Advances in Safety Management and Human Factors

The construction industry remains a high-risk industry, because of high fatality rates worldwide. Most construction accidents result from interaction between the work team, workplace, equipment and materials which lead to about 70% of injuries and fatalities. A wide range of safety management approaches have been implemented to manage construction risks, and they have been successful in reducing lost time injuries and incidents. However, a number of safety management approaches currently used in the industry have not kept pace with emerging theory on accident causation, prevention and safety management. To minimise accidents more advanced approaches and methods are required, and one of such methods is High Reliability Organisation (HRO) principles of collective mindfulness. This paper presents a systematic review of HRO research published in construction from 1990–2017. This review aims to identify the possibilities and barriers associated with transferring HRO principles to construction activities. Key findings from seven articles are discussed, research gaps identified and primary outcomes from the data will be presented descriptively.

Organizational factors are considered part of the broader human factors domain that links three aspects of industrial set-ups, namely, the job, the individual and the organization and how these impact on employee health and safety. The broader human factors domain in the context of sociotechnical systems has attracted a lot of research in the past three decades. In particular, organizational factors have long been suspected to have the greatest influence on individual and group behavior at the workplace, although there is little research on their influence in industrial accident causation. In addition, there is little research on the influence of organizational factors on residual risk management in high-risk industries such as mining. Residual or net risk is defined as the level of risk present with all identified risk control measures in place. Most accidents in the mining industry are as a result of residual risk, as compared to inherent risk. Therefore, it becomes imperative to examine accident causation in the context of residual risk management. This paper explains a systematic literature review that is intended to identify research studies published on organizational factors in the mining industry between 1980 and 2017. The aim of the review is to examine the relationship between organizational factors and accident causation in the context of residual risk management. Gaps identified in the literature review would assist in directing future research towards this critical relationship, which is responsible for the injury and loss of many lives in the mining industry. The search strategy involved identifying published and peer-reviewed articles in electronic databases such as Scopus, Web of Science, Proquest, EMBASE, ASCE and CINAHL. Selection of eligible articles was achieved through refined inclusion and exclusion criteria that resulted in a total of 27 articles eligible for review. Primary outcomes and research gaps from the data extraction are presented following the PRISMA reporting checklist.

Safety Management Systems (SMS) normally base on the assumption that safety can be guaranteed through a prescription of a one-best-way of activity performance. Any deviation from this one-best-way is considered a violation. Main objective of safety measures is therefore to eliminate variability in human performance. A more comprehensive safety perspective recognizes that the operating conditions under which activities must be performed are never ideal. The human ability to adapt performance depending on the current situation is consequently considered a strength that should be supported in order to enhance safety. The possibility to deploy this strength should therefore be guaranteed. For this purpose, a safety tool – the Measure Evaluation Tool (MET) – that supports the definition of an appropriate human scope of action was developed. This is following presented.

Safety climate is an important leading indicator of safety performance and reflects the priority of safety within industrial operations. Previous research has identified safety climate as a multilevel and multidimensional construct, which involves the interaction of multiple social agents at various levels of organisations, including managers, supervisors, and work-groups. The present paper tests the mediation role of two types of safety supervision styles, safety monitoring supervision (SMS) and safety communication supervision (SCS), on the relationship between organisational safety climate (OSC) and relevant group outcomes for safety management. Results found that on one hand, OSC affects performative safety management dimensions of work-groups, through the influence of SMS. On the other hand, SCS seems to exercise a mediation role of the effects of OSC on work dimensions supporting psychological health and the quality of the psychosocial environment.

Nuclear power plants have a licensed lifetime. Nowadays, as the number of globally aged nuclear power plants increases, the need for research on the decommissioning of nuclear power plants is increasing. Unlike the decommissioning of other infrastructures, the decommissioning of nuclear power plants has a risk of radiation. Therefore, safety evaluation of dismantling worker about radiation is required. This study proposes a framework for evaluating the safety of workers during the decommissioning process of nuclear power plants and conducted a case study on Kori nuclear power plant unit 1 based on the proposed framework. It is expected that the risk information obtained from the evaluation can be used for developing a guideline for the dismantling worker to minimize potential risk.

The safe production of enterprises not only relates to the safety of life and property of the people, but also to the overall situation of national reform and development and social stability. Every year there are many safety accidents in our country, especially in recent years, many important enterprise safety accidents, to China’s economic and social development has brought very bad influence, serious interference to social order running smoothly. In this paper, the questionnaire was designed and the questions in the questionnaire are taken as the organizational factors that affect the safety production of the enterprise. SPSS19.0 software was used to process the questionnaire data distributed in the enterprise, and the credibility of the questionnaire data is obtained. The SEM model of structural equation was established by using LISREL software. Principal component factor analysis was used to further analyze the impact of four latent variables such as employee safety literacy, employee internal factor, business management factor and external environmental factor on safety production. The questionnaire data was divided into managers and employees. The influence of observational variables on enterprise safety is analyzed from different levels. Through the analysis of the path graph, we can get a deeper and thorough understanding of the differences in safety awareness between employees and managers. Managers should increase the investment in safety production and strengthen the training of enterprises in safety production. For ordinary employees, it is crucial to familiar with the rules of production safety.

Many companies have made many efforts to reach to a safe operation. These efforts have led to improve their safety level but all too often still unwanted events associated with injuries occur. To achieve a sustainable safety, many techniques have been adopted. Among them, behavior-based safety has been applied to improve safety through employees’ safe behavior. In this paper, the BBS model is more closely studied. The aim of the study is to understand the features of the BBS model, its coming into existence, its pros and cons and how the model works in the industry.

Micro and Small enterprises (MiSEs) are the most widespread kinds of company present in the world. As far as these companies’ management structures are concerned, huge variety and fragmentation seem to be critical factors in the effective and efficient implementation of a standard (e.g., BS OHSAS 18001, now ISO 45001) occupational safety and health management system (OHSMS), together with a systematic lack of resources (both economic and in terms of available man-hours). This research identifies and discusses the barriers to and drivers of the implementation of a OSHMS and its impact on MiSEs through a multistep research methodology consisting of: (1) a review of the existent literature; (2) a survey; (3) a dialogue workshop; and (4) follow-up interviews. The results are reported and discussed, so as to underline critical aspects linked to OSHMS implementation, together with practical suggestions aiming at supporting such companies in their implementation process.

Various strategies have been adopted to reduce medical diagnostic laboratory errors. Proficiency testing (PT) is one of the most efficient external quality assessment (EQA) approaches which include an external assessment of a laboratory’s analytical performance in comparison to its peers or to an accuracy-based reference system. To assess quality, the clinical biochemistry laboratory routinely participated in two external PT programs: Provincial Health Metrx and College of American Pathologists (CAP) survey. In Health Metrx, 598 tests for 43 analyte resulted in 3 discrepancies, yielding a total discrepancy rate of 0.50%. In CAP survey, of 431 tests for 58 analyte, 3 discrepancies resulted, yielding a total discrepancy rate of 0.70%. These results are in sync with the performance criteria and requirements set up by provincial regulatory agencies and both PT surveys. We suggest that proficiency testing programs should be an integral part of quality care to promote continuous quality improvement in healthcare.

The use of methods and tools in ergonomic risk assessment presents variations of the interpretation of its results, being more or less restrictive on the measurement related to the severity of the risk. This happens because of many reasons: it begins with the choice of the method, going through the content and limitations of each tool, the underlying factors, such as the interpretation of the analyst and the peculiarities of the activity, of the system and of the organization of the company itself, which leads to doubts regarding the accuracy of the final conclusion. The objective of this paper is to propose the approach to a risk weighting method of the ergonomic tools based on the combination of FMEA concepts, risk matrix and company specifications, considering, besides the final result of the ergonomic tool, other factors involving the existing probabilities and controls, with greater emphasis on the method of ergonomic assessment, thus respecting the company particularities and those of the workers who constitute it, where both receive a greater protagonism role on the final result of the assessment and in the commitment with the improvements.

It is said that mobbing is born in interpersonal relationships and little in the management of the organization.The objective is to carry out the study of psychosocial risk factors and stress as precursors of mobbing. It is an applied, mixed and correlational research, developed in 2 vehicle maintenance company, with a population of 116 workers and a sample of 102. The workers signed informed consent. Use of a battery of instruments for the evaluation of psychosocial risk factors, with levels of reliability in intra - occupation 0.957, extra - occupation 0.944 and stress 0.83. The correlation of mobbing was determined in the dimensions of leadership and social relations at work, control of work, demands for work, reward, time away from work and symptoms associated with stress; which are aggravated by weak organizational practices.

The use of information and communication technology (ICT) makes it possible to propose solutions to optimize the management of people and processes. This work presents the development of a remote monitoring system of safety equipment using Radio Frequency Identification technology (RFID), managed by a software, also developed in this research. The routine combined laboratory testing for hosting and system validation and testing at a construction site for verification of the system in an environment of real construction. The model proved to be efficient in the identification and localization of the equipment through the indication of its position using images in plant. The model has also supplied graphical reports showing the characteristics of each equipment presenting the following data: name, construction, placement, brand, material, conservation, revision and person responsible. The development of managerial tools contributes to the advance of the security equipment optimized management in the construction site.

This paper is focused on the study and analysis of risks associated with collaborative robots. Currently, collaborative robots are in full development with application in different sectors of activity. However, for these new working situations the adoption of suitable risk assessment approaches is necessary to deal with all new parameters and risks generated by the collaborative work involving a machine and human beings.In this sense, it is important to assess the risks associated with the use of this type of machines, and different methodology of risk assessment can be used in these new and complex cases.A comparative study of two risk assessment methodologies was carried out to evaluate their suitability for risk management and thus to support the manufacturers and users of these machines in the use of appropriate and reliable risk assessment methodologies. The two methodologies, Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) and Risk Matrix, and the quality of the results obtained by their application are compared.

Safety rules and regulations for various groups of organizations are required along with security education, safety supervision and inspection. These measures can improve the level of safety management to a certain extent, and because the employees are disturbed by anxiety and impulsive irrational psychological factors in production and technology and other social activities, their behavior is more difficult to be predicted. This study aims at introducing an enterprise accident and safety early warning system by infusing human factors with respect to physical and the environmental aspects of the behavior, and with respect to safety management needs, and proposes the application of the Internet of things technology to the construction of enterprise early warning system. The accident warning system architecture uses IOT framework as a model, the three-layer structure includes perception layer, transport layer and application layer. The proposed system can help address several issues and can shift the enterprise focus form accident treatment to a more proper and effective accident warning system, and fundamentally help prevent accidents at first.

Metro traffic dispatching system is a typical safety critical system. Speech communication is an important part in the task of a dispatching crew, and the quality of communication may directly affect the safety and performance of the system. The purpose of this study is to identify and determine the communication skill factors of dispatcher. Twenty dispatchers selected from Beijing Metro Company taken as the participants for CIT method and obtained 13 factors to construct a communication skill model. Through the questionnaire with 5 metro experts and group decision-making AHP method used to calculate weight of factors and importance sequence. The results show 5 most important factors are precise expression, coordination, overall awareness, multi-tasks management and avoid ambiguity. The related conclusions can be applied to the investigation of communication performance of dispatcher crew and the design of non-technical skills training programs.

Calculation of the probability of occurrence of an accident involving an industrial machine such as a metal bending press requires knowledge of the failure rates. Specifically, what is needed are the failure rate of the protective device and, the failure rate associated with the human action consisting in having one’s hands between the press dies while the operator is bending a part. The first data could, in principle be obtained from the manufacturer of the device. However, in reality, this data involves knowledge of the reliability of not only the protective device but also of the associated command circuitry. In reality, such data may be difficult to obtain. Also, many important statistics relating to human performance are not collected by workplaces. So, another way to obtain the data is through expert elicitation, that is consulting people knowledgeable with the problem at hand and asking them to estimate, based on their judgement, the probabilities or failure rates that are sought. This process is often used in the literature but is seldom described in detail. In this paper, expert elicitation is used and described in order to gather relevant data for the purpose of probability estimation. Thus, eight bending press operators in a large manufacturing plant, the health and safety coordinator as well as the workers’ supervisor were solicited.A questionnaire was handed to them consisting of a set of brief instructions followed by three questions which were provided with multiple possible qualitative probability estimates to choose from. In order to improve the quality of the probability estimates, the suggested probabilities were associated with typical accidental events which serve as a comparison basis for the participants. A general introduction was given by the author to the participants in a group meeting on the shop floor which consisted of presentation the research project, its purpose. The questions and the choice of answers were read and explained to the group. The questionnaire was then handed to them. The whole process took little time to complete. These estimates represent the experts’ estimates of the probability of occurrence of the events in question, expressed in linguistic, qualitative terms. These estimates were translated in quantitative terms through fuzzy logic technique. More specifically, a scale composed of qualitative statements and their corresponding triangular fuzzy number was established with two main simple guiding principles in mind. Firstly, the scale should reflect the probability scales found in often-used safety standards. Secondly, the fuzzy triangular numbers should not overlap so that there is no need to invert any of their components as required by the rules of fuzzy number arithmetic.

Today, due to the development of medical technology and the efforts of medical staff, safety at hospital is increasing. On the other hand, Japan’s declining birthrate and an aging population will impede the improvement of the quality of medical services in the future. Therefore, it is desirable to introduce technology to replace people. In this research, we focus on patient falling and improve ways to assess risk of patients as a first step.

The activity of safety management in medical institutions has been positively performed for problems directly related to patients’ lives. However, the Risk Manager in the hospital who performs the field-oriented safety management also have regularly works as field workers. Therefore, we made and commanded the new system which supports those Risk Managers in the hospital.

The safety evaluation index system for safety management was established according to the current condition and problems of the safety management in the industrial enterprise, and by taking behavior-based safety theory as the framework. Twenty-seven measuring indices were selected. A petrochemical enterprise in Shan Dong province of China was first selected as a demonstrative research object, then field investigation, questionnaire survey and interviews were carried out in this enterprise, and finally the safety management evaluation of the enterprise was conducted by using behavior-based safety theory and the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method.

This article aims to explore and analyze the evidences of the studies about SC improvement in the industrial field. A bibliographic search was made at different databases using the terms “Safety Culture” and “Improvement”. Following the exclusion of the duplicates and applying the inclusion criteria, thirteen articles were reviewed by the authors, which allowed to assess mainly common themes to summarize the main conclusions. This review shows that communication is a key element for developing SC, and also that the fear of punishment and the difficulties in managing a reporting system are the main difficulties to improve it. To outline, this systematic review showed that despite a diversity of conceptions and practices related to the improvement of the Safety Culture, it is possible to identify some common elements. However, further research should be developed to deepen the knowledge about the topics discussed in this paper.

Occupational health and safety and employee engagement literature have been studied independently. However, the need to integrate these streams of literature has now become apparent. This paper therefore seeks to address this gap by empirically testing the impact of occupational health and safety management on employee engagement in the small and medium-scaled enterprises in Ghana. A cross-sectional data from 136 employees were analysed to (dis)confirm our hypotheses. Results of the structural equation model revealed a positive effect of occupational health and safety on intellectual, social and affective engagement. However, among the dimensions of engagement, intellectual engagement was the criterion variable influenced most. The paper suggests that promoters of SMEs, owners and/or managers, should endeavour to treat the health and safety concerns of their employees with utmost priority in order to get the best out of them.

To explore the internal operating mechanism of unsafety enterprise behavior system, this paper use HFACS and SD model that construct the causal relationship diagram of multi-level model of unsafe behavior in HFACS. The simulation analysis by running Vensim software shows that the effect of tissue layer safety state on unsafe behavior is the most significant. This paper also conducted a survey of a enterprise in Shandong. The effective questionnaires collected will be analyzed by the structural equation model (SEM). At the organizational level, the improvement of the rules and regulations of enterprise production has an important impact on the safety of employees’ behavior. In summary, the premise of safety is to ensure the safety of the organization. Enterprises should improve the relevant production rules and regulations.

In corporate safety activities, it is necessary to pay attention not only to the number of incident reports, but also to the quality of information of incident report. In this research, based on the experiment, we have created the evaluation axis of the information quality in the incident report. The evaluation axis is the measurement axis relating to the information amount and the measurement axis relating to the breadth of the information viewpoint. When applied to incident report collected by enterprise, relevance was observed between application result and safety activity or safety activity consciousness survey result and validity of evaluation axis was shown.

This study intended to analyze and investigate a set of workplace accidents that occurred in a Portuguese Municipality. The investigation focused on the accidents that took place within the Waste Collection Division of the Department of Urban Hygiene and covered a three-year period (2014 to 2016) using a formal and structured process - the RIAAT method (Recording, Investigation and Analysis of Accidents at Work). The RIAAT process included the reclassification and recoding of 109 accidents and the in-depth investigation of 19 accidents. The most frequent type of accident and the main factors that effectively contributed to the occurrence of the accidents were highlighted. Finally, the results were compared to those reported by Gabinete de Estratégia e Planeamento for a similar sector. The main variables assessed showed a very similar behavior.

Work-related-musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) cause high costs for employers and governments. In addition, they reduce quality of life for millions of workers throughout Europe, both during their working life and retirement. One of the causes of WMSDs is exposure to Whole Body Vibration (WBV), with WMSDs usually developing over long periods of time. The Doñana Biological Reserve (DBR) in Huelva, Spain is one of the most important infrastructures in the country. Due to the ecosystem the staff must use vehicles with four-wheel drive (4 × 4). The European Directive 2002/44/EC lays down minimum requirements to protect workers from health and safety risks arising from exposure to mechanical vibration. This study analysed DBR workers’ exposure to WMSD in relation to WBV when they drove the most frequently-used 4 × 4 model.

With the development of computer technology, the operation environment of main control rooms in modern nuclear power plants (NPP) has considerably changed over the years, namely the use of advanced Digital Control System (DCS). In this paper, the accident of steam generator tube rupture (SGTR) of a DCS in a nuclear power plant is simulated and the task analysis method is used to explore the reliability of the secondary side cooling and depressurization operation of the operators. The effect of the man-machine interface changes on operators is studied on the basis of SGTR accident simulation. An event tree is built to model the operators’ activities of handling the accident. Operators’ behaviors in a DCS are determined and a quantitative calculation of operators’ reliability is then conducted.

Runway incursions are a major concern for modern airport in order to reduce accidents. When planes, vehicles or people are on the runway without approval a runway incursion may occur. Runway incursions could be a result of many different contributing factors from human errors to design flaws. Runway incursions are responsible for a majority of accidents at aerodromes and with growing traffic volumes; they have been raised to the top of many airports safety agenda.The aim of this study was to look at the critical safety system of runway incursions to see what safety measures that are in place and also to analyze that system with the help of risk management tools. It was found that top management commitment to safety is very important. Finally, training and the proper use of signal systems was also an important factor in maintaining a safe runway.

Human activities increase types and numbers of synthetic pollutants and their byproducts in the course of time. Synthetic Organic Chemicals (SOCs), so called micropollutants, present in very low concentrations in aquatic ecosystem, but likely accumulate in animal and human tissues and cells because of fat solubility. These persistent micropollutants have toxic effects in very low concentrations and resistant to biodegradation. SOCs can be adsorbed to sediments in surface water sources, so sediments have an important role in the accumulation of water contaminants. In the course of time, sediments become source of new contamination for aqueous media.In this study, it is aimed to determine concentration of two groups of SOCs; organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and organophosphorous pesticides (OPPs) in wastewater, surface sediment and excavated sediment samples taken from Konya Main Drainage Channel (MDC) which takes the effluents of Konya Wastewater Treatment Plant and transports the treated wastewater to Salt Lake.

In this paper, hydraulic characteristics of Yedigöze Dam and Hydroelectric Power Plant (HEPP), which are producing energy in Turkey, were investigated experimentally by physical model studies. The 1/70-scaled physical model was used in conducting experiments. Flow depth, discharge and pressure data were recorded for different flow conditions. Serious modification was made on the original project with the experimental study. In this study, in order to evaluate the capability of the computational fluid dynamics on modeling spillway flow a comparative study was also made by using results obtained from physical modeling and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. Discharge rating curves, velocity patterns and pressures were used to compare the results of the physical model and the numerical model. It was shown that there were many modifications needed after project design with experimental and numerical study and there is reasonably good agreement between the physical and numerical models in flow characteristics.

Every year in Japan, approximately 300 workers are killed due to work-related accidents at construction sites. Approximately 40% of the accidents are caused by falls from heights. Therefore, Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has introduced and strictly enforced countermeasures with various safety guidelines to prevent fall-related accidents. In this study, the features of two typical guidelines are introduced including an evaluation of the human factor and the effects on the prevention of fall-related accidents. Based on the results of the evaluation, it was found that fatal accidents at construction sites were reduced following the “Guidelines for the Methods to Erect Scaffolds First.” However, another guideline, the “Guidelines for the Methods to Erect Handrails First for the Scaffolds Erection” did not significantly reduce accidents because of a low usage rate.

Pedestrian evacuation is one of the most crucial research fields in safety management. Staircase is a main escape route when pedestrians evacuate from the multi-story building. According to different priorities about evacuation, it is necessary to make a rational strategy that reducing the casualties and property damage effectively. The article makes an attempt to establish a extended network model, which is used to make further applications in more complex architectures to analyze the evacuation. The results of our study could provide individual instructions for risk avoidance and effective strategies for safety management.

Aviation maintenance (AM) represents safety critical work and has procedures for safety management. However, sometimes, the modeling of safety critical parts of this work may not be sufficiently concrete for evaluating safety risks in practice. The AM company we studied lacked concrete methods for modeling the most safety critical parts of its work and for utilizing this knowledge in occupational health services (OHS) and safety management. We modeled the safety criticality of six of its tasks using interviews, work process analysis, the Brain Work Index, Work Observation, and HF tool. We summarized the results as a 3D model, and held workshops involving managers, operative, HR and quality assurance personnel, and OHS. We utilized systemic and collaborative orientation, mixed methods and participative development. As a result, the AM company improved its mastery of safety criticality by including new procedures in OHS processes, developing work processes, and modifying recruiting processes.

In 2016, smartphone sales grew five percent, with nearly 1.5 billion smartphones sold worldwide. In the United States (US), there were 220 million users. These 220 million users represent the 77% of American households who own a smartphone. A large number of the smartphone users are children. The intent of this study is to understand the effect smartphone use might have on the musculoskeletal system of young children. Eighteen participants, 11 males and 7 females, ages 10–12, were interviewed. The participants were observed and quantitative data was collected as 17 trials were performed; noting back posture while children used a smartphone and tablet. A goniometer was used to measure back flexion and extension. Measured back flexion ranged from 8.5 to 54° and back extension ranged from 12 to 24°. Results indicate that back support and/or correct posture are important when using mobile devices.

Workplace stress has been a major source of deterioration in wellbeing and performance of workers for decades now. VDTs have become an inseparable part of any workstation in the modern work world. It is important to address workplace stressors in order to achieve a better work life around the globe. The study aimed at identifying potential stressors associated with VDT work and developing a measuring instrument to assess the level of occupational stress experienced by VDT operators. The study was conducted in three phases, i.e., identification of constructs of occupational stress among VDT operators; generation of items and item analysis; and standardisation of Occupational Stress Inventory (OSI). As a test of validation, the inventory was subjected to an evaluation by 50 experts. A sample of 100 VDT operators, chosen randomly, from IT industry was taken for the pilot study and 1000 VDT operators were taken for the final administration of the inventory for its standardisation. Reliability Estimation was done by split halves and test retest method. For test retest reliability estimation, an interval of 6 months was taken for repeated administration of the inventory. The OSI was found to be valid and very reliable, in terms of both internal consistency and repeated administrations (r = 0.83 by split halves method and r = 0.92 by test retest method).

Mining was one of the first activities developed by humankind and it has been one of the pillars of the Brazil’s economy for years. Studies show that mining is responsible for the highest mortality rates related to working accidents among the economic activities from Brazil. This work consists of a case study which the aim is to analyze the impact of the OHSAS 18001 certification in the performance of workplace safety management in a gold mining company. For this purpose, were made bibliographic researches, technical visits in field, collection and critical analyze of data. The results showed that the certification process contributed significantly for the evolution of the performance of the safety management system. However, the key element to unleash the improvements was the human factor, through the high commitment level of the managers with the issue, which were reflected on the other organizational levels, providing several gains for the company.

There have been multiple chemical incidents which involved runaway reaction in the exothermic batch reactors (e.g. synthetic polymer reaction). Runaway reaction commonly refers to the abnormal exothermic reaction when cooling water fails to operate and the temperature inside the reactor increases rapidly. Most commonly, synthetic polymer reactors are operated and controlled by the Basic Process Control System (BPCS) and the safety valve or/and rupture disks are installed for the protection and safety. These measures, however, are limiting in terms of detecting abrupt changes in temperature (and pressure) in advance when a runaway reaction takes place. This research suggests the use of batch reactor along with Safety Instrumented System (SIS) in addition to the current practice of BPCS. As for the Safety Instrumented Functions (SIF) of the SIS, a 2003 voting is installed as a sensor, 2 channels as a logic solver, and a 1002 voting is utilized as final elements.

Based on the notion that the Fire-service profession is a strenuous and hazardous occupation, this study explored and identified the hidden characteristics of firefighting tasks, and factors predictive of firefighters’ work-related musculoskeletal disorders in the Ghana Fire Service. Quantitative data was collected from three hundred and six firefighters and analyzed using both factor and correlation analysis. It was found that the firefighters experience several traumas characterized by exposure to human entrapment and loss in fires accidents, and personal terrible sensory experiences, the enormity of which increase with increasing years of firefighting-task performance. The firefighters are also exposed to several WMSDs whose enormity is felt irrespective of years of task performance. It is concluded that the identified hidden aspects of the firefighting-task characteristics provide insights into the enormity of trauma and WMSD associated with the task performance, which could be used to optimize the future design and management of the firefighting-task.

This study was to investigate the satisfaction of construction workers and their physical and physiological responses to work-wear in poor workplaces. A survey was conducted on the physical response to the worker’s satisfaction with the construction worker’s current construction safety clothing and the sense of warmth during work. The results are as follows. First, the workers felt that the body reaction during work, feels more heat above the bottom, and that the construction safety suits worn are easily torn or punctured with arms, elbows, etc. From the above results, we propose that ergonomic study of construction safety apparel considering the work posture and the risk of musculoskeletal disease is required for the construction safety work-wear to prevent the risk of workers in the construction site.

Heat can have varied impacts especially on workers who need to perform their duties for long hours under the heat of the sun. This paper evaluates the thermal comfort of traffic enforcers in Pasig City and determines its impacts on their work, safety, and health. Quantitative data on external factors such as air temperature, wind speed, UV index, and relative humidity, as well as qualitative information on internal factors such as the perceived level of physical activity and clothing comfortability were gathered and analyzed to determine their influence on the overall thermal comfort of the MMDA traffic enforcers. Interviews with traffic enforcers were conducted. The results showed that some of these factors do not favor thermal comfort. Some recommendations were given to help improve the traffic enforcers thermal comfort during the performance of their work.

The purpose of this study is suggesting several factors to consider when making or developing agricultural safety clothing to enhance farmers’ health. This study is to suggest on development the newly-designed agricultural safety clothing for pesticide-proof and comfort functions of different materials of anti-pesticide protective clothing. In wearing tests, human physiological reaction and subjective comfort measured by Thermo-hygrometer from 5-parts such as forehead, chest, forearm, thigh, and lower leg before and after working. In the results of physiological and subjective comforts, agricultural safety clothing with water-oil repellent finished Sontara® was lower than agricultural safety clothing with PVC-coated nylon in human skin temperature, sweat quantity, inside-clothes temperature and humidity. The newly-designed agricultural safety clothing with water-oil repellent finished Sontara® were suggested all excellent in pesticide-proof effect and functionality and turned out to have higher comfort.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the risks associated with repetitive movements of the upper limbs in different meat processing tasks of a pig slaughterhouse. The study was conducted in a Brazilian pig slaughterhouse, in which 200 workers were evaluated through the OCRA Checklist. There were 18 work tasks analyzed from the following sectors: cuts (8); ham (4); pepperoni (3); sausage (2) and salami (1). The average score of OCRA Checklist was 20.6 ± 5.8 (moderate risk). The scores for the right upper limb (20.4 ± 6.0 - moderate risk) did not differ (p = 0.163) from the left upper limb (20.6 ± 5.8 - moderate risk). Two work tasks were considered high risk (11%) and 16 were within a moderate risk (89%). These results suggest that pig processing tasks predispose workers to a greater probability of developing upper limb work-related musculoskeletal disorders (>21.5% probability for high risk and 10.8 to 21.5% for moderate risk).

The telecommunication industry in Nigeria today is one of the largest growing industry in the nation, and acts as a high generating revenue for the economy. With the spread of mobile network coverage around the nation, there is the need for necessary improvements, to meet up with this growing demand. This increases the need for further construction and use of telecommunication masts from points to points all over the nation. This paper reviewed the various ergonomic and human safety factors which are considered by riggers and technicians whilst working at significant heights above ground level. The paper also reviewed various safety equipment used during the installation of telecommunication masts or radio mobile equipment on telecommunication mobile sites or base stations. A review of relevant literatures was conducted from journals and conference articles from databases including Emerald, Taylor and Francis online, Springer, Ebsco Host, Scopus, amongst others. Findings from the study revealed various safety methods adopted whilst working at significant heights during equipment installations. The study also revealed the various safety equipment used by both the riggers and technicians on telecommunication sites as well as their effects on safety. An important conclusion from this study is that the safety of riggers and technicians is paramount, hence, the need for safety precautions to be taken to avoid accidents. This study recommends that policies regarding the safety of riggers and technicians are to be reviewed and implemented. This includes safety checks and proper use of equipment to avoid risks caused by carelessness, over confidence and negligence.

Brazil is the forth nation in the world that registers more accidents during labor activities, behind only by China, India and Indonesia. The most causes of workers death and mutilations results from accidents involving machines and equipment. The main aim of this article is to discuss and analyze the causal factors that leads to the human error in the accidents involving machinery and equipment that happened in Brazil between 2009 and 2015 using HFACS, which provides the casual factors that will serve as basis to this study, and to contribute to reduce the number of accidents not just in Brazil, but in a worldwide level, and avoid the recurrence of accidents involving machinery and equipment as well. Several HFACS categories appeared frequently: Technological Environment (78,4%), Violations (76,1%), Perceptual Errors (65,6%), Inadequate Supervision (58,1%) and others.

Acknowledging the FAA’s well-known PEAR model, and the influence of the dirty dozen in aviation maintenance, the authors examine a tracking and reporting system that fulfills FAA requirements for safety management systems in aviation maintenance organizations. Implications and suggestions for a robust safety management system which encompasses human factors and ORM, applicable to an aviation maintenance environment are presented, with the inclusion of specific risk hazards. The resulting safety reporting system proposed addresses both consistency and reliability challenges, unique to the aviation maintenance environment. Using the four pillars of safety as a foundation, the REPAIRER strategy procedures serves as the safety policy pillar, through the examination and rating of potential risk hazards, based on the dirty dozen. The resulting reporting system leverages aviation maintenance-specific factors to identify and correct for human errors, improving the reliability of maintenance procedures, enhancing safety practices, and ultimately creating a greater state of operational readiness.

As we all know, by now, light is much more important than we thought. Is our non-visual system that regulates our physiological and biological systems through our circadian rhythm. Spectral properties of light are crucial to our pineal and pituitary glands, the first is responsible for melatonin production, whereas the second one is in charge for adrenalin, noradrenalin, and stress hormones production. There is a link and coordination between pineal and pituitary glands. We must know that spectral qualities of natural is different from artificial light. The present paper aims to study the “do’s and dont’s” of a lighting design in an indoor space (workplace). To achieve such objective the research will be conducted throughout literature review. We expect to conclude that the right balance should be our major goal, and by doing so we are contributing for our health and wellbeing.

This study explores an alternative approach to managing safety issues within the work driving setting by developing and piloting a measurement tool that examines proactive safety behaviours among work drivers. A systematic literature review was conducted to develop the construct and items for the survey, which is then assessed using an expert panel (n = 5) and piloted with a sample of work drivers and supervisors involved in fleet-related activities (n = 37). Principal component analysis produced six internally consistent factors that reflect: protection of other drivers and fixing issues, volunteerism/helping, noticing and reporting, safety voice, problem prevention and feedback inquiry. Investigating a proactive approach in managing risks while driving for work could provide a practical contribution to the field of work driving safety.

Conducting safety education lectures and distributing questionnaires to students, teachers and administrators are measures needed to improve the safety awareness of college students and promote safe behavior of students. This paper uses statistical data analysis software package SPSS17.0 to analyze and verify the collected data, using structural equation model (SEM) and confirmatory factor analysis. The paper investigate the factors influencing college students’ safety awareness, reveals the influence of various factors and the present situation of students’ safety consciousness. The results showed that the overall score index of safety awareness of students, teachers and administrators in a certain university is 75, therefore the overall level of students’ safety consciousness is relatively good. Results of the study supports the implementation of safety environment and safety culture for colleges, in order to improve the safety management of college leaders.

The work quality and the importance of maintaining a healthy relationship between men and their work environment encourages companies to refer to the term “ergonomics”, which seeks to minimize risks of work accidents and achieve ideal working conditions. The research was done in a car assembly company. This company was chosen to analyze a process in which a fuel tank is taken from a rack and moved to the mounting band.The purpose of the study is to verify the need to redesign the required manipulator for the transfer of the fuel tank inside the assembly line, because it is not functional to carry out the loading activity, therefore the work is done in a manual way, which under the conditions of safety and health at work is “accepted” for its realization according to the “MEXICAN OFFICIAL STANDARD (NOM-023-STPS-2012)”, however when the process is submitted to other evaluation ergonomics methods it is shown that the activity is not suitable to be carried out by the operators under the current working conditions.Analysis were done with ergonomics methods such as NIOSH function and Utah Estimation of Back Compressive Force (UBCF) to determine the maximum load and the static compression force of the cited task.Besides, Statistical Control Process (SPC) showed the variation of the several components that are assembled during one shift. Due to the unfavorable result of the process, the possible harmful consequences in the human being were investigated, among them: physiological fatigue, muscle injuries, herniated discs, bone lesions, lumbar and ligament injuries.As a solution to the findings and to prevent occupational hazards, it was proposed to modify the manipulator to avoid the effort at the time of the activity of lifting the fuel tank and at the same time making the transfer more easily to the production line.

Successful, round-the-clock operations in high-risk and complex organizations rely on the proper transfer of critical information through skilled team communication and a reliable system for handing over the operations to the next shift. Handovers, by nature, pose a risk to processes when information is lost or corrupted between the sender and the receiver. This paper reviews some of the large-scale accidents that have occurred in the past 25 years, whose investigations reveal a failure in handover as one of the underlying causes of the accident. The paper then discusses the results of a qualitative study on the handover activity at the Norwegian User Support and Operations Center’s (N-USOC). The N-USOC has a control room for experiments on plant breeding in closed growth systems inside the International Space Station (ISS). This study provides an invaluable insight into the HO variability of a specific team in the use of two different control room consoles. Finally, the paper expounds on why there is a difference in the HO of two consoles by the same operators and why thorough planning is vital to efficient and safe operations.

The introduction of hydrogen technologies in the automotive and energy industry requires research in all areas of its possible application including production of hydrogen, through its operation. All of these stages are burdened by the risk caused by interaction of hydrogen with the environment and technological subject. Security group risks represent significant risk of handling hydrogen due to the possibility of explosion. Based on the risk value, the safety level of the individual subsystems of hydrogen production and utilization process is subsequently assessed. Consequently, it is possible to assess the overall safety of the mobile system based on the final/resulting value of the risk. In case of improper handling, technical failure/incident or unexpected adverse event, there is a risk of hydrogen leak into the environment. With the wide range of explosive capacity of hydrogen-air mixture, it can represent a high risk of explosion with a relatively little energy initialization.

The potential for hearing loss among younger generations is escalating every year, as well as government expenses on hearing loss. Likewise, the use of headphones has been thought to degrade a college student’s academic performance. Hearing loss is defined as a hearing impairment of one or both ears, partial or complete, that results from one’s lifestyle, exposure and employment. This issue among the younger generation requires immediate attention. In light of this, this study was conducted in order to survey the listening habits and lifestyle of typical college students who use headphones for at least 5 days a week. Also it investigated possible safety issues and academic performance impacts associated with the use of the device. Two hundred and eighty (N = 280) both undergraduate and graduate students were surveyed, 39% were female (N = 110) and 61% male (N = 170). Eighty-four percent of the respondents were identified as a perpetual users of headphones on daily basis (N = 236), 34% were female (N = 80) and 66% male (N = 156). Results revealed that 44% of the respondents who use headphones on daily basis did not believe that headphone usage can in any-way affect their hearing. Thirty percent of the respondents affirmed that they use headphones because other teenagers use it, while 25% confirmed to be experiencing a ringing sound in their ears after using headphones. About 33% reported to be experiencing loss of sleep at night. Seventy-nine percent of the respondents use their headphones for more than 1 h daily at a volume above 60%. A majority of the respondents use ear-bud headphones. Approximately, 23% answered yes to the question on possible effects on academic performance and 27% of the 23% respondents affirmed to have noticed negative impact on their academic performance since they have started using headphones. Only 189 participants responded to the additional open-ended questions. Of the 189 respondents, 35% reported that headphone listening volume should be as low as 40%, while 14% agreed that headphones should not be used while reading or listening to lecture in a class. Only 13% reported that headphones should be used occasionally and 10% agreed that they should be used during physical activities and not during cognitive activities, which might result in multitasking. Findings from this study show concerns regarding the use of headphones as a possible cause of onset of hearing loss, reduced environmental awareness, and potential academic degradation among some college student users. In addition, the findings could propel a laboratory evaluation of college student headphones users on the extent to which headphones usage can contribute to early hearing loss.

The objective of this article is to apply Statistical Process Control (SPC) to guarantee the safety in the operation of a sterilization chamber with ethylene oxide gas in thermo-sensitive material. One of the most used in Mexico; but at the same time, one of the most unfavorable methods due to the risks it presents to exposed workers. Environmental and personal measurements were carried out to control the exposure limits. Once the data was collected, SPC tools such as variable control charts (X bar-R chart) were applied to verify that the process was under statistical control. The results of the environmental and personal measurements of the sterilization process carried out by the manufacturer of surgical and healing material showed the process is within the permitted exposure limits. Recommendations are extended in relation to the use of personal protection equipment and working environment conditions, to fulfill with the requirements of national regulatory frameworks.

Viewing safety through the lens of the ‘Psychological Contract’ and considering the influence of supervisor on construction site, this research proposes a ‘Psychological Contract of Safety’ (PCS) which is based on the mutual obligations to safety between supervisor and workers, predicts safety behaviour at a construction site. In order to test this hypothesis, data were collected from a mega-construction project in Sydney, Australia. The empirical data indicates that there is a strong influence of the PCS on the safety behaviour of individual workers. Using Structural Equation Modelling this research tested a survey instrument that can be used in other construction settings to examine the strength of the mutual relationship between supervisors and workers and its influence on safety behaviour.

Poka-yoke systems (from the Japanese “mistake-proofing”) are defined within the construction sector as a group within specific tools available to implement the principles of Lean Construction. These principles are a way of designing construction projects in such a way that waste of materials, time and effort are minimized in order to generate the maximum possible value for the final customer. Objective: The aim of current research is to perform an analysis of the state of the art about publications dealing with Lean construction, poka-yokes, and preventive measures in the construction sector. Methodology: Main scholar databases were accessed by entering keywords related to the scope of the research. Results: In general, the impact of Lean technologies in the construction sector, including poka-yokes methodologies, has been investigated in some previous research. The main challenges that present the implementation of this type of techniques in a sector such as construction have been identified: the change in the work culture of the organizations, the lack of knowledge about the Lean techniques, or the costs and complexity of the implementation of the techniques. Some authors consider the Lean tools effective in increasing the safety conditions of workers and reduce the accident rate in construction sites, but other authors do not believe that there is empirical evidence to justify a significant improvement in the conditions of work. Conclusions: In order to increase the effectiveness of the poka-yoke in the form of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), it is necessary to know more about the human failures present in incidents and accidents. Similarly, the design and implementation of poka-yokes in construction activities is difficult because many activities are based on the taking of previous decisions, which generate a dynamic planning in which the conditions of risks and defects are in continuous change. Additionally, some examples of poka-yoke device in construction sector were proposed by the authors at the end of the results section.

Small and medium-sized (SME) contractors’ form the bulk of contractors in the in Ghanaian construction industry. SME’s contractors’ health and safety issues have been a major problem to the construction industry. The laid down rules for health and safety (H&S) have been neglected, which has resulted into accidents on sites. Health and safety practices model of contractors in Ghana is presented. A six factor theoretical model developed from literature was used to develop the H&S model and safety practices of the Ghanaian contractors’. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted on the selected variables to ascertain their suitability for confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Three factors were retained from the six factor theoretical model during the CFA. Different factors for the model were obtained by combining some of the factors. Eight factors were obtained for the current model; with two factors having five variables and five factors have four variables each respectively. One factor has three variables.

Resilient safety culture is characterised by continuous improvements of safety performance and the capability of creating foresight, recognising and anticipating the changing shape of safety risks in the complex sociotechnical systems. This study aims to conceptualise resilient safety culture of construction projects by integrating resilience engineering principles into the concept of safety culture. A correlation research design was adopted to achieve the research objectives and hypotheses. Data were collected using questionnaires with 78 completed building projects. The structural equation modelling technique was used to analyse the data collected. The results of this study (1) confirmed 24 measurable questions to assess resilient safety culture; (2) supported the hypothesized significant positive relationship between resilient safety culture and safety performance. The findings of this study imply that resilient safety culture can be used as a predictor of safety performance. It also provides a frame of practices to assess organisations’ capability of safety management in the construction environment.

Small and medium sized enterprise (SME) contractors form the bedrock of economic growth in all countries. This study presents a framework for the selection of projects towards the growth of SME contractors in the Cape Coast Metropolis of Ghana. Sixty questionnaires were administered among the SME contractors and forty-seven questionnaires were returned, representing 78.3%. Findings from the study showed that project selection should be done in careful manner for SME’s, resources should not be tied up in less significant activities and the SME management should take decisions that are feasible for the growth and expansion of the company. It was concluded that the development of the final framework work will serve as a guide in predicting the growth of SME contractors in within the study area.

The construction industry is universally accepted as one of the most dangerous industries. Workers’ unsafe act is one of the main causes of construction accidents. And group norms are widely regarded as important roles in regulating safety behaviors. According to the social identity theory, research on group norms of construction teams seems to be more important. Group norms can be divided into injunctive and descriptive norms. However, there are limited studies how injunctive and descriptive norms influence workers’ safety behaviors and the mechanism in construction teams. This study aims to build and test a mediation model about how workers’ safety behaviors are affected by these norms. The empirical data were collected from different construction sites and analyzed by the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique. Results reveal that injunctive and descriptive norms have both a direct and an indirect influence on workers’ safety behaviors. And safety attitude serves as the mediating factor. This study supports a better understanding on how safety behaviors are affected by group norms from the perspective of sociological classification in construction teams.

Human factor has been identified as the most prevailing and contributing factor to high rate of accidents in the construction industry. Inappropriate operation and misappropriate use of equipment among employees have also been identified as the major roots causes. The paper identifies acts that lead to accident among contractors’ on construction sites in Cape Coast Metropolis. Data were collected through administrating of questionnaires, and analysed using descriptive statistics and ranking. Findings show that 85% of the respondents had the required knowledge and skills to prevent accidents on construction and likewise towards unsafe acts practices on site. Further findings show that the most outstanding acts that lead to accidents among contractors within the metropolis are: working without presence of a supervisor/authority on the job, with a standard deviation of 1.053, followed by working under the influence of alcohol and other substances, with standard deviation of 0.900 and smoking, creating naked flame or sparks in areas where flammable materials are stored, with a standard deviation of 0.894. The least among the ranking of the acts that lead to accidents are leaving nails or other sharp objects from timber, with a standard deviation of 0.503 and unsafe acts is the most significant factor in the cause of site accident, with a standard deviation of 0.587. The outcome of the research findings will assist safety personnel in the application of appropriate mitigation measures that will minimize unsafe acts of employees within a working environment.