Risk awareness versus risk assessment in manufacturing: A field study

Risk assessment in manufacturing work environments gives a relevant contribution to health and safety management for the operators: hazards are identified, and the associated risks are quantified in order to promote the risk mitigation and to improve the safety level for all the workers involved. In this paper the relation between the risk assessment performed by Safety managers and workers' risk awareness is investigated using as case study a manufacturing plant (heavy vehicles) in Northern Italy. Risks are assessed with a set of widely used procedures and methods that return a level of risk related to each workplace. According to the most recent Italian regulation on safety at works (D.Lgs. 81/08) each worker has to be informed and trained about all risks he would be exposed to during her/his working activity. Operators are the final stakeholders of this process that started with a risk assessment performed by experts and ended with a transmission of information involving safety, personal health and working behaviour. To compare risk assessment and risk awareness, a field study was performed with more than 50 workers surveyed on their personal awareness of level of risk associated to their working task. The comparison highlighted significant miss-matches that are here discussed. To solve this miss-match a review of safety information methods and safety training for workers was identified as countermeasure.