Make a change: Occupational safety as a tool to health care sustainability
by Joanna Gkoni
Greenhouse gas concentrations in air have increased over time since the burst of the industrial revolution. Consequently, many protocols and guidelines were established to minimize the health hazards and their adverse effects on humans. Those were aiming at securing the sustainability of the environment, and consequently public health. Environmental sustainability applies to all; occupational safety does not. Apart from the environmental effects, research estimates that the industrial revolution gave rise to an increase in cancer, arthritis, and obesity. Hence, operator-specific protocols were developed too.
What’s happening now?
The dust from the industrial revolution has settled. So, what is the case nowadays? We are facing a new area in industry, and academia. There is an aim to reuse, repair, refurbish, remanufacture, repurpose, and recycle (R6 strategy) more. In that way, two goals can be achieved. Primarily, fewer emissions will be provoked to develop a product through the R6 strategy compared to the start-from-scratch approach (raw materials). Additionally, the Earth’s resources will be exploited to a lesser extent. Both work towards environmental sustainability. Although we are moving towards a more environmentally friendly approach in the production line, it is estimated that occupational exposure to chemicals is still accountable for five to 15 percent of the reported lung cancer cases. Once again, environmental sustainability applies to all; occupational safety does not. And as a result, the health care system is loaded with cases that could have been avoided.
What about EuReComp project?
EuReComp is an EU-funded project (GA 101058089) aiming at the circularity of composite materials. 20 partners from nine EU countries collaborate to achieve this. The main pathways that EuReComp proposes to achieve circularity will include:
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Those are targeting to provide sustainable methods towards recycling and reuse of composite materials. What about occupational safety though? IRES, among other things, is responsible for integrating safety recommendations in EuReComp technologies. In that way, we are aiming to minimize the hazards, and subsequently the risks in the respective working environments. Our goal is to ensure that the operators are safe. Click here for more useful info on EuReComp.
What is needed to ensure occupational safety??
Even more importantly, the valuable help of the operators is needed for a Risk & Safety group to be able to provide suitable safety recommendations. Operators should go ahead and report any incident in detail for their own benefit. Based on their description, the Risk and Safety group will identify the less obvious hazards. Once the hazards are identified, their severity will be assessed. In other words, the level of risk of each hazard will be established. Then, the safety experts will propose ways to control the risks. For instance, it might be needed to replace a material or to provide personal protective equipment. Of course, all the findings should be recorded by the safety experts. As the last step, the controls should be reviewed, and the risk assessment record should be updated if any changes are made.
To wrap things up, environmental sustainability implies public health and well-being. Environmental sustainability does not imply occupational safety.
As an operator of any process, be active! Report in detail any incident, even if it is minor.