Occupational Safety Climate in the Swedish Equine Sector.

The Swedish equine sector is considered a high-risk work environment, with relatively high injury rates and high severity of injuries. General safety research has identified a correlation between the safety performance and safety culture, but little is known about the intricacies of the safety culture in the Swedish equine sector, especially concerning managers' and employees' perceptions of their work environment. The safety climate assessment is recognised as an effective tool for identifying potential problems in the workplace, thus enhancing safety behaviour and decreasing the frequency and severity of injuries.

Work environment investments: Critical elements for success in optimizing occupational health and safety effects.

Background: A considerable amount of money is invested annually in workplaces to promote creative, comfortable and safe work environments. The processes and effects of these investments are however not sufficiently studied.

Objective: The objective of this article is to examine work environment investment processes and identify organizational critical elements for optimizing investment in terms of occupational health and safety effects for employees.

Work environment investments: outcomes from three cases.

Work environment investments are important in order to create a healthy and safe workplace. This article presents findings from a seven-step interventions process aimed at examining and following-up work environment investments in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with a particular focus on air contaminants. Three different cases were analyzed and included in the study: (a) an educational center for welding; (b) a paint station in furniture manufacturing; (c) a joinery in furniture manufacturing.

Role of Headmasters, Teachers, and Supervisors in Knowledge Transfer about Occupational Health and Safety to Pupils in Vocational Education.

Background: Young people are at an increased risk for illness in working life. The authorities stipulate certain goals for training in occupational health and safety (OHS) in vocational schools. A previous study concluded that pupils in vocational education had limited knowledge in the prevention of health risks at work.

Short-term variation in occupational exposure to air contaminants.

Many industrial workers are exposed to air contaminants. A significant proportion of this exposure is found to occur as short peaks, a fact that has received limited attention in the literature. The present study focuses on short-term variation in air contaminant exposure measured at the level of seconds, linking exposure peaks to typical work situations in selected Swedish industries.

Knowledge and Experiences of Risks among Pupils in Vocational Education.

Background: Young male and female workers are over-represented in statistics concerning negative outcomes of poor work environment and risky work. Young workers often have low awareness of risk, a lack of safety training, and inadequate introduction to the work. The aim of this study was to identify the knowledge and experiences of pupils of vocational schools concerning potential work environment risks in their future work.

Swedish entrepreneurs' use of occupational health services.

Small-scale enterprises are less often covered by occupational health services and have insufficient awareness about health and risks in the work environment. This study investigated how Swedish entrepreneurs in small-scale enterprises use occupational health services. The study used a questionnaire sent in two waves, 5 years apart.

Assessing motivation for work environment improvements: internal consistency, reliability and factorial structure.

Problem: Workers' motivation to actively take part in improvements to the work environment is assumed to be important for the efficiency of investments for that purpose. That gives rise to the need for a tool to measure this motivation.

Method: A questionnaire to measure motivation for improvements to the work environment has been designed.

Systematic Work Environment Management: experiences from implementation in Swedish small-scale enterprises.

Small-scale enterprises face difficulties in fulfilling the regulations for organising Systematic Work Environment Management. This study compared three groups of small-scale manufacturing enterprises with and without support for implementing the provision. Two implementation methods, supervised and network method, were used.