Speaker
Description
The purpose of this paper is to use the notion of “culture” given by Socrate, in the Green Jobs sector context, reflecting on building up a safety culture making system, useful to stakeholders involved in green activities that include radiation production as a side effect of their processes. Socratic thinking considered culture as the result of knowledge added to reason, and the only instrument to aim at good. Through culture, individuals operate choices that would nurture their personal growth as well as society’s flourishing. Taking that into account, the paper also addresses the issue of a lack of knowledge among entrepreneurs and stakeholders about Green Jobs, due to the incorrect assumption “green means natural, thus green is safe”.
An example of this misjudgement can be found in geothermal energy production, and its correlation with TENORM/NORM contamination. Therefore, the work aims to seek both regulatory and corporate tools, which are needed to initiate a stratification of good practises in occupational radiation protection in order to create a proper Green Jobs’ safety culture.
Employees’ health and safety is a relevant topic to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations, in terms of good health, decent work and economic growth, and social justice. Thus, this paper tries to draw a virtuous path, getting started with testing stakeholders’ level of knowledge on occupational radiation safety in Green Jobs. Agencies like ILO and EU-OSHA could provide online tests, categorised by professional profiles that are involved in managing or handling potential radioactive materials at any level of the working process. From there, it will be possible to elaborate an educational strategy, according to States’ safety legislation.
Regarding the educational strategy, the utilisation of Portage Method, properly modified, aiming at stakeholders' re-education appears to be an innovative and promising solution. The said method was born as a re-educational programme for those children who suffer from pathologies related to development delays. Its versatility is proven by the fact that the Portage Method system is divided in five different areas of development (respectively cognitive, physical, linguistic, socialising, autonomy), that are easily adjustable to be used with adult people. In addition to that, the incorporation of information technology (declined as Apps and simulation video games) in the educational project makes this approach suitable for companies of any size.
However, creating a culture requires time. Once the behaviour related to each development area is transformed into a habit, instead of being considered as a corporate demand, a proper level of knowledge among stakeholders will be reached. As this change will be happening, radiation occupational safety culture will be existing in the Green Jobs sector.
References:
United Nations General Assembly. (2017). Work of the Statistical Commission pertaining to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (A/RES/71/313). https://ggim.un.org/documents/a_res_71_313.pdf.
Zappella M. (1990). Metodo Portage. Edizioni Omega.
European Agency for Safety and Health at work. (2013). Green jobs and occupational safety and health. Report. doi:10.2802/39554.
INAIL. (2018). Green Jobs: impatto sulla salute e sicurezza dei lavoratori. ISBN 9788874841073.
| Speakers email | g.giaimis@unibs.it |
|---|---|
| Speakers affiliation | Università degli Studi di Brescia |
| Name of Member State/Organization | Italy |
