Developmental approach of safety in ergonomics/human factors: insights of constructed safety in six work environments.

This article brings together works on the concept of constructed safety in ergonomics, carried out over the last twenty-five years. Firstly, we situate this approach to safety in relation to previously developed existing models (e.g. regulated and managed safety) with regard to the development of activity-centred ergonomics. We then present six research actions in activity-centred ergonomics from a selection of different fields, from small companies to the industry of the future in an international group: public works, hospitals, aeronautical industry, railway transport, agriculture, and chemical industry, in order to describe constructed safety applications. The results highlight that constructed safety is respectively raised by mutual knowledge between workers and management, collective decision making, collective reflexive work on safety rules, spatiotemporal articulation of the different safety sources, knowledge integration on pesticide exposure situations by designers and regulation, social regulation sustaining risk understanding and safety aspect involving a diversity of actors (workers, preventionists, managers, local residents and public authorities). By focusing on the analysis of actual safety practices in real work and real exposure situations, constructed safety aims to account for the way in which safety is deployed on a daily basis to meet production and health objectives. This understanding contributes to the design of safe work systems in a developmental way and to propose an operating model of constructed safety.

Safety issues are paramount in work environments where high-risk work activities take place. This article proposes an operating model of 'constructed safety' to help address these health and safety issues. This developmental approach to safety is based on the models and methods of activity-centred ergonomics.

Strategies to Assess Occupational Exposure to Airborne Nanoparticles: Systematic Review and Recommendations.

In many industrial sectors, workers are exposed to manufactured or unintentionally emitted airborne nanoparticles (NPs). To develop prevention and enhance knowledge surrounding exposure, it has become crucial to achieve a consensus on how to assess exposure to airborne NPs by inhalation in the workplace. Here, we review the literature presenting recommendations on assessing occupational exposure to NPs. The 23 distinct strategies retained were analyzed in terms of the following points: target NPs, objectives, steps, "measurement strategy" (instruments, physicochemical analysis, and data processing), "contextual information" presented, and "work activity" analysis. The robustness (consistency of information) and practical aspects (detailed methodology) of each strategy were estimated. The objectives and methodological steps varied, as did the measurement techniques. Strategies were essentially based on NPs measurement, but improvements could be made to better account for "contextual information" and "work activity". Based on this review, recommendations for an operational strategy were formulated, integrating the work activity with the measurement to provide a more complete assessment of situations leading to airborne NP exposure. These recommendations can be used with the objective of producing homogeneous exposure data for epidemiological purposes and to help improve prevention strategies.

Industry 4.0 design project based on exposure situations: A case study in aeronautics.

BACKGROUND: Industry 4.0 generates risks renewing stakes for design projects integrating work activities, as can be done in activity centred ergonomics and participatory ergonomics. OBJECTIVE: This article aims to show the contribution of using typical situations to define requirements for Industry 4.0 design projects from a case study supporting a design project for a plant of the future assembling additive metal manufacturing processes (SLM type) in aeronautics. METHOD: The method is based on construction of the approach, the identification of typical exposure or action situations (through video and measurement) on four different company sites, three collective confrontation interviews (using typical situations) similar to reflexive and constructive simulations, and the setting of requirements. RESULTS: Results highlights specific exposure situations during the work, which the collective confrontation interviews made it possible to understand, enabling to collectively debate organisational, technical or social determinants, in order to define requirements from the point of view of the work, within the framework of the design project. CONCLUSION: Discussion of exposure situation allows an initial framework to discuss way to implement the work differently as a first step to transform the current situations during the design process. The observation of the possible use of requirements in project management can then be carried out. This exploratory work makes it possible to observe the contribution of the use of typical exposure situations as a complement to typical action situations in order to specify exposure situations and identify transformation perspectives.

What does ergonomics have to do with nanotechnologies? A case study.

Despite recent concerns for workers' health, exposure situations to nanoparticles can occur in numerous workplaces. Understanding how exposures occur considering human work in these transformations remains a crucial issue of nanotechnologies. The objective of this article is to understand exposure situations to nanoparticles, their determinants and the resources to act on them. This understanding was achieved by specific measurement of nanoparticles aerosols, combined with an analysis of work activity (actions performed and physical strain) in a rubber industry. The presentation of real time measurements, associated with the video of work situations, during confrontation interviews becomes a means of making exposing work activities visible, to analyze and transform them from the points of view formulated by the company's stakeholders. In this way, characterized "typical exposure situations" serve to trigger discussions and open up new spaces for debate highlighting how innovation affects work and gives rise to enhanced prevention projects.

Contributions of participatory ergonomics to the involvement of workers in chemical risk prevention projects.

BACKGROUND: In a context where preventive measures are developed via a functionalist and technological approach, the aim of this work is to set out general principles and methods for new preventive solutions that will enrich these existing measures. OBJECTIVE: We propose an approach centered on the involvement of workers at all hierarchical levels around "intermediary objects" of prevention in order to foster a collective debate. This might provide empowered workers to be actors into their own prevention of risk faced. METHODS: Observational data was coupled with chemical and physiological measurements. We developed, reworked and enriched the notion of risk representation, which promotes the visibility and recognition of the knowledge built, developed and held by workers on their activities and on ways to protect themselves from dangers or hazards. RESULTS: Implementation of the method generates detailed knowledge of chemical risks, knowledge that is constructed by the workers. This knowledge is made possible by the experience of the body and senses, and becomes accessible via references to the domestic and professional sphere in reflexive activities. The actors get involved and make use of their individual, collective and organizational resources to propose prevention solutionsCONCLUSIONS:Use of intermediate prevention objects in an "intermediate space for dialogue" allows dialogues to be produced and fostered. Ultimately, these spaces are circulating entities for the co-production of knowledge for action: to generate knowledge and innovative prevention solutions collectively.