Expanded Occupational Health Surveillance in MA

Details

• Personal Author:
  Davis, Letitia ; Fiore M ; Fitzsimmons K ; Grattan K ; Laramie A ; Vautin BP
• Description:
  Work-related injuries and illnesses (WRIIs) are a significant public health problem in Massachusetts imposing substantial human and economic costs. Surveillance of WRII is essential to target, design and evaluate prevention efforts at the state and local levels. Since the late 1980s, with support from NIOSH and others, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) has implemented the Occupational Health Surveillance Program (OHSP). This Cooperative Agreement has enabled OHSP to expand WRII surveillance and intervention activities in Massachusetts during 2010-2015. Specifically, it enabled OHSP to carryout surveillance and prevention activities fundamental to an occupational public health program and allowed OHSP to continue and expand four priority focus area projects. These include comprehensive case-based surveillance and intervention systems for fatal occupational injuries; work-related asthma; occupational injuries to persons under 18, expanded to include surveillance of 18-24-year-olds, and the surveillance and prevention of sharps injuries to hospital workers. An initiative was undertaken extending this work to address musculoskeletal disorders among hospital workers. The Expanded OHSP provided important new data highlighting problems to be addressed in Massachusetts ranging from hazards faced by temporary workers, continued risk of burns in coffee shops, and injuries associated with patient handling. OHSP worked with multiple agency and community partners to address identified problems. Case-based surveillance systems included the capacity for worksite follow-up and led to interventions in individual workplaces carried out by OHSP or other government agencies: including for example, over 200 OSHA inspections prompted by OHSP referrals. OHSP collaborated with partners in conducting many broad-based educational activities, placing priority on underserved and hard to reach groups, such as teens and residential construction workers. Surveillance findings and active partner engagement contributed to changes in public policy, e.g. changes in the public health requirements expanding reporting of occupational conditions, new legislation extending OSHA level protections to state agency employees, and issuance of new guidance on safe cleaning practices in childcare. A comprehensive report by a multi-stakeholder Task Force brought new attention to the need for safe patient handling, and teen injury data prompted an engineering change to reduce burns in a large international coffee shop chain. Program activities helped strengthen the state infrastructure to protect worker health, a highlight being the new Massachusetts Occupational Health and Safety Team that brings together multiple government agencies to coordinate activities. Successful efforts to integrate occupational health into ongoing public health activities, such as worksite wellness and MDPH accreditation, extended OHSP's reach. Access to new data sources, innovative surveillance methods and exploration of alternative employment data sources enhanced OHSP's ability to document WRIIs, and regional collaborations increased occupational public health capacity of Northeastern states. OHSP has documented "end outcome" impacts in several priority areas: significant declines in the teen occupational injury rate (1994-2013); the fatal occupational injury rate (2004-2013), and the sharps injury rate among hospital workers (2002-2013), which has plateaued in the most recent years. While difficult to draw causal links between any single project and a decline in injury rates, OHSP activities likely have contributed to these improvements in worker health. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Health Personnel Mortality Musculoskeletal Diseases Occupational Diseases Occupational Health Public Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Disease Prevention FACE Program Fatalities Fatality Assessment And Control Evaluation Program Health Care Workers Injury Prevention MSD Musculoskeletal Disorders Occupational Diseases Occupational Safety And Health Public Health Surveillance Surveillance Programs Worker Health Young Workers

  More +
• 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:
  Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1
• 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:
  1-92
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20061223
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2022-100336
• 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-008490, 2015 Oct; :1-92
• Contact Point Address:
  Letitia Davis, ScD, EdM, Director, Occupational Health Surveillance Program, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 250 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02108
• Email:
  Letitia.Davis@state.ma.us
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2016
• NORA Priority Area:
  Healthcare and Social Assistance
• Performing Organization:
  Massachusetts State Department of Public Health
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• End Date:
  20260630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:87cb42f3cb78f3e751cb2180a06cacf629d955fd6b5c99a5f27ecf6379c41e09540cfb420aaf81483fbfa42071ae8119d855e8631bc6f04d11e307c6babf6ca0
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/219024/cdc_219024_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 844.07 KB ]