Public Health and Safety Books

This text is a valuable resource for those interested in the science of flooring and tribometry. The scope of topics is comprehensive and I especially appreciated the discussion of flooring types, cleaning methods, and maintenance in Chapter Six.

Mr. DiPilla's book is delightfully clear, concise and comprehensive. It educates the reader from the scope of slips and falls issues, to common procedures for recognizing and mitigating walkway hazards, to management control methods and accident investigation/claims mitigation. The text and illustrations read in a simple, common-sense way, showing the truth of Voltaire's comment that "common sense isn't so common."

Another noteworthy feature of this book are the remarkably comprehensive, annotated references to slip resistance principles, flooring, footwear and slip-resistance measurement techniques, both within the U. S. and internationally. The annotated listings of U. S. and international standards and guidelines in themselves provide the best collection of references I've seen on this complex subject. Remarkable.

David C. Underwood, Ph. D.

One might expect that evaluating the slip resistance of a walking surface is a straightforward procedure. Surely building codes contain specifications for slip resistant walkway surfaces and indicate procedures to evaluate available surfaces. You will not find these specifications or procedures in building codes and you will be frustrated and confused as you seek guidance. Slip and fall Prevention by Steven Dipilla is the best summary of up to date industry standards and test methods needed to perform meaningful evaluations. If you need guidance this should be the reference you purchase.

This book is a comprehensive reference on slips and falls and "must have" for every safety professional reference library. Very useful hazard recognition and prevention guidelines is offered for indoor and outdoor slips and falls from floors, stairs and ramps. In addition, this is one of the best references I've seen on slip-resistance measurement guidelines and tribology standards.

Slip and Fall Prevention by Steven Di Pilla, though probably written primarily for professionals in the field of safety and risk management, can be invaluable to anyone who owns or manages physical assets.

It seems to me that Mr. Di Pilla has dealt with every possible manifestation of the subject. I was particularly impressed with his advice regarding claim mitigation. This handbook belongs on practically everyone's bookshelf.

If your company hasn't already tapped you to be involved in its environmental management effort, your reaction to the mention of ISO 14001 may range from dismissal (What's it got to do with me?) to dispassionate interest (I guess it's a good idea, but my plate's already full.). Gabriele Crognale explains in simple terms why many companies have embraced the concept of environmental management -- and why today's managers need to be aware of what's happening in this field. The book identifies opportunities, management practices, methodologies, and innovative strategies that organizations can implement to improve their environmental management performance. The logic is that if organizations display a strong commitment to sound environmental practices, they can defuse the traditional "command and control" enforcement applied by regulatory agencies. In a total quality organization, sound environmental practices are a shared commitment that makes good business sense. This book explains the issues and provides solid, hands-on guidance for helping your organization as it takes the next step in improving environmental quality.

Many environmental management books in print today, and even some books on the new wave of sustainability, lack the depth and detail that the author provides in his book. His choices of co-authors are a good blend to the mix and depict practical insight into their operations and how they address environmental management and sustainability issues. Practical insight can be gleaned from such diverse companies and industries as HP, Gilette, IBM, ST Microelectronics, Chevron and Texaco, and how each of them addresses environmental management issues as well as how they applied their lessons learned to improve.

Of note, one local university uses excerpts of the book in one of its environmental maangement classes, and was impressed with how specific chapters lend themsleves well to these classes, here in 2007.

Very interesting! A must-read for an environmentalist

This book offers a unique look into the issues and responsibilities that environmental professionals in companies face on a daily basis. The Editor used finesse in weaving the case studies of other environmental professionals into a smooth flowing book where each new chapter complements the previous chapter. So what you get is good reading instead of dry, dull technical reading. The Editor also includes extensive additional material in the endnotes, references, etc., brings rich value to this book as a suitable reference source for all readers, whether students like me, or professionals in the workplace. It's VERY conservatively priced for what you get, and is easy to read. I enjoyed the book for what it offers, and I recommend it to you.

Environmental Management Strategies, The 21st Century Perspective, Volume 5 is an asset to any environmental managers' bookshelf. It is very readable while being stuffed with applicable information pertaining to environmental management. It offers a good picture of recent business trends that incorporate environmental practices that often go beyond straightforward compliance. The book also illustrates the possible benefits of companies applying forward thinking regarding environmental management using case studies of successful companies. In addition practical information pertaining to OSHA, EH&S, and EPA requirements are included.

My field of expertise is driver performance and traffic safety, and as a specialist in this field I can strongly recommend this excellent book. Leonard Evans is widely recognized as the world expert in this area, as far as the basic physics and research data on traffic safety issues are concerned. I bumped into him at the recent 2005 SAE meeting and told him I thought his new book was even better than his first (which was great as it was) -- and he replied "Of course it is better, I have had 10 more years to study the problem." Seriously though, his first chapter is available from hist website http://www.scienceservingsociety.com, and it alone will improve your whole attitude, if you are working in or interested in the area of traffic safety, and whet your appetite for the rest of the book. Note that this book does not have the usual avenues that large book companies have for widespread announcements and distribution, and its important messages should be given widespread attention in my opinion, so I would recommend you order it and let others know about it if you liked it as much as I did.

Whether you are a traffic safety researcher, professional or advocate, Leonard Evans' new book on the subject is essential reading. Dr. Evans draws both upon his own and other reputed scientists in the field to present baseline information to researchers across the comprehensive sub-disciplines of traffic safety. The facts are not shrouded in scien-tific jargon, however, and will be understandable to non-academics and decision-makers alike. In the closing chapters, Dr. Evans fearlessly moves from the scientific facts to the personalities that shape the commonly held paradigms in the traffic safety community. He provides concrete examples of the reasons that current efforts have fallen short, and he clearly demonstrates that the only way to make definitive progress in traffic safety is to provide a hard linkage between the applied countermeasures and the root causes of the problem itself.

David B. Brown, PhD, P.E.
Director of Development
CARE Research and Development Laboratory
The University of Alabama
brown@cs.ua.edu

Similar to the earlier text by the same author, this book is well written and easy to understand. Besides the inclusion of newer research data, this book also has a stronger emphasis on public policies discussions that are supported by the data presented. These discussions are insightful and thought provoking. An excellent book that should be read by all road safety professionals.

This wonderful book--always by my side-- is essential reading for those who want to know what to do about the US's dismal failure to reduce its road death toll in the last decade. The centerpiece of the book is an angry chapter in which Evans asks why the US has not introduced speed camera networks which reduced deaths in absolute numbers fell by 40-50% in Australia, the UK and France. Evans applies models derived from Newtonian physics, which relate mass, velocity and kinetic energy, to assess the proportional contributrion of an array of countermeasures for reducing road deaths and injuries. He comes to some conclusions which shake the groupthink Ptolemaic mindset of US injury prevention specialists, a tribe publishing more and more about interventions which yield less and less. The book contains a wealth of information, recommendations and insights on alcohol, seat belts, air bags, vehicle safety standards and much more in road safety, and demonstrates a glittering ability to cut through a lot of nonsense and get to the core of the issue on what works and what doesn't. Again a must read. A detailed review is available by this reviewer in Israel Med Assoc Journal. (IMAJ: 2005: 7: 62-3) Elihu D Richter MD, MPH Hebrew University

Leonard Evans has put into straightforward and easily understandable terms the reasons why traffic crashes are the most frequent cause of traumatic death in first world societies. His ways of turning problems inside out and examining real causes while identifying confounders helps turn even the casual reader into something of an expert in traffic safety.

I hope I am savy enough to put this review in two places for this book and Radium Girls.Radium Girls: Women and Industrial Health Reform, 1910-1935 Both books are good and cover the tragedy of may young women who painted dials with radium paint on glow in the dark watches and dials and guages before there was a good appreciation of the hazards. Unfortuntately the companies involved in the producing glow in the dark watch and other faces refused to accept the hazards much like the tobacco industry refused to accept the hazards of smoking. Only in this case the effects were much more certain and lethal. The book Radium Girl... is actually adapted from a college thesis and is rigorously referenced. It is also somewhat dry as one might expect but it is worth while reading especially if one is interested in industrial health and safety at that period in time. This book, Deadly Glow... is a much easier read and enjoyable to boot. I'd have to rate it above the former for the average reader. I am a Health Physicist, a Radiation Safety Specialist that is and of course that is why I read both books.
There was information in this book which was not mentioned in Radium Girls, one specific is that apparently the practice of painting watch dials started with expensive watches in Switzerland befor it occured in this country.

Excellent and informative book regarding the lax view which
was taken in the early 1900's regarding radioactivity and worker health and safety issues as well as denial by companies that they had any responsibility for these workers illnesses and deaths in spite of overwhelming proof to the contrary.

An outstanding and well-researched work about true history in our fine country. Dr. Mullner was a guest lecturer when I was a student in Chicago in 1990. I went to hear his talk because my grandfather was the physician in Chicago who identified the link between radium and oral cancer among the Elgin workers who painted the watch faces with radium paint. He filled in the entire history for me, and I am more than grateful with his rendition of "the rest of the story..."

This book is a compelling and carefully documented story of the tragedy of the first widely known victims of the atomic age, the radium dial workers. The author superbly blends scientific fact with vivid characterizations of the emotions and suffering of these workers. Numerous pictures from the early part of the last century of people, places, and artifacts unique to the story help transport the reader to that period in time. The chapter, "The Ottawa Society of the Living Dead," focuses on the fate of hundreds of young women in their teens and early twenties who worked at the largest dial-painting establishment. Besides tipping the brushes to add precision to painting the numbers on dials, these women were encouraged to paint common household items and decorate the buttons and belts of their dresses with paint. The deadly consequences of these practices were protracted by years of a myriad of legal battles with the only solace that these battles finally brought public attention to the plight of these women. I heartily concur with the remarks in the Foreword by the former Section Head for Human Radiobiology at Argonne National Laboratory, "Who should read this book?....everybody."

Although I second the other revierw here, I must add that this book could be some 100 pages shorter and still hit the mark. The way it is, Lambrecht uses too much words to deliver his message.
Also, because of the subject matter itself, the book is a bit outdated.
Other than that, good reading material.

If you are curious about what you are eating this is a necessary book for you. Bill Lambrecht provides an unbiased resource for those intrested in the history of GMO food. Lambrecht gives the opinions of scientists, politicians and the farmers that grow these crops. This provides a balenced collage of information that allows anyone to make up their own mind about what the future of food should be.

This book was very enlightening in the subject of GMO's, as they are a powerful new technology with frightening implications. Lambrecht uses entertaining anecdotes and accounts of his dealings with ordinarys farmer and head agricultural powerfigures. I recommend this book because it tried to show an objective perspective on the entire issue, and left no voice unheard.

I was a little wary when purchasing this book that the entire premise would be zealotish anti-GMO and anti-biotechnology. The quotes on the cover seemed to indicate that would also be the case. I was extremely pleased to find a very balanced reporting of both sides of the genetic engineering debate. The author has been a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for over 2 decades, and has been covering the debate and progress since its inception. His style is engaging and fast-paced, with humor and human interest sprinkled in to lighten a complex topic. He seems to lean toward the side of caution, but gives full reporting to the biotech companies' claims and biotech's proponents' enthusiasm. I personally am hopeful of the promise and potential of this technology, but this book helped me understand opponents' fears in a very sympathetic way. Particularly frightening was the disclosure of some of the big biotech firms' less-than-open trials and political influences. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about the issues involved in genetically engineering our food.

I am using your textbook for a class I teach for the Oklahoma City/County Health Department. I Love It! The class I teach is the Food Service Operator's Certification Course that is required by all food service operators in this county. I am a Registered Dietitian who is contracted by Oklahoma State University-OKC and Francis Tuttle to teach the class for the health department. It is kind of a community service offered by the two schools. I have only been teaching the class for three years now, and by far your book is the best.

Your book has made my job so easy and so much fun! Some of my students are returning to do the re-certification class and bringing managers in who have not taken the class in 20 years. In the past, they have just challenged the test every three years, because they thought the class was too boring. (and they knew it all).
I would highly recommend this book to educators in the nutrition field. I think all nutrition majors need to know this important information. I also recommend it for a reference for my food service managers in my nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

As an instructor who teaches Food Safety classes to front-line employees, I find this text an excellent resource. It is comprehensive yet still easy-to-understand, a difficult combination to achieve for some of the technical aspects of foodborne illness, pathogens, etc. The cartoon-style drawings add to the enjoyment. I have had many trainees who share these positive comments. Only negative comment would be to include color photos instead of the old, grainy B&W.

Also recommended for the Food Safety Trainer: "Keyword Index: 1999 FDA Model Food Code"

Essentials of Food Safety & Sanitation is a comprehensive, easy-to-understand guide to help food workers produce safe food. In my job as editor of a food safety-oriented newsletter, I review and have access to a lot of training materials, but "Essentials" is the one I refer to the most for current, reliable information.

I wanted to make your users aware of the fact that a Study Guide has been developed to accompany Essentials of Food Safety and Sanitation. There are a growing number of states in America that require retail food managers in their state to be certified in food safety. In many instances, certification is based on the ability to pass a nationally recognized food protection manager certification examination. Many people who are seeking certification desire to have some training in food safety before sitting for the certification exam. However, these people do not always live in areas where such training is readily available. This is why the authors of Essentials of Food Safety and Sanitation developed the Study Guide to accompany the book. The Study Guide is published by Prentice Hall, and its ISBN is 0-13-532144-1.

When I got a copy of this book - having forgotten about Dr. Szasz's breadth of outlook and singular erudition - I thought I was going to read a nice little political tract condemning the current American Drug Prohibition. "Our Right to Drugs" is that, of course, but it is so much more - it is a call to intellectual and political arms.

The War on Drugs, as Dr. Szasz so carefully shows, is nothing less than a Jihad, a Holy War waged by the forces of reaction and restriction in our society against all those who think that there should be peaceful choice, or self-ownership, or genuine free thought. And like all Holy Wars, this one permits the worst atrocities to be visited on the unbelieving because they are not just wrong - they are evil.

Like many libertarians, Dr. Szasz has little use for compromise; in this case, by those who favor "decriminalization" or "medicalization" of psychoactive drugs. Such people, the author shows, will only end up replacing the current Ayatollahs (cops and ex-generals) with a new Inquisition lead by doctors and psychologists. In the world of physician-monitored drug usage, instead of being evil, anyone who wants to alter his or her own mood will be labeled as "sick" - and instead of being sent to jail, they will be forced into "treatment".

In trying to think of some literary comparison to "Our Right to Drugs", I can only think of Plato's records of certain iconoclastic dialogues about ancient Athenian closemindedness. Truely, Dr. Szasz is our Socrates.

This book is a supremely courageous and truthful book written by one of the great luminaries of the age(s).
This book "cuts to the chase" as regards fundamental constitutional issues raised by laws regulating
the procurement, possession, sale, and use of drugs.

The book's most striking charge (a correct one, at that!) is that a fundamental tyranny overtook this nation about
90 years ago when "Americans" lost their property rights over their own bodies--all in the name of governmentally-controlled "truth in advertising" for drug sales.

However, this "seemingly benign" governmental goal created untold danger for the very people it was meant to
protect. Szasz rightfully puts America's so-called "drug problem" in proper perspective by suggesting that the
admonition "buyer beware" should have sufficed--for drugs, as for almost everything else.

In the most general terms, this book demonstrates that there are no shortcuts to a thorough-going approach to American Liberty and Freedom. Dr. Szasz very clearly, and effectively, corrects those who claim that drug laws be summarily repealed for any reasons other than their moral unacceptability in a free state.

Making proper analogy to the wrongful justification of the slavery of blacks in America (owing to their mischaracterization as property), Szasz makes it clear that the infringement of property rights (both of your body, and substances you might possess) lies at the heart of America's despotic and tyrannical so-called "War on Drugs."

Although he does not (if memory serves me correctly) directly cite the 9th Amendment in defense of all those who would fight this indigenous, governmentally-sponsored terrorism, he could have:

"THE ENUMERATION OF CERTAIN RIGHTS, IN THE CONSTITUTION, SHALL NOT BE CONSTRUED TO DENY OR DISPARAGE OTHERS RETAINED BY THE PEOPLE."

"What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms, remedy is set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is nature's manure." Thomas Jefferson

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Good arguments for drug legalization (and deregulation of prescription drugs), but a little outdated as far as some of his allusions and political terminology go, and not precise enough in his use of the term "legalizers".

He ignores the distinctions between "decriminalization" and "legalization", and lumps all "legalizers" into a single category, as not being "good enough". He does not seem to realize that there is a wide spectrum of beliefs on drugs, ranging from his position, to the position that all drugs should be banned everywhere.

He is uncompromising, and this is politically defeating. Nonetheless, his position is admirable, and his idea of drugs as a "right" similiar to all other "rights" bandied about in political discourse today, is a good one.

Nice philosophy, and one I wish more accepted it, but he's too radical for today's politicians, who are still in the dark ages of social medicine.

Fear of people committing suicide easily, is Szasz's main hypothesis for why we regulate prescription and illicit drugs the way we do in America today.

This book is good for convincing one that drugs should be legalized, but it is no help for accomplishing that feat politically.

This is a fine and brilliant book. Szasz manhandles any pretext for government intervention in medicine and the market for drugs. This is by far the best book on the subject.

I loved everything about this book. It explains everyting very clearly and gives great examples. I brought it for school but I doubt I will sell it back!

This is an excellent book for anyone interested in learning more about PsyR! It is easy to read and includes interesting case studies to assist in the learning process.

Superb introduction to psychosocial rehabilitation. Introduces the experiece of mental illness from the client's perspecitive, covers symptoms and etiology of severe and persistent mental illness as well as treatment strategies. The book is simply written using case illustrations. I have used it for new staff at our community mental health clinic for the past 2 years. The book was popular - so popular that it disappeared and I am replacing it with several copies, one for each team. I would recommend the book as a resource for any student of a mental health program or any staff person trying to get a handle on working effectively with clients who have severe and persistent mental illness.

In reviewing this book I found it to be interesting and educational at the same time. It is not dry reading for a subject that could well be that. I will be able to use this book in my clinical practice when I graduate this summer.

THIS BOOK IS GREAT TO HELP NEW AND EXISTING DOCTORS LEARN ABOUT THE WORKERS COMPENSATION SYSTEM. DR. SALL DID AN EXCELLENT JOB WITH HISTORCIAL AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS WHEN DEALING WITH THE INJURED WORKER AND THE ROLE THE CLINICIAN SHOULD PERFORM. I WOULD STRONGLY RECOMEND THIS BOOK TO ANYONE. THANKS DR. RICHARD SALL FOR TAKING THE TIME TO RESEARCH AND WRITE THIS BOOK!!!

This book should be offered to injured workers after their first visit with an attorney who will represent them. It should also be among those on the "required reading" lists in every law school, where attorneys may enter the Workers Compensation practice. The accuracy of descriptions for various categories, (ie. Chronic Pain, etc.), are extraordinary. For the first time in the eight years that I have been dealing with the system, I was able to read what amounted to an all encompassing, yet clear and accurate description of my own dillemma. Truly an excellent book.

In today's world of workers' comp fraud, denials, and dilemmas, Strategies is a welcome resource for the professional. Indeed, from its historical review to methodologies to anecdotes, this work is definitely a must-read textbook. While Dr. Sall's writing style makes the book and quick and easy read, even for the beginner, the book's most important attribute is its real world--practical--relevance.

Strategies in Workers' Compensation, written with the healthcare medical professional in mind, describes the nuts and bolts of workers compensation. The book details the history, laws, various stakeholders, costs, and problems encountered by healthcare providers. An emphasis is placed on the "difficult patient" with regard to management techniques for doctors, insurance companies, and employers. In addition, Strategies in Workers' Compensation offers reference material to aid in understanding the complex system.
Table of Contents:
Prologue
Introduction
The History of Occupational Medicine
The Workers' Compensation Environment
The Injured Worker and the Healthcare Professional
The Injured Worker and Other Stakeholders
Variables Contributing to the Cost of Injuries
Quality of Care Issues
Ill-defined Injury and Illness
Disorders of Simulation
Management of the Difficult Patient
The Corporate Medical Director
Potential Solution
Case Histories
Richard E Sall MD received his Doctorate of Medicine from Wayne State University Medical School and is Board Certified in Occupational Medicine, General Surgery, and Forensic Medicine. He is currently practicing in California.

Me pareció una muy buena revisión del estado actual del tema de seguridad del paciente en el mundo.

lo recomiendo

As the science of Patient Safety continues to grow and we are searching for the "manual" to patient safety principles and examples, I am delighted to discover this new book, Understanding Patient Safety by Robert Wachter.
Dr. Wachter has a vast understanding of the topic of patient safety and he speaks openly and honestly about those things within the medical arena that we need to fix to make the healthcare system safer for all of us. His writing style is easy to understand and he uses excellent examples to illustrate the key principles and keep the book interesting.
Similar to his writing in Internal Bleeding, he uses real life scenarios to illustrate how medical errors and near misses occur, without placing blame on those individuals involved. He focuses on the broken systems and encourages us all to find a way to fix the systems so that we can provide better, safer healthcare.
As a professional working in the field of Patient Safety, I highly recommend this book for everyone who works in the healthcare field and for anyone interested in understanding and protecting their loved ones from errors that might occur when using the healthcare system. I have even given a copy to my Mother!

If "Internal Bleeding" was an inspiring book; this is a comprehensive, modern, didactic, updated and most of all, very useful "text book".
Easy to read, with graphic examples, integrative tables and graphics, take home key points and smart design; this book attest Wachter's unique writing talent.
Seeking patient safety should become a proven clinical skill for every health care worker and, "Understanding Patient Safety" is an excellent starting point. Also anyone who is or will become a patient would profit with it's reading.
So useful for culture change, I wish there's soon a spanish version available.

This book is a great introduction and a "must read" for those interested in the topic of Patient Safety. Wachter is extremely knowledgeable about the issues and with his engaging writing style, he makes it easy for the reader to understand the important principles. I would recommend this book not only for healthcare workers, but anyone interested in helping to fix our healthcare systems to provide the safest care possible for everyone.