New and Emerging Occupational Risks (NER) in Industry 4.0: Literature Review

Abstract

The objective of this article is to identify trends in publications about new and emerging labor risks (NER) in the context of the evolution of the industry to analyze what is known so far of the subject, what has been investigated and which aspects remain unknown. Thematically is analyzed existing information on the evolution of occupational risks depending on the advancement of technology in manufacturing, considering keywords and the combination thereof, in Spanish and English during the period 2000-2019 in different sources of consultation such as magazines, articles, degree papers and conference proceedings. With this review it has been possible to identify a relationship between technological progress and a tendency to develop new and emerging labor risks in the industrial field; as a result, researchers from countries such as Spain, Germany, England, Canada and India have collaborated in their identification and have proposed different methods of measurement, which contribute to be frames of reference for future research. The effects that digitalization is having in the industry, are manifested through the so-called Industry 4.0, with technologies such as the Internet of Things, information in the cloud, Big Data, simulation, etc., and are revolutionizing the functioning of the industry, which in turn and given the organizational nature tends to change workplaces as well as the processes and practices of conventional work, creating traditional occupational hazards and other designated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (for its acronym in English OHSA) as new and emerging labor risks (NER).