text: **3.1 Psychosocial risks at work**
  During the last 30 years, the scientific, political and practical discussions on**psychosocial risks**and 
  preventive measures against psychosocial risks have gained strong importance. After a period of doubts 
  and resistance, today they are regarded as risks of the same severity as the classical physical safety 
  and health risks.4 (Chapter 1 covers the psychosocial risk aspect; for the prevalence of mental diseases 
  and the burden of mental diseases see Chapter 2.2. 5) 
  
  Looking at the steady increase of certain psychosocial risk indicators at workplace level, either the**risks**
  **have increased**and/or the**number of people working in occupations**with higher psychosocial risks 
  has increased.6,7 This is valid, for example, for the indicator time pressure, for example, in delivery 
  services, transport, and often also clerical work; the workforce has grown in sectors where emotional 
  demands from dealing with difficult clients, customers, pupils or patients are common; there are also 
  more workers employed (or self-employed) in interactional occupations, for example, in call centres, or 
  in occupations with a high level of emotional tensions, for example, education, health and care. 