Prioritization of occupational sentinel health events for workplace healthand hazard surveillance: The Pan American Health Organization experience

Within the ongoing strategy of the Workers' Health program at the Pan Ameri can Health Organization on strengthening surveillance in the field of worke r's health in the Americas (the Region), a project was conducted in July 19 99 in Washington, D.C. The objectives of the project were to discuss the pr oblems found in the surveillance of workers' health, to develop a methodolo gy and use it to prioritize and select the top three occupational sentinel health events for incorporation into the surveillance systems in the Region , and to develop the initial protocols for establishing the surveillance sy stems for the three chosen occupational sentinel health events. The Pan Ame rican Health Organization invited 24 occupational health experts from the R egion to participate in the project. Over an intensive 3-day period, the ex perts heard reports of workplace surveillance activities in the various cou ntries in the Region; developed prioritization methods; identified and prio ritized a list of occupational sentinel health events; and developed three surveillance protocols, one each for occupational fatal injuries, pesticide poisoning, and low back pain. The results on the prioritization of occupat ional sentinel health events and the development of surveillance protocols are reported in this article.