Expanded Occupational Health Surveillance in MA

Details

• Personal Author:
  Fiore M ; Fitzsimmons K ; Laramie A ; Sparer-Fine E ; 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 2015-2021. 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 25; and the surveillance and prevention of sharps injuries among hospital workers. An initiative was undertaken extending this work to address patient-handling related musculoskeletal disorders among hospital workers. The Expanded Occupational Health Surveillance project 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 150 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. Program activities continue to help integrate occupational health into public health, examples being example being the contributions to the Population Health Information Tool (PHIT), an interactive data query platform that shares data at the community level within the context of the social determinants of health, with OHSP leading the employment section, and working with the Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences to revise an occupation reference list in the infection disease collection system. 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: throughout the course of these projects, significant declines in the teen occupational injury rate, the fatal occupational injury rate, and the sharps injury rate among hospital workers. 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. The work in these projects have led to enhancements in surveillance systems that have become models for other states. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Musculoskeletal Diseases Occupational Diseases Occupational Health Public Health Safety
• Keywords:
  MSD Musculoskeletal Disorders Occupational Diseases Occupational Safety And Health Public Health SDOH Social Determinants Of Health Surveillance Programs Worker Health
• 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:
  1-99
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20066432
• 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, 2021 Sep; :1-99
• Contact Point Address:
  Emily Sparer-Fine, ScD, Director, Occupational Health Surveillance Program, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 250 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02108
• Email:
  emily.sparer-fine@mass.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2021
• 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:f5fe61a172a08206b21cc379716e59a5e69a4b5a62c47c070ec5261158eeefaf4dbad46dea1bf883a286df6789779263f33b926eb35d0728e8d4b04f71e70e3d
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/219160/cdc_219160_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.85 MB ]