Surviving stress

Surviving stress Why should safety and risk scientist practitioners be concerned with psychological stress, which presents a mental hazard, in addition to physical (e.g., visible hazards) and physiological (e.g., long-term damage) risks? First, psychological stress is an important component of health, safety, and welfare and so there is at least an ethical requirement to safeguard this aspect of employees’ well-being. A second reason is that beyond a certain point, individuals under stress perform less than optimally and stress can, therefore, adversely affect productivity, quality and, ultimately, safety. The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that occupational stress costs approximately 3%–4% of GNP across the EU (WHO, 2008).