NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

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References & Links

Center for Disease Control
www.cdc.gov

Also see Footnotes at end of article.

Vaccination
Motor-Vehicle Safety
Safer Workplaces
Control of Infectious Diseases
Decline in Deaths from Coronary Heart    
    Disease and Stroke
Safer and Healthier Foods
Healthier Mothers and Babies
Family Planning
Fluoridation of Drinking Water
Recognition of Tobacco Use as a
    Health Hazard

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), public health initiatives over the last century have added 25 years to the average life expectancy of people living in the United States.¹  Public Health is frequently misunderstood and most often associated with initiatives for the poor or underserved, when in fact Public Health is "the active protection of our nation’s health and safety, credible information to enhance health decisions, and partnerships with local minorities and organizations to promote good health."² As a preventive medicine specialty geared towards the working population, occupational health often overlaps public health initiatives in the workplace and many of today’s improvements have resulted from the dedication and hard work of thousands of occupational health professionals.

Workplace health and safety have improved substantially over the last century due largely to improved safety and prevention efforts. According to the CDC, if today’s workforce had the same risks for workplace fatalities as workers in 1933, an additional 40,000 work-related fatalities would have occurred in 1997.³  In naming the top ten greatest Public Health achievements of the last century, the CDC took into consideration the opportunity for overall prevention, the reduction of death, illness, and disability in the U.S. Considering the significant gains made in workplace health, it is easy to see why safer workplaces made the CDC’s list. Occupational providers should take pride in their role in improving workplace health and safety during the 20th century.

Declines in workplace fatalities and injuries over the last century can be attributed to multiple, interrelated factors: the study of workplace safety and health issues; the increasing willingness of management and labor to support safe work practices; research, education, and regulation undertaken by the state, local, and federal governments; and the creation of OSHA and NIOSH along with many other governmental agencies that monitor the workplace. The development of occupational health medicine and nursing as a specialty combined with the development and prevalence of occupational practices has significantly improved worker access to skilled, knowledgeable providers, particularly in the last two decades of this century. In fact, the CDC estimates that since 1980, safer workplaces have resulted in a reduction of approximately 40% in the rate of fatal occupational injuries.⁴ 

Efforts by all of these groups has led to physical changes in the workplace, safer equipment, development and introduction of safe work practices, and improved training of health and safety professionals and workers. Furthermore, the reduction of workplace deaths and injuries has occurred within a changed U.S. economy (agrarian to industrial to service to information and technology), changes in the U.S. industrial mix (service and tech companies), and workforce demographics. Finally, the overall prevalence of safety and prevention in everyday life carries over into safer practices at work.⁵  

 1 Ten Great Public Health Achievements in the 20th Century, Office of Communications, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, pg. 1; www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/tengpha.htm.
 2 Ibid.
 3 Ibid., pg. 2.
 4 Ibid.
 5 Ibid.