WKU Center for Environmental and Workplace Health
Welcome to the Center for Environmental and Workplace Health (CEWH). One Center, Endless Opportunities.
Vision: CEWH has a vision to be a leading applied research center for environmental and workplace health, and occupational safety and health in Kentucky and the region. This vision has a focus on student-centered and community-based applied research to protect the health of Kentucky workers and their families, improve environmental health for Kentucky communities, create opportunities for students to engage in research and service to the communities we serve, and training the next generation of environmental and occupational safety and health leaders in Kentucky and throughout the Nation.
Mission: CEWH will solve local and regional challenges in environmental and workplace health, and occupational safety and health through innovative research, education, outreach, and service that creates safer and healthier communities, workplaces, and workers. This mission will focus on student-centered applied research that transfers knowledge into practice.
Critical Student-Centered Research: CEWH trains and engages students in research to improve the lives of firefighters and other first responders across Kentucky. We are working to create a model for Total Firefighter Health to improve the lives of firefighters and their families, by protecting and promoting health. Recently, CEWH received the prestigious TOP award from WKU to create this model. Current research includes identifying females leadership strategies to improve safety in workplaces, assessing public health risks across the Commonwealth to improve the health of communities statewide, evaluating violence in the workplace to improve minority worker health, understanding biological hazards firefighters are exposed to in day to day work environments, hazardous materials transported across Kentucky and the risks to communities, and stormwater management to improve environmental and community health.
Location: A distinguishing attribute of the Center is the location in South Central Kentucky,
a rural region of the United States. Creation of CEWH provides a unique opportunity
to address environmental, occupational, and workplace safety and health issues in
rural communities and across the rural to urban gradient. Many safety and health
problems are unique to rural communities and pose challenges that will not be solved
by research and service in urban centers. Therefore, a key function of CEWH is to
provide education, research, outreach, and service that provides solutions to environmental
and workplace health issues of rural communities.
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