Key points
- The Wholesale and Retail Trade Program provides leadership to prevent diseases, injuries, and fatalities in wholesale and retail trade workers.
- Through partnerships and research efforts, the Program works to address the injuries and illnesses affecting wholesale and retail trade workers, especially among workers who are economically and socially marginalized.
Overview
To Learn More
The NIOSH Wholesale and Retail Trade sector program is focused on the prevention of occupational fatal and nonfatal injuries and illnesses for nearly 19 million workers and includes all jobs under NAICS code 42 & 44-45. WRT subsectors includes the nondurable and durable goods merchant wholesalers, building material and garden equipment and supply stores, food and beverage stores, furniture and home furnishing stores, general merchandise stores, and motor vehicle and parts dealers.
Program priorities
The WRT 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):
- Reducing ergonomic injuries and illnesses, especially among aging workers.
- Preventing violence.
- Reducing motor vehicle related injuries and fatalities.
What we've accomplished
In 2022-2023, the Program:
- Published Worker Safety and Health in U.S. Scrap Waste – Electronics Recycling in the November 2022 Waste Advantage magazine (pages 50-53). The article highlights the hazards facing workers in this industry and steps to keep workers safe while performing tasks associated with recycling electronic waste.
- Published NIOSH Science Blog Driving Safety Tips To Keep Your Employees Safe This Holiday Season to encourage employers to develop a Motor Vehicle Safety Program.
- Collaborated with the Loss Prevention Foundation and the Loss Prevention Center to review workplace violence policies and procedures and develop workplace violence prevention strategies.
- Collaborated with Loss Prevention Magazine to publish COVID-19, Omicron, and Pandemic Response: What's Next for Retail? that provided answers to retail-specific COVID-19 questions.
What's ahead
In the future, the Program aims to:
- Publish a review of both scientific literature and Bureau of Labor Statistics data to determine fatal and nonfatal injuries within the WRT sector between 2017 and 2021.
- Produce violence prevention materials including a Workplace Solutions online publication for WRT workers.
- Develop a blog with the NIOSH Transportation, Warehousing and Utilities (TWU) program on safety and health-related issues of WRT and TWU drivers.
- Develop Retail Safety and Health Resource materials providing information for employees about workplace safety, health, and well-being.
- Develop a CDC/NIOSH Workplace Multi-Sector Violence Prevention group to address current and ongoing concerns with workplace violence.
- Develop and distribute a poster on the safe use of disinfectants in WRT workplaces.
Resources
More information on specific workplace safety and health topics and useful resources can be found on the following pages:
- Young Worker Safety and Health
- Ergonomics and Musculoskeletal Disorders
- Motor Vehicle Safety at Work
- Productive Aging and Work
- Occupational Violence
- Transportation, Warehousing, and Utilities
NORA Council
The WRT program helps lead the NORA Wholesale and Retail Trade Sector Council, which brings together individuals and organizations to share information, form partnerships, and promote adoption and dissemination of solutions that work.