International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics最新文献

This study identifies and analyses the primary elements contributing to accidents in scrap-based steelmaking plants in the Punjab state of India as a typical case study. The collected data for 2017-2022 from different scrap-based steelmaking plants were analysed utilizing Boston square matrix, Pareto chart, Ishikawa diagram and Poisson-distribution-based control chart analysis. The results revealed that fatal accidents contributed to around 13% of total accidents. The least fatal accidents are observed in the summer, around 17% of total accidents compared to the monsoon and winter seasons. The maximum contribution in non-fatal accidents is from lost-time injury, at around 85% of total non-fatal accidents. Moreover, compared to 2017, this study demonstrated a 78 and 45% decrease in non-fatal and fatal accidents in 2022. This decrease may be attributed to the efficacy and influence of regulatory measures, the acquisition of knowledge from past accidents and employee awareness in these scrap-based steelmaking facilities.

Female firefighters in the USA face increased risk of injury due to ill-fitting personal protective clothing. The purpose of this research was to assess the adequacy of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1977 sizing system for wildland female firefighters, using the first and largest female firefighter anthropometric database (n = 187) in the USA. Ten body measurements in the upper and lower torso garment sizing ranges were analyzed. Results of descriptive analyses and sample estimation highlighted varying degrees of discrepancies in the NFPA 1977 sizing system. Extreme cases were observed, such as the front rise length, for which only 4.3% (n = 8) of participants fell within the NFPA 1977 size range. Overall, findings suggest the NFPA 1977 standard remains insufficiently inclusive of the US female firefighter population based on the sample analysis. Improvements are necessary to improve firefighter performance and safety and to reduce the heightened risk of injury for female firefighters.

Objectives. Railway track maintenance is one of the essential tasks for the Indian railway, where millions of workers have musculoskeletal disorders. The main aim of the present investigation is to determine the prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). Methods. Nordic modified questionnaire studies and posture analysis were performed by the Ovako working posture analyzing system. Physiological stress assessment was carried out by recording the participants' heart rate and blood pressure. Results. The questionnaire study revealed that most of the railway track maintainers complained that the maximum discomfort (pain) felt was in the lower back region (90.3%) of the body, followed by the hands (76.4%), knees (76.0%), wrists (75.2%) and shoulders (68.2%). There was a significant change in heart rate reserve, net cardiac cost, relative cardiac cost and cardiovascular stress index between the railway track maintainers and controls. Conclusion. This study shows that railway track maintainers are constantly engaged in highly repetitive hand-intensive jobs, and by performing such strenuous jobs for several years suffer from discomfort in the upper and lower back regions of the body followed by a decrease in handgrip strength. All of these factors consequently may lead to the development of WMSDs.

Preventing miners' unsafe behavior and reducing accidents in deep coal mines are crucial. This study comprehensively used methods such as the human factor analysis and classification system for China mines (HFACS-CM) model, grounded theory and the back propagation (BP) neural network model to construct an early warning index system for miners' unsafe behavior. A three-layer feed-forward BP neural network warning model with a structure of 13-14-4 layers was developed to predict miners' unsafe behavior. The results showed that the model can accurately predict miners' unsafe behavior and reflect the complex non-linear relationship between the driving factors and unsafe behavior. Unsafe supervision was the most critical driving factor affecting miners' unsafe behavior, followed by organizational influence, miners' unsafe state and environmental factors. This study can help mining enterprises formulate more effective management measures for miners' unsafe behavior so as to improve the efficiency of coal mine safety management.

This study explores how work characteristic factors influence the safety behavior of front-line employees in small and medium-sized industrial enterprises in China, using an expanded job demands-resources model. The research constructs a structural model based on job demands and job resources. A total of 558 valid responses were collected using a designed variable measurement scale to empirically test the influence of work characteristics on safety behavior (safety compliance and safety participation). The findings reveal that job demands negatively affect safety behavior, with job burnout mediating this relationship. In contrast, job resources positively influence safety behavior, with safety motivation mediating the effect. Additionally, psychosocial safety climate moderates the mediating path between job demands and employee safety behavior, while it partially moderates the mediating paths between job resources and employee safety behavior.

Objectives. Job stress (JS) can endanger health. This study therefore determined the association between risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and JS in hospital office employees. Methods. The cross-sectional study examined JS of 350 hospital administrative staff using the Osipow questionnaire. After 10 h of fasting, the participants' systolic and diastolic blood pressure, cholesterol, triglyceride and glucose levels were recorded. SPSS version 20 was used for statistical analysis. Results. In total, 85.14% participants have more than medium stress. Significant differences were observed between the blood triglyceride levels (p < 0.05) and levels of stress. The blood cholesterol and glucose level in the medium or lower stress group were significantly lower than in the more than medium stress group (p < 0.001). Conclusions. According to the results, psychological counseling programs are recommended for reducing the risk of (CVD) factors in stressful work environments.

In order to ascertain the conditions and pathways to improve the quality of work safety information disclosure of listed companies in high-risk industries in China, this study collated 222 listed companies in high-risk industries in China as valid samples, and used the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method to analyze the mixed effects of seven conditional variables. Seven kinds of substantive disclosure configurations and six kinds of symbolic disclosure configurations of work safety information were obtained. The results showed that any single condition is inadequate to drive enterprises to effectively disclose work safety information. The joint effect of the work safety strength and manager safety cognition is significant and they are mutually complementary. Moreover, there is a substitute relationship between regulatory pressure on stock exchange disclosure and the profitability and the work safety strength, respectively.

By considering the interaction mechanism of psychological safety and voice behavior in a justice culture context, this study aims to reveal the black box of how construction project-based organizations (CPOs) realize the behavior of learning from incidents (LFI) by improving psychological perception and encouraging speech. An empirical study was conducted based on partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) methods with a sample of 273 CPOs in China. The findings showed that justice culture has a positive correlation to LFI. Both psychological safety and voice behavior have intermediate effects on the relationship between justice culture and LFI. Moreover, this study developed and examined a chain-mediating model that incorporated psychological safety and voice behavior into the relationship between justice culture and LFI. This study provides a theoretical foundation and viable management practices for CPOs in China to promote the LFI behavior from the resilience culture perspective.

Problems in aspects including team structure, team members' collaboration, personality differences and language application ability can potentially give rise to communication failures of the entire team and systemic risks. Scant studies have focused on the distinctive risk factors of communication errors and the methods for quantifying these risks. For Zhengzhou metro, critical event technology is employed to construct the factors influencing the risk of communication error of the metro operation team, i.e., interpersonal risk, language application risk and external risk. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is utilized to assign weights to each index, and the cloud model is adopted to evaluate the risk of communication error quantitatively. The results indicate that the risks were in the order of interpersonal > external > language application, and the main contributing factors are the risks of information management (U₁₃), global awareness (U₁₄), parallel task processing (U₃₂) and time pressure (U₃₄).

Objectives. This study aims to evaluate the frequency of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and associated impairments among bus drivers in South India. The main research question is to determine the prevalence and distribution of MSDs among bus drivers and assess the impact of these disorders on their daily activities and functioning. Methods. A supervised cross-sectional study was conducted involving 390 qualified bus drivers. MSDs were assessed using a standardized Nordic musculoskeletal questionnaire, and impairments resulting from MSDs were measured using various assessment techniques. Results. The study found that 65.8% of the drivers self-reported experiencing MSDs, with the highest prevalence in the lower back, followed by the neck and upper back regions. Prevalence was relatively low in the elbow and wrist regions. MSDs were most prevalent in the neck, shoulder, upper back and lower back regions for individuals aged 29-39 years and over 40 years. The study also revealed that MSDs significantly affect daily activities, particularly in the lower and upper back regions. Disability index scores indicated that many drivers experienced mild to moderate disabilities. Conclusion. The findings underscore the necessity for appropriate healthcare and rehabilitation programs to prevent and manage MSDs among bus drivers.