We draw artificial boundaries between our lives at work, at home, and in the community. Each person is living an integrated life where all of their environments (resources, physical environment, psychosocial environment, responsibilities/demands) interact to impact their safety, health, and well-being. Total Worker Health is an approach developed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to address such interactions, and to advance science and practice for protecting workers' safety, health, and well-being. The Total Worker Health (TWH) approach represents an expansion of traditional occupational safety and health research and practice, with strong safety protections for workers as its foundation. The current paper provides an introduction to TWH, including: (1) Significance, (2) Historical Background, (3) Hierarchy of Controls, (4) Review of TWH Interventions, and (5) Future Opportunities. The reciprocal and interactive perspective of TWH is consistent with Skinnerian and other approaches to behavioral science, as well as organizational systems analysis approaches. With its behavioral and systems analysis roots, and associated historical emphasis on environmental conditions and interventions, the Organizational Behavior Management community can make great and important contributions in the TWH domain. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

AbstractBackground Small businesses bear a large burden of injury and death, and are difficult to reach with occupational safety and health (OSH) information. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) developed a pilot study testing the feasibility of fire departments disseminating OSH information to small businesses during fire inspections. Methods Two sets of postcards were developed with unique, trackable URLs for the NIOSH Small Business Resource Guide. One set was distributed by firefighters, the other was mailed to small businesses. Participating inspectors were met with to discuss their experience. Results Neither distribution method resulted in a substantial number of site visits. Inspectors believed distributing postcards was an easy addition to their duties, and saw value in safety information. Conclusions There are barriers beyond awareness of availability that prevent small business owners from seeking OSH information. Research should focus on identifying barriers and developing better OSH information diffusion mechanisms.

BACKGROUND: Workplace injuries occur at higher rates in smaller firms than in larger firms, and the number of workplace safety activities appear to be inversely associated with those rates. Predictors of safety activities are rarely studied. METHODS: This study uses data from a national random survey of firms (n= 722) with less than 250 employees conducted in 2002. RESULTS: We found that, regardless of firm size or industry, safety activities were more common in 2002 than they were in a similar 1983 study. Having had an OSHA inspection in the last five years and firm size were stronger predictors of safety activities than industry hazardousness and manager's perceptions of hazardousness. All four variables were significant predictors ( range .19 to .28; R2= 27). CONCLUSIONS: Further progress in the prevention of injuries in small firms will require attention to factors likely subsumed within the firm size variable, especially the relative lack of slack resources that might be devoted to safety activities. 2013.