Digital Worker and Exposure Risk Assessment

Risk prevention and promotion of occupational health and safety (OHS) in the workplace are key factors to improve quality of work, working conditions and productivity. The current digitalization trends within the industry are expected to enable enormous possibilities for novel, flexible, cost-effective and interactive processes while maintaining and improving OHS. At the same time, digitalization and new technology are likely to cause new challenges that require new knowledge on both organisational and individual level to ensure safety and privacy. External exposures and physical strain are still primary reasons for early retirement, reduced functionality, and health impairments within the petroleum industry. It is therefore important with updated and new knowledge to achieve the full potential of new technologies for building a safer working environment. The Digital Worker ERA will focus on exposure, physical and organisational factors for workers in the petroleum industry. We will build new knowledge on real-time exposure assessment of chemical, physiological strain, and the human factors elements of using such assessments in-situ. The project has used an interdisciplinary approach that combined human factors, technology and organizational management to develop a framework and knowledge for the future digital worker. The project has worked on mapping the needs of the various actors in the project. This involves identifying specific user groups and tasks that are perceived as critical and challenging for the industry. This work led to a focus on particularly vulnerable groups and included those who work at the large onshore facilities. Furthermore, the group has worked on identifying possible sensor systems for long-term measurement of physical activity, and narrowed the selection down to the most suitable solutions. For example, it is important to find systems that enable continuous measurements over several days, as well as being small enough that they do not cause any discomfort to those who will use them. This work has resulted in advanced field studies carried out at onshore facilities in Norway. The studies were carried out in 2021 and 2022 and formed the basis for several scientific articles. These studies are among the first in the world to present extensive objective data on physical workload over a period of 3-6 days within the petroleum industry. The project has also surveyed and evaluated existing and promising sensor technologies to monitor workers' benzene exposure. In this context, relevant sensor manufacturers and development environments have been contacted to investigate possible collaboration. Benzene is one of the most harmful volatile organic compounds (VOC) and can be used as a measure of total VOC levels in the working environment. There are per today no personal portable benzene sensor that satisfies the upcoming working environment requirements for benzene. The reliability of the sensors/prototypes must be verified. The project has therefore built a sealed test chamber and tested existing sensors and prototypes under conditions that reflected the working environment regarding humidity, temperature and possible cross-sensitive gas components. The use of the technology from the other work packages can be summed up in something that can be called smart personal protective equipment. The latest work package has summarized the knowledge base for this type of digital enhancement. The project has also carried out a qualitative study around a case of smart personal protective equipment. This is based on users' experiences and views of the technology and how this intervened in everyday working life - with consequences for privacy and the implementation of this type of technology in everyday working life and organisation.

Digital Worker ERA prosjektet har bidratt med et kompetanseløft innen ergonomi, muliggjørende sensorteknologi for benzene og implementering av smart verneutstyr. Kunnskapen fra prosjektet har blitt delt med ulike deler av bransjen, og på denne måten sikret et stort nedslagsfelt og synlighet for mulighetene som har blitt demonstrert i prosjektet. Det ble gjennomført en omfattende feltstudie hvor fysisk arbeidsbelastning ved tre store landanlegg ble dokumentert. Virkningene fra dette studiet ga økt kompetanse og innsikt innen hva det faktiske arbeidsbelastningene er for noen utvalgte yrkesgrupper innen petroleumsbransjen. Både deltakerne i studien og fagspesialister innen arbeidshelse vil kombinere disse objektive resultatene med de mer tradisjonelle subjektive målene til en videreutvikling av dagens praksis. Metodene som har blitt presentert har blitt svært godt mottatt og bransjen ser en mulig verdiskapning om hvordan fremtidens arbeidsplasser kan utformes. Prosjektet har videre lyktes i å identifisere noen få utvalgte teknologier som kan innfri bransjen ønske om en kroppsbåren sanntidssensor for måling av Benzene. Det har vært en gradvis innstramming av grenseverdiene for eksponering til benzene, noe som stiller store krav til nøyaktighet og følsomhet for sensorteknologien. Kunnskapen i prosjektet har gitt verdifulle innspill til den videre utviklingen teknologien for kroppsbåren benzene sensorer. Anvendelse og implementering av ny HMS teknologi, heretter kalt for smart verneutstyr, har stått sentralt i prosjektet. Det har blitt gjennomført en unik evalueringsstudie av implementering- og bruk av et konkret smart verneutstyr som er i drift i dag. Denne studien har ført utvikling av konseptuelle modeller for innføring, adopsjon og vedlikehold av smart verneutstyr, som gir en mulig effekt av en mer strømlinjeformet overgang til en smart organisering av HMS innen petroleum og andre relevante bransjer.

Risk prevention and promotion of occupational health and safety (OHS) in the workplace are key factors to improve quality of work, working conditions and productivity. The current digitalization trends within the industry are expected to enable enormous possibilities for novel, flexible, cost-effective and interactive processes while maintaining and improving OHS. At the same time, digitalization and new technology are likely to cause new challenges that require new knowledge on both organisational and individual level to ensure safety and privacy. External exposures and physical strain are still primary reasons for early retirement, reduced functionality and health impairments within the petroleum industry. It is therefore important with updated and new knowledge to achieve the full potential of new technologies for building a safer working environment. The proposed project we will focus on exposure, physical and organisational factors for workers in the petroleum industry. We will build new knowledge on real-time exposure assessment of chemical, physiological strain and the human factors elements of using such assessments in-situ. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods will be applied to ensure involvement of the different perspective of working life ranging from physiological mechanisms to organisational issues. Using a truly multidisciplinary approach, combining human factors, technology and organisational management in both laboratory and in the field a framework for assessment of and implications of the future digital worker will be developed. The results from this project will demonstrate how technological solutions and systems used in a smart way can be applied in the next generation of occupational health and safety and furthermore promote a healthier work life through the enlightenment of the individual worker up to the organisation level.