Health and Public Safety Precautions in Work

Ines Llamas Ramos^*
*Correspondence: Ines Llamas Ramos, Department of Nursing and Physiotherapy, University of Salamanca, Spain, Tel: (+34) 923 294 41, Email:

Editorial

Work plays a central role in determining health. It provides wages and benefits, shapes life opportunities and resources for individual workers, their families and communities, and may enhance wellbeing, resilience and life satisfaction. Alternatively, working conditions  whether physical exposures, job demands, or psychosocial experiences may cause or contribute to workrelated injury and illness and may increase risk of chronic disease and mental distress. A growing body of research is seeking to understand these intersecting pathways through which work functions as a key social determinant of health A conceptual model can assist in framing research hypotheses and priorities to explore determinants of workers^'s safety, health, and wellbeing. Our previous conceptual model focusing on the workplace setting is centered on the conditions of work, driven by organizational policies, programs and practices within the context of enterprise as well as worker characteristics. Physical, organizational, and psychosocial conditions at work contribute directly to worker safety, health, and wellbeing, and influence enterprise outcomes such as turnover, absence, productivity, and healthcare costs. The model also illustrates causal pathways through which workplace policies, programs, and practices may influence worker and enterprise outcomes, highlighting the importance of organizational interventions that improve working conditions.