Abstract
The literature on occupational safety shows that the main safety concerns focus on physical, interpersonal and organizational aspects. Plus, there are studies that indicate experience and knowledge transmission as important aspects for the preservation of health and safety at work. A case study was conducted, in a Portuguese chemical industry, to identify workers’ concerns on safety at work, and, to understand whether experience or knowledge transmission are considered in these concerns. Data was collected through the Technique of Free Association with 43 workers. A descriptive analysis and content analysis of the data were carried out. Results allow the identification of seven types of safety concerns (some are common concerns) and show that workers’ experience and knowledge transmission are, in fact, considered as a concern. This underpin the originality of this study and contribute to complement occupational safety perceptions, particularly in studies in industries considered dangerous, such as chemical industry.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Gyekye, S.A., Salminen, S.: Organizational safety climate and work experience. Int. J. Occup. Saf. Ergon. 16(4), 431–443 (2010)
Craven, C., Byrne, K., Sims-Gould, J., Martin-Matthews, A.: Types and patterns of safety concerns in home care: staff perspectives. Int. J. Qual. Health Care 24(5), 525–531 (2012)
Goldenhar, L.M., Ruder, A.M., Ewers, L.M., Earnest, S., Haag, W.M., Petersen, M.R.: Concerns of the dry-cleaning industry: a qualitative investigation of labor and management. Am. J. Ind. Med. 35, 112–123 (1999)
White, H., Khan, K., Lau, C., Leung, H., Montgomery, D., Rohlman, D.S.: Identifying health and safety concerns in southeast Asian immigrant nail salon workers. Arch. Environ. Occup. Health 70(4), 196–203 (2015)
Grote, G.: Safety management in different high-risk domains – all the same? Saf. Sci. 50, 1983–1992 (2012)
Faurie, I., Planché, F., Deltor, S., Ricaud, C., Grau, A., Guy, C.: Better understanding H&S Knowledge Transfer: proposals for classing prevention guides. Laboreal 9(2), 52–62 (2013)
Nascimento, A.: Producir salud, producir seguridad : desarrollar una cultura colectiva de seguridad en la radioterapia. Laboreal 6(1), 1–9 (2009)
Griffin, M.A., Neal, A.: Perceptions of safety at work: a framework for linking safety climate to safety performance, knowledge, and motivation. J. Occup. Health Psychol. 5(3), 347–358 (2000)
Di Giacomo, P.: Teoria e métodos de análises de las representaciones sociales. In: Paez, D. (ed.) Pensamiento, indivíduo y sociedade, cognición et representación social, pp. 278–295. Fundamentos, Madrid (1987)
Doise, W., Clemence, A., Lorenzi-Cioldi, F.: Representations sociales et analyse de données. Presse Universitaires de Grenoble, Grenoble (1992)
Duffy, V.G.: Effects of training and experience on perception of hazard and risk. Ergonomics 46(1–3), 114–125 (2003)
Eiter, B.M., Bellanca, J.L.: Identify the influence of risk attitude, work experience, and safety training on hazard recognition in mining. Mining, Metallurgy Explor. 37(6), 1931–1939 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42461-020-00293-8
Leiter, M.P., Zanaletti, W., Argentero, P.: Occupational risk perception, safety training, and injury prevention: testing a model in the Italian printing industry. J. Occup. Health Psychol. 14(1), 1–10 (2009)
Vasconcelos, R., Silva, D., Pinto, R., Duarte, S.: Evaluating work and training within an intercommunicating process of change: reflections drawn from a case study on a chemicals industrial company in Portugal. Work 41, 4564–4571 (2012)
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the FCT under Grant PD/BD/143112/2018.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Pereira, C., Delgoulet, C., Santos, M. (2021). Safety Concerns in a Portuguese Chemical Industry: A Workers’ Perspective. In: Arezes, P.M., Boring, R.L. (eds) Advances in Safety Management and Human Performance. AHFE 2021. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 262. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80288-2_24
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80288-2_24
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-80287-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-80288-2
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)