The Miner Health Program, 2020-2030 Strategic Agenda

The Miner Health Program, 2020-2030 Strategic Agenda- CDC

What is the Miner Health Program? Why is it needed?
The Miner Health Program (MHP) has recently been established as a long-term, systematic effort to understand and improve the health and well-being of all miners through focused integration of research, transfer of findings, evaluation, and community engagement. The MHP is part of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Mining Program, whose mission is to eliminate mining fatalities, injuries, and illnesses through relevant research and impactful solutions.

Section 2 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 states the following:

The Congress declares it to be its purpose and policy . . . to assure so far as possible every working man and woman in the Nation safe and healthful working conditions and to preserve our human resources . . . by exploring ways to discover latent diseases, establishing causal connections between diseases and work in environmental conditions, and conducting other research relating to health problems, in recognition of the fact that occupational health standards present problems often different from those involved in occupational safety [DOL 1970].

This portion of the mandate highlights the fundamental need for the United States to approach the improvement of occupational health in an expansive and comprehensive manner.

Research shows that the chronic disease burden among adults in the United States disproportionately affects some people more than others. With some differences in relation to age and gender, 60% of American adults have at least one chronic health condition, 42% have multiple conditions, and nearly one in 10 live with five or more chronic conditions [Buttorff et al., 2017]. Of the $3.3 trillion that the U.S. spends on health care annually, 90% is directed toward individuals with chronic and mental health conditions [CDC, 2019]. We know that that burden of disease is associated with social determinants of health (SDOH) [Schultz & Northridge, 2004]. While work environments and factors are included in SDOH, work largely has been ignored in health inequities research [Anhonen, Fujishiro, Cunningham, & Flynn, 2018]. We know that some workers are exposed to higher-risk environments; yet, less understood is how disease burden may be disproportionately distributed across industry and occupation [Hege et al., 2018; Lingard & Turner, 2017]. Click here to read the full report as publsihed in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.