Magazine 8 - Noise at work

Summary - New risks and trends in the safety and health of women at work

In 2009 and 2010, the Agency commissioned an update to its previous research on gender issues at work , which found that inequality both inside and outside the workplace can have an effect on the health and safety of women at work. This summary provides a policy perspective and is meant to contribute to the task outlined by the European strategy on health and safety at work for EU-OSHA’s European Risk Observatory, “examining the specific challenges in terms of health and safety posed by the more extensive integration of women in the labour market”. It provides a statistical overview of the trends in employment and working conditions, hazard exposure and work-related accidents and health problems for women at work. It explores selected issues (combined exposures, occupational cancer, access to rehabilitation, women and informal work, and “emerging” female professions such as home care and domestic work). The research highlights the type of work carried out by women, issues faced by younger and older women, the growth of the service sector, violence and harassment, and increasingly diversified working time patterns as major risk factors.

OSH in figures: Occupational safety and health in the transport sector — an overview

The transport sector is one of the growing sectors in the European economy and highly affected by change: a growing proportion of women, migrant and part-time workers, rapid ageing of the workforce and many technological innovations. Transport workers are exposed to multiple physical risks, suffer violence, and many have unusual working times and repetitive and monotonous work. The consequences are high accident rates, musculoskeletal disorders, stress and fatigue. This report reviews the OSH risks of a wide variety of transport occupations, by analysing statistics and studies, and through selected case examples of prevention. The report has a broad scope: it covers all transport subsectors (rail, water, air and road) and is intended for both those working in the sector and policymakers.

Combined exposure to Noise and Ototoxic Substances

Noise-induced hearing loss remains one of the most prominent occupational diseases in Europe. However, noise is no longer perceived as the only source of work-related hearing damage and increasing attention is being paid to the risks of combined exposure to high-level noise and ototoxic substances, that is, those which can affect the structures and/or the function of the inner ear and the associated signal transmission pathways in the nervous system. This publication aims to provide an up-to-date picture of our knowledge in this field. It includes: a description of the basic features of the physiological mechanisms leading to hearing impairment, current diagnostic tools, and an overview of the chemicals that may be deleterious to the inner ear, ranking the certainty of their ototoxic properties in a defined weight-of-evidence approach. The review also identifies the health effects resulting from exposure to multiple ototoxic substances and also from the interaction of ototoxic substances and noise, pointing out the work areas where exposure to ototoxic substances is likely. Finally, the report highlights gaps in our current knowledge for proposed future action and research.