A short scale for measuring safety climate

A 6-item measure that assesses global work safety climate was validated using multiple samples each from a hospital and a nuclear energy population. Across all 14 samples the 6-item measure had acceptable internal consistency. The measure was associated with better adherence to safe work practices, reduced exposure to environmental stressors, the presence of more safety policies and procedures, a positive general organizational climate, and decreased accidents. As evidence for discriminant validity, safety climate was unrelated to most demographic measures and had relatively small relationships with sleeping problems and negative mood. Evidence suggests that this measure is a reliable and valid way to assess global safety climate.     

电炉生产系统工伤事故控制技术的研究

本文是综合应用安全系统工程的原理和方法,控制生产系统的工伤事故,并采用系统辨识理论,辨识生产中的潜在危险和后果,定量评价潜在危险的危害程度和发生概率;综合应用数理统计、工程逻辑、故障树、事件树、管理失误和风险树等多种分析方法,对电炉炼钢生产的原料、冶炼、铸锭、天车、电气、机械等子系统进行了事故发生可能性的预分析和安全状况评价。据分析评价结果,结合生产实际和管理现状,制定了控制事故的综合技术对策,并开发了一系列适合于我国企业安全管理实际需要的计算机软件。     

A novel chemical product design framework with the integration of safety and health aspects

Computer-aided molecular design (CAMD) technique is a powerful tool for the design of molecules that meet a set of desirable properties. In most of the CAMD problems, the molecular physical and thermodynamic properties are often selected as the target properties, while safety and health aspects were not taken into consideration. However, certain chemical substances may cause adverse effects to human's health after prolonged and repeated exposure. Therefore, in order to ensure that the generated molecule does not bring harm and health-related risks to the consumers, it is crucial to incorporate both inherent safety and health into the existing CAMD techniques. In this work, a novel chemical product design methodology has been developed to integrate both safety and health aspects into the CAMD framework presented by a single optimisation model. The measurement of safety and health indicators are based on the molecular properties that have impact on both of these aspects. Each property is assigned with an index or penalty value based on the degree of potential hazards. A molecule with a higher index value has a higher hazard level and vice versa. Hence, a molecule that satisfies the target properties and has a low penalty value will be selected as the most reasonable choice. This new approach ensures that a product that possesses the desirable properties, and at the same time meets the safety and health criteria, is produced. A case study on the solvent design for gas sweetening process has been carried out to determine the optimal molecule.     

粮食筒仓粉尘爆炸的安全措施

介绍了粮食筒仓粉尘爆炸的条件及爆炸的主要地点。提出了从设计、管理等方面采取的主要安全措施。     

某厂皮带机扩建安全优化设计

采用本质安全优化技术对皮带机本体进行设计,提高设备寿命,强化设备安全,降低操作维护故障通过优化设计选用变频调速技术控制料量,使系统配置满足工艺要求,综合指标更为合理。     

Modern accident investigation - Four major challenges

Nowadays, ‘investigation’ is a very commonly advocated approach and consequently is becoming an umbrella concept. ‘Investigation’ includes many types of approaches on different system levels. Originating from transport accidents and crime scenes, ‘investigation’ ranges from genocide, natural disasters, via discrimination, health care to crime fighting, economic fraud and ethical questions in engineering and management. In such a changing operating environment and widespread applications, accident investigation must reassess its distinctive role, purposes and operating conditions. It must clarify and communicate its specific aims and functions and performance to such an extent that it maintains its credibility, capability and quality in the eye of professionals, politicians as well as the public. Based on an assessment of the past performance of leading investigation agencies, practical experiences during major ad hoc accident investigations and changes in the operating environment, a SWOT analysis identified several issues as internal and external challenges in the future conduct of major investigations. Finally, the article proposes several priorities, challenging each stakeholder and expert in the investigation community to contribute from its own perspective to improve accident investigation theory and practices.     

Leadership, psychological capital and safety research: Conceptual issues and future research questions

In this theory-driven literature review we examine how leadership and emerging research in positive organizational behaviour (POB) may inform our understanding of human mechanisms that affect safety outcomes. According to authentic leadership theory, leader self-awareness and self-regulation processes are vital mechanisms in the leader-follower exchange. From emerging research on authentic leadership, we propose that production management values, attitudes, and behaviour are linked to safety climate and safety outcomes in safety critical organizations (SCOs). According to recent developments in management theory, “psychological capital” is comprised of four distinct aspects that can be linked to desirable organizational outcomes and sustained high quality performance in individual workers. From this we offer a research model and five research propositions implicating that authentic leadership directly affects safety outcomes via promoting positive safety climate perceptions. Furthermore, we propose a second path where psychological capital mediates the relationship between authentic leadership, safety climate and safety outcomes in SCOs.     

The influence of supervisor leadership practices and perceived group safety climate on employee safety performance

The current study investigates the influence of the leadership practices of first-line supervisors on the safety compliance and safety participation of the employees who work for them. Contingent reward and transformational leadership are examined under conditions of positive and non-positive group safety climate in both the manufacturing and constructions sectors. Using moderated regression models (Aguinis, 2004) results indicate that greater levels of transformational and contingent reward leadership are both associated with greater levels of safety compliance and safety participation behavior, however group safety climate moderates the leadership-safety compliance relationships. Under positive group safety climate conditions employee safety compliance behavior improves as supervisor’s leadership practices increase; under non-positive group safety compliance conditions there is no improvement in safety compliance with improvements in supervisor’s leadership practices. The results provide further support to the growing literature on the value of strong group safety climates for improving safety compliance behavior, as well as the value in improving the leadership practices of first-line supervisors.     

An investigation of occupational subgroups with respect to patient safety culture

There are varying views about the consistency of safety culture across a given organisation or industrial sector: some view it as homogeneous, whereas others have suggested the presence of sub-cultures that vary according to the work group or worksite. This paper reports on a study in which job characteristics and safety climate ratings from a sample of British community pharmacists (N = 860) were subjected to a cluster analysis, with the aim of identifying whether discrete groups can be identified on the basis of these ratings. A four-cluster solution was obtained from the analysis. Examination of quantitative and qualitative data from each cluster led to them being identified as: (i) the disenfranchising pharmacy; (ii) the perilous pharmacy; (iii) the safety-focused pharmacy; (iv) the challenging pharmacy. On the basis of the data obtained, safety culture appears to have both characteristics generic to all community pharmacies and characteristics specific to each cluster, with a number of social and organisational factors influencing the culture in any one setting. Implications for the modelling and assessment of safety culture are discussed.     

Ethics and fundamental principles of risk acceptance criteria

Ethics are concerned with distinguishing between what actions are “right” and “wrong” and what values are “good” and “bad”, etc. and there is a long academic tradition in discussing ethics and ethical theories. Risk acceptance criteria, on the other hand, distinguish between levels of risks that are acceptable and levels that are intolerable. In some sense, one may say that risk acceptance criteria distinguishes between “good” and “bad” systems and activities with regards to the risk they expose the society or elements of a society to and there is thus an obvious link between ethics and risk acceptance criteria or to risk management at large. However, there are few references in the literature that explores this link, and in this paper, the ethical foundation of fundamental principles of risk acceptance criteria will be elaborated upon.This paper considers some important principles for establishing risk acceptance criteria for safety critical systems and activities. The various principles and the philosophies behind them might at first sight seem contradictory and exclusive, but it is demonstrated how they may coexist in one and the same regulatory regime; They may complement each other in order to achieve the overall safety objectives of society. Then, some brief considerations of the ethical foundations for the principles will be given and some relevant examples of actual risk acceptance criteria will be given from the maritime industries. However, it is believed that the principles and discussions are of general interest and apply to all areas of technical risk and to safety regulations in a broader perspective.