OEMME Awards

The Occupational and Environmental Medicine Media Excellence (OEMME) Awards were established in 2021 to recognize and honor efforts by journalists who promote understanding of occupational and environmental medicine and/or increase public awareness of workplace health, prevention, and/or wellbeing. Learn More

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2022 OEMME Award Recipients 

Written Journalism

• Michael Hawthorne: Mayor Lori Lightfoot set a goal to replace 650 toxic lead pipes in Chicago in 2021. So far, 3 have been removed.

Multimedia Journalism

• Special Series: Hot Days: Heat's Mounting Death Toll On Workers In the U.S.
  • Heat is killing workers in the U.S. — and there are no federal rules to protect them
    • Julia Shipley
    • Brian Edwards
    • David Nickerson
    • Robert Benincasa
    • Stella Chavez
    • Cheryl W. Thompson
  • As Nation Gets Hotter, Efforts to Prevent Worker Heat Deaths Accelerate, But Fixes Aren’t As Simple As They Seem
    • Kim Krisberg
  • California Firefighters Keep Getting Injured During Training. Some Have Died / Higher Temperatures and Less Oversight Mean Workers are at a Growing Risk in The Climate Emergency
    • Brian Edwards
    • Jacob Margolis
  • New Investigation Targets Heat Exposure Deaths Across Texas and the U
    • ​Rhonda Fanning
    • Wells Dunbar
  • Texas Workers Are Dying In The Summer Heat, and Companies Aren’t Being Held Accountable
    • David Nickerson
    • Julia Shipley
    • Stella M. Chávez
    • Sara Ernst

OEM/Trade-Specific Publication Journalism

• Annemarie Mannion: 5 States are Getting $20 Million Each to Implement a Multi-Sector Return-To-Work Approach. Is Your State One of Them?

COVID-19 Reporting 

• Renata DiGregorio: 'Why won't you save yourself?': Health care workers frustrated, overworked due to unvaccinated COVID-19 patients

Student Journalism

• Lillian Poulsen: From the COVID-19 unit: what Iowa health care workers want you to know

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2021 OEMME Award Recipients

Broadcast Journalism (TV, internet livestream)

• Colton Shone: Mine Workers in New Mexico Eligible for Compensation

Multimedia Journalism (digital storytelling, other)

• Ed Kashi: The mystery epidemic striking Nicaragua’s sugar cane workers

Written Journalism (Newspaper / Online Journalism)

• Tista Ghosh: An epidemiologist on what steps to take if you are preparing to reopen your business
• Amy Goldstein: First, the coronavirus pandemic took their jobs. Then, it wiped out their health insurance.
• Elizabeth Kolbert: Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future