Illness and Injury Surveillance - DOE Active Worker Populations
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) uses epidemiologic surveillance to assess the overall health of its current workforce at 14 DOE sites and facilities. The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) supports DOE in these efforts.
The goal of the Illness and Injury Surveillance Program is to identify groups of workers that may be at increased risk for occupation-related injury and illness. In response to indications of excess risk, program staff can assess the need for additional investigations.
Occupational medicine departments across the DOE complex routinely collect illness and injury data. Surveillance is based on continuous collection, analysis, and interpretation of selected morbidity, demographic, and occupational exposure data.
The data are transferred via secure electronic means to ORISE's data center. We check all data for completeness and validity and perform preliminary analyses. The data are then sent to DOE for further evaluation and interpretation.
ORISE prepares the annual summary reports for each participating facility. These reports can be accessed via the Illness and Injury Surveillance Program Web site or in DOE reading rooms.
ORISE is also finalizing the first DOE complex-wide report that summarizes 8 years of injury and illness surveillance: Illness and Injury Surveillance Report, Worker Health Summary, 1995-2002. Data were examined for 120,000 workers at 14 DOE facilities.