CSTE ANNUAL MEETING POSITION STATEMENT:1999 ENV 5 COMMITTEE: Environment/Occupation/Injury  TITLE: Support of State-based Surveillance of Work-related Diseases, Injuries and Hazards ISSUE: Public health surveillance is the systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of health data or information and is essential to planning, implementation and evaluation of public health practice. The purposes and uses of surveillance include estimating the magnitude of a public health problem, detecting outbreaks, evaluating control measures, monitoring changes, targeting prevention and facilitating planning. Effective surveillance depends upon strong public health infrastructure that supports, trains and equips public health workers and links them in local, state and national networks. While there have been substantial improvements to occupational and injury surveillance within the last decade, the surveillance infrastructure for occupational conditions, hazards and injuries remains inadequate. POSITION TO BE ADOPTED: CSTE recommends that the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), work with CSTE to plan and implement a comprehensive, nationwide surveillance system for occupational diseases, injuries and hazards. CSTE recognizes the occupational surveillance working group 05/15/99 report entitled, “State-based Surveillance of Work-related Diseases, Injuries and Hazards” as a important starting point for the development of a comprehensive, nationwide system. NIOSH should continue to support a CSTE occupational surveillance working group to provide on-going input to the NIOSH surveillance planning process. BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION: In the summer of 1998, A CSTE occupational surveillance working group was established to make recommendations to NIOSH regarding state-based surveillance activities for the next decade. CSTE convened two meetings of the working group and held numerous conference calls to develop a report that identifies state surveillance needs and makes recommendations for addressing the identified needs. The working group members agreed that the surveillance planning process should be outcome driven, i.e. begin with the identification of occupational diseases, injuries, exposures and hazards to be placed under surveillance. In addition, the working group discussed short-term and long-range visions for state-based surveillance activities and various models for allocating NIOSH funds to the states. Work group members also identified a number of surveillance issues that cut across specific surveillance indicators and have included recommendations to address these crosscutting issues in the report. COORDINATION WITH OTHER AGENCIES: Agency for response: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, CDC Agencies for information: Association of State and Territorial Health Officials CONTACT: Tish Davis Massachusetts Department of Health 250 Washington Street, 6th Floor Boston, MA 02108 Tel: (617) 624-5621