Occupational Safety and Health Organization



I looked up the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health or NIOSH. The organization ensures that worker health and safety is being improved and implemented, with two major areas of research and practice. The program that puts their findings into practice is called the Research to Practice program (r2p). They collaborate with organizations, stakeholders and partners on educating them on how to begin to implement better practices based on their research.

One example included working with the US-Mexico Border Health Commission and the Mexican Foreign Ministry's health program on addressing the fatality rates of Latino immigrant workers. The rate of 5.9 per 100,000 persons is 50% higher than other workers. In partnership, they were able to create specific educational materials, such as pamphlets, videos and posters to raise awareness among Spanish-speaking immigrant workers. They provided tools and extra assistance to any workers who sought more help. The project not only raised awareness among workers, but other organizations and Latino countries. The topic of occupational safety and health is now one of the priority topics of health promotion activities in Mexican consulates across the US. All 50 consulates are participating in distributing the materials.

I think this is a great example of how agencies can focus on a problem and come up with solutions that ultimately affect our health and safety. Although, they haven't assessed the outcomes, it has already raised awareness of an issue that might not have been seen or known to a problem.

Comments

  1. Caitlin WintonNovember 3, 2018 at 7:56 AM

    Hi Stacey,

    I think that it is really interesting that you decided to mention NIOSH having a program that helps Latino immigrants. This group of people have huge amounts of health problems because of multiple barriers, I'm glad an organization is helping them

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousNovember 6, 2018 at 1:41 PM

    Hi Stacey,

    Its interesting NIOSH do things through research and practice to improved safety of workers. Its also great that they provide information in Spanish as well and that so many consulates are participating in distributing the pamphlets! As much as there are faults in our workers safety regulations, I am also grateful that we live in United States where we do have so many safety protections that so many nations around that world don't provide for their people

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jordan DemosNovember 13, 2018 at 9:31 AM

    Hi Stacey,

    I found very interesting and refreshing that there is a program focusing on Latino immigrant workers. It makes sense to me that fatality rates are higher in the latin immigrant community because not all instructions in Spanish, and mistakes or misunderstandings happen. I would be interested to know the effect of the program. Have the numbers gone down?

    ReplyDelete

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