浅谈加入WTO与职业安全健康

入世以后 ,我国的职业安全健康将面临严峻的考验。笔者结合我国的职业安全健康现状 ,对我国加入WTO以后职业安全健康所面临的形势和任务 ,提出了粗浅的分析和主要对策及措施。     

关于职业安全卫生有关概念的探讨

笔者简要回顾了我国安全生产工作在不同时期和不同阶段所使用的劳动保护、劳动安全卫生、职业安全卫生、职业健康安全及职业安全健康等概念 ,并对各自的研究对象和内涵进行了分析和探讨 ,提出了职业健康安全和职业安全健康应使用统一术语的建议     

我国南方某省1988～1992年工伤调查分析

通过对南方某省１９８８～１９９２年工伤发生情况的调查，五年间工伤事故数、工伤死亡率及重伤率有逐年增加的趋势，煤炭、交通、建筑三个行业的工伤死亡人数约占工伤死亡总数的５０％；县以下乡镇企业中的工伤事故数、死亡率及重伤率均居首位。工伤事故中造成死亡的原因主要集中在物体打击、触电、高空坠落；引起重伤的原因集中在机械伤害、物体打击、车辆伤害和高空坠落。因此在劳动安全卫生管理工作上，要采取一些强有力的干预措施，特别要加强对乡镇工业企业及那些易发生工伤事故企业的管理。     

Frequency and determinants of recommended workplace violence prevention measures

PROBLEM: Limited information exists concerning adoption of workplace violence prevention measures by employers and the factors influencing their adoption. METHODS: A weighted sample of North Carolina workplaces (n=210) in operation January 1994 through March 1998 was used to estimate prevalence of 18 measures and identify community and workplace predictors of having >/=5 recommended measures. RESULTS: Location in a metropolitan area most strongly predicted presence of >/=5 administrative safety measures while a history of workplace violence and being in a high crime area were negatively associated. Belonging to an industry considered to be high-risk for workplace homicide was most strongly associated with having >/=5 environmental safety measures. DISCUSSION: Factors influencing high prevalence of violence prevention measures were related to business type, violence history, and location. Knowledge of factors influencing adoption of recommended workplace violence prevention measures can help tailor interventions to diverse industry settings. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: An important contribution to the understanding and mitigation of workplace homicide is knowledge of the extent of implementation of recommended workplace violence prevention guidelines and factors influencing their adoption. Identifying factors that influence the prevalence and adoption of workplace violence safety interventions can help to tailor development of interventions to address the issue of workplace homicide across diverse industry settings.     

Risk assessment of safety and health (RASH) for building construction

In this research Risk Assessment of Safety and Health RASH method for building construction has been developed with risks classified into Safety Risks and Health Risks. 11 factors representing safety risks and 8 factors representing health risks were identified based on field survey in Oman. 40 Safety and Health specialists were involved in carrying out risk assessment using the existing method of risk analysis RA and the proposed RASH method. It was found that RASH method resulted in superior accuracy for assessment of risk zones than the existing RA method. The accuracy by RASH was almost twice the accuracy by RA. The overall percentages of the correct answers for the four scenarios using the RASH method and the RA method were 72.5 percent and 40 percent respectively. The proposed RASH method gave fewer errors than the existing RA method for all scenarios. Two scenarios were found to be the most problematic ones with largest overestimation of risks occur when using the existing RA method. Wilcoxon Ranked Test showed that the two methods are significantly different (z = −3.357, p > 0.01). The new method RASH is statistically acceptable and it resulted in better response in terms of estimating the risk than the RA method.     

泰州大桥工程项目建设单位安全管理实践探讨

建设单位做好安全管理工作,对保障大型工程项目建设的顺利进行,以及施工现场安全有着举足轻重的作用。泰州大桥项目作为特大桥梁工程,参建单位及人员众多,施工管理及组织非常复杂,安全管理工作面临着众多难点。本文从建设单位的角度出发,探讨了泰州大桥安全管理工作中的安全生产氛围、现场安全防护、高处作业、特种设备、特种作业人员、临时用电等八个重点内容,严把设计关、狠抓招标准入、强化制度建设、落实各级安全检查、实施安全生产风险抵押金考核等五种管理手段,以及委托专业机构提供现场安全管理及咨询、在全桥范围内建立和推行职业健康安全管理体系的探索性工作。此安全管理模式对其他大型工程项目建设单位抓好安全管理工作具有一定的借鉴意义。     

“Safety is everyone's job:” The key to safety on a large university construction site

Problem

Construction risk management is challenging.

Method

We combined data on injuries, costs, and hours worked, obtained through a Rolling Owner-Controlled Insurance Program (ROCIP), with data from focus groups, interviews, and field observations, to prospectively study injuries and hazard control on a large university construction project.

Results

Lost-time injury rates (1.0/200,000 hours worked) were considerably lower than reported for the industry, and there were no serious falls from height. Safety was considered in the awarding of contracts and project timeline development; hazard management was iterative. A top-down management commitment to safety was clearly communicated to, and embraced by, workers throughout the site.

Discussion and Impact

A better understanding of how contracting relationships, workers' compensation, and liability insurance arrangements influence safety could shift risk management efforts from worker behaviors to a broader focus on how these programs and relationships affect incentives and disincentives for workplace safety and health.     

Whole-body vibration knowledge survey of U.S. occupational safety and health professionals

Problem

Whole-body vibration (WBV) is an occupational issue of concern due to adverse health effects or simple discomfort and annoyance. Unlike in Europe, WBV is an emerging topic in the U.S. safety and health (S&H) professional community. We hypothesized that at least one-half of the U.S. occupational S&H professionals knew little or nothing about WBV.

Method

We conducted a cross-sectional study (survey) of WBV knowledge among members of the American Society of Safety Engineers. A Likert scale (1-none to 5-expert) was used to determine WBV topic knowledge levels (KL_1-5).

Results

Analysis of 2,764 responses revealed that 69.5% of the participants self-reported a less than basic WBV understanding. The WBV KL_1-5 mean for all participants was 1.94 ± 1.00, corresponding to an awareness of WBV without a depth of understanding.

Summary

Many at-risk U.S. workers may not be supported by occupational S&H professionals with adequate WBV knowledge.

Impact on Industry

A significant number of U.S. workers may be exposed to unhealthy levels of whole-body vibration. However, the U.S. occupational safety and health community is generally unprepared to anticipate, monitor, and control the whole-body vibration hazard.     

Safety in construction – a comprehensive description of the characteristics of high safety standards in construction work, from the combined perspective of supervisors and experienced workers

Introduction

The often applied engineering approach to safety management in the construction industry needs to be supplemented by organizational measures and measures based on how people conceive and react to their social environment. This requires in-depth knowledge of the broad preconditions for high safety standards in construction. The aim of the study was to comprehensively describe the preconditions and components of high safety standards in the construction industry from the perspective of both experienced construction workers and first-line managers.

Method

Five worker safety representatives and 19 first-line managers were interviewed, all strategically selected from within a large Swedish construction project. Phenomenographic methodology was used for data acquisition and analysis and to categorize the information. Nine informants verified the results.

Results

The study identified four main categories of work safety preconditions and components: (1) Project characteristics and nature of the work, which set the limits of safety management; (2) Organization and structures, with the subcategories planning, work roles, procedures, and resources; (3) Collective values, norms, and behaviors, with the subcategories climate and culture, and interaction and cooperation; and (4) Individual competence and attitudes, with the subcategories knowledge, ability and experience, and individual attitudes.

Discussion

The results comprehensively describe high safety standards in construction, incorporating organizational, group, individual, and technical aspects. High-quality interaction between different organizational functions and hierarchical levels stood out as important aspects of safety. The results are discussed in relation to previous research into safety and into the social-psychological preconditions for other desired outcomes in occupational settings.

Impact on Industry

The results can guide construction companies in planning and executing construction projects to a high safety standard.     

Environmental ozone exposure and oxidative DNA damage in adult residents of Florence, Italy

In 71 adults residing in Florence, Italy, enrolled in a prospective study, we investigated the correlation between individual levels of oxidative DNA damage detected by the Comet assay in circulating lymphocytes, and a specific ozone exposure score calculated in 10 different time-windows (0-5 to 0-90 days) before blood drawing, based on daily measurements provided by the local environmental monitoring system.Overall, statistically significant positive correlations between average ozone concentrations and DNA damage emerged in almost all time-windows considered; correlations were more evident among males, non-smokers, and traffic-exposed workers. Multivariate regression analyses taking into account selected individual characteristics, showed an independent effect on DNA damage of average ozone concentrations in the last 60-90 days before blood drawing. Local residents showed a divergent pattern with correlations restricted to shorter time-windows.Our results suggest that ozone concentrations at ground levels modulate oxidative DNA damage in circulating lymphocytes of residents of polluted areas.