CIEH Excellence Awards 2026
Celebrate the outstanding achievements, innovation and dedication of environmental health professionals and teams. Share your story and be recognised on a national stage.
Research: could you take part in a study into workplace violence?
If you've been abused – verbally or physically – while going about your job, PhD student and EHP Lorna Sargeant would like to hear from you.
Have you been on the receiving end of violence from customers or clients while going about your job? And have you reported or considered reporting that experience to your employer?
Lorna Sargeant, an EHP and PhD student at Lancaster University, is recruiting volunteers to be interviewed about these experiences. The interviews are for a research study into individuals’ decisions to report an incident of workplace violence – defined as physical violence or verbal abuse or aggression from interaction with members of the public and business operators (but not bullying between colleagues).
“There’s a lot of information out there on workplace violence for social workers and the police. We don’t have the same job but we have the same work environment,” said Sargeant, who has been subjected to threats and accusations during her career as a public sector food safety enforcement officer. Her research is a qualitative study that will eventually lead to more detailed data gathering on violence towards EHPs.
Participants will be asked to participate in a one-to-one phone interview of 45-60 minutes. Contact Lorna at [email protected]
