Young workers and sustainable work life


Book Description

A sustainable working life that prevents work-related health problems and facilitate inclusion of young workers is vital to ensure the health, safety and work participation among young workers in the Nordic countries. This report provides Nordic statistics, scientific knowledge and discussions on how to achieve a sustainable work life for young workers in the Nordic countries. Under the Swedish presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2013, the focus was on youth and young workers' working conditions. As part of this focus, the Nordic Council of Ministers commissioned this report. The report shows that an inter-disciplinary and comprehensive approach is essential to ensure a sustainable work life among young workers. Six characteristics are emphasized as important: the characteristics of the worker, the workplace, the work task, the employment, the education and the youth.




Costs of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses


Book Description

As the debate over health care reform continues, costs have become a critical measure in the many plans and proposals to come before us. Knowing costs is important because it allows comparisons across such disparate health conditions as AIDS, Alzheimer's disease, heart disease, and cancer. This book presents the results of a major study estimating the large and largely overlooked costs of occupational injury and illness--costs as large as those for cancer and over four times the costs of AIDS. The incidence and mortality of occupational injury and illness were assessed by reviewing data from national surveys and applied an attributable-risk-proportion method. Costs were assessed using the human capital method that decomposes costs into direct categories such as medical costs and insurance administration expenses, as well as indirect categories such as lost earnings and lost fringe benefits. The total is estimated to be $155 billion and is likely to be low as it does not include costs associated with pain and suffering or of home care provided by family members. Invaluable as an aid in the analysis of policy issues, Costs of Occupational Injuryand Illness will serve as a resource and reference for economists, policy analysts, public health researchers, insurance administrators, labor unions and labor lawyers, benefits managers, and environmental scientists, among others. J. Paul Leigh is Professor in the School of Medicine, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of California, Davis. Stephen Markowitz, M.D., is Professor in the Department of Community Health and Social Medicine, City University of New York Medical School. Marianne Fahs is Director of the Health Policy Research Center, Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy, New School University. Philip Landrigan, M.D., is Wise Professor and Chair of the Department of Community Medicine, Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York.




Prevention of Accidents at Work


Book Description

Prevention of Accidents at Work collects papers presented at the 9th International Conference on the Prevention of Accidents at Work (WOS 2017) held in Prague, Czech Republic, on October 3-6, 2017, organized by the VSB-Technical University of Ostrava. The conference on current issues within occupational safety is organized under the umbrella of Workingonsafety.net (WOS.net). WOS.net is an international network of decision-makers, researchers and professionals responsible for the prevention of accidents and trauma at work. The network aims to bring accident prevention experts together in order to facilitate the exchange of experience, new findings and best practices between different countries and sectors. WOS.net is supported by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA). The overall theme is safety management complexity in a changing society, with the motto: Do we need a holistic approach? Underlying topics include: Foundations of safety science: theories, principles, methods and tools; Research to practice: achievements, lessons learned and challenges; Risk management and safety culture: case studies, best practices and further needs; Safety regulation: reasonable practicable approach; Education and training: prerequisite for safety; Complexity and safety: multidisciplinarity and inter-stakeholder views. Prevention of Accidents at Work should be valuable to researchers, policy makers, safety professionals, labor inspectors, labor administrators and other experts in the prevention of occupational accidents.




Human-Centered Agriculture


Book Description

This book explores the interplay of farm mechanization, human factors and climatic and other environmental uncertainty in agriculture, using an ergonomics based approach to discuss solutions to the traditionally acknowledged vulnerability of the sector. It converges contemporary research documentation, case studies and international standards on agricultural ergonomics, engineering anthropometry, human factors, basic occupational health services, safety management, human performance and system sustainability to provide a handy reference to students and professionals working to optimize agricultural output while balancing the rational utilization of labour in agricultural practices and human well-being.




Integrated Occupational Safety and Health Management


Book Description

Maximizing reader insights into a new movement toward leadership approaches that are collaborated and shared, and which views Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) and performance excellence within the wider examination of leadership relationships and practices, this book argues that these relationships and processes are so central to the establishment of OSH functioning that studying them warrants a broad, cross-disciplinary, multiple method analysis. Exploring the complexity of leadership by the impact that contexts (e.g., national and organizational culture) may have on leaders, this book discusses the related literature, then moves forward to show how a more comprehensive practical approach to Occupational Safety and Health and performance excellence can function on levels pertaining to events, individuals, groups, and organizations. This book proposes that greater clarity in understanding leadership in Occupational Safety and Health and performance excellence can be developed from addressing two fundamental issues. Firstly, how do subunit inputs and processes combine to produce unit-level outcomes and how does leadership affect this process? Secondly, how do the leaders influence the way that individual-level inputs are combined to produce organizational outputs. In these issues, the alternative methodologies that allow precise measurement of organizational outputs in OSH and performance excellence are reviewed. To help readers navigate through the best practices, each chapter contains Question Guidelines, Exercises and Case studies which illustrate the concepts discussed and which serves to highlight the key evidence demonstrating that collaborative leadership can positively affect individual, group, and organizational level outcomes, including organizational OSH and performance excellence.




A Smarter National Surveillance System for Occupational Safety and Health in the 21st Century


Book Description

The workplace is where 156 million working adults in the United States spend many waking hours, and it has a profound influence on health and well-being. Although some occupations and work-related activities are more hazardous than others and face higher rates of injuries, illness, disease, and fatalities, workers in all occupations face some form of work-related safety and health concerns. Understanding those risks to prevent injury, illness, or even fatal incidents is an important function of society. Occupational safety and health (OSH) surveillance provides the data and analyses needed to understand the relationships between work and injuries and illnesses in order to improve worker safety and health and prevent work-related injuries and illnesses. Information about the circumstances in which workers are injured or made ill on the job and how these patterns change over time is essential to develop effective prevention programs and target future research. The nation needs a robust OSH surveillance system to provide this critical information for informing policy development, guiding educational and regulatory activities, developing safer technologies, and enabling research and prevention strategies that serves and protects all workers. A Smarter National Surveillance System for Occupational Safety and Health in the 21st Century provides a comprehensive assessment of the state of OSH surveillance. This report is intended to be useful to federal and state agencies that have an interest in occupational safety and health, but may also be of interest broadly to employers, labor unions and other worker advocacy organizations, the workers' compensation insurance industry, as well as state epidemiologists, academic researchers, and the broader public health community. The recommendations address the strengths and weaknesses of the envisioned system relative to the status quo and both short- and long-term actions and strategies needed to bring about a progressive evolution of the current system.




Drowning


Book Description

Since the first edition of the Handbook on Drowning in 2005, many epidemiological data have confirmed the burden of drowning in several parts of the world. Studies have increased the understanding of effective drowning prevention strategies, rescue techniques and treatment options. Much has been learned about submersion and immersion hypothermia, SCUBA-diving injuries, the life-saving preparations of water-related disasters and how to deal with forensic investigations. In this updated second edition, experts from around the world provide a complete overview of current research data, consensus statements and expert opinions. The book Drowning provides evidence-based practical information and has a unique informative value for various groups with tasks, duties and responsibilities in this domain. In addition, the book may be an inspiration for future networks and research initiatives.




World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention


Book Description

Every day thousands of people are killed and injured on our roads. Millions of people each year will spend long weeks in the hospital after severe crashes and many will never be able to live, work or play as they used to do. Current efforts to address road safety are minimal in comparison to this growing human suffering. This report presents a comprehensive overview of what is known about the magnitude, risk factors and impact of road traffic injuries, and about ways to prevent and lessen the impact of road crashes. Over 100 experts, from all continents and different sectors -- including transport, engineering, health, police, education and civil society -- have worked to produce the report. Charts and tables.




World Report on Child Injury Prevention


Book Description

Child injuries are largely absent from child survival initiatives presently on the global agenda. Through this report, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund and many partners have set out to elevate child injury to a priority for the global public health and development communities. It should be seen as a complement to the UN Secretary-General's study on violence against children released in late 2006 (that report addressed violence-related or intentional injuries). Both reports suggest that child injury and violence prevention programs need to be integrated into child survival and other broad strategies focused on improving the lives of children. Evidence demonstrates the dramatic successes in child injury prevention in countries which have made a concerted effort. These results make a case for increasing investments in human resources and institutional capacities. Implementing proven interventions could save more than a thousand children's lives a day.--p. vii.