Global Collaborations
Outcomes
Outcomes are events, occurrences, or conditions that indicate progress in achieving the purpose of the program. Outcomes reflect the results of a program activity compared with its intended purpose; outcomes may also answer the question "Will these resources result in success or contribute to the success of what we want to accomplish?"
Outcomes can be viewed from two different perspectives-ultimate and intermediate. For an occupational safety and health research program like the NIOSH Global Collaborations Program, ultimate outcomes are reductions in a particular type of worker injury or illness. Injuries and illnesses have complex causes, and any effect of program activities on rates can take years to be seen. Therefore, outcomes are often measured on an intermediate timeframe. Intermediate outcomes are necessary steps that lead to ultimate outcomes-for example, reductions in the risk of a particular type of injury or illness. For occupational safety and health research programs, achieving intermediate risk reductions is as important as achieving the ultimate outcome of decreasing injury and illness incidence rates.
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Intermediate Outcomes
Preventing Hearing Loss from Chemical and Noise Exposures
Knowledge generated by this project has impacted occupational health guidance and legislation. NIOSH and extramural partners have contributed to the substantial number of outputs in this area. This partnership leads to the development of guidelines and recommended practices to prevent occupational hearing loss from exposure to chemicals and raises awareness of the issue in a number of arenas.
External link: http://ec.europa.eu/research/quality-of-life/ka4/pdf/report_noisechem_en.pdf
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As a result of the work of this group, the “Obligations of Employers” standard from the European Parliament Directive states that when carrying out risk assessments, employers should “…give particular attention to: any effects on workers’ health and safety resulting from interactions between noise and work-related ototoxic substances....”
External link: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32003L0010:EN:HTML
Also in the legislative arena, Brazil and Australia have modified their legislation pertaining to compensation, accepting the connection between chemical exposure and work-related hearing loss (Australia Workcover Guides for the Evaluation of Hearing Impaired, June 2002; Brazil. Decreto no. 3048/ May 6, 1999).
Under this project, NIOSH helped prepare best practice guidelines by external groups such as:
- Australia-New Zealand AS/NZS 1269:2005 Occupational Noise Management/Informative Appendix on Ototoxic Agents requiring hearing tests for those exposed to ototoxic agents (ACGIH1998-2005, ACOEM, 2003, and U.S. Army.)
- ACGIH1998-2005, American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists. Threshold Limit Values and Biological Exposure Indices for 1998-1999, ACGIH, Cincinnati.
- ACOEM, American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine Noise-induced Hearing Loss Evidence-Based Statement, JOEM 45(6) June 2003.
- U.S. Army. Hearing Conservation Guidelines. Dept. of the Army Pamphlet 40-501, 3-3 1998; U.S. Army Fact Sheet 51-002-0903; Occupational Ototoxins and Hearing Loss.
External link: http://chppm-www.apgea.army.mil/documents/FACT/51-002-0903.pdf
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The results from NIOSH partners on this project will guide future occupational safety and health efforts in reducing the risks of work-related hearing loss and increase awareness of the ototoxic potential of chemicals.
More information about prevention of hearing loss can be found on the NIOSH Noise and Hearing Loss Prevention topic page.
Occupational HIV Prevention
Under a NIOSH grant, the World Health Organization (WHO) developed and tested the “Protecting Healthcare Workers: Preventing Needlestick Injuries Toolkit” in Asia and in Africa. The toolkit has been translated into Spanish and tailored to the culture for use in the joint effort between WHO, NIOSH, the Venezuelan Ministry of Health, and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to test the new toolkit for wide use in Latin American countries.
More information about this WHO Project can be found in the WHO Global Occupational Health Newsletter (GOHNET) Issue No. 8, Winter 2005
External link: http://www.who.int/occupational_health/publications/newsletter/gohnet8eng.pdf
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More information about prevention of bloodborne pathogens can be found on the NIOSH Bloodborne Pathogens topic page.
Young Workers Occupational Safety and Health Curriculum
The National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium (NASDCTEc), has endorsed this participatory curriculum to train youth and their teachers in basic occupational safety and health principles through its Career Clusters initiative. This will facilitate offering the curriculum in U.S. schools utilizing the Career Clusters approach to workforce preparation. This project is coordinating with interested WHO Collaborating Centers.
More information about safety and health of young workers can be found on the NIOSH Young Worker Safety and Health topic page.
Assessing the Utility of Control Banding in the U.S.
NIOSH efforts to explore the utility of control banding have provided the impetus to raise awareness of this approach among safety and health practitioners. This intermediate effect can be seen in the expanded efforts to study and implement control banding strategies among The following:
- Professional groups
- American Industrial Hygiene Association,
- American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists,
- American Society of Safety Engineers, American Chemical Society
- Industry groups
- International Lubricant Manufacturers Association,
- The Dow Chemical Company
- Other governmental agencies
- Environmental Protection Agency
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration
- Organized labor
- Laborers Safety and Health Fund of North America
- Academia
- University of Cincinnati
- Murray State University
- Eastern Kentucky University
Through developing informational materials and coordinating forums, workshops, and presentation described below, NIOSH has also contributed to international efforts to promote research and evaluation of control banding. On an international level, collaborations have included:
- Sponsorship, planning, and coordination of the 2nd International Control Banding Workshop (Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S., March 2004)
- Participation in the 3rd International Control Banding Workshop (Pilanesburg, South Africa, September 2005)
- Participation in the U.S./E.U. 4th Joint Conference of Safety and Health at Work in Orlando, Florida, U.S. (September 2005) and drafting the position paper for the subcommittee on global management of chemicals
- Participation on a panel on control banding at the World Congress for Occupational Safety and Health in Orlando, Florida, U.S. (September 2005)
- Participation on the WHO/ILO International Technical Group on Control Banding and development of the global plan for implementation of control banding (ongoing)
- Provision of technical assistance using a control banding model to address silica exposures and control silicosis in Chile (2005 - present, ongoing)
- Development of a letter of agreement among U.S. agencies (NIOSH, OSHA), the U.K. Health and Safety Executive, and the German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to collaborate on control banding research
More information about Control Banding can be found on the NIOSH Control Banding topic page.
