This Research Topic is Volume 2 in the Research Topic series 'Emerging Technologies in Occupational Health and Safety'.
Work has an important influence on health and wellbeing. Occupational hazards exist in every workplace, only the type of the hazard or the intensity of the hazard might differ. Occupational health and safety (OHS) is a field devoted to the anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and control of these environmental factors or stresses arising in or from the workplace. The application of technology is considered as an effective approach to improve workers health and safety conditions and ensure health and safety management in general. Research and development is directed towards the advancement of technology, and therefore includes development of emerging technologies. Emerging technologies (e.g. artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, virtual reality and robotics) are characterized by radical novelty, relatively fast growth, coherence, prominent impact, and uncertainty and ambiguity. Emerging technologies in occupational health and safety are those technical innovations which represent progressive developments within the different fields of OHS (from the point of view of the hazardous agents like chemical, physical, biological, ergonomics and safety) in different stages of hazards management program including identifying, assessing and controlling the risk. Emerging technologies offer challenges and opportunities with regard to worker safety and health. The design process for these new technologies must be taken into consideration in order to obtain the most benefits from the process.
The use of emerging technologies in the stages of sampling, identification, evaluation, and control of various workplace hazards according to the basic hierarchical strategic model can eliminate the weakness of existing methods and tools and also take a step towards maintaining and promoting the health of employees. New technologies can increase the accuracy and precision of monitoring results, reduce the length or difficulty of assessing OHS risks, and multiply the effectiveness of control measures while reducing energy consumption and costs.
Although the emergence of novel technologies and the adoption of them could provide a lasting solution to the problem of workplace health and safety, it is necessary to understand and prevent any hazards arising from these emerging technologies.
The scope of this special Research Topic is to introduce the emerging technologies and their practical applications in anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and control the hazardous agents including chemical, physical, biological, ergonomics and safety at the workplaces. Moreover, it aims at reviewing and assessing the hazards from emerging technologies which may limit their success and offer designs that eliminate the hazards from emerging technologies.
Some suggested article themes that authors could submit:
o Application of emerging technologies for air purification
o Application of emerging technologies for personal protective equipment
o Application of artificial intelligence in OHS
o Application of emerging technologies for air sampling and analysing
o Application of emerging technologies for noise assessment and control
o Application of emerging technologies in safety devices
o Application of emerging technologies for heat stress control
o Application of emerging technologies for work station design
o The risk assessment of the use of emerging technologies in the workplace
This Research Topic is Volume 2 in the Research Topic series 'Emerging Technologies in Occupational Health and Safety'.
Work has an important influence on health and wellbeing. Occupational hazards exist in every workplace, only the type of the hazard or the intensity of the hazard might differ. Occupational health and safety (OHS) is a field devoted to the anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and control of these environmental factors or stresses arising in or from the workplace. The application of technology is considered as an effective approach to improve workers health and safety conditions and ensure health and safety management in general. Research and development is directed towards the advancement of technology, and therefore includes development of emerging technologies. Emerging technologies (e.g. artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, virtual reality and robotics) are characterized by radical novelty, relatively fast growth, coherence, prominent impact, and uncertainty and ambiguity. Emerging technologies in occupational health and safety are those technical innovations which represent progressive developments within the different fields of OHS (from the point of view of the hazardous agents like chemical, physical, biological, ergonomics and safety) in different stages of hazards management program including identifying, assessing and controlling the risk. Emerging technologies offer challenges and opportunities with regard to worker safety and health. The design process for these new technologies must be taken into consideration in order to obtain the most benefits from the process.
The use of emerging technologies in the stages of sampling, identification, evaluation, and control of various workplace hazards according to the basic hierarchical strategic model can eliminate the weakness of existing methods and tools and also take a step towards maintaining and promoting the health of employees. New technologies can increase the accuracy and precision of monitoring results, reduce the length or difficulty of assessing OHS risks, and multiply the effectiveness of control measures while reducing energy consumption and costs.
Although the emergence of novel technologies and the adoption of them could provide a lasting solution to the problem of workplace health and safety, it is necessary to understand and prevent any hazards arising from these emerging technologies.
The scope of this special Research Topic is to introduce the emerging technologies and their practical applications in anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and control the hazardous agents including chemical, physical, biological, ergonomics and safety at the workplaces. Moreover, it aims at reviewing and assessing the hazards from emerging technologies which may limit their success and offer designs that eliminate the hazards from emerging technologies.
Some suggested article themes that authors could submit:
o Application of emerging technologies for air purification
o Application of emerging technologies for personal protective equipment
o Application of artificial intelligence in OHS
o Application of emerging technologies for air sampling and analysing
o Application of emerging technologies for noise assessment and control
o Application of emerging technologies in safety devices
o Application of emerging technologies for heat stress control
o Application of emerging technologies for work station design
o The risk assessment of the use of emerging technologies in the workplace
