This application to NIOSH would secure funding necessary to establish occupational health surveillance as an integral part of the public health disease and injury prevention system in Michigan. This is achieved by strengthening the core public functions in occupational health: surveillance, policy development, intervention and infrastructure within established and developing occupational health systems in the state.
The specific aims of this project are: 1) Ensure that occupational health data are regularly and systemically collected, assembled, analyzed and made available. 2) Institutionalize an infrastructure for occupational health across Michigan's public health and occupational health regulatory system, in partnership with stakeholders and the concerned public. 3) Increase the level of occupational disease and injury prevention activities in the state. 4) Develop a model occupational health surveillance core program that can be used or adapted in other states, especially, in the 23 states that have a state-based OSHA program. A strategic planning process will identify priority areas for surveillance and resources to address these areas. Pesticide poisoning surveillance will be piloted first as a known priority area for several state agencies and for the public.
