Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) refers to systematic and scientific work conducted for protecting workers from potentially health damaging conditions that occur in the workplace for various reasons during the course of the work, and for improving existing health and safety conditions. The concepts of health and safety that form the basis of occupational health and safety have been defined by international organizations as specified below.
According to the definition established by the World Health Organization, health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being. In other words, the health of an individual is not merely physical, but also involves the mental and social aspects of complete well-being. Safety denotes the condition of minimization of risks that could cause death, occupational disease, injury, loss of equipment, and environmental damage.
OHS aims to maintain the health and safety of employees at the highest level, to ensure the continuity of production or of services, and to prepare the institution emergencies, and it focuses on the human element as the most important value.
In Türkiye, activities for supporting health and safety in the work life appear to have started in 2012 as Law number 6331 on Occupational Health and Safety came into effect; however, the culture of health and safety was established as early as the 1850s and has developed considerably in recent years.
