OiRA was established in order to provide easy-to-use tools that will guide micro and small organisations through the risk assessment process. The OiRA software developed by EU-OSHA in 2009, and in use since 2010, is based on a Dutch risk assessment tool known as RI&E, which has proved to be very successful and well used. 

EU-OSHA’s OiRA software helps sectoral social partners (employers' and employees' organisations) and National authorities (ministries, labour inspectorates, OSH institutes, etc.) to produce sector-specific risk assessment tools targeting small businesses.

Check out the OiRA project website for updated information about the OiRA project (OiRA partners, OiRA tools published or under publication).

Risk assessment is the basis of any approach to safety and health management and is essential in the establishment of a healthy workplace. 

Through OiRA, EU-OSHA supports the EU Strategic Framework on Health and Safety at Work 2021-2027, launched in June 2021. By facilitating risk assessment, OiRA aims to increase the number of micro and small companies assessing their risks and the quality of their risk assessments. The tools enable companies to start (or improve) the risk assessment process. This way OiRA tools can help companies to become more competitive, for example by cutting costs that are the result of occupational illnesses and by minimising the risks of accidents, as well as to improve overall working conditions and organisational performance.

Risk assessment is today a familiar process for many organisations, used in hundreds of thousands of workplaces across Europe in order to prevent risks. But, for some companies, particularly micro and small organisations, risk assessment can be a challenging process. OiRA can make this process easier, providing organisations with the resources they need to overcome such a challenge.

By using OiRA tools, organisations will also be taking advantage of certain aspects:

• The use of OiRA tools is totally free
• Tools are available online
• A mobile application is available
• Tools are targeted to the sector
• Tools are customisable to the companies’ conditions to a certain extent
• Tools give the possibility of developing an action plan and choosing from a list of proposed measures

There are five key steps in the OiRA process:

1. Preparation: to a certain degree OiRA allows companies to tailor the risk assessments to their own specificities by answering a few simple questions
2. Identification: this involves looking for those things at work that have the potential to cause harm, and identifying who may be exposed to the hazard
3. Evaluation: this phase consists of prioritising  the risks that have been identified. The prioritization later helps to decide which measures should be implemented first
4. Action plan: the tool will then help to generate an action plan and to decide how to eliminate or control risks
5. Report: finally, a report and an action plan are automatically generated that can be printed and/or downloaded, allowing documentation of the results of the risk assessment process

All that is needed to register is a valid email address. Any individual or organisation can choose from the available OiRA tools the one that best fits their country, sector and company. 

Visit the available OiRA tools per sector and per country on the OiRA project website.

All OiRA tools have been created by or with the involvement of social partners and/or national authorities. If you are a social partner or a national institute/authority and you want to be involved and develop one or more sectoral OiRA tools, you can find more information on the OiRA project website.

Many organisations coincide in their definition of nanomaterials: they are materials containing particles with one or more external dimensions between 1-100 nanometres (nm). Read the European Commission’s definition of nanomaterials.

Up to 10 000 times smaller than a human hair, nanomaterials are at a size comparable to atoms or molecules and take their name from their minute structures (a nanometre is 10-9 of one metre). Not only because of their tiny size but also because of other physical or chemical characteristics that include, amongst others, their shape and surface area, nanomaterials differ in their properties from the same materials at larger scales. 

Because of these differences, nanomaterials offer new and exciting opportunities in areas such as engineering, information and communication technology, medicine and pharmaceuticals, to name but a few. However, these same characteristics that give nanomaterials their unique properties to nanomaterials are also responsible for their effects on human health and the environment. 

Nanomaterials are present naturally in, for example, volcano emissions, or can be by-products of human activities, for example diesel exhaust fumes or tobacco smoke.  But of particular interest are manufactured nanomaterials. These are already found in a very wide range of products and applications.

Some such nanomaterials have been used for decades such as synthetic amorphous silica in concrete, tyres and food products. Others have only more recently been discovered, such as nano-titanium dioxide as a UV-blocking agent in paints or sunscreen; nano-silver as an anti-microbial in textile and medical applications; or carbon nanotubes, widely used for their mechanical strength, light weight and heat-dissipation properties and electrical conductivity in applications such as electronics, energy storage, spacecraft and vehicle structures and sports equipment. New generations of nanomaterials continue to be developed rapidly and the market for them is expected to grow.

There are significant concerns regarding the health effects of nanomaterials. The Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) found that there were proven health hazards associated with a number of manufactured nanomaterials. Not all nanomaterials necessarily have a toxic effect, however, and a case-by-case approach is necessary while ongoing research continues.

The most important effects of nanomaterials have been found in the lungs and include among others inflammation and tissue damage, fibrosis and tumour generation. The cardiovascular system may also be affected. Some types of carbon nanotubes can lead to asbestos-like effects. As well as the lungs, nanomaterials have been found to reach other organs and tissues including the liver, kidneys, heart, brain, skeleton and soft tissues.

As a result of their small size and large surface area, particulate nanomaterials in powder form may present risks of explosion, whereas their respective coarse materials may not.

Read the European Commission’s review on the types and uses of nanomaterials, including safety aspects, and EU-OSHA’s literature review “Workplace exposure to nanoparticles”.

Workers may come into contact with nanomaterials at the production stage. However, many more workers may be exposed to nanomaterials at different stages of the supply chain, where workers may not even know that they are in contact with nanomaterials; consequently, it is unlikely that sufficient measures are being put in place to prevent exposure. Read our literature review on risk perception and risk communication with regard to nanomaterials in the workplace.

Exposure may therefore occur in a variety of occupational settings where nanomaterials are used, handled or processed and consequently become airborne and can be inhaled, or come into contact with the skin; for example, in contexts ranging from healthcare or laboratory work to maintenance or construction work.

Learn more about exposure to nanomaterials in the workplace.

The EU legislation on worker protection applies to nanomaterials, although it does not refer explicitly to these materials.  Of particular relevance are the Framework Directive 89/391/EEC, the Chemical Agent Directive 98/24/EC, and the Carcinogen and Mutagen Directive 2004/37/EC, as well as the legislation on chemicals (REACH and CLP). It means that employers are required to assess and manage the risks of nanomaterials at work. If the use and generation of nanomaterials cannot be eliminated or substituted by materials and processes less hazardous, worker exposure must be minimised through prevention measures following the hierarchy of control giving priority to:

1. Technical control measures at the source
2. Organisational measures
3. Personal protection equipment, as the last resort

Although many uncertainties remain, there are high levels of concern about the safety and health hazards of nanomaterials. Therefore, employers together with workers must apply a precautionary approach to risk management and the choice of prevention measures.

It can be difficult to identify nanomaterials, their emission sources and exposure levels; however, guidance and tools are available to help manage the risks of nanomaterials in the workplace.

Read EU-OSHA’s more specific advice on how to manage risks of nanomaterials in the healthcare sector and in maintenance work. Other organisations have also produced useful information, for example on nanomaterials in construction and in furniture, or in research and development.

Discover how other companies have managed nanomaterials from our good practice examples of workplace management of nanomaterials.

EU-Safe use of nanomaterials – Commission publishes guidance for employers and workers

This Guidance document offers an overview of the issues surrounding the safe use of MNMs in the workplace, sets out the broad outlines of preventive action and provides a practical tool for complying with specific aspects of ensuring workers’ safety, such as risk assessment and risk management.

This may be of particular value to those who may not have an in-depth technical understanding of the issues involved, and may assist in ensuring compliance with the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) legislation when dealing with MNMs.

Download guidance for workers
Download guidance for employers and health and safety practitioners

We tend to associate the word 'green' with safety — but what is good for the environment is not necessarily good for the safety and health of workers who are employed in green jobs. In some cases already, we have seen new legislation and technologies, designed to protect the environment, resulting in workers being put at greater risk. Reducing the amount of waste being sent to landfills, for example, has resulted in higher rates of accidents and illnesses among workers whose job it is to process it.

The new technologies or working processes associated with green jobs can lead to new hazards, which call for new combinations of skills to deal with them: the 'old' OSH knowledge cannot simply be transferred to them. Installing a solar water heater, for example, involves combining the skills of a roofer, a plumber and an electrician.

The speed at which the green economy is expected to expand could lead to skills gaps, with inexperienced workers involved in processes that they have not been trained for, and who therefore put their safety and health at risk. There may also be a stronger polarisation of the workforce towards skills, with low-skilled workers pushed to accept poorer working conditions. Last but not least, economic and political pressure could lead to OSH concerns being overlooked.

If green jobs are to be truly sustainable, we need to make sure that they benefit workers' safety and health, as well as the environment. In the green economy, as elsewhere, good OSH plays a vital role in increasing competitiveness and productivity. In this fast-developing area, we need to ensure that what is good for the environment is good for workers too.

Given how quickly the green economy is expected to grow, it is important that we anticipate any new or emerging OSH risks in relation to green jobs before they appear. That is why EU-OSHA has carried out a detailed foresight study, looking at how work in green jobs is likely to develop by 2020, and what future OSH challenges this may bring. The study has identified a number of possible future scenarios, given developments in green technologies, under different economic and social conditions. The aim is to draw attention to potential OSH risks in this area, and to provide EU policy-makers, in particular, with tools to help them shape the workplaces of tomorrow, and keep Europe's workers safe and healthy.

Know more on:

The foresight report on OSH in green jobs

The summary of the report and the scenarios

The cartoons featuring the new and emerging OSH risks in the scenarios

EU-OSHA has also investigated in more depth the OSH issues associated with specific green technological areas highlighted in the foresight study, such as small-scale solar energy applications, green construction or wind energy.

Find out more:

• E-fact on OSH and small-scale solar energy applications
• E-fact on OSH and green buildings
• OSH and wind energy: read the report and the summary e-fact

Checklists are also available to help identify the potential hazards to workers’ safety and health associated with these green technologies and to provide examples of preventive measures. These checklists could be used to support the workplace risk assessment process:

• Checklist on OSH and small-scale solar energy applications
• Checklist on OSH and green buildings
• Checklist on OSH and wind energy