Illinois Occupational Surveillance Program: 2015–2021

Details

• Personal Author:
  Forst L ; Friedman L ; Hebert-Beirne J ; Holloway-Beth A ; Madigan D ; Swedler D
• Description:
  Illinois is the 5th most populated state in the U.S. with 6.2 million employed, of which 20% are employed in high risk occupations. While occupational injury and illness rates have declined over the past 20 years in Illinois, there continues to be a substantial number of workers suffering harm on the job. This CDC-NIOSH funded Occupational Surveillance Fundamental-plus program at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences is leading the effort to establish dynamic and sustainable occupational safety and health surveillance programs in Illinois. Unlike most other funded states, investigators in this project are academicians serving as bona fide agents of the Illinois Department of Public Health. As such, we have been able to conduct investigations that entail hypothesis testing and uses methods that frequently are beyond the expertise of state agencies. We have also, over the past ten years of funding as a State Based Surveillance program, strengthened collaborations among state agencies that have not allocated resources to occupational surveillance and have not seen occupational health and safety as part of their mission. Through funding from NIOSH, we have been able to hire faculty, staff and students to build occupational surveillance staffing capacity in Illinois and improve occupational surveillance by laying the groundwork for a comprehensive, stable, and active program in the State. During the past five years we have accomplished the following: 1) Continued to expand our partnerships and collaborations with occupational health stakeholders in Illinois, the Midwest, nationally and internationally. 2) Established data sharing agreements with all key federal and state agencies to use essential surveillance data and build a repository of nine different databases. 3) Trained over 200 students in different aspects of occupational health, safety and surveillance. 4) Submitted to NIOSH 6 annual reports summarizing occupational health indicators in Illinois and posted 196 reports and factsheets to the NIOSH clearinghouse. 5) Completed more than 50 novel research studies resulting in 39 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals in addition to numerous reports, white papers, policy briefs, and factsheets published through different media platforms including our website. 6) Assisted our state health department complete follow backs of lead cases to provide complete reporting of elevated of blood lead levels in adults. 7) Established an advisory board of key stakeholders from government, business sector, worker groups, labor attorneys and community advocacy groups. In addition, we convene an annual meeting of stakeholders with an attendance ranging between 50-100 persons each year. 8) Raised the profile of occupational health by conducting workshops, presenting at conferences, providing legal testimonies to lawmakers, and having our work covered by journalists. We have expanded our program to improve public health practice by working to enhance local authorities' ability to improve safety and oversite in the workplace. These activities are integral to understanding, highlighting, and preventing injuries and illnesses in the Illinois workforce. Without occupational surveillance funding from NIOSH, Illinois would have limited occupational health infrastructure. The investment made by NIOSH helps keep the Illinois workforce safer. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Epidemiology Occupational Health Public Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Injuries Occupational Health Public Health Surveillance Programs Worker Safety
• 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:
  Illinois ; OSHA Region 5
• 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:
  1-38
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20067531
• 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-010905, 2021 Sep; :1-38
• Email:
  lfried1@uic.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2021
• Performing Organization:
  University of Illinois at Chicago
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20150701
• 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-512:94dc2e224ce3ebc729422cb507e6be7756d5900776a280c14d77e6efff4ed02413a68513330247c65750347ee32afc40f18cb9a9e9b610f10d4943e64664d1e4
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/219197/cdc_219197_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.68 MB ]