CSE Conferences and Meetings for 2010

The last meeting of the  California Work and Health Study Group was this past May, 2010 in Berkeley, California. These are regular meetings (three times/year) of colleagues in occupational health interested in discussing topical issues concerning the role of psychosocial factors at the workplace through the vehicle of the California Work and Health Study Group attended by 20 to 30 different researchers primarily from California.

As Chair of the ICOH Scientific Committee on Cardiology in Occupational Health 2005-2010 and as a current member of the ICOH Scientific Committee on Work Organization and Psychosocial Stressors Dr. Schnall chaired and helped organize several successful international meetings. He was invited to give several keynote addresses during 2010 at international conferences. He is also currently helping to organize a 3 day international conference to be held in Bogota, Colombia in October 2012 at the U. de los Andes sponsored by two Latin American research networks, RIPSOL and RIFAPT.

California Work and Health Group – Meeting XXIV

The 24th Session of the California Work & Health Study Group was held at University of California on Friday May 14, 2010. The meeting was hosted by Paul Landsbergis and had three excellent presentations from June Fisher, Len Syme and Maria Hernandez. June Fisher presented her findings from the “MUNI Health & Safety Study” and talked about her international work on bus driver health. Len Syme & Maria Hernandez presented their work with CIGNA’s Communities for Health program and the development of Global Novations.

California Work and Health Group (CWHG) Mission Statement

Drafted by: Karen Belkic, Paul Landsbergis and Peter Schnall

What is our purpose for doing research?

• To prevent ill-health
• To make healthy work a reality
• To help humanize the workplace

How is this research to be conducted?

• Based on sound scientific principles.
• With rigorous criteria of reliability, validity and study design.
• With ethics, ethics, ethics (explicate).
• With recognition of the difficulties of the conduction of psychosocial stress research.
• With participatory research which involves employees and employers in the research process & in their own salutogenesis.
• Coordinated with other centers of research aiming toward multicenter intervention trials.
• With researchers that are interactive and egalitarian.
• With colleagues from other groups to co-author papers in their areas of expertise.
• With an international perspective.
• Collaboratively with trade unions, businesses and government agencies.

What are our responsibilities?

• To all working people in their efforts to humanize the work place.
• To enter public debate by the dissemination of our research findings through scientific journal articles and public education materials.
• To oppose classism, sexism and racism in our own professional work.
• To be prepared to debate social issues and challenge the systems that maintain the status quo at the expense of one group over another.
• To exercise and/or develop scientific solidarity.
• To maximize intellectual debate and dialog.
• To provide support for each other and concrete aid in our efforts.
• To be open on our parts to feedback.
• To be honest about the limitations of our work.
• To provide opportunities to discuss and reflect about difficult issues.
• To review each others articles.
• To acknowledgment each others reviews.
• To respect each others work in progress (scientific integrity).
• To challenge the dominant mode of doing research, where someone else’s success is a threat to ourselves.
• On the contrary, To celebrate each others success.