A survey on occupational accidents’ reporting and registration systems in the European Union

This paper presents the results of a survey on the procedures for reporting occupational accidents in the EU countries. It focuses particularly on the reporting and registration systems, as well as on the main characteristics of National Databases being used for the production of official statistics. The survey shows that many European countries have different methods and procedures for collecting and compiling data on occupational accidents, which inevitably pose problems when comparing accident statistics between the EU member states.The paper includes a brief review of the main goals and achievements of the European Project ESAW (European Statistics on Accidents at Work), which was launched in 1990 by the Eurostat (European Statistics), for the harmonisation of occupational accidents’ statistics among the member states. It is believed that the new variables being introduced by the harmonised methodology will quickly affect the way in which managers and insurance companies carry out their current procedures in several EU member states.The International Labour Organisation (ILO) recommendations and the future trends are also analysed. In conclusion, the study identifies opportunities for further development and research in the reporting and registration systems of occupational accidents.     

Overcoming the blame game to learn from major accidents: A systemic analysis of an Anhydrous Ammonia leakage accident

This article aims to demonstrate the need for changing the methods with which accidents are analyzed, if we truly wish to use what we uncover from them to learn and enrich our knowledge base of organizational management. The goal is to relinquish the broadly adopted and rather simplistic paradigm that accepts the search for human error and unsafe acts performed by workers, and produces “guilt diagnostics”. Instead, we use a systemic accident analysis methodology, based on the sociotechnical principle of understanding the real operating conditions in which accidents take place. In order to demonstrate the benefits of the theoretical framework, we compare the analyses of an Anhydrous Ammonia gas leakage accident in a fish processing plant using the traditional accident analysis model based on unsafe acts and the proposed systemic approach. The results favor the latter since it tends to be more reliable and offering useful recommendations to safety management processes, thus helping to prevent accidents, especially in complex systems.     

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.     

Electronic version of the encyclopaedia of occupational health and safety as a source of definitions

PROBLEM: Continuous progress in the occupational safety and health field, as well as social-economic development, generates a need for access to definitions. Definitions are usually scattered in many sources and not easy to find. Electronic documents give new opportunity to information access. METHOD: As an experiment, the feasibility of automatic full-text searching of definitions was examined using the Encyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety, edited by the International Labour Organization (ILO), on CD-ROM. DISCUSSION: The results were compared with the traditional index search by subject, using the paper version of the encyclopedia. The automatic search appeared successful; about 100 definitions were excerpted the automatic way. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: As in most industries, finding accurate information is a necessity in the safety industry. The electronic document seems to be a powerful instrument as a source of definitions and can be quite easy to use by specialists as well as safety personnel in information processing.     

On the development of a new hybrid risk assessment process using occupational accidents’ data: Application on the Greek Public Electric Power Provider

The occupational accidents have a major impact upon human integrity and also bring about high costs for the social health and insurance system of a country. In addition, risk analysis is an essential process for the safety policy of a company, having as main aim the effacement of any potential of damage in a productive procedure, while the quantified risk evaluation is the most crucial part of the whole procedure of assessing hazards in the work. The main goal of this study is double: a) the development and presentation of a new hybrid risk assessment process (HRAP) and b) the application of HRAP in the Greek Public Power Corporation (PPC) (the unique electric power provider and the largest industry in Greece), by using occupational accidents that have been recorded, during the 12-year period of 1993-2004. The new process consists of four distinct phases a) the hazard sources’ identification phase, b) the risk consideration phase, c) the risk-evaluation phase, and d) the phase of the risk assessment and safety-related decision making. The results show that in some cases the risk value has been calculated in PPC to be higher than 500 (in the risk rating of 0-1000), which imposes the taking of suppressive measures for abolishing the danger source, while the fatal accident frequency rate (per 10⁸ man-hrs) is FAFR ≅ 2.4.     

安太堡露天煤矿职业健康安全管理体系绩效分析

通过对安太堡露天煤矿职业健康安全管理体系认证前后安全生产管理基础数据的调查和统计,采用定性和定量的分析方法对该企业的安全管理水平进行了绩效对比分析和模型分析。结果表明,对于露天煤矿企业,建立职业健康安全管理体系有利于提高企业安全管理的水平;同时证明,该绩效分析方法具有分析过程简单、分析结果科学实用等优点。     

The role of production and teamwork practices in construction safety: A cognitive model and an empirical case study

Problem

In construction, the challenge for researchers and practitioners is to develop work systems (production processes and teams) that can achieve high productivity and high safety at the same time. However, construction accident causation models ignore the role of work practices and teamwork. This study investigates the mechanisms by which production and teamwork practices affect the likelihood of accidents.

Method

The paper synthesizes a new model for construction safety based on the cognitive perspective (Fuller's Task-Demand-Capability Interface model, 2005) and then presents an exploratory case study. The case study investigates and compares the work practices of two residential framing crews: a 'High Reliability Crew' (HRC)—that is, a crew with exceptional productivity and safety over several years, and an average performing crew from the same company.

Results

The model explains how the production and teamwork practices generate the work situations that workers face (the task demands) and affect the workers ability to cope (capabilities). The case study indicates that the work practices of the HRC directly influence the task demands and match them with the applied capabilities. These practices were guided by the 'principle' of avoiding errors and rework and included work planning and preparation, work distribution, managing the production pressures, and quality and behavior monitoring.

Summary

The Task Demand-Capability model links construction research to a cognitive model of accident causation and provides a new way to conceptualize safety as an emergent property of the production practices and teamwork processes. The empirical evidence indicates that the crews' work practices and team processes strongly affect the task demands, the applied capabilities, and the match between demands and capabilities.

Impact on Industry

The proposed model and the exploratory case study will guide further discovery of work practices and teamwork processes that can increase both productivity and safety in construction operations. Such understanding will enable training of construction foremen and crews in these practices to systematically develop high reliability crews.     

Developing a new alternative risk assessment framework in the work sites by including a stochastic and a deterministic process: A case study for the Greek Public Electric Power Provider

An individual method cannot achieve the optimum risk-assessment result in the worksites, and future perspectives should focus on the parallel application of a deterministic approach with a stochastic approach. In particular, the risk analysis and assessment techniques of the deterministic (DET) approach are classified into three main categories: (a) the qualitative, (b) the quantitative, and (c) the hybrid techniques (qualitative-quantitative, semi-quantitative). Furthermore, the stochastic (STO) approach includes the classic statistical approach (CSA) and the accident forecasting modeling (AFM). The objective of this paper is triple: (a) the presentation and classification of the main risk analysis and risk assessment methods and techniques of the deterministic approach and the stochastic approach as well, (b) the development and presentation of a new alternative risk assessment framework (called as STODET) including a stochastic and a deterministic process, and (c) the application of STODET in the Greek Public Power Corporation (PPC) by using occupational accidents that have been recorded, during the 17-year period of 1993-2009. In particular, the STODET application proves that required actions (or suppressive measures) are essential and must be taken in a medium-term period (1 working year) for abolishing the hazard sources.     

Traffic accident reconstruction and an approach for prediction of fault rates using artificial neural networks: A case study in Turkey

Objective: Currently, in Turkey, fault rates in traffic accidents are determined according to the initiative of accident experts (no speed analyses of vehicles just considering accident type) and there are no specific quantitative instructions on fault rates related to procession of accidents which just represents the type of collision (side impact, head to head, rear end, etc.) in No. 2918 Turkish Highway Traffic Act (THTA 1983). The aim of this study is to introduce a scientific and systematic approach for determination of fault rates in most frequent property damage–only (PDO) traffic accidents in Turkey.

Methods: In this study, data (police reports, skid marks, deformation, crush depth, etc.) collected from the most frequent and controversial accident types (4 sample vehicle–vehicle scenarios) that consist of PDO were inserted into a reconstruction software called vCrash. Sample real-world scenarios were simulated on the software to generate different vehicle deformations that also correspond to energy-equivalent speed data just before the crash. These values were used to train a multilayer feedforward artificial neural network (MFANN), function fitting neural network (FITNET, a specialized version of MFANN), and generalized regression neural network (GRNN) models within 10-fold cross-validation to predict fault rates without using software. The performance of the artificial neural network (ANN) prediction models was evaluated using mean square error (MSE) and multiple correlation coefficient (R).

Results: It was shown that the MFANN model performed better for predicting fault rates (i.e., lower MSE and higher R) than FITNET and GRNN models for accident scenarios 1, 2, and 3, whereas FITNET performed the best for scenario 4. The FITNET model showed the second best results for prediction for the first 3 scenarios. Because there is no training phase in GRNN, the GRNN model produced results much faster than MFANN and FITNET models. However, the GRNN model had the worst prediction results. The R values for prediction of fault rates were close to 1 for all folds and scenarios.

Conclusions: This study focuses on exhibiting new aspects and scientific approaches for determining fault rates of involvement in most frequent PDO accidents occurring in Turkey by discussing some deficiencies in THTA and without regard to initiative and/or experience of experts. This study yields judicious decisions to be made especially on forensic investigations and events involving insurance companies. Referring to this approach, injury/fatal and/or pedestrian-related accidents may be analyzed as future work by developing new scientific models.     

The Merseyside Accident Information Model (MAIM) can reveal components of accidents that lead to attendance at fracture clinics and cause disability: a new approach to accident prevention

The objectives of this study were to identify components of accidents that cause the most disability and to discover the principal sources of injuries treated in the fracture clinics. Patients attending fracture clinics of the Royal Liverpool University Hospital were interviewed using a portable computer-based questionnaire, the Merseyside Accident Information Model (MAIM). Patients were followed up by telephone interview or letter to enquire about disability continuing after discharge. Disability was measured by the pre-accident to post-discharge changes in scores for 11 normal functions. Of the 1326 patients interviewed, 900 (68%) were successfully followed up and 37% reported disability after discharge. First events ‘tripping’, ‘slipping’ and ‘other underfoot events’ accounted for 433 patients (194 reporting disability), and ‘collapsed/fainted — no other event' for 66 patients (27 reporting disability). Activities at the time of accident most frequently associated with disability involved moving about on foot. Among first event objects, ground surfaces and underfoot hazards were reported in 35%. Sources of injuries included underfoot accidents (48%), sport (13%), and transport accidents (12%.). Underfoot accidents contributed to 58% of patients reporting disability, sport 6% and transport accidents 11%. Underfoot accidents together with ‘collapsed/fainted — no other event’ accounted for 79% of female patients reporting disability and 50% of men. Such data could be used for cost-effective targeting of preventative measures, and to study the effectiveness of accident prevention initiatives.     

Characteristics and clinical outcomes of head-injured cyclists with and without helmets in urban and rural areas of Taiwan: A 15-year study

Objective: Bicycle riding is increasingly popular in Taiwan, but the number of cyclists injured and cyclists' death rates are both increasing. The aim of this study was to investigate the different characteristics and clinical outcomes of traffic accident–related head injuries among cyclists in urban and rural areas.

Methods: Records of 812 patients (533 urban and 279 rural) admitted to 27 hospitals in Taipei City and Hualien County as the result of a traumatic head injury while bicycling between 1998 and 2013 were retrieved for study. Demographics, details about the accident, protective helmet use, and clinical outcomes were then subjected to analysis.

Results: Urban victims were more likely to be injured during morning and early evening rush hours and rural victims during the day; most urban victims were between 19 and 34 years of age and injured in the slow lane; rural victims tended to be younger or older and were injured in the fast lane (all P ≤.001). Riders who wore a helmet were less likely to suffer loss of consciousness (odds ratio [OR] = 0.31), amnesia (OR = 0.069), neurological disorders (OR = 0.205), or facial fractures (OR = 0.369). Older age, more severe head injuries, and bicycle–motor vehicle collisions influenced the severity of symptoms on admission and the residual effects at discharge.

Conclusions: Differences in the characteristics of injuries in urban and rural areas and the utilization of protective helmets may help government authorities adopt appropriate policies to promote safer and more enjoyable cycling.     

Scenario deduction of Natech accident based on dynamic Bayesian network: A case study of landslide accident in a liquor storage tank area in Guizhou Province,China

Industrial technical accidents caused by natural disasters are defined as Natech accidents, such as earthquakes and landslides, which can cause tremendous damage to industrial storage tanks, and lead to accidental leakage and even serious fire and explosion accidents. In this study, a landslide-induced storage tank accident model under earthquake disasters was proposed, and the relationship between landslide mass impact and target impact resistance was taken into account. Also, tank failure and the formation of the pool fire were considered to be the consequences of the Natech accident. Through scenario deduction, the dynamic process of landslide Natech was transformed qualitatively into a disaster chain network diagram composed of a scenario state, a disaster-causing factor and emergency management. The Bayesian network was used to learn and deduce the parameters of the network diagram, and in this process, the prior probability and conditional probability of nodes were obtained primarily by Monte Carlo simulation, and by an improved expert scoring method based on the fuzzy set theory. Through visualization software, the sensitivity analysis of landslide Natech was achieved. Finally, a case study of a liquor storage tank area in Guizhou Province, China was carried out, and the results show that a large amount of hazardous material leakage caused by buckling is key to the formation of pool fire accidents, and several prevention measures for earthquake-induced landslide Natech was proposed according to the sensitivity analysis.     

Prevention and mitigation of injuries and damages arising from the activity of subliminal enterprises: A case study in Slovakia

The paper focuses on risk sources under no legislative pressure in the field of prevention of major accidents. Despite this, they can represent significant sources of risk of accidents.The aim of the paper is to present the results of the risk assessment associated with the operation of enterprises not regulated by the SEVESO III Directive (the so-called subliminal enterprises), to provide information on possible operational problems and to verify the applicability of recognized risk analysis methods for these specific sources of risk. Last but not least, its purpose is to point out that subliminal enterprises, due to their location close to residential areas or areas with a high concentration of population, pose a serious risk to the population.The paper summarizes the results of the quantitative risk assessment of a specific enterprise not included in the Seveso Directive – a filling station. Filling stations are frequently located in built-up areas with a dense coefficient of habitability. Due to their number, location (e.g. close to residential areas), frequency of occurrence of persons in the area and handling of dangerous substances during normal operation, they can have negative or even tragic consequences to the life and health of the population.Due to the non-existent risk assessment methodology for enterprises with subliminal quantities of dangerous substances and the lack of a systematic search for risk sources, a risk assessment procedure for these companies is designed.     

Routinization of job context and job content as related to employees' quality of working life: A study of Canadian nurses

The literature on routinization of work is both ambiguous and equivocal when its impact on quality of working life is considered. The classical management literature suggests that routinization of work has a positive influence on individual performance and by implication on the quality of working life resulting from the overall prosperity generated. However, more recent literature on job characteristics and job design argues that routinization of work has a negative impact on individual performance as it suppresses creative expression on the job. This paper suggests that these mixed findings are due to an inadequate theoretical grasp of the concept of routinization and presents empirical evidence which attempts to clarify the ambiguity. Data were collected from 1148 nurses working in anglophone hospitals in the greater Montreal area in the form of a field survey questionnaire. The results indicated that nurses who worked routine shifts perceived higher levels of quality of working life compared to those on non-routine shifts. The results also indicated that nurses who experienced high routinization in job content perceived lower levels of quality of working life compared to those nurses who experienced low routinization in job content. Implications of these findings for future research are discussed.     

2002-2014年我国煤矿重特大事故特征及发生规律研究

为了研究我国煤矿重特大事故的一般规律,分析了2002-2014年我国煤矿发生的421起重特大事故,得到我国煤矿重特大事故的基本特征.利用统计分析法从地域、类型、所有制3个维度综合分析了421起煤矿重特大事故.结果表明:山西、贵州、河南、黑龙江和湖南5个省份的重特大事故起数和死亡人数分别占全国总数的56.1％和56.8％,是我国需重点监管和治理的省份,并对山西、河南和黑龙江3省重特大事故频发的原因进行了分析;瓦斯事故和水害事故的发生起数及死亡人数占比分别为83.3％和86.3％,是需要重点防治的事故类型;国有重点煤矿重特大事故平均每起死亡人数为29.87,且近两年重特大事故起数和死亡人数均大幅度上升,是需要重点防范的对象;乡镇煤矿重特大事故起数及死亡人数下降速度均较快,但事故起数和死亡人数仍较多,是国家重点监控、治理的对象.     

Occupational safety and health as an element of a complex compensation system evaluation within an organization

Occupational safety and health (OSH) plays a significant role in today’s organizations, because it helps in attracting and retaining employees as well as molding their attitudes and behaviors at work. This is why the issue of OSH is stressed in a comprehensive approach to employee rewards: the total reward concept. This article explains how OSH may be included in a complex evaluation process of the compensation system. Although the literature on the effectiveness of employee compensation refers mainly to financial and non-financial components, there is a need for inclusion of working conditions in such analyses. An evaluation of the compensation system that incorporates OSH can drive many benefits for both the organization and employees. Obtaining such benefits, however, requires systematic evaluation of the reward system, including OSH. Incorporation of OSH issue within the comprehensive analysis of compensation systems promotes responsible behavior of all stakeholders.     

Interactive mechanism of working environments and construction behaviors with cognitive work analysis: an elevator installation case study

Unsafe behavior is a leading factor in accidents, and the working environment significantly affects behaviors. However, few studies have focused on detailed mechanisms for addressing unsafe behaviors resulting from environmental constraints. This study aims to delineate these mechanisms using cognitive work analysis (CWA) for an elevator installation case study. Elevator installation was selected for study because it involves operations at heights: falls from heights remain a major cause of construction worker mortality. This study adopts a mixed research approach based on three research methodology stages. This research deconstructs the details of the working environment, the workers’ decision-making processes, the strategies chosen given environmental conditions and the conceptual model for workers’ behaviors, which jointly depict environment–behavior mechanisms at length. By applying CWA to the construction industry, environmental constraints can easily be identified, and targeted engineering suggestions can be generated.     

A systems approach to extraordinarily major coal mine accidents in China from 1997 to 2011: an application of the HFACS approach

This study aimed to provide a greater understanding of the systemic factors involved in coal mine accidents and to examine the relationships between the contributing factors across all levels of the system. Ninety-four extraordinarily major coal mine accidents that occurred in China from 1997 to 2011 were analyzed using the human factors analysis and classification system (HFACS). The empirical results showed that the frequencies of unsafe behaviors, inadequate regulation and failure to correct hidden dangers were the highest among five levels, 14 categories and 48 indicators, respectively. The odds ratio technique was applied to quantitatively examine the relationships between contributing factors. Various statistically significant associations were discovered and should receive greater attention in future attempts to develop accident measures. In addition, several strategies concerning the main contributing factors and routes to failure are proposed to prevent accidents from reoccurring in an organization.     

Simulation of scenario characteristics of LPG tank explosion accident and its contribution to emergency planning: A case study

Leakage and explosion of hazardous chemicals during road transportation can cause serious building damage and casualties, and adoption of highly-efficient emergency rescue measures plays a critical role in reducing accidental hazards. Considering a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) transport tanker explosion accident that occurred in Wenling, Zhejiang Province, China on June 13, 2020 as example, this study proposes a risk assessment framework. This framework recreates the leakage and explosion of the accident process using FLACS v10.9, suggests plans for evacuation, describes the rescue areas of different levels, and explores the influence of environmental factors on the evacuation and rescue areas. The results show that simulated and predicted distributions of fuel vapour cloud concentration and explosion overpressure can provide a reference basis for rapid rescue activities; the characterization of the dynamic effects of wind speed, wind direction, and temperature with respect to the evacuation and rescue areas can be used as theoretical support for on-site adjustment of rescue forces. The role of obstacles can prevent the expansion of the evacuation areas under low wind-speed conditions, and the presence of highly congested obstacles determines the level of the rescue area. The results obtained are important for the risk analysis and the development of emergency rescue measures in case of explosion accidents associated with transportation of hazardous chemicals on high-hazard and high-sensitive road sections.     

A comparative study of vocational education and occupational safety and health training in China and the UK

In order to enhance Chinese workers’ occupational safety awareness, it is essential to learn from developed countries’ experiences. This article investigates thoroughly occupational safety and health (OSH) in China and the UK; moreover, the article performs a comparison of Chinese and British OSH training-related laws, regulations and education system. The following conclusions are drawn: China’s work safety continues to improve, but there is still a large gap compared with the UK. In China a relatively complete vocational education and training (VET) system has been established. However, there exist some defects in OSH. In the UK, the employer will not only pay attention to employees’ physiological health, but also to their mental health. The UK’s VET is characterized by classification and grading management, which helps integrate OSH into the whole education system. China can learn from the UK in the development of policies, VET and OSH training.