The Impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on Occupational Health and Safety and Its Applications

Up to now, the world of work has undergone many transformations. Changes in the world of work usually come about as a result of technological growth, demographic or climatic changes, and unforeseen events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. From the perspective of the development of industrial production organizations, technological growth is the center of attention, and four industrial revolutions are considered the turning points of these transformations; in addition to industrial transformations, they have also caused changes in lifestyle and social relations. But it seems that the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0 or IR4) places before humanity a world full of challenges and competition. Survival in such a world, and at its best, requires foresight and preparation. The impact of Industry 4.0 on occupational safety and health The occupational safety and health (OHS) system took shape as a result of the process of industrialization in the world. A process that needed a workforce and provided the ground for people to work; but it created unsuitable working conditions whose consequence was many industrial injuries and occupational diseases. Work health and safety, as a value, arose from legal, ethical, social, and economic considerations and the goals of governments and gave shape to the occupational safety and health system. This system improved workplace safety and the health of workers and reduced injuries in occupational and industrial environments. The development of technology in Industry 4.0 is a double-edged sword that may either add to such a value or confront it with threats. The application of Industry 4.0 technologies in the occupational safety and health (OSH) system New technologies can be used to create a safe work environment by removing humans from very dangerous work environments. These technologies can also be used for precise, real-time monitoring. For example, using a deep-learning algorithm and a closed-circuit camera, it is possible to monitor human behavioral patterns or to monitor the leakage of chemicals in real time. The use of virtual reality and smart glasses can be very useful as part of safety training. Likewise, wearable robots can prevent musculoskeletal disorders. Three-dimensional instructions and remote access to experts are among its other advantages. Occupational safety and health challenges in Industry 4.0 In the near future, the measurement and even assessment of many harmful factors as well as hard and dangerous jobs in industry will quickly be entrusted to smart systems. Changes in the field of occupational safety and health do not stop here, and shaking changes are on the way. Therefore, it is necessary for today's paradigms in occupational health and safety to change. One of the transformations related to Industry 4.0 is the creation of an intensely competitive atmosphere at work, which steeply increases the need for flexibility. In such an atmosphere, outsourcing and new forms of flexible and growing employment accelerate toward precarious jobs. Precarious jobs requiring flexibility have always existed. Nevertheless, there is no integrated and comprehensive definition of precarious work. Sometimes it is also referred to by terms such as conditional, atypical, or non-standard work. Some sources, to identify precarious work and to make it describable, consider these four factors in the instability of these jobs: Temporal: low certainty of continued employment Organizational: the absence of individual and collective control by workers over conditions, duration, scheduling, and intensity of work Economic: insufficient wages Legal social protection: matters such as unfair dismissal, discrimination, unacceptable practices in carrying out duties, and the absence or shortage of access to social-security services Although precarious jobs have always existed, the Fourth Industrial Revolution has created an unprecedented acceleration in their growth and gives them new content. In the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the world, with the development of information and communication technologies, overcomes temporal and spatial differences. Employers and entrepreneurs, in order to earn income and adapt to the new world of work, are forced into such submission and flexibility that they set aside concerns such as job security, work structures, roles, and standard responsibilities. One can also name the elimination of the human workforce and the demand-driven economy as other occupational safety and health challenges in Industry 4.0. You, dear readers, can obtain the book "The Cyber-Physical Approach to Work Health and Safety", a work by Ms. Shirazeh Arghami and colleagues, from Hak Publications, to gain more complete and comprehensive information and details about the matters raised in this article.