State-Based Occupational Health Surveillance in Georgia

Details

• Personal Author:
  Bayakly AR
• Description:
  The Georgia Department of Public Health established a successful fundamental State-Based Occupational Health Surveillance System in Georgia to document the burden of occupational illnesses, injuries, and related factors. This surveillance is based on the 20 occupational health indicators that are recommended by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE). In Year One, an Occupational Health Epidemiologist was hired. This major accomplishment led to the collection of the occupational health surveillance indicator data and the timely annual submission of Georgia's data to NIOSH and CSTE. During the past five years, Georgia published its first Occupational Health Surveillance (2006-2009) Report in September, 2012. This report was followed by a five-year Occupational Health Surveillance (2008-2012) Report on Georgia workers published in September 2015. These reports were disseminated widely to the Georgia Department of Public Health occupational health collaborators, partners, and stakeholders. Reports and data summaries were posted on the newly created Georgia public health website http://dph.georgia.gov/georgia-occupational-health-and-safety-surveillance-program. These reports laid the foundation and provided a baseline for Georgia's occupational-health related morbidity and mortality. To enhance Georgia's workers' health and safety, the OHS-GA unit succesfully established a relationship with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Region IV office and the Georgia Adult Blood Lead Epidemiology Surveillance (ABLES) Program. Additionally, the OHS-GA added occupation, industry, and injury-related questions on the Georgia Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) in 2011 to routinely assess health conditions and health risk behaviors among Georgia's workers. Finally, OHS-GA became part of National Occupational Mortality Surveillance (NOMS) Program in May 2015 and submitted Georgia Death Records to NOMS for coding. This last activity should greatly enhance Georgia's future analysis of the leading causes of occupation related mortality. The State-Based Occupational Health Surveillance in Georgia (OHS-GA) Unit established an active Advisory Committee that includes representatives of key partners and stakeholder organizations and agencies. The Advisory Committee met annually and reviewed Georgia's occupational health indicators, as well as provided feedback and consultation on major activities the unit needed to address. In summary, the primary goal of OHS-GA was to establish a fundamental surveillance system for occupational health and safety, provide timely and ongoing data on all 20 indicators, and use this data as the basis to inform partners, stakeholders, policy makers, and the public about leading causes of morbidity and mortality from occpational injuries and illnesses. As this information was previously absent in Georgia, the OHS-GA was successful in achieving its primary goal and greatly enhanced Georgia's capabilities to analyze traditional and non-traditional data sources to further advance Georgia's worker safety and health. By doing so, the OHS-GA increased awareness regarding occupational health and safety issues and informed public health programs and Georgia's scientific community on occupational health issues and priorities. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Morbidity Mortality Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Injuries Morbidity-rates Mortality-data Mortality-rates Statistical-analysis Surveillance Surveillance-programs Traumatic-injuries
• Series:
  Grant Final Reports
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Final Cooperative Agreement Report
• Place as Subject:
  Georgia ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OEP - Office of Extramural Programs
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-24
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20047178
• Citation:
  Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, U60-OH-009870, 2015 Sep; :1-24
• Contact Point Address:
  A. Rana Bayakly, MPH, Georgia Department of Public Health, 2 Peachtree Street, NW 14th Floor, Suite 14-440, Atlanta, Georgia 30303
• Email:
  Rana.Bayakly@dph.ga.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2015
• Performing Organization:
  Georgia State Department of Public Health
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20100701
• Source Full Name:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• End Date:
  20150630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:d82e8e9b6a0e2e2832961d01a85e09ee861e1bc5c22a9644beab687a82c2de188ae68feeb41d2b127e73d6ad7a4f069d98412a1405750e21fb2293896bb77dac
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/218611/cdc_218611_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 700.25 KB ]