International Journal of Occupational Hygiene
Volume:12 Issue: 1, Mar 2020

Thermal comfort is a condition, by which individuals are mentally satisfied from the ambient temperature conditions. The feeling of discomfort may emerge all over or in specific parts of the body. The present study was done with the aim of evaluating thermal comfort within dormitory of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences according to ASHRAE standards. The descriptive – analytical study was done on 167 male students of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. Subjective thermal sensation of students was measured in a 7-point scale, regarding dry temperature, wet temperature, radiant temperature, relative humidity of each student room, and predicted mean vote (PMV). The collected data were analyzed by SPSS-20 software. The mean rates for dry temperature, radiant temperature, humidity, and PMV were 20.326 °C, 23.04 °C, 56.78%, and -1.37 °C, respectively. The rate of 50.3% of the dry temperature and 51.5% of measured radiant temperature were in the range of standard temperature for winter season (20-23 °C), and only 4.2% of PMV index was in the acceptable ASHRAE standards range. The most subjective thermal sensations in the students were in neutral scale with frequency percent of 29.9%. PMV had no significant relation with the subjective thermal sensation in the students. PMV index in this study is not suitable for estimating people’s thermal sensation from environment in winter, and dry and radiant temperatures be set in ASHRAE standards temperature range by applying appropriate changes in the ventilation and heating system of the dormitory, for more people to be satisfied from the ambient temperature conditions.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychological effects of COVID-19 on mental health and related factors among worker in one of the drink industry. The present analytical cross-sectional study was performed in Tehran Province, Iran. All workers in the drink industry participated in this study. Three online questionnaires, namely demographic information, Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), and Stress-Anxiety-Depression questionnaire DASS-21 were distributed among the participants through social networks (WhatsApp and Telegram) to collect data. The results suggested that 79.6% of respondents rated the psychological impact of the break as moderate; 27.9% reported moderate depressive symptoms; 25.2% reported severe or extremely severe anxiety symptoms; 19.7% reported moderate stress symptoms. The majority of respondents were aware of the transmission routes (96.6%) and the dangerous and deadly virus (51.7%) that were significantly associated with lower levels of depression (P<0.05). The majority of the respondents (90.5%) performed protective behaviors, such as wearing masks and gloves, using disinfectants, and so on against COVID-19 on a daily basis. 63.3% of respondents were concerned about getting infected COVID-19 virus that was significantly associated with a greater psychological impact of the outbreak and higher levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. In addition, 66% of the respondents always performed protective behaviors during their work shift, and 53.7% of them were satisfied with the support receiving from their workplace. Considering the growing trend of the COVID-19 epidemic worldwide, it is suggested to improve the workforce health conditions that employers and practitioners to develop new work instructions, to design online psychological interventions, to provide personal protective equipment items, etc.

Nowadays, there are increasing concerns about pesticides occupational and environmental adverse effects despite the wide use. Therefore, it is very important to develop reliable methods for pesticides detection, extraction, and quantification in different samples. This study was aimed to develop an electrochemical Nano-composite sensor based on molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) for selective determination of pesticides. The MIPs and non-imprinted polymers (NIPs) for diazinon and dicloran pesticides synthesized and were used in the composition of the carbon paste electrode. The square wave voltammetry (SWV) differential technique based on a fractional 28 factorial design was used to evaluate the effects of variables on the sensor response. The results of MIP-CP electrodes showed very high recognition abilities compared to the NIP-CP. The linear ranges for diazinon and dicloran were obtained 5×10-10 to 1×10-6, 1×10-9 to 1×10-6 mol L-1, and detection limits were 2.7×10-10 and 4.1×10-10 mol L-1, respectively. Modified sensors were provided the prominent selectivity and sensitivity for quantification of pesticides in urine and water real samples considering optimized conditions. Therefore, the special sample pre-treatment wasn’t required prior to the analysis process. The experimental design was verified the existence of interaction between factors. Consequently, the variables including square wave frequency, square wave amplitude, and deposition potential were indicated more significant effects on the sensor response than the other factors. It can be concluded that the interaction evaluation between variables is very important to look for the optimum conditions for pesticides analysis using voltammetric sensors.

In industry and developed societies, annual work accidents can bring about huge losses. By proper analysis of these events, the development of controlling measures can be the most important action to prevent similar events and enhance the health of the society. Hence, the current study was aimed at analyzing a case of occupational accidents leading to death in one of the car industries. This qualitative case study was conducted in spring, 2018. With the implementation of Systems Theoretic Accident Model and Processes (STAMP), the incident statement had been described accurately and, then, a safety control structure has been designed to determine inadequate effective safety control actions in the event of an accident. In the analysis of the incident, various factors were involved at different levels of incident hierarchy where the various components of socio-technical systems interact with each other; the inadequate control action of the safety unit was more prominent. Based on the STAMP technique, unlike traditional methods, does not consider the cause of the accident just a component of failure or malfunction of the system. Therefore, it provides a useful tool in incident analysis, especially in complicated and sensitive systems.

Most industrial accidents are due to unsafe behaviors in the workplace. Therefore, the present study was aimed to investigate the role of individual factors on the consequence of accidents. This descriptive-analytical study was carried out based on data obtained from 1048 accidents registered in the Labor Inspection Office of one of the industrial provinces of Iran. In this study, individual factors were extracted from accident reporting forms and analyzed by SPSS software version 18. In the current study, the results showed that the least number of accidents was related to employee who had a bachelor degree or above. Of 95% reported fatalities were male and 73% of them were married. The results of statistical test showed that there is a significant relationship between outcome type and marital status (p <0.001). It was also found that the employees under 30 years old had the highest number of minor injuries and death. Fisher test showed a significant relationship between age and outcome (p <0.001). All minor, major injuries and death cases occurred among workers with less than 5 years of work experience. Also the workers with 25-30 years of work experience had the lowest percentage of accidents. The results of Chi-square test showed no significant relationship between outcome type and work experience (p <0.001). Individual factors such as gender, citizenship, age group, marital status, educational level, work experience and related work experience have an important role in the frequency and severity of accidents in industries.

The occupational settings present high risk in terms of exposure and spreading of the Corona Virus‑2019 (COVID-19) due to the gathering of many individuals. Although still uncertainty remains around COVID-19 and it is early to have conclusion on its prevention and control, different policies have been promoted by international organizations and health authorities regarding high risk staff to reduce exposure in occupational settings. The aim of this study was to provide a brief review of the required strategies and policies to prevent and control COVID-19 at workplaces. Because of the wide and rapid spread of new coronavirus globally, all people, including employees, and employers should implement the necessary instructions, training, and measures for the prevention and control of infection. Furthermore, governments and health organizations should promote prevention and control measures in three levels of engineering, administrative, and personal protective equipment (PPE) controls to prevent COVID-19 at workplaces.

Various studies have shown that unsafe behaviors usually occur in a work environment due to inadequate safety management and safety culture which are the main causes of most workplace accidents. Therefore, this study was aimed to briefly review studies that examined the safety culture and safety climate in Iranian industries. This review study was focused on systematically searching articles from 2009 to 2019 in databases, Google Scholar, SID, agiran, Science Direct, and PubMed using keywords including safety culture, safety climate, workers, industries, and Iran. The titles and abstracts of articles containing relevant results were extracted over the past 10 years. Then, they were categorized and analyzed according to the title of articles, years of publication, place of publications, type of industries, place of researches, field of studies, methods of evaluation and analysis. The results of various studies and selected articles regarding examining the safety culture and safety climate of industries in Iran showed that the establishment of positive safety culture and safety climate by providing high-quality safety training and implementing appropriate engineering and managerial interventions can boost workers’ awareness about existing hazards in the work environment, thereby motivating them to prevent unsafe actions. The state of the culture and safety climate in Iran's industries although cannot be generalized but a positive culture and climate safety can be established in organizations by identifying and evaluating effective components such as senior management’s commitment to train workers about hazards in the workplace, avoid unsafe practices and ultimately reduce human errors and accidents.

Despite the safety management and safety measures, occupational accidents in the workplace are inevitable, and occupational deaths and injuries occur every year around the world. One of the management approaches to control of risk is transfer risk. In this approach, the total or part of losses caused by accident compensated by the third party (insurance markets). This approach is used when the probability of occurrence of the accident is low but its impact and consequences are severe. In this article, we reviewed the studies related to insurance and occupational accidents. The aim was to find a link between insurance and occupational accidents and to answer the question that whether insurance has an effect on the reduction or increase of accidents or not. According to a study conducted on various papers from various databases, it has been shown that insurance, in addition to compensation, can improves safety and reduce accidents. Also, despite the fact that insurance may have other negative economic effects in organizations, it can reduce both the risk of occupational accidents and financial risks for insurers through an incentive and economic approach.