Perceived benefits of applying Pay for Safety Scheme (PFSS) in construction – A factor analysis approach

In recent years, construction safety has been a hot topic in Hong Kong. The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) has launched different safety measures to improve the prevailing safety performance of the construction industry. The Pay for Safety Scheme (PFSS) has emerged as one of the major safety initiatives launched within the public sector construction industry since 1996. It aims to encourage the safety awareness by taking the contractor’s pricing for safety-related items out from the consideration of competitive bidding. The objective is to provide a concise review of the prevailing application of PFSS in Hong Kong in general, and to identify and analyse the key benefits of PFSS in construction through an industry-wide empirical questionnaire survey in particular. Altogether, 145 industrial practitioners who have derived extensive hands-on experience with the PFSS construction projects participated in the survey to indicate their levels of agreement to those 14 key benefits identified which were measured and analysed by factor analysis. The results of factor analysis indicated that the 14 individual benefits of implementing PFSS were consolidated under four underlying factors: (1) Enhancing safety climate and attitude; (2) Promoting effective safety-related communication; (3) Streamlining the safety procedures; and (4) Ensuring adequate safety training. A wider application of PFSS should be encouraged with a view to achieving better safety performance within the industry. It is recommended that a similar scheme to PFSS currently applied in Hong Kong may be developed for implementation in other regions or countries for international comparisons.     

Effect of inorganic carbonate and organic matter in thermal treatment of mercury-contaminated soil

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Thermal treatment of mercury (Hg)-contaminated soil was studied to investigate the desorption behavior of Hg at different temperatures. The soil...     

Excellent dye degradation performance of FeSiBP amorphous alloys by Fenton-like process

Amorphous alloys are being newly applied in wastewater treatment because of their unique atomic packing structure. They possess excellent degradation efficiency, stability and reusability. In this work, Fe₈₀Si₁₀B₁₀ and Fe₈₃Si₅B₈P₄ amorphous ribbons exhibited advanced catalytic performance for the degradation of Methyl Blue (MB) and Rhodamine B (RhB) dyes, and the color removal reach nearly 100% within 11 min for both the dyes. Compared with the Fe₈₀Si₁₀B₁₀ amorphous ribbon, the Fe₈₃Si₅B₈P₄ ribbon showed higher degradation efficiency due to its lower reaction activation energy, higher electron transfer ability and higher Fe content, and the formation of the galvanic cell between the strong Fe–P bonds and the weak Fe–B bonds. It also exhibited high stability and reusability. The degradation efficiency was improved when the appropriate concentration of H₂O₂ is added. As regards the pH, high degradation efficiency was observed in acidic MB solution, but it decreased as the pH increased up to pH 7. The application of the electro–Fenton–like process is discussed, which can effectively improve the degradation performance in a nearly natural solution. This study presents a high efficiency low-cost catalyst for synthetic dye degradation and expands the functional applications of Fe-based amorphous alloys.     

The effective control of major industrial accidents by the Major Industrial Accident Prevention Centers (MAPC) through the Process Safety Management (PSM) grading system in Korea

This paper examines effectiveness of a regulatory enforcement organization (Major industrial Accident Prevention Center, MAPC), and a grading system for implementation of the Process Safety Management (PSM) regulation in Korea. A lot of chemical installations have been built in Korea since the 1960s. The frequent occurrence of major industrial accidents had made people's concerns grow. The Korean government enacted PSM regulations in 1996 in order to curb these accidents.However, a key question is how to make sure companies comply with the PSM regulations. In order to improve company’ compliance with PSM regulations the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) responsible for the regulation introduced a grading management system in 2001 and then established special supervisory centers for enforcement of PSM regulations in 2005. This paper reviews the role and effectiveness of the system in term of PSM enforcement. The author found that the grade-based approach has encouraged employers to implement the requirements of the PSM regulations. MAPCs play an effective role in enhancing enforcement performance. Although the more chemical plants have been established in Korea, the fewer major industrial accidents have occurred since the introduction of the system. The results may be useful for the policy maker to build an effective and efficient enforcement system.     

Solid recovery rate of food waste recycling in South Korea

Source-separated collection system of household food waste has been implemented national wide in South Korea. Food waste recycling rate that means conversion rate to recycle is over 90 % in present. However, over the value of 90 %, we need to enhance the efficiency of food waste recycling process. We analyzed material flow of 24 food waste recycling facilities and calculated solid recovery rate to key-process. We found that 3–13 % of the solids from food waste outflows with foreign materials and 27–33 % of the solids outflow with wastewater. As a result, solid recovery rates are 65.3, 60.9, and 56.3 % in wet feed facility, dry feed facility, and composting facility, respectively. Alternative ways to recovery solid from wastewater or collection tools to exclude plastic bags, salt, and moisture content are required to make food waste recycling more efficient.     

Comparative Analysis of Viral Concentration Methods for Detecting the HAV Genome Using Real-Time RT-PCR Amplification

Hepatitis A is a major infectious disease epidemiologically associated with foodborne and waterborne outbreaks. Molecular detection using real-time RT-PCR to detect the hepatitis A virus (HAV) in contaminated vegetables can be hindered by low-virus recoveries during the concentration process and by natural PCR inhibitors in vegetables. This study evaluated three virus concentration methods from vegetables: polyethylene glycol (PEG) precipitation, ultrafiltration (UF), and immunomagnetic separation (IMS). UF was the most efficient concentration method, while PEG and IMS were very low for the recovery rate of HAV. These results demonstrate that UF is the most appropriate method for recovering HAV from contaminated vegetables and that this method combined with the real-time RT-PCR assay may be suitable for routine laboratory use.     

Mercury leaching characteristics of waste treatment residues generated from various sources in Korea

In this study, mercury (Hg) leaching characteristics of the waste treatment residues (fly ash, bottom ash, sludge, and phosphor powder) generated from various sources (municipal, industrial, medical waste incinerators, sewage sludge incinerator, oil refinery, coal-fired power plant, steel manufacturing plant, fluorescent lamp recycler, and cement kiln) in Korea were investigated. First, both Hg content analysis and toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) testing was conducted for 31 collected residue samples. The Hg content analysis showed that fly ash from waste incinerators contained more Hg than the other residue samples. However, the TCLP values of fly ash samples with similar Hg content varied widely based on the residue type. Fly ash samples with low and high Hg leaching ratios (R_L) were further analyzed to identify the major factors that influence the Hg leaching potential. Buffering capacity of the low-R_L fly ash was higher than that of the high-R_L fly ash. The Hg speciation results suggest that the low-R_L fly ashes consisted primarily of low-solubility Hg compounds (Hg₂Cl₂, Hg⁰ or HgS), whereas the high-R_L fly ashes contain more than 20% high-solubility Hg compounds (HgCl₂ or HgSO₄).     

Decomposition of greenhouse gases by plasma

The topic of decomposition and reduction of greenhouse gases is becoming an important issue in tackling the global warming effect since several years ago. Several technologies, including plasma-utilized process, were proposed to improve the treatment ability for the destruction of green house gases usually emitted by industrial activities. In this review paper, the application of plasma to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases was briefly summarized.     

Reducing ammonia emissions and volatile fatty acids in poultry litter with liquid aluminum chloride

This study was a pen trial in which the effects of adding different rates of liquid aluminum chloride (AlCl₃) on litter pH, total volatile fatty acids (VFAs), and ammonia (NH₃) fluxes was evaluated. Liquid AlCl₃ treatments used in this study were sprayed on the rice hull surface at rates of 100 g, 200 g, and 300 g liquid AlCl₃/kg rice hulls; untreated rice hulls served as controls. Litter pH, total VFAs, and NH₃ fluxes were all lowered (P< 0.05) by all of the liquid AlCl₃ treatments compared with controls during certain times of the 5 week study. However, there were no significant differences among treatments on litter pH at the end of the study (from 3 to 5 weeks) or NH₃ fluxes at beginning of the study (0 to 3 weeks). Total VFAs were reduced 16 %, 29 %, and 53 % by 100 g liquid AlCl₃/kg rice hulls, 200 g liquid AlCl₃/kg rice hulls, and 300 g liquid AlCl₃/kg rice hulls, respectively. Liquid AlCl₃additions reduced NH₃ fluxes by 35 %, 57 % and 67 %, respectively, at the low, medium and high rates. In summary, these results indicate that adding liquid aluminum chloride to rice hulls would be a useful tool in reducing the negative environmental impact of poultry litter. It should be noted that the decreased VFA production and NH₃ volatilization was chiefly associated with reduction in litter pH.     

Weekly periodicities of meteorological variables and their possible association with aerosols in Korea

The weekly periodicities in meteorological variables and its association with aerosols in Korea are investigated using long-term surface measurements of meteorology (1975–2005) and aerosols (1999–2005). Through an analysis of the annual (and/or seasonal) values averaged over 10 stations, we identified distinct weekly periodicities in the daily minimum temperature (T_min), diurnal temperature range (DTR), cloud fraction, and solar insolation, although they have different characteristics from each other. The weekly association among variables is discussed in this study. Positive anomalies of the cloud fraction and T_min and negative anomalies of solar insolation and DTR are seen for the second half of the week and the reverse for the first half of the week, i.e., more cloudiness and less insolation for Wednesday?Thursday and less cloudiness and more insolation for Monday?Tuesday. Furthermore, seasonal dependence of weekly anomalies shows that the weekly periodicities are enhanced especially in autumn, more than 2–3 times as great as those of the annual mean. The weekly cycles in such variables are most likely driven by changes in cloud fraction, possibly through aerosol–cloud interactions induced by aerosol variations between working weekdays and Sunday, which are clearly identified in PM10 weekly cycles. This study also suggests that the weekly periodicities in meteorological variables are possibly associated with long-range transport of weekly periodicities, as well as aerosol–cloud-precipitation interactions over the region.