Dust explosion incidents and regulations in the United States

The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) investigated three fatal dust explosions that all occurred in 2003. These explosions caused the deaths of 14 people and injured hundreds more. Two of the facilities were damaged beyond repair, and several hundred employees lost their jobs.

CSB's investigations revealed that the explosions had common causes, despite their geographic and industrial diversity. Consequently, CSB commissioned a study of combustible dust fire and explosion hazards. This paper presents a summary of CSB's findings and recommendations developed during that study.     

A cross-validation of safety climate scale using confirmatory factor analytic approach

PROBLEM: Given the lack of a consistent factor structure of safety climate, this study tested the stability of a factor structure of a safety climate scale developed through an extensive literature review using confirmatory factor analytic approach and cross-validation. METHODS: A cross-sectional sample of 722 U.S. grain industry workers participated in the questionnaire survey. RESULTS: The safety climate scale developed through the generation of an item pool based on a table of specifications, subsequent scientific item reduction procedures, reviews from experts, and pilot test yielded adequate reliabilities for each dimension. Each item showed proper discriminative power based on both internal and external criteria. Criterion validity was manifested by the significant positive correlation of the scale with five criteria. Evidence of construct validity was provided by both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Both calibration and validation samples supported a consistent factor structure. Management commitment and supervisor support were found to influence other dimensions of safety climate. DISCUSSION: This study provides an insight into the primary reason why previous attempts have failed to find a consistent factor structure of safety climate: No specification of the influence of management commitment and supervisor support on other dimensions of safety in their models. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: The findings of this study provide a framework upon which accident prevention efforts can be effectively organized and underscore the importance of management commitment and supervisor support as they affect employee safety perceptions.     

Safety beliefs and safe behavior among midwestern college students

PROBLEM: This study investigated the impact of safety beliefs on safe behavior and the effect of age, gender, class standing, and geographic region on these beliefs and behaviors. It also compares the level of safety beliefs and safe behavior of Midwestern college students in 1993 to those in 2002. METHOD: A total of 1,059 undergraduate students at four Midwestern universities completed the 33-item questionnaire developed by Crowe (J. Saf. Res. 26 (1995) 187) during the spring semester of 2002. RESULTS: Significant main effects for gender and age on safety beliefs and safe behavior were found as well as a significant interaction between gender and age for both outcome variables. The regression model with the independent variables of personal responsibility and gender yielded a multiple R of.58, which explained 34% of the variance of the self-reported safe behavior. Midwestern college students in 2002 were found less safety-conscious in terms of self-reported safety beliefs and safe behavior than those in 1993. DISCUSSION: The findings indicate that safety education of adolescents and young adults in the United States has not been effective, at least for the last decade, or today's social and school environment is less conducive to the students' safe behavior and beliefs than a decade ago. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Proactive multidisciplinary approaches to enhance safe behavior and beliefs of young adults should be made based on critical evaluation of current approaches.     

Conservation Prioritization Using GAP Data

Data collected by the Gap Analysis Program in the state of Idaho (U.S.A.) are used to prioritize the selection of locations for conservation action and research. Set coverage and integer programming algorithms provide a sequence of localities that maximize the number of species or vegetation classes represented at each step. Richness maps of vegetation cover class diversity, terrestrial vertebrate species diversity ("hot spot analysis"), endangered, threatened, and candidate species diversity, and unprotected vertebrate species diversity ("gap analysis"), when prioritized, show a rapid accumulation of species as more localities are chosen for terrestrial vertebrates and unprotected vertebrates. Gap analysis identifies four target areas ("gaps") that include 79 of the 83 vertebrate species not currently protected. Accumulation of vegetation cover classes and endangered, threatened, and candidate species is much slower. Sweep analysis is used to determine how well prioritizing on one component of diversity accumulates other components. Endangered, threatened, and candidate species do not sweep total vertebrates as well as unprotected vertebrates do, but are better than vegetation classes. Total vertebrates sweep endangered, threatened, and candidate species better than unprotected vertebrates do, which in turn are better than vegetation classes. We emphasize that prioritization must be part of conservation efforts at multiple scales and that prioritization points out important localities where more detailed work mast be undertaken.     

Polymodal foraging in adult female loggerheads (Caretta caretta)

To determine whether loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) nesting in southeastern USA exhibit polymorphic foraging strategies, we evaluated skin samples for stable isotopes of carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) from 310 loggerheads from four locations on the east coast of Florida and epibionts from 48 loggerheads. We found a dichotomy between a depleted δ¹³C cluster and an enriched δ¹³C cluster. Epibionts from oceanic/pelagic or neritic/benthic habitats were largely consistent with this dichotomy. The bimodal distribution of δ¹³C could reflect a bimodal foraging strategy or—because of the potential for confounding among four gradients of δ¹³C in marine environments—a polymodal foraging strategy. We integrate our results with results from other stable isotope studies, satellite telemetry, and flipper tags to evaluate potential foraging strategies. Understanding foraging strategies is essential for development of management plans for this endangered species that has suffered a 43% population decline over the last decade.