Occupational and Workplace Health and Safety
Summary
Occupational and workplace health and safety encompasses the identification, evaluation and control of physical, chemical, biological, ergonomic and psychosocial hazards that can harm workers. Physical hazards range from noise, vibration and heat stress to machinery entanglements and falls. Chemical hazards include gases, solvents, dusts and fumes. Biological hazards cover infectious agents, allergens and toxins. Ergonomic risks arise from repetitive movements, awkward postures and static loading, while psychosocial stressors stem from job strain, bullying, shift work and organisational injustice. A multidisciplinary field, workplace health and safety integrates engineering controls, administrative measures, personal protective equipment, human-centred design and health promotion to prevent injury, illness and disability. Core prevention strategies follow a hierarchy of controls—eliminate or substitute hazards, apply engineering barriers, establish safe work procedures and use protective equipment. Compliance with regulations, risk assessment, training and worker participation underpin a culture of safety. Globally, effective management of workplace risks not only reduces healthcare and compensation costs but also boosts productivity, morale and sustainable economic development across all sectors.
Research from Nature Portfolio
Collaborative robotics has been shown to reduce biomechanical loading in manual patient handling tasks. In controlled tests with nurses, a wearable robotic assistant cut peak spinal forces by up to 51%, reduced trunk flexion and torsion by more than half and halved mean erector-spinae activity, demonstrating a viable route to prevent musculoskeletal injuries in healthcare.
A digital pipeline for mass customisation of respirators has been validated against a cohort of over 200 faces. By automatically processing three-dimensional facial scans, the system generates bespoke filter-facepiece designs in under two minutes with average geometric error below 0.7 mm, markedly improving fit-test pass rates across gender, age and ethnic groups.
People who develop low back pain during prolonged standing exhibit distinctive biomechanical and psychological traits. Meta-analysis reveals that “pain developers” have greater lumbar lordosis (Hedges’ g≈2.75 in those over 25 years), altered motor control on abdominal-hollowing tests, elevated gluteus-medius co-activation and higher pain-catastrophising scores, pointing to individual risk profiling for preventive intervention.
Occupational and Workplace Health and Safety publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in occupational and workplace health and safety across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Hazard: Any source of potential injury, illness or damage in the workplace.
Risk: The likelihood and severity of harm arising from exposure to a hazard.
Hierarchy of controls: A priority sequence for hazard mitigation—elimination, substitution, engineering controls, administrative measures and personal protective equipment.
Psychosocial safety climate: Shared perceptions of policies, practices and procedures for protecting workers’ mental health.
Active workstation: A desk setup designed to reduce sedentary behaviour, such as sit–stand converters, treadmill desks or cycling workstations.
Collaborative robotics: Robots engineered to work snugly alongside humans, taking on physically demanding tasks to lower injury risk.
Fit factor: A quantitative ratio of airborne particle concentration outside versus inside a respirator, used to assess seal integrity.
Motor control: The capacity to coordinate muscle activation and posture for spinal stability and movement precision.
References
- The effects of active workstations on reducing work-specific sedentary time in office workers: a network meta-analysis of 23 randomized controlled trials. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity (2023).
- Influence of psychosocial safety climate on occupational health and safety: a scoping review. BMC Public Health (2023).
- Providing physical relief for nurses by collaborative robotics. Scientific Reports (2022).
- Toward Mass Customization Through Additive Manufacturing: An Automated Design Pipeline for Respiratory Protective Equipment Validated Against 205 Faces. International Journal of Bioprinting (2024).
- Distinctive characteristics of prolonged standing low back pain developers’ and the associated risk factors: systematic review and meta-analysis. Scientific Reports (2023).
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