Healthy People Consortium Meeting
"Implementing Healthy People 2010"
November 11, 2000

Summary of Breakout Group Discussion Concerning:
Occupational Safety and Health

1. What does implementing Healthy People 2010 mean to you?

• Implementing Healthy People 2010 is an opportunity to build on successful partnerships, identify and promote best practices for prevention, focus on worksite health promotion, and use traditional health promotion programs to promote occupational safety and health issues.
• Healthy People 2010 is a way to measure knowledge of occupational safety and health issues outside of health professions.

2. How do you suggest we work with local community groups in implementing the Healthy People 2010 objectives?

• Professional associations could be very effective partners in implementing Healthy People 2010.
• It is important to consider different methods and different partners for different sectors (e.g., agriculture, construction, mining, health care, and other sectors have specific needs).

3. What are the challenges/barriers to meeting the Healthy People 2010 objectives? And how do you suggest we work to overcome them?

• One of the biggest challenges is the lack of occupational surveillance data. No national occupational chronic disease morbidity or mortality reporting system currently exists. The public health community must rely on estimates generated from various data sources and published epidemiology studies, which are thought to underestimate the true extent of occupational disease. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is implementing a national surveillance strategic plan--based on broad stakeholder input--that will address issues of surveillance related to Healthy People, as well as the goal of developing a national system for surveillance for major occupational illnesses, injuries, exposures, and health hazards. 
• The lack of intervention effectiveness data impedes progress toward Healthy People 2010 objectives. An emphasis on intervention effectiveness research (which is a research priority of the National Occupational Research Agenda, or NORA) will evaluate the impact of prevention interventions, programs, and policies on safety and health outcomes across a broad spectrum of industries.
• A lack of public awareness of prevention measures is a barrier to meeting the objectives. This could be addressed with more targeted communication efforts and increased partnership with the media.

4. What can we do to support the elimination of health disparities among racial and ethnic population groups?

• Research is needed to determine where special populations at risk are working, the conditions of work, and the extent and severity of disease and injury among these workers.
• Home health care workers, aging workers, youth workers, and migrant workers are among those at highest risk for occupational injuries and diseases.
• Research is needed on the interaction between psychosocial stressors and other work factors such as musculoskeletal stressors or safety practices.

5. How do we measure the progress of Healthy People 2010 in the future? And what is progress? 

• The U.S. workplace is rapidly changing and becoming more diverse. Major changes are also occurring in the way that work is organized because of changes in economic conditions, technological change, changing corporate and employment practices, and demographic trends. 
  Measuring the progress of Healthy People 2010 must address the occupational safety and health ramifications of the evolving nature of work for a workforce that is likewise changing.

6. How can we work more effectively with the media in implementing the Healthy People 2010 objectives?

• The occupational safety and health community could work to develop a better understanding of the news cycle and how to best take advantage of it to disseminate critical information.
• It could be helpful to develop special formats of documents to be used in communicating with the media. Letters to the Editor were discussed as possible useful tools.

List the strategies and specific steps discussed in your group.

• Build on the partnerships and activities of the NORA to implement Healthy People 2010 (all of the occupational safety and health objectives are addressed by NORA's 21 priority research areas).
• Identify and promote "best practices" for preventing occupational injury and disease.
• Widely disseminate prevention methods through health education and communication campaigns and through the use of traditional scientific and nontraditional layperson channels.
• Support academic training in occupational safety and health and State health department programs.
• Focus research to determine where special populations at risk are working, the conditions of work, and the extent and severity of disease and injury among these workers.
• Address the occupational safety and health ramifications of the evolving nature of work for a workforce that is likewise changing.
• Focus on intervention effectiveness research.
• Continue building partnerships to address the lack of a national system to track occupational illness and injury.

Participant List


Sally Lusk
University of Michigan and American Association of Occupational Health Nurses
lusk@univmich.edu 

Johnathan Hilton
Self Reliance Foundation - Acceso Hispano
johnathan@selfreliancefoundation.org 

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