France’s INRS has once again highlighted employers’ responsibility in preventing workplace-related suicide. For EHS professionals, this is an opportunity to review their own policies on psychosocial risks.
While fatal workplace accidents are declining worldwide, the number of deaths among workers is rising due to an aging workforce and occupational diseases. According to trade author Dan Markiewicz, grief management must therefore become a structural part of the EHS profession.
Without a comprehensive OSHA standard for indoor air quality, U.S. employers must build their own structure. A recent industry publication outlines how ASHRAE standards and a four-tier control model can provide that framework.
The French agency Anact has launched a free online game that helps employees and managers learn to analyse and improve workplace situations. The game, “Cap sur les conditions de travail”, uses an investigative format to help participants uncover concrete problem areas.
Field research by UC Berkeley and the University of Sydney at two US factories shows that industrial fans noticeably lower the perceived heat load on factory workers, with a positive effect on self-reported effectiveness and physiological stress markers.
An analysis by safety expert Peter G. Furst on ISHN critiques the widespread assumption that most construction accidents are simply due to unsafe worker behavior.
A study by the Bertelsmann Foundation and IW finds that psychological strain among German apprentices is strongly linked to training dropout, with significant costs for companies.
EU-OSHA has published a discussion paper based on a survey of European occupational physicians about their role in occupational safety compliance, flagging the ageing workforce as an urgent concern.
US trade publication ISHN calls for “whole-person risk management”: safety professionals should explicitly factor in fatigue and workers’ circumstances outside the job, since these shape incident risk just as much as procedures on the floor.
A social court in Munich ruled that an employee who slipped on spilled massage oil while heading to a workplace massage session could not claim statutory accident insurance coverage, since participation was voluntary.
