A German academic has been honoured for outlining the history of health and safety in the iron and steel industry over almost a century.

Historian Nina Kleinöder has won the 2015 DRUPA Prize for noting what most in the industry knew - that it took the influence of unions, associations, science, politics and society to cut the number of accidents.

She was presented with the award for her paper, 'Occupational health and safety in the West German iron and steel industry in the 20th century: Structures, actors and intertwining processes' by DRUPA chairman and KBA chief executive Claus Bolza-Schünemann, Messe Düsseldorf chief executive Werner Dornscheidt and Anja Steinbeck, principal of Düsseldorf's Heinrich-Heine University, during a festive event at Düsseldorf's Industrieclub.

Kleinöder explores the falling number of works accidents since the 1920s and examines the causes of a trend she says was not due only to technology and automation or rising legislation. "The background is considerably more complex," she says.

Accident figures from four industry companies in the Rhine-Ruhr region - Hoesch, Krupp, Mannesmann and Thyssen - are tracked.

The DRUPA Prize is awarded annually to the best doctoral thesis in the HHU arts faculty, and comes with 6000 Euros to promote publication and dissemination.

Pictured from left: Claus Bolza Schünemann, Susanne Hilger (Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf), Nina Kleinöder and Werner Dornscheidt