Enhancing State-Based Occupational Health Surveillance Capacity

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 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Project Summary/Abstract Occupational injuries and illnesses are significant public health problems. Each year in the U.S., thousands of workers are fatally injured at work. Work-related disease is more difficult to measure and impose substantial human and economic costs. However, these injuries and illnesses can be prevented. Successful approaches to making workplaces safer and healthier begin with having the information necessary to understand the problem. State-based surveillance (SBS) programs can provide critically needed data on occupational disease and injuries and generate information necessary to augment and evaluate conventional data sources. States can actively link surveillance findings with intervention efforts at the worksite and the community, drawing on state-based intervention resources and day-to-day working relationships with agency and community partners who can use surveillance data to take action. The Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) has provided states with technical assistance to build occupational health (OH) capacity and promote the use of state surveillance data by providing a central repository for state-based occupational health surveillance (OHS) information and data. CSTE has enhanced its website to provide all states with access to indicator data, inform states with minimal or no capacity about the ease and utility of generating these data, and share contact information and links to state OH programs and their reports and tools. The CSTE OHS Subcommittee has developed and implemented a variety of activities to assist states in reaching multiple audiences with messages about what the state programs do and how their efforts contribute to improved health and safety for workers. This proposal addresses the importance and need for ongoing collaborations in OHS among state occupational public health programs and between these state programs and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to improve OHS capacity in the nation. The proposed activities, which address five Specific Aims, expand on activities that have been ongoing for nearly 15 years through the organizational structure of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE). Proposed objectives include: collaboration with the NIOSH to develop and maintain OHI methods and data; development of guidance, `model' products, success stories, and other communication strategies; integration of OHS and prevention into broader public health practice; provision of travel support for meetings and workshops that build capacity in NIOSH-funded and unfunded state programs; and promotion of state, regional, and national collaboration to increase OHS capacity in the U.S.