In recent decades, concern with workers’ health has become a priority in several countries, but statistics still show that it is urgent to perform more actions to prevent accidents and illnesses related to work. Industry 4.0 is a new production paradigm that has brought significant advances in the relationship between man and machine, driving a series of advances in the production process and new challenges in occupational safety and health (OSH). This paper addresses occupational risks, diseases, opportunities, and challenges in Industry 4.0. It also covers Internet-of-Things-related technologies that, by the real-time measurement and analysis of occupational conditions, can be used to create smart solutions to contribute to reducing the number of workplace accidents and for the promotion of healthier and safer workplaces. Proposals involving smart personal protective equipment (smart PPE) and monitoring systems are analyzed, and aspects regarding the use of artificial intelligence and the data privacy concerns are also discussed.

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This paper addresses the design of a system to facilitate individual environmental risk assessment and long-term risk management in the Industry 4.0 work context. The solution is based on IoT to provide data related to workers’ exposure to hazardous agents (dust, noise, ultraviolet radiation, poor lighting, and inappropriate temperature and humidity) through a simple interface for employees and employers. The system includes a monitoring device and a server and performs employee registration, receives secure messages from the monitoring devices, shows information about the workers’ exposure, and triggers alarms when the measures reach or exceed the limits established by applicable legislation and/or standards. The system was tested in a controlled environment, and the results are presented in this work. Our solution is still under development, and in future stages, it will include a smartphone app for employees to check their exposures and the use of artificial intelligence on the server, which is expected to enable long-term planning by companies based on the analysis of employees’ health history and their exposures to hazardous agents.