CALL FOR ABSTRACTS — APHA 2026 Annual Meeting and Expo
Occupational Health and Safety Late Breakers
Meeting theme: "Together We Thrive: Health Across the Lifespan"
Submission Deadline: Wednesday, July 8, 2026
The jobs people have and the working conditions they experience affect their physical and mental health, and their overall well-being. We are seeking abstracts which characterize these factors, their impacts, and/or methods to measure them; report on interventions or organizing campaigns to address them; or describe community-based participatory research or policy development. We welcome abstracts from students, recent graduates, workers, and community members. Most abstracts that are accepted will be scheduled in a poster session, however, we are seeking one abstract to be scheduled in a lightning-format collaborative session with the One Health Section.
We encourage presenters to use "Better Poster Design" to present their work. Preference will be given to abstracts which include a sentence that indicates at least one way that their poster will incorporate "Better Poster Design."
Abstracts must be no longer than 300 words. Each abstract will be evaluated on the description of a work-related problem that affects workers' risk of injury, illness, or death; the methodology or strategies used in the research or project; and the demonstrated impact (or potential effect) on protection of workers.
Occuptional Health & Safety Topics
Poster sessions feature 10 presenters who create a visual display of their research or project. The presenter must attend their scheduled poster session and be prepared to describe the project, answer questions, and engage in conversation with attendees. The display area for poster will be about 4’ X 8’ (1.2m X 2.4m).
When you submit your abstract, you will be prompted to provide at least one learning outcome that begins with one of the following action words: explain, demonstrate, analyze, formulate, discuss, compare, differentiate, describe, name, assess, evaluate, identify, design, define, or list.
You must ensure that your abstract does not include the name of any commercial product(s), including software or equipment.
You will be asked to sign a Conflict of Interest form and a statement of qualifications which describes the presenter's unique expertise to present the information described in the abstract. Examples of appropriate statements are: “I conducted the data analysis”; “I developed the training materials”; "I was the principal investigator for the study.” In contrast, the following are examples of statements that are INADEQUATE: “I am a professor at XYZ university”; or “I have more than 25 years of experience in the field of worker safety.”
If your abstract is accepted, we will encourage you to designate the “Occupational Health & Safety” (OHS) as one of their APHA Sections when you join the association. If you are already an APHA member, you can modify your "MyAPHA Account" at any time and we hope you will consider selecting OHS as one of your Sections. The OHS Section is the professional home for researchers, educators and activists who strive to advance social justice, embrace mentorship and leadership development, and value solidarity.
We have a membership meeting on the third Thursday of every month at 4 pm (ET)/1 pm (PT) on Zoom. (You do not need to be an OHS Section member to attend.) Contact celeste.monforton[at]gmail[.com] for information about attending our monthly meeting.
