by Karla Armenti

National Public Health Week is April 4-10, and this year's theme "Safety is No Accident: Live Injury Free" focuses on injury prevention.  One day of the week will be devoted to preventing injuries in the workplace.  This provides a great opportunity to share information with the larger public health community and general public about worker health and safety.

Members of the APHA Occupational Health and Safety Section worked with APHA to ensure that their safety tips “at work” appropriately addressed the responsibilities of the employer in providing a safe workplace to their employees.  Much of what the OHS Section suggested has been incorporated into the National Public Health Week (NPHW) website (under Safety Tips): http://www.nphw.org/nphw11/tips_work.htm.

The theme of “living injury free” allows all OHS members the opportunity to get involved in their local or state public health association’s planning for their own Public Health Week events.  It’s important to ensure attention to the workplace is part of “community based” public health. 

We are fortunate to have Dr. Linda Rae Murray as president of APHA this year.  APHA is planning an “Injury Prevention Road Tour” that includes Dr. Murray’s participation in several state public health association annual meetings.  New Hampshire is one of the lucky states!  In addition to having her speak at our annual meeting where the focus will be on the work environment and the prevention of work-related injuries, we will be working with other organizations in the state to plan another event where we can build awareness about the importance of ensuring a safe workplace for our New Hampshire workers.  These include the NH Businesses for Social Responsibility and NH State Health and Equity Partnership.

APHA will be posting a toolkit that states can use to create and promote their own events.  The main NPHW is at:  http://www.nphw.org/nphw11/first1.htm.  You can write Op-Eds, articles in newsletters, letters to the editor, and much more to get your word out.

We all know that workers have little control over the workplace and that the employer has a statutory requirement to create a safe working environment. As Walter Jones wrote during exchanges with APHA on creating the safety tips, “Effective injury prevention occurs when the community, employers and employees work together to build safer and healthier workplaces through the implementation of policies, practices and trainings that remove hazards rather than relying on an individual’s behavior.”   We have an opportunity to make sure those not in the world of “OHS” understand this too!

Members of the OHS Section leadership have been discussing this and welcome your thoughts, ideas or comments that will help raise awareness of occupational hazards and the strategy of reducing hazards to reduce work-related injuries.