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[IWS] PRIORITIES for OSH Research in EU-25 [27 January 2006]

IWS Documented News Service
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016 Director, IWS News Bureau
________________________________________________________________________

European Agencey for Safety and Heath at Work

Priorities for occupational safety and health research in the EU-25 [27 January 2006]
http://osha.eu.int/publications/reports/6805648
and
http://osha.eu.int/publications/reports/6805648/full_publication_en.pdf
[full-text, 36 pages]

The report is structured around four thematic areas: psychosocial work
environment, musculoskeletal disorders, dangerous substances and OSH
management. Section 1 presents a list of all the major priorities
identified. Section 2 contains a brief description of OSH global trends
and EU policy framework, in order to set these themes into the relevant
context.


Press Release
More challenges for occupational safety and health in the future, EU experts warn
http://agency.osha.eu.int/press_room/20060112_OSH_Research
27.01.2006

News from Board: Agency press releases
Current trends in society and work organisation are creating new risks and
putting new demands on occupational safety and health research

The future is not all rosy according to EU occupational safety and health
experts. An overview of what we are in for has just been published by the
European Agency for Safety and Heath at Work in a working paper for the
European Commission entitled Priorities for occupational safety and health
research in the EU-25.

'The nature and organisation of work are changing, becoming more client-
and knowledge-driven' explains Hans-Horst Konkolewsky, Director of the
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. 'Europe's workforce has
also been changing; it is ageing, less male-dominated, more precarious and
more difficult to monitor, as it has spread out into small companies. As a
consequence, health issues have become more complex and we need to find
new ways to approach occupational safety and health research and
prevention'.

For instance, workers' difficulty in achieving a balance between working
and non-working time has been a growing concern. The problem is compounded
by the increasing proportion of households with 'dual careers' and
dependent older relatives. It is also affected by what has been termed
'atypical work': temporary agency work, part-time work or jobs with
'unsocial hours'. All this can easily contribute to work-related stress
and also act as a barrier to the recruitment or retention of certain
groups into the workforce.

The report also mentions the necessity to conduct more research into
preventing psychological violence at work, i.e. all types of harassment or
mobbing. The European Commission has recently highlighted the importance
of the topics addressed in this section of the report by publishing a call
for research proposals to investigate 'work-related stress including
physical and psychological violence such as harassment, bullying, and
mobbing'.

But the future risks are by no means limited to the psychosocial issues
only. Other concerns include musculoskeletal disorders and risks caused by
dangerous substances. The rapid growth of nanotechnology, for instance,
has led to the exposure of workers to nanoparticles, while exposure
assessment and measurement methods are still very much at an experimental
stage.

The complete report can be downloaded free of charge from the publications
section Agency's website at http://osha.eu.int/
_____________________________
This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.

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Stuart Basefsky *
Director, IWS News Bureau *
Institute for Workplace Studies *
Cornell/ILR School *
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor *
New York, NY 10016 *
*
Telephone: (607) 255-2703 *
Fax: (607) 255-9641 *
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu *
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