What is Occupational Health?

The ILO (International Labour Organisation) and the WHO have a common definition of occupational health, which was adopted by the Joint ILO/WHO Committee on Occupational Health at its first session (1950) and revised at its twelfth session (1995):

“Occupational health should aim at the promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of physical, mental and social well-being of workers in all occupations; the prevention amongst workers of departures from health caused by their working conditions; the protection of workers in their employment from risks resulting from factors adverse to health; the placing and maintenance of the worker in an occupational environment adapted to his physiological and psychological capabilities and; to summarize: the adaptation of work to man and of each man to his job.”

The WHO offers this document on occupational health:

"A healthy workplace must include health protection and health promotion" (www.who.int/occupational_health/healthy_workplace_framework.pdf, 27.07.21)

and a website: www.who.int/occupational_health/healthy_workplaces/en/

Occupational Health has four categories:

1. Health and Safety (no physical harm)
2. Mental Health (no psychological harm)
3. Worksite Health Promotion (increase healt resources)
4. Environnement and Community (no harm from the environment and the community around the company)

The WHO calls the four categories: Physical Work Environment - Psychsocial Work Environment - Personal Health Resources - Enterprise Community Involvement.

There are several models of occupational health:

• The "Job Demands-Control Model" (by Karasek)
• The "Job Demands-Resources Model"
• The "Workload-Strain Model"

From these models I derive my model:

"Individuals are often expected to perform complex tasks involving physical  and mental demands, particularly with the ongoing implementation of technology. ... Workload is determined by the interaction of the task
demands, the circumstances under which it is performed, and the skills, behaviors, and perceptions of the individual. Demands of a task or combination of tasks may include executing physical actions and/orperforming cognitive tasks.The impact of these demands is, in turn, dependent on the abilities of the individual performing the task. ... Evaluating workload is an important component of system design and analysis. (DiDomenico A, Nussbaum MA (2008) Interactive effects of physical and mental workload on subjective workload assessment. Int J Ind Ergonom 38:977–983, p. 977)

A high workload is a hazard. If a human being is exposed to a hazard there is a risk of harm. A harm is an adverse (negative) health effect (a damage to health).

"A hazard is any source of potential damage, harm or adverse health effects on something or someone. ...

Risk is the chance or probability that a person will be harmed or experience an adverse health effect if exposed to a hazard. ...

No risk should be overlooked. Therefore, the normal working conditions and also the unnormal ones (when coincidences interact) must be examined. To foresee unusual work conditions is very difficult.

To reduce risks and avoid harms it is necessary to do a risk assessment.

"Risk assessment is the process where you:

• Identify hazards and risk factors that have the potential to cause harm (hazard identification).
• Analyze and evaluate the risk associated with that hazard (risk analysis, and risk evaluation).
• Determine appropriate ways to eliminate the hazard, or control the risk when the hazard cannot be eliminated (risk control).

A risk assessment is a thorough look at your workplace to identify those things, situations, processes, etc. that may cause harm, particularly to people. After identification is made, you analyze and evaluate how likely and severe the risk is. When this determination is made, you can next, decide what measures should be in place to effectively eliminate or control the harm from happening." (www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/hsprograms/risk_assessment.html, 01.05.21)

I use this form to do a risk assessment:

In order to know which risks are high and which measures are urgent, a risk estimation must be made. This is done by answering the question "How likely is it that there will be a harm to health and how severe will it be?" (For more information, read the cited websites.)

"Accidents at work and occupational diseases are neither determined by fate nor unavoidable – they always have causes. By building a strong prevention culture, these causes can be eliminated and work related accidents, harm and occupational diseases be prevented." (https://visionzero.global/sites/default/files/2017-12/2-Vision%20Zero%20Guide-Web.pdf, 09.07.21, p. 3)

Many accidents occur because people act the wrong way in dangerous situations.

An analysis of 228 fatal occupational accidents in the German chemical industry for the period 2004 - 2015 showed the following:

Were the accident leading to death and the associated risks easily predictable?

for the injured person:                         66,2% yes or rather yes

for the executive/the entrepreneur:       54,8% yes or rather yes

Did the fatally injured person have a direct influence on the accident occurrence?

yes:                       74,6%

no:                        18,4%

no answer possible:   7%

(source https://www.bgrci.de/fileadmin/BGRCI/Downloads/BG_RCI_Magazin/BG-RCI_Magazin_2017/BG_RCI_magazin_web_15.5.17.pdf, 09.07.21, p. 5)

"Motivating your employees to act in a safe and healthy manner is one of your most important leadership responsibilities. ... When employees are consulted, for example while conducting the risk assessment or in the development of operating instructions, their willingness to follow the rules is improved. ... It costs nothing to praise employees for safe behaviour, ask them about their ideas, and express interest in difficult work tasks and also to address unsafe actions or near misses immediately. This can shape the personal attitude of the employees and motivate them to work safely and with awareness and above all, confidence." (https://visionzero.global/sites/default/files/2017-12/2-Vision%20Zero%20Guide-Web.pdf, 09.07.21, p. 18)

The attitude of people (and their motivation) depends on their personality and skills, on their knowledge and on their experiences and feelings (see the Attitude-Behavior-Success-Model on Learn-Study-Work).