Safety Attitudes and Their Relationship to Safety Training and Generalised Self-Efficacy

This paper studies safety attitudes, their relationship with safety training behaviour, and generalised self-efficacy. From a sociotechnical perspective, training programs might be used as a mechanism for enhancing attitudes, especially to improve safety and occupational health. Also, self-efficacy allows to enhance training effectiveness. The aim of this paper is to validate a safety attitude scale and to examine its relationship to safety training behaviour and self-efficacy in organisational settings. With data from 140 employees, results show a conceptually meaningful 3-factor solution. Hier-archical multiple regression analysis shows a main effect of safety training behaviour and levels of self-efficacy on safety attitude. Study limitations and its implications on safety training design are also discussed.     

Spatial and temporal dimensions of landscape fragmentation across the Brazilian Amazon

Regional Environmental Change - The Brazilian Amazon in the past decades has been suffering severe landscape alteration, mainly due to anthropogenic activities, such as road building and land...     

Statistical analysis in MSW collection performance assessment

The increase of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) generated over the last years forces waste managers pursuing more effective collection schemes, technically viable, environmentally effective and economically sustainable. The assessment of MSW services using performance indicators plays a crucial role for improving service quality. In this work, we focus on the relevance of regular system monitoring as a service assessment tool. In particular, we select and test a core-set of MSW collection performance indicators (effective collection distance, effective collection time and effective fuel consumption) that highlights collection system strengths and weaknesses and supports pro-active management decision-making and strategic planning. A statistical analysis was conducted with data collected in mixed collection system of Oporto Municipality, Portugal, during one year, a week per month. This analysis provides collection circuits’ operational assessment and supports effective short-term municipality collection strategies at the level of, e.g., collection frequency and timetables, and type of containers.     

Estimation of the annual production and composition of C&D Debris in Galicia (Spain)

One of the key aspects that must be taken into consideration within the framework of Sustainable Construction is the management of Construction and Demolition (C&D) Debris. As for other types of waste, specific handling procedures are required to manage C&D Debris; these include reduction, reuse, recycling, and if all other possibilities fail, recovery or disposal. For public planning strategies aimed at the management of C&D Debris to be effective, it is first necessary to have specific knowledge of the type of waste materials generated in a particular region. After verifying that the methods available to determine the production and composition of C&D Debris are limited, this paper presents a procedure to ascertain the production and composition of C&D Debris, in any region. The procedure utilizes data on the surface areas of newly constructed buildings, renovations and demolitions, which are estimated from available data for recent years, as well as information on the quantity of debris generated per surface area in any type of construction site, which is obtained from recently executed constructions or from the ground plans of older buildings. The method proposed here has been applied to Galicia, one of Spain’s autonomous communities, for which the quantity and composition of C&D Debris have been estimated for the horizon year 2011.     

Association between occupational exposure to domestic solid waste and dental caries: a cross-sectional study

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Studies have shown that domestic waste collectors are exposed to toxicants including infectious pathogens, which may be linked to their oral health...