Sustainability and prevention in occupational health and safety

Over the past decade, encouraging trends have been observed in many parts of the world showing a decrease in the annual number of occupational injury claims, while occupational diseases have been shown to be on the rise and can now be considered as the main cause of death at work. While preventive actions to mitigate the risks have been shown to be effective in many situations, one must acknowledge the fact that isolated actions that are taken in reaction to a hazardous situation may not always be the most efficient to prevent its recurrence. It appears that preventive actions that are taken within the workplace need to rely on much broader perspectives to ensure that their effects will be most susceptible to be permanent or longlasting in providing a healthier and safer environment for the workers. In today’s world, the concept of sustainability is attracting considerable attention as many governments have integrated it in their economic development strategies. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), sustainable development is defined as a strategy to “meet the needs of the present world population without causing adverse effect on health and on the environment, and without depleting or endangering the global resource base, hence without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs”. Sustainable development relies on several principles for framing its actions, many of which can clearly be applied to occupational health and safety. These principles include the necessity for attention to be given to the health and quality of life of people, to the prevention of known risks and to the application of precaution when there is uncertainty with regard to the risks. It may thus be considered that occupational health and safety (OHS) and prevention of injuries and diseases are issues of concern with regard to sustainability. The question that now arises is how can sustainable prevention in occupational health and safety realistically be achieved? While not being exclusive, it is believed that three avenues are worth considering: 1) integration of health and safety during the design stage of equipment and buildings; 2) incorporation of occupational health and safety concerns within the organization’s business or management plan; and 3) creation of a health and safety prevention culture through training and job knowledge transmission.