Municipal healthcare workers: work-related health hazards

Municipal healthcare workers are at risk for a variety of occupational health hazards as a result of daily exposure to work-related biological, chemical, enviromechanical, physical, and psychosocial agents. In addition, this population of workers has not been well studied, so the actual risk may be substantially underreported. This chapter describes these risks and hazards as well as prevention and control strategies. A clear and concerted emphasis on specifically targeting this at-risk workforce both in terms of hazard identification and developing and measuring strategies for risk reduction should be a high priority.