OSH in CDC Health Scientists’ 10 Great Public Health Achievements
The CDC, in the May 20 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) (http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6019a5.htm) has published a list of the 10 great public health achievements occurring in the last decade, between 2001-2010, of which occupational safety is one. The list comes from nominations made by CDC public health scientists and are not ranked in any order. The following is the summary for occupational safety
Occupational Safety
Significant progress was made in improving working conditions and reducing the risk for workplace-associated injuries. For example,patient lifting has been a substantial cause of low back injuries among the 1.8 million U.S. health-care workers in nursing care and residential facilities. In the late 1990s, an evaluation of a best practices patient-handling program that included the use of mechanical patient-lifting equipment demonstrated reductions of 66% in the rates of workers’ compensation injury claims and lost workdays and documented that the investment in lifting equipment can be recovered in less than 3 years (45). Following widespread dissemination and adoption of these best practices by the nursing home industry, Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed a 35% decline in low back injuries in residential and nursing care employees between 2003 and 2009.
The annual cost of farm-associated injuries among youth has been estimated at $1 billion annually (46). A comprehensive childhood agricultural injury prevention initiative was established to address this problem. Among its interventions was the development by the
National Children’s Center for Rural Agricultural Health and Safety of guidelines for parents to match chores with their child’s development and physical capabilities. Follow-up data have demonstrated a 56% decline in youth farm injury rates from 1998 to 2009 (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, unpublished data, 2011).
In the mid-1990s, crab fishing in the Bering Sea was associated with a rate of 770 deaths per 100,000 full-time fishers (47). Most fatalities occurred when vessels overturned because of heavy loads. In 1999, the U.S. Coast Guard implemented Dockside Stability and Safety Checks to correct stability hazards. Since then, one vessel has been lost and the fatality rate among crab fishermen has declined to 260 deaths per 100,000 full-time fishers (47).