title: Occupational safety and health in Spain.
abstract: Occupational Health and Safety in Spain has improved considerably over the last decade, most likely due to a new concept where an overall concept of safety culture is defined. Important changes in industrial safety, hygiene, and psychosocial factors present an optimistic panorama for the future of Spain. Despite this general improvement, according to the European Convergence Program, Spanish statistics still offer far from good safety results. In fact, according to 1997 official statistics, Spain had the highest incidence rate for nonfatal occupational accidents of all European Union (EU) countries, and occupied third place for fatal accidents. This paper summarizes the organizational structure of the Spanish National System of Health & Safety at Work, its effective health and safety laws, and statistics on the Spanish work environment obtained from III Spanish National Survey on Work Conditions (1997). The researchers hope that the findings of this work will have an impact on Spanish industry that will subsequently bring about improvements in work conditions and develop assessment and intervention models in occupational health and safety, from a theoretical position integrating environmental, human, and organizational factors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Balearic Islands University, Guillem Cifre de Colonya Building, Ctra. de Valldemossa, km. 7'5, 07071 Palma de Mallorca, Spain. albert.sese@uib.es
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sesé
authors.forename: Alfonso L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Palmer
authors.forename: Berta
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cajal
authors.forename: Juan J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Montaño
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jiménez
authors.forename: Noelia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Llorens
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016272:Occupational Health / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017751:Safety Management / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D013030:Spain