The First Masters of Public Health in Occupational and Environmental Health in India
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work and Green Jobs
Spotlight on Byung Gyu Kim, Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (KOSHA)
Healthy Workplaces and the Way Forward
International Program in Occupational Health Practice
Twitter for our WHO network
ILO newsletter
GOHNET newsletter

	Dr. Kalpana Balakrishnan discussing the new MPH program

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EU-OSHA's European Risk Observatory aims at anticipating new and emerging risks in occupational safety and health (OSH). After four expert forecasts on physical, biological, psychosocial and chemical emerging risks, we are now starting a foresight of new and emerging risks in green jobs by 2020.

The impetus to "green" the economy is the opportunity to anticipate potential new risks in these developing green jobs and make sure their design integrates workers' safety and health. Green jobs should not only be good for the environment but also for workers. There are already enough examples of so-called green jobs where workers' health was damaged. We fully support NIOSH's initiative on "making green jobs safe" and the workshop held last December was an essential step towards integrating workers' safety and health into green jobs, which cannot be defined as sustainable otherwise. The need for systematic workplace risk assessment emphasized at the workshop is also fully in line with the European prevention approach - and an employer's duty under European law.

	Emmanuelle Brun, Project Manager in the European Risk Observatory, EU-OSHA

Our foresight on green jobs is limited to emerging risks associated with new technologies, in the context of political, economic and societal trends. While more traditional risks in green jobs are equally important, these are addressed in other projects: for example an inventory of the waste management sector, the hazards and consequences on workers' health in the sector, and examples of good practice.

The foresight will result in a series of scenarios of possible futures to help policy-makers understand what decisions today can shape a better future of OSH. It will run for 2 years but intermediary results will be regularly posted on the European Risk Observatory website and in EU-OSHA's blog.

Byung Gyu Kim has a Master of Public Health degree, which he earned from the University of Minnesota at Twin Cities. He has worked at the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (KOSHA) for 17 years in epidemiological research, environmental measurement and monitoring, exposure surveys, and chemicals management including the development of Korean Control Banding.

	Bang Gyu Kim, KOSHA

Byung Gyu Kim is currently working on a 5-year project for the National Occupational Exposure Survey, which will cost 300,000 US$. KOSHA aims to secure real data on hazardous working conditions and toxic chemical usage to develop new projects for protection and promotion of workers' health for about 120,000 establishments in Korea.

In Korea, about 10,000 cases of occupational illness have occurred per year for the past 5 years. Musculoskeletal disorders account for about 65% of all. Next, cerebral-cardiovascular diseases and pneumoconiosis account for 15% respectively.

Kim comments that Korea's economy is recovering from the economic crisis and changing quickly. During the economic crisis, the activities of occupational health professionals decreased with decrease of occupational illness. Now, the roles of the occupational health professionals are re-gaining importance as the economy recovers. KOSHA is consistently providing technical assistance to industries and is disseminating health and safety culture to business sites. Moreover, KOSHA has strengthened its international networks with the WHO, ILO, ICOH, etc. For more information, please visit: http://english.kosha.or.kr/main

The WHO healthy workplace initiative is gaining momentum. After a successful workshop in October 2009 at WHO headquarters in Geneva with international experts, collaborating centre colleagues, trade unionists, and employers, we are now close to finalizing a synthesis report of the WHO healthy workplace framework and model. This report provides information on why WHO developed a framework, what a healthy workplace is, and describes the four-circle model of the framework covering health protection and promotion including community action. The report also describes the steps for implementing a healthy workplace programme. Besides the establishment of a large expert network including international experts, employers, worker representatives and other stakeholders, WHO plans to develop global WHO guidance.

	Meeting on Adopting the Healthy Workplaces Initiative in Egypt, January 2010, WHO/EMRO

Based on the global WHO guidance, collaborating centres will be involved in the development, review, and piloting of guidance documents adapted to different culture, country, community, and company (organization, team, division, worker) contexts. The more detailed way forward discussed at the Geneva workshop can be viewed here.

The successful workshop on healthy workplaces which was held in WHO headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland, from 21-23 October 2009, resulted in a number of future actions. Participants felt these needed to be accomplished in the next few years in close collaboration with a network of experts within and outside of WHO, other international Organizations in particular the ILO, employers and worker organizations, as well as other interested partners.

A WHO website is under way at this link: http://www.who.int/occupational_health/healthy_workplaces/en/index.html. It will contain resource materials and sites from other WHO programmes and regions, the ILO and the background documentation that is being developed right now.

Should you wish to join the network, you can access this link: https://extranet.who.int/datacol/survey.asp?survey_id=1355
Username: healthy workplaces
Password: healthy

In addition, the WHO offices of the Americas and the Eastern Mediterranean have started work on healthy workplaces. The former created a website: http://new.paho.org/hq/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1708&Itemid=1511&limit=1&limitstart=8; and the first workshop on healthy workplaces was held in Cairo on 20 January 2010 with the objective to prepare a plan of action and a declaration including the concept of healthy workplaces and the role of the government to activate the healthy workplaces initiative in Egypt.

The 2nd online "International Program in Occupational Health Practice" starts in September 2010. It is designed as a strong introduction to occupational safety and health (OSH) for company health professionals (doctors, nurses and others) worldwide who work in developing countries or remote locations and do not have a formal academic training in OSH. Participants can send their contributions back in English, Spanish, French and German. The program is 100% online and no travels are required.

This program is offered by the School of Public Health of the University of Illinois at Chicago. The Great Lakes Centers for Occupational and Environmental Safety and Health is a Collaborating Center in Occupational Health of the World Health Organization. Participants will receive a continuing education certificate for the completion of the program.
http://www.uic.edu/sph/glakes/ce/IntPrgOHP.html

Course Offerings: http://www.uic.edu/sph/glakes/ce/IntPrg_content.html#foundations#foundations

For more information, contact Norbert Wagner MD PhD - Director, International Program in Occupational Health, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) NLWagner@uic.edu.

"WHOWorkerHealth" is our Twitter name for the WHO Network of Collaborating Centres in Occupational Health. Follow us! To create your Twitter account and follow WHOWorkerHealth, go to http://www.twitter.com and create your username and password. Then go to WHOWorkerHealth and click "Follow".

Send your updates on upcoming events, conferences, and success stories to us so we can post them for you! Email your contributions to Max Lum at MLum@cdc.gov.