International project „Cleaning ergonomics – to prevent occupational diseases and accidents“
Partners participating in the project:
- Puhastusekspert OÜ www.puhastusekspert.ee
- Propuhtaus https://www.propuhtaus.fi/
- Brite-Sol KFT https://www.britesol.hu/
- SVS B.V. https://www.svs-opleidingen.nl/Home
The international project “Cleaning Ergonomics- to Prevent Occupational Diseases and Accidents” started in the fall of 2021 and will last for 3 years. Puhastusekspert OÜ’s educational materials in the field of cleaning ergonomics were developed 20 years ago, and in 2020 we started updating our educational material and looking for newer ergonomics guides. We consulted with various specialists in the field of cleaning and occupational health specialists in Estonia and abroad, and then it turned out that there were no materials in this field.
Four countries participate in the project – in addition to Estonia, Hungary, the Netherlands and Finland. Puhastusekspert OÜ, the leader of the project, has experience in effective distribution of previous projects and has purposefully engaged in promoting its activities on social media, which has been the main marketing channel in recent years. Tarja Valkosalo, representative of Propuhtaus, Finland, has long-term experience in organizing seminars and writing articles in the field of cleaning, SVS S.B., Holland, has numerous international contacts with professional journals in the field of cleaning, and Brite-Sol Kft., Hungary, has long-term, extensive experience in the field of cleaning and the company is a dedicated staff to healthcare monitoring.
The first studies and results are visible HERE
Ergonomics has been increasingly applied to meet occupational health and safety goals. With the project, we hope to raise awareness of the causes of the most common work accidents and occupational diseases in the cleaning industry. To make the field more aware of existing threats and risks. With the project, we want to offer solutions in the form of simple educational films to prevent and avoid the 20 most common factors that cause occupational diseases and work accidents. In order for the trainings to be effective, also by foremen who are not trainers by training, we offer a training plan and a brief description of the methodology to prevent the 20 most important problems.
The duration of the project is 3 years, and during this time we plan to:
- carry out an analysis of the 20 most common occupational diseases and accidents in the field of cleaning. 20 countries will be included in the study.
- training materials developed to prevent occupational diseases and work accidents with 20 educational videos, picture materials
- a training program to prevent the 20 most common occupational diseases and work accidents, which is freely available, free of charge, on the project’s website and on the pages of all partners. The material is made as easily accessible as possible to everyone, from all digital devices. Educational videos can be found publicly on YouTube.
The opening meeting of the Erasmus+ project “Cleaning ergonomics – to prevent occupational diseases and accidents “took place in Tallinn from 24th to 25th January 2022
We hope to reduce the number of occupational diseases and accidents in cleaning by at least 10%. At the moment there is 1 fixed occupational accident or disease per 50 employees per year. If we meet the goal set in the project by reaching 84,000 people, then statistically there are 1,680 accidents at work or occupational diseases per year for such a number of people. 10% of that is 168, which we hope to avoid every year. We hope to study the situation in more detail by monitoring the experiment on the introduction of materials in a Hungarian cleaning company. In addition, we plan to conduct feedback surveys on the implementation of project results. We hope to publish the results to encourage companies to pay more attention to work ergonomics and achieve a safe and healthy working environment for cleaning service providers. The project has real value for a large number of people, more than 4 million cleaning workers work in the European Union. Its opportunity to improve the lives and health of many people.
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