Workplaces

Employers are required to ensure that workplaces do not pose any risk to employed persons. BAuA's research makes an important contribution to determining these requirements and making them applicable at the practical level.

Meeting at a construction site
© Uwe Völkner, Fotoagentur FOX

Workplaces are workspaces or other indoor or outdoor locations that are situated on an organisation’s premises or a building site, are intended for work purposes, and to which employees have access in the course of their duties.

Various other areas also belong to workplaces that are not directly required for work. These include, for example, traffic routes, escape routes, emergency exits, storerooms, machine rooms, and ancillary rooms, as well as sanitary facilities, rest break and standby rooms, first aid rooms, canteens, and accommodation.

Regardless of the actual task or production process and the risks associated with it (e.g. from hazardous substances or the use of equipment), hazards to employees’ safety and health can arise in workplaces, such as stumbling and falls on traffic routes, in particular on stairways, incipient fires, falls from parapets or floor openings, and stress caused by factors in the working environment, such as inappropriate room temperatures, lighting, the amount of space available to move around in, noise. This list of examples illustrates the range of the different hazards encountered in workplaces.

Apart from protection against such hazards, the provision of toilets, washrooms, rooms or areas for rest breaks, first aid rooms, canteens, and other facilities is integral to the human-centred design of workplaces. To ensure workplaces are set up and operated safely and healthily, appropriate protective aims are formulated in the Workplaces Ordinance (Arbeitsstättenverordnung, ArbStättV) for the prevention and/or minimisation of hazards. The concrete ways in which these aims are to be achieved are set out in the Technical Rules for Workplaces (Technische Regeln für Arbeitsstätten, ASRs).

Further Information

Research Projects

Project numberF 2542 StatusOngoing Project Occupational health and safety knowledge for workplace design - Safe and healthy workplaces through innovative planning tools supporting an occupational health and safety-compliant design in the planning and design phase of workplaces through object-oriented and machine-executable transformation of workplace requirements

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Research ongoing

Project numberF 2527 StatusCompleted Project Indoor air flow, aerosol spread and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 for selected ventilation concepts

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Research completed

Project numberF 2475 StatusCompleted Project Interactions of indoor climate, noise and lighting in workplaces

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Research completed

Project numberF 2471 StatusCompleted Project Feasibility study of BIM for workplaces
Development of the planning method of Building Information Modelling (BIM) for safety and health in the value chain of construction

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Research completed

Project numberF 2302 StatusCompleted Project Lighting of workplaces: impact of AmI-based lighting systems

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Research completed

Project numberF 2159 StatusCompleted Project Need-related design and equipment of sanitation facilities at workplaces

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Research completed

Publications

Search results

Determination of criteria for lightwells to distribute sufficient daylight into workspaces

baua: Report 2024

The task of lightwells is to distribute daylight into adjacent spaces. When oriented to a lightwell workrooms receive daylight …

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Interactions of indoor climate, noise and lighting in workplaces

Report 2024

The interactions between climate, noise and lighting in rooms of workplaces with regard to their influence on perception, …

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Light exposure in home-based work: Can a simple lighting system increase alertness?

Article 2024

Since the proportion of digital and more flexible work in the western labour market increases, more and more employees are …

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12th Symposium Light and Health

baua: Report 2023

In April 2024, the 12th "Light and Health" symposium was held, organized by the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and …

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Blue-light hazard risk assessment for white-light sources

baua: Guidance brief 2023

Light from screens and general lighting is almost always photobiologically safe. The use of high-power spotlights e. g. in …

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Effects of Light on Attention During the Day

Report 2023

Light has been shown to not only enable human vision, but to also elicit other physiological responses. Besides its ability to …

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Effects of light on attention of daytime workers: a laboratory study

Article 2023

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ENLIGHT: A consensus checklist for reporting laboratory-based studies on the non-visual effects of light in humans

Article 2023

Background: There is no consensus on reporting light characteristics in studies investigating non-visual responses to light. …

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Assessment of the Light Exposures of Shift-working Nurses in London and Dortmund in Relation to Recommendations for Sleep and Circadian Health

Article 2022

Shift work causes disruption to circadian physiological processes in the human body, and desynchronization from the natural …

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BAuA recommendations for action on SARS-CoV-2

baua: Fokus 2022

The BAuA recommendations for action on SARS-CoV-2 are intended to provide guidance on when infection protection measures should …

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