The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with the
support of 23 cosponsors, 30 supporters, and over 400 participants
recently launched the "Steps to a Healthier US Workforce Initiative.”
This Initiative is the first of its kind to unite researchers, policymakers,
practitioners, and industry and labor leaders in one place with
the goal of integrating individual worker health and healthy lifestyle
promotion with the NIOSH mission of protecting and improving working
conditions and the work environment.
The initiative recognizes the shared goals of workers, their
families, and their employers to protect, preserve, and improve
the health of people who work. We believe these goals can be optimized
by bringing together the health promotion and occupational safety
and health communities in a combined effort to highlight common
interests and develop mutually supportive strategies for research
and practice to improve worker health, safety, and well-being.
Through interactive working group discussions, participants at
the October 2004 Steps Symposium:
- Explored economic issues related to the interrelationships
between work, health, health care needs, and productivity, and
the impact of improved and integrated approaches to health promotion
and health protection;
- Assessed the scientific basis for integrative approaches and
began the process of establishing a research agenda in this
area of integrated health protection and promotion; and
- Highlighted successful programs, practices, and policies
of protection and promotion resulting in improved health for people
who work.
This Symposium was the first Step of many more to come, toward
building a partnership between health protection and health promotion
to effectuate comprehensive risk reduction.
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