Working: The Role of Occupational Epidemiology

Eisen, Ellen A; Elser, Holly; Picciotto, Sally

The COVID-19 pandemic redemonstrated the importance of work as a determinant of health. Extant disparities were accentuated, as the workforce was divided into the roughly 50% who could safely work from home and those who could not. With the spotlight on work, one might wonder where all the occupational epidemiologists have gone. To answer, we point to diminished research support and more limited workplace access that have led many to shift away from a focus on workers towards other vulnerable populations. We build on the renewed interest in work as a driver of health and inequality during the pandemic to highlight contributions of occupational epidemiology to public health. Consider: (1) etiologic studies of chronic disease based on employment records to define cohorts and reconstruct long-term exposure; (2) studies of hypothetical interventions particularly appropriate for evaluating potential regulations to reduce workplace exposures; and (3) studies of disparities that take advantage of work as a potential source of social stratification and economic opportunity. As we have learned during COVID-19, workplaces can become venues for public health messaging and delivering interventions to enumerated populations of adults. By starting with COVID-19 prevention policies, we have a chance to protect public health and rethink work.