The Main Theme

The main theme of this conference is Occupational Health under Globalization and New Technology.

Globalization, by definition, is the transformation of phenomena from a local to a global scale. It can also be described as a process by which the people of the world function together and are unified into a single society. This progression is a combination of economic, technological, sociocultural and political forces. Globalization has various aspects that affect the world in financial, political, economic, cultural, informational, ecological, social, language, technical, ethical and industrial ways.

Over time, new technological methods and topics are developed and opened up to debate. Some arise due to theoretical research, others due to commercial research and development, or new tools and discoveries. “New technology” is a general term used to denote significant technological developments that broach new territory in their field in some significant way. Examples of current new technologies include nanotechnology, biotechnology, cognitive science, robotics, and artificial intelligence.

Under the above stress, the recent economic recession and crisis further aggravates the informal employment, underemployment, and hidden employment; the health impact of which we have much less understanding and research so far. Workers and employers need to be made aware of such risks and how to manage them. But health and safety professionals in the individual country cannot do this alone. The mission of this conference is to make whole world's workplaces safer, healthier and more productive. We do this by bringing together and sharing knowledge and information, to promote a culture of risk prevention. Through the conference, we share good practice, and communicate information in a variety of ways to reach workers and workplaces, especially in this new technology century.

We look out for risks which may only be emerging, due to the fast pace of change in the workplace. This conference aims to identify new and emerging risks. In order to achieve this, it will give an overview of safety and health at work in the world, describe the trends and underlying factors, and anticipate changes in work and their likely consequences for safety and health. Additionally, it aims to stimulate debate and reflection among company's stakeholders and to provide a platform for debate between policy-makers at various levels.