DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The primary objective of this proposed Fundamental-Plus project is to continue to maintain capacity for enhanced occupational illness and injury surveillance at the Connecticut (CT) Department of Public Health (DPH), while also performing more in-depth data analysis, investigation, and intervention in the area of workplace chemical inhalation exposures. Enhanced occupational illness and injury surveillance capacity includes not only our ability to collect and analyze data pertaining to occupational injuries and illnesses, but also our ability to utilize the results of those analyses to target specific intervention activties. In addition, established information exchange between CT DPH and our partners with a similar interest in protecting worker health within our state, regionally, and nationally will be maintaine as a critical component of the continued success of our program. We propose to achieve the objective above through continuation and expansion of longitudinal analysis of occupational illness and injury under-reporting in CT, continuation of population-based surveillance activities through longitudinal analysis of all 21 occupational health indicators for CT, continuation surveillance, investigation, and outreach activities related to adult lead poisonings, in-depth surveillance, investigation, and intervention activities for workplace chemical inhalation exposures and development of indicator methodology for similar examination by other states, and collaboration with the CT Occupational Health Clinics Workgroup, which acts as our advisory committee, as well as with regional occupational health partners from the other Northeast states. These specific aims have been developed to continue to expand capacity for occupational illness and injury surveillance at CT DPH and to maintain continuity in our surveillance and intervention programs for the duration of the project period. These programs and the staff they support provide the basis for the protection of worker health in our state, not only through surveillance and intervention activities but also through the generation of ideas of how to make our program activities more efficient, effective, and beneficial to the CT workforce. Implementation of this proposed project will take place under the direction of the Principal Investigator and other identified staff of the CT Department of Public Health Occupational Health Program, in collaboration with inter-agency partners from the University of CT Health Center's Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, the CT Department of Labor, and our partners from occupational health programs in the other Northeast states.

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Occupational illnesses and injuries represent an array of significant conditions that can impact the health and well-being of individuals. Although several potential data sources for surveillance currently exist, each system has limitations when used as a sole source of information for worker health. It is imperative for states to continuously collect and utilize information from several different data sources and to develop and mine new potential data sources as part of a comprehensive approach to worker health surveillance.