ACOEM GUIDANCE STATEMENT Workplace Health Protection and Promotion A New Pathway for a Healthier—and Safer—Workforce

T raditionally, health protection and health promotion activitieshave operated independently of each other in the workplace. Health protection has usually been viewed as encompassing the activ-ities that protectworkers fromoccupational injury and illness ranging from basic safety training to the use of protective gear, work orga-nization, and safety-enhancing modifications. Health promotion, by contrast, has usually been viewed as encompassing the activities that maintain or improve the personal health of a workforce—ranging from health risk assessments to wellness initiatives and immuniza-tions. By placing boundaries around these activities (creating work-place “silos”), their overall effectiveness has been limited. A new concept, “Workplace Health Protection and Promotion, ” seeks to address this limitation by systematically integrating these two previ-ously independent functions. Today’s best evidence indicates that the aims of both health protection and health promotion intervention