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 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 main purpose of developing OSH Management System is to create a sustainable system that does not rely solely on a specific person with OSH expertise. This concept is the core of the International Organization for Standardization – ISO standards which promote the creation of a sustainable system based on the assumption that humans make mistakes. Then, it is argued that government regulations may...
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...
Authors propose a critical overview of the current issues related to the evolution of the role of supervision and of Justice in the OS&H field.
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...
With the beginning of the so called fourth industrial revolution and thanks to the diffusion of new technologies (digital and non-digital), industry is experiencing a deep transformation of those mechanisms through which value, innovation and wealth were historically created. The fourth industrial revolution, which was made possible by the availability of low cost sensors and connections, goes together...
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...
The recent directive on the protection of workers from risks related to exposure to carcinogens and mutagens addresses the problem of exposure to crystalline silica.
In view of current scientific knowledge, the directive assigns the role of carcinogen...
Innovative tools are necessary to obtain the optimal operating conditions of the ventilation systems in a reasonable lapse of time and accurately. This can be achieved both with appropriate numerical approaches to the full domain as the model order reduction techniques and with the domain decompositions methods as the multi-scale physical decomposition technique. The reduced order mode techniques such...
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.
The author describes the decision-making processes that led to the adoption of the pedestrian detection system, from the risk analysis phase in the specific site to the management one, through the implementation of the Z-safe project. The completion of the system was possible thanks to the different tests conducted on in situ devices.
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 aim of this study is to investigate the possible correlation between the value of occupational risk from whole body vibrations and the main anthropometric characteristics of the subjects exposed to such vibrations. Directive 2002/44/EC, which defines the minimum requirements in order to guarantee the health and safety of workers exposed to such a risk, states that Risk Assessment may be conducted...
The adoption of reinforced embankments for rockfall and landslide protection purposes is an effective intervention for the reduction of risk and damages to civil facilities. These earth structures are manufactured with layers of compacted soil alternated with geosynthetics (e.g. geogrids and geotextiles) that are anchored to the outer quarterdeck frame or wrapped around it. This paper discusses the results...
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...
,
Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP): 0.381
SCImago Journal Rank (SJR): 0.163
