By Debbie Hoyer, MPH; Nura Sadeghpour, MPH; Leslie Nickels, PhD, MEd; and RADM Margaret M. Kitt, MD, MPH
According to the International Labour Organization, globally, 6,300 people die as a result of occupational injury or work-related diseases every day – more than 2.3 million deaths per year. This has a tremendous impact on the global community- individuals, families, and employers.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is committed to improving worker safety and health both domestically and internationally. One of NIOSH’s three strategic goals is to enhance international worker safety and health through global collaborations. The NIOSH Global Collaboration Program facilitates this work with tremendous contributions from across the institute.
NIOSH and the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FIOH), both World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centers for Occupational Health, jointly published Improving Workers’ Health Across the Globe. This booklet highlights successful contributions of the Global Network of WHO Collaborating Centres for Occupational Health to improve worker health. The Network, of which NIOSH is the chair, was established in 1990. The Network works collectively on specific projects in an effort to implement World Health Assembly Resolution 60.26: the Global Plan of Action on Workers’ Health, 2008-2017. A searchable database of collaborating centers can be found here.
This recently published success document organizes effective examples from across the globe using the objectives set in the Global Plan of Action for Workers’ Health, a plan created to improve the health of all workers.
Across the Network, and across the globe, we saw how these objectives played out. Here are a few examples:
