Texas Occupational Health and Safety Surveillance

Details

• Personal Author:
  Beauchamp RA
• Description:
  Over the period from July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2015, the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) has been steadily working to make Texas occupational health surveillance data more readily accessible for compilation, analysis, and reporting purposes. Access database techniques are now being utilized for analysis of Texas hospital discharge data (HDD) (approximately 2.9 million discharges per year), Texas Poison Control Network (TPCN) calls (approximately 300,000 calls per year), Texas vital statistics data (approximately 170,000 deaths per year), and Texas pesticide-related illness and injury (approximately 300 cases per year). Since Texas is not a workers compensation state, DSHS developed methods using additional fields in the HDD dataset to identify work-related hospitalizations, improving case-finding by about 19-26% compared with using only the primary payment source field coded as worker compensation. The Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) recommends collection of a core set of occupational health indicators (OHIs) to assist in the development of programs to prevent or reduce workplace injuries and illnesses. In 2010, DSHS collected 15 out of the recommended 19 OHIs and has steadily progressed up to compiling and reporting all 22 OHIs in 2015. For OHI data obtained from HDD, DSHS now routinely analyzes data by age group, race, ethnicity, sex, and a number of other parameters. DSHS has aggregated all available Texas OHIs (from 2003-2012) to allow easy analysis of trends over time. Texas Department of Transportation crash data has been linked up with data from the DSHS EMS/Trauma Registry, and OHSS has begun looking at collisions involving commercial motor vehicles along with EMS runs and hospital outcomes associated with those crashes. OHSS and other DSHS staff were instrumental in showing the importance of including occupation and industry information on the BRFSS questionnaire for 2012 as recommended by NIOSH. DSHS staff attended over 60 meetings, workshops, and training events attended by hundreds of workers, students, employers, and public health professionals and gave presentations and/or distributed brochures on various occupational health topics, including adult lead exposure, childhood lead exposure resulting from parental occupational lead exposure, silicosis, asbestosis, work-related pesticide illness and injury, and workplace falls. DSHS assisted NIOSH staff with a Health Hazard Evaluation of the first reported case of silicosis in a worker resulting from dust exposure during fabrication of engineered stone countertops. DSHS also created and distributed a Hazard Alert targeting employers and employees involved in stone countertop fabrication. The alert included information about silicosis risk factors and engineering controls for preventing silica exposure. DSHS also conducted a workplace mercury vapor exposure investigation in hospital rooms occupied by 3 siblings admitted for mercury toxicity resulting from a liquid mercury spill in their home. Clothing and other belongings had been brought from home for use during their hospital stay, and nursing staff were concerned about possible workplace mercury vapor exposures. Measurements were obtained from the children's rooms and from bagged belongings from home using a Jerome J505 Mercury Vapor Analyzer. Results, interpretations, and conclusions were provided back to the hospital administration and medical and nursing staff. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accidents, Occupational Automobiles Database Demography Hazardous Substances Health Care Facilities Workforce And Services Health Personnel Insecticides Mercury Mortality Occupational Health Safety

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• Keywords:
  Accident Statistics Databases Data Processing Demographic Characteristics Hazard Communication Health Care Health Care Facilities Health Care Personnel Health Services Health Standards Information Dissemination Information Systems Mercury Vapors Mortality Data Motor Vehicles Occupational Health Programs Occupations Pesticides Poison Control Recordkeeping Statistical Analysis Surveillance Surveillance-programs

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• 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:
  OSHA Region 6 ; Texas
• 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:
  1-39
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20048057
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2016-104164
• 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-008473, 2015 Sep; :1-39
• Contact Point Address:
  Richard A. Beauchamp, M.D., Texas Department of State Health Services, Environmental and Injury Epidemiology and Toxicology Unit, 1100 West 49th Street, P.O. Box 149347, MC 1964, Austin, TX 78714-9347
• Email:
  Richard.Beauchamp@dshs.state.tx.us
• CAS Registry Number:
  Mercury (CAS RN 7439-97-6)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2015
• Performing Organization:
  Texas State Department of Health Services
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20060701
• Source Full Name:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• End Date:
  20160630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:dc8d7d3ebc4d411fc61bc287db57cc60e40b867d8cd6cda64ab0264cfd8794c1fe4e4c454ceb549155638f2b8c50ddd4f55576168efee660599c23acb80aaee0
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/218639/cdc_218639_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.04 MB ]