Proceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2018)

Emergency and crisis management requires, from operatives and decision-makers, specific knowledge that cannot be acquired through theoretical course or real-life practice only [1]. Besides, developing practical exercises adapted for agents and their needs is even more difficult when the system where they operate is complex [2]. It is therefore necessary to develop such exercises according to both rigorous and flexible methodology.Since 2015, the Expert’Crise project, funded by the European Social Fund, has organized seven exercises mainly in hazardous chemical companies. During such exercises, trainees play their own role in their usual working place. Hence, arrangements must be made [3] to isolate trainees from real environment and establish exercise diegesis [4]. Through a trial and error experience, we developed a design methodology for crisis management Learning Role-Playing Game [5] scenario.Scenario design starts from trainees’ statement of requirements leading to pedagogical targets, chosen from an existing classification [6]. Then, because emergency sequences are often similar, we developed a framework for our scenario based on the narrative storyline of Campbell [7], describing the steps of an emergency sequence. Nevertheless, because pedagogical targets change depending on exercise, this storyline varies and includes dedicated “situation-tasks” that target competences previously identified. These situation-tasks aim to “force” trainees to do actions under special circumstances through serious game interface [8], and using its gameplay and diegesis. However, “situations” may not lead obviously to a “task”, and incentives must be introduced to help trainees performing the task, unlike disturbances [9] that can also be added.

The study presented the mathematical approach to determine the Peak expiratory flow rate of male bakers in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria with the relationship of the peak expiratory flow rate and the anthropometrical parameters. A total of One hundred and Eighty (180) individuals were investigated with ninety (90) bakers (study group) who are exposed to flour dust and ninety (90) control subjects. The entire subject both study and control group are male. Peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) and anthropometrical parameters were measured using mini-Wright peak flow meter (PFM 20, OMRON) and Detecto PD300MDHR (Cardinal Scale manufacturing company USA) column scale respectively. PEFR measured were compared using T-test and regression analysis. A mathematical model was developed to determine the peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) with four factors of body mass, height, age and year of exposure where applicable. The study showed that PEFR in bakers was 182.67 ± 16.34 L/min as against 287.67 ± 17.03 L/min for control group from the regression analysis. Similarly, the model revealed that baker has 182.69 L/min and 285.77 L/min for control group. The Study concluded that using the developed model will serve as a great importance to workers to determine the level of their health and subsequently prevent untimely death.

Depressive symptoms is a complex disease caused by the interaction of individual characteristics, environment, lifestyle, environment and genetic factors. In recent two decades, many studies found that workers with high ERI, poor sleep quality were both associated with a higher risk of depressive symptoms. However there is still limited understanding regarding the interrelationships among interrelationships among ERI, poor sleep quality, and depressive symptoms. To this end, we designed combined effect model of ERI and sleep quality to analyze the two variables on depressive symptoms risk. This study showed that the combined effect of ERI and sleep quality was a risk factor for depressive symptoms, and the combined effect was larger than the separate one; Both high ERI and poor sleep quality were the greatest contributors to depression symptoms in combined effect model of ERI and sleep quality, which may supply a clue to explain the link between ERI, sleep quality and increased depression risk.

The objectives of this study were to compare the levels of occupational whole-body vibration presented by tire and track harvesters, in order to verify if there are significant differences between the two types of machines, and also if such exposure represents a health risk to the operators. Two models of track harvesters and two of tire harvesters were assessed. The assessment was carried out according to the methodology established in ISO Standard 2631-1: 1997 and the results were compared to the reference values of Directive 2002/44/EC. The tire harvesters presented low vibration levels, not representing disease development risk to the operators. The track harvesters presented about 2.3 higher vibration values than those presented by tire harvesters and above the limit of action foreseen in the reference standard, thus actions to mitigate the deleterious effects of vibration on the health of the workers become necessary. Thus, the results of this study allowed us to conclude that track harvesters have significantly higher occupational vibration levels than those presented by tire harvesters; that such values are above the limit of action established by the reference standard; that immediate interventions in machinery and processes are necessary in order to reduce operator exposure to vibration; and that they are exposed to a high risk of developing occupational diseases resulting from exposure to the physical agent vibration.

Background: There is increasing interest to prevent patient injury as the main value in healthcare institutes. However, many patients are still in danger while they receive care services. One factor which influences patient safety is national culture. However, there is no evidence of regional subculture contributions. The aim of this study was to investigate the relation of two different regional subcultures on patient safety culture in education and treatment centers (medical universities hospitals).Methods: This cross-sectional study assessed the relationship of two regional subcultures in Iran (Turk and Kurd) on patient safety culture. Four education and treatment centers affiliated to Zanjan (Turk subculture) and Ilam (Kurd subculture) were investigated. A sample of 421 nurses, laboratory, and radiology staffs participated in this study. Two kinds of data gathering tools were used, including hospital survey on patient safety culture questionnaire (HSOPSC), and Hofstede’s cultural values. Besides descriptive statistics, analytical statistics tests were used at .05 confidence level, including Chi-square, Mann-Whitney, and Linear regression.Results: Positive response of the dimensions of HSOPSC questionnaire has not been more than 75% (patient safety strength). The total scores of HSOPSC for Turks and Kurds were significantly different (p-value = .016). Moreover, comparing the results of HSOPSC and Hofstede’s cultural values questionnaires showed significant coloration (p-value = .01) between patient safety culture and three dimensions of Hofstede’s cultural.Conclusions: It seems regional subculture has its own contribution to patient safety culture. Therefore, considering subculture values as predictors will be helpful to improve patient safety culture.

Thermal comfort is one of the most influential variable to the measurable environmental quality. The most used mechanism to measure thermal comfort in a moderate environment is the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) of the ISO 7730 standard [1]. Studies show discrepancies between the PMV and the occupants’ thermal sensation vote (TSV). The purpose of this study is to analyze the influence of the metabolism on the PMV model that represents the real sensation of students while working on a smart environment. Personal and lifestyle data was collected through questionnaires. The metabolism was calculated through six different methods. A comparison found that the study of Gilani et al. [2] was more accurate considering the TSV. Statistical tests were used to analyze the difference and compare the groups of quantitative, binary and nominal variables with significance level of 0,05. Using Generalized Linear Models (GLM) and the metabolism model of Gilani et al. [2] two models were adjusted. It was shown that gender and drug (medicaments) usage have an influence of approximate 10% over the metabolism. The new models were used to calculate PMVx and PMVy. Both PMVx and PMVy were found to be closer to the TSV than the PMV calculated with the metabolism obtained through the activity (1,2 met), though limited by the results from Gilani et al. [2]. These results show that the evolution of the environments such as the new smart teaching environments drive the need for improvement in thermal comfort studies using personal variables.

The rural workers’ health can be directly affected by pesticides, through their use in inappropriate amounts and ways, and may have as an aggravating factor the low cognitive level of workers. Therefore, this study aimed to characterize the profile of rural workers with low educational level and to evaluate their perception regarding the pesticide contamination risks. It was carried out in strawberry and tomato producing properties in the State of Espírito Santo, Brazil, on which structured questionnaires were applied, with a sampling of 247 rural workers, containing questions about the perception of pesticide contamination risk, as well as other questions aiming at the characterization of the working process and the morbidity perceived by workers. Through the psychological approach, based on cognitive psychology and using standardized psychometric tests, workers were asked to assign grades on a scale to questions related to reliability, fear, safety, satisfaction and acceptance regarding the use of pesticides. The results evidenced low educational levels of workers, with 23% of them being semiliterate and 12% illiterate, which has led to the following grievances: use of family child labor, lack of use of personal protective equipment, difficulty in interpreting pesticide labels, inadequate disposal of empty packages, deposit of product in inadequate places and lack of training and capacitation. It is concluded that there is a close relationship between exposure to pesticides and the low educational level of rural workers, hampering their perception of occupational problems in the work environment, bringing serious consequences for their health and the environment.

From the literature and the outlines guides, it is possible to find different methodologies to collect data from the practice of occupational stress evaluation. Among these, it emerges the Focus Group that Zammuner [24] describes as a “method of qualitative data collection, based on a group talk from which emerge data that the researcher is interested on deeply investigating it”. There are several variants of the methodology, that can be used depending on the research purposes. In the case history presented here, there is the need to deal in depth with the aspects concerning the organizational climate and culture. To highlight all the contents, facilitate the sharing of the different points of view, and to ensure the involvement of all participants, it has been chosen a creative alternative inspired by Greenbaum’s “expressive drawing” [11]: it is a “projective technique that can be very helpful in eliciting information that might otherwise not be generated in traditional focus group discussions, and that can also energize the group when it’s necessary”. In practice, it envisages the realization of an artistic artifact in which the workers represent their own perspective, emotional opinion and emotional reaction on topics in question. Compared to a normal “focus group”, this variant allows further structuring of the discussion, encouraging participation and comparisons, facilitating the creation of common meanings. Specifically, the operational layout applied is the following: first of all it has been set a short tutorial session related to the constructs of organizational climate and culture; then, it started a warm up phase followed by a creative moment in which the workers have produced some artifacts through which they have described their perception of organizational climate and culture; finally, it has been set a debate in plenary where the participants have talked about their job and its meaning, with the support of a moderator. The data has been collected as notes and processed according to the following categories, obtained from the literature on the organizational climate and culture (James and Jones 1974–1979; Rousseau 1990; Schein [20]): identity-values-ideologies, communication, leadership, rules and incentive, responsibility and freedom, individualism and sense of team, criteria of success. The results obtained have shown that the focus group, in the proposed variant, represents a valid instrument for this activity: the use of the artistic artifact as a way of transmission and sharing the meaning allows a rich and articulated data collection, ensuring a broad and deep vision of organizational reality.

Wearable measurement systems have become increasingly more popular in estimating exposures to awkward trunk postures. One limitation in using these systems is the lack of research confirming the optimal placement of the sensors for accurate quantification of trunk postures. The present study explored the effect of sensor placement in estimating trunk postures using XsensTM (Xsens Technologies, NL) during simulated manual material handling tasks in the laboratory. The researchers found a single IMU on the sternum estimated summary measures and percent time in trunk posture categories similarly to the reference method placement.

This study presents a stochastic analysis for economic viability of an occupational health and safety management systems (OHSMS) project, evaluating the associated risks for a Brazilian electricity distribution company. The method followed four steps: (i) elaboration of discounted cash flow (FC) for the project; (ii) identification of risks associated with the project; (iii) measurement of the risks’ financial impact on the project’s expected result; and (iv) simulation of the net present value (NPV) considering the impact of the risks using Monte Carlo method. The analysis also performed risk hierarchies to identify the biggest threats and the best opportunities for the project. The risks that presented the greatest impact threaten the benefits: Inability of the affected areas to assimilate the implemented changes, Interruption of the project in the intermediate stage, and Application overhead.

The ergonomic problem-solving process is a uniformly consistent approach to address challenges presented in various environments. Steps include: (1) identification, (2) analysis, (3) brainstorm of possible solutions, (4) implementation (prototypes), and (5) evaluation. This process was conducted at a distribution company that delivered beer to commercial establishments. Less than 200 employees worked at the company. The first three steps of the ergonomic problem-solving process were carried out with warehouse and delivery workers. A safety climate survey was administered. Following data collection (delivery and warehouse tasks observations and a safety climate survey), employees participated in a workshop. The first session introduced work design principles (including product quality, customer service, efficiency, decrease risk of injury, and improve quality of work life) and how they aligned with the company’s goals. Concepts were communicated in an interactive setting. During the second session, two separate groups discussed challenges specific to warehouse or delivery workers. Videos gathered during data collection were shared with workers. Researchers facilitated brainstorm sessions to address challenges presented in those videos. Identified challenges included errors in building orders at the warehouse to delivering keg up stairs and around tight spaces. One suggestion included shifting emphasis from individual pick-rates to team accuracy to stress accuracy over speed. Another solution from brainstorming involved standardizing communication policies with clients. This project covered the first three stages of the ergonomics solution development process (identification, analysis, and brainstorming possible solutions). Further collaboration with the company will incorporate the prototype, implementation and evaluation steps.

To analyse the variation in the rate of AEs between acute hospitals and explore the extent to which some patients and hospital characteristics influence the differences in the rates of AEs. Methods - Retrospective cohort study. Binary logistic regression models were used to identify the potential association of some patients and hospital characteristics with AEs. A random sample of 4,250 charts, representative of around 180,000 hospital admissions, from 9 acute Portuguese public hospital centres in 2013, was analysed. Results – Main results: (i) AE incidence was 12.5%; (ii) 66.4% of all AEs were related to HAI and surgical procedures; (iii) patient characteristics such as sex, age, admission coded as elective vs urgent and medical vs surgical DRG code, all with p < 0.001, were associated with a greater occurrence of AEs – CCI seems to influence the difference in the rates of AEs; (iv) hospital characteristics such as use of reporting system, being accredited, university status and hospital size, all with p < 0.001, seem to be associated with a higher rate of AEs.We identified some patient and hospital characteristics that might influence the rate of AEs. Based on these results, more adequate solutions to improve patient safety can be defined.

The Regulation (EU) 425/2016 on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) repeals the Council Directive 89/686/EEC with effect from the 21st April 2018. Ergonomic aspects are stressed in this Regulation, becoming the basic principle of PPE design. Ergonomics has implications both for the comfort and the safety of workers.In Italy the Leg. Decree 81/2008, the Code transposing the European Directives on the protection of workers’ safety and health, requires for PPE to consider ergonomic and health needs of the worker. The Technical Standard EN 13921 provides guidance on the generic ergonomic characteristics related to PPE while EN 547-3 provides some human body measurements which, although required for openings for whole body access into machinery, can be useful for PPE design.Regulations, laws or Technical Standards do not exhaustively fulfill the ergonomic requirements, because they cannot take into account the individual characteristics of each worker in PPE design. This is one of the most critical aspects for the adoption of the principles of ergonomics to PPE.The principle of ergonomics must be carefully evaluated for PPE to be used in contaminated sites, considering the specific risk for the workers (e.g. presence of hazardous pollutants) and working conditions (e.g. in confined space or intercepting groundwater). The aim of this work is to highlight the main ergonomic issues related to the use of specific PPE bearing in mind the new European Regulation. The present work will also illustrate how the use of smart-PPE in contaminated sites could implement workers’ safety fulfilling ergonomic principles.

The aim of this study is to discuss the use of the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) as a debriefing tool in Scenario-Based-Training (SBT). This discussion is based on data collected during a training simulation session carried out as part of a Research and Development Project involving the development of resilience skills of grid electricians. The scenario of this simulation had a client complaining that the power had went off in his residence. The participants of the debriefing identified seven functions performed by the trainees. The use of the FRAM pointed out that there was variability in the outputs of two functions: <to make the repair> and <to check the extent of the power shortage>. Concerning the function <to make the repair> the work constraints, such as time pressure, encouraged workers to make a temporary repair, rather than replacing the cable for a new one. In the debriefing, two actions to re-design the work system were raised: to increase investments in preventive maintenance; and to improve the design of lifting equipment and tools. The instantiation presented showed that using FRAM models and concepts (e.g. output variability, couplings, and functions) can be useful for analyzing workers’ and system’s performance in the debriefing, since it presents the resonance arising from the variability of everyday performance and lead to recommendations for coping with the variability.

The Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) has become a key element in ship’s bridge, assisting navigators to make the right decision. Despite the technological advance, the ability to make these decisions in the right time is still the determining factor for the safety of navigation, being directly related to the interaction between human and system. The objective of this study was to identify fundamental factors to be incorporated in simulations to analyze the shared cognitive system between the operator and the ECDIS system during navigation, from the perspective of Resilience Engineering (RE). For this, the following methodological strategies were used: (a) CDM method: interviews with navigation specialists, to obtain critical situations experienced by the navigators using the system and the possible actions to be adopted to solve the problems; (b) analysis of accident reports, where inadequate ECDIS configurations were the determining factor. Thus, the research resulted in a scenario elaborated with three critical points for the simulations, which were later validated together with the experts and applied in a course for the qualification of ECDIS operators.

In April 2013, Regulatory Standard 36 was published in Brazil, concerning health and safety at work in slaughtering and meat processing companies, aiming to establish, among other things, standards for the implementation of job rotation. This industry has expanded in Brazil, which is currently the world’s largest exporter of beef. This work presents partial data from a survey carried out in a cattle slaughterhouse located in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The purpose of this communication is to present the acceptance of the slaughterworkers regarding the rotation of posts imposed by the legislation, as well as to identify the determinants of the work. According to the data obtained, the slaughtering sector is composed of 88 workers, of which 91% are male and 47% aged 40 to 54 years. The most common causes of absenteeism in last two years were inguinal and abdominal hernias. The most significant determinants of labor are: product variation (cattle differences), cadence and irregular work rate, and physical and psychological demands. Knives, the main work tools, require time to be cleaned and sharpened. Concerning acceptance of the rotation, 30% of the workers are in favor, as they will learn new activities, and 70% are contrary as they believe they will be more exposed to work accidents in activities for which they do not have specific skills. It is concluded that detailed analysis of the posts, with the effective participation of the workers, are the main steps to comply with current legislation and preserve health at work and reduce the number of accidents and occupational diseases.

Certain health professionals are at risk of having work-related accidents, mainly due to the contact with biological and chemical materials. The operating room is a place where this type of accident occurs frequently.This work addresses the problematic of occupational risks associated with operating rooms, aiming to identify and analyze the biological and chemical risks, as well as the professionals’ behaviors towards them. The possible operating rooms risks will be presented through the analysis of the results of a questionnaire distributed to operating room health professionals from a hospital in northern Portugal.Eighty six professionals participated in this study through the completion of the questionnaire. The results revealed the occurrence of 39.5% (95% CI [29.3%, 50.7%]) of accidents involving biological material, and 11.8% (95% CI [6.1%, 21.0%]) of accidents involving chemical material. Not all professionals have had training in occupational risks (63.5% and 47.0% reported having had training in biological risks and chemical risks, respectively). Fisher’s exact test did not reveal a statistically significant association (p > 0.05) between having had training in biological/chemical risks and having had an accident involving biological/chemical material. The chi-square independence test revealed a statistically significant association (X2 = 25.978, df = 3, p < 0.05) between the occurrence of accidents involving biological material and the professional category. The occurrence of this type of accident is directly related to the professionals “surgeons”.It is suggested that health professionals and the Institution itself be more involved in risk prevention and, mainly, in promoting a safe working environment.

Using a fitting respirator in exercises of heavy metabolic demand may increase the user’s thermal burden, as the metabolic heat typically relieved via respiration is baffled by the mask and less exchanged into the environment. This study investigated the increase in thermoregulatory burden as manifested in skin physiological changes from using N95 filtering-facepiece respirators and simultaneously performing composite movement-based exercises of varying metabolic demand. As the results show, when the participants exercised the transepidermal water loss (TEWL) and skin moisture in the forearm and in the cheek immediately outside the N95 mask rose in accordance with the metabolic intensity of the activity, particularly in the first 10 min (TEWL: 26.9–40.4% increase from the level determined at 0 min; skin moisture: 28.1–250.2% increase). Under high metabolic rate, throughout the entire 30 min of exercise the skin capillary blood flow (SCBF) of the participants increased steadily in both the forearm and cheek (6.4–12.3% increase), signaling a continuous requirement for release of excess metabolic heat. These findings indicated that the respirators and the conditions under which they were used should both be considered when the thermoregulatory burden the users of respirators sustained was evaluated. To prevent potential heat stress in the workplace, it is essential to include in the respirator safety program an ergonomic assessment of workload.

A review was conducted of 153 case studies of construction equipment interventions, representing $6.55 million (2016 USD) of equipment purchases incentivized through the U.S. state of Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (OBWC) Safety Intervention Grant (SIG) program. The source data were drawn from the applications and final reports of employers who received grants between 2003 and 2016. Outcomes were reductions in safety hazards, cumulative trauma disorder risk factors, and a score assessing quality of the intervention evaluative experience as determined through a framework developed by the authors. Items relating to the quality of the evaluative experience were manually extracted from the case study documentation. When aggregated by type of construction equipment, the risk factor reduction and evaluative quality scores were variable within and between equipment types. Equipment for cable pulling, used in the electrical trades, and skid steer attachments for concrete breaking (hydraulic breakers) both emerged as interventions ranked highly for reducing risk factors and for the evaluative quality of their case studies. Other intervention equipment types that ranked highly in both risk factor reduction and evaluative quality were concrete sawing equipment, trailers with hydraulic tilting/ramps, powered hand tools, and man lifts (boom lifts).

Loose-fitting powered air-purifying respirators (PAPRs) are used in healthcare settings to reduce exposure to high-risk respiratory pathogens. Innovative computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models were developed for evaluating loose-fitting PAPR performance. However, the computational results of the CFD models have not been validated using actual experimental data.Experimental testing to evaluate particle facepiece leakage was performed in a test laboratory using two models of loose-fitting PAPRs. Each model was mounted on a static (non-moving) advanced headform placed in a sodium chloride (NaCl) aerosol test chamber. The headform performed cyclic breathing via connection to a breathing machine. High-efficiency particulate air (HEPA)-filtered air was supplied directly to the PAPR facepiece using laboratory compressed supplied-air regulated with a mass-flow controller. One model was evaluated with six supplied-air flowrates from 50–215 L/min (Lpm) and the other model with six flowrates from 50–205 Lpm. Three different workrates (minute volumes) were evaluated: low (25 Lpm), moderate 46 (Lpm), and high 88 (Lpm). Manikin penetration factor (mPF) was calculated as the ratio of chamber particle concentration to the in-facepiece concentration.Overall, data analyses indicated that the mPF results from the simulations were well correlated with the experimental laboratory data for all data combined (r = 0.88). For data at the three different workrates (high, moderate, low) for both models combined, the r-values were 0.96, 0.97, and 0.77, respectively. The CFD models of the two PAPR models were validated and may be utilized for further research.

Introduction: Sufficient and good quality sleep is crucial for shift workers because of its implications for alertness, recovery and health. The aim of the study was to follow the effects of night shifts and overtime work on sleep and fatigue of hospital nurses in Bulgaria.Methods: The study is cross-sectional and comprised 1340 nurses of age 50.1 ± 10.1 years from Sofia hospitals. Anonymous questionnaire survey included Karolinska Sleep Diary, demographic information, work place variables, working hours and shift system. The statistical analyses were carried out with SPSS.Results: 27.4% of the nurses worked only day shifts, but part of them were with history of night shifts. 18.9% worked from 1 to 4 night shifts, and 46.7% more than 5 night shifts. Great deal of the nurses worked more than 40 h weekly as follows: 34.2% worked 41–50 h per week, 16.8% - 51–60 h and 10.6% >61 h. The reported sleep duration did not differ between the groups of nurses working day shifts and different number of night shifts or with the number of work hours weekly. The quality of sleep, estimated by SQI was worse with the increase of number of night shifts and in comparison to nurses working only day shifts (F = 6.877, p = 0.000) and with increase of the hours worked weekly (F = 5.085, p = 0.002). With the increase of the number of night shifts and the working hours weekly the insufficiency of sleep, fatigue in the morning after awakening and sleep throughout increased highly significantly.Discussion: Shift working with more night shifts monthly and overtime hours weekly contributed to impaired sleep in the studied group of nurses. The sleep impairment was more evident within the increase in the number of night shifts.

Tractor overturn is the main cause of injuries and fatal accidents in agriculture. Rollover Protective Structures (ROPS) showed to be effective in reducing fatalities during tractor overturn. Foldable ROPS (FROPS) have been developed to offer greater mobility when working in low overhead clearance zones and more storage options. However, many fatalities and serious injuries in tractor overturn accidents occur for a misuse of the FROPS. The study proposed a multidimensional ergonomic investigation of FROPS handling to identify criticalities in the human-machine interaction which prevent farmers from raising the roll-bar. An observation of users’ behaviors while operating the FROPS and a collection of subjective ratings about perceived effort were performed, considering also tractor objective features. Eleven operators and nine tractors were involved in the study. The results showed that the participants exposed themselves to different safety (e.g. falls) and health (e.g. biomechanical overload of the spine) risks when raising the FROPS, even though they did not perceive any intense effort in handling the roll-bar. The vertical distance between the FROPS pivot pin and the ground affected participants’ gestures and postures. To facilitate the actual use of the FROPS and to prevent injuries or fatal consequences in case of tractor overturn, some technical solutions to enhance the accessibility of the FROPS may be developed. Furthermore, the correct postures and gestures to handle the roll-bar should be addressed during safety and health training courses.

In a deep-cold working environment with variable physiological stress and considering individual thermoregulatory capacities, cold protective clothing must maintain the users’ body core and skin surface temperature on an acceptable level. In order to evaluate the cold protective clothing used, physiological effects of order-picking in a cold store (−24 ℃) were examined. 60 subjects (Ss) participated in the study, classified in 4 groups with 15 Ss each (younger/older males, younger/older females). The Ss had to work under predetermined, realistic working conditions with modified working phases with a duration of 80, 100, and 120 min, separated by identical warming-up breaks of 20 min. Additionally, 128 professional order-pickers employed in deep cold-storage depots had been systematically interviewed with regard to different topics of the cold protective clothing. The results show that the cold protective suit appears to protect sufficiently, whereby it should be noted that the insulation value is 2 times higher than required by an international standard. However, there is a need for improvements of the cold insulating boots and gloves to enable preventive occupational health and safety. In addition, a complete revision of the standards which are based on theoretical deliberations and assumptions is strongly recommended.

Safety culture research tends to treat organisations as a single body, with less focus on understanding how perceptions vary in a multi stakeholder environment. One such example of a multi-stakeholder environment is a construction project. The success of safety interventions must be sensitive to the interfaces and relationships, and different perceptions, between Principal Contractors and their Supply Chain, particularly for Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that may have fundamentally different safety management systems and culture. This paper explores whether there is a difference in perception between project members. It tests whether perceptions are driven by a perceived hierarchy of greater maturity for Principal Contractors or whether different organisational layers of the project rate themselves highly in comparison to others, as a form of self enhancement. 17 workshops were undertaken across four different Principal Contractors, and their respective Supply Chains, comprising a total of 367 participants (Principal contractor n = 114; supply chain n = 253). Participants were asked to rate the safety culture maturity of their organisation and the safety culture maturity of the other group using Hudson’s safety culture maturity model. The results identified a significant difference in the perceived safety culture maturity of the Principal Contractor and Supply Chain, with Principal Contractors perceived by all parties as more mature than the supply chain. This suggests that the power structure across a project has more of an effect on perceptions than self-enhancement by any organizational type. The divergent power relationship between Principal Contractor and their Supply Chain may influence the reported levels of safety culture maturity for the project as a whole, and has a bearing on how safety culture interventions should be delivered to effect change.

Hunters expose their hearing – without suitable precautions – with each shot an extreme sound level. Shots with up to 160 dB close to the muzzle are particularly harmful to the ears and can sooner or later cause permanent hearing loss. However, the ability to wear a hearing protection when firing a shot is perceived by many hunters as disturbing and therefore often encounters rejection. Initially, a subjective survey was conducted. Thus, information about noise exposure of the hunters in everyday life, about their shooting behavior, the dangers of hunting, the level of knowledge of the hunters regarding possible hearing hazards and existing safety precautions could be obtained. The survey was attended by 74 active but non-professional hunters of different age and occupational groups. The evaluation of the survey revealed that the danger to hearing caused by the pop of a shot is largely known to the hunters. Nevertheless, the use of hearing protection on the hunt is largely neglected. Additionally, audiometric investigations were carried out. The results of 20 surveyed hunters show in some cases dramatic changes in the audiogram at 6000 Hz. This can be interpreted as an indication of an existing bang trauma. Furthermore, the evaluation of the measurement revealed that there is a clear differentiation concerning hearing loss between the ear which is facing the weapon and which is on the far side.

The CEN–TR 16710-1 “Feedback method”, approved by CEN on November 2015, “…is addressed to standards writers, designers and manufacturers, employers-buyers, end users, craftsmen and workers, market surveillance and authorities.”. It represents a valid instrument for the systematic and reproducible collection of knowledge, experience and creativity of end users of machines.

With future work systems becoming more interactive, dynamic, and flexible, occupational safety and health (OSH) calls for prospective assessments of hazards and risks to facilitate prevention through design. German river locks for inland waterways will be composed of standardised objects representing a high level of OSH. A research project aimed at conducting risk assessments of river locks of the future; early in their planning stage, with standardised objects and referring to different EU Directives addressing safety and health at work. About 150 work scenarios across operational states and variations in river lock standardisation have been compiled and supplemented for instructing risk assessments. They also conveyed design requirements for setting up dynamic virtual reality (VR) planning models in future contexts of use. Initial feedback about VR simulation use for scenario-based risk assessments is positive and a design review suggested minor adjustments before risk assessments can be conducted that should facilitate OSH improvements and templates for future assessments. The project motivates applications in similar contexts.

The International Social Security Association (ISSA) Section for Prevention of Occupational Risks in Machine and System Safety established a working group on Human Factors, Ergonomics and Safe Machines for reviewing, selecting and presenting design requirements and recommendations according to occupational safety and health (OSH) and human factors and ergonomics (HFE). An internet platform will inform, motivate and support machinery manufacturers, users and OSH experts to apply OSH and HFE when constructing, risk assessing, setting-up and operating machinery. Concepts like hierarchy of controls and work system design guide along relevant issues. Besides traditional approaches a special emphasis is given to smart manufacturing calling for design solutions for human-system interaction according to OSH and HFE.

In response to the accidents resulting from smartphone use while walking, this study aims to propose interventions based on user interface design and evaluate whether they can help reduce the behavioral changes and associated risks. First, four types of walking-sensitive changes in user interface including a pop-up reminder (reminding not to use the smartphone while walking; disabled only when tapping on it), a blank screen (disabled only when double-tapping the screen), simplified push notifications (from other applications), and hidden push notifications (from other applications), were proposed to solve problems resulted from over-concentrating on the screen and switching between multiple mobile applications. Subsequently, the proposed interventions were evaluated through the simulated tasks of smartphone use while walking along a 5.1 m × 3.6 m rectangular track in the laboratory environment. 10 males ranging from 20 to 24 years old who use smartphone for one hour per day or longer were recruited. Along with the case of no intervention, a total of five conditions of smartphone use were considered. Two conditions without smartphone use, including free walking and walking while holding a smartphone, were assessed as well. Over the seven conditions, walking speed, detection rate of unexpected stimulus, and perceived level of situation awareness were compared. Results suggested that the risks related to impaired visual attention became even higher when given any of the four interventions based on user interface design, whereas significant changes were not observed in other measures no matter whether the interventions were taken or not.

With the advance of automation in recent years, the interaction between systems and users has become less intense and more monotonous. Thus, there is some concern that the arousal level of users is liable to decrease while interacting with a system. The decrease in the arousal levels of users causes drowsiness in their bodies and deterioration of their performance, potentially leading to serious accidents. Thus, it is necessary to establish a method for maintaining arousal level. At present, external-stimulation methods such as sounds or vibrations are popular; on the other hand, some psychophysiological studies have suggested a relationship between motivation and arousal, but there has been little research on how to apply these studies, as well as only a few examples of practical application. Therefore, in this research, we propose and verify a method for maintaining arousal by inducing intrinsic motivations. This arousal maintenance was found to work well during manual operations, but to be less effective by influence of stress during automatic operations. In addition, the varieties of presentation of feedbacks and the arousal level during operations were found to be influenced the effectiveness.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the psychological hardiness and coping strategies among Algerian firefighters.The study used the quantitative method (cross-sectional survey).Data were collected using the Scale of Psychological hardiness [1], and Ways of Coping Check List (WCC) [2].The study sample consisted of (99) firefighters.It has been found that both psychological hardiness, and coping strategies increased over time among Algerian firefighters.

In construction industries, falling from height recognized is one of the main factors in the occurrence of construction accidents. In this study, 10 construction blocks were selected in Tehran that were under construction. Three groups of organizational, individual and environmental factors and sub-factors were considered as effective factors on the falling from height. Using the experts’ opinion, the main factors were divided into three groups, whereas their sub-factors were divided into 15 cases. Then, DEMATEL method was used to determine the most important factor and it’s sub-factors influencing the occurrence of accidents falling from a height and their relationship. The matrix of the Decision Making Trial and Evaluation (DEMATEL) method shows both the causal relationship between the factors and the effectiveness of their sub-factors variables. The results showed that individual factors were considered as the most important factors and their sub-factors had the most effect on the occurrence of falling from height accidents. It can be said that in determining the relationships of sub-factors, three out of six individual sub-factors including motivation, training hours, and age/experience and two out of five organizational sub-factors including management commitment and safety culture have the most impact on the occurrence of falling from height accidents. Paying attention to safety training and also increasing the motivation of workers can be effective in reducing occupational/psychological stress and accidents of falling from height.

The numbers of accidents and occupational diseases in Colombia are high. In 2014, 13,918 workers received compensation for permanent partial disability or invalidity. The Social Security provides rehabilitation services to workers who require it. Its objective is the social integration and recovery of productive capacity.However, the results of the rehabilitation is poor. In recent years a medical center in southwestern Colombia implements a model of ergonomic rehabilitation aimed at improving care for workers and optimize resources, achieve better results in functional recovery and employment integration in less time, positively impacting the quality of life and labor productivity in the región.The aim of the study was to determine characteristics and results of a comprehensive rehabilitation process for workers who suffered an accident or illness.Were characterize the population and quality of health indicators. 6336 cases were analyzed, 74% were men. 80% of the population was between 30 and 59 years, the group between 40 and 49 years was the most representative. The most frequent pathologies requiring rehabilitation were: STC (90%), lumbar disc disorders, mental disorders, Quervain tenosynovitis and epicondylitis.Reduction in the number of days, from 96 days of incapacity average in 2013 to 50 days in 2014 were observed. Similarly comportment in the Rehabilitation times showed a downward trend from 230 days in 2013 to 43 days in 2014. The sector with more cases is the agricultural sector with 46%, followed by the industrial sector with 30%. return to the job was 95% of cases.

This work investigates, under the Resilience Engineering (RE) approach, the environmental conditions that lead to accidents at the Itaipu Binacional hydroelectric power plant (Itaipu HPP). The socio-technical importance of the installation and the technological update of all control, supervision and monitoring systems in a near future justify the work. The study focused on the impacts of variability in the normal operation of four typical maneuvers representing the four quadrants of a periodicity-complexity matrix, and the variability influencing each step of the maneuvers. The opinions from the operational staff were raised, organized, and the RE principles, techniques and heuristics were applied to them. Although the selected maneuvers might not represent the whole universe of more than five hundred maneuvers executed by the Itaipu HPP, the results indicate that some variability types such as “maneuver environment”, “the need to confirm the maneuver steps with another operator”, “situations that draw attention from the operator”, and “the similarity with another operating environment” act decisively in practically all maneuvers. The operator knowledge was not mapped as a fundamental variability impacting the failures. The results were compared with historical data and presented to the staff, who proposed necessary actions to increase the operational safety under the RE perspective. Overall results imply that there is room for moving from a reactive traditional safety management (Safety-I), based on retrospective analysis of accidents and “what went wrong,” to an effective proactive one (Safety-II), based on the variability of normal operation and therefore “what goes right.”

Introduction: In contrast to body postures during the entire day or during leisure, associations of work postures with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) have not been examined while adjusting for socioeconomic status, leisure time physical activity, fitness, and other CVD risk factors.Methods: The associations between work postures (assessed by questionnaire at baseline) and 22-year incidence of first AMI (ascertained via record linkage with national registries) were estimated by Cox regression models adjusting for 19 confounders among 1831 Finnish men, separately for those with (n = 1515) and without (n = 316) pre-existing ischemic heart disease (IHD).Results: In the full sample, work postures showed no substantial associations with AMI risk except for “standing quite a lot” (HR 1.26; 95%CI 0.94–1.70). The effects of work postures differed by baseline IHD status. Among men without IHD, sitting showed 7–16% reduced risks, standing 4–21% increased risks, and walking had no impact. Among men with IHD, walking showed 18–23% reduced risks, sitting “quite a lot” or “very much” showed 28% and 67% increased risks, respectively. Standing “a little” (HR 1.38, 95%CI 0.79–2.42) and “quite a lot” (HR 1.33, 95%CI 0.73–2.41) were positively but standing “very much” (HR 0.68, 95%CI 0.36–1.32) inversely associated with AMI.Conclusions: Considering previously reported strong positive associations between standing and progression of atherosclerosis the latter finding is probably due to healthy worker selection bias. It is therefore prudent not to recommend standing at work for men with IHD and to always consider IHD status when assessing risks and benefits of different work postures.

This study aimed to propose a new map application that would reduce the time of looking at the map while walking to the degree of the time of reading the paper map and an experiment was conducted to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed map application.The proposed map application had a difference from Google Maps that the walker’s current position was shown on the map only when he/she stopped. In the experiment, the participants were required to walk three randomly assigned routes in KOMAZAWA Olympic Park General Sports Ground, respectively, by using the paper map, Google Maps, and the proposed map application. They equipped a wearable camera for recording the gaze direction during the experiment. After walking each route, they evaluated subjectively their workload while walking the route by using Japanese version of NASA-TLX.The results of the experiment revealed that the number of stops walking to look at the proposed map application was significantly more than Google Maps. The results also revealed that the time of looking at the proposed map application while walking the route was significantly reduced in comparison with Google Maps. These meant that the proposed map application induced the walker to stop walking to look at the map and could reduce the distracted walking in comparison with Google Maps. The effectiveness of the proposed map was confirmed through the experiment.

All the functions of the logistics chain, from the producer to the end customer, are supported by a multitude of companies connected to each other. These companies form a complex network in which each one of them is dependent on what happens upstream and downstream of its activity. In this context, the INRS conducted an ergonomic study whose objective was to determine a prevention approach specific to this type of network organization. The purpose of this paper is to present this preventive approach entitled PROPAGIR in the sector of road transport of goods and logistics. This approach has been tested in a company, the results are also presented. This study is an ergonomics analysis and not a business case.

Aim of this study is to analyze the task of pushing Passengers with Restricted Mobility (PRM) on three different wheelchairs currently supplied in an Italian airport. The wheelchairs differed in their width, weight and wheel dimensions. We investigated the task with two different PRMs weight (100 and 55 kg) and three different caster wheels positions (0°, 90° and 180°). We computed the Average Rectified Value, as percentage of maximum voluntary contraction, recorded from Erector Spinae and Anterior Deltoid muscles bilaterally in the starting phase of pushing. We can conclude that by means of sEMG it is possible to obtain useful data about the risks of pushing and pulling tasks in addition to those obtained by measuring the applied forces. In future research, it could be useful to analyze also muscle co-activation to better understand the biomechanical risks of pushing and pulling tasks

In the Danish retail industry, young workers employed in temporary positions for few hours a week constitutes more than half of the employees. For the main part of the young workers this employment is their first meeting with the labor market, they lack knowledge and awareness of the work environment, and at some workplaces the introduction is limited, ‘ad-hoc’ or ‘fast-track’ [1]. Often the young worker feel only limited involved in decisions regarding their work [2]. It may be beneficial both for short- and long-term performance and security to increase the young workers knowledge of and involvement in the work environment issues, as well as the employer’s awareness on the needs of the young workers.

Recent trends in extending participatory ergonomics to work stress prevention were examined. The practical ways to plan and implement broad-ranging workplace risks were compared between customary participatory ergonomics steps and participatory job stress prevention processes. Participatory stress prevention programs reviewed included those for small enterprises, health care facilities and local government offices. Key common steps similarly comprised application of action checklists listing typical local good practices as well as workplace-level group work for proposing multifaceted improvements, followed by reporting of benefits achieved. These steps were relatively simplified in the case of stress prevention programs so as to address broad-ranging stress-related factors such as internal communication, work planning and social support. These steps were usually preceded by short-term training of facilitators selected from among local workers. The trained facilitators played a key role by assisting co-workers in conducting locally feasible improvements within a broad mental health scope. It was confirmed that extending participatory ergonomics to stress prevention could be effectively organized by applying the simplified procedures addressing broad psychosocial factors. The participatory steps taken with the support of trained facilitators were shown to have real impact on stress prevention at work. It is suggested to involve locally trained facilitators and organize simplified participatory steps focusing on feasible improvements reflecting local good practices.

Contact with surfaces is one of the leading causes of infections and cross contaminations in hospitals. Although some efforts in design in addition to developing process routines to prevent/limit pathogen transmission exist, there may be lapses and this calls for better technological intervention to prevent such transmission. The less number of touchpoints the hospital employees need the greater the possibility of decreasing cross contamination. This paper introduces a touchless access control based on beacon technology for a regular hospital setting. Much of the data used in this paper are obtained from an ethnographic approach which also is the basis for the three use cases introduced in the paper. A prototype consisting of three Estimote Bluetooth low energy beacons/transmitters; one Android smartphone receiver; a cloud based API and one Raspberry Pi 3 mini computer was developed as a part of this work. It was found that the system’s classification model provided accurate positioning in a 2D space.

Road Freight Transport (RFT) companies represent 37,200 companies and roughly 420,000 employees. This sector is confronted by strong competition and growing pressure from customers and suppliers, tight delivery times, exacerbated flexibility, etc. In parallel, they are required to fulfill performance duties in terms of preventing risks of occupational accidents and diseases. In 2016, CNAM statistics reports 70 deaths per year, 3,000,000 work days lost, an average 6 work days lost per employee, an index of frequency (73‰). The planner builds the transport rounds by integrating at best all dimensions (regulation, economic, environmental and prevention of health and safety of their employees). In this context, the Smart Planning project aims to develop a computer system to help create more balanced planning. The purpose of this paper is to present the first results. It proposes, with an ergonomic analysis, to identify the prescribed and tacit constraints manipulated by the planners in two companies. A questionnaire is drawn up to validate and enrich the data on the health and safety dimension.This study is not a business case; it is ergonomic analysis to validate different determinants identified (health and safety) and investigates the assessment of these determinants and their possible consideration during planning.

Pedestrian involvement is a major subset of road crashes. It is estimated that pedestrian road crash is about 22% of all road traffic related deaths. Since pedestrians share road space and traffic, they are susceptible to the crashes especially where a large number of pedestrians are seen on roads. In this study, we have estimated the pedestrian’s response and time taken to estimate the correct recognition of the vehicle approaching them while crossing the road. EEG analysis has been performed to estimate cognitive response of pedestrians. Thirty volunteers participated in this study. Six scenarios were presented as were shown to the participants. Analysis was performed based on EEG acquired activity. It was observed that less beta activity (p > 0.0%) was estimated when participants were shown the video of “low beam car with active light source” and “high beam car with active light source”. This clearly indicates that active light source in addition to headlights of car make pedestrians less confused about the oncoming traffic. This helps them to cross especially in low illumination allies.

Sedentary behavior, also at work, increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes and even earlier mortality (e.g. Biswas et al. 2015). Employees should be encouraged to change and break up their sitting behavior. Therefore, the objective of this study is to determine if a sit-stand workstation can reduce sitting time at work. Secondary, feasibility and usability of the sit-stand workstation is evaluated.A pre-post study was conducted with 20 office workers. After receiving an information session on the importance of good ergonomics and optimizing the ergonomic conditions, a sit-stand workstation was installed. Sitting time was measured using ActivPALTM accelerometers at T0 and after 4 weeks of using the sit-stand workstation (T1). A questionnaire regarding sitting and movement behavior and performance indications was filled out at T0 and T1.The results revealed a significant difference in sitting time between T0 and T1: sitting time decreased with almost 10% and standing time increased with 6%. Subjects revealed that they were more active at work and sat less at work due to using the sit-stand workstation.The majority of the subjects (respectively 74% and 79%) mentioned that the use of the sit-stand workstation had no effect on their work productivity and quality of work. In addition, respectively 79% and 69% of the subjects revealed that they could perform easy computer tasks and read comfortably while using the sit-stand workstation. Otherwise, half of the subjects agreed that the sit-stand workstation is easy to use and they would use it in the future. Only 32% of the subjects found it useful in a typical office environment.The results indicate that a sit-stand workstation is a helpful tool to decrease sitting time and increase standing time during working hours, although possible future use of the sit-stand workstation was questioned by half of the subjects, possibly due to its design.

Workers in the informal economy operate under difficult and unsafe working conditions. This and other systemic challenges can negatively affect their work ability. One aspect of informal work that is not well understood is working time, an important element of any work system as it dictates how much time is available for rest and how it contributes to time poverty. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the working time of informal workers through a time use survey. This cross sectional, descriptive study recruited ten informal worker participants from Warwick Junction, in Durban, South Africa. Traders completed a participatory time-use survey method and an activity clock, reporting on activities over a normal and busy 24-h period. More specifically, participants reported total working time, commuting time, personal time, time spent doing domestic chores and reported sleep duration, while accounting for the time allocated to each activity. On average, workers reported working 6 to 7 days per week and extended work hours. Reported sleep time varied between 6 (±1.4) and 7.2 (±1.9) h per night on busy and normal nights respectively, which provided evidence of time poverty. Female workers reported having higher demands on their time than men. While the sample was small and the data self-reported, the study provides evidence of extended work hours, inadequate rest and time poverty faced by informal workers and in particular, women. Further research should empirically explore the effects of the extended work hours and reduced time for recovery amongst informal workers.

The online Return on Investment (ROI) calculator developed by the Queensland Government (Australia) is a financial evaluation tool that is publicly available and captures the direct and indirect costs and benefits of implementing a workplace health and safety (WHS) intervention to estimate a comprehensive ROI figure. Whilst cost is an important factor in decision-making, how useful is such a tool to WHS professionals in deciding whether to implement a WHS control? Aim: This study aimed to evaluate user perceptions of the online ROI calculator’s usefulness, ease of use, and value. Methods: Google Analytics and the ROI calculator’s results were obtained via the Queensland Government database and a usability questionnaire was administered to capture how users perceive the online calculator’s ease of use and usefulness. Results: Google Analytics recorded 18,633 sessions, 12,803 new users, average of 1.12 page views per session, average session duration of 3 min 30 s and a bounce rate of 86.24%. The ROI calculator yielded 548 observations with a 13.50% conversion rate (74 completions). Overall, users (n = 17) perceived the ROI calculator to be average to slightly positive in terms of usefulness and ease-of-use. Conclusions: The results indicate effective site promotion or interest around ROI in WHS, however, the calculator has poor ability to retain users to complete the tool. Future research is currently being conducted to gain a better understanding of the potential roadblocks to greater tool use and user design and experience of the tool.

The objective of the European Month of Ergonomics (EME) of the Federation of Europe-an Ergonomics Societies (FEES) is to promote the ergonomics profession in Europe. The first theme “Know your ergonomics” gave an introduction in 2009. The following EMEs became specific, and the topics are dedicated to the actual campaigns of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA). The EME goal is not only to relay the EU-OSHA message but to highlight the role of the ergonomics profession, to show how an ergonomist can contribute to a healthier and safer workplace, to improve performance and increase workers’ satisfaction.According to the three main ergonomics application fields defined by the International Ergonomics Association (IEA) the EME 2018/19 “Ergonomist to manage dangerous sub-stances better” covers the applicable physical, cognitive and organizational interventions related both to handling materials themselves and handling the relevant information.Traditionally FEES prepares a slideshow to help federated societies and every interested professional to spread the EME message. This new slideshow contains a brief introduction on EME and EU-OSHA campaign, some definitions, the expectable benefits of the use ergonomics expertise and references to further information.To make the EME more understandable and attractive several examples are presented.Physically handling dangerous substances means e.g. material handling, lifting, moving, carrying which requires proper package shape and size, tools, process, task and organizational design. Cognitive ergonomics regarding dangerous substances e.g. can improve the visual appearance with colour and shape coding, symbols and pictograms, environmental design to easy recognition. Organisational ergonomics can help to eliminate modality changes, decrease exposures, define better processes.We hope this EME will prove again that ergonomics can be a competitive factor in healthier and safer workplaces.

In the past 20 years, cardiovascular mortality has decreased in high-income countries in response to the adoption of preventive measures to reduce the burden of coronary artery disease and heart failure. Despite these encouraging results, cardiovascular diseases are responsible for approximately 17 million deaths every year in the world, approximately 25% of which are sudden cardiac death. The risk of sudden cardiac death is higher in men than in women, and it increases with age due to the higher prevalence of coronary artery disease in older age. Accordingly, the sudden cardiac death rate is estimated to range from 1.40 per 100 000 person-years in women to 6.68 per 100 000 person-years in men. Sudden cardiac death in younger individuals has an estimated incidence of 0.46–3.7 events per 100 000 person-years, corresponding to a rough estimate of 1100–9000 deaths in Europe and 800–6200 deaths in the USA every year. Cardiac diseases associated with sudden cardiac death differ in young vs. older individuals. In the young there is a predominance of channelopathies and cardiomyopathies, myocarditis and substance abuse, while in older populations, chronic degenerative diseases predominate. In younger persons, the cause of sudden cardiac death may be elusive even after autopsy, because conditions such as inherited channelopathies or drug-induced arrhythmias that are devoid of structural abnormalities are epidemiologically relevant in this age group. Identification of the cause of an unexpected death provides the family with partial understanding and rationalization of the unexpected tragedy, which facilitates the coping process and allows an understanding of whether the risk of sudden death may extend to family members. Accordingly, author present their experience with autopsies of unexplained sudden death young victims in which a cardiac origin was suspected and the relevance of a standardized protocol for heart examination and histological sampling, as well as for toxicology and molecular investigation.

This paper presents findings from a study concerning the work environment on board Swedish passenger vessels. The study explored work-related experiences of personnel in the service department (hotel, restaurant, catering, shops) based on individual and group interviews, observations, survey data and social insurance statistics concerning sick leave longer than 60 days. The results of this paper are based on ten semi-structured individual and group interviews with 16 respondents. The respondents were HR personnel from six shipping companies and crewmembers working onboard.The results show that in the HR personnel’s perception, healthy work environments are often associated to individual personal health activities, such as access to a gym or healthcare, lectures or other measures directed towards the individual seafarer. Aspects of the organizational and social work environments were barely mentioned as stressors or as contributing factors to an increasing number of sick absences. The interviewed crewmembers, however, highlighted the need for both organizational and social measures to foster healthy work environments. The need for employee participation within the organizational design and decision-making processes, including methods on how to conduct risk assessments prior to physical and organizational changes and follow up their consequences were emphasized. Thus, to create safe and sustainable work environments on board, more attention needs to be directed towards including shipboard personnel in the physical and organizational design of their own work environment rather than promoting a healthy lifestyle through measures directed towards the individual worker.

Numerous industrial sectors and processes may cause worker exposure to ultrafine particles or engineered nanoparticles (NPs). These exposures may affect workers’ health if control measures (organisational, engineering, PPE…) are not properly defined, used and maintained. Today the available exposure data are insufficient for epidemiological studies. Part of the reason for this lack of data may be found in the variety of approaches used to assess worker exposure.In this work, we propose an approach integrating aerosol measurement and work activity analysis to enhance exposure assessment, based on present recommendations to assess occupational exposure to NPs. This multi-disciplinary approach combines information gathering, real-time measurements and aerosol sampling (for physicochemical analyses), contextual information and work activity observation, video exposure monitoring, interviews with stakeholders, and development of appropriate safety measures.Real exposure situations characterized as typical exposure situations, permitted to gather information on exposing work activities that can occur on workplaces thus making the determinants of exposure more visible. Work activity explains some variations on exposures objectified by video and measurements. Exposures become visible and documented, which triggers debate, discussions and even in some cases opens up new debate spaces. This method aims to help address the concerns of companies introducing new technology that is conducive to important work transformations. In this way, companies break through technological barriers, transform work practices, which makes an upgrade of prevention practices necessary. The approach also aims at setting a landmark method for future epidemiological studies.

Over the past decade there has been a marked increase in the amount of interest in issues involving work-related stress in Italy. Firstly, with the promulgation of the fundamental law for the protection of health and safety in the workplace, stress has been included as an element to be considered in the mandatory risk assessment. According to the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, research in Italy demonstrated high levels of stress in the banking sector. Moreover, since 2008, a deep financial crisis has widely spread around the world. Scientists expressed their worry about this crisis by pointing out that potential negative health effects can be created by collective fear and panic. Economic stress appeared consequently as a new important aspect of mental health. With this in mind, a study was conducted to evaluate peculiarities of hindrance and challenge stressors and its links with recovery in Italian banking population.We contacted HR and H&S managers of a major Italian banking group and invited them to participate in a stress assessment. The questionnaires were administered online through the intranet company portal. Anonymity and confidentiality in the responses were, however, fully assured. Work-related stress was measured with the Stress Questionnaire (SQ) which assesses several psychosocial working variables.Results of over 6,000 respondents demonstrated that female respondents lack more of job control and colleagues’ support as compared to male respondents. Employees over 50 years old lack of supervisor’ support. Employees with the shortest job seniority experienced greatest role ambiguity, lack of job control and colleagues support. Results of hierarchical regression analysis demonstrated that lack of colleagues’ and supervisor’s support as well as job demands and job control contributed in explaining recovery. The greatest contribution to the explained variance was of job demands and lack of colleagues’ support.

Of four key factors in bathing safety, related to fall prevention and mitigation, slip resistance is relatively easily addressed. However, in the field of underfoot slip resistance, water is not typically considered as a “friend.” Surprisingly, when applied to an underfoot terry cloth towel, water dramatically improves slip resistance in otherwise slippery dedicated showers and in bathtubs used for standup showers. This is now empirically established but, as it defies convention and occurs in a relative research vacuum, there is reticence about adopting the practice of simply having a wet—or even better—damp towel underfoot while entering, using and exiting a shower facility. This paper presents what is known and what remains to be learned about the extent to which—plus why—water and terry cloth are a potent slip-resistance combination that, qualitatively, solves one-quarter of the shower safety problem with conventional bathtubs and even more with dedicated showers. Regarding potency, we have learned that thin towels are more effective than thick ones and contaminants such as shampoo appear not to affect slip resistance. Combined with code-required improvements to another factor—effective points of control through the addition of grab bars or stanchions,—a new, cost-effective practice can greatly reduce the large injury toll.

Crises are key moments in companies’ lifetimes, especially for high risks industrial systems. The Expert’Crise project trains managers to manage crises through theoretical training and accident simulation exercises. The trainees’ performance during the exercise is a key factor in their learning process, which is completed by a debriefing. However, a detailed analysis is needed to understand what exactly happens between the managers inside the crisis room during the exercises. We have, therefore, developed a methodology, based on observations, in order to give feedback to managers and to suggest recommendations for improving emergency planning.The purpose of this paper is to present this methodological approach, based on the construction of trainee activity logs. During the exercise, observational data collection is carried out through observation grids and camera recordings. After the exercise, the observers’ notes and camera recordings are collated and incorporated into a global database, compiling key information about the trainees’ actions and communications. Thereafter, a set of issues encountered by the crisis unit is identified from the database. Several descriptors of the level of completion of these issues are then defined.Once the database has been sorted, according to these issues and their levels of completion, the log of the trainees’ activity is complete. Each issue is now ready to be analyzed through some strategic crisis topics, such as communication, leadership inside the crisis unit, accordance with crisis roles set in the emergency instructions, difficulties and deviations encountered for each issue, and achieving the learning targets.

People may follow a manual to achieve safety (Safety - I). On the other hand, it has been proposed in recent years that people sometimes respond flexibly to situations in order to achieve safety (Safety - II). Both modes (Safety - I and Safety - II) should be used mutually [1]; therefore, one strategy is to apply the Safety - I mode when the fluctuation of conditions is below a certain level and to apply the Safety - II mode when it is above that level. In this research, in order to clarify the level of situation fluctuation at which it is appropriate to switch modes from Safety - I to Safety - II, we conducted a simulator experiment involving a fire-extinguishing activity. As a result, it was revealed that people adopted resilient behavior when the situation fluctuation exceeded a certain level and resilient behavior led to success when the fluctuation was not too large or too small.

An extensive literature documents a high prevalence of errors in clinical diagnosis discovered at autopsy. Multiple studies have suggested no significant decrease in these errors over time. Despite these findings, autopsies have dramatically decreased in frequency in the United States and many other countries. In 1994, the last year for which national U.S. data exist, the autopsy rate for all non-forensic deaths fell below 6%. The marked decline in autopsy rates from previous rates of 40–50% undoubtedly reflects various factors, including reimbursement issues, the attitudes of clinicians regarding the utility of autopsies in the setting of other diagnostic advances, and general unfamiliarity with the autopsy and techniques for requesting it, especially among physicians-in-training. The autopsy is valuable for its role in undergraduate and graduate medical education, the identification and characterization of new diseases, and contributions to the understanding of disease pathogenesis. Although extensive, these benefits are difficult to quantify. This review of the last three years of hospital autopsy in Lucca studied the more easily quantifiable benefits of the autopsy as a tool in performance measurement and improvement. Such benefits largely relate to the role of the autopsy in detecting errors in clinical diagnosis and unsuspected complications of treatment. It is hoped that characterizing the extent to which the autopsy provides data relevant to clinical performance measurement and improvement will help inform strategies for preserving the benefits of routinely obtained autopsies and for considering its wider use as an instrument for quality improvement.

Shiftwork causes disruption in circadian and social rhythms of the shift workers. Extended hours shifts and non-rotating (permanent) shifts are increasingly being adopted in police agencies across United States. The aim of this study was to evaluate alertness, sleep, and wellness of workers in permanent shift systems in a public safety department. A self-reported questionnaire survey was administered to 39 police and security officers working in 8 and 12 h permanent shifts. When compared with the 8 h shift, 12 h shift work was associated with a significantly lower alertness level (p = 0.076), lesser sleep duration (p = 0.023), more perceived sleep insufficiency (p = 0.088), more perceived negative effect of shift type on sleep (p = 0.037), and higher frequency of back or lower back pain (p = 0.005). The results of this study are potentially useful when designing interventions to improve shift work experience.

The aim is to describe the coordination conditions between OSH advisors and professional organisations in order to develop good practices in risk prevention in MSEs. Owner-managers of MSEs often have difficulties in applying OSH legislation and a lack of time and skills for doing it. The stakeholders’ coordination develops a prevention program in two case studies conducted in both the road transport and construction sectors. Discussion groups were conducted during a one-day dialogue workshop with different stakeholders (OSH regulators, OSH advisors, professional organisations, worker and employer representations) of these programs. The cooperation between professional organisations and OSH advisors seems necessary to develop a proactive approach and to create a specific program, considering the particular needs of the professional branch.

OBJECTIVE: Understand the situation at Self-paid Colonoscopy Population the Health Behaviors, Health Beliefs and colon cancer Screening Knowledge. Impact of colonoscopy results and basic demographics, health behavior, colonoscopy knowledge, health beliefs. METHODS: This study was conducted 201 voluntary Self-paid Colonoscopy patients. Research questionnaire containing demographic data, Health Behavior, Colorectal cancer screening knowledge, Colonoscopy examination Health Beliefs. The results of this questionnaire will be analyzed statistically. RESULTS: Subjects have poor screening knowledge and less healthy behaviors. Positive relationship between health beliefs and screening knowledge (P = 0.006). Health beliefs had significant effects on gender, marital status, body mass index, health behaviors, screening experience and family history (P < 0.05). The results of colonoscopy had significant effects on age (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: This study found that there is a positive correlation between screening knowledge and Health Beliefs. People’s poor knowledge of colorectal cancer lead to people do not trust colonoscopy, is the biggest obstacle to screening for colorectal cancer. The male sex and people over the age of 50 in the colonoscopy knowledge absorption worse than others, especially for the knowledge of colorectal polyps is the worst. However, people under the age of 50 do not care much about the government subsidy stool occult blood related information. The study also found that patients over the age of 60 compared with 30 to 39 years old subjects have a higher probability of predicting the risk of adenoma.

The aims of the study were to extract organizational climate factors surrounding patient handoffs, and to capture their crucial characteristics in the current Japanese hospital context. A questionnaire survey was conducted between October and December 2017. A total of 5,117 valid responses were collected from nursing staff in 31 general hospitals with a response rate of 69%. The sample collected in 2011, which had 1,462 responses, was also used for comparison with the current data. Seven handoff factors were derived by applying principal component analysis to the 2017 sample with 44% of cumulative variance accounted for. Nursing staff perceived overall handoff adequacy and its elements moderately good. Significantly different views were observed between work units for all the factors. The most negative view was exhibited to information and responsibility continuity by respondents in ED. Regarding information transfer, compared with other intra-hospital handoff cases, information was transferred well in handoffs related to OR and ICU. There were also significant hospital differences in staff perceptions of patient handoff adequacy that the largest difference was identified in training and education. Comparing to six years ago, staff views became significantly more positive, and that the largest improvement was perceived for handoff process, training and education. Sufficiency of information transfer was also improved in the six-year interval. In conclusion, nursing staff perceptions of patient handoff practices and contributing factors have been improved in Japanese hospitals for the last six years, and currently viewed them moderately well. In addition, different views were extracted across work settings.

Emergencies can occur at any time and may reach unpredictable magnitudes. Unfortunately, in many companies, emergency brigades are often organized with people who perform work of sedentary nature and they are not prepared to face sporadic tasks of high physical demands.The objective of this study was to compare the physical fitness of workers with different degree of training. They worked for the same company, but in different industrial plants. In one of them they had a physical training program, guided 3 times per week during working hours by a physical educator. In the other plant there was no facilities for training.Age, stature, body mass, body fat and aerobic capacity were evaluated with conventional methods in 57 physically trained and 21 untrained workers.Results showed that aerobic capacity was 20.8% higher in the trained brigade. Body fat content was significantly higher in the untrained brigade. A further analysis showed that according to Chilean standards for emergency brigades, 58% of the untrained brigade members do not reach the recommended level, while only 19% of the trained workers are below the reference level.As conclusion, the results only confirmed the importance of physical training to improve working capacity and this is particularly important for workers who perform light activities and in isolated occasions have to face high and dangerous demands. Therefore, the main recommendation is to stimulate training within working hours as part of the preparation of the brigade members.

This study examined the effects of introducing a mini-pig in an Animal Assisted Intervention (AAI) to increase the quality of life for elderly people in Japan. Two intensive-care nursing homes and a day-care center located in Tokyo were selected for this study. In one of the intensive-care nursing homes and the day-care center, a mini-pig AAI was carried out twice in a two month period with more than one week between each activity. In the other nursing home, the AAI was carried out once. In each facility, 10 to 25 clients, who were between 70 and 95 years of age, participated in the activity. Each session was 30 to 40 min long. A total of 68 participants participated in the study: 55 older adults participated in the mini-pig AAI and 13 caregivers provided feedback. There were seven older adults without dementia, and their relaxation levels were measured before and after the mini-pig AAI using the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). The caregivers filled out a questionnaire after the activity in the three facilities. Two clients showed improvement on their level of relaxation after the mini-pig AAI. The caregivers’ evaluations elicited the following answers frequently regarding the responses of the older participants: ‘exhibited expression never seen in daily life’, ‘became more expressive and animated’, and ‘looked forward to participating in the next activity’, In conclusion, the mini-pig AAI was found to be effective similarly to companion dogs and, in some cases, even better as it was novel to see and touch a mini-pig.

Subjective evaluations of physical working conditions are common in the field of human factors and ergonomics (HFE). The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of personality factors on judgements of important physical factors in the work environment. The sample consisted of 80 informants working in a white-collar organization. User evaluations of Lighting, Indoor air, Privacy, Negative affect (NA) and Positive affect (PA) were collected twice, over two consecutive years. The results confirm that personality characteristics do affect appraisals of physical conditions, although only for Negative affect. The results also revealed high stability in subjective judgements across time, both with regard to trait-like emotions (NA and PA) and with regard to appraisal of environmental conditions.

A study was conducted with an aim to determine the changes of human lower limb biomechanics biomechanics while carrying loads in selective modes among industrial workers of India and to suggest the biomechanically efficient mode of load carriage. Industrial workers (n = 20) in the age range of 22 to 58 years were selected and asked to carry loads on head, across one shoulder and in hands. Qualisys Motion Capture System (Sweden), Kistler Force Plate (Switzerland) and Polar S810i HR monitor, Finland were used to record data. Heart rate was recorded at rest and during select modes of load carriage with 40% of individual body weight i.e. loads on head, shoulder and hand. Walking speed for head load, shoulder load and hand load were 4.19 ± 0.55 km.hr−1, 4.09 ± 0.82 km.hr−1 and 3.94 ± 0.84 km.hr−1 respectively. Double limb support time while carrying loads has been found lowest in case of head mode (0.65 ± 0.46 s) followed by hand mode (0.67 ± 0.14 s) and shoulder mode (0.68 ± 0.06 s) of load carriage. There is a gradual increase in hip flexon from head to shoulder and hand load condition and gradual decrease in ground reaction force from head to shoulder and hand load conditions. Considering the changes in the physiological parameters along with the biomechanical parameters, head load was found to be more productive in comparison to shoulder and hand load modes. Results demonstrated a significant changes in kinetic and kinematic parameters of workers at selective load conditions. Findings would provide substantial input for designing work and work rest cycle for different industrial manual workforce.

Despite the continuous efforts the burden of work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders (wMSDs) hasn’t been eliminated. Ergonomics risk assessment tools had been often developed on causes of different occupational diseases related to different body parts, and implemented in various forms ranging from paper-pencil worksheets to immersed virtual reality simulations.The Composite Ergonomic Risk Assessment (CERA) was developed to assess ergonomic risks and determine intervention points by Hungarian experts for industrial and office workplaces, according to the EN 1005 Safety of machinery - Human physical performance standard.Professionals with different background e.g. OSH specialists, occupational doctors, ergonomist participated in the development and evaluation process of CERA Office when various risk assessment methods had been tested.The objectives of the new tool was to provide a reliable but quick health risks assessment of computer workplaces and define correction measures and improvement action plans according to different risk levels.In the pilot period 20 different office tasks were assessed by the new risk assessment method as well as with three already widely accepted and used risk assessment tools. The control tools was Cornell University’s Cornell Musculoskeletal Discomfort Questionnaires (CMDQ), the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA), the Rapid Office Strain Assessment (ROSA).The statistical analysis highlighted that CERA Office tends to result on higher risk than the traditional tools. This alteration is due to the higher attention demand required by CERA Office on evaluators to analyse the movements, postures, activities more precise. CERA Office discovered weaknesses of workstations which was not identified by traditional methods used by not-proficient evaluators.The added value of CERA Office is the collection of well defied work situations requiring intervention. CERA Office is an example to efficient and reliable ways to identify the ergonomic risks of office workplaces.

The capability to be resilient in the face of crises and disasters is a topic of highest political concern in Europe especially as far as critical infrastructures and urban environments are concerned. Critical infrastructures are systems or part of systems essential for the maintenance of vital societal functions, the disruption or destruction of which would have a significant impact on the well-being of people. Examples of them are transportation services, energy infrastructures, water and wastewater systems, health and emergency services, financial services, communication infrastructures, etc. The symposium focuses on the experience of four different projects funded under the Horizon 2020 Programme: DARWIN, RESILIENS, RESOLUTE, SMR. The projects are all dealing with the application of resilience engineering, community resilience and urban resilience concepts to concrete examples of crises and situations of emergency. Such principles are translated into guidelines covering different resilience abilities that the organizations managing critical infrastructure should possess.

This paper provides feedback of inadequate ways of formulating the causes of an unwanted event in the high risk industry field. The elements we studied originated from unwanted events analyses reports from the CEA (French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission) and from worldwide accident analyses exercises that have been carried out by students. This communication details two ways of inadequate formulations: the first expressed as a “lack of” a safety provision that was not requisite throughout the duration of the unwanted event; and the second expressed as “comments”. This article provides tips to identify each type of inadequate formulation and proposes methods to prevent the occurrence and reoccurrence of such formulations.Finally, the discussion addresses how an adequate formulation of “the causes” allows the analyst to focus on the real causes of the unwanted event thus not only improving the quality of the investigation but also promoting a more in-depth analysis. More specifically, we emphasize the importance of distinguishing between the search of the possible causes from the identification of the possible sanctions of an unwanted event.

The rail driver workplace is full of challenges for effective health management, posing a significant threat to the sustainability of the industry. In Australia, train drivers undergo periodic health assessment as part of a nationally standardised approach to reducing sudden incapacitation risk; however, studies suggest that the current assessment protocol is not operating as effectively as they might. To improve this, there is a need to understand the experiences of drivers undergoing workplace health assessments, and how they engage with them.Drawing on research of known barriers and enablers of positive health status, this study sought to examine train drivers’ perceptions and experiences of recurring organisational health assessments and how they subjectively engage with this process. Five focus groups with train drivers (n = 29) were held across four Australian rail organisations, seeking to gain their understanding of the National Standard and their attitudes towards health assessments. Transcript data were subjected to thematic analysis.Preliminary findings identified four primary factors: drivers’ unmet information needs, low perceived assessment reliability and validity, need for psychological assessment and support, and the use of maladaptive assessment-threat avoidance strategies. This paper presents an overview of these preliminary findings and suggests that driver engagement with health assessment may be improved by proactively addressing these factors in occupational health initiatives and preventative interventions to tackle the growing problem of train driver health impairment.

Objectives. Like most industrialized countries, Switzerland has introduced legislation to protect the health of pregnant workers and their unborn children from workplace hazards. This study aims to assess legislation’s degree of implementation in the French-speaking part of Switzerland and understand the barriers to and resources supporting its implementation.Methods. Data were collected using mixed methods: (1) an online questionnaire send to 333 gynecologist-obstetricians (GOs) and 637 midwives; (2) exploratory semi-structured interviews with 5 workers who had had a pregnancy in the last 5 years.Results. Questionnaire response rates were 32% for GOs and 54% for midwives. Data showed that several aspects of the implementation of maternity protection policies could be improved. Where patients encounter workplace hazards, GOs and midwives estimated that they only received a risk assessment from the employer in about 5% and 2% of cases, respectively. Preventive leave is underprescribed: 32% of GOs reported that they “often” or “always” prescribed preventive leave in cases involving occupational hazards; 58% of GOs reported that they “often” or “always” prescribed sick leave instead.Interviews with workers identified several barriers to the implementation of protective policies in workplaces: a lack of information about protective measures and pregnancy rights; organizational problems triggered by job and schedule adjustments; and discrepancies between some safety measures and their personal needs.Conclusions. Results demonstrate the need to improve the implementation and appropriateness of maternity protection legislation in Switzerland. More research is required to identify the factors affecting its implementation.

Several generic missteps—departures from normal human gait in bipedal ambulation—were systematically identified in 2003 by the HFES Forensics Professional Group, e.g., an air step, heel scuff, overstep, slip, stumble, trip, understep and unstable footing. Yet overwhelmingly, missteps and falls are commonly referred to as “slip, trip and fall”, leading to incident misidentification in epidemiology, etiology, forensics, etc. The need for change and international efforts on this, begun in 2007, are discussed. This includes efforts to change the name of IEA’s relevant Technical Committee, up to now called the “Slips, Trips and Falls Committee”. Opposition by fellow ergonomists has been muted but effective in preventing a name change. It is especially ironic that the field of ergonomics—which should lead in this matter—appears content to misrepresent the ergonomic aspects of missteps and falls. This only continues a flawed tradition and misleads other disciplines about the underlying facts about how and why falls occur and what should be done by way of prevention and mitigation. A change now could help save many people from predicable and preventable falls, a leading cause of injuries in most countries.

This study aimed to examine the impact of physical activity enjoyment on the motor ability of school-age children. We collected data from 351 elementary school students (180 boys and 171 girls; Mage = 8.78, standard deviation = 1.85) from public elementary schools in Japan. We investigated individual profiles (sex, age, birth date, and school year), children’s physical size (height, weight, and Rohrer index), children’s motor ability (performance during a 50-m sprint, standing broad jump, and throwing a soft ball), and enjoyment of physical activity using the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (PACES). We assessed the effect of physical activity enjoyment (independent variable) on motor ability (dependent variable) using binomial logistic regression analysis. An examination of confounders (chi-square test) indicated that weight and Rohrer index were the influential factors in the 50-m sprint (ps < .05). Therefore, the adjusted ORs for these factors were calculated using logistic regression analysis. The adjusted analysis results indicated that enjoyment (PACES score ≥ 4.00) is a promoting factor for motor ability.

This study was designed to clarify whether the fragrance of peppermint oil has the effect of enhancing the concentration by using Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT). PVT was applied to the participants (n = 16, female) for 10 min in the room with peppermint oil and without the odor (control). The fragrance of peppermint was allowed to fill the room 10 min before the start of the measurement. The participants were asked to press a response button, located on the right side of the device, as soon as the visual stimuli appeared at random from 2 to 10 s in PVT. Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) was also used for subjective sensation (0, no concentrate at all; 100, concentrate very much). Reaction time (RT) to visual stimulation was measured for evaluation of concentration using PVT. Median of RT was significantly smaller in peppermint oil than that of control. Subjective sensation by VAS also showed significantly high concentration in peppermint oil compared with control. These results indicate that the concentration must increase by smelling the fragrance of peppermint oil. When people get tired during work, it suggests that concentration might improve by smelling the fragrance of peppermint followed by the prevention of human errors.

In an operational analysis report of the Occupational Safety and Health Regulations (Penggunaan dan Standard Pendedahan Bahan Kimia Berbahaya Kepada Kesihatan) 2000 has found that 80% of more than 800 workplaces investigated failed to adhere fully to regulations. In addition, the Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have been reported to contribute some 30 to 50% of industrial accidents. Since SMEs constitute almost 99% of the Malaysian business establishments, and contributing about 36% of the country’s GDP, improvements to its workers’ safety and health issues should go hand in hand with Malaysia economic development. Malaysia faces greater challenge to monitor OSH requirements are adhered to in spite of trying to stay competitive and survive with its limited capital or financial resources. Reviews have shown that the involvement of various parties including the public in policy making, the development of appropriate infrastructure and human resources, enforcement autonomy, focused job scope within department, appropriate language usage, training inclusive of all forms of diversity at work and appropriate penalty are key success factors at reducing death rates, accidents and lost work days at the workplace for these two countries. Through questionnaire distributed to 150 SMEs in Malaysia, results were analysed and findings with regard to the implementation of OSH in workplace is discussed. The results showed that safety rewards and employee participation in management practices are significant in OSH implementation in the SMEs. Practical implications are discussed. Recommendations include open management and safety behaviour acknowledgement as reward.

Driving is a complex and demanding activity, thus, is mostly accompanied with stress, which is found to influence psychological and physiological health of driver, resulting with increased probability of fatal accidents. Matthews developed first driver stress model, which is a demonstration of interactions between environmental stressors, driver cognitive stress processes, personality traits related with stress vulnerability and stress outcome experiencing by driver. Dispositional affect characteristics are one of the most notable elements of coping strategies. Many studies prove that affects can predict coping strategies. This study is conducted to understand the relationship between dispositional affect characteristics of Turkish drivers and their coping strategies. Results indicate that dispositional affect of drivers are able to predict their coping strategies. Possible implications of these findings are discussed.

Background: Health crises and health emergencies occur regionally and globally. In this context, online social networks are technical resources widely used to share large amounts of information with increasing reach and speed. This capacity of dissemination of information on epidemics through social media interactions creates the possibility of collaboration between population and health professionals or agencies. This article intends to present, through results obtained in a systematic review, examples on how social interactions enable collaboration in health surveillance to treat the epidemic situations of Zika and H1N1.Methodology: The methodology applied in this article was the systematic review, to answer how social networks are being applied in a collaborative context to assist in the identification, monitoring and generation of information on Zika Virus and H1N1 epidemicsResults: The works presented demonstrated that social media interactions are important tools for the rapid dissemination of information at low cost, reaching audiences who need clarification, and also favoring the formation of specific collaborative networks among researchers, in the monitoring and generation of epidemiological information for making decision.Conclusion: Collaboration through social networks as pointed out in the papers is an essential aspect to connect individuals with common interests, generating information that allows the monitoring and control of epidemics, as well as creating networks of research for the development of science in the service of life.

Affordable, abundant, and reliable electricity generation is essential to fueling a nation’s robust and globally competitive economy. In the United States (U.S.), commercial nuclear power plants (NPPs) account for approximately 19% of reliable and cost-competitive base load electricity generation. Other technologies that reduce reliance on fossil fuels and provide base load electricity cost-competitively at a national scale are still under development. Thus, without suitable replacements for nuclear power, the generating capacity of nuclear energy in the U.S. must be continued through the safe and efficient operation of commercial NPPs. The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) research and development (R&D) program provides the technical bases for the long-term, safe, and economical operation of NPPs. One area in the LWRS program is the Plant Modernization pathway, which includes human factors R&D, human factors engineering (HFE), and ergonomics to enable the modernization of the instrumentation and control (I&C) technologies in NPP main control rooms. DOE researchers, including ergonomics specialists at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), have collaborated with numerous commercial NPP utilities over the last few years on control room modernization. This paper summarizes recent ergonomics safety and health R&D and HFE performed in collaboration with a U.S. commercial utility to modernize their NPP control rooms.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of heel area on the utilized coefficient of friction (uCOF) during high-heeled walking and to explain the change of the uCOF by understanding the gait patterns. Four high heels with different heel areas (Narrow: 0.9 * 0.9 cm, Moderate: 1.5 * 1.7 cm, Wide: 2.8 * 2.9 cm, Wedges: one piece of the sole and heel) were manufactured for walking experiments. Ten females walked at 1.25 m/s on a treadmill with two force plates inserted, and the walking data were collected by motion capture system. The uCOF during stance phase was calculated from ground reaction forces (GRFs). The peak uCOF and the peak GRFs during loading response period was identified according to the heel area. One-way repeated measure analysis of variance and correlation analysis were performed for the peak uCOF and the peak GRFs. As the heel area became narrower, the peak uCOF increased significantly. However, there was no significant difference in the peak uCOF between the wide heels and wedge heels. The changed peak uCOF according to the heel area correlated with the change in timing of the peak uCOF. The peak uCOF and the peak anterior-posterior GRF occurred in early loading response period when wearing the narrow heels than the wide heels, although the magnitudes of the peak GRFs were consistent. The potential for slipping during high-heeled walking can be increased at narrow heel area since the horizontal shear force reaches the peak quickly before the vertical force is sufficiently large with weight acceptance.

Falls from heights are the most common causes of occupational fatal accidents in many countries; using agents, such as stepladders or scaffolds, is one of the main causal factor. This study aims to evaluate the postural stability of static standing on narrow platforms. Eleven male participants stood on five platforms that had anterior/posterior widths ranging from 6 to 25 cm and maintained their position for 50 s. The coordinates and velocities of center of mass (CoM) and center of pressure (CoP) were calculated from kinematic data of human body and foot reaction forces. The results showed that the relative position of CoP to the platform width and the translational velocity non-linearly increased with shortened platform width and more significantly changed than the relative position of CoM, while there was no significant difference between the 15-cm and 25-cm platforms. The regression lines of the relative position and the velocity of CoP were approximated as a function of the inverse of the platform width or the square, respectively. Shortened platforms make the postural balance of static standing non-linearly unstable, whereas platforms that are 15 cm or wider stabilize the postural perturbation comparable to that achieved on the ground. Therefore, the equipment with a platform or rungs at least 15 cm or wider should be recommended for tasks at elevated places.

Pushing is considered a manual handling activity in industry and its functional role is also in our daily life, such as pushing moving strollers or grocery carts, which is under examined. In such situations, two perturbations need to be handled simultaneously, specifically, pushing (voluntary movement) and pushing-induced slipping when walking on a slip surface (sliding perturbation). Eight participants were instructed to push a handle while standing on a locked or unlocked movable board, which was placed on a force plate. Three accelerometers were attached to the handle to detect the moment of the handle moving away (T_handle), which denotes time zero, the pelvis to detect the moment of trunk movement, and the movable board to detect the moment of board movement. The onset time, magnitude of center of pressure (COP) at T_handle and maximum pushing force were calculated. The onsets of board movement, trunk movement, and COP were initiated prior to T_handle. Pushing while standing on the unlocked sliding board significantly affected the onset of COP but did not affect onset of trunk movement. In addition, the direction of acceleration on the board was corresponding to the reaction force of the pushing forces at hands in the backward direction. Studying the combined effects of varying movability of the support surface and pushing tasks may contribute to the development of new environment safety for workers and elderly.

Modules of 6 oil and gas platforms are being built at a shipyard in Brazil. It was verified that, among the disciplines of construction and assembly (welding, structure, electrical, scaffolding, painting, instrumentation, commissioning, piping and load handling), scaffolders are the workers who are exposed to the greatest amount of unsafe conditions due to the risks inherent to the work at heights and the lack of safety behavior. This study aims to analyze the working conditions of scaffolders analyzing their job and applying a tool designed for the whole shipyard safety. It was used the direct observation of the activity during 8 months and the Ergonomic Analysis of Labor (EAL) were applied to ascertain the diagnosis of the context that covers the working routine of the scaffolders. ErgCAP – Ergonomics of Correction, Awareness and Participation was implemented as a tool in which the construction and assembly teams were responsible for identifying and registering the unsafe conditions. From the observation it was realized that the physical structure offered to the scaffolders is not ideal and the workers frequently go beyond some limits of the procedure to achieve production goals, putting themselves and the others at risk. ErgCAP registered 599 unsafe conditions in the area of scaffolding, among which the most recurrent are: opening in floor, scaffolding without skirting board, lack of inspection, activity being carried out without issuing a work permission, scaffolding material spread and seat belt not used properly. From the observations it is important to note that it is not always possible to attach the seat belt to a structure other than the scaffold being erected, which is unsafe and requires investment in the structure of the construction site. Another characteristic observed is that couplers, wooden planks and even scaffold tubes are often thrown at the ground. Training and awareness should be improved. The conclusion is that ErgCAP is an effective tool against one of the main causes of accident in the construction industry, fall from height accidents, because it transfers responsibilities to all workers and immediately acts on the perception of other risks. Not only who is doing the job is informed about the risk, but they also learn how to perceive it during their activities, as all the others become guardians of the safety in the construction site.

Technology that assists and extends various functions of human beings will soon be available not only to medical and welfare but also to healthy individuals. This study aimed to characterize surface electromyography (EMG) signals in response to walking assistive equipment. Ten healthy male students walked on an 8-m uphill road (5.8% incline) using an assist walker (RT.2, RT.WORKS Co., Ltd) under assist and non-assist conditions. The EMG signals were recorded from four muscles (the rectus femoris [RF], biceps femoris, tibialis anterior, and lateral gastrocnemius). During loading response and terminal stance, the percent maximum voluntary isometric contraction (%MVC) peak value for RF was achieved more quickly in the assist condition than in the non-assist condition. However, during loading response and mid-swing, the %MVC peak value of RF was significantly lower in the assist condition than in the non-assist condition. These results indicate that humans alter muscle exertion patterns in specific muscles to adapt to walking assistance; such a change in the muscle exertion pattern may be adapted for smoother walking.

The force and acceleration of the head during an impact from a fall are shown to decrease on compliant flooring. Our understanding of the benefits of compliant flooring is limited, because studying head impacts resulting from falls is often not feasible for human subject studies. The OpenSim platform allows investigation of muscle activations in fall induced head impacts using dynamic simulation. The purpose of this study is to determine if simulations in OpenSim can provide a greater understanding of the effect of neck muscle activations during falls onto compliant flooring. This is accomplished by simulating a fall from bed height onto a compliant floor. Force profiles and head motions from simulations without active neck muscles are compared to values obtained from published literature to evaluate the suitability of OpenSim for simulating falls onto compliant flooring. Force profiles and head motions from simulations with active neck muscles are also investigated and compared to related literature. The results indicate that OpenSim is capable of providing realistic results and can be used for investigating the effect of active neck muscles during falls onto compliant flooring. The results also support that active muscles can substantially reduce brain injury risk from a fall. Future studies are aimed at investigating the role of active neck muscles in populations with greater fall risk to evaluate head injury avoidance strategies.

Crowd situations are commonplace and involve circumstances known to lead to slips, trips and falls (STF). Data from focus groups with crowd participants (5 groups, n = 35 individuals); observations of crowd situations (n = 55); and interviews with crowd organisers (n = 41) were analysed to examine understanding of and responses to the risk of STF in crowds. Although safety was a high priority for both crowd participants and organisers, explicit consideration of STF as a safety concern was low among both groups. Crowd observations found STF risks mitigated on some occasions and present on others, without any discernible pattern for the variation. A risk management framework for STF risk in crowds is proposed. It is concluded that improved understanding is needed of the nature and pattern of STF occurrence in crowds and the efficacy of measures for prevention.

Falls present a massive health risk for older adults. Half of those over 80 will fall at least once a year with 1 in 5 suffering a serious injury. Footwear outsole material that provides good grip on ice and snow can potentially prevent many of these injuries. Our team has developed our own promising patent-pending composite outsole materials with a unique structure that consist of soft rubber compound with hard microscopic fibers protruding out from the surface. In this study, we attempt to optimize the ice friction performance of our composite for extended use. We investigate the effect of manufacturing and testing parameters using the Taguchi method for robust design. Our results on optimization of process parameters demonstrate that fiber content at 8% volume fraction with mold temperature sets at 120 °C lead to maximum ice friction properties before and after simulated wear. The optimized composite design showed a higher coefficient of friction (COF) on ice than any on the market now, which highlights the capability of the material to provide improved traction on icy surfaces and prevent fall-related injuries.

Powered lower extremity exoskeletons (LEE) can support and ambulate individuals in an upright posture, and meanwhile bring rehabilitative benefits. However, guaranteeing the safety of human-exoskeleton system is still a big challenge. The type and extent of probable risks of these devices have not yet been understood. Falls can result in serious injuries for LEE users and awful consequences. In this paper, we focus on the process of human-exoskeleton system falling and assess the injury of human. Herein, impacts of falling events were assessed and analyzed based on finite element method in the current study. In order to collect kinematics of the human-exoskeleton system for simulated impact analysis, an experiment platform consisting of an air bend and a ceiling rail was designed. Volunteers individually or wearing exoskeleton were asked to lean body in different directions (e.g. forward, side and backward) until they inevitably fell. The results of the experiment and simulation indicated that the main parts injured were head, thorax, spine, arm and pelvis when human-exoskeleton system fell. The maximum impact velocity of head can be 6.5 m/s, if no buffer actions were taken, and that can cause traumatic brain injury (TBI). No fractures occurred in other parts, but local squeezing and bruising could be found in the simulation. It is anticipated that the study of human-exoskeleton falling event will be useful in making safety regulations and safety exoskeleton designing.

Falls are the most important issue among elderly population. It is needed to develop early interventions for middle-aged and elderly people to reduce the falling risk. Therefore, this study aims to help prevent trips among middle-aged and elderly people by analyzing their foot-eye coordination strategies while performing foot positioning tasks under different conditions. 10 middle-aged and elderly males above 55 years old and 10 young males in the range of 20 to 30 years old were recruited. There were 3 levels of obstacle height (0 cm, 5 cm, 10 cm), whereas 2 levels (1step, 2steps) were set for the distance between the obstacle and the target. Each participant walked from the starting position and stepped over the obstacle while both feet onto specified targets positioning. The positioning error was defined as the performance measure of primary task. Besides, two different colors were displayed from toe-off to mid-swing and from mid-swing to heel-strike of the leading foot respectively. The participant had to recall the colors been seen as the performance measure of secondary task. Principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted with the gait data collected. 16 PCs accounted in total of 81.3% of variance were extracted. Cluster analysis was then used to determine four different strategies based on the PC scores. It was found that the foot-eye coordination strategies had significant effects on the performance of primary task (p < .001), as well as on secondary task (p < .001). Furthermore, the results showed that the strategies were related to age and environmental condition.

The purpose of this study was to understand the influence of various information acquisition strategies on foot proprioception and obstacle avoidance in people with low vision. Ten adult males (41.0 ± 7.1 years) with pigmentary retinal degeneration were recruited for this study. Participants acquired obstacle information (obstacle height: 4 cm and 15 cm) through three different strategies, namely, front (A), downward (B), and tactile (C). Subsequently, the participants performed two different tasks; Task 1: After identification of the obstacles, the participants reproduced the obstacle height by lifting their foot while standing still (10 times). Task 2: Following the acquisition of the obstacle information through conditions B and C, participants performed obstacle step-over from a standing position. In task 1, condition B showed significantly higher toe-rise and coefficient of variance in toe-rise (p < 0.05) than in conditions A and C, which both displayed similar toe-rise. Likewise, in task 2, the highest points of the leading and trailing feet while stepping over the obstacle were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in condition B than in condition C. Additionally, the coefficient of effort in condition B was significantly larger (p < 0.05) than that of condition C. These results suggest that differences in information acquisition strategies have an impact on the foot trajectory during obstacle step-over. Out of the three methods used in this study, information acquisition through the tactile sense may be the best obstacle avoidance feedback method for people with low vision.

A prototype tribometer, with a mechanical foot fitted with shoes, and that mimics the action of the leg and foot at ground contact to the moment of potential slip, was used to test the slip resistance of two stairway treads using four types of footwear, and at two ground reaction force angles. Based on slip distance, velocity and the location of the first metatarsal heads with respect to the nosing, it is concluded that there is greater overstep slip risk for shoes with arched outersoles than for shoes with continuous (non-arched) outersoles. It is also concluded that integrating slip resistive attributes near the horizontal tangency of the nosings might be beneficial, although possibly only marginally and that, in any case, it might be ineffective in offsetting the high slip velocities of feet as they slip off treads.

Falls from ladders are a frequent and severe injury. To better understand effective strategies to arrest a falling from ladder event, this study assessed 35 participants on their ability to arrest their body from falling after a ladder climbing perturbation. Peak hand-rung forces were compared with fall severity after an ascending climbing perturbation to assess if greater hand-rung force leads to reduced severity in the falling event. Severity of the falling event was measured by the weight supported in the safety harness (i.e. harness force). Higher harness forces were found to be associated with higher hand-rung forces. Hand-rung forces after a climbing perturbation do not reduce the severity in the falling event. Instead, this study suggests that hand-rung forces are caused by the severity in the falling event. This is critical knowledge because the hands are likely to decouple from the ladder if the severity of the falling event is greater than the grasping capability of the climber.

Falls are a major healthcare concern especially in the older population and tripping is a primary cause. Tripping is defined biomechanically as an event at which the lowest part of the foot makes unanticipated contact with either the walking surface or objects during the swing phase of the gait cycle. Identifying an obstacle or uneven surface as a tripping hazard is a subjective assessment, particularly when considering the vulnerabilities of people with knee/hip replacement, stroke, Parkinson disease and osteoarthritis. There is no universally accepted measurement tool or interpretation of the hazards. Walkways can pose a serious risk of tripping and falling because of different factors such as overloading, frost heave, and tree roots. The main goal of this study is to provide a new solution for extracting features of walkway tripping hazards that can be correlated with the Probability of Tripping (PoT). A new scanning device is proposed which uses an array of Time-of-Flight sensors. Before extracting the features we need to make sure the proposed device will provide us accurate measurements. Therefore, in this paper, we have addressed the main challenges associated with accurate sensor readout in a multi-sensory system. The results show that the presented scanning device will provide readouts with accuracy of ±2.5 mm.