Hasil untuk "Industrial safety. Industrial accident prevention"

Sankar Prasad Chaki, Melissa M. Kahl-McDonagh, Kurt A. Zuelke

The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the urgent need for rapid, reliable, and safe laboratory workflows that ensure both diagnostic accuracy and biosafety for laboratory personnel. We developed a comprehensive approach for SARS-CoV-2 detection using saliva-based RT-qPCR that spans the entire process from sample transfer to final disposal. This workflow integrates biosafety principles with efficient diagnostic procedures, ensuring safe handling, minimized exposure risks, and reliable molecular testing. Critical components included biosecurity, standardized protocols for sample receipt, secure transfer, safe processing, and environmentally responsible disposal. By applying a holistic safety framework, we not only protected laboratory staff during the pandemic but also established a model that can inform preparedness for future emerging infectious disease threats. This approach demonstrates how laboratory safety and diagnostic efficiency can be simultaneously achieved, offering a reference for institutions seeking to balance biosafety and public health needs in outbreak situations.

Houjia Xu, Yuntao Li, Taotao Zhou et al.

Emerging trends in digitization, intelligence, and low-carbon transition have significantly affected China's oil and gas pipeline development strategies. Emerging technology has resulted in significant cost savings but has also raised concerns about the safety of oil and gas pipelines. From the perspectives of infrastructure construction, safety assurance technology, and legal and regulatory frameworks, this study offers a survey and assessment of the current practices to identify the safety issues and challenges of oil and gas pipelines. Critical recommendations have been synthesized and discussed, focusing on the aspects of policy and technology, that is, the long-lifetime oil and gas pipeline safety assurance system with legal guidance and policy supplements, and the research and application of key technologies on the inherent safety design, resilience enhancement, intelligent safe operation and maintenance, and green and low-carbon transition. This study aims to identify the key issues addressed and challenges faced by research and development activities and to identify the gaps and opportunities for future research and development to ensure the safety of China's oil and gas pipelines.

Rizki Rahmawati, Mila Tejamaya

Introduction:In water treatment plants (WTP), chemicals play a crucial role. However, some of these chemicals are hazardous. This study aims to conduct a dermal risk assessment in the WTP of an ammonia and urea production facility. Methods: The study was performed in August 2023 and assessed dermal exposure risk for four hazardous chemicals: NaOCl (30%), HCl (60%), H2SO4 (98%), and NaOH (48%), utilizing the Tier 2 RISKOFDERM model. Intrinsic toxicity was evaluated using risk phrases and toxicity information. Potential dermal exposure rates (PERBODY and PERHANDS) were determined based on task group and exposure modifier, while actual dermal exposure rates (AERBODY and AERHANDS) were determined based on clothing type and activity time. Health risk was assessed using actual exposure scores and intrinsic toxicity levels, which were categorized into 10 different levels ranging from 1 to 10. Results: The risk phrases indicated that four chemicals possessed a high level of intrinsic toxicity in terms of local effect but no systemic effect. PERBODY and PERHANDS were high (NaOCl, HCl) and low (H2SO4, NaOH). The actual exposure scores were determined to be 1 (high) for NaOCl and HCI, 0.01 (low) for H2SO4, and 0.03 (medium) for NaOH. Health risk values were 8 for NaOCl and HCI, 5 for H2SO4, and 6 for NaOH. Conclusion: Health risks in NaOCl and HCl were assigned action priority (AP) 1, followed by NaOH at AP-2, and H2SO4 at AP-3. The study recommends the implementation of control measures encompassing engineering solutions, administration, and personal protective equipment.

Motoko Nakatani, Sachie Inoue, Isao Kamae

Objective: Helicobacter pylori infections increase gastric cancer risk. Detecting and eradicating Helicobacter pylori infections and implementing a follow-up strategy should be considered by occupational health practitioners. This study aimed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of adding an H. pylori antibody (HPA) test to current gastric cancer screening using upper gastrointestinal series (UGI) at the workplace in Japan. Methods: The data of Japanese people aged ≥40 years were collected from PubMed and evaluated in two cohorts: UGI (X-ray examination)+HPA test and UGI only. A Markov model was used for the cost-effectiveness analysis of the UGI+HPA test and UGI-only cohorts. The main outcomes were cost, quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs). The impact of uncertainty was assessed using one-way sensitivity analyses (OWSA) and probabilistic sensitivity analyses (PSA). Results: A base-case analysis showed that the UGI+HPA test strategy was less costly (−US＄1,039 and −US＄1,496) and more effective (0.415 and 0.437 QALYs) than the UGI-only strategy in the 40- and 50-year-old groups, respectively. The UGI+HPA test strategy was assessed as a dominant strategy. In the OWSA, the tornado diagram showed negative expected costs and positive QALY gains within the established ranges for all parameters. In the PSA, more than 95% of the simulations demonstrated ICER <5 million yen (US＄51,674; US＄1=96.76 yen)/QALY. Conclusions: This modeling study suggests that gastric cancer screening using UGI+HPA test followed by eradication and annual opportunistic screening, compared with UGI only, resulted in lower costs and greater QALY gains for both 40- and 50-year-old groups at the workplace.

Guy R. Aby, Salah F. Issa

Automated agricultural machinery has advanced significantly in the previous ten years; however, the ability of such robots to operate safely will be critical to their commercialization. This study provides a holistic evaluation of the work carried out so far in the field of automated agricultural machines’ safety, as well as a framework for future research considerations. Previous automated agricultural machines’ safety-related studies are analyzed and grouped into three categories: (1) environmental perception, (2) risk assessment as well as risk mitigation, and (3) human factors as well as ergonomics. The key findings are as follows: (1) The usage of single perception, multiple perception sensors, developing datasets of agricultural environments, different algorithms, and external solutions to improve sensor performance were all explored as options to improve automated agricultural machines’ safety. (2) Current risk assessment methods cannot be efficient when dealing with new technology, such as automated agricultural machines, due to a lack of pre-existing knowledge. Full compliance with the guidelines provided by the current International Organization for Standardization (ISO 18497) cannot ensure automated agricultural machines’ safety. A regulatory framework and being able to test the functionalities of automated agricultural machines within a reliable software environment are efficient ways to mitigate risks. (3) Knowing foreseeable human activity is critical to ensure safe human–robot interaction.

Guirong Zhang, Wei-Ching Feng, Yu Lei

Humans are at the core of the social-technical system, and their behavioral errors affect the reliability and safety of the entire system in varying degrees. Occupational accidents and large-scale industrial accidents are often attributed to human errors, accounting for more than 80% of accidents. In view of the complexity of systems and the coupling of elements, a new HFA method is proposed based on a complex network. According to system safety theory, a complex network is regarded as a network composed of humans, matters, environments, and management, and the basic structure of the HFA network is summarized. On this basis, a system safety method of HFA is developed which proposes a universal human error causation model. Moreover, a network analysis method for human errors is also presented, which is a comprehensive analysis of human errors that have occurred. Finally, the above methods are applied to gas explosion accidents that occurred in China. Results show that the two methods proposed are universal to all fields, and their combination improves the effectiveness of human error management and promotes the targeted, proactive, systematic, and dynamic prevention of critical nodes and paths from a holistic perspective.

Kosuke Sakai, Tomohisa Nagata, Masako Nagata et al.

Objectives: Presenteeism refers to the condition of working while having health problems and can be one of the perspectives to assess the incompatibility between workers and their jobs. The purpose of this survey was to find out what kind of occupational health issues can be detected by occupational physicians’ interviews focusing on presenteeism. Methods: We conducted interviews with workers suffering from presenteeism in a food manufacturing company. The Work Functioning impairment scale (WFun) was used as the indicator of presenteeism. We discussed the occupational health issues and the necessity of additional interventions. Results: Thirty-nine workers with WFun score of 21 or higher were interviewed, and we have found nine cases in need of support. The workplace issues were structured into four categories: (i) health problems that are difficult to identify through health checkups, (ii) health problems missed by the stress check program, (iii) health problems caused by workload that cannot be identified by workplace patrols, and (iv) health problems that are not considered because they do not require support. Conclusions: We discovered new workplace issues by interviewing workers suffering from presenteeism.

Grigorios Fountas, Adebola Olowosegun, Socrates Basbas

School travel has been a significant source of safety concerns for children, parents, and public authorities. It will continue to be a source of concerns as long as severe accidents continue to emerge during pupils’ commute to school. This study provides an empirical analysis of the factors influencing the injury severities of the accidents that occurred on trips to or from school in Scotland. Using 9-year data from the STATS19 public database, random parameter binary logit models with allowances for heterogeneity in the means were estimated in order to investigate injury severities in urban and rural areas. The results suggested that factors such as the road type, lighting conditions, vehicle type, and age of the driver or casualty constitute the common determinants of injury severities in both urban and rural areas. Single carriageways and vehicles running on heavy oil engines were found to induce opposite effects in urban and rural areas, whereas the involvement of a passenger car in the accident decomposed various layers of unobserved heterogeneity for both area types. The findings of this study can inform future policy interventions with a focus on traffic calming in the proximity of schools.

Amandeep Singh, Siby Samuel, Harwinder Singh et al.

This study investigated whole-body vibration (WBV) response in real field harrowing operations at different tractor ride conditions i.e., average speed, front harrow pin angle (FHPA), and rear harrow pin distance (RHPD). Taguchi’s L₂₇ orthogonal array was used to formulate a systematic design of experiments. WBV exposure was measured along the three translational axes to compute overall daily vibration magnitude i.e., A(8). Tractor’s seat isolation capacity was assessed in terms of Seat Effective Amplitude Transmissibility i.e., SEAT%. Raw acceleration data was analysed to obtain dominant frequencies using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). A(8) was found to range between 0.43 to 0.87 m/s² in the experimental trials. Seat isolation capacity was found to be poor in 89% of the experiments i.e., SEAT% > 100%. Average speed and FHPA was found to have a significant impact (<i>p</i> ≤ 0.05) on A(8) and SEAT%. FFT response showed a range of primary and secondary dominant peaks within a frequency range of 0.2 to 11 Hz. In conclusion, the majority of experimental trials (67%) exceeded the Directive2002/44EU recommended exposure action value (EAV) limit i.e., 0.5 m/s². The harrowing operation was found to exhibit vibration exposure at low frequencies in the vicinity of natural frequencies of the human body and may consequently affect ride comfort.

Matthew C. Camden, Jeffrey S. Hickman, Richard J. Hanowski

Commercial motor vehicle safety is of utmost importance, as crashes involving commercial motor vehicles often result in significant property damage, injuries, fatalities, and financial loss for fleets. However, fleet managers are often unsure what strategies other fleets have used to successfully improve safety. To identify best practices, researchers completed case studies with nine commercial motor vehicle fleets that successfully improved their safety performance. A content analysis was performed, and the successful strategies were organized into the Haddon Matrix. Results showed that there was no one single strategy that fleets used to improve safety. Instead, fleets relied on a comprehensive approach focusing on pre-crash countermeasures, including addressing hiring practices, driver training, fleet safety culture, safety technologies, scheduling, and maintenance. However, an enhanced safety culture and advanced safety technology were identified as critical components to their safety improvement. Results from this study may help fleets understand what their peers have used to successfully improve safety and which strategies may not be as helpful.

Pablo Monteiro Pereira, João Reis, J. Duarte et al.

Background: Medicine and Physical Education can work together to solve many health problems. Bodybuilding is a multidisciplinary area whose goals can range from body development to the correction of postural problems and the resolution of various pathologies related to human movement. In the case in analysis, the patient presented (at rest) localized pain (twinges) in the anterior face of the left knee, with an intensity of five (0-10 scale), without phlogistic signs, which worsens when performing the squat, hindering him from leaving the bed without pain. Symptoms were exacerbated when descending stairs. Through anamnesis and directed physical examination, it were considered the possible differential diagnosis of pain in the anterior portion of the knee: Diseases in menisci,  anterior and posterior cruciate ligament injuries,  diseases of  knee  collateral  ligaments,  diseases of  knee  cartilage,  diseases of  patellar tendon tendinitis and patellar chondromalacia. After a correct diagnosis of patellofemoral pain  syndrome, a conservative treatment was performed using bodybuilding. The results were positive after four months of treatment. From this case, it can be concluded that bodybuilding can be an alternative solution for the conservative treatment of Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome

Puput Lestari Windy Puspitasari

Universal precaution is a precautionary guidance on infection prevention that is expected to reduce the risk of transmission infection from patient to health worker regardless of the status infection. The purpose of this research is analyze the correlation between intention with compliance universal precaution application to nurses. This research is an observational study with cross-sectional design. Respondents in this study were nurses from 9 rooms who served in inpatient installations with total of 47 people. The sampling technique using simple random sampling. The data was collected by using questionnaires and observation. Analysis data used analysis of chi-square and Cramer’s V correlation. Universal precaution observed was hand washing, use of Personal Protective Equipment, management of sharp objects, and management of medical waste. The results showed that the majority of nurses (74.5%) were well behaved in compliance of universal precaution application. Statistical analysis show that there is a relationship between intention and compliance to the application of universal precaution (0.001) and strong correlationin in medium category (0.526). The conclusion was that the better of intention, the better the nurse compliance level in the application of universal precaution. Keywords: compliance, intention, universal precaution

S. Yu. Аnapolskiy

The paper deals with the legal aspect of the problem of waters pollution of the Caspian Sea and further consequences. Modern ecological problems of the Caspian Sea are specified. Various normative legal acts are studied in detail; violations of both the norms of Russian law and international law are investigated.

Julia C. Babcock, Jason Cooper

Risk assessments are typically based on retrospective reports of factors known to be correlated with violence recidivism in simple linear models. Generally, these linear models use only the perpetrators&rsquo; reports. Using a community sample of couples recruited for recent male-to-female intimate partner violence (IPV; N = 97 couples), the current study compared non-linear neural network models to traditional linear models in predicting a history of arrest in men who perpetrate IPV. The neural network models were found to be superior to the linear models in their predictive power. Models were slightly improved by adding victims&rsquo; report. These findings suggest that the prediction of violence arrest be enhanced through the use of neural network models and by including collateral reports.

A. Khavanin, J. Malakouti, V. Gharibi et al.

Abstract: Background: Working at height has always been considered as one of the most dangerous industrial activities. Workers' fitness including their physical and psychological ability plays a key role in prevention of occupational accidents. This research was conducted to investigate the physical and mental fitness of telecommunication tower climbers as well as their job stress. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among employees of a contracting company which worked in the field of telecommunication tower installation in Iran during 2016. Sixty out of 93 workers voluntarily participated in this study. Data collection tools were the Persian version of the Work Ability Index (WAI), the Persian version of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Stress Indicator Tool and an author-developed measure to assess socio-demographic characteristics. Data was analyzed through statistical tests such as independent t-test, univariate analyses of variance (ANOVAs), Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and multivariate linear regression; using SPSS 19 software. Results: Workers' mean ± SD WAI score was 29.17± 10.33 and for work-related stress was 3.08 ± 1.80. There was a significant relation between WAI and educational level, job tenure, hours of sleep per day, regular exercise, and second job. The repression modeling explained 67.4% of the total variance (adjusted R2) of the WAI score. Among the dimensions of work related stress, control (β = 0.21) and changes (β = -0. 40) were significant predictors of the WAI score. Conclusions: To improve the worker’s work ability, intervention programs should focus on promoting level of job control, sleep quality and exercise. Additionally, implementing a comprehensive macroergonomics and participatory program for increase involvement the workers in organization changes should be considered.

Leonid A. Bondarenko, Nikolay A. Mаsesov, Kateryna A. Efanova et al.

One of the most demanded and loud problems in telecommunication networks is the development of methodological bases for evaluating the survivability of hierarchical telecommunication systems when they are destroyed and restored. The article reflects the views of the authors on the introduction into practice of the work of the management bodies of the communication of the performance of calculations of functional characteristics, which allow to determine the quality of the communication system. Also, one of the promising methods of a staff model for calculating the survivability of a communication system based on the calculations of system connectivity indicators is proposed, which will solve the problem of ensuring the survivability of telecommunication networks, which is also related to the reliability and accuracy of the information transmitted, the number of possible network reconfigurations, as well as the ability to continue functioning of the network in the event of destruction.

Habib HADJ-MABROUK

Inspired in particular by the works of Reason and Rasmussen and supported by application examples from the field of railway safety, the human error analysis approach proposed to improve the level of safety of rail transport systems involves three complementary levels. The first level of contextual analysis (before the accident) makes it possible to study the various factors favoring the production of the human error at the origin of the accident. The second cognitive level (during the accident) aims to identify the errors related to the human cognitive process involved in a given situation of insecurity. The third level of behavioral analysis (after the accident) focuses on evaluating the consequences of a wrong action in terms of damage to humans, the environment and the human-machine system. This article proposes an original methodological framework for the analysis, classification and evaluation of human errors involved in the safety of rail transport. The key factors taken into account in the analysis concern not only the inappropriate behavior of human operators involved in railway safety and risk management, but also the technical failures of the transport system and the operating and environmental conditions.

Francesca Demasi, Giuseppe Loprencipe, Laura Moretti

Attention to the most vulnerable road users has grown rapidly over recent decades. The experience gained reveals an important number of fatalities due to accidents in urban branch roads. In this study, an analytical methodology for the calculation of urban branch road safety is proposed. The proposal relies on data collected during road safety inspections; therefore, it can be implemented even when historical data about traffic volume or accidents are not available. It permits us to identify geometric, physical, functional, and transport-related defects, and elements which are causal factors of road accidents, in order to assess the risk of death or serious injuries for users. Traffic volume, average speed, and expected consequences on vulnerable road users in case of an accident allow us to calculate both the level of danger of each homogeneous section which composes the road, and the hazard index of the overall branch. A case study is presented to implement the proposed methodology. The strategy proposed by the authors could have a significant impact on the risk management of urban roads, and could be used in decision-making processes to design safer roads and improve the safety of existing roads.

Clint Pinion, James Klyza, Shelley Brewer et al.

Understanding and implementing the results of Safety Climate surveys can assist in decreasing occupational injuries and illnesses. The following article presents findings of a cross-sectional study that assessed the relationship between safety climate perceptions and job position among engineering, procurement, fabrication and construction (EPFC) employees using a 15-item survey. Descriptive statistics (means and frequencies) and an ANACOVA (analysis of covariance) were performed on a saturated model. The study had a 62% response rate. Results indicate a statistically significant in mean safety climate scores between job position among EPFC employees when controlling for years in industry and location type (i.e., construction versus fabrication) [F (9, 603) = 5.28, p &lt; 0.0001, adjusted R-square = 0.07]. Employee perception of safety climate differed based on the employee&rsquo;s job position (i.e., laborer, foreman, etc.). Project management reported the highest safety climate scores (0.91), followed by supervisors (0.86), technical support employees and foremen (0.84) and laborers (0.81).

Володимир Іванович Мірненко, Дмитро Іванович Дуленко, Валентин Петрович Диптан

В роботі розкрито підхід щодо розробки методики оцінки напружено-деформованого стану жорстких покриттів аеродромів військового призначення на основі кінцево-елементного аналізу. Визначено основні фактори,що впливають на виникнення пошкоджень жорстких покриттів аеродромів військового призначення. Для оцінки напружено-деформованого стану жорстких покриттів аеродромів військового призначення на основі кінцево-елементного аналізу запропоновано програмний комплекс – MSC NASTRAN for WINDOWS. Встановлено, що циклічне контактне навантаження від літальних апаратів різних типів у порівнянні з ненавантаженою частиною плити жорсткого покриття аеродрому військового призначення збільшується в 5…16 разів. Розроблена методика дозволяє прогнозувати стан жорсткого покриття аеродрому військового призначення.