118. Psychosocial and biological hazards in the workplace

From greek.doctor
  • Psychosocial hazards in the workplace
    • Work-related stress is one of the most frequent health risks in workers in Europe
    • Psychosocial risk factors of workers
      • Excessive workload
      • Long working hours
      • Conflicting demands
      • Lack of influence over their own work
      • Poor management
      • Psychological and sexual harassment
      • Discrimination
    • Prevention
      • Primary
        • Eliminating the risks themselves
      • Secondary
        • Regularly ask workers if they have any complaints
      • Tertiary
        • Training employees to better handle their work situation
        • Providing employees with coping tools
        • Prove opportunities for treatment and recovery
  • Biological hazards in the workplace
    • Two types
      • Allergens or toxic agents which cause occupational diseases in respiratory tract and skin
      • Microorganisms which causes zoonoses or other infectious disease
    • In food industry, agriculture, working with animals, health care workers, working with wastes, laboratories, etc.
    • Groups of biological hazards
      • 1 – cannot cause human disease
      • 2 – able to cause preventable or treatable human disease
      • 3 – causes severe preventable or treatable human disease
      • 4 – causes severe non-preventable and untreatable human disease
    • Biosafety level (BSL)
      • A set of precautions required to isolate dangerous biological agents in a lab
      • Biosafety level 1
        • Lowest level
        • Lowest levels of precautions
        • For non-pathogenic E. coli, staphylococci, etc.
      • Biosafety level 2
        • For hepatitis viruses, HIV, pathogenic E. coli, staphylococci, etc.
      • Biosafety level 3
        • For M. tuberculosis, SARS-Cov-2, Yersinia pestis, etc.
      • Biosafety level 4
        • Highest level
        • Highest levels of precautions
        • For Ebola virus, Marburg virus, Lassa virus, etc.
    • Prevention
      • Risk assessment and reduction
      • Workers must be informed on risks and trained
      • Regular health surveillance
        • Workers with symptoms should stay home
      • Vaccination
      • Proper hygiene
      • Personal protective equipment (PPE)
        • Gloves
        • Masks
        • Face masks
        • etc.