The activities of occupational health and safety specialists in a high-risk industry

Abstract A review of the literature shows a lack of knowledge regarding the profession of occupational health and safety (OHS) specialists, especially those responsible for industrial safety. Yet, they are central risk management players in high-risk companies. The aim of this article is to contribute to increasing the knowledge about the OHS profession through empirical data regarding their activities. The study is based upon immersion, lasting several months, within the environment of a safety department of a pharmaceutical chemical substances production site. Firstly, we conducted a study of the general context of the site in order to understand the framework within which the OHS specialists operate. Then, the activities carried out by two OHS specialists were investigated using general and systematic observations. Results concern the contents of the OHS specialists’ activities and their specific features. We show that OHS specialists deal with a large number of topics and theirs are primarily relational activities, characterised by task interruptions and fragmentation.