In the Netherlands, approximately 2.300 workers have a serious reportable accident at work every year, of which around 60 are fatal (Inspectie SZW, 2020; Bellamy et al., 2014). Safety practitioners employ many methods to improve occupational safety for workers within their companies. Interventions might, for example, be aimed at improving companies’ overall ‘safety culture’, at the introduction of a safety management system (e.g. Robson et al., 2007), or at improving the compliance of workers to specific safety rules (e.g. Peuscher and Groeneweg 2012; Bryden et al., 2016). However, the effectiveness of many of those interventions remains largely unclear (Dyreborg et al, 2015). The Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) has started a project with the ultimate goal of developing a database filled with effective safety interventions. Developers can submit their interventions using a fixed protocol. To support this project, we developed a survey, which was sent to all members of the Dutch Society for Safety Science (NVVK). In the survey, we used a list of 48 predefined descriptions of common interventions. Respondents could indicate whether they made use of these common interventions and the extent to which they considered these effective. The survey thus provided an extensive overview of the use and perceived effectiveness of 48 specific safety interventions. In the future, these insights can support the development and testing of more effective safety interventions.@en

Stel, u rijdt op een drukke snelweg en het is behoorlijk druk. De signaalborden geven voortdurend aangepaste snelheden aan. U houdt het verkeer om u heen goed in de gaten. In uw achteruitkijkspiegel ziet u een auto slingeren en links en rechts tegen andere auto’s aanbotsen. Een spectaculair gezicht; uw aandacht is nu volledig op uw spiegel gericht. Zonder dat u er erg in heeft, gaat u langzamer rijden en verschuift uw auto richting de linkerrijstrook. Het verkeer voor u begint alweer te remmen…@en

Op 13 en 14 maart was weer het 2-jaarlijkse NVVK-congres op de inmiddels vertrouwde locatie van Papendal. Met 588 gasten was het andermaal ‘volle bak’. Achteraf hebben 314 van hen de moeite genomen om de evaluatie in te vullen (een respons van maar liefst 53 procent). Als vereniging en als congrescommissie mogen wij beslist tevreden zijn. Waarom? Dat leest u hieronder.@en

The waste management sector is dominated by micro and small-sized enterprises. Although it is possible to anticipate that they may face the same problems as other small firms, information about activities related to the prevention of occupational risks in this sector and how this influences Occupational Health & Safety (OHS) performance is still limited. This study aims to address the issue, contributing to current literature about the protection of employees and the prevention of occupational risks in the waste management sector. The study was conducted at 66 enterprises in Portugal. Data about OHS management practices was collected through different sources, such as questionnaires applied to employers and analysis of documents and records available at the enterprise. A summative index that assesses seven OHS performance aspects was used to characterize the enterprises regarding their OHS performance level. The results showed that micro and small-sized waste management firms display several constraints with regard to OHS management. Several enterprises still do not have organized preventive services. Additionally, OSH policies or objectives, risk assessment, training and accident recording mechanisms were found to be non-existent in several cases. The time dedicated by employers to OHS issues and the support of external advisory services was also low for some firms. A positive and statistically significant association was found between these variables and the enterprises’ OHS performance level. Future research will focus on designing an intervention to improve OHS in the waste management sector as a whole.@en

The waste management sector is dominated by micro and small-sized enterprises. Although it is possible to anticipate that they may face the same problems as other small firms, information about activities related to the prevention of occupational risks in this sector and how this influences Occupational Health & Safety (OHS) performance is still limited. This study aims to address the issue, contributing to current literature about the protection of employees and the prevention of occupational risks in the waste management sector. The study was conducted at 66 enterprises in Portugal. Data about OHS management practices was collected through different sources, such as questionnaires applied to employers and analysis of documents and records available at the enterprise. A summative index that assesses seven OHS performance aspects was used to characterize the enterprises regarding their OHS performance level. The results showed that micro and small-sized waste management firms display several constraints with regard to OHS management. Several enterprises still do not have organized preventive services. Additionally, OSH policies or objectives, risk assessment, training and accident recording mechanisms were found to be non-existent in several cases. The time dedicated by employers to OHS issues and the support of external advisory services was also low for some firms. A positive and statistically significant association was found between these variables and the enterprises’ OHS performance level. Future research will focus on designing an intervention to improve OHS in the waste management sector as a whole.@en

The waste management sector is dominated by micro and small-sized enterprises. Although it is possible to anticipate that they may face the same problems as other small firms, information about activities related to the prevention of occupational risks in this sector and how this influences Occupational Health & Safety (OHS) performance is still limited. This study aims to address the issue, contributing to current literature about the protection of employees and the prevention of occupational risks in the waste management sector. The study was conducted at 66 enterprises in Portugal. Data about OHS management practices was collected through different sources, such as questionnaires applied to employers and analysis of documents and records available at the enterprise. A summative index that assesses seven OHS performance aspects was used to characterize the enterprises regarding their OHS performance level. The results showed that micro and small-sized waste management firms display several constraints with regard to OHS management. Several enterprises still do not have organized preventive services. Additionally, OSH policies or objectives, risk assessment, training and accident recording mechanisms were found to be non-existent in several cases. The time dedicated by employers to OHS issues and the support of external advisory services was also low for some firms. A positive and statistically significant association was found between these variables and the enterprises’ OHS performance level. Future research will focus on designing an intervention to improve OHS in the waste management sector as a whole.@en

Background: Limited knowledge regarding the relative effectiveness of workplace accident prevention approaches creates barriers to informed decision-making by policy makers, public health practitioners, workplace, and worker advocates. Objectives: The objective of this review was to assess the effectiveness of broad categories of safety interventions in preventing accidents at work. The review aims to compare effects of safety interventions to no intervention, usual activities, or alternative intervention, and if possible, to examine which constituent components of safety intervention programs contribute more strongly to preventing accidents at work in a given setting or context. Date Sources: Studies were identified through electronic bibliographic searches, government policy databanks, and Internet search engines. The last search was carried out on July 9, 2015. Gray literature were identified by searching OSH ROM and Google. No language or date restrictions were applied. Searches done between February and July of 2015 included PubMed (1966), Embase (1980), CINAHL (1981), OSH ROM (NIOSHTIC 1977, HSELINE 1977, CIS-DOC 1974), PsycINFO (1806), EconLit (1969), Web of Science (1969), and ProQuest (1861); dates represent initial availability of each database. Websites of pertinent institutions (NIOSH, Perosh) were also searched. Study Eligibility Criteria, Participants, and Interventions: Included studies had to focus on accidents at work, include an evaluation of a safety intervention, and have used injuries at work, or a relevant proxy, as an outcome measure. Experimental, quasi-experimental, and observational study designs were utilized, including randomized controlled trials (RCTs), controlled before and after (CBA) studies, and observational designs using serial measures (interrupted time series, retrospective cohort designs, and before and after studies using multiple measures). Interventions were classified by approach at the individual or group level, and broad categories based on the prevention approach including modification of:. Attitudes (through information and persuasive campaign messaging). Behaviors (through training, incentives, goal setting, feedback/coaching). Physiological condition (by physical training). Climate/norms/culture (by coaching, feedback, modification of safety management/leadership). Structural conditions (including physical environment, engineering, legislation and enforcement, sectorial-level norms). When combined approaches were used, interventions were termed “multifaceted,” and when an approach(es) is applied to more than one organizational level (e.g., individual, group, and/or organization), it is termed “across levels.”. Study Appraisal and Synthesis Methods: Narrative report review captured industry (NACE), work setting, participant characteristics, theoretical basis for approach, intervention fidelity, research design, risk of bias, contextual detail, outcomes measures and results. Additional items were extracted for studies with serial measures including approaches to improve internal validity, assessments of reasonable statistical approaches (Effective Practice of Organization of Care [EPOC] criteria) and overall inference. Random-effects inverse variance weighted meta-analytic methods were used to synthesize odds ratios, rate ratios, or standardized mean differences for the outcomes for RCT and CBA studies with low or moderate levels of heterogeneity. For studies with greater heterogeneity and those using serial measures, we relied on narrative analyses to synthesize findings. Results: In total 100 original studies were included for synthesis analysis, including 16 RCT study designs, 30 CBA study designs, and 54 studies using serial measures (ITS study designs). These studies represented 120 cases of safety interventions. The number of participants included 31,971,908 individuals in 59 safety interventions, 417,693 groups/firms in 35 safety interventions, and 15,505 injuries in 17 safety interventions. Out of the 59 safety interventions, two were evaluating national prevention measures, which alone accounted for 31,667,110 individuals. The remaining nine safety interventions used other types of measures, such as safety exposure, safety observations, gloves or claim rates. Strong evidence supports greater effects being achieved with safety interventions directed toward the group or organization level rather than individual behavior change. Engineering controls are more effective at reducing injuries than other approaches, particularly when engineered changes can be introduced without requiring “decision-to-use” by workplaces. Multifaceted approaches combining intervention elements on the organizational level, or across levels, provided moderate to strong effects, in particular when engineering controls were included. Interventions based on firm epidemiologic evidence of causality and a strong conceptual approach were more effective. Effects that are more modest were observed (in short follow-up) for safety climate interventions, using techniques such as feedback or leadership training to improve safety communication. There was limited evidence for a strong effect at medium-term with more intense counseling approaches. Evidence supports regulation/legislation as contributing to the prevention of accidents at work, but with lower effect sizes. Enforcement appears to work more consistently, but with smaller effects. In general, the results were consistent with previous systematic reviews of specific types of safety interventions, although the effectiveness of economic incentives to prevent accidents at work was not consistent with our results, and effectiveness of physiological safety intervention was only consistent to some extent. Limitations: Acute musculoskeletal injuries and injuries from more long-time workplace exposures were not always clearly distinguished in research reports. In some studies acute and chronic exposures were mixed, resulting in inevitable misclassification. Of note, the classification of these events also remains problematic in clinical medicine. It was not possible to conduct meta-analyses on all types of interventions (due to variability in approach, context, and participants). The findings presented for most intervention types are from limited sources, and assessment of publication bias was not possible. These issues are not surprising, given the breadth of the field of occupational safety. To incorporate studies using serial measures, which provide the only source of information for some safety interventions such as legislation, we took a systematic, grounded approach to their review. Rather than requiring more stringent, specific criteria for inclusion of ITS studies, we chose to assess how investigators justified their approach to design and analyses, based on the context in which they were working. We sought to identify measures taken to improve external validity of studies, reasonable statistical inference, as well as an overall appropriate inferential process. We found the process useful and enlightening. Given the new approach, we may have failed to extract points others may find relevant. Similarly, to facilitate the broad nature of this review, we used a novel categorization of safety interventions, which is likely to evolve with additional use. The broad scope of this review and the time and resources available did not allow for contacting authors of original papers or seeking translation of non-English manuscripts, resulting in a few cases where we did not have sufficient information that may have been possible to obtain from the authors. Conclusions and Implications of Key Findings: Our synthesis of the relative effectiveness of workplace safety interventions is in accordance with the Public Health Hierarchy of Hazard Control. Specifically, more effective interventions eliminate risk at the source of the hazard through engineering solutions or the separation of workers from hazards; effects were greater when these control measures worked independently of worker “decision-to-use” at the worksite. Interventions based on firm epidemiological evidence of causality and clear theoretical bases for the intervention approach were more effective in preventing injuries. Less effective behavioral approaches were often directed at the prevention of all workplace injuries through a common pathway, such as introducing safety training, without explicitly addressing specific hazards. We caution that this does not mean that training does not play an essential function in worker safety, but rather that it is not effective in the absence of other efforts. Due to the potential to reach large groups of workers through regulation and enforcement, these interventions with relatively modest effects, could have large population-based effects.@en

Een aantal jaar geleden zag ik in Peking een schilderij van de Grote Roerganger, Mao Zedong. Mao staat alleen op een berg, met zijn handen op zijn rug, de flappen van zijn jas aan weerszijden opengewaaid door de wind. Achter hem zijn besneeuwde bergtoppen zichtbaar. Het is koud daarboven, en eenzaam. Hij kijkt aandachtig naar links (waar anders?), maar wij zien niet naar wat.@en

Het Bestuur van de NVVK heeft afgelopen oktober en november door een extern bureau een onderzoek onder haar leden laten uitvoeren. Dit onderzoek bestond uit een kwalitatief deel en een kwantitatief deel. De eerste resultaten daarvan zijn tijdens de Algemene Ledenvergadering van november 2019 gepresenteerd. Voor wie er toen niet bij was, volgt hier een bondige samenvatting.@en

De NVVK bestaat dit jaar 75 jaar, dit mag u niet ontgaan zijn. Een mooi moment om stil te staan bij het vakgebied veiligheidskunde en de veiligheidsprofessional, die hier de scepter zwaait. Wat bezielt die veiligheidsprofessional toch? En is dat in de loop van de tijd veranderd? Waar komt dit door?@en

Niet zo heel lang geleden stormde een veiligheidsprofessional na afloop van een praatje op mij af om mij te bezweren dat het vasthouden van de leuning een voortreffelijke maatregel is. In mijn ogen is het eerder betuttelend. Negatieve veiligheid, we moeten er nu écht vanaf.@en

In de zoektocht naar het verbeteren van de veiligheidsprestatie komt veerkracht in de literatuur op als een mogelijke vervolgstap, een stap na het werken aan veiligheidscultuur. Wat houdt een veerkrachtige operatie in voor een organisatie? Wat zijn de resultaten van een operationele-veerkrachttraining?@en

Het overkomt iedereen: dagdromen of even met je gedachten afdwalen. Het is onvermijdelijk. Het is menselijk. Maar wat is het nog meer? Is het gevaarlijk? Misschien. Is het leuk? Soms niet. Is het te voorkomen? Waarschijnlijk niet.@en

U loopt naar een andere kamer om een boek te pakken. Terwijl u daar bent, valt uw oog op een rekening die nog niet is betaald. U pakt die op en wilt weer naar de andere kamer teruggaan. Op dat moment realiseert u zich dat u voor iets anders naar deze kamer was gekomen. Maar voor wat ook alweer?@en

Het zal niemand zijn ontgaan: dit jaar vond wederom een NVVK-congres plaats, op 31 maart en 1 april in Papendal. Achteraf is het congres onder de leden van de NVVK geëvalueerd met behulp van een internet-enquête. Hieronder de resultaten en een evaluatie daarvan.@en

Het Cynefin-raamwerk is een denkmodel dat managers kan helpen bij het begrijpen van verschillende situaties en het nemen van gepaste besluiten. Wat dit raamwerk precies inhoudt en hoe een manager ermee kan werken, daarover gaat dit artikel.@en

In de SER-handreiking Arbeidsveiligheid. Aanpak voor betere veiligheidsprestaties wordt haarfijn uitgelegd hoe je maximaal kunt presteren in veilig werken. Tijdens het schrijven van de handreiking hebben Jos Bus en Frank Guldenmund zich vaak afgevraagd hoe een topcoach tegen de handreiking en de sportmetaforen aankijkt. Wat zou bijvoorbeeld Louis van Gaal ervan vinden? Ze beelden zich in dat een gesprek met Dé Bondscoach zo zou kunnen gaan…@en

De bal is rond. Dat geldt in de sport maar zeker ook voor veilig werken. Je kunt winnen en je kunt verliezen. Als je wint, ben je blij, als je verliest heb je gewoon… pech. Game over. Of niet? Wij vinden van niet en daarom schreven wij de handreiking arbeidsveiligheid. Zodat je kunt winnen in arbeidsveiligheid. Maar hoe zorg je dat je wint in veiligheid en hoe voorkom je dat je verliest?@en