New Mexico Health Official to Take on Job Safety in Wyoming

A longtime state health official has been tapped to oversee job safety in Wyoming.

New Mexico state epidemiologist C. Mack Sewell told the Santa Fe New Mexican on Monday that has accepted a position analyzing occupational deaths in Cheyenne, Wyo.

Sewell will serve as an occupational epidemiologist, advising the state as they try to figure out the causes for the high workplace fatality rate.

Sewell has been involved in several high-profile cases in his 28 years at the state Department of Health. Sewell was one of a team of specialists in 1993 which was able to identify a new form of the hantavirus in New Mexico.

His last day at the health department is June 15. Officials have not yet named a replacement.