"Engineering has given me the ability to respond to change and leadership and to be able to work in occupational safety and health management in risky environments"

Susana Romero Miguel, Chemical Industrial Technical Engineer

Collegiate number 19564

In addition to engineering, in what field have you deepened your professional development?

When I finished my engineering studies, I was very clear that I wanted to specialize in industrial safety, to acquire the technical knowledge to work on prevention from the design of facilities, equipment and machines to also minimize the impact of the exposure to pollutants. I'm talking about the year 2000, when the Prevention Law 31/1995 and its entire legal framework was very incipient, also driven by everything I lived in my house (my father had suffered several accidents one of them important).

That's why I studied the Master's in Occupational Risk Prevention and specialized in quality and environmental management system. After a few years working in international industrial environments in the areas of quality, environment and risk prevention, I moved to Tarragona, joined CETIT and started working as a health and safety coordinator. in works in the chemical, nuclear and energy industries. Today and for 13 years I work in Tarragona as EHS Senior Consultant in a technology company that develops solutions for the improvement of risk prevention and the environment.

How do you look and feel now?

Fifteen years later, I define myself as a vocational preventionist, passionate about technology, science and communication. The consultancy has allowed me to learn a lot, not only from the particularities of each sector in preventive matters, but also from the business world (productive and operational field) advising on the optimization of processes in a safe way (automotive industry, chemistry, energy and food), coordinating construction safety and accompanying companies in their global improvement, creating safe and healthy work environments for their workers, both internal and external.

For the last 10 years I have been the driving force behind the digital transformation of preventive management, focusing my work on the development of IT solutions for QEHS management systems and the creation of training itineraries and communication campaigns, teaching courses and conferences; advising companies to achieve excellence and continuous improvement with the perfect combination of knowledge and technology. Big Data, Machine learning, virtual and augmented reality do not allow us to anticipate risk in a faster and more accurate way, work on preventive worker behavior and, ultimately, build safe and sustainable work environments.

The passion for my work and this rewarding part of working for the health of working people and caring for the environment made me a member of the AEPSAL (Association of Specialists in Prevention and Occupational Health) four years ago as to Secretary General. I am also a member of MIESES (Movimiento Internacional Excelencia y Salut Empresarial y sostenibildad) and currently a member of the PRL Working Group - Digital Disconnection of the AEC (Spanish Quality Association) of the National Commission for the Transport of Dangerous Goods of BEQUINOR (National Association for the Standardization of Capital Goods and Industrial Safety).

How does your work influence work environments?

As an engineer and specialist in occupational safety and health, one of my most active commitments is to work to reduce gaps and inequalities in the world of work, promoting interest in engineering in children, especially the latter. Despite being a digital society and the educational advances experienced, we continue to talk about the presence of 10-15% of female students in engineering, inequalities that increase when they enter the world of work, with their consequences and impact on management. or the development of products and services. Percentages that have not changed in 20 years, when I was told that I was a “weirdo” because I was passionate about computer science, physics and studying engineering. Therefore, as a member of the Association of Women Researchers and Technologists (AMIT), WomenTech and mentor InspiraSTEAM (URV program) advises students and entrepreneurs in the areas of engineering, technology, health and safety, as well as projects of digitization and change management.

What has being an engineer brought to you in occupational health management?

As an engineer, I would highlight the ability to respond to change and leadership (very important qualities in occupational health management), and initiative to design, maintain, manage and optimize facilities, production system, processes and services by integrating criteria. safety, occupational health and sustainability throughout the value chain.

Also, my training as an engineer has allowed me to work in the management of safety and health in industrial environments whose procedures are developed in high risk environments (chemical, energy-nuclear), very strict hygienic parameters (food), where a large volume of operations-risks with the concurrence of companies (automotive) must be analyzed and where the human-machine interaction (and therefore the risks in its handling and maintenance) is a key piece.