Building Occupational Health Surveillance in Colorado

Each year, thousands of workers in Colorado (CO) are exposed to workplace conditions resulting in occupational illnesses and injuries. At present, there is no comprehensive tracking system in CO to provide timely data on work-related health effects. In recognition of the need for state-based occupational health surveillance programs, NIOSH and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) developed a list of occupational health indicators (OHI) for the purpose of describing worker demographics, measures of work-related health and factors that influence worker health. The Mountain and Plains Education and Research Center (MAP ERC), in collaboration with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) and NIOSH Denver regional office, developed a project to describe the baseline health status of CO workers using the CSTE/NIOSH OHI with the goals of building capacity for occupational health surveillance in CO and determining priorities for prevention of workplace injuries and illnesses. For the years 2001 to 2005, rates of work-related fatalities in CO were higher than overall US rates (average annual rate for the 5 years was 5.2 vs. 4.1, respectively). A significant gap in data and the need for workplace health surveillance was identified. Using other data sources specific to CO, some analysis on nonfatal injuries was achieved. The use of CSTE/NIOSH OHI was found to be beneficial in helping to frame future work in CO. The project continues with the partnership of the MAP ERC, CDPHE, and NIOSH to build the infrastructure for occupational health surveillance in CO.