Current Trends and New Challenges in Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene

Dear Colleagues,

COVID-19 was a watershed for the assessment and management of health risks, with impacts in sanitary, educational, and general work environments. The current post-pandemic era is characterized by shifts in productive models towards remote work, automation, and artificial intelligence, which overlap with other global trends such as climate change and technological innovation.

In these changing work scenarios, there are many challenging research questions to be answered to ensure health and wellbeing for workers, including:

• Exposure and risk assessment for chemicals, carcinogenic and reprotoxic substances in a context of changing standards and occupational exposure limit values;
• New occupational risks, impacts and management measures due to climate change (e.g., heat-stress, vector-borne diseases, changes in pesticides use);
• Changes in indoor environmental quality and occupational exposure in occupational settings in light of climate change adaptation, energy mix shifts and energy saving needs;
• Changes in occupational exposure to respiratory tract viruses in the era of home office;
• Trends in exposure assessment to biological agents after the COVID-19 pandemic;
• Novel approaches, methodologies (e.g., big data analysis) and technologies (e.g., wearable, miniaturized and low-cost sensors, novel analytical techniques) for occupational risk assessment and industrial hygiene;
• The paradigm shift from the prevention of occupational diseases and injuries to the pursuance of well-being for workers;
• Psychosocial, ergonomic and other health risks in remote work;
• Health promotion initiatives at the workplace;
• Smart environments: novel approaches and systems for risk assessment and management.

Dr. Andrea Cattaneo
Dr. Giovanni De Vito
Dr. Davide Campagnolo
Dr. Francesca Borghi
Guest Editors

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• occupational risk assessment
• occupational exposure
• smart sensors
• big data
• artificial intelligence
• emerging risk factors
• remote work
• advanced exposure monitoring
• biological risk