GLOBAL COLLABORATIONS

Burden, Need and Impact

NIOSH strives to maximize its impact in occupational safety and health. The Global Collaborations Program identifies priorities to guide investments based upon evidence of burden, need and impact . Below are the priority areas for the Global Collaborations Program.

Burden

According to the International Labour Organization, globally, 6,300 people die as a result of occupational injury or work-related diseases every day – more than 2.3 million deaths per year. This has a tremendous impact on the global community- individuals, families, and employers (including U.S. companies working internationally).

Particular areas of burden include:

Bloodborne pathogens
Health care facilities around the world employ over 59 million workers who are exposed to a complex variety of health and safety hazards every day, including bloodborne pathogens.¹

Work-related respiratory diseases
Occupational airborne particulates and occupational carcinogens are an important cause of death and disability worldwide. In 2000 it was estimated that there were an estimated 386,000 non-malignant deaths due to exposure to occupational airborne particulates.² Additionally, respirable particles led to 102,000 lung cancer deaths and asbestos exposure was responsible for 43,000 malignant mesotheliomas.³

Reducing illnesses, injuries and deaths during international health and disaster emergencies
The range of threats to public health faced by countries worldwide is broad and highly diverse, and includes infectious disease outbreaks, unsafe food and water, chemical and radiation contamination, natural and technological hazards, wars and other societal conflicts, and the health consequences of natural disasters.

Prevent worker illness globally from exposure to nanomaterials
Workers in all countries face new risks from manufacturing applications of rapidly advancing new technologies based on nanometer-scale atomic structures known as nanomaterials.⁵

Integrating worker health into primary care provider training
According to the International Commission on Occupational Health more than 80% workers worldwide do not have access to occupational health services ⁶

Other Topics
NIOSH contributes knowledge in the area of work-related motor vehicle injuries, mining and other topics as they are identified.

Need

NIOSH strives to improve the health and safety of workers in the U.S. and globally through collaborations with global partners, especially by sharing NIOSH research and information, participation on international committees involving occupational safety and health, and providing technical assistance. NIOSH has strong connections with the international occupational health and safety community, and has partners globally.

Impact

U.S. workers benefit from knowledge and solutions received from other countries, and workers globally benefit from the international partnerships.

Workers everywhere benefit from application of ISO Standards developed by International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Technical Committees. NIOSH experts participate in Technical Committees that have produced international standards addressing a wide spectrum of workplace issues, ranging from respirators to workplace air to silica exposure to laboratory methods, to road safety, etc.