Facilitating project document

FACILITATING PROJECT (administrative)	GPA 2.1b: Toolkits for physical risks
Facilitating Project Title	Toolkits and other resources to improve assessment and management of PHYSICAL risks at the workplace.
GPA Objective	Objective 2: to protect and promote health at the workplace.
GPA Action	11. …the assessment and management of health risks at the workplace should be improved by: defining essential interventions for prevention and control of mechanical, physical, chemical, biological and psychosocial risks in the working environment. Such measures include also integrated management of chemicals at the workplace, elimination of second-hand tobacco smoke from all indoor workplaces, improved occupational safety, and health-impact assessment of new technologies, work processes and products at the design stage. 12. …protecting health at the workplace also requires enacting regulations and adopting a basic set of occupational health standards to make certain that all workplaces comply with minimum requirements for health and safety protection, ensuring an appropriate level of enforcement, strengthening workplace health inspection, and building up collaboration between the competent regulatory agencies according to specific national circumstances. 15. …work on creating practical tools for assessment and management of occupational risks, recommending minimum requirements for health protection at the workplace, providing guidance on development of healthy workplaces, and on promoting health at the workplace. …
Priority Area	2.1b: Develop practical toolkits for the assessment and management of OH risks (focus: physical risks)
Purposes of facilitating project	The projects included here relate to the development of tools for the assessment and management of occupational risks related to physical hazards. This Facilitating Project will be particularly useful in coordinating these distinct physical risks. Projects are grouped into: (1) Noise and Vibration; (2) Projects related to Radiation Risks; (3) Projects related to injury hazards; and (4) Projects related to heat stress.
GPA Manager	Stavroula Leka; Aditya Jain
CC Initiative Leaders and contact information	Dave Zalk and Henri Heussen, IOHA
WHO responsible person	Susan Wilburn
Collaborating centre partners with separate contributing projects	1: Projects related to Noise and Vibration GPA 2.15e Code of conduct for noise control in the music- and entertainment sector. Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA), Germany. Project Leader: Georg Brockt, [e-mail] GPA 2.12c Compendium on hearing conservation for professionals in music- and entertainment sector. Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA), Germany. Project Leader: Georg Brockt, [e-mail] 2: Projects related to radiation risks GPA 2.15u Assessing UV exposure: measurements and prediction of individual exposure. Institut universitaire romand de Santé au Travail (IST), Switzerland. Project Leader : Antoine Milon, [e-mail] 3 : Projects related to injury hazards (none at this time) 4: Projects related to heat stress GPA2.11u Development of Toolkits for High Occupational Temperatures and Productivity Suppression. Sri Ramachandra University, India. Project leaders: Kalpana Balakrishnan [e-mail] and Ayyappan Ramalingam
WHO Regional offices actively involved in this project (name and email)
Summary of the project (max100 words)	The assessment and management of health risks at the workplace should be improved by defining essential interventions for prevention and control of physical risks in the working environment. Such measures include improved occupational safety, and health-impact assessment of new technologies, work processes and products at the design stage Development of guidance on best practice OHS standards on physical risks. The development of an evidence base on the impact and management of physical risks including identification of new risk factors such as due to introduction of new technologies, processes of globalization, as well as changes in the work organization. Development of training materials and programmes on the assessment and management of physical risks. CCs contribute to defining common criteria of toolkits, develop inventories, framework documents, mapping of use and types of tools, to assess and manage the identified new as well as existing risks. Advanced toolkits will be implemented and evaluated.
Actual and anticipated deliverables by 2012 from contributing projects	1: Projects related to Noise and Vibration GPA 2.15e Code of conduct for noise control in the music- and entertainment sector GPA 2.12c Compendium on hearing conservation for professionals in music- and entertainment sector. 2: Projects related to Radiation Risks GPA 2.15u A web based user-friendly tool assessing the exposure of any body part according to the posture, the activity, the time spend outdoor 3: Projects relating to Injury Hazards (none at this time) 4: Projects related to heat stress GPA2.11u Completion of pilot study using a Toolkit for High Occupational Temperatures and Productivity Suppression
Critical gaps to be filled by 2012	Projects that relate to the development of tools for the management of occupational physical risks, in addition to those already included projects related to injury risks are sought.
Examples of deliverables desired by 2012	An injury toolkit.
Barriers to success that must be addressed