Wholesale and Retail Trade
Inputs: Partners
The NIOSH Program for the Wholesale and Retail Trade seeks partnerships in the public and private sector to leverage its capacity to ensure the safety and health of the 21 million workers in the 1.6 million workplaces in the United States . The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) defines partners in the broad sense to include customers or stakeholder groups who often have inherent knowledge and experience in issues related to the safety and health of workers within their organizations or enterprises. This knowledge and experience is needed as NIOSH establishes its research priorities for the Wholesale and Retail Trade sector.
Partners also may be users of NIOSH information, technology, and scientific findings. Partners can include peer reviewers, recipients of research grants and contracts, or those who posses sources of equipment, technology, or knowledge for advancing research to protect workers in the trade sector. Partners add expertise or specialized experience to the research team, which benefits the research, analysis, interpretation, and communication of the results, and may serve as the catalyst to transfer this knowledge to the worksite where workers and employers benefit from reduction in workplace injuries and illnesses, and employers benefit by improved productivity and lowered turnover rates.
NIOSH envisions a broad range of partnerships will be developed in the course of building a research agenda for the Wholesale and Retail Trade sectors. To capture the knowledge and expertise needed for this sector, NIOSH will actively seek partnerships with the following: academia, labor, business/industry, government, and international, trade, and professional associations.
For information about partnering with the NIOSH Wholesale and Retail Trade Program, contact the Wholesale and Retail Trade Program Coordinator. For general information about partnerships with NIOSH, contact the NIOSH Office of Research and Technology Transfer.
The following is an annotated list of professional partnerships that were formed initially for the purposes of promoting research to practice (r2p) with NIOSH. Although the main theme was the r2p component, the partnerships clearly provide opportunities to promote and advance research and the dissemination of research information that is relevant to the Wholesale and Retail Trade sector agenda.
- American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA). This partnership uses a collaborative effort and mutual expertise to advance the protection of workers, promote best practices, and encourage employers to develop and use occupational safety and health management systems and effective preventions strategies and technologies. This partnership will be valuable in establishing a research agenda for the trade sector. AIHA members have experience in the hazards facing the growing Wholesale and Retail Trade sector. As a result, they will assist NIOSH in understanding and evaluating the types of work performed by these workers, the nature of the workforce, and the types of risk factors and exposure information facing workers in this sector.
- American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE). Similar to AIHA, this partnership is valuable to NIOSH in providing an important communication channel for keeping NIOSH aware of work-related safety problems in the wholesale and retail trade industries. Industrial engineers in turn benefit from NIOSH research and related interventions. The partnership provides a valuable two-way conduit for identifying workplace problems and transferring NIOSH research into practical applications for use by safety engineers in preventing or controlling workplace hazards.
- American Society of Occupational Health Nurses (AAOHN). NIOSH and AAOHN have a mutual commitment to creating a culture of safety and health and maintaining safe and healthful work environments. Members of this association have agreed to share injury statistics information to identify research and intervention needs. This partnership is valuable to NIOSH and the formation of the Wholesale and Retail Trade sector research agenda as a result of their commitment to promote and facilitate the transfer and implementation of research results on effective occupational injury prevention strategies and technologies.
- European Agency for Safety and Health Agency. NIOSH and the Agency have an agreement to produce a joint Web site based on the European Agency's web structure for the publication of occupational safety and health information provided by the European participants in areas of mutual interest. NIOSH is responsible for developing and maintaining the content of the Web site. NIOSH will provide information about the new NORA sector-based approach to demonstrate research models that ensure workers in all work sectors are included in a comprehensive plan. Based on mutual agreement, information will be shared on publications and communication products that are of use to the Agency and NIOSH, and those products will be highlighted on the Agency Web site as agreed.
- Risk Management and Decision Processes Center (The Risk Center ), Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. NIOSH and The Risk Center at the University of Pennsylvania have a partnership to improve the management, analysis, and control of safety and health conditions at workplaces throughout the United States . This partnership uses collaborative efforts and expertise to advance the protection of workers, promote best practices, and encourage employers to develop and use safety and health management programs and effective prevention strategies and technologies.
- National Safety Council (NSC). NIOSH and the NSC entered into a partnership to use collaborative efforts to develop and disseminate information about worker safety and health at appropriate conferences and through multiple media, including NIOSH and NSC Web sites. The partnership involves participating at conferences, meetings, and other key events where occupational safety and health issues are addressed. In addition, the partnership seeks to validate research findings in broader applications including the safety sciences in the advancement of occupational injury and illness prevention research and practice. This partnership is important to the Wholesale and Retail Trade sector in sharing injury statistics information to identify research and intervention needs.
