Key points
- The Services Program provides leadership to prevent work-related injuries, illnesses and fatalities among the nation’s 74 million service workers.
- The services sector is highly diverse, including business and professional services; education; accommodation and food services; and arts, entertainment, and recreation, among other industries.
Overview
The Services Program works with various partners to prevent and reduce injuries and illnesses among the nation's 74 million service workers. Service workers work in diverse settings, such as offices, hotel rooms, restaurants, classrooms, waste management facilities, and personal care establishments. As a result, there are a variety of hazards that may affect the safety and health of these workers.
Program priorities
The Services Program has selected research priorities on the basis of burden, need, and impact and collaborated with other NIOSH research programs to write the research goals in the NIOSH Strategic Plan for FYs 2019-2026. Priority areas include (but are not limited to):
- Cardiovascular disease (accommodation and food service)
- Reproductive disorders (personal care services)
- Heat stress (landscaping)
- Hazardous noise exposure and hearing loss (building services, entertainment)
- Musculoskeletal disorders (repair/maintenance, hotels)
- Falls (waste management, restaurants)
What we've accomplished
In 2022-2023, the Program:
- Contributed to a slide deck staffing companies can use to educate host employers about safety and health best practices.
- Publushed articles on:
- COVID-19 workplace mitigation strategies and leave policies within services and other industries during the height of the pandemic
- The role of age in workers' compensation claims among landscapers
- Microbiomes in elementary schools during the COVID-19 pandemic
- A pilot of a Mobile Health and Wellness Project targeting Latino, immigrant and rural communities of building cleaners and other workers in the U.S
- COVID-19 workplace mitigation strategies and leave policies within services and other industries during the height of the pandemic
- Published an HHE report assessing whole-body vibration during golf course maintenance tasks.
- Published a Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) report about a sanitation worker who was struck by a refuse truck.
- Conducted focus groups to better understand how to tailor NIOSH heat stress communication products for landscaping workers and other outdoor workers.
What's ahead
In the future, the Program aims to:
- Draft a workplace safety and health best practices document for staffing companies.
- Test an online heat stress training for employers in landscaping and construction to determine if participant knowledge improved and was retained.
- Pilot test a new foundational workplace safety and health training curriculum for use by workforce development organizations.
- Conduct focus groups and interviews with workers and supervisors in the hospitality industry to inform the development of a new training program to promote "age friendly" workplaces.
- Conduct usability testing on a new set of toolbox safety talks for landscaping and tree care workers.
Resources
More information on specific workplace safety and health topics and useful resources can be found on the following pages:
- Cleaning and Custodial Services
- Dry Cleaning
- Nail Technician's Health and Workplace Exposure Control
- Office Environment and Worker Safety and Health
- Outdoor Workers
- Small Business
- Young Worker Safety and Health
- Health Hazard Evaluations
NORA Council
The Services Program helps lead the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) Services Sector Council, which brings together individuals and organizations to share information, form partnerships, and promote adoption and dissemination of solutions that work.