Record sums earmarked for studies on preventing injuries in the workplace

Federal research agencies, poised to spend a record sum to fund studies on injury prevention in the workplace, are emphasizing the importance of studying how the psychological and organizational aspects of the workplace can create health and safety risks.

Within the next several months, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and other federal institutes will award the largest single sum ever for occupational health research. The $8 million investment is the cornerstone of NIOSH?s National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA). NIOSH began the initiative two years ago as a framework to guide occupational health and safety research over the next decade.

NORA includes a substantial focus on the organization of work, such as the number of hours employees have to spend on the job or the resources they?re given to complete tasks. That focus should be of particular interest to organizational, behavioral and social psychologists, says Steve Sauter, PhD, chief of the applied psychology and ergonomics branch at NIOSH in Cincinnati. Employers are compelling people to work longer hours and take on a growing number of tasks, thanks to downsizing. The result is more job stress?a prime area of study for psychologists and a major occupational health threat, says Sauter, who leads a NORA team that is guiding organization-of-work research. For example, fatigued or harried workers are more likely to become inattentive on the job, increasing their risk of accidents.

'For the first time in the United States, NIOSH is really putting focus on work organization as a potential risk factor for all kinds of safety and health problems, like musculoskeletal disorders and traumatic injuries,' Sauter says.

NORA has 21 research priority areas, including work-related musculoskeletal disorders and injuries, special populations at risk [older workers, women, minorities], intervention effectiveness research, health services research, the social and economic consequences of workplace injury and illness, and fertility and pregnancy abnormalities.

Other psychologists involved in the NORA organization-of-work team include Gwendolyn P. Keita, PhD, associate executive director for women?s programs in APA?s Public Interest Directorate; Mary Lewis, PhD, an industrial/organizational psychologist in Pittsburgh; Lois Tetrick, PhD, an industrial/organizational psychologist at the University of Houston; and Michael Colligan, PhD, Joseph Hurrell, PhD and Lawrence Murphy, PhD, of NIOSH.

NORA grant applications were due in June. The $8 million available for fiscal 1998 can fund up to 50 grants, NIOSH officials say. Awards are expected to range from a high of $250,000 annually for up to three years for traditional and demonstration research projects, and up to $50,000 a year for up to two years for pilot studies. The government is evaluating the applications on a competitive basis and will include peer review through the NIH review system.

NIOSH is co-sponsoring the grant initiative with the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Disease; the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the National Institute on Aging?all part of the National Institutes of Health.

Other NORA activities include scientific forums on research into workplace safety and health. For information on upcoming events, or for any other background on NORA, visit NIOSH?s official NORA web site at www.cdc.gov/niosh/norahmpg.html.

?Scott Sleek