Seat belt use in the ambulance patient compartment by emergency medical services professionals is low regardless of patient presence,seating position,or patient acuity

Background: Inconsistent use of seat belts in an ambulance may increase the risk of injury for emergency medical services (EMS) professionals and their patients. Our objectives were to: (1) describe the prevalence of seat belt usage based on patient acuity and seat location, and (2) assess the association between EMS-related characteristics and consistent use of a seat belt. Methods: We administered a cross-sectional electronic questionnaire to a random sample of 20,000 nationally-certified EMS professionals, measuring seat belt use in each seating location of an ambulance during transport of stable, critical, or no patients. We included practicing, non-military, emergency medical technicians or higher who reported working in ambulances. We used multivariable logistic regression models to estimate the odds of consistent (≥50% of the time) use of seat belts for the rear-facing jump seat and right-sided crew bench during transport of stable and critical patients. Results: A total of 1431 respondents were included in the analysis. Patient compartment seat belt use varied with the highest use in forward-facing seats when no patient was being transported (59.8%) and lowest use in the left-side “CPR” seat with a critical patient (9.4%). Only 40.2% of respondents reported an agency policy regarding seat belt use while riding in the patient compartment. In all multivariable logistic regression models, advanced life support level certification and fewer years of experience were associated with decreased odds of consistent seat belt use. An agency seat belt policy was strongly associated with increased odds of seat belt use in the patient compartment. Conclusions: Seat belt use was low and varied by seating location and patient acuity in the patient compartment of an ambulance. Practical Applications: EMS organizations should consider primary prevention approaches of provider education, improved ambulance designs, enactment and enforcement of policies to improve seat belt compliance and provider safety.     

Location selection of emergency supplies repositories for emergency logistics management: A variable weighted algorithm

With the development of the city, the number of establishments that are proposed or under construction is increasing year by year, and if they are industries that handle flammable, explosive, toxic, harmful, and dangerous substances, the public safety will face great threats, which will bring great challenges to emergency rescue work. Therefore, providing reasonable solutions to the problem of location selection of emergency supplies repositories are necessary for improving the emergency response efficiency in chemical industrial parks. A mathematical model for location selection of emergency supplies repositories in emergency logistics management are presented considering more actual factors. The optimization objectives of the model are to minimize total transport length and cost. And then a Variable Weighted Algorithm is designed to solve the model, where an auxiliary function was constructed with different methods of building weighting factors based on the theory and method of solving multi-objective optimization problems in operational research. Simulation results show the effectiveness and feasibility of the models and algorithms presented in this paper.     

Hierarchical pre-positioning of emergency resources for a chemical industrial parks concentrated area

Accidents in chemical industrial parks always cause fateful damage which can be reduced greatly by providing emergency resources sufficiently and timely. One effective way to enhance the emergency response capacity and agility is by pre-positioning of emergency resources for the potential accidents. The Yangtze River Delta of China is a large region where a large number of chemical industrial parks are concentrated. According to the distributing characteristics of demand points in this region, a mathematical model of hierarchical pre-positioning of emergency resources is proposed to ensure that accidents in all chemical industrial parks in this region can be responded timely and effectively. Considering accident domino effect and minimizing the total cost, the model gives optimal decisions of pre-positioning emergency resources, including the location and inventory of depots. The innovative hierarchical pre-positioning method greatly reduces the total cost in the premise of sufficient preparation for supplying emergency resources. Finally, in a visual graph of the Yangtze River Delta, the model is applied and the result shows its applicability.     

Severity of e-scooter rider injuries associated with trip characteristics

Introduction: E-scooter rider injuries have been growing, but little is known about how trip and incident characteristics contribute to their severity. Method: We enrolled 105 adults injured while riding e-scooters who presented to an emergency department in Washington, DC, during 2019. Enrolled participants completed an interview during the emergency department visit, and their charts were abstracted to document their injuries and treatment. Logistic regression examined the association of incident location and circumstances with the likelihood of sustaining an injury on the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) ≥ 2, while controlling for rider characteristics. Results: The most common locations of e-scooter injuries in our study sample occurred on the sidewalk (58%) or road (23%). Accounting for other trip and rider attributes, e-scooter riders injured on the road were about twice as likely as those injured elsewhere to sustain AIS ≥ 2 injuries (RR, 1.96; 95% CI, 1.23–2.36) and those who rode at least weekly more often sustained AIS ≥ 2 injuries compared with less frequent riders (RR, 1.86; 95% CI, 1.11–2.32). Conclusions: Greater injury severity for riders injured on the road may reflect higher travel speeds. Practical applications: Injury severity associated with riding in the road is one factor that jurisdictions can consider when setting policy on where e-scooters should be encouraged to ride, but the risk of any crash or fall associated with facilities should also be examined. Although injuries are of lower severity on sidewalks, sharing sidewalks with slower moving pedestrians could potentially lead to more conflicts.     

Determination of emergency assembly point for industrial accidents with AHP analysis

Major industrial accidents, which are a type of technological disaster, are very important due to the security risks and financial damages that threaten the environment and human health in today's industrialization. In this study, it was aimed to propose an approach that will guide the decision makers to choose the emergency assembly point that should be in the distance or shelter where the employees will be not affected by the negative consequences of emergencies within the scope of the obligation of industrial establishments preparing an internal emergency plan for major industrial accidents. For this purpose, in the first stage, modelling studies were carried out with ALOHA (Areal Locations of Hazardous Atmospheres) Software over possible accident scenarios in an industrial establishment containing different types and amounts of hazardous chemicals. As a result of modelling studies, possible toxic emissions, fire and explosion effect distances and threat zones for the industrial establishment were obtained. In the second stage, the weights of the main and sub-selection criteria to be used in determining the assembly point were calculated. This stage was carried out based on the comparison data obtained as a result of the questionnaire applied to professionals with the help of AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) method, which is one of the multi-criteria decision making methods. In the last stage, three candidate points were selected considering the physical effect areas determined in the first stage in the boundaries of the establishment, where the employees were evaluated to be affected the minimum from the negative consequences of industrial accidents. These candidate points were evaluated again with the AHP method on the basis of the sub-criteria whose relative weights were determined in the second stage and a selection was made. As a result, an approach that provides the solution of our problem was obtained.     

河源市企业环境事故应急预案的评估与管理现状分析

结合应急预案编制相关要求及评估工作实际,分析了我市企业环境事故应急预案评估、备案及管理工作中存在的问题,并提出了建议和措施,以期为企业应急预案的评估和管理工作提供参考。     

An easy method to design gas/vapor relief system with rupture disk

Tank discharge gas/vapor flow problems are frequently encountered in both practice and design. To perform this type of design calculation, the first step is to identify whether the flow is choked or not through a trial-and-error solution of an equation for adiabatic flow with friction from a reservoir through a pipe. Developing a direct method without any trial-and-error to identify a choking condition would be helpful for expediting the flow calculations. This paper presents an easy and quick method to identify the choking of gas flow for an emergency relief system consisting of a rupture disk and vent piping. This greatly simplifies the design calculations. The proposed method for validating the venting adequacy of existing ERS circumvents the iteration calculation and the use of Lapple charts. Three case studies for the design of vent piping for rupture disks support the proposed method.     

突发性环境污染事故应急监测的措施分析

突发性环境污染事故会对环境造成较大的伤害,如果不能及时采取措施,就会使污染进一步扩大,不仅带来经济的损失,而且会破坏到生态的平衡。因此,要建立起突发环境污染事故的应急监测,这样才能尽可能的减少突发性环境污染事件的影响。基于此,本文从突发性环境污染事故的特征入手,首先分析其应急监测的意义,然后探究具体的措施,希望可以借此给突发性环境污染应急监测的相关研究提供一定的参考意见。     

便携式GC-MS仪快速测定水中硝基苯及其在应急监测中的应用

采用便携式GC-MS仪快速测定水中硝基苯,通过优化水中离子强度和顶空加热时间,使方法在0μg/L^300μg/L范围内线性良好,方法检出限为2.5μg/L。标准溶液6次测定结果的RSD为7.8%~10.9%,实际水样的加标回收率为80.7%~103%。同步测定试验表明,硝基苯与7种苯系物分离良好。与国标方法对比,该方法单个样品测定时间由2 h缩短为15 min。将该方法用于应急监测工作中,及时有效的数据可为污水处理及事故调查提供分析和研判依据。     

Survey-based analysis of evacuation preparation behaviors in a chemical leakage accident: A case study

Public evacuation preparation exerts an important impact on overall evacuation efficiency during regional evacuations. Early warnings often delay the occurrence of chemical accidents. Studying the characteristics of public evacuation preparation in such accidents will help develop better evacuation strategies considering the actual public response. In this work, the characteristics and factors influencing public evacuation preparation behaviors were analyzed by examining an evacuation case in China. The results indicated that the probability distribution of public's evacuation preparation time during a regional evacuation conforms to a Weibull distribution regardless of whether or not evacuation warnings were received. An estimation model of the traffic flow loading rate in a regional evacuation was then proposed on the basis of this finding. The results of this research can provide a reliable reference for evacuation modeling or logistics optimization for future incidents.