It is high time European countries
and the EU changed their focus when it comes to improving working
environments, and that they made work capacity key, thinks Palle Ørbæk.
He has refocused the research at the National Research Centre for the
Working Environment, NFA, which he has been leading for the past nine
years.
“So far research and work to improve working environments both in
Denmark and in the rest of Europe has mainly been focusing on
preventing physical or psychological damage. But this classical
approach is too narrow. It’s a far better starting point to make sure
everyone can work to their best capacity, and that’s our starting point
at the NFA”, says Palle Ørbæk.
Europe’s population is ageing and many retire early because of
reduced work capacity and ill health. This trend worries both Palle
Ørbæk and the other ten European research centre leaders in Perosh, a
network of 11 European working environment research centres. Mr Ørbæk
used to be the network’s chairman.
In a new joint report to the EU and European countries the network
points out there are still major challenges surrounding working
environments to be solved. The report says skeletal muscular pains like
back pain make up the most common reason behind sick leave in European
workplaces. It also says workers across Europe fear a growing range of
psychosocial problems like stress, as global competition grows and
working patters change.
More knowledge about pain
In their report ‘Sustainable workplaces of the future – European
Research Challenges for occupational safety and health’ the 11 research
centres say these challenges as well as the challenges resulting from
an increased use of nano technology by industries should be given top
priority in the coming years.
There is also cross-border agreement that the many major challenges
can only be solved by working on many fronts to safeguard workers’ work
capacity. Palle Ørbæk is very pleased with this:
“It is a very positive development when there’s growing agreement
across Europe that the classical approach is not enough to stop people
going off sick and becoming unemployable.”
He thinks far more needs to be learnt about pain, and about the
complex relationship between the physical and social reasons for why
some people loose their ability to work because of a bad back while
others manage to work well despite back pain.
Mental safety culture
The reasons behind stress are also complex, says Palle Ørbæk.
Workers across Europe are increasingly worried about getting stressed.
And it is a completely rational fear, he thinks. But stress is not only
a working environment problem. It is also a general social problem.
“The 24/7 society is growing. So when we say our workplaces are
stressing us out, this often mirrors that the sum total of work related
and private stress factors has grown.”
He admits he himself sometimes has a hard time deciding that ‘now
the working day is done’ and commit fully to family life at home in
Malmö. Perhaps there is a need for a mental safety culture, he suggests
with a smile. Workplace culture is crucial for both psychological and
physical working environments, including the number of workplace
accidents.
Worrying amount of accidents
Palle Ørbæk is worried by the fact that both in Europe in general
and in Denmark there are still many serious workplace
accidents.
“The statistics are terrible, and the true figures are even higher.
Unfortunately we have failed to put a stop to serious accidents. It’s
especially young, newly hired and foreign workers who are hurt. They
might not have had sufficient instruction or they don’t understand it
and perhaps they come from a country with a completely different
culture,” says Palle Ørbæk.
He thinks the safety culture needs to change. In our part of the
world today everybody think it is reckless to drive without a safety
belt. It was perfectly normal 30 years ago, but the culture has
changed. A similar change is needed when it comes to adapting
workplaces and work processes to prevent accidents from happening.
Action on nano technology now
Palle Ørbæk also thinks it is time for radical and rapid action when
it comes to the use of nano technology. Research on nano safety lags
far behind the industrial use which is powering forward. He thinks
there’s an urgent need to develop tests which can determine whether
products or production methods are safe, or whether regulations are
needed for how to handle the product – aimed both at those involved in
production of products containing nano particles and at end users.
“Personally this situation does not alarm me, because I think we can
get in early enough. But we need to act now,” he says.
Consumer organisations have been particularly worried and demand
products be labelled to allow consumers to choose whether they want to
buy them if they contain nano particles. He leaves it to politicians to
decide whether this is a good solution. But labelling cannot solve all
problems, says Palle Ørbæk. Only a few products containing nano
particles are problematic, and it is impossible for individual
consumers to find out which they are.
Luckily there’s a global focus on nano security. Experts from more
than 30 countries have just visited NFA and it’s new Danish Centre for
Nano-Safety, and over the next three years they will do research into
how to improve risk assessment of nano particles. The centre has
researchers from five Danish research institutions, led by professor
Ulla Vogel at the Danish Research Centre for the Working
Environment.
Optimistic about the future
The Danish government was criticised for failing to mention working
environments in its 2020 economic plan. But Palle Ørbæk is confident,
because if the government is to succeed increasing the labour force
with 180,000 new jobs as promised, it needs to secure good working
environments where there is also space for people with reduced work
capacity.
Meanwhile the Danish parliament last year drew up a plan to improve
working environments towards 2020 in order to reduce the number of
skeletal muscular injuries and psychological stress by 20 percent. The
plan has broad political support.
Palle Ørbæk reckons skeletal muscular damage and stress will remain
great challenges in ten years‘ time, but expects there will be more and
better measures in place to prevent such damage. It will also not be
possible to completely eradicate workplace accidents, but within that
same timeframe there will be considerably fewer, he predicts. He also
thinks new chemicals will present new challenges.
More health focus at work
When that is said, he does believe there will be a breakthrough when
it comes to workers’ general health. The social partners will take more
and more responsibility to make sure that workers get enough sleep, eat
healthily and get enough exercise. And while general health campaigns
appeal mainly to people of higher education, workplace measures can
reach more people, he predicts.
But all this must be done carefully, he says.
“Promoting health at work is a natural extension of the drive to
improve working environments, but it must happen in a way which does
not hamper individuals’ right to choose their own lifestyle. There must
also be proof that it works and is safe. Measuring workers’ blood
pressure doesn’t in it self make anyone healthier.”
A Swedish Dane
Swedes were quicker than Danes to see the need for applying a global
perspective to working environment research, but the Danes have caught
up, thinks Palle Ørbæk. He can make that statement based on
considerable personal experience.
He was born, raised and trained to be a doctor in Denmark, but after
graduating it was easier to get a job on the other side of the strait.
So he moved and got a job at the Lund University Hospital, specialising
in occupational and working environment medicine. Even though he has
spent the past few years working out of Østerbro in Copenhagen with
NFA, he still lives in Sweden with his Swedish wife. Their adult
daughter has moved to Copenhagen. Yet his Swedish roots reveal
themselves in his language: he speaks fluent Danish with a hint of a
Swedish accent.
