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Musculoskeletal disorders are one of the main health problems found in date palm farmers. This study aimed to assess a new climbing device on working postures, musculoskeletal symptoms, and fatigue in date palm farmers.Data were collected using questionnaires (Standardised Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire, Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory, and System Usability Scale) and direct observations of the postures (using the Rapid Entire Body Assessment method [REBA]) from 70 date palm farmers during operating the traditional and new climbing devices.The new climbing device showed significant improvement in working postures (in the knee, legs/ankles, and shoulders). In all tasks, the REBA grand score significantly decreased after using the new climbing device (The findings indicate the effectiveness of the new climbing device as a low-cost, simple, and easy-to-use device that improves working postures and reduces musculoskeletal discomfort in date palm farmers.

BACKGROUND: The metabolic syndrome is a complex of interdependent risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Shift work might have an impact on metabolic variables, and be a risk factor for type 2 diabetes. To date, only few studies have been done on the prevalence of MetS in industrial work environments in Iran, and most of them have been conducted on a small sample size. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of shift work on prevalence of metabolic syndrome in one of the petrochemical companies in Iran. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 692 male workers of a petrochemical company in south-west Iran. Metabolic syndrome was diagnosed according to criteria recommended by Adult Treatment Panel III. In order to determine correlation between MetS and its factors with shift work odds ratio (ORs) for the MetS, 95% confidence level (95% CL), chi-square test and logistic regression analysis were performed. RESULTS: Overall 15.1% of workers were diagnosed with metabolic syndrome and 80% of them were shift workers. A significant difference for prevalence of metabolic syndrome and mean values for body mass index, blood pressure, fast blood sugar, waist circumference among shift workers and non-shift workers were identified (p

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has created a wide range of sociocultural pressures on nurses. Resilience is defined as one’s ability to adapt to an unpredictable situation and it can be a factor in accepting an undesirable psychosocial situation. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to examine resilience in nurses in the face of job stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: The study was carried out as a case-control study with participation of 400 nurses as the target group (nurses exposed to COVID-19 patients) and the control group (nurses not exposed to COVID-19 patients). To examine resilience and job stress, Conor and Davidson’s questionnaire and OSIPOW questionnaire were used respectively. RESULTS: The mean scores of job stress and resilience were significantly different between the target and control groups (p

Background and Objective: Date palm is the second most important agricultural crop of Iran after pistachio. Traditionally, the nature of work for palm farmers requires physical work, including the undesirable and long-term postures when working on the tree. This study aimed to investigate the ergonomic conditions and the relationship between the severity of discomfort and working postures in date palm farmers. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 100 skilled date palm farmers who were engaged in date cultivation during 2020. To investigate the ergonomic conditions and the relationship between the severity of discomfort in the farmers, the REBA and the Body Part Discomfort Rate )BPDR) methods were used. The data of farmers while working on palm trees by traditional tools was recorded, and the data were analyzed by SPSS Ver.26 software. Results: The results of the present study showed that the most musculoskeletal discomfort was in the upper arm, legs, and trunk. According to the tasks analysis, in most of the farmers' tasks, there was a significant relationship between awkward postures and the severity of discomfort in different body regions (p

BackgroundMany countries have recommended using face masks for the general population in public places to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission. This study aimed to assess the effects of socioeconomic status on face mask use among pedestrians during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted in Ahvaz, southwest Iran in August 2020. A total of 10,440 pedestrians have been studied from 92 neighborhoods of the city. Three socioeconomic indicators including Land price, Literacy rate, and the Employment rate for each neighborhood were used in this study. Analysis of Covariance and partial correlation coefficients were applied to assess the relationship between prevalence rates of mask usage and SES indicators.ResultsThe mean ± SD age of the pedestrians was 32.2 ± 15.1 years. Of 10,440 observed participants, 67.9% were male. The overall prevalence of face mask usage was 45.6%. The prevalence of mask usage in older people and women was significantly higher than the others. The three assessed socioeconomic indicators were directly correlated to the prevalence of mask usage at individual and neighborhood levels.ConclusionWe found that literacy had the strongest correlation with the prevalence of mask usage compared to the land price and employment rate among the three assessed SES indicators. Hence, it can be concluded that the social component of socioeconomic status has a greater effect on mask usage by people than the economic component of socioeconomic status.

Introduction: Work-related musculoskeletal disorders are the most common and costly preventable occupational problem that office workers suffer from the discomfort associated with these disorders. The aims of this study were to a) investigate the prevalence of low back pain (LBP) and b) continuously assess the trunk postures of office workers .Materials and Methods: Thirty-six office workers of a medical university participated in this cross-sectional study. Thirty-six office workers of a medical university participated in this cross-sectional study. The prevalence of LBP was determined using the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire. Work trunk postures were measured using an inclinometer. Results: More than half of the subjects reported LBP. There was a significant relationship between LBP with age, work experience, working hours, and gender (p

Introduction: Considering the accreditation of international standards of hospitals and the necessity to improve the safety and quality of patients’ care, this study aimed at evaluating reliability among nurses using predictive analysis of cognitive errors and human event analysis techniques. Material and Methods: The analysis of nurses̓ tasks was done by HTA method. Then, the types of errors and their causes were identified by TRACER method. In the next step, the error probability of each task was calculated by ATHEANA method. In order to calculate the probability of total event, the probability of human error was imported to probabilistic risk assessment. Results: Factors affecting performance of the nurses were included: the complexity of the work, high workload, nurse’s experience, work environment design, fatigue, anxiety, shortage of the workforce, insufficient time period for doing job, sleep disturbance, and poor lighting and noise pollution. According to the instruction of ATHEANA method, the error probability for each base event was considered 0.001. Given that there are 15 base events, the probability of human error in the heart attack event was calculated 0.015. Conclusion: The finding of this study was indicated the need for providing required nursing workforce, reducing overtime, scientific planning for nurses’ work shifts and giving practical training and stress management methods in the emergency conditions.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between safety attitudes and safety performance considering the mediating role of safety climate in the petrochemical industry. METHOD: The statistical population of this study included all 1700 employees in the petrochemical industry of Iran, among whom 320 were randomly selected as the participants and completed the research questionnaire. Then, the validity (content, convergent, and divergent) and reliability (Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability) of the instrument were examined, and the research hypotheses were tested using Smart partial least squares (PLS) software. RESULTS: The results showed that the model has goodness of fit and, thereby, the positive effect of safety attitude on safety performance was confirmed. In addition, the mediating role of safety climate in the relationship between safety attitude and safety performance was proved. That is, 39.6% of the total effect of safety attitude on safety performance was explained through the mediating role of safety climate. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study can improve safety culture and bring about excellent safety performance in petrochemical industries.

Introduction: Social distancing is a public health tool that seeks to reduce opportunities for an infectious agent to spread among individuals. The current study aimed at investigating the social-distancing compliance among pedestrians in Ahvaz city, South-west Iran during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Ahvaz, South-west Iran, from 2 to August 11, 2020. The data collection was performed based on observation of passers-by in the streets. Chi-square, Fisher's exact test, Chi-square for trend, and logistic regression were used for the data analysis. Results: The overall compliance rate of social distancing was 16.3%. There was a statistically significant difference between age groups and social distancing (P < 0.001), but this relationship was not seen in gender (P = 0.12). The compliance rate of social distancing was significantly higher during morning hours than evening hours (P < 0.001). A significant inverse association was founded between the number of observed group members and the compliance rate of social distancing so that the odds of social distancing compliance among two members groups were 59% higher than the group of 6 and more members (odds ratio = 1.59; 95% confidence interval, 1.47–1.72; P = 0.003). Conclusion: We found that the overall compliance rate of social distancing among the participants was very low and inefficient. This can make disease control difficult and leads the city to a critical situation in terms of coronavirus outbreaks. The findings can help health policymakers and health workers to plan and conduct preventive interventions.

Introduction: The development of residential and industrial areas has led to increasing gas consumption and overcrowding in gas supply networks. Accordingly, hazards and risks caused by human errors, processing and mechanical failures in pipelines, and gas leaks are on a rise. Several techniques have been so far proposed for identifying and controlling human errors. The main purpose of this study was to compare two human error evaluation techniques, namely, Human Error Template (HET) and Systematic Human Error Reduction and Prediction Approach (SHERPA) in gas supply operations using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to select a suitable method. Material and Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was to identify the human error modes in one of the gas supply projects operating by Kurdistan Gas Company, Kurdistan, Iran. Different tasks in gas supply operations were accordingly determined by the health, safety, and environment (HSE) unit, then the ones susceptible to human errors were selected and analyzed through task analysis technique. The next step was to weight and rank the human errors by evaluating indexes based on many variables including accuracy, sensitivity, and quantity of the errors as well as usability, time, and education analysis using the Expert Choice software (ver. 11). Results: According to the findings of this research, the criteria were ranked based on accuracy (0.339), sensitivity (0.322), quantity of errors (0.118), usability (0.116), time (0.056), education (0.050), and analysis. The inconsistency ratio was also equal to 0.1, which meant that the subjective judgments were accepted. Conclusion: The results also showed that the analysis of human errors, using the HET, required less training and time, while the number of the detected errors and applicability in the SHERPA was greater. Considering the weight of the criteria, their importance in determining the superior technique and the weight of each one in relation to the criteria, the contribution of that method in the relevant criterion was expressed. Calculating the final weight of the techniques revealed that SHERPA with a weight of 0.53 was more practical compared with HET with a weight of 0.46.

Background and aims: Today, the major problem in the field of industrial safety is that most traditional risk assessment and safety management methods alone do not meet the needs of modern technologies and complex industries. In other words, traditional methods, such as risk analysis and probability safety assessment, are in practice capable of do not provide many of the solutions needed for todaychr('39')s industries. There are various reasons for this claim, the most important of these reasons are their roots in the very simple models of the incident as a cause-effect chain. Therefore, there is an urgent need for new approaches in risk assessment and safety management, and resilience engineering (RE) has been proposed as a remedy to satisfy that need. Resilience Engineering is the new window which uses the insights from research on failures in complex systems, organizational contributors to risk, and human performance to develop engineering practices including measures of sources of resilience, decision support for balancing production/safety tradeoffs, and feedback loops that enhances the organization’s ability to monitor/revise risk models and to target safety investments. Therefore, RE was defined as: "The intrinsic ability of a system to adjust its functioning prior to, during, or following changes and disturbances, so that it can sustain required operations under both expected and unexpected conditions."However, the purpose of this study is to provide a framework for assessing the resilience of socio-technical systems based on the Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM). Method: In this research, after identifying the indicators of resilience through reviewing the literature and interviewing experienced industry experts, information on these indicators in the operating units of the industry was obtained through a semi-structured interview with 16 experienced operators whose average working experience was more than 10 years. Semi-structured interview is a meeting in which the interviewer does not strictly follow a formalized list of questions. They will ask more open-ended questions, allowing for a discussion with the interviewee rather than a straightforward question and answer format. Interview topics included buffering capacity with 29, safety margins with 24, system tolerance with 10, cross-scale interactions with 5, learning from accidents, incidents and normal works with 16, system flexibility with 24, anticipation of expected and unexpected events with 6, attention to problems in the system with 10 and proper and timely response to them with 11 topics. Then, the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to determine the weight of the indicators and the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method was used to determine the ranking of different units. The Minitab version 16 and MATLAB software was used to process the collected data. Results: The results showed that the three indicators of buffering capacity (0.43), Attention (0.39) and learning culture (0.36) have highest weight and rank and the indicators of tolerance (0.26) and cross-scale interactions (0.21) have the lowest weight and rank. In addition to strengthening the weak indicators, the management of the organization should also make a lot of efforts to promote and develop the desired indicators in accordance with the principles of resilience engineering. For example, identifying safety margins, reducing stress, reducing uncertainties in work processes, identifying worn-out systems and equipment and types of threats can improve the systemchr('39')s tolerance index. In this context, the cross-scale interactions can also be improved through effective interactions between individuals, groups, and different sections, attention to competency-based education, training and experience and positive and effective communication. Accordingly, operational units 2, 3 and 11 also ranked the best in terms of resilience indicators. Also by examining the rankings based on the similarity to ideal solution, it was found that the lowest distance from the positive ideal solution and the highest distance from the negative ideal solution was related to unit 11 and unit 6, respectively. Therefore, unit 11 get less priority to improve than other units, and unit 6, which has the lowest similarity to ideal solution, has a higher priority for improvement. Conclusion: The study showed that considering the nature of risk and its complexity in socio- technical systems, it is no longer possible to identify those using traditional methods. Hence, there is an enormous need for further development in risk assessment tools and safety management systems. This requires to an insight that pushes management beyond traditional counts of negative occurrences and finds new types of leading indicators that reflect critical aspects of an organizationchr('39')s resilience. Furthermore, the results of indicators analysis and unit ranking showed that PCA and TOPSIS may be a reasonable and practical alternative for evaluating resilience of complex systems. Because they can identify the strengths and weaknesses of the system in terms of resilience and based on input information. Therefore, the managers and decision makers of the industry will be able to use the results of this research as an important step in improving and enhancing the industrychr('39')s resilience and safety.

Background: Numerous studies have been conducted to assess the role of human errors in accidents in different industries. Human reliability analysis (HRA) has drawn a great deal of attention among safety engineers and risk assessment analyzers. Despite technical advances and the development of processes, damaging and catastrophic accidents still happen in many industries. Objectives: Human Error Assessment and Reduction Technique (HEART) and Cognitive Reliability and Error Analysis Method (CREAM) methods were compared with the hierarchical fuzzy system in a steel industry to investigate the human error. Methods: This study was carried out in a rolling unit of the steel industry, which has four control rooms, three shifts and a total of 46 technicians and operators. After observing the work process, reviewing the documents, and interviewing each of the operators, the worksheets of each research method were completed. CREAM and HEART methods were defined in the hierarchical fuzzy system and the necessary rules were created and analyzed. Results: The findings of the study indicated that CREAM was more successful than HEART in showing a better capability to capture task interactions and dependencies as well as logical estimation of the HEP in the plant studied. Conclusions: Given the nature of the tasks in the studied plant and interactions and dependencies among tasks, it seems that CREAM is a better method in comparison with the HEART method to identify errors and calculate the HEP.

Background: Resilience engineering (RE) is a new approach to upgrade safety management systems. Due to its novelty in the field of safety, RE seems to be promising in providing good indicators to assess priorities in organizational strengths/weaknesses while planning to promote safety within organizations. Several methods have been recently developed to evaluate RE performance. The current study is an attempt to quantify and determine the priorities of RE dimensions in a steel industry using analysis network process (ANP). Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 489 male workers of a steel industry participated. For this purpose, the RE questionnaire was distributed among workers and, then, super decisions software (version 3.2) was used to analyze the data. Results: The results indicated that there was a sufficient level of RE in the organization where top management commitment with normalized weight 0.1781 and awareness-opacity with normalized weight 0.1483 were ranked as the first and last priorities of the organization, respectively. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the top management system, with the adoption of safety policies, has been able to improve the performance of RE in the organization. Managers should consider appropriate measures to improve the RE situation.

Background and aims: Undoubtedly, noise and vibration are major problems of industrial world and lot of people are very exposed to these phenomena in their workplace or residential areas. Researchers have shown that exposure to noise may increase the risks related to personal health, like nervous frailty, extreme irritability, muscle cramps, stress and anxiety, dizziness, headache and migraine, anger, loss of body balance, vomiting, pain, hypertension, high blood pressure, cardiovascular problems, deterioration of sleep quality, mental stress, etc. However, the purpose of this study was to assess and control and reduce the risks resulting from noise in the reduction unit 2 of a steel industry. Methods: This study was conducted in two steps. 1) Evaluation of noise pollution in the compressor room and its surrounding: For this purpose, total sound pressure level (SPL) and SPLpeak were measured in the places where workers worked or were traveled. The parameters were measured in the mentioned places according to a grid pattern in both the compressor turn on/off. Because the workers exposed to a noise fluctuating, in addition to SPL analysis on the octave-band frequencies to determine critical frequency when the compressor was switched on, the value of Leq was also measured. The critical frequency is very important in noise control issues. The measurements were performed by using sound level meter, model of “B&K 2231.” The apparatus was calibrated before and after measurements by using “B&K 4230 calibrator.” 2) Noise control measurements: After identifying noise leakage paths to outside of the compressor room, noise was controlled in door, wall-fans and roof window area through installing a silencer on the wall-fans and redesigning the door and the roof window using the previous step data. Results: Inside the compressor room, the total sound pressure level and the critical frequency was estimated 106.2 dB (A) and of 250 Hz in the Lin network, respectively. The total sound pressure level in the area around the compressor and the critical frequency were also estimated 94.3 dB (A) and 2000 Hz respectively. Moreover, the value of Leq was more than the threshold value (

Water reservoirs are considered very important storage facilities for the condition of peak demand in the agriculture industry. The construction process of a water reservoir may be accompanied by multiple risks. This study is aimed at identifying the emerging risks resulting from variability in different functions and at prioritizing them based on the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method. In fact, the potential variability (emerging risks), possible dependencies/couplings, and the barriers used for damping this variability were assessed using Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM). The AHP method was then applied to prioritize the various functions. The results of FRAM modeling indicated that there was the possibility of a high variability in five functions. In this context, the AHP findings showed that "initial studies on the construction of the pool" with the weight of 0.310 and "excavation" with the weight of 0.308 were the most important functions in this study. In addition, the results of this study demonstrated that AHP may be a desired alternative for the identification of performance variability and the aggregation of variability.

Background Many countries have recommended the use of face masks for general population in public places to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission. This study aims to estimate the prevalence of face mask usage and investigate about different types of face mask and their distribution among pedestrians in southwest Iran during the Covid-19 pandemic. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted in August 2020 in Ahvaz, southwest Iran. Using a multistage sampling method, a total of 10,440 pedestrians selected from 8 urban districts and 92 neighborhoods of the city. The data gathered by observation method. Percentage, mean and standard deviation were used to describe the variables. Chi-square test, fisher exact test and Chi-square for trend used to assess relationship between two categorical variables. We used unconditional logistic regression model to control confounders. Results The most common age group was 10 to 39 years and 67.9% of the participants were male. The overall prevalence of face mask usage was 45.6% (95% CI, 44.6–46.5). In general, as the age increased, the prevalence of face mask use significantly increased (p for trend p p p p = 0.036). Conclusion We concluded that the prevalence rate of face mask use in Ahvaz was fairly low especially in men and younger people. Hence, the observed rates probably cannot protect the community against COVID-19 spread. Therefore, it is important to implement educational programs as well as to establish laws and regulations governing the use of face masks in public places.

Background: Many countries have recommended the use of face masks for general population in public places to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission. This study aims to estimate the prevalence of face mask usage and investigate about different types of face mask and their distribution among pedestrians in southwest Iran during the Covid-19 pandemic.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in August 2020 in Ahvaz, southwest Iran. Using a multistage sampling method, a total of 10440 pedestrians selected from 8 urban districts and 92 neighborhoods of the city. The data gathered by observation method. Percentage, mean and standard deviation were used to describe the variables. Chi-square test, fisher exact test and Chi-square for trend used to assess relationship between two categorical variables. We used unconditional logistic regression model to control confounders.Results: The mean ± SD age of the observed pedestrians was 32.2 ±15.1 years and 67.9% of them were male. The overall prevalence of face mask usage was 45.6% (95% CI, 44.6 – 46.5). In general, as the age increased, the prevalence of face mask use significantly increased (p for trend Conclusion: We concluded that the prevalence rate of face mask use in Ahvaz was fairly low especially in men and younger people. Hence, the observed rates probably cannot protect the community against COVID-19 spread. Therefore, it is important to implement educational programs as well as to establish laws and regulations governing the use of face masks in public places.

This study aims at exploring human error in an airport control tower through the technique for the retrospective and predictive analysis of cognitive error (TRACEr) and the controller action reliability assessment (CARA) method. Despite the presence of automated safety nets, air traffic control (ATC) is heavily dependent upon the capabilities of humans. A number of ATC-relevant accidents were characterized by human errors. The data related to error dimensions were collected through interview and direct observation. Then, human error probability and error-producing conditions were evaluated by the CARA method. The results showed that selection and quality, memory, distraction/preoccupation, and traffic and airspace have the highest percentage error rates. Furthermore, the results indicated that the highest probability of error was associated with emergency situation management. This study is the first research to classify and quantify human errors using the TRACEr and the CARA method to evaluate controller error in ATC.

In industry and developed societies, annual work accidents can bring about huge losses. By proper analysis of these events, the development of controlling measures can be the most important action to prevent similar events and enhance the health of the society. Hence, the current study was aimed at analyzing a case of occupational accidents leading to death in one of the car industries. This qualitative case study was conducted in spring, 2018. With the implementation of Systems Theoretic Accident Model and Processes (STAMP), the incident statement had been described accurately and, then, a safety control structure has been designed to determine inadequate effective safety control actions in the event of an accident. In the analysis of the incident, various factors were involved at different levels of incident hierarchy where the various components of socio-technical systems interact with each other; the inadequate control action of the safety unit was more prominent. Based on the STAMP technique, unlike traditional methods, does not consider the cause of the accident just a component of failure or malfunction of the system. Therefore, it provides a useful tool in incident analysis, especially in complicated and sensitive systems.

Introduction: The most important goal of modeling is to acquire knowledge about the real system's behavior. Toxic leakage in process and chemical industries is likely to be one of the main causes of working people and residents around these industries. Method: In this study, the ammonia liquid release from storage reservoir in one of the southern refineries was investigated and analyzed using of ALOHA software. This research was modeled on three scenarios: 1. modeling the formation of toxic vapor clouds 2. Modeling the flammable environment 3. Modeling the toxic explosive atmosphere. Results: Based on the results of this modeling, the concentration of ammonia is 1100, 5 km around the reservoir (red range). The area around the reservoir (orange range) is about 160 miles (about 10 km) from the area. In the event of full leakage of ammonia from the reservoir up to 500 m, the ammonia concentration is about 90000, which is about 60% of the minimum flammable concentration of ammonia gas and up to about 1.7 km of the ammonia concentration tank of 15000, which is about 10% of the minimum flammable gas concentration Ammonia. In the event of a supersonic explosion, the explosive wave pressure is approximately 700 meters from the reservoir equivalent to Psi 8, which can cause serious damage to the buildings. Conclusion: According to the results of modeling, ammonia toxicity is the most important threat to personnel. Therefore, inspections in accordance with the company's proposal on ammonia repositories and emergency response plans will have an effective role in limiting the harmful effects of toxic and dangerous emissions.

Introduction: In recent years, the importance of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) has increased more than gasoline and petrol. Using this gas as a clean fuel to reduce air pollutants and restrictions on the supply of oil resources, has led to an increase in the expansion of its supply stations in the country. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the methane release model at CNG fuel stations to provide the protection map around them. Method: The present study is a case study .In this study, modeling of fire and explosion consequences has been done by using ALOHA software at one of the CNG stations in Ahvaz. In this modeling, various scenarios were examined; including creating fractures on pressurized methane tanks with diameters 0.01, 0.20 and 0.03 meters. Results: The results of this study, by comparing different scenarios, showed that by increasing the diameter of the fracture, the range of thermal radiation would be enhanced at greater distances. The diameter of the fracture from 0.01 to 0.33 mm, in 10 kw / m2 has increased from 10 to 21 meters, respectively. Moreover, in flammable range of methane vapor, the concentration of 30,000 ppm is about 60% of the minimum explosive level (LEL), which ranges from 68.58 to 160 m. Conclusion: The consequences of the explosion wave up to 160 meters and thermal radiation up to 21 meters are the most dangerous factor at CNG fuel stations that threatens employees and surrounding residential areas. Therefore, by considering the permitted distance of the residential areas, increasing safety actions, and preventing accidents around the fuel stations, casualties and accidents can be reduced.

Introduction: Extensive human and economic losses due to the fire accidents shows the necessity of scientifically dealing with major industrial fires, , investing in the development of fire protection technologies and determination of the most effective techniques to limit damages. This study is conducted to evaluate the effect of active and passive protection methods on reducing the level of fire risk, in the control room of a thermal power plant. Material and Method: In the first phase of this study, fire risk level for buildings, goods, occupants and activities was calculated using Fire Risk Assessment Method for Engineering. In the second phase, from 36 sub-factors affecting risk level, three sub-factors of passive protection measures and two sub-factors of active protection measures were analyzed and modified, in reducing the fire risk level of occupants. Result: The results of the present study showed that occupants’ fire risk level (20.64) is above the acceptable level. Correction of three sub-factors, including constant fire load, floor number, and changing the dimensions and area of the control room up to 40% and installing an automatic fire extinguishing system and training the occupants to use fire extinguishing equipment and emergency evacuation up to 33%, is effective in reducing the fire risk level. Conclusion: Passive and active protection methods, despite their impacts on reducing the level of risk, cannot provide an acceptable level of fire safety independently. Therefore, combined use of these methods is essential to protect buildings and people, and prevent any interruption in the system’s activities.

Background: incidents are one of the most important causes of damages in an organization. incidents, rarely, occure of a big mistakes ,they usually occur due to chain of Most minor and less important human or series errors. May each error, Have minor consequences But with combination their effects, sets or systems are moving invariably to the serious consequences and disastrous. Therefore, this study aimed to identify human errors leading to incidents in a gas refineries using Human Factors Analysis and Classification System. Methods: This study is a retrospective study that was performed in a gas refinery. incidents Data of this study be provided from gas refinery, first root causes analysis reports (RCA) of incidents that occurred during the last 8 years was prepared And then were analyzed by using the HFACS model. Results: the maximum error of HFACS viewpoint Related to the first level i.e errors caused by unsafe acts that in the first level was related to the "violations", in the second to the physical environment, in the third level to the inadequate supervision and in the fourth level to the management of resources have a Most repeated in mentioned levels Conclusion: The results of this study showed the causes of accidents and several weaknesses In refineries. It can be helped to reduce human error in the organization by utilization at the same time administrative controls and by creating an appropriate learning environment and raise employee awareness.

Introduction: Probabilistic risk assessment using fault tree analysis is an effective tool to assess occurrence probability of hazardous events in chemical process industries. Unfortunately, the failure occurrence probability of the basic events are often not available in process industries. The aim of this study is how calculate basic events failure occurrence probability when basic events do not have precise failure data. Methods: In this study, the proposed risk assessment framework was based on five-scale and six-scale fuzzy-based approaches. Firstly, the fault tree diagram was constructed using the risk identification methods. Then, by applying the two types of failure possibility distributions, failure occurrence probability of the basic events were calculated. Finally, using the importance measure analysis, critical minimal cut sets were ranked. Results: Results show that the failure occurrence probabilities calculated by the five-scale and six-scale approaches for the 32 basic events were closed to each other. The occurrence probability of the top event calculated using the five-scale and six scale approaches were 3.64E-04 and 4.76E-04 at year, respectively. After ranking of the MCSs based on their calculated importance measures, the process failures have been determined as the critical causes of the TE. Conclusions:The results show that the fuzzy-based approach seems to be a good alternative for conventional approach of the FTA to deal with basic events which do not have failure rate data to obtain their failure occurrence probabilities. This study has validated the consistency of fuzzy-based approach, to assess basic events failure occurrence probabilities. &nbsp

Background: Safety culture, acting as the oil necessary in an efficient safety management system, has its own weaknesses in the current conceptualization and utilization in practice. As a new approach, resilience safety culture (RSC) has been proposed to reduce these weaknesses and improve safety culture; however, it requires a valid and reliable instrument to be measured. This study aimed at evaluating the reliability and validity of such an instrument in measuring the RSC in sociotechnical systems. Methods: The researchers designed an instrument based on resilience engineering principles and safety culture as the first instrument to measure the RSC. The RSC instrument was distributed among 354 staff members from 12 units of an anonymous petrochemical plant through hand delivery. Content validity, confirmatory, and exploratory factor analysis were used to examine the construct validity, and Cronbach alpha and test-retest were employed to examine the reliability of the instrument. Results: The results of the content validity index and content validity ratio were calculated as 0.97 and 0.83, respectively. The explanatory factor analysis showed 14 factors with 68.29% total variance and 0.88 Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin index. The results were also confirmed with confirmatory factor analysis (relative Chi-square = 2453.49, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation = 0.04). The reliability of the RSC instrument, as measured by internal consistency, was found to be satisfactory (Cronbach α = 0.94). The results of test-retest reliability was r = 0.85, p

Background: In order to assess the cardiorespiratory condition of people and as a result to create a physiological symmetry between work and worker, physical work capacity is of high importance and can play a special role in choosing qualified workforce. Objectives: The current study aims to evaluate work capacity and examine the effect of body mass index (BMI) and body fat percentage (BFP) on aerobic capacity. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 50 male university students voluntarily participated. Work capacity was measured with the use of a treadmill and the Bruce protocol. BMI and BFP, as the variables of the research, were measured using the device while the subjects were undergoing the test. The relationship between the variables was investigated using the Pearson correlation test. Results: The mean and standard deviation of age for the people under the study was obtained as 21.36 ± 2.08 years. The mean and standard deviation of the aerobic capacity was estimated at 44.01 ± 4.75 (mL/kg/min). The results showed that there was a significant inverse relationship between BMI, BFP, and Maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max). The level of significant was set as 0.05 (P ≤ 0.05). Conclusions: The findings indicated that BMI and BFP, as the variables, were effective factors in the people's aerobic capacity. These indices can be used as a criterion for determining the aerobic capacity of people.

Background and aims: Safety culture of an organization is an essential strategy to reduce occupational accidents, and many industries around the world have shown their willingness to consider the concept as an approach to reduce daily incidents and potential disasters. The aim of this study is to design a valid tool for measuring safety culture, which is based on a model of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Methods: This is a descriptive-analytic study performed on 409 employees of an oil and gas exploration company in Ahvaz in 1392. After the initial questionnaire was prepared by the IAEAchr('39')s 5D model, the linguistic validity, content validity and construct validity were tested on questions. The reliability of the questionnaire was evaluated using test-retest methods and Cronbachchr('39')s alpha coefficient and data were analyzed using the software SPSS 18. Results: In studying content validity, the content validity index and total content validity ratio were obtained equal to 0.91 and 0.87, respectively. Confirmatory factor analysis of the questionnaire was evaluated, and KMO and Bartlett’s coefficients were obtained equal to 0.807 and 5237.791, respectively. In addition, factor analysis confirmed five factors in the study (including priority to safety, leadership, responsibility, safety integrity and learning), which accounted for 69.813% of the total variance. The results showed that the final questionnaire is reliable (α=0.902) and repeatable (ICC=0.899). There was a significant correlation between dimensions of the safety culture questionnaire (p

Background: Resilience engineering is a new approach for safety management. The purpose of this paper was to determine indicators constructing organizational resilience as an important part of overall resilience. Methods: This was a qualitative study. The data collection method was semi-structured interviews as well as the discussion group method. The data were analyzed with conventional qualitative content analysis. Results: Overall, 232 primary codes were classified in 81 sub-indicators and 11 indicators. Eleven indicators were as follows: management commitment, performance management system, flow of information/communication, involvement culture, error management system, education, preparedness, flexibility, innovation culture, change management, and human resource management. Conclusions: Refineries and other firms are recommended to evaluate the situation of any identified indicators, therefore, they can promote the level of resilience by improving any indicator.

Background If shutdown scenario of burner of the sulfur recovery unit takes place, toxic release, fire, and explosion accident can easily occur. Therefore, it is essential to assess the basic causes of burner shutdown scenario. Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) could be used to assess the occurrence probabilities of burner shutdown scenario and its basic causes/events. The failure occurrence probability of these Basic Events (BE) are often not available in lack of data and uncertain conditions. Objectives This study was done to provide a comprehensive approach for analyzing and calculating BE failure occurrence probability affecting the shutdown scenario, using combined fuzzy logic, expert judgment, and FTA. Methods The study was carried out from June to December, 2016. In this study, a fuzzy-based approach based on expert judgment was proposed to calculate the occurrence probability of burner shutdown scenario in lack of data and uncertain conditions. The brainstorming and FMEA, and HAZOP study were first used to identify fault events of the fault tree. Then, based on these methods, the fault tree was constructed. Subsequently, the failure occurrence probabilities of BE and shutdown scenario were calculated using the fuzzy-based approach and a conventional approach. Finally, the Fussell-Vesely importance analysis was used to rank the BE in FTA. Results Results showed that the occurrence probability of shutdown scenario was 4.76E-04 per year. Since the failure occurrence probabilities of some BEs were not available, using failure probability functions in the conventional approach cannot provide failure occurrence probabilities of those BE. Therefore, the occurrence probability of shutdown scenario based on the conventional approach was not available. Based on the Fussell-Vesely importance measure analysis, it was determined that the blower failure while running, air pre-heater blockage, and shut-off valve fail close were 3 major causes of “burner shutdown scenario”. Conclusions The fuzzy-based approach could derive a failure occurrence probability of BE based on expert subjective judgments using the failure possibility distributions (FPDs) in lack of data conditions. This study overcame the weaknesses of the conventional approach, to calculate BE failure occurrence probabilities via fuzzy logic.

Background The implementation of a safety program is one of the most effective factors in increasing productivity. A look to safety from the perspective of efficiency can indicate necessary investment in safety for all, especially the managers of companies. Objectives The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of safety costs on some indicators of productivity and quality in industrial companies. Methods This study was a retrospective analysis and was implemented in five steel companies in Ahvaz. The data relating to the safety costs such as staffing costs and total safety costs, and productivity and quality indicators were collected in five years. This information and data were collected according to statistics from documents and archives of safety, accounting, and production sectors of companies. Costs as well as numbers and figures of variables were expressed in the form of per capita and percentage to make the data comparable. Linear and generalized regression models and Wald Chi-Square test were used by the SPSS 22 software to determine the relationships between them. Results Safety costs such as capita labor safety costs and capita total safety costs or percentage safety labor costs to labor costs, showed a significant positive effect on labor productivity, labor competitiveness, total factor productivity, quality index and production rates (in some cases, P = 0.001). Conclusions The total safety cost and safety labor compensation generally, regardless of the nature and quality of the safety management system, can impact productivity, quality and quantity of production in addition to other factors of production. Surely if safety programs are targeted and codified, the effect of the investment will be doubled.

Background The complexity of modern sociotechnical systems has created new challenges for safety, so that traditional approaches are not able to cope with them. Resilience engineering (RE) is a good alternative to traditional approaches for safety management, however resilience is still a difficult concept to measure, and indicators such as buffering capacity, flexibility, and so on, which are thought to contribute to it, are undeveloped. Objectives This study aimed at expanding buffering capacity as one of the main indicators in order to facilitate measurement of resilience of a system. Materials and Methods We used the Delphi method in order to identify indicators, and data related to all the indicators were gathered by observation and interview. In this line, 32 of the experienced operators with at least 15 years of operational record were selected for semi-structured interviews. Gathered data was processed by the principal component analysis technique. The results were processed by the Minitab 15 software. Results In this study, 29 factors affecting this indicator were determined using the Delphi method; the scores of all factors were less than the scores of the best practice. On the other hand, the state of this indicator was poor in plant included in the study. Conclusions This was the first study that focused on expanding resilience indicators, and presents a new framework to simplify assessment of resilience and safety of a complex system.

a b s t r a c t Safety issue in a chemical plant is absolutely critical because loss of control can result in a catastrophic consequence which is not limited to the boundaries of the plant. Thus, a risk assessment system is required for (a) preventing accidents by anticipation, (b) surviving disturbances by recovery, and (c) handling disruptive events by adaptation. RE is a proactive approach claiming to achieve all these objectives. The present research tries to identify challenges in the procedure of building RE and its adaptive capacity in a chemical plant. Primary data were collected through on-site observations and interviewing personnel. The results indicated the main challenges could be classified into nine categories of: lack of explicit experience about RE, intangibility of RE level, choosing production over safety, lack of reporting systems, ‘religious beliefs’, out-of-date procedures and manuals, poor feedback loop, and economic problems. Finally, it is concluded that the management insight about safety in such systems should avoid hindsight bias and tend to create foresight. Changing this insight can lead to achieve high reliability and resilience in the plant. © 2011 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Resilience engineering (RE) is the inherent capacity of a plant to cope with complex and unexpected events. The real challenge for RE is to recognize that complex systems are dynamic and that dynamic systems may sometimes change from a state of dynamic stability into a state of dynamic instability. This article explores RE based on safety culture indicators and managerial factors. In a plant survey we measured seven safety culture indicators and four management factors that are known to influence RE. We describe a simple survey method that can be used to identify deficiencies related to RE. For example, we found three major problems; that is, (a) poor safety training, (b) poor management of change, and (c) poor attitudes (looking for scapegoats and placing production ahead of safety). © 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog, 2012