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BACKGROUND: Colorado is one of 23 states involved in national surveillance of work-related injuries, illnesses, and fatalities, and other indicators of workplace health and safety. The financial and human costs of occupational injury and illness are not trivial. Every year in Colorado, on average, 112 workers are killed on the job, there are over 2,500 hospitalizations for a work-related injury or illness, and $809 million dollars in workers’ compensation benefits are paid out to injured workers. In addition to providing state-level measures, the program is working to develop local-level data on work-place injuries.
METHODS: Under the Colorado Public Health Improvement Act, local health agencies conduct community health assessments and improvement plans every 5 yrs. Using various state and national data sources, we demonstrate examples of how the distribution of employment factors and occupational injury varies significantly by county and region.
RESULTS: Our case study is the six-county jurisdiction of the Northeast Colorado Health Department (NCHD). We describe what data are available and how to use it to improve the health and safety of the workplaces in a community. The concepts we will cover include data access and analysis, interpreting findings, and developing community partnerships. One example of our findings is that NCHD demonstrates much higher rates of work-related injury hospitalizations and emergency department visits compared to all of Colorado. This region also has higher proportions of workers in certain high-risk industries, such as agriculture.
CONCLUSIONS: Occupational health is an essential component of comprehensive and integrated public health programs. It helps us respond to convergent issues, when the health concerns of the public health intersect with an exposed workforce (such as take-home lead exposure). It also compliments regulatory activities by monitoring the burden of injury and illness, identifying disparities, and identifying sentinel cases and emerging hazards. Work-related injuries, illnesses and fatalities are preventable. Identifying and reducing their occurrence will lead to healthier and safer communities.