Factsheet 68 - Expert forecast on Emerging Biological Risks related to Occupational Safety and Health

New and emerging risks in occupational safety and health

The occupational safety and health status of the EU workforce is affected by many factors, not least its changing demographic structure, the spread of new technologies and a reduction in the importance of economic sectors that previously dominated, such as industry and mining. This is bringing about changes not only in the numbers of jobs in each sector, but also the types of jobs that are available. The age profi le of the workforce is changing. New technologies are creating new categories of employment. Globalisation means that health threats that were once distant easily spread around the world in a short period of time. If the EU is to preserve the health of its workforce and maintain its economic strength and its competitiveness, it needs to meet these challenges proactively. This Outlook off ers an overview of the present and future trends of relevance to occupational health, the main workplace risks and their prevention.

Biological agents and pandemics: review of the literature and national policies

The biological risks related to pandemics and epidemics can affect the health of many workers, particularly in specific occupations such as workers in health care, transport services or animal breeding, and workers who contribute to contingency measures when outbreaks occur. This working paper describes the main biological risks related to pandemics and major disease outbreaks, and presents policies and practices in EU Member States in relation to how occupational safety and health (OSH) is included in the assessment, recognition, recording and prevention of major disease outbreaks and pandemics. It also contains some case studies to highlight specific occupations and biological agents, and explain how OSH policies and practices are integrated.

The occupational safety and health of cleaning workers

This report provides an overview of the most important issues related to occupational safety and health (OSH) for cleaning workers in terms of working conditions, risks and prevalence of exposures and health outcomes, and identifies information gaps and challenges. Cleaning includes a broad range of activities performed in different work environments across all sectors. The risks to which cleaners are exposed therefore depend on the tasks they perform and the premises they work in. As most of the cleaning work is performed as contract cleaning, employers sometimes face difficulties in controlling the OSH conditions in the "host companies" where their staff work. Accessing information on occupational accidents and diseases remains challenging as cleaning workers are spread over different sectors and it is therefore difficult to put monitoring systems in place. In addition, a significant part of the cleaning workforce is undeclared, especially in private households, which also complicates data collection. Studies on work-related diseases indicate that MSDs, respiratory diseases, including asthma, skin diseases and mental ill health are the most common work-related health effects found in cleaners, and suggest a higher prevalence of health problems in cleaning workers than in other sectors.