Abstract
The development and implementation of surveillance systems for occupational disease and injury designed to decrease the gap between occupational disease and injury surveillance and communicable disease surveillance were described and reviewed. The majority of improvements in occupational disease and injury surveillance have been implemented since 1986. Many of these have resulted from cooperative agreements between state health and labor departments and NIOSH. Some programs now in place include the Sentinel Event Notification Systems for Occupational Risks (SENSOR) program, the Adult Blood Lead Surveillance and Epidemiology program, the National Traumatic Occupational Fatalities program, the National Occupational Mortality Surveillance program, and the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries program. A 1995 evaluation of a NIOSH supported SENSOR surveillance program in California concluded that the system was closely linked to prevention oriented intervention and provided essential information for the remediation of hazardous workplace conditions. The authors conclude that, although more needs to be done in occupational health surveillance, substantial progress has been made since 1986 in closing the 'surveillance gap'.
Keywords
NIOSH-Author; Surveillance-programs; Occupational-diseases; Occupational-health; Worker-health; Occupational-health-programs; Health-programs; Safety-programs;
Author Keywords: carpal tunnel syndrome; occupational injuries; occupational diseases; public health; NIOSH; population surveillance; state health departments
