Occupational Health Surveillance Subcommittee Activities of the Occupational Health Subcommittee are funded through a cooperative agreement with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). CSTE, through the expertise of its members and proposed activities, has collaborated with NIOSH in order to improve state-based occupational health surveillance by identifying strategies for filling gaps and deficiencies among current surveillance programs and promoting the use and availability of existing data and surveillance information. CSTE’s work is an important step in creating safer and healthier workplaces.
The CSTE Occupational Health Surveillance Subcommittee meets regularly with NIOSH staff and other federal and non-federal partners. The Subcommittee serves as an important vehicle for ongoing communication between NIOSH and the states. Over the past decade, CSTE, in collaboration with NIOSH, has worked in several ways towards the goal of increasing state-based occupational health surveillance capacity. These efforts have included defining the role of states in a nationwide occupational health surveillance system, outlining guidelines for minimum and comprehensive state-based occupational health activities, developing a set of occupational health indicators to provide information about a population’s health status with respect to workplace injury and illness, and providing technical assistance to states with little occupational health surveillance capacity.
Click here to access state occupational health websites Subcommittee members also contribute state-based surveillance articles to the NIOSH eNews newsletter. For archives, click here
Occupational Health Indicators Indicators are a construct of public health surveillance that defines a specific measure of health or risk status (i.e., the occurrence of a health event or of factors associated with that event) among a specified population. Surveillance indicators allow a state to compare its health or risk status with that of other states and evaluate trends over time within the state, and guide priorities for prevention and intervention efforts. Occupational health indicators can provide information about a population’s health status with respect to workplace injuries and illnesses or to factors that can influence health. These indicators can either be measures of health (work-related disease or injury) or factors associated with health, such as workplace exposures, hazards or interventions. The occupational health indicators that have been developed represent the consensus view of state and NIOSH representatives, and are intended as advisory to the states. The indicators represent a core set of data that, if collected at the state level, would assist in the development of programs to prevent workplace injuries and illnesses. The indicators are a subset of the larger number of conditions recommended for surveillance in a 2001 subcommittee report on draft ‘profiles’ for priority conditions to be placed under surveillance as part of state-based surveillance systems. The indicators are intended to be used in conjunction with other guidelines for state-based surveillance of occupational injuries and illnesses (NIOSH 1995, CSTE 2001), and to be used as a complement to overall state and national goals to improve the health of the population (DHHS 2000).
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Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE). The Role of the States in a Nationwide, Comprehensive Surveillance System for Work-Related Diseases, Injuries and Hazrds. A Report from NIOSH-CSTE Surveillance Planning Group. 2001.
DHHS (NIOSH) Publication 95-107. Minimum and Comprehensive State-Based Activities in Occupational Safety and Health. June 1995.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). Healthy People 2010: Understanding and Improving Health, 2nd ed. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, November 2000.
Western States Occupational Network Meeting Recognizing the inadequacy of occupational health surveillance at the state level in most of the West, CSTE members and staff, NIOSH Denver Regional Office, and the Mountain and Plains (MAP) Education and Research Center (ERC) established the Western States Occupational Network (WestON) Meeting. The purpose of WestON is to build state-based occupational health epidemiology capacity in the Western states and bring together more experienced states with those that are just beginning to consider developing an occupational epidemiology program. Western states share some “collective identity” based on common issues in workplace safety and health. The priority areas for occupational epidemiology in the West include mining, construction and agriculture. At least one representative from each of the 19 Western states is invited to participate in this annual meeting, as well as the NIOSH-funded ERCs and Agricultural Research Centers in the Western region. Click here to learn more
Counting Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses: Taking Steps to Close the Gap
There is currently unprecedented focus on the need to improve surveillance of non-fatal work-related injuries and both fatal and non-fatal work-related illnesses in the United States. A congressional oversight hearing in 2008 and subsequent congressional report highlighted limitations of current surveillance efforts. Likewise, calls for improved surveillance figure prominently in the recent National Academy of Sciences (NAS) reviews of NIOSH research as well as recommendations of NORA sector councils. While calls for improved surveillance are many, few reports have identified concrete next steps for action.
The Occupational Health Surveillance Subcommittee held a working meeting which brought together state and federal surveillance experts, researchers and key stakeholders to identify next steps forward in building a national infrastructure for surveillance of work-related injuries and illnesses on April 21-22, 2009, in Arlington, VA. Emphasis was put on the need for a coordinated, comprehensive long range approach to recommend solutions rather than a set of isolated surveillance projects.
Specific goals of the meeting were:
• Update participants regarding proposed strategies to improve the BLS and OSHA data collection systems for non-fatal occupational injuries and illnesses • Increase understanding of policy makers and other stakeholders about what the public health infrastructure has to offer to address surveillance gaps • Identify specific short and longer range recommendations for using multiple data sources to improve surveillance of non-fatal occupational injuries and illnesses.
Resources
Meeting Summary Meeting Agenda Goals of Surveillance Exercise House Committee on Education and Labor Report National Academies Report-excerpt Clinical & Administrative Data Sources Population Surveys Inventory Workers Compensation Data Elements European Working Conditions Survey Overview NIOSH Intramural Surveillance Projects Followback Studies Paper UK Labour Force Survey Overview An Opportunity in Electronic Health Records Case for Collecting Occupational Health Data Elements in EHRs
In the late 19th century, factory conditions and worker health were among the central concerns of the social reform movement that led to the development of the public health system in the United States. In the first half of the 20th century, the lead role in occupational health and safety alternated between the U.S. Public Health Service and the U.S. Department of Labor. With the passage of the OSHAct in 1970, the lead responsibility for regulating workplace health and safety conditions was entrusted to federal OSHA and state labor departments.
Regulatory agencies clearly have the central and essential role in protecting workers’ health. However, enforcement of workplace health and safety regulations, compliance assistance and worker training are only several components of a comprehensive approach to workplace health and safety. State public health agencies have critical, complementary roles to play in: a) using public health, non employer based data sources to conduct surveillance of work-related diseases and injuries; b) applying epidemiologic skills to investigate occupational health problems in the community, c) working with the medical community to increase their involvement in workplace health and safety and d) integrating prevention activities to protect workers’ health into other public health based prevention activities. Given their traditional focus on addressing health concerns of those most in need, public health agencies may play a particularly important role in addressing the occupational health needs of underserved worker populations, such as immigrant and minority workers, who comprise a significant proportion of our increasingly diverse workforce.
The Occupational Health Subcommittee held a working meeting which brought together representatives of state occupational public health programs and OSHA with the overall goal of increasing capacity to protect the health and safety of workers by improving collaboration between state occupational public health programs and OSHA at the national and regional/area/state levels.
Erin Simms, MPH Email: esimms@cste.org Phone: 770-458-3811
Martha Stanbury