Occupational health has changed a lot over the years. The field is increasingly thinking about the integration of work and home, including ways to be more flexible for workers. That field is called "Total Worker Health"

Explore

• What is Total Worker Health? https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/twh/totalhealth.html and National Institute of Occupational Health & Safety (NIOSH) TWH page

How should we protect workers? Think upstream.

Learn more about the hierarchy of controls (also in Frumkin's 3rd edition, Chapter 8 & 26)

Think more about how they can be designed and incorporated.

Worker protections are not equal. Some worker populations are particularly vulnerable. In the US, migrant workers and temporary workers face inequitable protections, safety training, and typically experience the burden of costs when things go awry. Further, workers of color face a disproportionate burden of these inequities, which are being further exposed by COVID-19 (see video transcript).

Read:

• Siqueira, C. E., Gaydos, M., Monforton, C., Slatin, C., Borkowski, L., Dooley, P., ... & Keifer, M. (2014). Effects of social, economic, and labor policies on occupational health disparities. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 57(5), 557-572. PDF link via Wiley.

• Leigh, J.P., Markowitz, S., Fahs, M. & P. Landrigan. Costs of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses. Frontline (PBS), Excerpted with permission from Costs of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (University of Michigan Press, 2000). Accessed October 4, 2020. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/workplace/etc/cost.htmls