SEPTEMBER 2023
The California Labor Laboratory
California is unique in its size, and in the diversity of its population and economy. It has been in the forefront of several trends in the labor market, including the increased use of alternative ways of getting work done (e.g. “gig work”), project-based work, and contract employment; in the growth of contingent forms of employment; and in the erosion of traditional working conditions.

The California Labor Laboratory is a NIOSH Center of Excellence for Total Worker Health®. The Lab is a collaboration among investigators from UCSF and UC Berkeley as well as the CA Department of Public Health. The Labor Lab is designed to document the extent to which these new forms of work are being used, to gauge their effect on the health of the working age population of the State, and to engage with workers, employers, and policymakers to mitigate these effects.

Ed Yelin, PhD, Director of the Labor Lab, explains that historically from a health policy impact lens, occupational health has focused on individual ergonomic or toxic or psycho-social risks with work – things like carpal tunnel syndrome or bad air in an office building. With the growing recognition that the totality of work impacts overall health, NIOSH began focusing on worker resilience to health stressors. Currently the NIOSH focus is on worker health with the acknowledgement that the way work is organized cannot be overcome by individual worker resilience programs such as wellness programs.

The California Labor Lab is administering a large random sample of the working age population in California that will be made public in October, 2023. As part of a very active community outreach activities, the Lab sponsors a well-attended monthly webinar series, an annual virtual conference and interactions with workers and representatives at the state and federal policy level. Research projects underway are looking at the health consequences of how work is changing; from gig work to individual contacting but where work is not expected to last for a long period of time, with workers hired for a year or less.

Labor Lab participating academic units at UCSF include the Philip R Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Division of Rheumatology, and Preventive Dentistry. Participating units at UCB include Interdisciplinary Center for Healthy Workplaces, Labor Occupational Health Program, Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, and Labor Center. Other members of the Labor Lab team are from the School of Public Health at UCLA and the Kennedy School at Harvard.
Upcoming Events
CA Labor Lab Webinar - Unequal Rights: The Patchwork of State and Local Labor Protections in the U.S.
Kristin Harknett, PhD
Sep 27, 12 - 1 pm PT, Zoom registration here
Dr. Andrew Beck, University of Cincinnatti School of Medicine
Oct 3, 2023, 12 - 1 pm PT, Zoom here
IHPS + IMPACT Policy Skills Series
Collaborating with Community-Based Advocacy Organizations & Coalitions for Policy Change
Kim Rhoads, MD, UCSF
Mara Decker, DrPH, UCSF
Jane
Oct 11, 12 - 1 pm PT, Zoom here
IHPS Faculty Spotlight
Jack Turban, MD, MHS, is the Director of the Gender Psychiatry Program at UCSF, where he is also an Assistant Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and Affiliate Faculty at The Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies. His research focuses on the mental health of transgender and gender diverse youth, with a focus on research relevant to public policy. He is co-editor of the textbook Pediatric Gender Identity: Gender-affirming Care for Transgender and Gender Diverse Youth. His research has been cited in major court cases regarding the civil rights of transgender people in the U.S., in state legislative debates around the country, and in the United Nations’ independent expert report on conversion therapy.

Dr. Turban's work has appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, JAMA Psychiatry, JAMA Pediatrics, and the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, among others. His research includes the first study to link gender identity conversion efforts to adverse mental health outcomes and the first study to link access to pubertal suppression during adolescence to lower odds of suicidality among transgender adults.

He is also a frequent op-ed contributor with work featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, CNN, Scientific American, Vox, and other major media outlets.
Research Highlights




Philip R. Lee Fellowship Fund Endowed
Since its founding 50 years ago, IHPS has been dedicated to training the next generation of leaders in interdisciplinary research to solve our most important health policy issues. In celebration of our 50th anniversary and to honor our founders, Phil Lee and Lew Butler, we established an endowment fund for the Philip R. Lee Fellowship. We are pleased to announce the fund has been endowed! We hope to continue to keep this fund and our fellowship program robust. Please consider donating at our dedicated webpage!
Media Mentions