April 27th, 2016

April 28 has been declared “Workers Memorial Day” to honor those workers who lost their lives or were injured at work. International Labour Organization (ILO) has symbolically declared the same day as the “World day for Safety and Health at Work” aiming at raising awareness for the safety, health and welfare of workers both in the public and in the private sector. 

Workplace safety constitutes an inalienable right of every worker, and returning home safe at the end of every working day should be ensured. However there are cases where safety cannot be guaranteed, especially in high risk working environments, where there is exposure in dangerous materials or where intense body effort is required. A great number of workers are exposed at such conditions and the danger of accidents, injuries, or even death is real.

According to ILO, every year 317 million accidents occur on the job. 6,300 people die as a result of occupational accidents or work-related diseases which is more than 2.3 million deaths per year. The economic burden of the working force losses, deriving from inadequate security conditions is huge and is estimated at 4% of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), about 3 trillion dollars. 

This year “Workplace stress: a collective challenge” is the theme of the campaign of the “World day for Safety and Health at Work”. Chronic stress causes cardiovascular and musculoskeletal problems, anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, and burnout. In attempting to face stress, people tend to adopt habits like smoking, or drinking alcohol, they reduce physical exercise, or follow unhealthy food diet. Socio-psychological factors that are associated with stress are related with the work content (deadlines, environment, and workload) as well as the work frame (colleague relations, job role, ability to control, professional perspective). 

In Greece, high unemployment rates, and intense insecurity that thrives in work places worsens work related stress levels even more. Employees, Immigrants employed mostly in the primary and the secondary sector are subjected to even more pressure. 

In recent years in Greece fatal accidents at work have been reduced considerably, but no progress has been made in occupational illness. 

Since 1990, Prolepsis Institute actively participates in the promotion of public health, through national and European programs. Factors affecting health at work is one of the main fields where the Institute operates. Particularly health promotion programs elaborated by Prolepsis Institute, aim at: managing work stress, promoting a healthy diet and physical exercise, and safer alcohol consumption in workplace, and at the formation of business policies to assure health conditions of the work force. 

Some of the main interventions are: 

– The development of an educational tool for the design, the implementation and the evaluation of health activities promotion in the workplace, for issues mainly regarding working women, through the program HPROWOMEN. The experience of the HPWOMEN project was published in the book “Promoting Health for Working Women” from “Springer publications”. 

– Implementation of the program GPOW for the study, and the confrontation of obesity in the workplace. 

– Implementation of the program HProlmmune for the promotion of vaccinations for medical and nursing staff, against particular contagious diseases, including the flu. 

– Research and applied programs for the safety of the farmers, such as the program DIRERAF for the development of public health indicators in order to record occupational and environmental hazards relating to agriculture and fishery. 

– Analysis and study of the EU Directive that Greece has adopted regarding the prevention of occupational hazards for pregnant women and new mothers: Derivative on “Health and Safety of Pregnant and Breastfeeding Women at Work” (1995) 

Professor Athena Linos, President of the Prolepsis Institute is actively involved with the issue of Health and Security in the Workplace since 1983. She has served as Chairperson of a Committee for the examination of applications filed by various occupations and specializations claiming to be classified as “difficult and hazardous occupations” within the social security institute (ΙΚΑ-ΕΤΑΜ). Professor Linos has also participated in a significant number of Committees ans Councils regarding Public Health as well as Hygiene and Safety of. By introducing the course of Occupational Medicine in the Athens Medical School as a core course since 1987, and the Post graduate program leading to a Master’s Degree “Environmental Health Management & Economic Assessment” Prof. Linos has contributed in the further development of this subject. 

Prolepsis Institute currently participates as a partner in the program “e-CAPACIT8 – Strengthening occupational health professionals’ capacities to improve the health of ageing workforces” (http://e-capacit8.eu). This program aims at strengthening the abilities of medical sector professionals, in order to improve their health state in their workplace, even though they are a constantly aging workforce. The overall number of older workers in Europe is increasing, and the need to secure their health state is now more necessary than ever. The program’s target, is to help the occupational health professionals providing them with educational tools through the internet to enhance their knowledge of health problems that the aging workforce faces and of health services adjusted to the constantly increasing rate of ageing workforce.