scholarly journals OSH in the future: where next?

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-97
Author(s):  
William Cockburn
Keyword(s):  
New World ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Work Practices ◽  
Social Dialogue ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Community Strategy ◽  
Set Up ◽  
European Agency

Since 2002 when the Community Strategy on Health and Safety at Work called on the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work to set up a Risk Observatory, EU-OSHA has worked to address the challenges presented by the changing world of work. As our society evolves under the influence of new technology and shifting economic and social conditions, our workplaces, work practices and processes are constantly changing. These new situations bring with them new risks and challenges for workers and employers, which in turn demand political, administrative and technical approaches that ensure high levels of safety and health at work. Changes that are underway due to digitalisation, for example, affect not only the tasks that make up jobs, but also the nature of work in terms of how it is organised and how it is managed and supervised. Digitalisation also provides important opportunities, whether through the automation of dangerous or monotonous tasks or facilitating the work of the labour inspectorate. Europe benefits from a comprehensive body of OSH regulations, but if the OSH challenges posed by the new world of work are to be managed and the opportunities realised, it is essential that social dialogue be at the centre of regulation, support and guidance, enforcement and monitoring.

Outcomes of a Safety and Health Educational Intervention in Auto Body and Machine Tool Technologies Vocational College Programs: The Technical Education Curricula for Health and Safety (TECHS) Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anca Bejan ◽  
Min Xi ◽  
David L Parker
Keyword(s):  
Machine Tool ◽  
Safety Climate ◽  
Technical Education ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Workplace Safety ◽  
Hearing Protection ◽  
Work Practices ◽  
Vocational College ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Auto Body

Abstract Technical Education Curricula for Health and Safety (TECHS) is a research collaboration between safety and health professionals and vocational instructors in three Minnesota colleges. Curriculum materials, including full and refresher modules with of classroom presentations, lab activities, homework, and quizzes, were developed for auto body collision technology (ABCT) and machine tool technology (MTT) programs. Curricula were implemented during the 2015–2018 academic years. Graduates’ safety-related knowledge, skills, work practices, and workplace safety climate were assessed 1 year postgraduation using an electronic survey. Responses were received from 71 ABCT and 115 MTT graduates. Classroom presentations were used consistently throughout the study. Instructors cited a lack of time as the main barrier to using other materials (lab activities, homework, and quizzes). Graduates with TECHS instruction had significantly greater safety-related knowledge overall (both trades) as well as in two topic areas: eye and respiratory protection (ABCT) and hearing protection and machine guarding (MTT). Our data confirm that nearly all graduates consistently engage in practices such as use of safety glasses, hearing protection, and respirators, use of machine guards, material handling strategies. At 1 year postgraduation, MTT graduates’ work practices related to machine guarding improved significantly. Graduates with TECHS instruction had improved in about half of the work practices, but statistical significance was not achieved. Graduates’ self-reported work practices were not significantly correlated with their knowledge or skills. Work practices variability was best explained by graduates’ attitudes toward safety rules and their rating of the workplace safety climate. TECHS findings confirm that classroom instruction alone has little impact on graduates’ work practices. We propose institutions formalize their commitment to safety and health education by ear-marking teaching time for this subject and providing assistance to instructors to facilitate curricula integration. Instructors would benefit from learning more about trade-specific safety and health, and adult education teaching methods. Additional research is needed to understand how students’ attitudes toward safety change during vocational college attendance and the first year of employment in the trade, explore implementation supports and barriers at institutional and instructor levels, and assess educational effectiveness beyond the end of the academic program. The entire curricula are available on the study website www.votechsafety.net.

scholarly journals Safety and Health Measures for COVID-19 Transition Period in the Hotel Industry in Spain

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 718
Author(s):  
Rafael Robina-Ramírez ◽  
Jose-Amelio Medina-Merodio ◽  
Libertad Moreno-Luna ◽  
Héctor V. Jiménez-Naranjo ◽  
Marcelo Sánchez-Oro
Keyword(s):  
Transition Period ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Tourism Sector ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Hotel Managers

The health crisis caused by the outbreak of the COVID-19 disease has devastated the worldwide hospitality sector. The current situation has led many countries to implement drastic rules to stop the spread of the virus. According to the Spanish health authority decisions need to be made in the context of uncertainty and lack of knowledgeable experiences through a gradual and asymmetric de-escalation process planned in four phases. Although the vast majority of studies refer to economic risks and impacts on tourist flows and economic income, few of them explicitly investigates safety and health measures that hotel managers should implement to their customers. Over a population of 12,740 hotels, 823 Spanish hotel managers have been involved in a participatory study. With the aim of assessing the actions taken to stop the spread of the virus, empirical research was implemented. A model presented four variables and 13 indicators which have been previously tested among hotel managers in the tourism sector. Five conclusions are drawn from the hypotheses: (1) Mass testing surveillance in customers and employees should be quick, affordable, and homogeneous throughout the European Union. (2) Training measures need to be taken by both public authorities and the private sector to reach a knowledgeable crisis management team with high commitment to the customer’s health and safety. (3) Protocols established by public authorities should be observed and adjusted gradually not only in hotels but also in tourist arrivals. (4) Healthy measures need to be periodically updated. (5) Each hotel should set up a surveillance process to guarantee the safety to their customers.

scholarly journals Why do the psycho-social conditions in the field of mining require changes to occupational health and safety legislation?

2020 ◽  
Vol 305 ◽  
pp. 00091
Author(s):  
Andrei-George Albulescu ◽  
Costică Bejinariu ◽  
Ioan Popescu ◽  
Constantin Baciu ◽  
Mihai-Adrian Bernevig-Sava
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Health ◽  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Occupational Safety And Health ◽  
Mining Activities ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Council Directive ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Psychological Examination

In 2019, 13 years have passed since the adoption of Law no. 319/2006 on Safety and Health at Work. Analysing the conditions of its application, there is a clear need to change, to correct some structural deficiencies and to reformulate various terms and definitions. The „ad literam” translation of the Council Directive 89/391/EEC has led to the forced introduction of some terms (e.g. designated worker, external service, light accident) or the ambiguous formulation of some requirements (e.g.: the situations in which the employer resorts to external services). The authors formulate proposals that will lead to the improvement of mining activities: - the obligation to undergo psychological examination, upon hiring and periodically, as a result of intensification of the general stress conditions and the effects of the special activities conducted underground; - determining the number of specialists in the field of occupational safety and health, depending on the number of employees in the respective enterprise; - the investigation of all work related accidents by the Territorial Labour Inspectorates, respectively the Labour Inspectorate, in order to avoid the conflict of interests during their investigation and to have a correct record of them, including in the mining activities.

Participative Approaches for Evaluating the Hazards of New Technology

2000 ◽  
Vol 44 (12) ◽  
pp. 2-606-2-609
Author(s):  
Michael J. Smith
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Health Hazards ◽  
Potential Health ◽  
Current State ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Short Time ◽  
Participative Approaches

New technology is transforming the workplace and bringing with it hazards that were unknown a few decades ago. New chemicals, plasma gases, biotechnology, new electronic devices, robots, and genetic engineering are being introduced so quickly that we do not know if they pose new threats to health until after they have been in wide use. These new technologies challenge our current state of knowledge about health hazards and our ability to control potential hazards. A major concern is that there currently are not enough resources to handle traditional safety and health hazards, and that these new challenges will tax the capabilities of our current health and safety resources. It is very likely that the potential hazards posed by new technology may not be amenable to traditional safety and health approaches. A major difficulty is that we just do not have enough knowledge about these new technologies or their potential harmful effects to be able to make good judgments. Knowledge about potential health hazards is lacking, and because these technologies have only been around a short time, epidemiological evidence on long term health effects is not available. Our challenge then is to develop new hazard assessment and surveillance methods to deal with emerging technologies. Participative approaches hold promise for successful programs.

Utopian Visions in United States Urbanism

Moreana ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 42 (Number 164) (4) ◽  
pp. 157-186
Author(s):  
James M. McCutcheon
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
New World ◽  
New Technology ◽  
World's Fair ◽  
Open Spaces ◽  
Central Park ◽  
Garden Cities ◽  
Oneida Community ◽  
The City

America’s appeal to Utopian visionaries is best illustrated by the Oneida Community, and by Etienne Cabet’s experiment (Moreana 31/215 f and 43/71 f). A Messianic spirit was a determinant in the Puritans’ crossing the Atlantic. The Edenic appeal of the vast lands in a New World to migrants in a crowded Europe is obvious. This article documents the ambition of urbanists to preserve that rural quality after the mushrooming of towns: the largest proved exemplary in bringing the country into the city. New York’s Central Park was emulated by the open spaces on the grounds of the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893. The garden-cities surrounding London also provided inspiration, as did the avenues by which Georges Haussmann made Paris into a tourist mecca, and Pierre L’Enfant’s designs for the nation’s capital. The author concentrates on two growing cities of the twentieth century, Los Angeles and Honolulu. His detailed analysis shows politicians often slow to implement the bold and costly plans of designers whose ambition was to use the new technology in order to vie with the splendor of the natural sites and create the “City Beautiful.” Some titles in the bibliography show the hopes of those dreamers to have been tempered by fears of “supersize” or similar drawbacks.

The Awareness Level of the Safety and Health of the Operational Level

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 42
Author(s):  
Roshanira Che Mohd Noor ◽  
Nur Atiqah Rochin Demong
Keyword(s):  
Health And Safety ◽  
Health Conditions ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
Operational Level ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Health Factors ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Awareness Level

Providing a safe and healthy workplace is one of the most effective strategies in for holding down the cost of doing construction business. It was a part of the overall management system to facilitate themanagement of the occupational health and safety risk that are associated with the business of the organization. Factors affected the awareness level inclusive of safety and health conditions, dangerous working area, long wait care and services and lack of emergency communication werethe contributed factors to the awareness level for the operational level. Total of 122 incidents happened at Telekom Malaysia Berhad as compared to year 2015 only 86 cases. Thus, the main objective of this study was to determine the relationship between safety and health factors and the awareness level among operational workers.The determination of this research was to increase the awareness level among the operational level workerswho committing to safety and health environment.

Conducting Worksite Investigations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce P. Bernard
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Health Management ◽  
Health Hazard ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Employee Health ◽  
Hazard Evaluation ◽  
Workplace Hazards ◽  
Health Concerns ◽  
Workplace Conditions ◽  
Safety And Health

This chapter focuses on conducting worksite investigations, including walkthrough surveys, and provides occupational health and safety personnel, employees, and employers the opportunity to identify and assess current workplace conditions and employee health concerns and make recommendations on how to reduce or eliminate any identified workplace hazards. The methods described cover ways to implement corrective actions necessary for preventing future adverse incidents and to identify shortcomings in safety and health management programs. Various specific examples are provided. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Hazard Evaluation Program, which has experience with all types of workplace hazards, is described. Preparing for and conducting workplace investigations is described in detail.

Characteristics of forklift accidents in korean industrial sites

Work ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Kwan Woo Kim
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Industrial Accidents ◽  
Work Process ◽  
Industrial Sites ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Intensive Education ◽  
And Training ◽  
Insurance Compensation

BACKGROUND: Although using forklifts in industrial sites contributes to productivity, many workers have been injured or killed owing to industrial accidents caused by forklifts. OBJECTIVE: This study analyzed the characteristics of forklift accidents by employment type and work process, thereby identifying the factors contributing to industrial accidents and providing recommendations to prevent accidents. METHODS: Data on 1,061 industrial forklift accidents occurring in 2018 collected from the national injury insurance compensation database were analyzed. In addition to analyzing the accident characteristics, this study performed a risk assessment per forklift work process. RESULTS: Many accidents were associated with older workers, those employed for <  6 months, and workplaces with ≤49 workers. The risk was the highest for accidents involving caught-in objects in the loading/unloading step and collision accidents in the forward- and backward-driving steps. CONCLUSIONS: Measures are needed to prevent industrial forklift accidents. First, forklift and worker movement routes must be strictly separated or controlled by a work supervisor. It is necessary to secure a time margin for workers to avoid collapsing cargo by using an appropriate tool/jig during loading/unloading. Second, guidance, inspection, and support are needed to promote employers’ safety and health awareness in workplaces with <  50 workers. Lastly, intensive education and training concerning health and safety is required for workers with less than six months of experience.

scholarly journals (P2-42) Mass-Gathering Risks in the Beijing Subway System

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S1) ◽  
pp. s149-s149
Author(s):  
W. Du ◽  
G. Fitzgerald
Keyword(s):  
Health And Safety ◽  
Significant Risk ◽  
Mass Gathering ◽  
Psychosocial Risks ◽  
Mass Gatherings ◽  
Biomedical Monitoring ◽  
Safety Aspects ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Subway System ◽  
Beijing Subway

IntroductionMass gatherings pose a significant risk on health and safety. The mass gathering in the subway systems in Beijing represents a daily risk. An average of 4.52 million passengers rode the subway each day between 15 November and 30 November 2010, with the highest daily passenger number totaling 5.14 million. The purpose of this study is to identify the health and safety aspects of mass gatherings in Beijing subways, and proposes strategies that may mitigate these risks.MethodsThe methods included a literature review, field visitation of the subway systems, and interviews of 20 passengers and 10 management personnel from the subway system.ResultsMany safety and health measures has been taken by the Beijing Subway System, including emergency exit signs and other safety signs, prohibition of smoking, firefighting equipment and explosion-proof tanks, safety inspection of bags, and safety education in the subways. However, additional key health and safety aspects were indentified, including: (1) lack of strict flow control of passengers in interchange subway stations; (2) lack of platform safety gates in Line 1, Line 2, Line 13; (3) lack of passenger control during peak hours; (4) lack of biomedical monitoring systems in the subways; and (5) lack of health facilities and rescue equipments in the subways.ConclusionsMass gatherings pose great risks on subway passengers in Beijing, including psychosocial risks, biomedical risks, and environmental risks. Additional safety measures need to be taken to ensure the safety and health of passengers in subways in Beijing.

scholarly journals Human Factors Modelling Approach: Application to a Safety Device Supporting Crane Operations in Major Hazard Industries

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2304
Author(s):  
Maria Francesca Milazzo ◽  
Giuseppa Ancione ◽  
Giancarlo Consolo
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Approach ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Safety Device ◽  
Human Machine Interaction ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Emotional Strain ◽  
Smart Safety ◽  
Machine Interaction ◽  
Modelling Approach

The European Directive on Safety and Health at Work and the following normatives have the scope to provide high levels of health and safety at work, based on some general principles managing activities and including the risk assessment to continuously improve processes and workplaces. However, the working area changes and brings new risks and challenges for workers. Several of them are associated with new technologies, which determine complex human–machine interactions, leading to an increased mental and emotional strain. To reduce these emerging risks, their understanding and assessment are important. Although great efforts have already been made, there is still a lack of conceptual frameworks for analytically assessing human–machine interaction. This paper proposes a systematic approach that, beyond including the classification in domains to explain the complexity of the human–machine interaction, accounts for the information processing of the human brain. Its validation is shown in a major accident hazard industry where a smart safety device supporting crane related operations is used. The investigation is based on the construction of a questionnaire for the collection of answers about the feeling of crane operators when using the device and the evaluation of the Cronbach’s alpha to measure of the reliability of the assessment.

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