Health and safety at work, a matter of gender too

Objectives In Italian laws concerning health and safety at work, mainly Legislative Decree no. 81/2008, gender, age, geographical origin and contractual condition, become important aspects to be considered in order to ensure "uniformity of protection for female and male workers throughout the country through the respect of the essential levels of benefits relating to civil and social rights. " The Italian Workers' Compensation Authority (INAIL), throught its Central Guarantee Committee for equal opportunities, enhancement of worker well-being and against-discriminations (CUG), has carried out a scientific research with the aim of giving prevention tools in the "gender based risk assessment" field. The methodology was based on a multidisciplinary approach, in order to give a better understanding of laws and policies of the European Union, starting from "Community strategy 2007-2012 for health and safety at work." The present work illustrates the path made by INAIL, starting with a pilot project, in the implementation stage - launched by CUG among INAIL Toscana Regional Head Office, in collaboration with the University of Pisa – in order to outline and release guidelines for gender mainstreaming in the current Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (in Italian SGSSL). Methods The gender perspective integration into the OHSMS SGSL and the excellence distinguishing mark of the company / organization require an Occupational Health and Safety Management System that evolves in terms of ability to produce health and reduce risks for women and men, having regard to their peculiarities. And that is why a path which starts from the self-assessment (based on effectiveness, appropriateness and gender equity) of organization SGSL was devised and proposed. It leads the employer toward the drafting of the risk assessment document in a gender perspective, to finally reach the gender integration of SGSL. Results The path enabled to reach the development of procedures and tools, "easy to use" - currently available, or in the release phase, on the INAIL website - useful for assessing the integration gender degree in corporate management and enabled to draw up the integrated risk assessment document in a gender perspective. In order to facilitate the drafting, risk maps and risk fact sheets are available, which summarize the current scientific knowledge with reference to gender. Conclusions The risk assessment must take into account all the factors, at both bio-physiological and cultural side, that can interact with certain agents or hazardous conditions and with perception itself of risk. Only by considering all these aspects in a multidimensional way it will be possible to take preventive measures and appropriate protection for risk management in a gender perspective. Floor Plan – XX World Congress on Safety and Health at Work 2014 - Pagina 2 di 2 https:/