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Failure to conduct periodic fixed-time-to (or scheduled) maintenance on off-highway plant and equipment represents a significant health and safety hazard and major litigation risk for utility contractors completing service excavation and reinstatement works on public highways. Mini-excavators are a ubiquitous mobile plant item used for such tasks and have recently been responsible for several major injuries and fatalities involving workers and members of the public in the United Kingdom (UK). The research utilises the method of triangulation to examine the maintenance practices of utility contractors in the UK. Findings from the research reveal that a combination of prevailing market forces and internal ‘company’ pressures have inadvertently removed knowledgeable and trained operators, site foremen and managerial supervisors from hands-on maintenance inspections. Rather, ‘virtual’ maintenance protocols and procedures are adopted by head office but rarely fully implemented on-site. The research concludes with pragmatic recommendations and direction for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Road Agencies set quantitative targets and adopt related road safety strategies within the priorities and the available resources at the time of an economic crisis. In this framework, benefit-cost analyses (BCA) are carried out to support the decision making process and alternative measures are ranked according to their expected benefit and benefit-cost ratio calculated using a Safety Performance Function (SPF) and Crash Modification Factors (CMFs) as predictors of future safety performances. Due to the variance of CMFs and crash frequency we are uncertain what the benefits of some future actions will be. The chance of making wrong decisions depends on the size of the standard deviation of the probability distribution of the considered stochastic variables. To deal with the uncertainty inherent in the decision making process, a reliability based assessment of benefits must be performed introducing a stochastic approach. In the paper the variability of the CMFs, the predicted number of crashes and the crash costs are taken into account in a reliability based BCA to address improvements and issues of an accurate probabilistic approach when compared to the deterministic results or other approximated procedures. A case study is presented comparing different safety countermeasures selected to reduce crash frequency and severity on sharp curves in motorways. These measures include retrofitting of old safety barriers, delineation systems and shoulder rumble strips. The methodology was applied using the Monte Carlo simulations to calculate the probability of failure of BCA statements. Results and comparisons with alternative approaches, like the one proposed in the HSM, are presented showing remarkable differences in the evaluation of outcomes which can be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is growing recognition that in order to further improve safety performance, attention needs to be given beyond the immediate working conditions and worker actions. A systems approach to construction safety enables considering: multiple project elements simultaneously; connections between different elements; and all system elements affected by safety risk. This paper describes recent and current research to conceptualize a typical building project in terms of connections between workers, activities, and design elements, and to verify and analyze impacts of the design and worker interactions on worker safety. Prior research provides the basis for a network tying the design elements, construction activities, and work crews on a typical building project together along with the extent of interaction between each of the system elements in terms of safety. In conjunction with this systems approach, the researchers propose a concept for viewing and managing construction safety through four different types of connections, or “degrees of connectivity,” between the different workers, activities, and design elements in the system. The degrees of connectivity are defined as: interacting with the design element during its construction (DoC #1); interacting with the design element in its final form to attach another component to it (DoC #2) or by working in the vicinity of it (DoC #3); and indirectly interacting with the design element through another worker (DoC #4). To support and verify the presence of the concept in practice, the researchers conducted a survey of construction personnel. The survey results confirm that the four different degrees of connectivity are present and felt during construction operations, and indicate that attention should be given to all design elements, activities, and workers to which a worker is “connected”. According to the survey respondents, DoC's #1 and #2 are recognized as the most widely present on construction sites. Eighty percent of the respondents believe that the design element has a moderate or greater impact on worker safety while it is being constructed. These initial research steps provide the starting point for continuing study that aims to develop and demonstrate the degrees of connectivity concept linking workers and design elements, with the goal of understanding how to design a project and work operations in order to improve safety during construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behavior-Based Safety (BBS) has been used in construction to observe, analyze and modify workers’ behavior. However, studies have identified that BBS has several limitations, which have hindered its effective implementation. To mitigate the negative impact of BBS, this paper uses a case study approach to develop a Big-Data-based platform to classify, collect and store data about workers’ unsafe behavior that is derived from a metro construction project. In developing the platform, three processes were undertaken: (1) a behavioral risk knowledge base was established; (2) images reflecting workers’ unsafe behavior were collected from intelligent video surveillance and mobile application; and (3) images with semantic information were stored via a Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS). The platform was implemented during the construction of the metro-system and it is demonstrated that it can effectively analyze semantic information contained in images, automatically extract workers’ unsafe behavior and quickly retrieve on HDFS as well. The research presented in this paper can enable construction organizations with the ability to visualize unsafe acts in real-time and further identify patterns of behavior that can jeopardize safety outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the key challenges in improving construction safety and health is the management of safety behavior. From a system point of view, workers work unsafely due to system level issues such as poor safety culture, excessive production pressure, inadequate allocation of resources and time and lack of training. These systemic issues should be eradicated or minimized during planning. However, there is a lack of detailed planning tools to help managers assess the impact of their upstream decisions on worker safety behavior. Even though simulation had been used in construction planning, the review conducted in this study showed that construction safety management research had not been exploiting the potential of simulation techniques. Thus, a hybrid simulation framework is proposed to facilitate integration of safety management considerations into construction activity simulation. The hybrid framework consists of discrete event simulation (DES) as the core, but heterogeneous, interactive and intelligent (able to make decisions) agents replace traditional entities and resources. In addition, some of the cognitive processes and physiological aspects of agents are captured using system dynamics (SD) approach. The combination of DES, agent-based simulation (ABS) and SD allows a more “natural” representation of the complex dynamics in construction activities. The proposed hybrid framework was demonstrated using a hypothetical case study. In addition, due to the lack of application of factorial experiment approach in safety management simulation, the case study demonstrated sensitivity analysis and factorial experiment to guide future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decisions made prior to construction impact the safety of construction workers. Past research has shown that there is a link between design decisions and fatalities. Prevention through Design (PtD) is a concept that attempts to identify and mitigate hazards early in the design process with the goal of eliminating the risks of injury to workers and/or damage to facilities during construction. PtD is a required practice in some countries, primarily because of legislation. In the United States, however, PtD is not well known by design professionals and there is opposition to its practice. The objective of this paper is to present the results of a Delphi study, in which the Delphi panel was tasked to identify: (1) the construction industry group with the most influence to generate interest in PtD in the United States, (2) the method with which that interest can be achieved, and (3) the industry group that should be targeted with that method. The Delphi panel came to a consensus that owners have the greatest influence to generate interest, and they should be the group to be targeted using the business case method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accidents remain a pervasive problem in tunnel construction. A major contributor to these accidents is a construction contractor’s inability to determine an appropriate trade-off between production and protection goals. Thus, to examine this issue, a systemic model, which integrates System Dynamics (SD), Bayesian Belief Networks (BBN) and smooth Relevance Vector Machines (sRVM) (referred to as ‘Organizational Risk Dynamics Observer’ (ORDO)), is developed to investigate the mechanism of risk migration that resulted from the interactions between a contractor’s organizational and technical systems. The model is demonstrated on an urban metro tunnel project that was constructed in Wuhan, China. It is revealed that when attention focused upon production, the propensity for minor accidents to occur increased, which triggered management to focus on protection. This increasing emphasis on protection may have muted the safe systems of working as incidents may be unreported, which can inhibit the motivation for safety awareness. When coupled with an increase in production pressure, the tunneling project could become prone to experiencing a major accident. Based on the results, it is suggested that the whole organization must continue to foster a sound safety culture by resisting production pressure at the expense of compromising safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the light of the relevance of workers’ participation and initiative in improving safety in the workplace, a new measurement tool is presented to assess multiple psychological drivers (proactive motivations; future orientations) which support a proactive orientation by individuals toward safety management and accident prevention in the workplace. This validation study was developed with a survey methodology in two industrial samples ( N = 327; 196) from the chemical and manufacturing sectors. The factor structure of the tool was tested with CFA’s. The analyses evidenced the goodness of a multidimensional structure, with a general superordinate dimension indicator of the overall construct of individuals’ proactive safety-role orientation. Moreover, the analysis of the nomological network of the new model showed positive correlations with both behavioral criteria (safety voice; safety initiative) and supervision antecedents (safety-specific transformational leadership) which were measured at the individual level. Finally, the external validity was positively verified by significant correlations with organizational outcomes assessed at the team level through external measures (supervisor evaluations; data archives) which were collected at team level ( N = 32) in the following six months from the main survey. Theoretical and practical implications with indications for future research conclude the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) is a staple in the engineering risk community, and it has become to some extent synonymous with the entire quantitative risk assessment undertaking. Limitations of PRA continue to occupy researchers, and workarounds are often proposed. After a brief review of this literature, we propose to address some of PRA׳s limitations by developing a novel framework and analytical tools for model-based system safety, or safety supervisory control, to guide safety interventions and support a dynamic approach to risk assessment and accident prevention. Our work shifts the emphasis from the pervading probabilistic mindset in risk assessment toward the notions of danger indices and hazard temporal contingency. The framework and tools here developed are grounded in Control Theory and make use of the state-space formalism in modeling dynamical systems. We show that the use of state variables enables the definition of metrics for accident escalation, termed hazard levels or danger indices, which measure the “proximity” of the system state to adverse events, and we illustrate the development of such indices. Monitoring of the hazard levels provides diagnostic information to support both on-line and off-line safety interventions. For example, we show how the application of the proposed tools to a rejected takeoff scenario provides new insight to support pilots’ go/no-go decisions. Furthermore, we augment the traditional state-space equations with a hazard equation and use the latter to estimate the times at which critical thresholds for the hazard level are (b)reached. This estimation process provides important prognostic information and produces a proxy for a time-to-accident metric or advance notice for an impending adverse event. The ability to estimate these two hazard coordinates, danger index and time-to-accident, offers many possibilities for informing system control strategies and improving accident prevention and risk mitigation. Finally we develop a visualization tool, termed hazard temporal contingency map, which dynamically displays the “coordinates” of a portfolio of hazards. This tool is meant to support operators’ situational awareness by providing prognostic information regarding the time windows available to intervene before hazardous situations become unrecoverable, and it helps decision-makers prioritize attention and defensive resources for accident prevention. In this view, emerging risks and hazards are dynamically prioritized based on the temporal vicinity of their associated accident(s) to being released, not on probabilities or combination of probabilities and consequences, as is traditionally done (off-line) in PRA. This approach offers novel capabilities, complementary to PRA, for improving risk assessment and accident prevention. It is hoped that this work helps to expand the basis of risk assessment beyond its reliance on probabilistic tools, and that it serves to enrich the intellectual toolkit of risk researchers and safety professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Safety rules are unavoidable in hazardous work and are often codified insights from accidents and fatalities. Safety rules research predominantly focuses on factors that influence compliance and violation of rules (a rationalist view), but rarely examines how members draw from safety rules to take action and gain experience. This study draws from and extends an adaptation view of safety rules, which considers how members use safety rules as “tools” to inform action. The study compares how two wildland firefighting workgroups incorporate safety rules into communication practices, and specifically, how they ventriloquize them. From a communication perspective, ventriloquization directs attention to ways safety rules enable members to make sense of hazards, navigate authority, and develop experience. The findings contribute an explanatory workgroup model for how members adapt safety rules into action according to workgroup norms, complementary relationships, and practices, which extends our understanding of adaptive action and learning in hazardous work organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the dynamic environment of construction sites, workers are continuously confronted with the potential for safety accidents. Although various safety guidelines have been developed, workers cannot always be aware of everything that occurs around them when they focus on their work on noisy and congested job sites. Therefore, it is difficult for workers to conform to guidelines to protect themselves when confronting dangerous situations. To address this safety issue, this paper presents an on-site safety-assessment system for monitoring struckby accidents with moving entities based on computer vision and fuzzy inference. Computer vision is used to monitor a construction site and extract spatial information for each entity (workers and equipment). Next, fuzzy inference is used to assess the proper safety levels of each entity using spatial information. A safety level represents the potential hazard or the integrating danger that a person encounters at a particular moment. Struck-by accidents are selected as a target safety hazard for validation. The proposed system is expected to provide valuable information regarding worker safety represented as a numerical value. Using the record of safety levels, site managers can improve current working practices. For example, site managers can sound an alarm for workers when the safety level is too low. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of safety behavior of designated outdoor leaders primarily revolves around their decision making and judgment. The last 10 years, however, have seen relatively little peer-reviewed research regarding guide or instructor safety cognition and behavior. The narrow decision making focus of modern work makes for a field of study disconnected from larger theoretical or organizational science approaches to safety-approaches from which the outdoor leadership safety behavior research agenda may be vastly expanded. The intention of this paper is to place outdoor leadership decision making within the greater context of workplace safety behavior research and to identify important avenues of investigation to further our understanding of the complexity of safety behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The regulation of nanomaterials is still surrounded by scientific uncertainty regarding their potential human health risks. It is therefore useful to consider learning approaches in the process of regulation. Effective regulation is conceptualised with regard to collaborative activities of state and non-state actors that enable mutual learning regarding the health risks of nanomaterials. A theoretical framework is offered for studying learning processes in the area of occupational safety and health. Drawing on the network governance literature, three learning types (namely substantive, strategic, and institutional learning) are distinguished. Analytical conditions are proposed and applied to the case of nanomaterials in Germany, thereby offering insights into learning processes in industry-initiated collaborative activities. It is concluded that the development of trust among network collaborators is decisive for learning processes. Accordingly, a proposal for research into specific stages of trust development is made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the safety performance and safety behavior in a nuclear power plant by investigating the effects of organizational, safety management, and workgroup level factors on safety performance and employee safety behavior in a nuclear power plant. A structural model was proposed to map the relationships between management commitment (MC) to safety, organizational leadership (OL), employee empowerment (EE), safety policies (SPs), safety committees (SCs), safety equipment (SE), teamwork (TW), safety performance (SF), and employee safety behavior (SB). A survey was designed and distributed to 112 nuclear power plant operators. Structural equation modelling was used to analyze data and build and validate a measurement model. The resulting model was used to test the structural model's hypotheses. The results showed that MC and OL significantly affected SF through SP and SE. However, EE failed to influence SF and employee SB through TW. Moreover, MC and OL did not affect SF through SCs. Therefore, ultimate efforts should be made in the nuclear industry to have well-established SCs in safety management systems to influence employee safety participation. In conclusion, this study provides a systematic methodology for enhancing SF and employee SB in nuclear power plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction employs 7.3% of the total labor force but suffers from a higher injury rate (16.3% of total labor force) in Pakistan. Despite being the 2nd most injury prone industry, not much attention has been paid to safety implementation. Stakeholders generally emphasize on productivity even at the cost of safety. The academics are endeavoring to highlight the importance of safety; however, their efforts could not develop a synergy with the industry practitioners. This study attempts to analytically review/summarize the construction safety research in Pakistan with the aim to guide future research. It has been opined that injuries are mostly caused by fall from height, followed by electrocution and caught in between the objects and machinery. The underlying causes for safety non-compliance are highlighted as the existence of a weak regulatory authority, no contractual obligations for safety compliance, ignorance to basic human rights, and the misconception that safety investment escalates the project cost. The study recommends major strategies for improving construction safety, such as: reinforcing the safety regulatory authority; incorporating safety in contractor's licensing, renewal and bidding processes; establishing an effective mechanism for safety training and accident reporting; and ensuring an enhanced client's commitment to safety by introducing safety incentive schemes. In addition, it is suggested to update and enforce the safety laws, and launch safety awareness media campaigns at the national level. Safety courses/modules are also recommended to enhance the competencies of construction management students and young professionals in the industry. The study sets the foundation for future research in investigating the underpinning causes of accidents, barriers in the safety implementation and identifying the most influential health and safety factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of a safety communication and recognition program (B-SAFE), designed to encourage improvement of physical working conditions and hazard reduction in construction. Methods A matched pair cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted on eight worksites (four received the B-SAFE intervention, four served as control sites) for approximately five months per site. Pre- and post-exposure worker surveys were collected at all sites (N=615, pre-exposure response rate of 74%, post-exposure response rate of 88%). Multi-level mixed-effect regression models evaluated the effect of B-SAFE on safety climate as assessed from surveys. Focus groups (N=6-8 workers/site) were conducted following data collection. Transcripts were coded and analyzed for thematic content using Atlas.ti (version 6). Results The mean safety climate score at intervention sites, as measured on a 0-50 point scale, increased 0.5 points (1%) between pre- and post-B-SAFE exposure, compared to control sites that decreased 0.8 points (1.6%). The intervention effect size was 1.64 (3.28%) (P-value=0.01) when adjusted for month the worker started on-site, total length of time on-site, as well as individual characteristics (trade, title, age, and race/ethnicity). At intervention sites, workers noted increased levels of safety awareness, communication, and teamwork compared to control sites. Conclusions B-SAFE led to many positive changes, including an improvement in safety climate, awareness, teambuilding, and communication. B-SAFE was a simple intervention that engaged workers through effective communication infrastructures and had a significant, positive effect on worksite safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spain is a country with a high rate of road transport of such goods. Such a dangerous activity with inherent risks and so obvious to the people and to protecting the environment, did not yet have a comprehensive work that addressed the prevention of occupational hazards to which workers are exposed activity (driver and warehouse personnel loading and unloading); lagoon that is now filled with this work that makes a detailed study of the extensive regulations affecting this activity so cross. It also analyzes the mandatory training to perform this activity, the working time from the point of view of prevention of accidents and professional driver explains the responsibilities arising from regulatory breaches by the subjects involved in this sector so conflicted. The paper concludes on the need for the national legislature to enact a rule that, under the specifications of this activity in Spain, develop the Law on Prevention of Occupational Risks (Law 31/1995, of November 8). This book aims to contribute to this goal culminating legislative enactment of this standard to crystallize greater protection of safety and health for workers in the activity, [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roadway incidents involving motorized vehicles accounted for 24% of fatal occupational injuries in the United States during 2013 and were the leading cause of fatal injuries among workers.* In 2013, workers' compensation costs for serious, nonfatal injuries among work-related roadway incidents involving motorized land vehicles were estimated at $2.96 billion.(†) Seat belt use is a proven method to reduce injuries to motor vehicle occupants (1). Use of lap/shoulder seat belts reduces the risk for fatal injuries to front seat occupants of cars by 45% and the risk to light truck occupants by 60%.(§) To characterize seat belt use among adult workers by occupational group, CDC analyzed data from the 2013 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and found that not always using a seat belt was significantly associated with occupational group after controlling for factors known to influence seat belt use. Occupational groups with the highest prevalences of not always using a seat belt included construction and extraction; farming, fishing, and forestry; and installation, maintenance, and repair. To increase seat belt use among persons currently employed, states can enact and enforce primary seat belt laws, employers can set and enforce safety policies requiring seat belt use by all vehicle occupants, and seat belt safety advocates can target interventions to workers in occupational groups with lower reported seat belt use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuring the safety and efficiency of crane operation is challenging due to the complexity of the lifting operation. The real-time lifting path planning system developed in this paper aims to provide an optimized, collision-free lifting path for mobile crane operators. The first contribution of the developed system is to take advantage of crane mounted sensors and components as the hardware to collect object information. No additional device needs to be purchased. Secondly, the data storage, path planning, optimizing, and visualizing functions are designed to minimize the required computer memory so that the system can be installed and applied on the crane mounted controller for real-time operation. No additional calculation capacity is required. This system has been tested in real construction sites and demonstrated its ability to generate lifting paths satisfying operators' expectation. The system, as an independent software package, can be installed on any mobile cranes mounted with the necessary hardware. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rational quantitative optimal (RQO) approach presents a robust risk evaluation model which produces a definitive result for the reduction of risk from overtopping of earth-fill dams. The model is based on principles of risk, but an analysis of a portfolio of dams provides discrete optimal results, not expressed in terms of probability. All the steps that the methodology comprises have been developed exhaustively and propose to address concerns raised by dam owners and decision-makers regarding risk-based dam safety: a transparent framework for decision-making related to public safety, which will also appeal to the technically minded portfolio manager looking for a purely quantitative procedure to assist in the decision-making process. The RQO process is applied mechanistically, not requiring judgement from the decision-maker. In so doing it addresses the concern raised by dam owners regarding the judgmental probability of risk assessment. Risk in this paper is associated with embankment dams and external erosion, which is the single largest cause of failure of these dams. Also, in the context of this article, ‘optimal' refers to maximising lives saved over a portfolio of dams under the constraint of limited resources. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Legislation requires employers to provide health and safety (H&S) training to workers and communicate safety rules, policies and procedures to them in a way they understand. As the construction industry has an increasingly multicultural and multilingual workforce, conventional written and verbal safety communication is of limited effectiveness. CodeSafe Solutions, has developed an innovative method of communicating H&S information to field-based workers using digital media. The potential of the system was explored and two organizations in the Australian construction industry were used. Qualitative data from in-depth interviews of safety managers and workers involved in system implementation and quantitative data such as incident reports and video usage were analysed. Managers perceived the CodeSafe system to be beneficial and well received by workers. In one organization, the introduction of the CodeSafe system coincided with a reduction in injury rates. However, causal inferences about the impact of the system cannot be made. Workers involved in making the films believed films would be an effective communication tool. However, barriers to implementation of the technology include workers’ reluctance to use personal smart phones, limited internet connectivity, and organizational and national regulations on mobile phone use on construction sites. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of an intervention comprising education and support in performing frequent and structured work preparation meetings with broad participation. Such work preparation meetings were expected to have positive effects on safety climate by emphasizing the value of safety at the work site, and on perceived influence at work. The study was a longitudinal, matched before and after questionnaire study, with six construction sites within a large Swedish construction company, randomly assigned to the intervention or the comparison group. Contrary to expectations, the intervention group reported a decrease in safety climate, while this increased in the comparison group. Perceived influence at work showed a tendency to decrease at the interventions sites. Frequent work preparation meetings may provide ample opportunity for obtaining perceptual safety climate cues. But the effect is dependent on how these meetings are performed, and what priorities are conveyed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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•Good definitions enable people to have a common understanding of a word or subject, which enables meaningful conversations and better decision making. Conversely, imprecise definitions make it difficult to agree and limit anyone's ability to influence. •How safety is defined affects its application in the workplace and provides an opportunity to influence positive outcomes for workers, managers and an organization. •Safety is often applied in an organization without a clear definition or understanding of what safety is or how to achieve the desired outcome. Without clearly understanding what safety is, achieving meaningful, sustained safety performance is difficult. •This article proposes a new safety definition that supports safety management and can be utilized in most occupational settings. Workers, managers, safety professionals and an organization can use this definition to achieve business objectives while protecting people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to provide an analysis of occupational accidents in commercial kitchens by restaurant type. In this research, 1,846 injured persons of restaurant kitchens accidents from 2009 to 2011 have been categorized by Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Western cuisine restaurants. Also, these data were analyzed in terms of properties of the workplace (size of employment), injured persons (gender, age of injured person, and work experience), and accidents (accident type and agency of accident). The results showed the following patterns by the restaurant types: (1) While accidents at Korean (72.2%), Chinese (80.8%), and Japanese (64.0%) cuisine restaurants occurred mostly in small kitchens with under 5 employees, Western cuisine kitchens of this size had an accident rate of only 39.1%; (2) 30-40% of injured persons had less than 1 year of experience in Korean, Japanese, and Western cooking, whereas in Chinese kitchens, less-experienced cooks composed a larger portion of patients (56.2%); (3) each cuisine showed different leading types of injuries. Slips and falls for Korean kitchens (29.2%), caught in and between objects for Chinese restaurants kitchens (55.3%), and cuts/amputations/punctures in Japanese and Western restaurants (42.1% and 34.8%, respectively) were the biggest contributors to injuries in each type of restaurant. These findings of accident properties according to restaurant types can be used as baseline data for establishing systemized preventive policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The regulation of scientific and archaeological diving is complex but it is essential that underwater archaeologists are familiar with the requirements placed on them by legal systems. This paper outlines the history and development of current legal systems in four jurisdictions: the UK, USA, EU and Australia. This historical and legal approach informs key discussions facing maritime archaeologists; reference is made to training requirements, safety records and the question of who should be allowed to participate and who should be excluded from archaeological diving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-risk industries may learn from accidents, incidents and unsafe behaviours if they are reported and investigated. Despite this, significant under-reporting of safety concerns occurs. One possible explanation is that because concerns cannot always be reported immediately, the outcome of the concern may influence whether reports are made. In Study 1, participants judged six vignettes in which unsafe acts were described: bad outcomes were judged as more likely to be reported than identical acts with innocuous outcomes. Informing participants that luck may determine whether an outcome is innocuous or bad could increase the reporting of unsafe acts with innocuous outcomes. Although implicit prompts did not increase the likelihood of reporting innocuous outcomes (Study 2), there was evidence that explicit prompts to report safety issues with innocuous outcomes increased the likelihood of reporting. Suggestions for further research and a means to reduce the effect of outcome bias on under-reporting are presented. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the statistics of occupational accidents, it is observed that the number of accidents occurred in shipbuilding industry is high and the rate of deaths and serious injuries among these accidents is higher than in other industries. However, the number of the studies to prevent these accidents in both industrial and scientific practices is considerably low. Therefore, the objective of this study is to develop an efficient risk preventive model in accordance with occupational health and safety regulations for industrial organizations. The approach proposed in this study differs from those described in the literature, because it is based on fuzzy set theory in order to cope with uncertainties on probability and severity definitions in terms of occupational health and safety. Furthermore, in this paper, risk severity is considered in terms of harm to worker, harm to environment, and harm to hardware, whereas in the literature, risk severity is generally considered solely in terms of only harm to worker. Then, risk magnitude is obtained by utilizing fuzzy inference system. The proposed approach is applied to a shipyard located in the Marmara Region in order to illustrate the applicability of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the factors influencing safety investment decisions by the government and enterprises from an opportunity cost perspective, which consists of shortage cost due to the occurrence of accidents and excess cost due to investing more than required for accident prevention. Analytical models are built by minimizing expected total opportunity costs. The result of government decision reveals that optimal government safety investments vary positively with unit shortage cost, while they vary inversely with unit excess cost. The mandatory safety investment level established by government for enterprises, which is exactly the same as the optimal government safety investment level, can compel the enterprise to invest more in safety measures when it is higher than the optimal enterprise safety investment level without the mandatory standard. Based on the analytical models, factors influencing safety investment decisions are analyzed through consideration of a case study of China. The results of the case study indicate that the ineffective administrative accountability system, performance appraisal system of local government and officials and government–enterprise relations all contribute to the high accident frequency in China by leading to a safety investment decision with a lower safety level, which also verify that the analytical models proposed in this paper are reasonable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Risk factors are all the factors of the work system which are likely to act upon the health or integrity of the workers and which can inflict injuries. Risk Assessment Method of accidents reported in the paper consists in the identification of all risk factors in the analyzed system (the work place) on the basis of pre-established check lists and the quantification of the risk dimension according to the combination between the seriousness and the frequency of the maximum predictable consequence. The main purpose of this paper is to determine the overall risk of accidents due to the existent operation processes by modifying technological processes insofar as to diminish human intervention to the lowest possible extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a continuation of three articles that I have authored or coauthored on the 'black swan,' the rare and unpredictable catastrophic event. The first two papers discussed the concept of the black swan as applied to the chemical and petroleum processing industries and the difficulty in predicting such events. The third paper discussed the fact that we have difficulty maintaining the lesson's learned from black swan events that have occurred. I have survived and witnessed several black swans. Each has affected me personally and professionally. Black swan events are rare but inevitable. Some individuals and companies survive black swan events and continue on while others do not. I have learned that many black swan events, although initially viewed as catastrophes, can result in opportunities from a process safety improvement, career, and personal perspective. This article presents examples of black swan events that have impacted my career in process safety, often in a positive way, and strategies for surviving these 'black swan' events from a personal, professional, and a company point of view. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog 35: 13-17, 2016 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from a career from 1963 through 2016 in the chemical and process industries, this article will describe some informal practices of process safety elements observed during the Master-Apprentice era of the 1960s. The article will trace the development of incident investigation, Process Hazard Analysis, and Fault Tree Analysis tools used by the author. It will touch on safety instrumented systems and the development of Layer of Protection Analysis to determine how strong the safety instrumented functions should be. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog 35: 8-12, 2016 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A single presentation covering one person's first-hand experience with a significant process safety incident, delivered at the beginning of OSHA's PSM regulation still provides contemporary lessons, even though the actual incident occurred more than 50 years ago. Lessons include: (a) stopping operations unilaterally or getting expert help when readings are unexpected or unusual, (b) establishment of a testing regimen that covers a broad range of conditions, especially those that can be achieved under abnormal circumstances (e.g., fire), and (c) the impact of 'restore to original condition' maintenance activities that otherwise might not be analyzed if treated as a replacement-in-kind only. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog 35: 103-106, 2016 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Hazard and Operability (HAZOP) Study undoubtedly is the most commonly used process hazard analysis method in the world today. It is based on considering deviations from the design intent for a process to identify hazard and operability scenarios. Often, HAZOP Study practitioners generate deviations using a short checklist of process parameters. This practice likely results in missed scenarios. A full consideration of design intent is needed to ensure that scenarios are identified as completely as possible. This situation probably arises because of a lack of understanding of the HAZOP Study and the scope of design intent. This article describes the meaning and use of design intent to encourage HAZOP Study practitioners to address it fully during studies. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog 35: 36-40, 2016 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses technical and practical aspects of the limiting oxygen concentration (LOC) including a detailed appraisal of possible sources of measurement error. LOC values obtained in the 'classical' 5-cm diameter, vertical tube apparatus have been described as nonconservative owing to flame quenching. However, much of the difference between classical LOC values and those obtained in closed vessels using ASTM E2079 is due to the change in the definition of 'ignition.' Formerly defined as propagation of a visible flame through a vertical tube at least 1.5 m tall, which in a closed tube would typically generate an overpressure in excess of 100%, ignition is now defined as an overpressure that exceeds 7%. The small pressure rise criterion tends to underestimate the LOC in smaller test vessels, especially for tests made at elevated pressures and temperatures. More use should be made of ASTM E2079's flexibility regarding the use of larger pressure rise criteria. Having lost sight of the flame, it is important not to lose sight of the objective, namely to select test criteria that correctly predict the flammable limits pertaining to large volumes of gas mixture. Additional 'reference quality' LOC data are needed both to improve the definition of 'ignition' with respect to test vessel volume and to investigate the accuracy of LOC estimation techniques. Any large-scale reference quality test program should investigate the effect of low levels of forced turbulence on measured LOC values. The NFPA 'Explosion Protection Systems' Technical Committee recently supported the development of two Tentative Interim Amendments (TIAs) to NFPA 69 'Standard on Explosion Prevention Systems.' The first TIA resolves issues with the table of LOC values for gases, which had been modified and over-corrected in the 2008-2014 editions. The second TIA introduces a simple method for estimating the LOCs of single gases and gas mixtures based on the equation LOC = LFL × S, where LFL is the lower flammable limit and S the molar stoichiometric ratio of oxygen to fuel. An Appendix describes the two TIA recommendations while a second Appendix describes how the estimating methods have been incorporated into ASTM's 'CHETAH' Program. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog 35: 107-114, 2016 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The safety and health standards of the Occupational Safety and Health Act do not specifically address life safety in chemical plants, other than requiring owners and operators to 'provide a safe place to work' and to ensure that 'employees may evacuate the workplace safely.' NFPA 101 would classify chemical plants as high-hazard industrial occupancies, and a primary concern is to ensure 'minimal danger to occupants in case of fire or other emergency before they have time to use exits to escape.' NFPA 1 also requires that the design and operation of buildings and facilities 'provide an environment for the occupants that is reasonably safe from fire and similar emergencies, for the amount of time needed to evacuate.' Thus, most life-safety requirements are concerned with safe exit. There are, however, other life-safety hazards that should be of concern to chemical plant owners and operators. They include many single-exit locations, such as the upper levels on distillation/fractionation columns, scrubbers, and other tall equipment; elevated work platforms as atop multistory buildings and smokestacks; platforms above tank cars, tank trucks, and hopper cars; at the head of bucket elevators; work spaces above false ceilings; and ladder-access roofs over operating areas. Also, chemical-plant life-safety hazards include flash fire (flammable vapors and combustible dusts); releases of toxic gases and vapors; and vessel rupture from runaway reaction or other causes of overpressure. This article presents practical countermeasures for these life-safety hazards. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog 35: 18-25, 2016 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decisions made before construction can affect safety on the construction site, either positively or negatively. This was observed from past research that identified the link between design decisions and fatalities. The concept of implementing design decisions that positively affect safety falls under the general concept of prevention through design (PtD), which attempts to identify and mitigate hazards early in the design process to eliminate the risks of injury or damage during construction. Prevention through design is practiced in other countries, primarily through legislation. The objective of this paper is to present the results of a survey that was conducted to identify construction industry stakeholders' views on the concept of PtD and gauge the possibility for implementing PtD in the U.S. construction industry through either legislation or other means. Four distinct groups were surveyed: engineers, architects, contractors, and owners. Within this study, PtD was described and introduced to survey participants as design for construction worker safety (DCWS) to differentiate PtD efforts in construction from efforts in other industries. The survey consisted of questions that asked about the industry's knowledge of PtD and the extent of PtD practice in the United States, participants' opinions on designer and owner safety knowledge and perceptions, and obstacles and enablers for designer participation in construction safety. The responses from the various groups were compared to identify the groups that are more receptive to the idea of designer participation in construction worker safety. The results showed that architects were the least receptive to the idea, whereas the other groups were more likely to be supportive, with some hesitations. Architects and engineers identified the existence of economic, legal, and contractual obstacles for designers to practice DCWS, whereas contractors only identified economic obstacles. No enablers were identified by any group. The research contributes additional information that can be used by construction industry practitioners and organizations desiring to expand and optimize PtD implementation in the United States. The research results can be used by project teams to plan for PtD education and training efforts on projects and by construction industry organizations to develop PtD diffusion strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alarm management, which alerts process operators to deviations of variables from designed limits, has been a key safety issue in a petrochemical plant. Petrochemical processes frequently operate upon a multitude of steady states, transitions and states in abnormal events. Some single-fault scenarios producing similar symptoms usually cause false alarms, while fault propagation scenarios produce alarm floods which will overwhelm critical alarms. A two-level intelligent alarm management framework (IAMF) is proposed considering fault interdependence in plant operation, including alarm filtering first and root-cause diagnosis second. The two-level IAMF with different strategies are applicable to various hazard scenarios involving multi-fault with similar symptoms and propagation scenarios. Two cases are studied applying the IAMF to FCCU, in which the root causes of alarm floods can be identified. Redundant alarms, false alarms and alarm failures cut down effectively, thus ensuring the safety of the petrochemical process and reducing economic losses caused by improper alarms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to increased outsourcing in many industries, organizations are becoming larger and more interorganizationally complex and numerous operations now require cooperation among employees from different organizations. This paper presents a review of empirical literature addressing safety issues in complex interorganizational systems wherein the potential for major organizational accidents is present. Thematic analysis of the literature resulted in four main themes: economic pressures, disorganization, dilution of competence and organizational differences. The themes were viewed in light of different theoretical perspectives on organizational accident risk. The findings suggest that issues due to interorganizational complexity can hinder efficient safety management and thereby elevate the risk of organizational accidents. It is emphasized that further research is needed to better understand the implications of interorganizational complexity on safety management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on developing a world-class safety culture in an organization through innovation, hard work and persistence. Occupational safety and health (OSH) professionals are encouraged to use the five pillars of safety to create a road map to world-class safety culture, namely management commitment, employee ownership, system data, system integration and organization-wide engagement.

The article discusses how occupational safety and health (OSH) can engage in the practice of Gemba walks, taking the time to learn and understand the work employees perform, to gain knowledge to apply unique perspectives to problem solving when OSH challenges arise. A Gemba walk is when a member of management goes to the real place where work is performed.

Automated regulatory and contractual compliance checking requires automated rule extraction from regulatory and contractual textual documents (e.g., contract specifications). Automated rule extraction is a challenging task that requires complex processing of text. In the proposed automated compliance checking (ACC) approach, the first step in automating the rule extraction process is automatically classifying the different documents and parts of documents (e.g., contract clauses) into predefined categories (environmental, safety, health, etc.) for preparing it for further text analysis and rule extraction. These categories are defined in a semantic model for normative reasoning. This paper presents a semantic, machine learning-based text classification algorithm for classifying clauses and subclauses of general conditions for supporting ACC in construction. The multilabel classification problem was transformed into a set of binary classification problems. Different machine learning algorithms, text preprocessing techniques, methods of text feature scoring, methods of feature weighting, and feature sizes were implemented and evaluated at different thresholds. The developed classifier achieved 100 and 96% recall and precision, respectively, on the testing data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Although worker representation in OHS has been widely recognized as contributing to health and safety improvements at work, few studies have examined the role that worker representatives play in this process. Using a large quantitative sample, this paper seeks to confirm findings from an earlier exploratory qualitative study that worker representatives can be differentiated by the knowledge intensive tactics and strategies that they use to achieve changes in their workplace. Methods Just under 900 worker health and safety representatives in Ontario completed surveys which asked them to report on the amount of time they devoted to different types of representation activities (i.e., technical activities such as inspections and report writing vs. political activities such as mobilizing workers to build support), the kinds of conditions or hazards they tried to address through their representation (e.g., housekeeping vs. modifications in ventilation systems), and their reported success in making positive improvements. A cluster analysiswas used to determine whether the worker representatives could be distinguished in terms of the relative time devoted to different activities and the clusters were then compared with reference to types of intervention efforts and outcomes. Results The cluster analysis identified three distinct groupings of representatives with significant differences in reported types of interventions and in their level of reported impact. Two of the clusters were consistent with the findings in the exploratory study, identified as knowledge activism for greater emphasis on knowledge based political activity and technicallegal representation for greater emphasis on formalized technical oriented procedures and legal regulations. Knowledge activists were more likely to take on challenging interventions and they reported more impact across the full range of interventions. Conclusions This paper provides further support for the concepts of knowledge activism and technical-legal representation when differentiating the strategic orientations and impact of worker health and safety representatives, with important implications for education, political support and recruitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anhydrous ammonia is widely used in industry (chemical industry, refrigeration technology) and it is produced, transported and used in large quantities. From the viewpoint of industrial safety, this material is essential as it is present within the area of almost every branch office of disaster management. It is a statistical fact that the number of major industrial accidents involving ammonia has not declined. The purpose of this paper is to offer a professional summary and resolution for operative professionals and decision-makers on this topic. Therefore, the closely related issues are described together with the possible solutions. This paper is the second part of a series of articles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The workplace is a key setting where gender issues and organizational structures may influence occupational health and safety practices. The enactment of dominant norms of masculinity in high risk occupations can be particularly problematic, as it exposes men to significant risks for injuries and fatalities. To encourage multi-disciplinary collaborations and advance knowledge in the intersecting areas of gender studies, men’s health, work and workplace health and safety, a national network of thirteen researchers and health and safety stakeholders completed a critical literature review examining the intersection between masculinities and men’s workplace health and safety in order to: (i) account for research previously undertaken in this area; (ii) identify themes that may inform our understanding of masculinity and workplace health and safety and; (iii) identify research and practice gaps in relation to men’s workplace health and safety. In this paper we present key themes from this review. Recommendations are made regarding: (i) how to define gender; (ii) how to attend to and identify how masculinities may influence workers’ identities, perceptions of occupational risks and how institutionalized practices can reinforce norms of masculinity; (iii) the importance of considering how masculinities may intersect with other variables (e.g. historical context, age, class, race, geographical location) and; (iv) the added significance of present-day labour market forces on men’s occupational health and safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is concerned with the cooking processes in commercial restaurant kitchens and the characteristics of occupational injuries according to cooking processes. In order to obtain an overall picture of cooking, questionnaire survey was carried out. Furthermore accident data for injured persons were categorized by the cooking processes in progress during the accident, and were analyzed in terms of age of injured person, work experience, accident type, and agency of accident. Survey results of questionnaire show that heated cooking constitutes the largest part, followed by non-heated cooking, and preparation. Also results show that the cooking process in time of the accidents resulted in differences of, such as, type of accident, period of work experience, and agency of accident; (1) Accidents during preparation were caused mainly by machine and tools (86.7%), and most victims were injured in the forms of getting caught in and between objects (45.7%) or with cuts, amputations and punctures (43.9%); (2) Cooking utensils and caldron were behind 55.4% of the accidents, and 73.3% of the accidents during heated cooking processes revealed problems with abnormal temperature; (3) Accident during handling/storing ingredients and serving were most commonly in the forms of slips and falls. Finally, a hazard identification and risk assessment table of kitchen works was derived to classify the possible incidents according to the levels of risk. These findings of accident properties according to cooking process can be used as baseline data for the establishment of systematical preventative policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of appropriate acceptance criteria in the risk assessment process for occupational accidents is an important issue but often overlooked in the literature, particularly when new risk assessment methods are proposed and discussed. In most cases, there is no information on how or by whom they were defined, or even how companies can adapt them to their own circumstances. Bearing this in mind, this study analysed the problem of the definition of risk acceptance criteria for occupational settings, defining the quantitative acceptance criteria for the specific case study of the Portuguese furniture industrial sector. The key steps to be considered in formulating acceptance criteria were analysed in the literature review. By applying the identified steps, the acceptance criteria for the furniture industrial sector were then defined. The Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF) for the injury statistics of the industrial sector was identified as the maximum tolerable risk level. The acceptable threshold was defined by adjusting the CDF to the Occupational, Safety & Health (OSH) practitioners’ risk acceptance judgement. Adjustments of acceptance criteria to the companies’ safety cultures were exemplified by adjusting the Burr distribution parameters. An example of a risk matrix was also used to demonstrate the integration of the defined acceptance criteria into a risk metric. This work has provided substantial contributions to the issue of acceptance criteria for occupational accidents, which may be useful in overcoming the practical difficulties faced by authorities, companies and experts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accident modeling methodologies in literature such as the System Hazard Identification, Prediction and Prevention (SHIPP) consider accident precursors and the associated five engineering safety barriers to assess the likelihood of accident occurrence with the help of fault and event trees to model the cause-consequence relationship between the failure of safety barriers and potential adverse events and design preventive, controlling and mitigating measures for improving the industrial process safety. In the SHIPP method, a restrictive assumption is used that the severity of the adverse events progresses only through sequential failures of the five safety barriers considered. In the proposed methodology, shortcomings of the existing accident model are improved in the following ways. Firstly, the above mentioned restrictive sequential progression assumption is mitigated in the SHIPP methodology by allowing non-sequential failure of safety barriers to cause adverse events in any order. Secondly, in the prediction of posterior probabilities of adverse events for real time industrial data, an important mechanical safety barrier ‘Damage Control Emergency Management Barrier’ has been included. Further, posterior probabilities of the occurrence of the adverse events are calculated using a Bayesian network (BN) approach. The utility of this approach is tested and demonstrated with the data from a liquefied natural gas (LNG) process facility. The method allows for continual updating of occurrence probabilities for adverse events and failure probabilities of safety barriers for successive real time data from industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to measure human safety when using a system during its design process. Safety is defined as no danger or no conditions that can create a risk. Based on this definition of safety, we established a safety indicator used at the earliest design phases based. The proposed safety indicator depends on two values indicating the presence or absence of danger and the level of importance of hazardous conditions. The power take-off drive shaft is used as a case study to illustrate and examine the proposed safety indicator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Management of health and safety in micro-enterprises (less than 10 employees) is a critical issue due to the relatively high level of injuries in such firms. It is also an under-researched area in the international safety literature. The present paper is based on a nationwide survey with the cooperation of the relevant health and safety enforcement authority among micro-firms in several economic sectors. Micro-enterprises comprise a major percentage (95.4%) of business firms in a small economy like Cyprus. The survey examined the perceptions and work attitudes of workers and their relationship with safety performance of the particular firms. This paper presents the results related to the perceptions of employees. A previous paper presented the results focusing on employers. Information was collected on their demographic characteristics and major influencing factors of safety performance like employee participation in safety decisions and safety training. The safety performance measure, an index comprising several safety performance aspects was assessed by the health and safety (labour) inspectors, in order to overcome potential problems of common method bias when all data are obtained from the same group of respondents. The findings suggest that safety performance has a positive and statistically significant correlation with safety training provided by the firm. It has also a positive and statistically significant association with the safety information available to employees and with the perceived safety conditions. The effect of the participation of workers in safety decisions and their organizational commitment, although significantly correlated with safety performance as individual variables, are not statistically significant after controlling for the effect of the other variables mentioned above. The results show the important relationship between safety training and other good practices (like provision of information and improved safety conditions) on safety performance in micro-firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]