, high BMI generally correlates with high body fat, and we know that high body fat is a risk factor for death (mortality) and heart disease. Is the same true for elite athletes, for whom high BMI may relate to increased muscularity rather than increased body fat? What if the athlete plays a position where size simply matters, regardless of whether size is related to muscle or to body fat? And what happens when former athletes are no longer conditioning at their playing-day levels? Do professional football players die earlier than or more often from heart disease or cancer than the average American male? New research from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) helps answer these and other questions.
OSH in the Movies: This Time It’s Personal
Categories: Media, Sports and entertainment
September 23rd, 2010 10:55 am ET - James Kesner, PhD
If our original blog entry on Alice in Wonderland’s Mad Hatter has demonstrated anything, it is that OSH-related issues permeate the movies—whether they are from Hollywood or Bollywood, blockbusters or independent films, foreign flicks or documentaries—and whether the OSH issues are portrayed on screen or occurred while making the movies. A recent release from Peru, “The Milk of Sorrow” [La teta asustada], describes a young woman exploited by her employer while working as a maid. Another recent release, “Last Train Home,” portrays the devastating impact of occupational stress on migrant workers in present-day China caught between its rural past and industrial future. And lest the reader be lulled into thinking occupational hazards are relegated to America’s past, “The Company Men,” opening in October, describes the stress and disruption of workplace downsizing on the lives of three workers (Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones and Chris Cooper), their families and their communities.
Older Posts
Pages
- [1]
- 2
Get email updates
To receive weekly email updates about this site, enter your email address:
Site Categories
- Agriculture, forestry, and fishing
- At-risk populations
- Bloodborne pathogens
- Cancer, reproductive and cardiovascular diseases
- Chemicals
- Construction
- Economics
- Emergency response
- Ergonomics
- Exposure
- Green
- Health care
- Hearing loss
- Media
- Mining
- Nanotechnology
- Oil and gas
- Outdoor work
- Personal protective equipment
- Policy and programs
- Prevention through Design
- Respiratory health
- Sleep
- Small Business
- Sports and entertainment
- Stress
- Technology
- Total Worker Health
- Training
- Transportation
- Uncategorized
- Vehicle safety
- Violence
- Young Workers
About this Site
Contact Us:
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
1600 Clifton Rd
Atlanta, GA 30333 - 800-CDC-INFO
(800-232-4636)
TTY: (888) 232-6348 - cdcinfo@cdc.gov
