Effectiveness of primary enforcement safety belt laws and enhanced enforcement of safety belt laws: a summary of the Guide to Community Preventive Services systematic reviews

BACKGROUND: The use of safety belts is the single most effective means of reducing fatal and nonfatal injuries in motor-vehicle crashes. This paper summarizes the systematic reviews of two interventions to increase safety belt use: primary enforcement safety belt laws and enhanced enforcement of safety belt laws. The reviews were previously published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. METHODS: We conducted the systematic reviews using the methodology developed for the Guide to Community Preventive Services. RESULTS: These reviews provide strong evidence that primary laws are more effective than secondary laws in increasing safety belt use and decreasing fatalities and that enhanced enforcement is effective in increasing safety belt use. Increases in belt use are generally highest in states with low baseline rates of belt use. DISCUSSION: Primary safety belt laws and enhanced enforcement programs tend to result in greater increases in usage rates for target groups with lower baseline rates. Concerns regarding public opposition to these interventions may impede their implementation in some jurisdictions. However, surveys indicate that a substantial majority of the public supports implementation of both primary laws and enhanced enforcement programs. CONCLUSION: Based on the strong evidence for effectiveness of primary safety belt laws and enhanced enforcement programs, the Task Force on Community Preventive Services recommended that all states enact primary safety belt laws and that communities implement enhanced enforcement programs.     

Adversarial safety analysis: borrowing the methods of security vulnerability assessments

INTRODUCTION: Safety and security share numerous attributes. The author, who heads the (Security) Vulnerability Assessment Team at Los Alamos National Laboratory, therefore argues that techniques used to optimize security might be useful for optimizing safety. OPTIMIZING SECURITY: There are three main ways to attempt to improve security-security surveys, risk assessment (or "design basis threat"), and vulnerability assessments. The latter is usually the most effective. SAFETY ANALOGS: Vulnerability assessment techniques used to improve security can be applied to safety analysis--even though safety is not ordinarily viewed as having malicious adversaries (other than hazards involving deliberate sabotage). Thinking like a malicious adversary can nevertheless have benefits in identifying safety vulnerabilities. SUGGESTIONS: The attributes of an effective safety vulnerability assessment are discussed, and recommendations are offered for how such an adversarial assessment might work. CONCLUSION: A safety vulnerability assessment can potentially provide new insights, a fresh and vivid perspective on safety hazards, and increased safety awareness.     

以人为本的城市安全发展观探讨

随着城市化的进程加速 ,我国城市规划建设存在着民房拆迁安置、农民失地就业、环境严重污染、防洪防灾能力薄弱等诸多问题 ,且片面追求建设速度 ,片面强调降低建筑成本 ,不顾损坏资源环境和超过群众承受能力 ,而背离了社会效益、企业利益和个人权益多赢的以人为本的城市安全发展。笔者提出了城市安全发展观的内涵、重要意义及其实现途径 ,愿与同行共酌探讨。     

复采残采煤层小煤矿开采技术研究

平顶山市新华区为全国重点产煤县 (区 ) ,区内煤矿以乡镇小煤矿为主 ;小煤矿井田多位于平顶山煤业集团大型矿井浅部报废水平内 ,主要开采残留煤柱和采后剩余底部煤层。笔者根据新华区小煤矿生产的特点 ,总结、规范了复采残采煤层小煤矿井田开拓、采煤方法 ,重点研究了房柱式采煤法采准巷道布置和采煤工艺 ,特别是保持煤房稳定、提高采煤工作面安全生产的特殊支护问题 ;同时结合小煤矿生产中存在的主要问题 ,依据煤炭行业的法律、法规 ,提出了小煤矿采煤方法改进的技术措施。上述研究成果 ,对规范我国小煤矿的采煤方法、提高小煤矿的安全生产能力、推动小煤矿由数量型向质量效益型转化、发展地方经济都具有重要的现实意义。     

改进BP算法在煤与瓦斯突出预测中的应用

为了正确预测煤与瓦斯突出的趋势与危险性 ,基于反向BP神经网络 ,笔者提出了一种改进的BP网络模型 :为了加快BP网络的收敛速度 ,增强其跳出局部极小点的能力 ,采用了自适应变步长法和改进模拟退火法 (SA法 )相结合的方法。实际应用表明 ,该模型收敛速度快 ,准确性高 ,具有较高的可靠性和实用性 ,是一种十分有效的煤与瓦斯突出危险性预测方法。     

中海石油企业安全文化建设

企业安全文化建设既是中海石油自身持续、稳定发展的客观需要 ,也是新形势下企业内、外部环境变化的客观要求。通过不断完善企业安全文化系统工程及其管理体系 ,将安全生产工作提高到文化的高度去认识 ,依靠安全文化的潜移默化作用 ,提高全体员工的安全意识和整体安全文化素质 ,让“我要安全”、“我会安全”贯穿于生产经营活动的所有时空、每一个环节 ,树立“以人为本的绿色能源生产企业”的良好社会形象 ,大力推广“本质安全化”理念 ,增强企业的抗风险能力和竞争能力     

A safety self-management intervention for mining operations

PROBLEM: This quasi-experimental field study examined the efficacy of a safety self-management process to increase safety-related work practices in mining operations. METHODS: After a 7-week baseline, 15 miners participated in a safety self-management training and education presentation. The participants in a prebehavior condition (n=8) recorded their intentions to engage in specific percentages of safety-related work behaviors before starting their shift for the day. In contrast, participants in a postbehavior condition (n=7) recorded their percentages of safety-related work behaviors after their shift for the day. RESULTS: During withdrawal (4 weeks), the miners did not complete any self-monitoring forms. Based on 10,905 behavioral observations, safety self-management was effective at increasing the frequency of safety-related behavior (p<.05). For the prebehavior condition, the mean percent safe score across three target behaviors increased 34.8% during intervention. Similarly, in the postbehavior condition, the mean percent safe score across three target behaviors increased 40.1% during intervention. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: The results suggest that employees who work in relative isolation or have little oversight, compared to traditional industrial workers, may benefit from a process by which they can systematically observe themselves.     

The concept of degraded images applied to hazard recognition training in mining for reduction of lost-time injuries

Introduction: This paper discusses the application of a training intervention that uses degraded images for improving the hazard recognition skills of miners. Method: NIOSH researchers, in an extensive literature review, identified fundamental psychological principles on perception that may be employed to enhance the ability of miners to recognize and respond to hazards in their dangerous work environment. Three studies were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the degraded image training intervention. A model of hazard recognition was developed to guide the study. Results: In the first study, miners from Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Alabama, who were taught with the aid of degraded images, scored significantly better on follow-up hazard recognition performance measures than those trained using traditional instructional methodologies. The second and third studies investigated the effectiveness of the training intervention at two mining companies. Data collected over a 3-year period showed that lost-time injuries at mines in Alabama and Illinois declined soon after the training intervention was instituted. Impact on Industry: Further exploration of the hazard recognition model and the development of other interventions based on the model could support the validity of the steps in the hazard recognition model.     

Wildfire effects on hiking and biking demand in New Mexico: a travel cost study

We use a travel cost model to test the effects of wild and prescribed fire on visitation by hikers and mountain bikers in New Mexico. Our results indicate that net benefits for mountain bikers is $150 per trip and that they take an average of 6.2 trips per year. Hikers take 2.8 trips per year with individual net benefits per trip of $130. Both hikers' and mountain bikers' demand functions react adversely to prescribed burning. Net benefits for both groups fall as areas recover from prescribed burns. Because both visitation and annual recreation benefits decrease to these two types of visitors, this gives rise to multiple use costs associated with prescribed burning. With respect to wildfire, hikers and mountain bikers both exhibit decreased visitation as areas recover from wildfires, however, only hikers indicate an increase in per trip net benefits. Bikers' demand effectively drops to zero. These results differ from previous findings in the literature and have implications for efficient implementation of the National Fire Plan and whether prescribed burning is a cost effective tool for multiple use management of National Forests. Specifically, that fire and recreation managers cannot expect recreation users to react similarly to fire across recreation activities, or different geographic regions. What is cost effective in one region may not be so in another.     

Application of Multiattribute Decision-Making Methods for the Determination of Relative Significance Factor of Impact Categories

A relative significance factor (f _i ) of an impact category is the external weight of the impact category. The objective of this study is to propose a systematic and easy-to-use method for the determination of f _i . Multiattribute decision-making (MADM) methods including the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), the rank-order centroid method, and the fuzzy method were evaluated for this purpose. The results and practical aspects of using the three methods are compared. Each method shows the same trend, with minor differences in the value of f _i . Thus, all three methods can be applied to the determination of f _i . The rank order centroid method reduces the number of pairwise comparisons by placing the alternatives in order, although it has inherent weakness over the fuzzy method in expressing the degree of vagueness associated with assigning weights to criteria and alternatives. The rank order centroid method is considered a practical method for the determination of f _i because it is easier and simpler to use compared to the AHP and the fuzzy method.