North Carolina Occupational Health Trends, 2000-2013 : Putting Data to Work

Details

• Personal Author:
  Dang, Gregory T. ; Phillips, Ashley J.
• Corporate Authors:
  North Carolina. Department of Health and Human Services. Division of Public Health. Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch. North Carolina Occupational Health Surveillance Program ; Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists ; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Content Notes:
  "The goals of the North Carolina Occupational Health Surveillance Program (OHSP) are to describe work-related health risks and to use this information to promote safer work environments with the help of partnerships. The OHSP also provides data, consultation, and other resources to occupational health nurses, industrial hygienists, other health and safety professionals, and industry representatives. The OHSP operates within the Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch of the North Carolina Division of Public Health. The Occupational Health Indicators (OHI) presented in this report represent a core set of information used to assist in the development of program initiatives and partnerships to monitor the health of the North Carolina workforce. The Occupational Health Indicators Project was designed through a joint effort between the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to enhance occupational health data collection systems and capacity. The indicators include measures of employment demographics, health effects, exposures, hazards, interventions, and socioeconomic impact. North Carolina uses these indicators to describe trends in the occupational health status of the working population, and to establish priorities for prevention and reduction of work-related hazards. This report aims to: a) Describe the occupational health status of the North Carolina workforce from 2000 through 2013. b) Identify high-risk worker populations, conditions, and hazards of interest by analyzing trends over time. c) Inform public health prevention efforts. Key findings included in this report: 1) Workforce demographics are changing. The proportion of the North Carolina workforce identifying as neither White nor Black has increased by 77%, from 3.5% in 2000 to 6.2% in 2013. Likewise, the percentage of the workforce identifying as Hispanic or Latino has increased from 3.7% in 2000 to 8.8% in 2013. The percentage of the workforce aged 65 years and older has increased by nearly 50% from 2000 through 2013. 2) Overall workplace injury and illness rates are falling. From 2000 through 2013, rates of non-fatal occupational injury and illness among private sector workers in North Carolina decreased by 49%. Work-related hospitalizations declined by about 41%. The overall fatal injury rate has decreased by 57%. 3) Some North Carolinians are at a disproportionately higher risk of fatal work-related injuries than others. Workers identified as Hispanic are 1.7 times more likely, workers aged 65 years and older are 3.9 times more likely, and those employed in agricultural and related industries are 9.9 times more likely to die on the job as compared to the average worker. 4) Some indicators show improvement despite not showing clear trends. Although there have been annual fluctuations, the overall rate of work-related amputations has decreased by 50% from 2000 to 2013. Likewise, the overall rate of work-related burns decreased by 12% during this time period. 5) Pesticide poisonings have increased over time. Though national trends indicate an overall decline in rates of acute work-related pesticide illness and injury, North Carolina has experienced a rate increase of 10% between 2000 and 2013. 6) The percentage of North Carolina OSHA enforcement activities exceeds the national percentage for all years observed." - NIOSHTIC-2
  
  This report was supported by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) State-Based Occupational Health and Safety Surveillance Program (PAR-14-275). It
  
  NIOSHTIC no. 20067527
  
  OccupationalTrends2000_2013.pdf
  
  
• Subjects:
  Occupational Health Safety
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative-Agreement-Number-U60-OH-010909
• Name as Subject:
  North Carolina Occupational Health Surveillance Program.
• Genre:
  Report
• Place as Subject:
  North Carolina ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20067527
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:5d2842a68b227a2975e08b7b8390024a38a6ea190fd94210616eb41539bef77fa9f2ecb0c556c6807a88a85941f439502324cb5df98e7f538efa8a8f9aa9ec9e
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/157315/cdc_157315_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.31 MB ]