Improving occupational safety in office spaces in the post-pandemic era

Sadeghi, Naimeh; Gerami-Seresht, Nima

Abstract

The rise of COVID-19 and its consequent socio-economic losses raised concerns regarding the resilience of workplaces against widespread infectious diseases. During the COVID-19 pandemic, several outbreaks occurred in workplaces. As a result, local authorities implemented restrictive interventions (e.g., lockdown and social distancing) to control the spread of this disease in different contexts. Despite the short-term positive impacts of these interventions, they are not sustainable in the long run due to their associated economic costs to industries. Hence, in the post-pandemic era, novel and non-restrictive interventions are needed to limit the spread of similar diseases inside workplaces during epidemics. Herein, several non-restrictive interventions have been introduced to limit the spread of COVID-19 in office spaces. The effectiveness of these interventions is tested in generic office space by a disease spread simulator (CoDiSS), which is based on stochastic agent-based modeling. As a result, this research identifies the most impactful interventions based on the simulation outcomes and offers practical strategies to improve occupational safety within office environments. Our findings help enhance safety in the ever-transforming occupational environment by limiting the spread of infectious diseases in workplaces using non-restrictive interventions.

Citation

Sadeghi, N., & Gerami-Seresht, N. (2023). Improving occupational safety in office spaces in the post-pandemic era. Sustainable Cities and Society, 98(November 2023), Article 104781. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2023.104781

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 3, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Jul 13, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023-11
• Deposit Date: Aug 16, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 16, 2023
• Journal: Sustainable Cities and Society
• Print ISSN: 2210-6707
• Electronic ISSN: 2210-6715
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 98
• Issue: November 2023
• Article Number: 104781
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2023.104781
• Keywords: Transportation; Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment; Civil and Structural Engineering; Geography, Planning and Development
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1719182