Making work environment auditable – A ‘critical case’ study of certified occupational health and safety management systems in Denmark

This paper discusses the impact of certification on occupational health and safety management (OHSM) systems. Most research in the field has focused on how well such systems comply with voluntary standards such as OHSAS 18001 or with national and international legislation. However, this paper shows that even in cases of compliance, the certified systems have problems dealing with a range of contemporary complex work environment issues. Furthermore, certification also transforms the kinds of topics addressed and the procedures and activities applied in the system. Using the (in many ways successful) development of certified OHSM system in a manufacturing company in Denmark as a critical case, we demonstrate how certified OHSM systems unintentionally yet actively create an environment of ‘measurable and auditable facts’ shaped not only in response to legal and market demands for a safe work environment, but also as a consequence of the external demands for a visible and accountable work environment standard. We show how certified OHSM systems function like a hinge between internal operations and an external audience in a globalized market, thus giving priority to work environment issues that may later become demonstrable guarantees for a safe and healthy work environment. Thus the certified management system does not necessarily tackle the most urgent work environment issues and may exclude important aspects of the work environment such as psychosocial factors.     

绿色化工环保技术与环境治理的关系

我国化工产业的不断发展,带动了我国经济的飞速发展,给人们的生活带来了许多便利条件,但是与此同时也对我国的环境造成了严重的破坏,化工生产用到许多化学材料,在生产过程中会产生大量的化学废弃物,对环境的污染造成很严重的影响。我国对化工生产给环境保护造成的影响高度重视,随着绿色化工环保技术的出现,有效解决了化工产业造成的环境污染问题,对我国的环境问题进行了有效的改善,对我国工业的发展具有重要意义。本文针对绿色化工环保技术进行分析,探讨绿色化工环保技术在环境治理中的有效应用。     

Pushing and pulling: an assessment tool for occupational health and safety practitioners

A tool has been developed for supporting practitioners when assessing manual pushing and pulling operations based on an initiative by two global companies in the manufacturing industry. The aim of the tool is to support occupational health and safety practitioners in risk assessment and risk management of pushing and pulling operations in the manufacturing and logistics industries. The tool is based on a nine-multiplier equation that includes a wide range of factors affecting an operator’s health risk and capacity in pushing and pulling. These multipliers are based on psychophysical, physiological and biomechanical studies in combination with judgments from an expert group consisting of senior researchers and ergonomists. In order to consider usability, more than 50 occupational health and safety practitioners (e.g., ergonomists, managers, safety representatives and production personnel) participated in the development of the tool. An evaluation by 22 ergonomists supports that the push/pull tool is user friendly in general.     

现代铝业生态环境系统研究

资源和环境问题是我国面临的严重的生态安全和环境安全问题,也是制约我国工业可持续发展的战略问题。生态铝业是与环境协调发展的环境友好的工业体系,它有效地解决了传统铝业发展和生态环境保护之间的矛盾。传统铝业耗电量大、污染严重、生产成本高;现代铝业属于生态工业,它以循环经济为指导,推行清洁生产,发展热电联产,促进污染物的资源化,减少废弃物的排放,降低了铝业生产的物耗、能耗和生产成本,增加了市场竞争力,形成整个工业系统的良性循环。笔者提出了现代铝业生态系统的框架,并简单介绍了主要子系统的清洁生产途径。以期抛砖引玉,促进现代铝业生态环境系统的研究,推动生态铝业在我国的实践和发展。     

化工安全生产与生态环境保护管理措施探究

现代社会进入一个科技化、现代化发展阶段,人们的生活条件不断提升,其中诸多民生相关的产业都发挥着关键作用。化工产业作为社会产业基础构成部门与民生息息相关。但从其基本属性来看,实践工作难免会遇到一些安全性的问题,以及相应的环境污染。需要探索生态环境保护管理与化工安全生产协调配合的有效措施,由此才能达成可持续化发展目标,提升其积极影响作用。     

基于MMA7260QT的危险场所跌倒检测设备的研制

在石化企业生产过程中,如何正确检测判别跌倒行为已成为危险场所安全防护的关键,传统的判别方法已不适应石化行业特殊的工作环境和行为特点。通过对三轴加速度传感器MMA7260QT原理的研究,结合毒性气体传感器和无线传输技术,采用低功耗微处理器MSP430F249,研制了一种危险场所用跌倒检测设备。介绍了三轴加速度传感器MMA7260QT的结构和原理,给出了设备系统设计。根据石化行业危险场所特点,建立了跌倒模型,分析了三轴加速度传感器检测信息的处理,确定出跌倒判断阈值。实验结果表明,研制的设备跌倒检测准确,符合石化行业危险场所应用需求。     

冶金行业安全生产标准发展现状与对策研究

首先分析了我国冶金行业安全生产标准发展现状和存在的主要问题,论述了冶金行业安全生产标准发展规划以及从纵向产业链生产诸单元和横向关键生产环节(工艺)安全生产标准所覆盖的较为完整的冶金行业安全生产标准体系。最后阐述了冶金行业安全生产标准发展对策。     

清洁生产:化学工业的可持续发展道路

着重论述了清洁生产对我国化工行业持续发展的重要性,通过借鉴发达国家的经验,从环境管理学的角度提出了我国化工行业清洁生产的途径及方法。     

Factors contributing to US chemical plant process safety incidents from 2010 to 2020

Process safety incidents can result in injuries, fatalities, environmental impacts, facility damage, downtime & lost production, as well as impacts on a company's and industry's reputation. This study is focused on an analysis of the most commonly reported contributing factors to process safety incidents in the US chemical manufacturing industry. The database for the study contained 79 incidents from 2010 to 2019, partly investigated by the Chemical Safety Board (CSB). To be included in the study, the CSB archive of incident investigations were parsed to include only incidents which occurred at a company classified as 325 in the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), assigned to businesses that participate in chemical manufacturing. For each incident, all of the identified contributing factors were catalogued in the database. From this list of identified contributing factors, it was possible to name the ‘top three’ contributing factors. The top three contributing factors cited for the chemical manufacturing industry were found to be: design; preventive maintenance; and safeguards, controls & layers of protection. The relationship between these top contributing factors and the most common OSHA citations was investigated as well. The investigation and citation history for NAICS 325 companies in the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) citations database was then analysed to assess whether there was any overlap between the top reported contributing factors to process safety events and the top OSHA citations recorded for the industry. A database consisting of the inspection and citation history for the chemical manufacturing industry identified by NAICS code 325 was assembled for inspections occurring between 2010 and 2020 (August). The analysis of the citation history for the chemical manufacturing industry specifically, identified that the list of the top contributing factors to process safety incidents overlapped with the most common OSHA violations. This finding is relevant to industry stakeholders who are considering how to strategically invest resources for achieving maximum benefit – reducing process safety risk and simultaneously improving OSHA citation history.     

An evaluation of occupational accidents in the wooden furniture industry - A regional study in South East Asia

Studies on the rate of occupational accidents among workers in the wooden furniture industry is sparse, although the industry is deemed to be highly accident prone. Therefore, the rate of occupational accidents among workers in the wooden furniture industry in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam were studied, in 240 furniture manufacturing factories, using a structured questionnaire. The findings of the study suggest that contract workers are less prone to occupational accidents compared to their permanent counterparts, and hence, are more productive. Further, the results also revealed that the contract workers have a more positive attitude towards the work, and hence, pick up the essentials of safe working practices quickly. It must therefore be recognized that the “production oriented mentality” prevalent in the wooden furniture industry, which has been argued to compromise occupational safety and health standards in the industry may be debatable. In this context, it is essential for the policy makers to re-examine the employment of contract workers for the furniture manufacturing industry, as changing the psycho-economic parameters of the industry may be warranted before the industry is deemed attractive to a permanent workforce.     

基于杜邦STOP系统及行为安全理论的非煤矿山不安全行为研究

非煤矿山是典型的高危行业。为了规范作业人员的不安全行为,预防和减少生产事故,基于杜邦STOP系统及行为安全理论,通过行为观察、行为聚类,构建了非煤矿山不安全行为管理模型。对某大型非煤地下矿山的14类工种作业为期70天跟踪观察,收集统计生产作业中的不安全行为,通过分类整理,形成不同类别的不安全行为比例变化趋势图。结果表明:动力设备类、防护坠落类和其它类的不安全行为有明显的降低趋势;生产工艺类、常识危险类和供电系统类的不安全行为改善不明显。实例表明,基于杜邦STOP系统及行为安全理论的非煤矿山不安全行为研究具有实效性。     

Values-in-action that support safe production

Introduction: Safe production is a sustainable approach to managing an organization’s operations that considers the interests of both management and workers as salient stakeholders in a productive and safe workplace. A supportive culture enacts values versus only espousing them. These values-in-action are beliefs shared by both management and workers that align what should happen in performing organizational routines to be safe and be productive with what actually is done. However, the operations and safety management literature provides little guidance on which values-in-action are most important to safe production and how they work together to create a supportive culture. Method: The researchers conducted exploratory case studies in 10 manufacturing plants of 9 firms. The researchers compared plant managers’ top-down perspectives on safety in the performance of work and workers’ bottom-up experiences of the safety climate and their rates of injury on the job. Each case study used data collected from interviewing multiple managers, the administration of a climate survey to workers and the examination of the plant’s injury rates over time as reported to its third party health and safety insurer. Results: The researchers found that plants with four values-in-action —a commitment to safety, discipline, prevention and participation—were capable of safe production, while plants without those values were neither safe nor productive. Where culture and climate aligned lower rates of injury were experienced. Discussion and conclusion: The four value-in-actions must all be present and work together in a self-reinforcing manner to engage workers and managers in achieving safe production. Practical application: Managers of both operations and safety functions do impact safety outcomes such as reducing injuries by creating a participatory environment that encourage learning that improves both safety and production routines.     

Exploring the organisational preconditions for occupational accidents in food industry: A qualitative approach

The continuing high frequency of occupational accidents in the Swedish food industry calls for new approaches to better understand the underlying factors. In the present study, 54 accidents involving hand injuries were investigated from the operators’ perspective, to explore the organisational preconditions. In-depth interviews were conducted with operators and their supervisors, and 24 of these interviews were analysed using the grounded theory method. The core category ‘safety as a process’ was identified encompassing the perception of the process of the accident at operative level and organisational preconditions that increased the risk of occupational accidents. These preconditions were open factors: deficiencies in technical/physical environment and work organisation; and concealed factors: insufficient communication and learning, a high level of responsibility in combination with low control, conflicting goals and a gap between procedures and practice. These preconditions lead to risk acceptance, resignation towards improved safety and normalisation of risk. Through the analysis a five-step hypothesis was empirically generated.     

Effective environmental management through life cycle assessment

Unplanned and unsustainable development (particularly rapid industrialisation) has placed great pressure in every dimension of the environment (air, water, soil, health, etc.). The resulting disturbance in the natural ecological balance is a serious concern. Sustainable development is the need of the hour; it can only be achieved through effective environmental management. Environmental management will become indispensable in the future as regulatory restrictions tighten and public expectations of environmental performance increase. The day is not far away when a customer will prefer to buy products produced by an environmentally committed organisation. In short, the environmental commitment of an organisation will become a market strategy.

Environmental management is a set of actions based on a structured methodology to ensure that an organisation is committed to the environment and that the production process has minimal/no adverse affect on it. This article emphasises environmental management in the real engineering sense of the term, and discusses how to develop an effective environmental management system through life cycle assessment. It further demonstrates through a real life case study how an industry has achieved landmark success in managing its environment, production, as well as winning the good faith of society.     

The Effect of Job and Environmental Factors on Job Satisfaction in Automotive Industries

A methodology was developed for diagnosing industrial work, which includes questionnaire, observation, measurements, data collection and statistical analysis. A survey was conducted to investigate the relationship between job satisfaction and factors that affect work design in 2 automotives manufacturing companies in Malaysia. A basic work design model was proposed. The aim of this model was to determine the factors that influence employees’ perception towards their work. A set of multiple-choice questionnaires was developed and data was collected by interviewing employees at a production plant. The survey focused on job and environmental factors. The results supported the proposed model and showed that job and environmental factors were significantly related to job satisfaction. They highlighted the significant influence of age, work experience and marital status on job satisfaction. Further, environmental factors, especially the surroundings, context dependence and the building’s function, also had a significant impact on job satisfaction.     

机械制造业中事故原因的分析与控制

目前社会安全生产事故频频发生,形势非常严峻.在机械制造业中,如何对安全生产事故进行有效的预防,保持良好的安全生产秩序,这对安全生产,维护安全稳定是至关重要的.用系统分析的方法,对机械制造过程中,人-机器-环境这一封闭的系统,每一个环节进行了分析,从而总结出了预防事故的方法和原则,对实际的生产有重要的指导意义.     

废显像管玻璃循环经济模式系统分析研究

近年来,我国CRT显像管制造行业迅速发展,但制造显像管所需的大量优质矿石和化工原料的开采和合成过程却破坏了自然生态环境,还造成环境污染.同时,大量被淘汰和不合格的显像管被简单处理,造成巨大的优质资源浪费.采用系统分析的方法,对废显像管玻璃再利用进行环境分析,从而找出适合我国的废显像管玻璃循环经济模式,并使用模糊综合评价对废显像管玻璃循环经济效益的综合评价方式进行了探讨.     

Work environment investments: outcomes from three cases

Work environment investments are important in order to create a healthy and safe workplace. This article presents findings from a seven-step interventions process aimed at examining and following-up work environment investments in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with a particular focus on air contaminants. Three different cases were analyzed and included in the study: (a) an educational center for welding; (b) a paint station in furniture manufacturing; (c) a joinery in furniture manufacturing. The results show that the work environment investments were highly appreciated by the employees and managers, but at the same time the investment could be optimized through markedly decreased exposure levels for the worker. Factors such as follow-ups of the investment, education and training in how to use the equipment, worker involvement in the process and leadership engagement are important in order to optimize work environment investments.     

腐蚀性工业废气治理技术的研发及应用

这些年工业快速发展带动了我国经济快速发展,但是在工业生产过程中产生了大量的废气废液,有效处理这些工业有毒物质是工业发展需要面临的重要问题。本文在此基础上就腐蚀性工业废气治理技术的相关问题作了一定研究,以更好地促进我国经济的协调发展。     

城市河道水环境生态治理措施研究

近年来,城市化进程不断加剧,而生态环境也遭到了严重的破坏,特别是城市河道水环境的破坏,这也是当前急需解决的一项难题。在人们的日常生活和工作当中,水起着十分重要的作用,一旦城市河道出现问题,将会严重影响人们的正常生活,水资源的破坏是政府部门面临的主要困扰之一,也是阻碍城市经济发展的重要问题,为此,水利以及环保部门一定要采取措施进行解决,进而保证生态环境的发展。本文就城市河道水环境生态治理措施进行了深入分析和研究,以期为相关工作提供借鉴。