Working environments have various risks, which result in accidents and casualties.
To prevent and minimize the occurrence of avoidable accidents, all workers should
understand occupational safety and health. The principle of occupational safety and
health is to safeguard the safety and health of workers through the establishment
of a safe working environment. The protection of occupational safety and health involves
multitudinous categories, such as ergonomics, toxicology, physics, chemistry, and
economics. The concern for the occupational safety and health of workers focuses not
only on their physical health but also on mental health. Mental health refers to the
well-being of an individual. Poor mental health may be a predictor of physical health
problems and people with physical illnesses have a high tendency of suffering from
depression and distress [1]. However, according to a survey conducted by Safety and
Health Magazine in 2018, about 50% of the respondents thought that mental health should
not be counted as part of occupational safety and health [2]. In fact, mental health
is part and parcel of occupational safety and health [3,4]. No matter what types of
occupational diseases and illnesses workers experience, deleterious effects will be
generated, for example, low productivity [5], high rates of absenteeism [6], and economic
loss for companies [7]. Furthermore, dynamic and changing working environments result
in many unknown risks, which pose challenges and opportunities for workers, organisations,
and authorities. Therefore, potential risks in working environments should be eliminated
by identifying factors affecting risk-taking behaviour and the mental and physical
health of workers, pertinent health measures, approaches on occupational safety and
health in organisations, and government legislation. The published papers in the Special
Issue on “Emerging Issues in Occupational Safety and Health” cover all these important
and eminent issues.
To identify factors affecting the risk-taking behaviour of workers, several studies
have investigated the reasons why they conduct such behaviour [8,9,10,11,12,13]. Factors
influencing the risk-taking propensity of workers include safety supervision and inspection,
safety culture of working environments, social influence, workplace conditions, attitude
of workers towards risk, risk perception, and self-perceived easiness of risk-taking
behaviour [8,9]. Jiang and Han [10] report that the preconditions for unsafe acts,
unsafe supervision, and organisational influences resulted in unsafe behaviour. Larsson
et al. [11] demonstrate that the safety perception of workers was influenced by safe
working environments, leadership, prioritising safety at work, and provision of trust,
and support by management. Tong et al. [12] explore human risk factors affecting risk-taking
behaviour through coal mining roof accidents in China; such factors include knowledge,
information, communication, and performance and behaviour of senior managers. Thamrin
et al. [13] identify inadequate safety training, long working hours (more than 20
h per week), and insufficient confidence on the discussion of safety issues as the
main factors resulting in injuries. Therefore, the awareness and consciousness on
occupational safety and health should be enhanced by improving these identified areas
to avoid performing unsafe behaviour that will adversely affect the physical and mental
health of workers.
The physical and mental health problems of workers can tremendously affect their work
performance. Numerous factors can lead to physical and psychological occupational
diseases and illnesses [14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22]. Kim and Cho [19] find that Korean
workers with a high demand on childcare easily contracted musculoskeletal disorders
and had problems with work–life conflicts. High concentrations of asbestos in factories
threaten health of workers and cause a number of deaths and disabilities every year
[17]. Molino et al. [22] point out a negative relationship between exhaustion and
recovery among workaholism. According to a cluster analysis of high-frequency words
with long working hours as the core theme [20], physiological health problems are
not the main aspect that causes the burnout of workers, and psychological distress
has gradually become the primary concern. Job stress is one of the prevailing psychological
diseases and negatively influences the performance of workers [14]. Junne et al. [16]
also state that stress is a “pandemic” disease among workers in Germany and suggest
that different sectors should cooperate to improve the mental health of workers. However,
Ma et al. [21] note that an appropriate amount of challenge stress should be put onto
workers to ameliorate worker quality. Furthermore, female workers experience more
health problems and lower psychological well-being than male workers [15]. Female
workers also have a higher incidence of symptomatic cervical and lumbar disc herniation
compared with male workers [18]. All these studies in this Special Issue reveal that
the influences of physical and mental health problems cannot be neglected; thus, measures
should be developed for evaluation of the health status and work performance of workers
to reduce unnecessary accidents and risks.
Sensitive and quick measures should be developed to effectively assess the health
condition of workers and minimize the severity level of certain occupational health
problems. Fatigue is one of the hidden syndromes of many diseases. Duan et al. [23]
introduced a mental fatigue detection index to alert workers of whether they suffer
from chronic exhaustion and propose countermeasures to alleviate this problem. Job
stress is a concerned psychological health problem among most workers. To measure
the job stress of workers, Wu et al. [24] developed a job stress scale for construction
workers in China given that job stress causes different types of unsafe behaviour
in the construction industry. A number of work performance measures were also developed
to appraise the capability of workers. Job satisfaction measurements were proposed
to identify several facet items, such as stress and work engagement [25,26]. The Work
Ability Index was used to predict the work performance of workers for work design
and improvement [27]. These measures may be able to resolve the instant health problems
of workers while appropriate strategies and policies should be formulated to address
related health issues.
Other than the efforts of workers and researchers, the work organisation should establish
a positive, safe culture in the working environment. Wagner et al. [28] suggest that
the existence of worker safety culture is not sufficient and patient safety culture
should be incorporated to develop a safe working environment in hospitals. Governments
and organisations should offer continuing education and training for workers to deepen
their consciousness on occupational safety and health and provide compensation for
victims [14,29]. Legislation and guidance protocols should be implemented to address
the safety and health issues of workers [30]. Undeniably, a considerable amount of
direct costs and indirect costs are involved for all of these actions [7,31]. However,
in the long run, the safety and health of workers can be safeguarded, thereby reducing
absenteeism and turnover rates, increasing the attraction of talent and goodwill of
companies, enhancing worker motivation and organisation commitment, and reducing costs
on healthcare and social insurance.