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Featured Application: A new safety supervision system architecture, by introducing the permissioned blockchain technology proposed in this paper, will be applied in special equipment safety supervision of China, which will solve many safety supervision loopholes in this field. In addition, we will also try to apply the design ideas of the system to other fields that also require safety supervision; the mining industry is the most likely target. With the use of the traditional safety supervision system of special equipment, the job burnout of supervision participants and other supervision problems emerge endlessly, which leads to the supervision for the prevention of safety accidents being greatly weakened. In recent years, the significance of introducing new technology to improve the original supervision system for safety accident prevention has been constantly growing. In this paper, based on the current situation of China's special equipment safety supervision, we summarize several specific requirements for improving the supervision system, namely efficient accident responsibility tracing, more transparent, more efficient data sharing, and integrating more functions. On this basis, we have designed a new system architecture, by introducing the permissioned blockchain technology, which can meet all the improvement requirements and adapt to the technical features of safety supervision work. The extensibility design of the system architecture can meet the new requirements in future work. The design idea of the system architecture can not only be used in the field of special equipment, but can also be used for reference by other fields with safety supervision requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Finding the best practices for accident prevention is possible by identifying the influential factors affecting accident occurrence and their interactions as well as implementing corrective actions for the root cause factors. OBJECTIVE: This study was aimed to determine the cause-effect relationships and the interaction of the influential factors affecting accident occurrence and determine the critical root factors. METHODS: This study was carried out based on the opinions of a panel of experts and used the fuzzy DEMATEL method. RESULTS: The results showed that "organization safety attitude", "safety communication", "work and safety training" and "safe design of systems" are root cause variables. Also, "work and safety knowledge" and "experience in the job" are individual cause variables. CONCLUSIONS: Organizational factors and some of individual variables are the critical factors that affect the occurrence of accidents. Therefore, corrective actions for accident prevention should primarily focus on the correction of these variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mechanization, which enables the transition from traditional means of production to modern means of production, refers to the industrialization that makes mass production with the effect of bringing more profit and the increasing world population meet their needs. In factories, many people are made to work together and for long working hours. For this reason, working accidents also become inevitable. As a result, the increase of working safety in the field of occupational health and safety on behalf of reducing working risks especially in Germany has developed. Turkey also in this direction under the influence of European Union harmonization law to speed has gained in the scope of work to speed the membership accession process. It is aimed to reveal the results of the legal regulations in the context of preventing work accidents. This descriptive study generally in Turkey and Istanbul in particular the work accidents occurred between 2007 and 2018 as a result of temporary incapacity period, statistical data to be including income and fatal occupational accidents connected to workers or rights holders were examined. Thus, the effects of the Occupational Health and Safety Law (OHS), enacted in 2012, number 6331, on the prevention of occupational accidents were questioned. Finally, from the statistics obtained using secondary data, it is understood that there is no reduction in occupational accidents. It has been concluded that workplace inspection and control should be more frequent with the legal regulation in preventing work accidents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various safety-related standards associated with the machinery design phase, such as ISO 14119:2013, emphasize the appropriate design and selection of protective devices to prevent bypassing. Despite such standards, bypassing safeguards is a common issue at the machinery use phase. ISO 12100:2010 indicates, "experience has shown that even well-designed safeguarding can fail or be violated". This unsafe practice can cause serious injuries or fatalities. This paper presents an improved version of a bypassing-related assessment tool initially inspired by ISO 14119. The improvement results from testing its performance through industrial case studies to explore how the tool works in reality. Five occupational health and safety (OHS) practitioners apply this tool in four plants in Quebec to 18 machines and 37 activities. Afterwards, the OHS practitioners provide feedback using a questionnaire. The findings reveal that the tool is appropriate for the machine usage phase to prevent bypassing with an overall 82% satisfaction score. The probability levels of bypassing given by the tool enable a safety improvement prioritization method for the machines and safeguards. The tool was improved, redefining some incentives to bypass and its layout. The findings explain how practitioners could influence decision-making to minimize incentives to bypass and the probability of bypassing to prevent accidents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Control banding (CB) strategies offer simplified solutions for controlling worker exposures to constituents found in the workplace. CB is a risk assessment and control process developed by industrial hygienists that is utilized primarily for reducing work-related chemical exposures and has become an important component for identifying and evaluating hazards in laboratories. This process qualitatively generates exposure scenarios according to a "banding" principle. Due to the inherent simplicity of the modern CB approaches, toolkits that address chemical use and exposure reduction with these principles have gained international support. Our question is whether the CB principles might also apply to occupational safety as an accident prevention approach. For safety, probably "barrier banding" (BB) is a better title. Although the development of injury prevention toolkits is a proper goal for BB, some research is necessary before a similar success can be achieved as CB. The excellent efforts of the Workgroup Occupational Risk Model (WORM) research team have generated a number of considerations for BB research. Among these are developing safety exposure limits and time-weighted exposure principles that can be derived for a more aggregated level industry like construction. Optimizing a singular approach for both work-related injury and illness prevention in industry requires a simplified and multidisciplinary strategy utilizing a common risk communication language that CB and BB might provide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Safety & Fire Technology (2657-8808) is the property of Centrum Naukowo-Badawcze Ochrony Przeciwpozarowej and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Work accidents that occur in the world of construction in 2017-2018 have increased, so the government requires all company management to improve the OSH Management System (OSH). All work accidents are seen and felt by workers. The implementation of the Occupational Safety and Health Management System based on ISO 45001: 2018 . The purpose of this study is to obtain in-depth information about the processes and factors that influence worker involvement in improving OSH effectiveness. This research uses descriptive qualitative method. Qualitative data collection is done through observation, interviews and document review. There are three informants in this research, they are the SHE Manager, Safety Officer and WikaBetonLayang Toll Project Worker. The results of the study were obtained that the work engagement process starts from safety induction, safety talk and toolbox meetings, the next process is implementation, where the implementation starts from the prevention of work accidents, environmental pollution, work related diseases, reporting of hazardous situations and delivery of information. After the implementation phase, the next stage is consultation with workers both in terms of OSH program planning and changes in OSH implications. And the final process is the granting of authority, roles and responsibilities to workers. For the factors that influence the involvement of workers is first the organization, the vision and culture of the organization. Second is management and leadership, meaning communication techniques and techniques to provide feedback to workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Risk identification and risk assessment are the most important issues among the occupational health and safety practices. In the industry, the identification of hazards and the risk assessment are often carried out by using subjective risk assessment methods. These methods usually do not provide a perspective on the nature of the measures to be taken. In order to keep sector-specific risks under control, as important as the assessment of risks is to take effective measures against these risks and to continuously monitor the effectiveness of these measures. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to classify protective and preventive occupational health and safety measures implemented in the construction sector based on their efficiency by using Fuzzy Kano Model Approach. For this purpose, it is the first time, the feature classes defined by the conventional Kano Model and the Kano Model questionnaire have been reinterpreted in terms of occupational health and safety. Then, the proposed approach has been applied to classify the safety measures utilized in occupational health and safety in terms of their efficiency by using fuzzy Kano Model. According to obtain results, approximately 10% of the control measures which are effectively used at construction site are in Trusting Measure Class. The main contribution of this paper is to provide a new method for analysis of effectiveness of the occupational health and safety measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If successful safety interventions are to be developed and implemented, the underlying causes of accidents must be accurately identified. Using two different samples and research designs, the authors investigated the influence of two contextual factors, safety climate and communication, on accident interpretation. The results for both samples indicated that contextual factors significantly influenced accident attributions. Implications for the implementation of change interventions and for organizations trying to learn from negative events are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of accidents at work and accident prevention have significant impact regarding safety, health protection and work environment management for the European Union. Work conditions need to be improved in Poland. Solving this collective issue caused by humanitarian as well as economic considerations is a primary mission in businesses. Creating more quality jobs is one of the main goals of EU’s social policy. Health and safety in the work environment are essential conditions for work quality. This article presents the incidence of work related accidents in EU. In the 28 member states of the EU (EU-28), 2015 recorded over 3.2 million workplace accidents which invoked at least 4 day work leaves and 3,876 deaths. The authors of this analysis present the issue of workplace accidents based on the examination of incidents in large foodstuff plants of the Lodz voivodship i.e. food processing businesses that have been continuously active for the five year period of 2008-2012. The food industry belongs to one of the most fundamental economic fields and is one of the most important factors of economy growth and amounts to about 20% of domestic production in the processing industry in Poland. The Lodz province has been chosen on account of its central location in the country. For the selected group of businesses, there is a marked increase of workplace accidents – from 258 in 2008, to 333 incidents in 2012 – for the study period in that the lowest incidence occurred in 2009 (211 accidents), and the highest in 2011 (358 accidents). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Risk analysis in process systems is very important to design effective strategies for preventing and mitigating potential major accidents. Although conventional techniques as Bow-tie (BT) have widely been used in risk assessment of process systems, they fall short in effectively modelling epistemic uncertainty which is prevailing in risk assessment of process systems. The present study is aimed at alleviating this shortcoming by incorporating fuzzy set theory into BT, developing a so-called fuzzy extended Bow tie (FEBT) model. FEBT, compared with previous fuzzy BT methods, uses the intuitionistic fuzzy numbers and thus provides a more accurate cause - consequence model of accident scenarios. A natural gas transmission network is used to demonstrate the application of FEBT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Injuries are a major burden on the Australian healthcare system. Power tool usage is a common cause of accidental injury. A better understanding of the trends of power tool injuries will inform prevention strategies and potentially mitigate costs. Methods: The ED databases from two level 1 hospitals were reviewed for presentations between 2005 and 2015 resulting from accidental injury with power tools. A subgroup of patients presenting to one hospital between 2016 and 2017 were interviewed about the activities and circumstances that led to their injuries, and followed up 3 months later to assess outcomes. Results: A total of 4057 cases of accidental injury from power tool use were identified. Power saws and grinders contributed to 54% of injuries. Most injuries were located on an upper limb (48%) or the head and neck (30%). Over half (54%) of all head injuries were associated with metal and wood fragments to the eye from grinders, drills and saws. Hospital admission rates were highest for patients aged >60 years. Injuries to females were <5% of all presentations, but 40% of those caused by lawnmowers. Among the 200 patients interviewed, lapses in concentration during use, and modification and inappropriate use of a power tool were the main contributors to injury. Recovery periods >3 months were common. Conclusions: Accidental injuries from power tool use have a considerable impact on ED resources and can affect the long‐term quality of life of those injured. Effective education about safe usage and protection may prevent many injuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Highly valued companies in Corporate Social Responsibility violate social and labour regulations. • There is a need to create real social indicators when measuring corporate social responsibility. • Social aspects in the Global Reporting Initiative seem overrated. • Results in occupational safety and health management audits are lower than in the Global Reporting Initiative. Abstract Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an increasing demand in companies around the world. We have assessed the degree of CSR in 112 Ecuadorians companies (671 participants), of which 58.9% were multinational, from all sectors and geographical country areas. This was done with the objective of knowing the degree of implementation of occupational safety and health management, and whether there is a correlation between these values and those of CSR. A validated questionnaire was used for the institutional and legitimacy part, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) for the social part, and mandatory audits on occupational health and safety management. An indicator was also added with perceived priorities of social aspects of CSR for the studied population obtained through DELPHI methodology. More than 90% of the studied companies have quality, occupational health and safety, and CSR management systems. 51% of the companies claim to have an adequate system, while only 6.3% of them exceeded the minimum threshold required by Ecuadorian regulations. The women in boards of directors are less than 1% and there are differences between multinational and national companies, as well as in the trading activity of organizations in the institutional context, in legitimacy, and in social aspects. We conclude that the assessment of social aspects with the Global Reporting Initiative seems to be overestimated when compared with the occupational health and safety management system audits or with an indicator created on perceived priorities of CSR social aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The act of occupational health effort is performed in Occupational Health Post (Pos UKK) to improve the safety of workers, especially in the informal sector. This study aimed to determine the activities of occupational health efforts undertaken in Pos UKK. This type of research was qualitative, extracting collected information and data through in-depth interviews with the five informant officers of health centers. The results showed that the activities carried out were blood sugar checks, height, and weight, health education about diabetes, clean and healthy behavior, and simple treatment. Activities were related to the identification of hazards in the workplace and health education about the potential and risk of hazards in the workplace, how to work safely and securely, occupational nutrition, accident prevention, and personal protective equipment have not implemented. There were also no recording and reporting of activities related to occupational health efforts in Pos UKK. It was recommended to empower cadres and workplace hazard identification training so that the implementation of occupational health efforts could be more developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • A new way to research the work safety is proposed. • The work safety success theory based on the deductive method has been put forward. • The theoretical research of work safety has been deepen. • A dynamic work safety entropy model is constructed and applied. • The conclusion of the paper can be a reference of achieving the zero accident. Abstract Traditional work safety theory has played a significant role in promoting the development of work safety in that its application has effectively reduced the number of accidents and saved thousands of lives. However, as time goes on, the "marginal effect" of the theory is becoming more and more obvious. The world's statistics shows that the number of workplace accidents can only be reduced to a certain level, and cannot be reduced to zero. Also, as reflected from the increasing concerns and research of occupational diseases, the number of new occupational disease case has been found increasing year by year. This paper puts forward the work safety success theory based on the deductive method, which is different from the traditional work safety theory based on the inductive method. It deepens the theoretical research of work safety, and is an important improvement to the traditional theory. Combined with the theory of thermodynamics in physics, the entropy theory is used to explain the work safety success theory. And a dynamic work safety entropy model has been constructed and applied in specific cases, which further validates the work safety success theory. At present, technology and equipment have laid a good foundation for data collection and analysis of work safety research, and the work safety success theory provides a new methodology for the whole process work safety research with big data. The conclusion of this paper can provide reference for achieving the goal of zero accident in the workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Investigation on occurrence of gassy coal extrusion in coalmine is conducted. • The occurrence of gassy coal extrusion is a long and slow development process. • The development process of gassy coal extrusion can be divided into two stages. • Radial support force, gas pressure and stress together determine coal failure. Abstract Although the total death toll due to various accidents in China's coal mining industry has declined in recent years, gas accidents in coalmine, which are usually caused by gas explosions and outbursts, are still threatening miners' lives and property safety. Gassy coal extrusion, as an atypical gas accident, is bearing an increasing occurring frequency, especially in deep coalmine, and causing huge losses of human and property. In order to prevent the occurrence of atypical gas accidents, gassy coal extrusion, and ensure production safety, it is particularly important to investigate the development process of gassy coal extrusion. This study analyzed the changing rules of gas pressure and stress during the development process of gassy coal extrusion through a series of simulation experiments and found that the occurrence of gassy coal extrusion was a long and slow development process from shallow to deep. The development process can be divided into rapid stripping stage and slow fracturing stage; during the rapid stripping stage, the coal is stripped and broken into fragments due to rapid decrease of gas pressure and stress; during the slow fracturing stage, the coal fractures slowly and forms an arc-layered fracture resulting from slow release of gas pressure and stress transferring. Coal failure during the process of coal extrusion is determined by the gradual unloading of radial support force in the direction of extrusion, releasing of gas pressure and transferring of stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Highlights • Preventive enforcement based on learning from accident investigation and analysis help in accident reduction. • 'Fall from height' causes maximum fatality in Indian conditions. • Harsh weather conditions increase accident occurrence. • Steel industries are relatively more accident prone. • Top management leadership, peoples participation and employee accountability, prioritizing safety in day to day production activities are crucial for Vision Zero goals. Abstract Despite best efforts to minimize risk in organizations, accidents appear almost unavoidable due to various reasons. In India and other parts of the world industrial accidents are investigated to know the causes so that recurrence can be minimized by designing adequate preventive measures. However, findings of investigation are seldom used appropriately to strengthen Occupational Safety and Health (OSH). The mineral rich state of Odisha (India), known as a hub for Iron & Steel industries, witnessed frequent accidents during 2005–2009. This article based on study of 982 fatal 'factory-accidents' occurred during 2001–2016, discusses the 'turnaround-story' resulting in reduction of fatal accident from 122 in 2009 to 45 in 2016. The paper examines the type of accidents, industries and distribution of the year; role of climate and harsh weather conditions on accident causation; impact of regulatory interventions in reducing accidents. Software such as R, SQL, MS-Excel and Tableau were used for analysis of data. It is found that maximum fatality is caused due to 'fall from height' (24%) and the harsh weather conditions of summer increase chances of accidents. Further, the study suggests that enforcement of partial work-restriction around lunch time during peak summer and screening and training of employees tend to reduce accidents due to fall from height. The study indicates that preventive enforcement based on learning from experience can be considered as an effective method to improve occupational safety and minimize employment injury in the journey towards 'Vision Zero' goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on Mike Coe, safety and medical manager at car factory Honda of Canada Manufacturing, who encourages safety leaders to report issues causing industrial safety. Topics discussed include necessity to focus on efforts to prevent injuries and raise stature of safety, characteristics of rockstar according to song "What Makes a Rock Star?" by Debra Wright and need of safety rockstar to help people feel better.

This study provides a case example of an energy company that prioritized occupational safety and health and accident reduction as long-term, strategic development targets. Furthermore, this study describes the monetary benefits of this strategic decision. Company-specific accident indicators and monetary costs and benefits are evaluated. During the observation period (2010-2016), strategic investments in occupational safety and health cost the company EUR 0.8 million. However, EUR 1.8 million were saved in the same period, resulting in a 2.20 cost-benefit ratio. The trend in cost savings is strongly positive. Annual accident costs were EUR 0.4 million lower in 2016 compared to costs in 2010. This study demonstrates that long-term, strategic commitment to occupational safety and health provides monetary value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Occupational health and safety (OHS) represents an important field of exploration for the research community: in spite of the growth of technological innovations, the increasing complexity of systems involves critical issues in terms of degradation of the safety levels. In such a situation, new safety management approaches are now mandatory in order to face the safety implications of the current technological evolutions. Along these lines, performing risk-based analysis alone seems not to be enough anymore. The evaluation of robustness, antifragility and resilience of a socio-technical system is now indispensable in order to face unforeseen events. This article will briefly introduce the topics of Safety I and Safety II, resilience engineering and antifragility engineering, explaining correlations, overlapping aspects and synergies. Secondly, the article will discuss the applications of those paradigms to a real accident, highlighting how they can challenge, stimulate and inspire research for improving OHS conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aimed to develop a method to facilitate the implementation of prevention through design and apply it to a pump station case study in Manitoba, Canada. The method used, in part, failure mode and effects analysis and involved tasking experts with analyzing the project's design documents to identify potential occupational health and safety failures that could occur throughout construction. It also entailed analyzing the project's construction documents to determine actual, design-related, occupational health and safety failures observed throughout construction. The application of the method to that project identified 42 potential failure modes in the design, 38% of which were deemed high-risk. A total of 18 failures were detected throughout construction. Of these, 89% were predicted using failure mode and effects analysis and thus deemed preventable by design, indicating the potential effectiveness of the method. Future research should reapply it to other projects to validate these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information quality deficiencies have been detected in occupational safety and health surveys in Europe, which typically gather self-reported data responded by employers or their representatives. For instance, their low response rates and informant profiles make estimations on establishments with safety representatives (SRs) unreliable. We tested the mode of administration and informants as sources of error regarding establishments with SRs in Catalonia, Spain. Two sources of information were compared: the Second Catalan Survey of Working Conditions 2011 (IICSWC)—with a methodology similar to surveys conducted at the state and European level—and the Progam on Prevention of Risks Management in Companies (PPRMC)—in which the labor authority collected data using a documentary verification in another sample of establishments. Percentage of establishments with SRs was estimated using the data from the PPRMC and also the differences in percentage between sources and informant profiles (with 95 percent confidence interval). Results show that the IICSWC overestimates the percentage of establishments with SRs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This study examines the process through which family interference with work (FIW) negatively relates to safety performance in two unique samples from high-risk industries. Using a sample from the construction industry, Study 1 finds that FIW is related to employees' workplace cognitive failures, which in turn, were a significant predictor of safety-related behaviors. Using a sample from a utility company, Study 2 replicates these results and demonstrates that psychological strain further explains the complex relationship between FIW and safety. Furthermore, in Study 2, the mediation pathways linking FIW with safety behaviors were moderated by employees' commitment to safety. The idea that family life can predict safety in the workplace through interference and distraction is important to the collective effort to protect worker health and critical to effective intervention design. Highlights • Family interference with work negatively relates to workplace safety. • The linkage operates partially through cognitive and affective pathways. • Commitment to safety offers a potential opportunity for intervention. • Family interference with work can be conceptualized as a workplace safety hazard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning from successful safety outcomes, or what went right, is an important emerging component of maintaining safe systems. Accordingly, there are increasing calls to study normal performance in near misses as a part of safety management activities. Despite this, there is limited guidance on how to accomplish this in practice. This article presents a study in which using Rasmussen's risk management framework to analyse 16 serious incidents from the aviation domain. The findings show that a network of protective factors prevents accidents with factors identified across the sociotechnical system. These protective networks share many properties with those identified in accidents. The article demonstrates that is possible to identify these networks of protective factors from incident investigation reports. The theoretical implications of these results and future research opportunities are discussed. Practitioner Statement: The analysis of near misses is an important part of safety management activities. This article demonstrates that Rasmussen?s risk management framework can be used to identify networks of protective factors which prevent accidents. Safety practitioners can use the framework described to discover and support the system-wide networks of protective factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protection at work and work safety are the basic principles of the human right to work in a dignified way that guarantees protection of life and health at work. The scope of work of nurses/technicians includes diagnostic procedures, treatment and patient care. However, performance of these tasks can lead to health damage. Preventing and reducing injuries, occupational diseases, diseases related to the work as well as the preservation and improvement of health have a huge impact on reducing economic losses. Thus, a building of awareness is required so that the investment in occupational safety and health and safety at work will not be perceived as an unnecessary expense or a huge cost, but a long-term profitable investment. Additional costs and major expenses arise when the safety and health at work are not in proper focus. Employers and employees are the key factors, but the most important effort is to start raising awareness about the importance of protection and safety at work during the training for certain professions. Teachers play an important role in developing positive attitudes and understanding the importance of prevention of occupational accidents, occupational and related diseases. They greatly influence the maintenance of protection and safety from the earliest days to the end of service, including even the life expectancy of an individual person. If future young health care workers start with the acquisition of knowledge and skills of work safety at the beginning of their professional training, then safety and protection at work will become an integral part of the working process for them. They will develop a proper attitude toward the importance of occupational safety and health, which will guide them throughout their entire working life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the European approach to the "work accident" concept, this paper addresses the occupational injuries in terms of the statistical indicators reflecting this phenomenon as a relevant factor to substantiate the need for prevention and protection of risks related to industrial presses operation. An analysis of the causes of occupational accidents during operational use of industrial presses argues the need to address prevention and protection from a new perspective, taking into account the general principles of prevention as laid down by Law nr.319 / 2006 on safety and health at work. The aim is to investigate the evolution of occupational accidents occurred in six counties from the North - Western region of Romania, between years 2005-2016 and to obtain a preliminary picture of the magnitude and prevalence of occupational injuries for subjects operating industrial presses. Findings confirm that human errors are the main underlying causes of accidents occurring at work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article demonstrates the uncertainty in securing an arbitrarily sized area around the location of hot work. It presents case studies in which a flammable mixture was released, ignited and caused an accident. It compares modeled release profiles of vapor leaks from vessels, and evaluates complex geometries that make detection of flammable ambient atmospheres difficult. The article also compares the calculated safety zones to rules of thumb and common guidance.

The rate of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections among health care workers that is caused by sharps injuries is higher in the Caribbean and Latin America than in other regions of the world. To respond to and reduce occupational exposures to bloodborne pathogens while also strengthening capacities in the Caribbean, needlestick injury prevention training programs for health care workers were implemented, beginning in 2011. The programs included lectures, workshops, policy reviews, evaluations of safety devices, and workplace assessment. During the training, baseline data from health care workers on their personal history of needlestick injuries and bloodborne pathogen exposure was collected. That baseline data showed that 40% of the participants had sustained sharps injuries during their professional career. In this capacity-building effort, 210 health care workers from five countries have been trained, six health care centers in the Caribbean have been evaluated. and occupational safety and health committees have been established in various countries to monitor and improve safety policies and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data on occupational accidents are usually stored in large databases by worker compensation authorities, and by the safety and prevention teams of companies. An analysis of these databases can play an important role in the prevention of accidents and the reduction of risks, but it can be a complex procedure because of the dimensions and complexity of such databases. The SKM (SOM K-Means) method, a two-level clustering system, made up of SOM (Self Organizing Map) and K-Means clustering, has obtained positive results in identifying the dynamics of critical accidents by referring to a database of 1200 occupational accidents that had occurred in the wood industry. The present research has been conducted to validate the recently presented SKM methodology through the analysis of a larger data set of more than 4000 occupational accidents that occurred in Piedmont (Italy), between 2006 and 2013. This work has partitioned the accidents into groups of different accident dynamics families and has quantified the severity and frequency of occurrence of these accidents. The obtained information may be of help to Company Managers and National Authorities to better address preventive measures and policies concerning the clusters that have been identified as being the most critical within a risk-based decision-making framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Workers are killed every year in wood chipper‐related incidents despite the repeated hazard warnings. In‐depth, comprehensive, and up‐to‐date studies are needed to identify causal, risk, and contributing factors and assess the current control measures so that an effective and proactive prevention approach can be developed. Methods: Cases were identified from four online databases and manually reviewed to characterize and categorize the fatal events. Results: The study identified 113 wood chipper‐related worker deaths (1982‐2016). The victims were killed in struck‐by (57), caught‐in (41), motor vehicle (7), electrical (4), fall (2), and heat stroke (2) incidents while performing chipper‐related tasks. Conclusions: Chipper‐related worker deaths are preventable. Young and inexperienced workers may be at higher risk for caught‐in deaths. The current feed wheel control devices are not effective for workers to self‐rescue. Fully automatic feed wheel stop devices are needed to prevent caught‐in incidents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Nickel (Ni) compounds have been classified as carcinogenic to humans. The aim of the study is to evaluate exposures to Ni at workplaces in Italy. Methods: Data on Ni compounds were collected from an occupational exposure registry. Statistical analysis was carried out for exposure‐related variables. The number of workers potentially exposed was estimated for selected industrial sectors. Concurrent exposures with other occupational carcinogens were investigated using two‐step cluster analysis. Results: Overall 10 083 measurements were analyzed during 1996‐2016, having a geometric mean of 2.93 μg/m3. Most exposures occurred in manufacture of metal products (50%) and among metal finishing machine operators (46%). A total of 56 046 workers potentially exposed to Ni was estimated. Concurrent exposures were frequently detected, mainly with chromium VI and cobalt compounds. Conclusions: Systematic recording of occupational exposures provides a data source that allows recognition of high risk situations for workers' health and helps improve exposure assessment in epidemiologic studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Scientific Bulletin of National Mining University is the property of National Mining University, State Higher Educational Institution and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses the integration of behavior-based safety (BBS) and human and organizational performance (HOP) in various settings to improve industrial safety performance. Those organizations, which are currently using BBS, need to educate their workforce on key HOP principles. BBS focuses on employees following proper steps and procedures to stay safe. However, BBS emphasizes on the need for people to make proper choices to behave safely.

The article discusses the importance of leading ergonomic safety performance indicators (SPIs) in workplaces to evaluate the effectiveness of ergonomic management control programs (EMCP). In the absence of increased implementation of recommended SPIs within global occupational health and safety management systems (OHSMS), efforts for improved workplace safety may not pay off.

The article discusses how industrial accidents can be investigated and analyzed to correct management system deficiencies. The basic objective of investigating and analyzing incidents is to understand how and why an incident occurred so that similar incidents can be prevented in the future. Corrective actions can be determined on the basis of this analysis and management systems can be improved based on that.

The article offers information on inspecting and testing anchorages for workers at heights. The U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration's (OSHA) updated walking and working surface regulation focuses on the importance of anchorages that are used in support of window cleaning and facade maintenance equipment, and for fall protection. OSHA requires that all components of an anchorage have a design strength that exceeds or equals their required strength.

Discusses investigations into how the U.S. Energy Department handles safety for its workers. Dept. of Energy submission of magnetic tapes to Dr. Alice Stewart, its chief critic; Reforms recommended by Energy Secretary James Watkins; Details of health dangers to nuclear workers; Policies; Role of Thomas Mancuso as workplace hygienist who examined conditions at Hanford.

An experimental study was undertaken to optimize the placement of boxes on the shelves in a food product warehouse by minimizing joint loadings on the shoulders and on the lower back as criteria. A dynamic sagittal plane model was used to estimate net muscular moments on the shoulders, and a model of internal forces was used to estimate compression forces on the L5/S1 intervertebral disk. Lifting boxes of 6.4 kg or more produced compression forces at L5/S1 above the "action limit" of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH, 1981). Regression methods were then used to estimate joint loadings for each product at each working height and for each task. Optimizing the placement of products by minimizing loadings on the lower back reduced overall loadings by as much as 15% for certain racks. For minimizing loadings on the shoulders, results indicated that this variable was not sensitive to different placements of boxes on the shelves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluated the effectiveness of an intervention package (feedback, competition, and incentives) in reducing the accident rate of urban transit operators. Results showed a 24.9 percent reduction in accident rates, establishing a definite link between the intervention and reduction in accident rates, severity, and cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the safety of nuclear power production and nuclear reactors that cannot be conclusively and quantitatively established. Using the emergency core cooling system as a specific example of an issue for which a completely acceptable solution has not yet been achieved, the section discusses the reactor safety in general and some of the mechanisms which have been used in attempting to resolve them. It offers principal and current report of public concern in reactor safety and the mechanisms for resolution.

Expansion of the rights of individual workers to refuse unsafe work and to make anonymous health and safety complaints has met with concerns that these rights might be misused so as to increase union bargaining power or to otherwise harass employers. The authors construct a database that merges work refusals and health and safety complaints with collective bargaining schedules, impasses, grievance arbitrations, and bargaining unit characteristics for 10,193 Ontario units in 1988 to determine how frequently these rights were exercised, whether they were more likely to be used during periods when collective agreements were being negotiated, and whether refusals and complaints were associated with other forms of industrial conflict. Although the exercise of these rights was more likely the more adversarial the industrial relations climate, the authors find little evidence that it was used for concerted harassment of employers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Progress of the industrial safety and occupational health movements in the United States toward their common goal of protecting the physical welfare of workers is discussed in this article. When these activities and workmen's compensation began, about a half century ago, it was anticipated that they would be "complementary and mutually sustaining." Besides presenting historical accounts of the safety and health movements, the authors evaluate the current problems and relationships among safety, health, and compensation activities. This article constitutes part of a broader study by the authors to be published under the title, Workmen's Compensation and Occupational Disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]