The authors investigate the effects of information and communication systems and technologies (ICST) on workers' health and safety. A multidisciplinary and convergent perspective is used to define a model that evaluates the risks associated with the implementation of any information system. The model incorporates the organizational, individual, and social elements that affect workers' risks. Special attention has been paid to the incorporation of ergonomic and organizational factors including culture, technological change, and informatics ethics.
Following the great focus on and investment into roads by European administrations in recent years, a new area of employment has arisen wherein the majority of activities relating to the maintenance and operation of infrastructures have been outsourced. The participation of private companies, the organization of the various contracts and maintenance services, and infrastructure users' increasing demand for better quality services, mean that awareness needs to be raised about the subject of work risk prevention. The authors, having carried out a comparative analysis of Spain and England (countries that represent models in terms of infrastructure management and financing) present the results that were obtained, paying particular attention to the worker-user-safety triad, which determines all the preventative action and measures that are taken.
As a result of the need for companies to manage occupational health and safety, as well as the absence of a globally accepted international standard, numerous organisations have developed their own models in the shape of guides, standards, or guidelines. However, the resultant dispersion is creating confusion among companies, rather than making life easier for them. In this article, we look at the current situation as far as available European management systems are concerned, and the emergent trends in the development of an international standard. Moreover, we present the special case of Spain, whose broad legislation on occupational health and safety might hinder the adoption of an international model by Spanish companies.
Safety science, in its multidisciplinary approach, has been enriched by the contributions of economic science practically from the beginning of its development. In this area of knowledge, a particularly relevant subject matter is the impact of economic fluctuations or cycles over the effect indicators of safety (incidence indexes). Two theories have been put forward from the field of safety: intensification theory and vulnerability theory. In this paper, the authors propose an integrative theory and analyse the Spanish situation in the light of this new theory, validating its application.
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