Practices
Good Practices are based on HESSME Principles

1. Workplace Health Promotion 'is the combined efforts of employers, employees and society to improve the health and well-being of people at work' (Lisbon Statement). Good health promotion improves work organisation, promotes active participation and encourages personal development.

e.g. Some companies have introduced healthier food that has less salt and fat, and higher fibre food in canteens. Many have introduced schemes to help people stop smoking.

2. Occupational & Environmental Health investigates the patterns of diseases and disorders and tries to identify sources of contaminants affecting people at work (occupational) or outside (environmental). Good occupational or environmental health practice picks up on people's perceptions and risk assessment rather than relying only on existing books.
e.g. Men working in a factory in the USA making the pesticide DBCP only realised that it affected their fertility when they talked about the problems among themselves. Their union arranged fertility checks and found that over half were either sterile or had very low sperm counts.

3. Industrial Hygiene controls hazards at work at source. The substitution principle (as spelt out by the State of Norway) is applied first, then suppression, enclosure and - as a last resort, ventilation. Clearly the last is not good for the surrounding community. Good industrial hygiene seeks to prevent any exposure to health risks.
e.g. engine noise can often be reduced by substiuting materials that are less noisy, then suppressing any noise produced by enclosing it..

4. Accident Prevention is usually covered by governmental (increasingly international) framework to ensure basic standards are followed by all employers, who have the main responsibility to carry out their work safely. Good accident prevention recognises the positive role of employees and consultation with trade unions.
e.g. Awards of good practice in accident prevention are found for a range of industries, particularly SMEs, at the European Health and Safety Agency - Accident Prevention in Practice. Judges look for risks tackled at source, real improvements, sustainability, consensus, transferability. Best examples in European SMEs are found in How to Reduce Workplace Accidents

5. Employee Participation spells out the value of involving people at work in HES systems whether in a large or small workplace. Good practice shows that worker participation through formal schemes is a prerequisite for effective and sustained implementation of Health, Environmental and Safety Management in Enterprises.
e.g. Cornell University analysed the US Toxics Release Inventory and found that the amount of toxic waste released into the environment by manufacturing facilities is reduced most by formally involving employees in pollution prevention activities. This practice reduced toxic waste more than any government agencies, law, or team working and was nearly three times more effective than the average of all the various practices.

6. Cleaner Production develops the principals of industrial hygiene by focusing on introducing processes into industry that clean up at source, rather than fitting "end-of-pipe" technologies. Good cleaner production recognises that "process" includes technology and people.
e.g. many companies have substituted solvents reducing workplace contamination, water pollution and resource costs.

©World Health Organisation 2002
Authors: Dr Charlie Clutterbuck & Dr Bogdan Baranski