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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Letitia Davis, ScD and Elise Pechter, MDH CIH. Occupational Health Surveillance Program, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 250 Washington Street, 6th floor, Boston, MA 02108, 617-624-5621, letitia.davis@state.ma.us

In the late 19th century, the health of workers was central to the social reform movement to improve public health. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, leadership in occupational health vacillated between the public health service and the labor department. Since the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970, OSHA and state labor departments that enforce health and safety standards have come to be recognized as the government agencies with primary responsibility for worker safety and health at the state and local levels. In turn, occupational health and safety has often fallen off the public health agenda. Today relatively few state health agencies have comprehensive occupational health programs. State public health agencies have a critical complementary role to play in occupational health, and they may play a particularly important part in addressing the occupational health needs of underserved worker populations such as immigrant and minority workers, who comprise a significant proportion of an increasingly diverse workforce. Since the mid 1980's, with support from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health has been working to build an occupational health program and to promote integration of occupational health concerns into ongoing public health activities in the state. In this presentation, we will provide a framework for considering the range of integration activities and present examples from Massachusetts. Both challenges and opportunities for integrating occupational health into public health practice will be addressed and recommendations to enhance integration will be introduced.

Learning Objectives: At the end of this session, participants will be able to

• enumerate at least three roles that public health agencies have to play in occupational health; 2)describe a conceptual framework for integrating occupational health into ongoing public health practice at the state and local levels; 3)identify at least five state public health programs/activity areas that offer opportunities to intergrate occupational health into public health practice.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation