Global Collaborations
Outputs: Publications
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Selected Publications
Communications
Approaches to sharing occupational safety and health information on a global scale
Am J Ind Med 2002 Feb; 41:210-216
Recent literature from international agencies and others was examined to identify examples of information sharing and to determine the status of such sharing and related issues. Literature was included from the areas of surveillance, priority setting, research, dissemination, and risk management.
International chemical safety cards and global harmonization
Saf Sci 2001 Oct-Nov; 39(1-2):107-115
The International Chemical Safety Cards (ICSCs) project began in 1986 and is an undertaking of the International Program on Chemical Safety (UNEP, ILO and WHO), in co-operation with the Commission of the European Communities. ICSCs are comprehensive, concise, and simple summaries of essential health and safety information on specific chemicals for use as basic information and training tools at the "shop floor" level by workers and employers.
Occupational Safety and Health Training on the Internet. Developing Quality Instruction
AAOHN J 49(5):231-234
To meet new and evolving needs worldwide, professionals must have access to information and training regardless of location. E-training is the most promising approach to meeting this demand.
Collaboration between developing and developed countries and between developing countries in occupational heath research and surveillance
Scand J Work, Environ & Health 1999 Jun; 25(3):296-300
Collaborative occupational health and safety studies between counterparts in developing and developed countries and between developing countries have demonstrated their potential for improving occupational health and safety. Such collaboration in occupational health and safety is encouraged in the development of infrastructure in research empowerment and capacity building.
Occupational and environmental health. Recognizing and preventing disease and injury.
Lippencott Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia 2005.
This Fifth Edition is a comprehensive, practical guide to recognizing, preventing, and treating work-related and environmentally-induced injuries and disease.
Chemical Hazards
Cancer mortality in workers exposed to organochlorine compounds in the pulp and paper industry: an international collaborative study
Environ Health Perspect 2006 Jul; 114(7):1007-1012
The objective of this study was to evaluate cancer mortality in pulp and paper industry workers exposed to chlorinated organic compounds. A multinational cohort of workers employed between 1920 and 1996 in 11 countries was studied.
ASTM international standards for monitoring chemical hazards in workplaces
J Occup Environ Hyg 2005 Jun; 2(6):D44-D47
Within the American Society for Testing and Materials International Committee D22 on Air Quality, Subcommittee D22.04 on Sampling and Analysis of Workplace Atmospheres produces standards that describe methods to collect and measure chemical hazards in the workplace.
Pooled exposure-response analyses and risk assessment for lung cancer in 10 cohorts of silica-exposed workers: an IARC multicentre study
Cancer Causes Control, 2001, 12:773-784
This international study included NIOSH silica cohorts.
Crystalline silica, quartz. Concise International Chemical Assessment Document (CICAD) No. 24
International Program on Chemical Safety (IPCS), Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization, 2000 Jan; 1-50
This CICAD on crystalline silica, quartz was based on: (1) a review of published human studies and reports on the adverse health effects of quartz exposure (NIOSH, forthcoming), (2) a review of the carcinogenicity studies conducted by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC, 1997), and (3) a review of the non-cancer health effects of ambient quartz (US EPA, 1996).
Occupational lung disease in China
Int J Occup Environ Health 2003 Oct-Dec; 9(4):320-325
The recently transformed industrial structure and expansion of the industrial labor force, accompanying the rapid industrialization and economic growth, pose both tremendous challenges and opportunities for occupational health policy, research and preventive actions.
Exposure to silica and silicosis among tin miners in China: exposure response analyses and risk assessment
Occup Environ Med 2001 Jan; 58(1):31-37
This collaborative study investigated the risk of silicosis among tin miners and the relation between silicosis and cumulative exposure to dust. The study predicts about a 36% cumulative risk of silicosis for a 45-year lifetime exposure to tin mine dusts at the cumulative exposure to dust (CTD) standard of 2 mg/m3.
Occurrence and causes of occupational asthma in South Africa: results from SORDSA's occupational asthma registry, 1997-1999
S Afr Med J, 2001, 91(6):509-513
The nationwide Surveillance of Work-related and Occupational Respiratory Diseases in South Africa, SORDSA, was established in 1996 to provide systematic information on occupational respiratory diseases.
Occupational asthma as identified by the surveillance of work-related and occupational respiratory disease programme in South Africa
Clin Exp Allergy 2001 Jan; 31(1):32-39
This paper describes the program and results obtained for occupational asthma in the first 2 years, ending in October 1998.
Biological Hazards
NIOSH Healthcare Worker Resources Featured in Global Health Network Newsletter
Global Occupational Health Network Newsletter No. 8, 2005 
313 KB (16 pages)
External Link: http://www.who.int/occupational_health/publications/newsletter/gohnet8eng.pdf
NIOSH announced healthcare resources to readers of the World Health Organization's (WHO) The Global Health Network Newsletter. The article highlighted information available on hazards and exposures faced by healthcare workers around the world, including tuberculosis, exposure to ethylene oxide, latex allergy, workplace violence, musculoskeletal disorders, female reproductive health, and psychosocial hazards such as organizational change and workplace stress. Resources such as the Worker Health Chartbook and the NIOSH Bibliographic Database for Healthcare Workers were highlighted.
Global Burden Of Disease And Injury Due To Occupational Risks
The December 2005 Special Issue of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine is dedicated to “The Contribution of Occupational Risk Factors to the Global Burden of Disease.”
The work was carried out as part of a World Health Organization (WHO) Comparative Risk Assessment analysis of 26 risk factors to the global burden of disease. The methodologic requirements limited the risk factors that could be studied globally so that the risk factors in the individual articles account for about 800,000 of the estimated 2 million deaths that occur annually due to occupational risks. Individual articles include addressing the global burden due to occupational carcinogens, airborne particulates, noise, ergonomic risks for back pain, and risk for traumatic injury; estimating the global burden of infectious disease due to sharps injuries among healthcare workers; and examining previously published estimates of global burden due to occupational risks. Three articles focus on economic issues: cost-effectiveness of workplace interventions to prevent silicosis and back pain, and an economic model used at company level to evaluate the net-costs involved in prevention of occupational back pain. View abstracts from articles in this Special Issue.
External link: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/34471
Moving knowledge of global burden into preventive action
Am J Ind Med 48:395-399, 2005
The editorial shows that the magnitude of the occupational health burden in the world is overwhelming, requiring commitment from all stakeholders to translate economic progress into sustainable human development and well-being.
The global burden of selected occupational diseases and injury risks: Methodology and summary
Am J Ind Med 48:400-418, 2005
In 2000, the selected risk factors were responsible worldwide for 37% of back pain, 16% of hearing loss, 13% of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), 11% of asthma, 8% of injuries, 9% of lung cancer, and 2% of leukemia. These occupational risks caused 850,000 deaths worldwide and resulted in the loss of about 24 million years of healthy life. Needlesticks accounted for about 40% of Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C infections and 4.4% of HIV infections in healthcare workers.
The global burden of disease due to occupational carcinogens
Am J Ind Med 48:419-431, 2005
In 2000, there were an estimated 152,000 deaths (lung cancer: 102,000; leukemia: 7,000; and malignant mesothelioma: 43,000) and nearly 1.6 million Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) (lung cancer: 969,000; leukemia: 101,000; and malignant mesothelioma: 564,000) due to exposure to occupational carcinogens.
The global burden of non-malignant respiratory disease due to occupational airborne exposures
Am J Ind Med 48:432-445, 2005
There were an estimated 386,000 deaths (asthma: 38,000; COPD: 318,000; pneumoconioses: 30,000) and nearly 6.6 million Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) (asthma: 1,621,000; COPD: 3,733,000, pneumoconioses: 1,288,000) due to exposure to occupational airborne particulates.
The global burden of occupational noise-induced hearing loss
Am J Ind Med 48:446-458, 2005
Worldwide, 16% of the disabling hearing loss in adults (over 4 million Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) ) is attributed to occupational noise, ranging from 7% to 21% in the various subregions. The effects of the exposure to occupational noise are larger for males than females in all subregions and higher in the developing regions.
Estimating the global burden of low back pain attributable to combined occupational exposures
Am J Ind Med 48:459-469, 2005
Worldwide, 37% of low back pain was attributed to occupation, with two-fold variation across regions. The attributable proportion was higher for men than women due to higher participation in the labor force and in occupations with heavy lifting or whole-body vibration. Work-related low back pain was estimated to cause 818,000 disability-adjusted life years lost annually.
The global burden due to occupational injury
Am J Ind Med 48:470-481, 2005
Worldwide, hazardous conditions in the workplace were responsible for a minimum of 312,000 fatal unintentional occupational injuries. Together, fatal and non-fatal occupational injuries resulted in about 10.5 million Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYS); that is, about 3.5 years of healthy life are lost per 1,000 workers every year globally. Occupational risk factors are responsible for 8.8% of the global burden of mortality due to unintentional injuries and 8.1% of DALYs due to this outcome.
Estimation of the global burden of disease attributable to contaminated sharps injuries among health-care workers
Am J Ind Med 48:482-490, 2005
Overall, 16,000 Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), 66,000 Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), and 1,000 HIV infections may have occurred in the year 2000 worldwide among healthcare workers due to their occupational exposure to percutaneous injuries. The fraction of infections with HCV, HBV, and HIV in healthcare workers attributable to occupational exposure to percutaneous injuries reaches 39%, 37%, and 4.4%, respectively.
Review of estimates of the global burden of injury and illness due to occupational exposures
Am J Ind Med 48:491-502, 2005
The best estimate of global work-related deaths of workers is approximately two million per year, with disease responsible for the vast majority of these, but even this is likely to be a considerable underestimate of the true number of deaths because of shortcomings in the available data.
Economic Factors
The cost- effectiveness of occupational health interventions: Prevention of silicosis
Am J Ind Med 48:503-514, 2005
In the two WHO regions, engineering controls are the most cost-effective with ratios varying from $105.89 per healthy year or disability adjusted life year saved in Americas A to approximately $109 in Western Pacific B1. In the two regions, the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of engineering controls looks most attractive. Although dust masks look attractive in terms of cost, the total efficacy is extremely limited.
The cost-effectiveness of occupational health interventions: Preventing occupational back pain
Am J Ind Med 48:515-529, 2005
Training is cost-effective and would be the first choice option where resources are scarce. However, the overall effectiveness of training is low. Although other interventions such as engineering controls and total ergonomic interventions are relatively more expensive, the addition to health outcome through these interventions is much higher. It is clear that in most of the industrialized regions of the world additional resources should go straight to the full ergonomics program.
Estimation of net-costs for prevention of occupational low back pain: Three case studies from the U.S.
Am J Ind Med 48:530-541, 2005
The model estimates the net economic costs of investments in ergonomic interventions at the company level to reduce work-related low back pain. The net-cost estimates for the three case studies consistently show that ergonomic interventions applied appropriately can result in substantial cost savings for the companies.
The Economic Evaluation of Occupational Health and Safety Interventions at the Company Level Conference, held in November 2004 in Washington, D.C., was sponsored by NIOSH and WHO. The Proceedings of the Conference were published by the Journal of Safety Research Volume 36, Number 3, Pages 207-308, 2005.
The Productivity Assessment Tool: Computer-based cost benefit analysis model for the economic assessment of occupational health and safety interventions in the workplace
J Safety Research 36: 209-214, 2005
The article describes a computer-based cost-benefit analysis model for interpreting the financial impact of occupational safety and health initiatives, allowing the effectiveness of an intervention (workplace change) to be estimated prior to its introduction.
An overview to CERSSO's self evaluation of the cost-benefit on the investment in occupational safety and health in the textile factories: “A step by step methodology
J Safety Research 36: 215-229, 2005
The CERSSO (Centro Regional de Seguridad y Salud Ocupacional) Tool Kit was developed for use in Central American garment factories. The model integrates risk assessments, cause-effect relationships, decision making, direct and indirect costs and savings, and calculating cost-benefit ratios to measure the financial rewards of investing in occupational safety and health.
Participation for Understanding: An Interactive Method
J Safety Research 36: 231-236, 2005
The interactive model promotes a more user-friendly model for measuring safety and health effectiveness that includes engaging workers, managers, and health and safety experts in discussions about costs, benefits, and effectiveness of prevention efforts to ensure that outcomes are understood by all persons involved.
The Potential Method: An economic evaluation tool
J Safety Research 36: 237-240, 2005
This evaluation tool offers a valid economic calculation for measuring the effect of safety and health on production that reflects changes in the work environment. The model allows for more than 300 variables, but requires only about 12 variables to obtain an economic analysis of a change in working conditions.
Net-Cost Model for Workplace Interventions
J Safety Research 36: 241-255, 2005
The model is an approach for the economic evaluation of efforts to reduce work-related low back pain. The study provides a simple framework for estimating the net economic costs of investments in ergonomic interventions at the company level.
Understanding the return on health, safety and environmental investments
J Safety Research 36:257-260, 2005.
The Return on Health, Safety and Environmental Investments (ROHSEI) process, and supporting computerized tool set, was developed to provide a comprehensive look at investment decisions, including assessment of which safety and health investments should be made and which investments create the greatest value to the organization.
Synthesis and recommendations of the economic evaluation of OHS interventions at the company level conference
J Safety Research 36:261-267, 2005
Discussions of the six models presented explored similarities, reliability, and potential use by small and medium corporate enterprises developing and transitioning nations, and economic theorists. Each work group provided specific projects that could be pursued to advance knowledge in the area of economic evaluation at the company level.
