Expanding the Focus of Occupational Safety and Health: Lessons from a Series of Linked Scientific Meetings

Paul A. Schulte, George L. Delclos, Sarah A. Felknor, Jessica M. K. Streit (), Michelle McDaniel, L. Casey Chosewood, Lee S. Newman, Faiyaz A. Bhojani, Rene Pana-Cryan and Naomi G. Swanson
Additional contact information
Paul A. Schulte: Advanced Technologies and Laboratories International, Inc., Gaithersburg, MD 20878, USA
George L. Delclos: Southwest Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health, Houston, TX 77030, USA
Sarah A. Felknor: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA
Jessica M. K. Streit: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati, OH 45226, USA
Michelle McDaniel: Southwest Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health, Houston, TX 77030, USA
L. Casey Chosewood: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA
Lee S. Newman: Center for Health, Work & Environment and Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Colorado School of Public Health, CU Anschutz, University of Colorado, Aurora, CO 80045, USA
Faiyaz A. Bhojani: Shell USA, Inc., Houston, TX 77079, USA
Rene Pana-Cryan: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Washington, DC 20024, USA
Naomi G. Swanson: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati, OH 45226, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 22, 1-21

Abstract: There is widespread recognition that the world of work is changing, and agreement is growing that the occupational safety and health (OSH) field must change to contribute to the protection of workers now and in the future. Discourse on the evolution of OSH has been active for many decades, but formalized support of an expanded focus for OSH has greatly increased over the past 20 years. Development of approaches such as the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)’s Total Worker Health ® concept and the World Health Organization (WHO)’s Healthy Workplace Framework are concrete examples of how OSH can incorporate a new focus with a wider view. In 2019, NIOSH initiated a multi-year effort to explore an expanded focus for OSH. This paper is a report on the outputs of a three-year cooperative agreement between NIOSH and The University of Texas School of Public Health, which led to subject matter expert workshops in 2020 and an international conference of global interest groups in 2021. This article traces the background of these meetings and identifies and assesses the lessons learned. It also reviews ten thematic topics that emerged from the meetings: worker health inequalities; training new OSH professionals; future OSH research and practice; tools to measure well-being of workers; psychosocial hazards and adverse mental health effects; skilling, upskilling and improving job quality; socioeconomic influences; climate change; COVID-19 pandemic influences; and strategic foresight. Cross-cutting these themes is the need for systems and transdisciplinary thinking and operationalization of the concept of well-being to prepare the OSH field for the work of the future.

Keywords: expanding occupational safety and health paradigm; future of work; occupational safety and health; transdisciplinary; inequality; training and education; research methods; psychosocial; mental health; well-being; socioeconomic; climate; pandemic; strategic foresight (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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