Once again the European Week for Safety and Health at Work proved a big success. The week of 24 – 28 October saw activities take place all over Europe aimed at promoting healthy ageing and sustainable work for all ages.

Things kicked off on 24 October with, among others, a conference in Bratislava organised by the Slovak EU Council Presidency. The conference, entitled ‘A better preventive culture in a new labour market’, was attended by EU-OSHA director Dr Christa Sedlatschek who presented the campaign’s latest findings. The conference provided an excellent opportunity to discuss major challenges for OSH in the future, such as the demographic change. Among many others, labour inspectors from Cyprus, Poland and Slovakia showed their active involvement in the campaign and the European Week.

In Spain events took place in over 40 cities. Providing real solutions to businesses, workers and key stakeholders on how to achieve a healthy, sustainable working life was the main focus.

In Madrid a video screening, workshop and technical days took place – all focusing on the importance of sustainable work at all ages. And in Barcelona a seminar looked at the various advantages and inconveniences to having different age groups in the workplace.

On 28 October another focal point, the Swedish Work Environment Authority, held its annual Swedish OSH parliament event in Stockholm. Dr Sedlatschek was in attendance as Professor of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Uppsala University, Eva Vingård, presented new research on “Healthy workplaces for women and men of all ages”.

The European Week was also promoted by The Institute for the Advancement of Safety at Work in Croatia who hosted the Good Morning Croatia television show to discuss the Healthy Workplaces for All Ages E-guide and how to adopt a holistic approach to health and safety at work.

As well as on television, there was online promotion by EU-OSHA’s media partners. PPE.ORG got things underway with a Twitter chat ahead of the European Week on 19 October. This was followed on 26 October by an exclusive ‘virtual Q&A session’ between media partners and EU-OSHA director Dr Sedlatschek who reminded us that, ‘healthy working lives are good for individuals’ wellbeing and the economy. Healthy workplaces are not a luxury; they are essential.’

Media partners also organised events to showcase the campaign. In Poland Promotor BHP hosted the ‘Human Factor in Safety’ conference to share tools and experiences for creating safe working conditions in the mining, fuel and energy and metallurgical industries. In Germany, the ISSA Mining Newsletter organised the first Vision Zero Europe Conference focusing on the prevention of accidents and illnesses at work.

Seguranca Comportamental in Portugal also organised several events and seminars including a course on preventive health and safety for young technicians and another looking at age as a factor in accidents at work. A number of other media partners, including Safety Management, Seguridad Laboral, Prevention World, Rhsaludable, Gesunde Arbeit and PrevenBlog also got involved in promoting European Week events.

EU-OSHA’s Official Campaign Partners were also busy hosting a number of activities and events. For example, In EU-OSHA’s home city of Bilbao, PESI, the Spanish Technology Platform for Industrial Safety, along with its European counterpart ETPIS (the Cross-ETP Initiative on Industrial Safety), held the European Forum S2R, ‘Future Safety & Security Research in Europe 2016’.

All these events were the perfect opportunity to bring together EU-OSHA’s network of partners, workers and employers together to exchange best practices and generate ideas on how make workplaces more sustainable. If you were at one of the many events, don’t forget to share your stories and post your pictures on our Facebook event page.

To find out more about safety and health at work visit the Healthy Workplaces for All Ages campaign website, and don’t forget to follow the campaign on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, using the hashtag #EUhealthyworkplaces to keep up to date with the latest news and events. You can subscribe to our newsletter via the campaign website www.healthy-workplaces.eu