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Umbrella term to indicate digital systems for monitoring and enhancing workers’ safety and health including for example smart PPE (that can identify levels of gases, toxins, noise levels and high-risk temperatures), wearables (able to interact with workers, with sensors that may be embedded in hardhats or safety glasses), mobile or static systems that use cameras and sensors (e.g. drones that effectively reach and monitor dangerous areas of work sites avoiding to put humans in danger in the construction and the mining industries). enhance occupational safety and health (OSH) by monitoring risks, improving emergency responses and fostering a proactive safety culture. However, apart from the benefits, this info sheet addresses OSH related concerns such as data handling and privacy, over-reliance, increased stress and new physical hazards.

 A few Umbrella term to indicate digital systems for monitoring and enhancing workers’ safety and health including for example smart PPE (that can identify levels of gases, toxins, noise levels and high-risk temperatures), wearables (able to interact with workers, with sensors that may be embedded in hardhats or safety glasses), mobile or static systems that use cameras and sensors (e.g. drones that effectively reach and monitor dangerous areas of work sites avoiding to put humans in danger in the construction and the mining industries). examples include Wearables are electronic devices with sensors and computational capacity (e.g. smart watches, data glasses, or other devices with embedded sensors or tags), which can be placed on different body parts to gather data to be fed into other digital systems for processing purposes. They can be used to analyse physiological and psychological data such as feelings, sleep, movements, heart rate, body temperature and blood pressure, via applications either installed on the device itself or on external devices, such as smartphones connected to the cloud. , monitoring software and Smart PPE is the last level of protection to be used against hazards for workers and is used when hazards cannot be removed or their risks cannot be mitigated further by collective or organisational measures, engineering designs or maintenance practices – it combines traditional garments with smart parts, such as sensors, detectors, data transfer modules, batteries, cables. . A successful implementation demands worker engagement, transparent data use and privacy safeguards.