Bionic suits a workplace hazard of the future?

Speaking at the recent Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) conference in Telford, Peter Ellwood of the Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL) explained how safety officials were already looking ahead to 2017 to prepare for possible future risks.

The 'Horizon Scanning' project, headed by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), had already identified a range of issues to focus on over the next few years.

These included obesity, nanotechnology, changing work patterns, increasingly complex occupational health problems and the "hydrogen economy".

The use of hydrogen fuel-cells to power vehicles and machinery could present a greater risk of fire, for example, or lead to an increase in hazards associated with high-pressure storage.

Another major issue was workplace "demographics". Mr Ellwood explained that the UK had already experienced major changes in this area, with a shift towards more blue collar work, more working women, and a growth in flexible and part time roles.

He said such changes were expected to continue, with more older workers and greater migration also having an influence on the working population.

While research had suggested that older workers experienced fewer injuries in the workplace, studies had also shown that their injuries tended to be more severe. On migration, factors such as communication difficulties, cultural differences in risk perception and health and safety culture "may affect risk exposure", according to HSL.

New challenges

A more outlandish prediction for the future, according to Mr Ellwood, was the potential for so-called exoskeletal suits to feature in the workplace of the future.

Sounding like something from a science-fiction film, the technology was currently being developed in Japan, and could be used to assist people in the lifting of heavy objects or may even help workers less physically capable to carry out strenuous manual tasks.

A prototype system developed by Yoshiyuki Sankai of the University of Tsukuba in Japan, known as HAL, has been shown to help people lift up to 40 kg more than they could manage unaided.

Similar developments in Japan - such as the famous Honda Asimo robot (pictured) - could eventually lead to robotic assistants helping out in workplaces. Developments in so-called artificial-intelligence, where computers think for themselves rather than simply following pre-programmed instructions, could also present new and interesting workplace risks.

Speaking earlier at the IOSH '07 conference, HSE chief executive Geoffrey Podger said that those managing health and safety needed to be "flexible" in order to respond to new challenges.

He said the HSE had successfully adapted to the changing workplace since the Health and Safety at Work Act was first introduced in 1974, and that this approach would continue.

"Health and safety will always be a 'Forth Bridge' problem," he said. "As soon as restoration is finished, the need is to start again. Nevertheless, we have seen improvements - the challenge to all of us is to maintain our present success whilst working on new and reactive areas."