New Decade of HHS Public Health Initiative Includes OHS Objectives

Last month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) launched a new decade of Healthy People, the department’s health promotion and disease prevention initiative. Healthy People 2030 is intended to identify “public health priorities to help individuals, organizations, and communities across the United States improve health and well-being” during the upcoming decade. NIOSH is the lead federal agency responsible for managing and tracking objectives related to occupational health and safety (OHS). According to the Healthy People 2030 website, the OHS-related objectives are divided into six topic areas and focus on preventing work-related injuries, illnesses, and deaths by making workplaces safer.

General workplace objectives of Healthy People 2030 include reducing pneumoconiosis deaths and work-related assaults, and increasing the proportion of worksites that offer employee physical activity and nutrition programs. Other objectives include reducing deaths from work-related injuries, work-related injuries resulting in missed work days, new cases of work-related hearing loss, work-related skin diseases, and the rate of high blood lead levels in adults exposed to lead at work. Healthy People 2030 also seeks to understand factors that affect the use of protective eyewear in occupational and recreational settings. Objectives related to tobacco use and transportation are intended to increase the number of worksites with policies that ban indoor smoking and increase trips to work made by mass transit.

A full list of the OHS objectives and their status is available on the Healthy People 2030 website.