Occupational Health

Introduction to Occupational Health

Occupational health is currently defined by the World Health Organization as the "promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of physical, mental and social wellness of workers in all fields of activity, by preventing any afflictions to their health caused by workplace conditions, by protecting workers of any risks generated by workplace hazards and by placing and maintaining workers in jobs adequate to their physiological and psychological traits."

"Man is the measure of all things" said Protagoras, therefore protecting the workforce, regardless of legal requirements, must be considered as an important principle in any business activity, equally important as the profit. Such policy is likely to transform legal restrictions of maintaining workplace health & safety, into a voluntary stand to accept responsibility for employees' work conditions. Safety of work has to be as important as the economic benefits.

Main activities in occupational health are:

• promotion and maintenance of employees' health and their fitness to work
• improvement of workplace conditions in order to keep them safe and healthy
• implementation of a management system of occupational health and safety, targeting efficient and effective occupational health activities, benefiting both employees and the organization

Developing and implementing an efficient occupational health and safety management system requires fundamental knowledge on management, which empowers the manager to operate a modern, scientific management system. Prevention of accidents and occupational diseases may be achieved only by adopting a proper organizational policy, which promotes continual improvement of performance and integration of the occupational health & safety management in the overall strategic management. Modern approaches on an European and international level in occupational health & safety integrate management of occupational health and safety, quality management and environment management.

Just as important as the above is the understanding of the interconnections between work and health, requiring deep knowledge of occupational medicine, work psychology, ergonomics, industrial chemistry, toxicology, physics and from other fields.

Occupational health and safety is a discipline of the future.

During the last years, important progresses have been made in Romania in the legal field, the national occupational health system is under evaluation and restructuring, there is an improvement in logistics, studies and researches are financed and programs of workplace health promotion are being implemented.

The direction of further development depends on what we do in this field, applying good practice principles, elaborating detailed studies and advancing on the path of scientific research, developing more efficient theoretical models and action strategies, new technologies and more secure work and life environments, promoting a healthy lifestyle and a proper management of employees' health.