Stressful work characteristics,health indicators and work behavior: the case of machine operators

This article shows the results of research on psychosocial risks for a group of machine and plant operators (n?=?1014) from the construction, chemical, energy, mining, metal and food industries in Poland. The Psychosocial Risk Scale designed in Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine (NIOM) by Moscicka-Teske and Potocka was used to indicate the occurrence of general and specific occupational stressors and the level of their stressfulness. The results revealed that the studied machine and plant operators experience job context stress – related to working environment features concerning work organization – more frequently than job content stressors – related to the type of tasks they perform. Moreover, a correlation analysis between work features and the health and occupational functioning of the respondents revealed significant but weak relationships between the variables (from ?0.08 to ?0.23). Comparative analysis revealed the differences between the studied sectors. Such a comparison makes it possible to set goals for each sector and to attempt to improve the distinctive areas.     

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。     

Multiple dimensions of work-related risk factors and their relationship to work ability among industrial workers in Iran

Objectives. The present study was designed to investigate the simultaneous effects of physical, psychosocial and other work-related risk factors on the work ability index (WAI) score among industrial workers. Methods. This study used a cross-sectional design with a questionnaire survey. A total of 280 workers were included in the study. Data were collected using three questionnaires including the Persian version of the WAI, the Persian version of the job content questionnaire and an author-developed measure (to assess work-related factors, health-related factors and socio-demographic characteristics). Results. The majority of the participants were young, but they had poor WAI scores (mean 37.3?±?6.4) and 44.3% of them had poor or moderate work ability. Occupational accidents and injuries were found to be the strongest predictors of WAI scores. Additionally, there was a strong association between WAI scores and supervisor support, skill discretion, occupational training, sleep quality, work nature and educational level. Conclusions. Intervention programs should focus on improving supervisor support, sleep quality, job skills and knowledge and on decreasing physical and mental work demands. Additionally, implementing a comprehensive occupational health and ergonomics program for controlling and reducing hazardous working environments and occupational injury rates should be considered.     

General assessment of the occupational accidents that occurred in Turkey between the years 2000 and 2005

Occupational accidents still constitute one of the major problems in Turkey, as they do all over the world. Every year, nearly one thousand people die due to occupational accidents and two thousand people are injured, becoming temporarily or permanently disabled. This leads to social and economic problems for these people. As a result, families suffer from occupational accidents socially and psychologically. On the other hand, the economy of the country and the employers are faced with economic loss and work day loss. The aim of this study is to assess the results of occupational accidents occurring between the years 2000 and 2005 in Turkey in terms of various criteria. In this study, a fluctuation in Turkey in the number of occupational accidents between 2000 and 2005 and a downward fluctuation in the number of deaths resulting from occupational accidents have been observed. Permanent disabilities have also shown a falling trend since 2002. Occupational accidents are mostly seen in the sectors of manufacture of metal goods (except for machines), construction, the textile industry, coal mining and manufacture of transportation vehicles, while the deaths of workers and permanently disabled persons due to occupational accidents are mostly seen in the construction sector.     

Age differences in safety attitudes and safety performance in Hong Kong construction workers

PROBLEM: Safety in the construction industry is a major issue in Hong Kong, representing about 46% of all occupational injuries in 1998. This study explored linear and curvilinear relations between age and safety performance (accident rates and occupational injuries), as well as safety attitudes, in construction workers in Hong Kong. METHOD: A Chinese version of the Safety Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ by Donald & Canter) was developed and administered to a sample of Chinese construction workers (N=374, 366 males, 8 females) from 27 construction sites. RESULTS: Accident rates were not related to age. Occupational injuries were related to age in a curvilinear manner, with injuries at first increasing with age, then decreasing. Two safety attitude scales were related to age with older workers exhibiting more positive attitudes to safety. If age and tenure are controlled, some attitude scales are predictors of safety performance. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Management/supervisors, team leaders, and workers are all responsible for safety, and any negative bias toward older construction workers is unfounded.     

Delphi法职业危害风险评估模型及案例研究

为科学合理地进行建设项目职业病危害风险分类,基于系统工程及风险评估的基本原理,采用Delphi法分析和确定了影响职业病危害风险程度的因素,通过构建风险评估指标体系,建立了职业病危害影响因子赋值法(OHFA)定量化风险评估模型。根据对作业场所的危害源、本质及附加防护设施水平、人员接触机会、职业病防治管理等因子的综合分析,预测分析了研究对象的职业病危害的风险程度,为职业病危害风险辨识、风险评估、防治管理及防护设施设计等提供参考。并以某石化行业硫磺回收项目为实例进行应用与验证,得出了该项目的总体职业病危害风险度值为12,风险等级为Ⅰ级,各职业病危害因素的风险度由高到底排序为硫化氢、一氧化碳、二氧化硫、硫磺、高温,其风险分类的关键决定因素为硫化氢。实践表明该方法与专家评估结果及工程实际吻合较好,应用于职业病危害风险评估中可给出定量化的风险分类结果。     

Job control and occupational health: the moderating role of national R&D activity

Workers (n = 17 275) from 14 European Union (EU) member states provided data on job control, job dissatisfaction, perceived risk of occupational stress, and absence. For each state, level of research and development (R&D) activity was assessed. Associations between individual levels of control and occupational health were stronger where national R&D activity was higher. The moderation occurred for individuals' levels of control in relation to job dissatisfaction, perceived risk of occupational stress, and absence. The findings with job dissatisfaction and absence were replicated in a sample of workers from 10 Eastern European former Communist countries (n = 7926). Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

建设项目职业病危害预评价方法探讨

目前,建设项目职业病危害预评价方法比较单一,只能反映拟建项目在职业病危害方面与现行法规、标准的符合程度,并不能对项目进行全面、动态的评估,也无法评价职业危害事故风险。通过分析环境影响评价、安全评价中相关的评价方法在评价职业病危害因素分布、长期作用的影响、危害分级、事故风险等方面的优势,探讨其在建设项目职业病危害预评价中的应用。笔者提出,合理借鉴环境影响评价、安全评价方法,可拓展职业病危害预评价的深度和广度,在拟建项目职业病防治、建设项目职业危害分级管理和职业危害事故防范等方面都具有积极的指导作用。     

Occupational risk assessment in construction industry – Overview and reflection

The construction industry is plagued by occupational risky situations and poor working conditions. Occupational risk assessment (ORA) on workplace sites is the first and key step to achieve adequate safety levels, particularly to support decision-making in safety programs. Most construction safety efforts are applied informally under the premise that simply allocating more resources to safety management will improve safety on site. Moreover, there are many traditional methods to address ORA, but few have been adapted and validated for use in the construction industry, particularly in the design stage, for which traditional approaches do not give adequate answers. This paper presents a state-of-the-art on ORA traditional methods, for the construction industry, discussing their limitations and pointing advantages of using fuzzy sets approaches to deal with ill-defined situations.     

The acceptance of personal protective equipment among Hong Kong construction workers: An integration of technology acceptance model and theory of planned behavior with risk perception and safety climate

Introduction: The phenomenon that construction workers do not use personal protective equipment (PPE) is a major reason for the high occurrence frequency of accidents in the construction industry. However, little efforts have been made to quantitatively examine the factors influencing construction workers’ acceptance of PPE. Method: In the current study, a PPE acceptance model for construction workers (PAMCW) was proposed to address the noted need. The PAMCW incorporates the technology acceptance model, theory of planned behavior, risk perception, and safety climate for explaining construction worker acceptance of PPE. 413 construction workers participated in this study to fill out a structured questionnaire. The PAMCW was analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results: Results provide evidence of the applicability of the technology acceptance model and theory of planned behavior to the PPE acceptance among construction workers. The positive influence of safety climate and risk perception-severity on attitude toward using PPE was significant. Safety climate positively influences perceived usefulness. Risk perception-worry and unsafe was found to positively affect intention to use PPE. Practical Applications: Practical suggestions for increasing construction workers’ use of PPE are also discussed.     

川藏铁路桥隧施工安全风险评价

通过评估川藏铁路工程建设的施工风险等级,为高质量推进川藏铁路工程建设提供理论支撑。剖析了国内外学者关于风险评估研究的理论与方法,针对川藏铁路施工建设中的5座特大桥梁工程和9座超长隧道工程,分析了桥梁隧道建设工程的特征,构建了川藏铁路桥梁工程的17个安全风险评价指标体系和隧道工程的20个安全风险评价指标体系,通过建立基于模糊综合评价法的风险评估模型完成了对川藏铁路重点桥梁和隧道工程的风险评价,最后构造BP神经网络模型对风险评估结果进行验证,以川藏铁路部分重点桥梁工程评分数据和部分重点隧道工程评分数据为训练数据,以剩余评分结果为验证数据,预测桥梁和隧道工程的风险等级。结果表明:采用BP神经网络预测桥梁隧道工程安全风险等级的准确率高达98. 82%,BP神经网络对于该工程施工安全风险评价具有适用性;川藏铁路重点桥隧工程项目有50%处于较危险以上,只有20%的工程处于安全级别。     

Vibrating hand-held machines in the construction industry

The aim of this study was to investigate and measure vibration levels of the most commonly used machines within the construction industry. In the report 186 hand-held machines divided into more than 15 different machine groups have been studied. The project is a joint venture between Bygghälsan (The Constructions Industry's Organization for Working Environment, Safety & Health) and the National Institute of Occupational Health.     

企业职业伤害风险分级模型研究

我国严峻的安全生产形势主要原因之一是缺乏对企业强有力的安全监察.对比分析了国内外安全监察的差距,提出了分级安全监察的理念,并研究了支持分级安全监察的企业分级指标和模型,使用模型对调查企业数据进行计算、排序和分级,效果明显,该模型能够起对分级安全监察起到指导和支持作用.     

Quantification of risk perception: Development and validation of the construction worker risk perception (CoWoRP) scale

Introduction: The construction sector is leading in the number of accidents and fatalities; risk perception is the key to driving these numbers. Previous construction safety studies on risk perception quantification have not considered affective risk perception of construction workers or conducted comprehensive reliability and validity testing. Thus, this study aims to fill this need by developing a psychometrically sound instrument – the Construction Worker Risk Perception (CoWoRP) Scale – to assess the risk perception of construction workers. Method: Four phases of scale development, namely, item development, factor analysis, reliability assessment, and validity assessment were conducted with the collection and testing of data from a group (n = 469) of voluntary construction workers in Hong Kong. Results: The CoWoRP Scale with 13 items was shown to have acceptable test–retest reliability, internal consistency reliability, as well as content, convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity. Also, the CoWoRP Scale was affirmed to have three dimensions of worker risk perception, namely risk perception – probability, risk perception – severity, risk perception – worry and unsafe. These three dimensions of worker risk perception were negatively correlated with their risk-taking behavior. Conclusions: The CoWoRP Scale is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring the risk perception of construction workers and is expected to facilitate the construction safety studies that take risk perception of construction workers into account. Practical applications: The CoWoRP Scale could serve as an aptitude test to identify the characteristics of construction workers most likely to perceive lower risk in risky work situations. In turn, this information could help safety management provide safety training programs to those workers to enhance their risk perception and thereby minimizing their risk-taking behavior, reducing unnecessary training costs, and improving the construction safety performance.     

Control chart for monitoring occupational asthma

INTRODUCTION: Work-related asthma has become the most prevalent occupational respiratory disease in the developed world. Occupational asthma is thought to affect 5%-10% of people worldwide. The first step in the diagnosis of occupational asthma is to establish work-relatedness. Although considerable research has been conducted in the area of occupational asthma, no simple, effective, and statistically sound method has been developed that can be used as an initial step to effectively identify the workers at risk for occupational asthma. The purpose of this research was to investigate whether Shewhart control chart method can be used as an effective method to detect occupational asthma. METHOD: Forty-five workers who completed the study and provided usable peak expiratory flow (a lung function marker) recordings while at work and away from work were included in this study. Control charts were developed using Shewhart's Method. The lower control limit of at work control chart (LCL(W)) was compared to each subject's Personal Best (PB) value. RESULTS: Reviewing the results of this comparison showed LCL(W)<60% PB to have a sensitivity of 85.71%, specificity of 87.50%, and an error rate of 13.33%. When the subjects suspected for false positive and false negative diagnoses were identified, the test produced a sensitivity of 95.24%, a specificity of 95.83% and an error rate of 4.44%. CONCLUSIONS: Our results were as good as, and in some cases better than, published clinical guidelines. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Our research showed that the control chart method is an effective, simple, and inexpensive tool for early intervention in workers suspected for occupational asthma.     

From input to outcome: Changes in OHS-education and training

Work organization, technology and working population characteristics change rapidly in many countries, although not always in the same direction. In many industrialized countries new trends are a growing services sector, an aging working population, and an increased work pressure.The participation rate of women is growing in the Netherlands, in contrast with the rate of handicapped workers. In the working population, work-related musculoskeletal diseases and psychic problems like mental break-down and burn-out prevail. Sickness absence and disability are important issues. Risk assessment and health and safety information are new duties of the employer.Nowadays Occupational Health and Safety Services are more multidisciplinary organized and have to prove their quality and utility. Therefore, occupational health and safety professionals have to learn skills like risk assessment, health and safety promotion, consultation, rehabilitation, and interdisciplinary cooperation.Experiential learning connects the practical experience of the participants with reflection and new insights during the course.     

三维流固耦合数值模拟在铜锣山隧道安全性评价中的应用

隧道施工破坏了原有的岩体平衡,可能引发塌方、突水等安全问题,为了评估隧道建设的安全性,基于三维稳定渗流问题的基本控制方程,对铜锣山隧道全线的开挖和支护方案进行了三维流固耦合模拟,在应力、应变、渗流分析的基础上,评估了隧道建设发生岩爆、坍塌、突水灾害的风险,预测了可能出现大变形和突水灾害的工段,对于隧道安全建设具有指导意义。     

影响农民工职业安全健康需求的自身因素分析

农民工群体为国家经济发展做出了重要贡献,但其职业安全健康状况却令人担忧。通过文献整理发现,农民工自身职业安全需求低是造成这种现象的重要原因之一。从农民工自身角度来分析,来自以下四方面的原因共同制约着农民工对职业安全的需求：（1）农民工知识结构欠缺、工作年限普遍较短、缺乏对职业安全的认知意识,影响农民工对职业危害的认知;（2）来自家庭的增收压力和降低寻找工作的间接成本的要求造成了目前农民工经济压力大的状况;（3）自身技能水平较弱以及缺乏对就业信息的分析能力,削弱了他们的就业竞争力;（4）农民工群体之间缺乏沟通信任以及长期的低社会地位限制了他们的谈判能力。以上四方面原因相互作用,产生效力叠加,共同导致了目前农民工职业安全需求不足的状况。     

Heavy equipment and truck-related deaths on excavation work sites

PROBLEM: Contact with objects and equipment is the third leading cause of death in construction. This study examines heavy equipment- and truck-related deaths in the excavation work industry in construction. METHODS: The Bureau of Labor Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries identified 253 heavy equipment related deaths on construction sites in the Excavation Work industry for the years 1992-2002. RESULTS: Heavy equipment operators and construction laborers made up 63% of the heavy equipment- and truck-related deaths. Backhoes and trucks were involved in half the deaths. Rollovers were the main cause of death of heavy equipment operators. For workers on foot and maintenance workers, being struck by heavy equipment or trucks (especially while backing up for workers on foot), and being struck by equipment loads or parts were the major causes of death. DISCUSSION: Ensuring adequate rollover protective structures for heavy equipment, requiring fastening of seat belts, adoption of a lock-out/tagout standard, establishing restricted access zones around heavy equipment, and requiring spotters for workers who must be near heavy equipment or trucks would reduce the risk of heavy equipment- and truck-related deaths in construction. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Safety of heavy equipment operators in particular is a major concern in excavation that needs to be addressed.