When it comes to human health and safety, the extractive industry represents one of the most hazardous activities. When accidents occur in mines, quarries or processing plants, consequences are usually very serious. A description of Italy’s state of the art is made herein, with a special focus on occupational injuries occurred during the 2012-2019 period of time as well as fatal injuries of the last...

Mechanical behaviour of clastic formations at shallow – medium depths which bear hydrocarbon reservoirs could exhibit an important non-linear influence of the strain on the formation stiffness during depletion. Particularly in the early reservoir production stage, characterized by high uncertainty and little ground movement data for back-analysis, reliable determination of formation stiffness at...

Road tunnels are high-risk environments, especially in the event of a fire. These environments are at a high technological level, as they are equipped, as required by the regulations, with complex systems to prevent accidents and reduce the severity of the consequences. The safety of a tunnel depends on the reliability of equipments and their electrical supply circuits. Detection of faults in electrical...

The residual presence of critical components (e.g. Asbestos Containing Materials – ACMs) still represents one of the main criticalities for the Occupational Safety and Health – OS&H in many large public facilities. The very first step for an effective Risk Assessment and Management is obviously a clear definition of the different approaches, complying with the Italian general and special OS&H...

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is related to human health and well-being since people spend most of their working and free time in interior spaces. As stated by the World Health Organization (WHO), once complying with normative Occupational Safety and Health (OS&H) limits, more elevated standards of air quality both in productive and non-industrial workplaces should be guaranteed. In this case study –...

The inflow into aquifers of transition metals leached from muck disposed in quarries is a process that requires a detailed analysis in the framework of the environmental impact studies of dump sites. It is important to thoroughly examine the risks of potential contamination of pre-existing groundwater wells and, more in general, to assess the risk of qualitative deterioration of nearby shallow aquifers....

Pulp and paper mills are characterized by emissions of malodorous gases that commonly create discomfort for people, also in little concentration in the air. This issue is crucial for enterprises that are not actually using the best available technology for reducing non-condensable gases. Thereby, for existing enterprises, it is very important to realize the proper suitable upgrading by choosing the best...

The two-component backfilling system is the most frequently used method to fill the annular gap created during the shield machine advancement. This gap, due to the head overcut, the shield thickness and conicity and the tail brushes size should be filled continuously in order to avoid mainly surface displacement and linings movements. Nowadays this technology is the most chosen due to operative (both...

In mature oilfields, decommissioned oil and gas wells with depths reaching approximately 5000-6000 metres represent good candidate structures for geothermal heat exploitation, as they can provide useful access to subsurface geothermal energy resources. Comprehending the possibility to economically harness geothermal energy by means of coaxial WBHEs is bound to the main features of the physical model,...

Photogrammetric and remote sensing techniques are increasingly getting used in precision agriculture to improve monitoring and management of the crops and at the same time to increase the crop yield and reduce the environmental impacts derived from the treatments. The entire production sector can benefit from the advance in technologies and the development of lightweight sensors for UAV (uncrewed aerial...

Extractive waste (EW) from abandoned mines can pose serious pressure to natural water systems. The harmful effects of EW such as deterioration of water sources by allowing leaching of potentially toxic elements (PTE) into groundwater make it necessary to carry out careful, scientific and comprehensive studies on this subject. The present research used risk analysis approach to study the effect of presence...

The residual presence of critical components (e.g. Asbestos Containing Materials – ACMs) still represents one of the main criticalities for the Occupational Safety and Health – OS&H in many large public facilities (Lee and Van Orden, 2007).

Since...

The management of health and safety at work is represented by the set of preventive and protective measures to minimize the exposure of workers to risks that may cause the onset of diseases or increase the number of accidents.

Data on occupational accidents...

The rapid spread of the Industry 4.0 technologies is deeply changing workplaces. In order to achieve the so-called Forth Industrial Revolution, several open issues have to be faced, concerning technologies, enterprise organization and knowledge. Automation systems are already replacing men in manual, repetitive tasks: both shop-floor and office operations are experiencing this kind of transformation....

The paper offers a reflection on the evolution of Occupational Safety approaches through the ages until the Industry 4.0. A brief overview on the constant increase of the system complexity is discussed to introduce the problem. Later, the study shows how Safety can be approached in different ways discussing pros and cons. Then, the paper proposes two applications of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality...

Although the European panorama is experiencing a profound change in advance to the Industry 4.0, revolutionizing the world of work with technical, technological and information innovations, in Italy even today we have to deal with the “old” problem of work related injuries and fatalities. In particular, the accident indices of the last few years do not seem to differ much from those typical of the...

The role of working spaces in workers’ safety is often neglected and reduced to the building final inspection report. Nevertheless plenty of dangers are originated by the building environment surrounding the working activity: wear and obsolescence of building elements, failure mends and vandalism make the original compliancy fade away. The investigation on the real condition of the rooms where work...

Technological innovations and new risks are affecting the occupational health and safety of workplaces.

In Italy, employers protect themselves with two main insurance coverages: the compulsory Inail (Istituto nazionale per l’assicurazione contro gli...

Accidents and fatalities at work have always had a huge social and economic impact. In recent years the phenomenon in Italy does not seem to regress, indeed, the official data of fatality at work report a significant increase; this notwithstanding the widespread legislative activity both at European and national level.

An...

When major accident scenarios are considered, the effects of major events which give rise to a serious, immediate or deferred danger to human health or the environment, inside or outside the production or storage area due to the presence in high quantities of one or more dangerous substances are being considered. Events of this type, except in exceptional cases, have always had important consequences...

The availability and accessibility of new technologies is also transforming the world of underground construction sites, where applications developed in the mining industry are rapidly spreading.

Many of these have positive repercussions for safety and...

TELT is the public sponsor of one of the world’s most important projects, the cross-border section of the new Turin-Lyon line. In 2015 the company became a member of the United Nations Global Compact, adhering to the ten principles in terms of human rights, the environment, the fight against corruption and compliance with international labour standards. This commitment led to the undertaking to constantly...

A global overview of the technologies that can be applied for modern tunnelling construction taking into account the OS&H aspects is shortly presented in the paper.

Nowadays, occupational exposure to airborne dust is still one of the most concerning problems our society should face, since both airborne dust is a common pollutant in almost all the NACE sectors activities, and the occupational exposure quantification is critical. One of the possible causes can be identified in determining the real conditions of dust pollution in the workplaces, attributable to the...

The original implant map (OI) of Italian Cadaster was first made out of topographical measurements. These maps have never been used for public consultation, but they are the most accurate ones. The publicly accessible maps are named “visure maps” (VM) and were obtained from the original implant maps and consistently updated. However, these maps have suffered many deformations due to continuous...

The majority of rural areas in developing countries live in a state of chronic emergency, due for the most part to the lack of sanitary assistance and food. Covid-19 aggravates this situation, complicating the action of International Cooperation in these countries. To this extent, the case study of the Nosy Mitsio island (Madagascar) is presented. The partnership between H4O, Kukula and Politecnico di...

In residential buildings, drinking water is often used for tasks that do not necessarily require high quality water, such as home-garden irrigation. Our research focuses on the idea of harvesting rainwater to promote sustainable management of low-quality water resources on a building scale for irrigation purposes. The effectiveness of a collection system depends on the weather conditions, which determine...

Debris flow events are responsible for a fair amount of disasters worldwide that have caused a great deal of damages in the built environment. All the same, this phenomenon has caused many casualties. It is therefore, amongst the most dangerous natural hazards due to the elevated impact pressures it can reach.

Debris...

Copper and its alloys are nowadays used for many applications required to support energy transition and their market demand is growing. Due to a still limited re-cycling technology is likely that for the next years the request will be mainly covered by the traditional mining of geological deposits or from the reactivation of abandoned mines. The costs of extraction and production of minerals through open-pit...