What kinds of injuries do OSHA inspections prevent?

Objective

OSHA's enforcement program is one of the major public efforts to protect American workers. We examine both the scope of injury prevention that inspections can contribute and the types of standards that contribute the most.

Methods

We linked Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry files for lost-time injuries and employment to calculate injury rates for 1998-2005 for all single-establishment manufacturing firms. We linked these to OSHA inspection records.

Results

Inspections with penalties did affect injury types unrelated to standards as well as those related. We also found again that citations for violations of the standard requiring personal protective equipment had the largest impact on preventing injuries.

Impact on Industry

Programs requiring protective equipment use deserve added attention from consultants and inspectors. In addition, some inspections spur managers to undertake safety measures that go beyond compliance with standards.     

Heat illness among high school athletes--United States, 2005-2009

Introduction

Heat illness is a leading cause of death and disability among U.S. high school athletes.

Methods

To examine the incidence and characteristics of heat illness among high school athletes, CDC analyzed data from the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study for the period 2005–2009.

Results

During 2005–2009, the 100 schools sampled reported a total of 118 heat illnesses among high school athletes resulting in ≥ 1 day of time lost from athletic activity, a rate of 1.6 per 100,000 athlete-exposures, and an average of 29.5 time-loss heat illnesses per school year. The average corresponds to a weighted average annual estimate of 9,237 illnesses nationwide. The highest rate of time-loss heat illness was among football players, 4.5 per 100,000 athlete-exposures, a rate 10 times higher than the average rate (0.4) for the eight other sports. Time-loss heat illnesses occurred most frequently during August (66.3%) and while practicing or playing football (70.7%). No deaths were reported.

Conclusions

Consistent with guidelines from the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, to reduce the risk for heat illness, high school athletic programs should implement heat-acclimatization guidelines (e.g., set limits on summer practice duration and intensity). All athletes, coaches, athletic trainers, and parents/guardians should be aware of the risk factors for heat illness, follow recommended strategies, and be prepared to respond quickly to symptoms of illness. Coaches also should continue to stress to their athletes the importance of maintaining proper hydration before, during, and after sports activities.

Impact of industry

By implementing preventive recommendations and quickly recognizing and responding to heat illness, coaches, athletic trainers, and the sporting community can prevent future deaths.     

关于安全行为科学的探讨

对安全行为科学的有关问题进行了初步探讨，阐述了研究安全行为科学的意义，给出了安全行为科学的概念，提出了安全行为科学的研究方法和基本内容     

Optimized acid rain abatement strategies using ecological goals

This article addresses the use of critical loads in optimized emission abatement strategies. Critical loads represent the maximum tolerable deposition possible without adverse impacts, a limit that is highly spatially variable. As deposition targets, critical loads cannot be satisfied at all receptors in Europe. Consequently, there is a need for alternative criteria that still relate to ecological indicators, yet that are feasible, consistent, and equitable. Two criteria are suggested: the relative critical load coverage and the relative deposition reduction. Deposition goals based on these criteria will guarantee that a specified fraction of ecosystems will attain target loads and thus will be protected from adverse environmental impacts. In areas that cannot achieve target loads with the best available control measures, deposition can be reduced to a specified fraction of the unabated level. Examples are presented that demonstrate their derivation and application of the two criteria. The criteria have been implemented in the European-scale Regional Acidification Information and Simulation (RAINS) model. Results obtained indicate that optimized emission strategies based on critical loads may be similar to emission strategies based on deposition reductions at certain levels of the two criteria. This suggests that it may not be necessary to utilize critical loads to formulate deposition targets. A second example shows the effect of excluding countries from European cost minimization. A country's participation can save costs with moderate deposition targets; however, significant costs can be imposed with low (stringent) deposition targets. These preliminary results have significant implications for multilateral negotiations.     

港口石油化工码头及其库区灾害事故应急系统研究

通过对石油化工码头及其库区危险因素的分析,提出编制应急预案重点要考虑的问题是:明确重大危险源性质与布局;灾害事故的类型及规模;灾害事故等级的划分;一旦发生灾害事故,谁来指挥,谁来救灾,拿什么救灾,怎么救灾的应急反应机制和整个应急过程的通讯联络。为使应急预案具有可操作性,提出了预案编制要点。石油化工码头及库区灾害事故应急系统除编制灾害事故应急预案外,还应实施由重大危险源电子地图信息管理,油品(化学品)的理化特性、应急处理方法及防护措施基本信息查询,可燃有毒气体泄漏扩散模拟预测和池火热辐射强度模拟预测等组成的危险源管理地理信息系统和灾害事故灾情快速预测系统。     

青藏铁路格拉段货运环境特殊性及安全保障体系研究

分析了青藏铁路格拉段的货运环境特殊性和格拉段铁路货运的突出特点,指出了影响格拉段铁路货物运输持续、畅通的主要原因,即铁路货运能力和货运需求的季节性波动;对青藏铁路货物运输影响极大的公路集疏运条件也存在明显的季节性波动。从实际情况出发,着重探讨保证格拉段货运安全的对策,提出了做好包含货运量的空间分布,铁路运能、公路集疏运能力和客运需求的时间分布,年度到发货运量计划的货运量的时间分布计划;以在格尔木设立大型物流中心为重点,加强有货运作业车站的仓储能力;进出藏适箱货源集装化和适当增加车站线路等措施,并构建格拉段铁路的货运安全保证体系。     

国有重点煤矿企业安全科技人才现状研究

依据对我国国有重点煤矿企业抽样调查的结果,着重对国有重点煤矿企业安全科技人才的总量、密度、结构、流失等进行了系统的分析,并与美国煤炭行业的人才状况进行了比较分析。笔者在此基础上,给出了国有重点煤矿企业安全科技人才现状的基本评价,国有重点煤矿企业安全科技人才断层已经出现,安全科技人才总量严重不足,人才的问题已经开始制约煤炭行业的发展,尤其是严重制约着煤炭行业建立安全生产长效机制;对进一步加强和优化国有重点煤矿企业安全科技人才队伍建设提供了可靠的依据,具有重要指导意义。     

Safety-culture in a Norwegian shipping company

Problem: Although there has been considerable interest in safety culture and safety climate in many industries, little attention has been given to safety culture in one of the world's riskiest industries, shipping. Method: Using both self developed items and items from published research on safety culture, safety climate, and quality and management style, a 40-item safety culture questionnaire was developed. The questionnaire was distributed in a self-administered form to sailors onboard 20 vessels and to officers attending a seminar in Manila. A total of 349 questionnaires were collected (total response rate, 60%). Results, discussion and impact on industry: Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed 11 factors when the Kaiser eigenvalue rule was used and four factors when the scree test criterion was used. The factor structure in the material confirmed structures found in other industries. The relative importance of the factors from the factor analysis on “level of safety” measures was tested by canonical correlation analysis and regression analysis. The results confirmed previous research and showed that the most important factors were influential across industries. To determine weather differences existed between nationalities, occupations, and vessels the factors from the PCA was subjected to Multiple Discriminant Analysis. Significant differences between occupations, nations, and vessels were found on one or more of the factors from the PCA.     

An evaluation of the effectiveness of a baby walker safety standard to prevent stair-fall injuries

PROBLEM: During the early 1990s the number of baby walker injuries treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments averaged almost 25,000 annually; about 80% resulted from falls down stairs. After initiating a regulatory proceeding in 1994, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission staff worked with industry to develop requirements to address the stair-fall hazard. This study evaluates the effectiveness of the stair-fall requirements, which became effective in 1997 as part of a revised voluntary standard. METHOD: Annual baby walker emergency department injury rates were constructed for the 1981-2002 study period. A multivariate negative binomial regression model was used to estimate the effectiveness of the stair-fall requirements in reducing the injury rate. RESULTS: The stair-fall requirements reduced the emergency department injury rate by an estimated 63% (95% CI, 52% to 71%). IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Given the substantial reduction in walker injuries, and the high level of industry conformance with the stair-fall requirements, the Commission terminated its regulatory proceeding in May, 2002. The success of the baby walker project highlights the ability of government and industry to work together cooperatively to develop effective safety improvements for consumer products.     

Work domain analysis for air traffic controller weather displays

INTRODUCTION: Adverse weather conditions have a major impact on National Airspace System (NAS) operations. They create safety hazards for pilots, constrain the usable airspace for air traffic control (ATC), and reduce the overall capacity of the NAS. A system-wide dissemination of weather information to controllers could theoretically improve safety and efficiency. PROBLEM: However, it is currently unclear what weather information would be beneficial for tactical operations. Furthermore, no previous research has empirically evaluated optimal presentation designs for ATC weather displays. Ill-designed weather displays can cause safety hazards by presenting redundant information (i.e., by increasing the cognitive load) and display clutter (e.g., by interfering with the visual extraction of traffic data). METHOD: In the present paper, we outline our use of cognitive work analysis (CWA) techniques for the assessment of weather information needs for terminal controllers. RESULTS: Specifically, we describe how the CWA modeling tools helped us reveal instances in the terminal domain where weather information is lacking or insufficiently disseminated. We used our CWA results to drive the development of weather display concepts and to set up a high-fidelity simulation capability. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: By means of high-fidelity simulations, we can empirically evaluate controller weather information needs in order to propose weather displays for increased aircraft safety and efficiency of terminal operations.