Analyzing the Role of IoT in Workplace Safety and Incident Prevention

This report delves into the application of the Internet of Things (IoT) to enhance workplace safety, emphasizing its role in preventing incidents and accidents. It explores the concept of the 'connected worker' and the use of wearables, environmental sensors, and advanced analytics for real-time monitoring and hazard detection. The report discusses the capabilities of IoT in fire prevention, including smart alert systems and fire tracking. Several IoT gadgets are highlighted, such as employee health and safety watches and wearable communication systems. The report highlights the importance of data analysis, including diagnostic, predictive, descriptive, and prescriptive analytics, to anticipate risks and improve safety protocols. It provides examples of how IoT can be implemented in various industries, such as mining and manufacturing, to ensure employee well-being and reduce workplace injuries. The report underscores the legal responsibilities of companies to ensure employee safety and highlights the potential of IoT to create a safer and more efficient work environment.

Running head: A ROLE OF INTERNET OF THINGS ON PREVENTING WORKPLACE
VIOLENCE
A ROLE OF INTERNET OF THINGS ON PREVENTING WORKPLACE VIOLENCE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
IoT for workplace safety............................................................................................................2
Connected worker..................................................................................................................2
Wearables...............................................................................................................................2
Environmental sensors...........................................................................................................3
Advanced analytics................................................................................................................4
Fire prevention using IoT.......................................................................................................6
Examples of some IoT Gadgets involved in workplace safety..............................................8
Employee health and safety watch.....................................................................................8
Wearable communication systems.....................................................................................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Companies are legally responsible to provide safety of the employees while they are
working in the industry (Bhardwaj, Sharma and Shukla 2020). As per the Liberty Mutual
Workplace Safety Index, the business persons of the United States expense nearly dollar sixty
billion in every year (Vinay et al. 2020). Companies required taking good steps and using the
power of prediction of the IoT for efficient recognition of safety measures and stop the
workplace injuries and accidents. Internet of Things has the capability to enhance the
workforce safety. It can be done by detecting the major hazards before the problem arises.
In this report, various IoT implantations regarding the workplace safety will be
discussed in detail.
IoT for workplace safety
Connected worker
If Internet of Things technologies are used for monitoring purpose then the safety of
the employees has increased and provides more alert to the probable hazards (Ferneaus
2020). Companies are using both embedded as well as wearable sensors gadgets for
providing workplace to their staffs (Zagan et al. 2020). In current scenario, IoT technologies
are used within cloths, hats, shoes and safety glasses. It can generate some critical safety
information of the employees. With the help of this data, companies have the ability to
provide an outstanding safety to their employees and protect the employees from the
workplace accidents.
Wearables
There are many high risk industries that are using this Internet of Things enabled
gadgets for enhancing the workplace safety (Vinay et al. 2020). Workers can easily check

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their biometrics and take good decisions in tough situations. Company authority can track the
biometry of their staffs and receives an alert message when staffs are in danger. With the help
of this IoT based monitoring many industries (such as oil, gas, mining and utility
organisations) can ensure better safety and health of the staffs who are working inside some
hazardous environment and desolate areas.
There are lots of connected wearables are available in the market. With the help of
these gadgets, supervisors monitor the movements of the staffs within the organisation. They
have the ability to perform an analysis of their actions and recognise the risky behaviours
which may result in serious injury (Tancredi et al. 2020). There are lots of sensors and high
definition cameras are available in the IoT enabled gadgets. It is really helpful for keeping
track of every stage, twist as well as turn to detect the neglected practices, unsafe procedures
as well as non-compliance safety standards and process. After that, IoT gadgets forward the
real life information to the supervisors and give them an opportunity to correct the operations
full of mistakes and dangerous behaviours.
Environmental sensors
In current scenario, sensors become very cheap. These sensors help an organisation to
transform the day to day objects into IoT enabled gadgets. By using the IoT enabled gadgets,
a company monitors the environment (Padyab et al. 2020). It is very cost effective. These
gadgets help the company to access those data which are not able obtain by the company by
using the previous strategies. This strategy modifies the approach of the company regarding
the safety of the staffs. In the remote job locations, infrared sensors continuously monitor the
temperature and detect the leakage. These gadgets have the capability to monitor position,
velocity, motion and sensors. It provides many updates to the supervisors regarding the
working conditions and safety of the labours across multiple working locations.

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Mining companies are using the IoT gadgets for continuous measure of the quality of
air and monitor the health statues of the minors (Naukkarinen 2020). Sensors forward this
information to the supervisors directly through some communication medium such as Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth and Zigbee. After receiving this information, supervisors forward an alert message
to their higher authority regarding some crucial hazards so that management can take some
actions for ensuring health and safety of the organisation.
A company named SmartCap Technologies develop a fatigue monitoring system for
the truck drivers as well as drivers of other heavy vehicles (Lithoxoidou et al. 2020). This
gadget measures the brain waves and identifies worst microsleeps that affect the safety of the
driver and persons around him. It does not allow the drivers to sleep while driving the
vehicle. As a result of that, it drastically decreases the risks associated with falling asleep
during driving and reduces the devastating accidents.
Advanced analytics
A lack of communication among several departments is not at all efficient for
preventing the workplace accidents (Kumari et al. 2020). These are responsible for ensuring
safety operations. They are able to manually compile and analyze some reports, spreadsheets
as well as data covering. It allows potential safety problems to fall through cracks and go
uncorrected. It may lead to worst incidents that could have been protected.
Technologies of Internet of Things as well as advanced data analytics task in
collaboration to create a centralized database. It is responsible for continuous monitoring and
efficient analysis (Kambourakis et al. 2020). With the help of these type of systems,
organisation can track and monitor accidents, losses and damages. IoT enabled gadgets
provide more information regarding various types’ accidents and working conditions through
data analysis for detecting the reason for occurring the incident. It also gives a vast

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knowledge regarding the procedure of preventing similar issues in near future. By using the
Tera-bytes of data collected the IoT monitoring gadgets, organisations become very
proactive, rather than becoming reactive, when it is totally related to the safety procedures in
the workplace.
With the help of those devices, supervisors are able to detect patterns of the accidents
as well as conditions for working through data analysis. This data analysis helps to decrease
the risks and predict and prevent some occurrences. Connected IoT gadgets construct a
comprehensive system which has the ability to perform constant monitoring of the worker
and their environment (Hassan et al. 2020). Supervisors have the ability to track the
biometrics of the employees which includes the body temperature, heart rate and activity
level. By using the data analysis, organisations can able to determine the unsafe working
conditions and applies several procedures for preventing heat and exertion related injuries.
The best examples of data analysis are:
 Diagnostic analytics
 Predictive analytics
 Descriptive analytics
 Prescriptive analytics with the help of AI as well as big data
Predictive modelling is a methodology in advanced analytics that can give different
amount of probable results from data mining. However, for doing this, a person requires
software for easy analysis (Gnoni et al. 2020). From this, IoT safety software comes into the
picture. Workplace accidents can be stopped by using these types of software. It takes into
consideration of all systems which may fail and lead to injury. It is mostly applied in the
healthcare sector. For example, medical details of the patients can be analysed if there is a
probability of remission.

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Risk forecasting is also important part for IoT technologies. This facility helps the
supervisor to observe the employee safety within the workplace. Risk forecasting may be
implemented in two major ways. At first (qualitative methods), risk forecasting is performed
by supervisors of the organisation of occurrence of any possible accidents that may happen in
near future (Gaissmaier et al. 2020). Other reliable methodology uses mathematical strategy
for analysing the data that can predict mistakes. Both of these methodologies are very helpful
for preventing the workplace injuries after proper preventive measures are put in place. It also
helps to provide accurate the company planning. If it is possible to observe the risks by the
supervisors then they will be responsible to create a risk free plan that can work for all their
staffs.
Another important procedure is to track both employee and environmental data. It
helps to identify and react on the possible accidents. Staff data (such as personal information,
qualifications, and any physical as well as mental health conditions) can be tracked in reality.
With the help of machine learning technology, all the information can be fed inside the IoT
enabled gadgets. It can predict the probable failure (Chung and Kim 2020). With the help of
real data analysis, any issues can be quickly detected. Collection of employee data and
implementing correct visualization methodologies can aid in detecting severe health issue.
Behavioural data can also be implemented to collect and analyze. With the help of this, an
organisation can avoid future issues.
Fire prevention using IoT
Most of people believed that, fires at workplace are quite natural (Chung and Kim
2020). In fact, most of these fires occur accidentally as well as could have been stopped if it
is identified earlier. Most of these fires occur because company does not give proper attention
to the employee safety at workplace. With the help of Internet of Things, organisations can
do the below mentioned activities.

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 Tracking the crucial situations of the fire fighters
At the time of fire fight, fire-fighters face a severe safety issues. For resolving
this problem, a latest technology is used. The name of the technology is PHASER
(Bhardwaj, Sharma and Shukla 2020). It has the capability to track the body
temperature, blood pressure and pulse. If such situation occurs, then this technology
captures that information and forwards it to the station to ensure that no employees
suffer from any injuries.
 Enhancing fire tracking system
Management of an organisation can apply some latest technologies that has
the capability to track any serious fire hazards as well as report them if it is found
important (Bhardwaj, Sharma and Shukla 2020). Nowadays, ITM reports
(inspection, testing as well as maintenance reports) are designed as well as fire
prevention system can be inspected as well as updated if it is important.
 Fire protection having smart technologies
Reliable alert systems can be put into the place. For example, Nest helps to
prevent fires. With the help of smart technologies, Nest can link entire systems.
Connection protocols such as Z-wave and Zigbee are most common protocols to use
(Atlam and Wills 2020). Fire safety sensors play a vital role to prevent fires in the
workplace. It must be placed in every office building. It has the capability to monitor
power consumption at workplace. It helps the company to implement some safety
strategy for energy consumption.

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Examples of some IoT Gadgets involved in workplace safety
Employee health and safety watch
Tata Communications develops an IoT enabled gadget named employee health and
safety watch. It is responsible to monitor vital states of the body of the workers and working
environments. This gadget is responsible for two way alerts between the employees and
supervisors, automated attendance, tracking of several locations and geofencing. In that
gadget, beacons are placed strategically and transfer data from the gadgets through the
LPWAN networks for creating the actionable insights (Asadzadeh et al. 2020). In this gadget,
analytic engines, web applications as well as dashboards are totally customized.
Communication of all devices is secured through encryption at the network, application and
device layer. It helps the supervisor to get complete real-time visibility of the locations and
health as well as safety of all the staffs of an organisation. It has the capability to react instant
with any kind of anomaly or incident. It helps to detect the immobility, height tracking, Save
our Soul alerts and automated alerts for anomalous heart-rate or temperature levels.
Wearable communication systems
In 2018, Digital Magazine mentioned that a manufacturing company in United States
has been working for the development of the next generation wearable communication
systems. A start-up company named Heads up created compact IoT gadgets for detecting the
heat, noise and humidity conditions which are out of tolerance (ANGEL and SHREE 2020).
This device can easily be placed in any eye piece and will flash several coloured lights for
giving the alert regarding the harmful changes in surrounding environment.
Conclusion
For achieving the success at the global and local level, company must ensure proper
safety measures for their staffs. Health and safety of the employees will no longer be

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accepted as nice to have. If the company realizes this sooner, then it will be better. Internet of
Things can help strengthen health and better safety compliance, reducing the expenditure and
talent management. Business that recognises this point gets a head start over the competition
in this competitive world. At the end, it can be said that IoT plays an important role in
workplace safety.

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