Occupational Health and Safety (OHS): Emerging Trends and Future Directions

Dear Colleagues,

Workplace safety and occupational health are still of major concern in most countries, although safety standards and regulations have become stricter and stricter in recent years. Actually, even though there is growing attention to the Zero Accident Vision, which is based on the assumption that all accidents and work-related diseases can be preventable, when it comes to practice, accident statistics and reports on professional diseases highlight that companies still fail in achieving such goals.

From the engineering perspective, recent studies have proposed novel approaches to occupational safety that involve advanced risk management theories (e.g., the shift from Safety I to Safety II), specific attention to human factors and ergonomics, the use of smart technologies (e.g., Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Information Communication Technology (ICT)-driven tools), and novel approaches for risk assessment to reduce the occurrence of accidents and diseases.

The goal of this Special Issue is to draw up an overview of emerging trends, methods, and tools in safety engineering, which can allow researchers and practitioners to exchange information and ideas on occupational health and safety, providing both an analysis of the status quo as well as future perspectives and directions.

Accordingly, original research articles and reviews dealing with different industrial contexts, such as manufacturing, construction, agriculture, transportation, etc., are welcome in this Special Issue. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following topics affecting OHS (in alphabetical order):

• Design for safety/prevention through design;
• Digitalization and smart technologies;
• Education and training;
• Ergonomics and human factors;
• Human–machinery interaction;
• Innovative safety devices;
• Knowledge management;
• Multi criteria decision-making (MCDM) tools;
• Policy and organizational issues;
• Resilience engineering;
• Risk management;
• Risk perception;
• Smart technologies;
• Safety management systems;
• Virtual/augmented reality and simulation.

Research focusing on mixed-method approaches is especially welcome.

Dr. Mario Fargnoli
Guest Editor

Dr. Vita Leonardo
Dr. Davide Gattamelata
Guest Editor Assistants

Manuscript Submission Information

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