Evaluation of an integrative masters program in occupational health at the Tel Aviv University Medical School

Tel Aviv University conducts the Master's program in occupational health in Israel. The program is composed from three different disciplines: occupational physicians, industrial hygienists and psychosocial workers. The aim of the program was to train graduate academic professionals for the developing occupational health system in Israel. The program is a two year study, opens every second year and accommodates about thirty students per class. After the second class, comprehensive assessment was conducted by the Unit of Medical Education. The evaluation was done by means of personal interview of class leaders, teachers and students, using structured questionnaires. A similar evaluation was again conducted after graduation of the fourth class in 1993. Three aims of the assessment were defined: to learn about the students' and teachers' expectations of the course, the level of integration achieved between the occupational health professionals in the three disciplines; and to evaluate the employment status of the graduates upon completion of the course. Following the first evaluation, changes were implemented in the methods of student selection for the program. A new entering examination was constructed to ensure a common basic knowledge of the potential students in the three disciplines. Changes were also made in the curriculum regarding teaching hours and subjects. A major problem at that time was that most of the graduates could not find positions in the field, because of low awareness for occupational health in Israel. In the second evaluation done in 1993 a higher level of satisfaction of students and teachers from the program was noted. The average level of the accepted students was higher compared with those accepted earlier. Better and deeper integration between the three disciplines of studies was appreciated. More graduates of the program found jobs in the area of occupational health and there is a higher level of awareness of employers and high regards to the course.     

A preliminary validation of a new measure of occupational health and safety

INTRODUCTION: This article describes the validation of an instrument designed to conduct an Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) self-diagnosis using workers observations of tangible facts and actions in the workplace. The instrument puts the emphasis on observable factors that make it possible to act proactively before accidents actually occur. METHOD: Three companies were recruited from the printing sector in Québec based on their OHS performance (low, medium, and high), their interest in the project, and their availability. The master sample was composed of 269 people. Partial least squares (PLS) and vanishing tetrad analyses were used to study the behavior of the formative scales developed. RESULTS: The results indicate that partial revision of the instrument will be necessary to reach a fully satisfying level of validity. With regards to the statistical approach adopted, the use of a macro called CTA-SAS 2.0 developed by Bollen and Ting [Bollen, K.A., & Ting, K.-F. (1993). Confirmatory tetrad analysis. In P.V. Marsden (Ed.), Social methodology.Vol.23 (pp.147-176). Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 23] has proven to be effective in providing a suitable statistical treatment of the latent formative variables on which our instrument's development is based. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that the instrument appears to be relatively robust and appropriate to diagnose OHS leading measures. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: In the long run, this instrument will make it possible for companies to draw a more refined picture of OHS evolution, even in the absence of occupational injuries.     

Road safety effects of roundabouts in Flanders

INTRODUCTION: This paper analyzes the effect on road safety of 95 roundabouts that were built in Flanders between 1994 and 1999. RESULTS: The study shows that the effect on the number and severity of road accidents adjusted for the trend and regression to the mean is significant, but varies considerably in accordance with the speed limit regime on the intersection. Roundabouts are most effective on intersections of a main road with a high speed limit (90 km/h) and an adjacent road with a lower speed limit (50 or 70 km/h). The empirical analysis reveals a reduction of 34% (varying between 15% and 59%) for the total number of injury accidents, 30% (7%-45%) for light injury accidents, and 38% (27%-72%) for serious injury accidents. This study also takes a closer look at the impact of different post-implementation periods using accident data of 1-, 3-, or 6-years after the construction of a roundabout on the calculated effectiveness results and warns for a severe underestimation when a one-year period is used. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: An effective traffic safety policy based on scientific results thus requires some patience from the policy-makers.     

纺织新材料新技术及其在职业安全防护领域的应用

对一些纺织新材料和新技术在职业安全防护领域的应用进行了简要介绍。这些新材料和相关技术主要包括相变材料、高强高模纤维材料、超细纤维非织造材料、PTFE微孔膜材料、智能纺织品和纳米纺织材料。首先对这些材料和技术的基本原理进行了简要介绍,然后重点介绍其在安全生产应急救援及劳动者个体防护领域中已经实现的应用或可能的应用前景。如何推进不同学科之间研究工作的融合发展以及在应用领域的发展,尽快提高这些新材料与新技术在安全生产领域的应用水平,并拓展其应用范围,是材料科学工作者与安全生产领域专家面临的当务之急。应当从制度设计方面促成这种协作发展的局面早日形成。     

Realistic evaluation as a new way to design and evaluate occupational safety interventions

Recent debates regarding the criteria for evaluating occupational health and safety interventions have focused on the need for incorporating qualitative elements and process evaluation, in addition to attempting to live up to the Cochrane criteria. Reflecting fundamental epistemological conflicts and shortcomings of the Cochrane criteria in evaluating intervention studies, the debate challenges the traditional (quasi-) experimental design and methodology, which are often used within safety research. This article discusses a revised ‘realistic evaluation’ approach as a way to meet these challenges.Evidence from the literature as well as examples from an integrated (leader-based/worker-based) safety intervention study (2008-2010) in a large wood manufacturing company are presented, with focus on the pros and cons of using randomised-controlled-trials and a revised realistic evaluation model.A revised realistic evaluation model is provided which includes factors such as role behaviour, leader and worker motivation, underreporting of accidents/injuries, production pressure, unplanned organisational change and accounting for multilayer effects. These can be attained through qualitative and/or quantitative methods, allowing for the use of realistic evaluation in both large and small scale studies, as well as in systematic reviews. The revised realistic evaluation model offers a promising new way of designing and evaluating occupational safety research. This model can help safety science move forward in setting qualitative and/or quantitative criteria regarding context, mechanisms and processes for single studies and for reviews. Focus is not limited to whether the expected results appear or not, but include suggestions for what works for whom, under what circumstances, in what respects and how.     

职业健康监护分析在某金矿职业病危害预评价中的应用

在职业病危害预评价中职业健康监护分析的目的是发现易感人群,预测项目建成后可能发生的职业病情况.以某金矿职业病危害预评价为例,对类比工程、调研数据以及文献数据中的职业健康监护资料进行了分析,发现凿岩工是白指病、噪声聋、尘肺病三种职业病的易感人群,远远高出其他工种,是本项目职业病危害防护的重点;而采矿场破碎、运输工罹患尘肺病的可能性较大,矿运车司机可能会产生腰椎骨质增生和椎间盘突出,结合职业健康监护分析结果提出了有针对性的职业病危害补充控制措施,避免项目建成后职业病的发生.     

GAP—a fault-tree based methodology for analyzing occupational hazards

Occupational accidents are stochastic events. The moment of their occurrence cannot be predicted. However, their rate of occurrence may be reduced, albeit not to zero. Considerable effort has been invested into this objective. This led to decreasing numbers of accidents over the years, a tendency which seems, however, to have come to a standstill since approximately 1998. The potential of presently used methods like check lists or HAZOP-based approaches for evaluating and producing recommendations for reducing occupational hazards has apparently been exhausted. Hence, further improvement of the injury rates is expected only from the use of in-depth analysis methods. Therefore, fault tree analysis is applied to occupational safety. This leads to the formulation of the hazard base model and its representation by means of an occupational hazard tree. This tree serves as an example for the assessment of occupational hazards of work places and activities. The characteristic feature of the occupational hazard tree is the decomposition of the undesired event ‘injury’ into basic events. These are qualified verbally using the expressions ‘certain/permanently’, ‘impossible/never’, ‘probable/frequently’, ‘possible/occasionally’, ‘improbable/rarely’. The procedure is implemented in the program GAP (HazardAnalysisProgram), which enables one to generate and evaluate occupational hazard trees. A global verbal assessment of a workplace or an activity is then obtained. On its basis weaknesses of the occupational safety concept are identified, appropriate countermeasures are devised, they are prioritized and their efficiency is valuated. The procedure was successfully tested by analyzing two accidents and assessing a workplace at a major industrial firm.     

Towards a constructivist program in safety

This paper delves into the relationship between safety and constructivism. In the past 30 years, the constructivist discourse has become very popular but also controversial as it challenges some key categories associated with modernity, such as reason, objectivity, truth and reality. In the safety literature, several works advocate its use. This paper has three objectives. The first one is to reveal the existence of a constructivist discourse in the field of safety. It does this by bringing together scattered pieces of works from different authors who endorse and apply to various topics a position labelled as constructivist. However, and that is the paper’s second objective; it demonstrates that there is not only one constructivism, but several. In order to ground this contention, the paper proceeds with a multidisciplinary and historical approach. It is then argued that it is more appropriate not to conflate this diversity of constructivisms. The paper looks for a solution to this problem by providing a classification based on two groups of parameters: mild/strong and cognitive/social, defining four types. This step serves the third objective which consists in initiating a multifaceted constructivist program in safety composed of heterogeneous but related empirical and theoretical areas of investigations.     

A new program to promote injury prevention and its application in China

To create Safe Community is considered a new methodology to promote Harmonious Society in China. Safe Community (SC) is centralized by “injury prevention” which is a concept involved from occupational safety and health in process industry. In this paper, it first examined the definition and elements of SC. Then, it introduced a Safe Community program in Honey Lake of Futian District of Shenzhen in detail to depict the actual procedure to create a desired Safe Community in China. In this application, Occupational Safety and Health Council in Hong Kong played an important role to instruct the design and execution of SC principle and suggest ways to crystallize a culture of safety within a Chinese community. From the SC program in Honey Lake of Futian District of Shenzhen, China has found out a new way to promote injury prevention in a community. Also, using these experiences from this program, more SC could be constructed that is beneficial to the safety and health of Chinese people.     

Evaluation of an occupational stress intervention in a public agency

Only in several controlled studies have organizational or situational stressors (in contrast to individuals) been targeted for change in order to reduce occupational stress. This study evaluates the impact of an intervention which was based on organizational development, action research and Karasek's job strain model. Employee committees conducted problem diagnosis, action planning, and action taking in two departments in a public agency. Waiting list control departments and pre- post- and follow-up assessment were utilized. Results indicated a mixed impact of the intervention in one department, but a negligible or negative impact in the other. Obstacles to the effective implementation of the intervention strategy are discussed. These included a limited focus for the committees (department-wide rather than agency-wide), the negative impact of a major agency reorganization, and the lack of a more formal management and labour commitment to maintaining the stress reduction and organizational change process.     

新类型混流风机除尘器的研制与应用

摒弃国内外惯用除尘器加风机的技术路线,研制具有除尘通风双重功能的混流风机除尘器,它可干湿两用除尘,除尘效率达98％以上。整机结构简单,体积小,易于维护,能耗低,造价低,是工矿企业一种新型的除尘器。     

Effectiveness of a physical activity program on weight,physical fitness,occupational stress,job satisfaction and quality of life of overweight employees in high-tech industries: a randomized controlled study

Introduction. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of a physical activity (PA) program on weight control, physical fitness, occupational stress, job satisfaction and quality of life of overweight and sedentary employees in high-tech industries. Methods. Participants in the intervention group (n?=?37) were instructed to carry out a PA program at moderate intensity for 60?min/session, 3 sessions/week for 12 weeks. Those in the control group (n?=?38) received no PA program and were asked to continue their routine lifestyle. Evaluations were performed at baseline and at the end of the intervention. Results of structured questionnaires and blood biochemistry tests and evaluations of physical fitness were analyzed. Results. The PA program effectively reduced the number of risk factors for metabolic syndrome and body fat percentage, and improved physical fitness such as flexibility, muscular strength and endurance and cardiorespiratory endurance. The intervention also significantly decreased levels of serum triglyceride, total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Significant positive effects on work control, interpersonal relationships at work, global job satisfaction and quality of life were also demonstrated. Conclusion. This study showed that a PA program can be helpful in improving physical, physiological and psychological outcomes for overweight and sedentary employees in high-tech industries.     

Development of a new chemical process-industry accident database to assist in past accident analysis

Past accident analysis (PAA) is one of the most potent and oft-used exercises for gaining insights into the reasons why accidents occur in chemical process industry (CPI) and the damage they cause. PAA provides invaluable ‘wisdom of hindsight’ with which strategies to prevent accidents or cushion the impact of inevitable accidents can be developed.A number of databases maintain record of past accidents in CPI. The most comprehensive of the existing databases include Major Hazard Incident Data Service (MHIDAS), Major Accident Reporting System (MARS), and Failure and Accidents Technical Information Systems (FACTS). But each of these databases have some limitations. For example MHIDAS can be accessed only after paying a substantial fee. Moreover, as detailed in the paper, it is not infallible and has some inaccuracies. Other databases, besides having similar problems, are seldom confined to accidents in chemical process industries but also cover accidents from other domains such as nuclear power plants, construction industry, and natural disasters. This makes them difficult to use for PAA relating to CPI. Operational injuries not related to loss of containment, are also often included. Moreover, the detailing of events doesn’t follow a consistent pattern or classification; a good deal of relevant information is either missing or is misclassified.The present work is an attempt to develop a comprehensive open-source database to assist PAA. To this end, information on about 8000 accidents, available in different open-source clearing houses has been brought into a new database named by us PUPAD (Pondicherry University Process-industry Accident Database). Multiple and overlapping accident records have been carefully eliminated and a search engine has been developed for retrieval of the records on the basis of appropriate classification. PUPAD doesn’t aim to replace or substitute the well established databases such as MHIDAS and MARS but, rather, aims to compliment them.     

Motives for occupational risk management in large uk companies

This paper attempts to explain why large UK corporations undertake measures to reduce the risks to which their employees are exposed, namely those of occupational injury and/or redundancy. Empirical results are based on a postal questionnaire survey of 127 corporate risk and finance managers selected from a population of the 350 largest UK companies. This survey shows that the primary motives associated with occupational risk management are those of regulatory compliance and avoidance of legal liabilities. In addition, the importance attached to these incentives appears to be influenced by a number of firm-specific characteristics and is positively related to capital intensity. This result has implications for government safety policy, since effectiveness of government regulations could be increased if safety inspectors were able to identify firms that place a high priority on the management of occupational risk.     

某矿低铜废石综合回收利用项目职业病危害预评价

为了对某矿业有限公司低铜废石综合回收利用项目可能产生的职业病危害因素进行辨识、分析和评价,采用检查表、类比法相结合的原则对该项目的铲装、破碎、运输、筑堆等工艺进行分析评价,并利用经验法对浸出、萃取电积工艺进行分析评价。结果表明:类比工程中绝大部分粉尘、噪声检测点的浓（强）度符合国家标准;化学毒物、工频电场接触浓（强）度符合国家标准;电积车间的通风满足要求;萃取车间的事故通风能力不足。评价方法及通风计算方法对同类项目具有借鉴意义。     

Software for occupational health and safety risk analysis based on a fuzzy model

Risk and safety management are very important issues in healthcare systems. Those are complex systems with many entities, hazards and uncertainties. In such an environment, it is very hard to introduce a system for evaluating and simulating significant hazards. In this paper, we analyzed different types of hazards in healthcare systems and we introduced a new fuzzy model for evaluating and ranking hazards. Finally, we presented a developed software solution, based on the suggested fuzzy model for evaluating and monitoring risk.     

树立民企中的安全卫生旗帜

浙江省海亮集团有限公司(以下简称“海亮集团”)是一家以铜加工为主业,集工业、房地产、教育、贸易、科研于一体的跨地区、跨行业的大型民营企业集团,是国内最大的铜管、铜棒研发、生产和供应基地之一。海亮集团现有员工3500余名,总资产23亿元,已跻身于中国最有竞争力民营企业50强、中国大型工业企业500强、中国民营企业100强,与80多个国家和地区有贸易往来。民营企业工会如何维护职工合法权益?海亮集团工会(以下简称“工会”)在企业快速发展的进程中,以公司的生产经营为中心,努力营造企业—员工“双赢”的和谐劳动关系,主动参与企业安全生…     

几种职业健康风险评估法在采石行业的应用效果比较

比较4种职业健康风险评估模型在某采石场中应用的优缺点,探索适合采石行业职业健康风险评估的最佳方法。选取湖北鄂东某采石场为研究对象,进行现场调查和采样检测,应用4种模型进行评估分析:国际采矿与金属委员会职业健康风险评估模型(ICMM模型)判定采石场工人接触粉尘为不可容忍或者高风险水平;风险定义法(MES法)判定采石场工人接触粉尘和噪声为四级或三级风险水平;罗马尼亚职业事故和职业病风险评估方法(MLSP法)判定采石场工人接触粉尘和噪声为低风险或非常低风险水平;澳大利亚职业健康与安全风险评估管理导则(UQ法)判定采石场工人接触粉尘和噪声为高风险或中等风险水平。与有毒作业分级结果比较验证,ICMM模型、MES法、MLSP法相对一致,适合评估某一具体采石场的职业健康风险,UQ法因不考虑个体差异,更适合评估整个采石行业的职业健康风险。     

煤炭行业职业卫生现状调查研究

为了掌握煤炭行业职业卫生现状及职业健康监管提供决策依据,并检验作业场所职业卫生统计指标体系的科学性和可行性,在北京、四川和宁夏三个地区199处煤矿开展了煤炭行业职业卫生统计调查。本次调查采用分层抽样的方式,样本量满足了抽样设计需求,调查内容主要针对接触职业危害人数、职业危害因素检测、职业健康体检和职业病及工作日损失四个方面,通过不同地区、不同规模和不同类型的煤矿统计分析,发现了当前煤矿职业卫生存在的突出问题,并提出了针对性的措施;同时在调查地区煤矿和煤矿安全监察机构试用职业卫生统计指标体系,实施煤炭行业职业卫生统计信息系统直报,其中职业卫生信息统计分析系统操作简便,功能强大,特别是直接生成职业卫生统计分析报告功能受到了各级监管人员的好评,为进一步完善指标体系和在全国推广奠定了良好的基础。