The Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) seeks three year funding to continue the Western States Occupational Network (WestON) meeting from 2010 through 2012. The overall goal of this meeting is to build capacity for state-based occupational epidemiology in the Western region, including improving or developing surveillance of work-related injuries and diseases, investigation of cases and outbreaks, implementation of epidemiological capacity in occupational health at the state level and dissemination of information for public health prevention. Objectives of this meeting include developing common priorities for occupational risk assessment, applied epidemiology, worksite interventions and other prevention efforts;and to promote scientific collaboration among state-based occupational epidemiologists, NIOSH and academic colleagues in the Western region. CSTE is requesting funding to support travel for participants who would not otherwise have the opportunity to attend this meeting due to lack of funding within their state. CSTE requests support for airline transportation, ground transportation, hotel accommodations, per diem expenses, and other travel related expenses. An organizing committee composed of CSTE, state and NIOSH representatives and the Director of Continuing Education at the Mountain and Plains Education and Research Center will regularly meet via teleconference to plan upcoming WestON meetings, finalize the agenda, invite participants, and further define objectives, goals and outcomes of each meeting.
The overall goal of the Western States Occupational Network (WestON) meeting from 2010 through 2012 is to build capacity for state-based occupational epidemiology in the Western region, as CSTE has highlighted the lack of capacity of states to sufficiently track work-related injury and illness. Over the past decade, CSTE has worked in collaboration with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) towards the goal of increasing state-based occupational health surveillance capacity and improving public health.
