فهرست مطالب

International Journal of Occupational Hygiene
Volume:12 Issue: 3, Sep 2020

  • تاریخ انتشار: 1399/10/24
  • تعداد عناوین: 8
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  • Roya Kelkanlo, Bahram Kouhnavard, Seyed Hamid Falaki Pages 180-191

    The present study was aimed to distinguish the effects of work type on hand dimensions and investigate the relationship between anthropometric dimensions and occupation.

    Methods

    The participants included 91 males in two groups, namely 51 manual labor and 40 office employees. The anthropometric data of 12 hand anthropometric dimensions were collected. A simple random method was applied to identify samples. All data were analyzed using SPSS version 18.

    Results

     All the measurements unless manual workers grip diameter were significantly greater than office personnel. The hand perimeter had the greatest value among the 12 measured dimensions while the thickness of the side little finger was the smallest one. In four dimensions, namely width of four fingers together from the central hinge; diameter of thumb to face; diameter of the index finger to face; hand thickness from index finger revealed the availability of a significant difference between manual labor jobs and office workers. Moreover, no significant relation was observed between weight and stature with hand dimension, which represents the correlation between occupation and the four dimensions.

    Conclusion

    The results of this study showed a significant difference between occupational groups in terms of the four dimensions. Therefore, it is suggested that tool designers should consider this finding in their designing process.

    Keywords: Hand Dimensions, Occupation, Tool Design, Car Repairman, Employees
  • Gazal Mahroozadeh, Hanieh Nikoomaram*, Seyed Abolfazl Zakerian Pages 192-202

    The laboratory unit is one of the most dangerous work environments in which the occurrence of errors can lead to severe injuries to patients, psychological damages to the service providers, degradation of the unit, and legal consequences. This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in the laboratory unit of Akhtar Hospital in Tehran. The current study was organized as follow: literature review based on previous studies and scientific resources, interview with laboratory staffs, design the methodology of research, studying the instructions, observing activities and practices. A Hierarchal Task Analyze (HTA) method was applied to evaluate tasks, thereafter errors and obstacles were identified based on Barrier Analysis instruction. Finally appropriate control strategies were proposed to reduce the risk of errors.  A total of 552 errors were identified of which 86 barriers were  in the laboratory unit including 12 administrative barriers, 15 statutory barriers, 9 humanitarian action barriers, 18 supervision and cooperation barriers, 8 educational barriers, 0 natural barriers, 9 physical barriers and Finally 15 environmental design barriers. The results and risk assessment showed that functional errors (maximum frequency) and errors in this area should be given priority to be controlled and reduced. This is possible through the development of instructions, training courses, close supervision on officials and frequent inspections, record the errors and disclosure.

    Keywords: Barrier Analysis, Human Error, Laboratory Unit
  • Hedieh Chorom, Nabiollah Mansouri *, Mohammad Hasan Behzadi Pages 203-216

    Construction industry as one of the main industries has different effects on natural resources, environment, and health. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify and prioritize green buildings҆ criteria in the Iranian metropolises. In the current study, the green buildings҆ criteria and sub-criteria were extracted through a literature review on Science Direct database, interviewing with the specialists, and using the Delphi model. Then, the extracted criteria were weighted and prioritized using analytic network process (ANP) and Super Decisions software. Based on the findings, 8 main criteria and 26 sub-criteria were extracted to identify and prioritize the green buildings҆ criteria. The results showed that education, culture, energy management, water management, waste management, wastewater management, materials, and indoor and environmental quality of the building were among the most important green buildings҆ criteria. Application of these criteria prior to construction will enable the city managers to design a sustainable and green city and avoid interference of the non-specialists and personal tastes in construction of the green buildings.

    Keywords: Green Building, Criteria, Analytic Network Process, Management, Administration, Environment
  • Mohsen Sadeghi Yarandi, Ehsan Jafarnia, Samira Ghiyasi, Ahmad Soltanzadeh * Pages 217-227

    One of the major challenges in construction projects is the mismatch of risk concepts in HSE and project management as a result of negligence in HSE matters on the part of project managers. The current study was aimed to clarify the risk management principle as an important domain of PMBOK and to present an integrated HSE risk assessment tool according to PMBOK. This cross-sectional study was done to analyze 21 risks of the four types of HSE risks using PMBOK in one of the biggest construction projects in 2019. The risk matrix including likelihood and severity was the basis of this integrated risk assessment model. The severity of consequences includes four types of impacts (impacts on project’s costs, timing, quality and human force), and also the weighting coefficient of each dimension was applied based on the importance of each consequence. The results showed that among 21 identified sources of risk, nine sources were at a high level (3rd level) and only one source was at a low level (1st level). Moreover, it has been founded that among the four types of HSE risks including work breakdown structure, project costs, quality, and emergency situations in construction projects are at the highest level. In cases that there was no money allocated for hiring supervisor, expert, and HSE officer considering different project phases has been evaluated as the highest source of danger. The current study provided an appropriate alternative for commonly used risk assessment methods in construction projects because it made a whole change in projects managers’ and HSE members’ points of view and presented a new attitude toward risk identification, consequence analysis, and the usage of PMBOK project management standard in the risk management process in construction projects.

    Keywords: Risk Assessment, HSE, Construction Project, PMBOK
  • George Adu*, Adu Sylvia, Darkwa Albert, Kwasi Mensah Pages 228-238

    Anthropometry is the study that takes human body measurements in a population. Patronised furniture that fails to utilize the users body measurements impact on their health negatively. Therefore, mismatch between anthropometric dimensions and consumer products may cause health problems in human body. Eight static anthropometric measures were considered. In the administrative block, mean age of the male and female populations were 39.97±8.87 years and 39.56±8.62 years respectively; mean±SD weight were 74.39±11.31kg and 72.57±11.17kg in males and females respectively; and mean±SD stature were 1729.20±64.01mm and 1628.90±56.48mm in males and females respectively. In the results, stature, popliteal height and knee height measured were significantly different between male and female administrative staff members in public institutions. Also, the study reported that lower back pain and neck pain had the highest prevalence among the male and female administrative staff respectively. The study is applicable to the design of furniture to cut down on workers’ absenteeism and increase productivity.

    Keywords: Anthropometry, Furniture Design, Health Issues, Public Administrative Staff
  • Adel Mazloumi, Zeinab Kazemi*, Ramin Mehrdad, Zahra Vahedi, Leila Hajizadeh Pages 239-255

    Previous studies confirm direct and indirect costs of low back pain in occupational settings. However, there is no systematic study of the risk factors for low back pain in different occupations; while planning and allocating resources requires comprehensive knowledge at the national and regional levels in order to control and manage low back pain. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify risk factors of low back pain in Iranian workers during the years 2000 to 2015. Published journal papers, articles presented at the congresses and student thesis reports were systematically reviewed. Abstracts were extracted using appropriate keywords and authentic English-language (Google Scholar, Scopus, and PubMed) and Farsi (Magiran, SID, IranMedex, and Irandoc) databases. Following quality assessment of the selected publications, the full texts of the related ones were reviewed.  In 150 eligible studies, the mean prevalence of low back pain in the last 12 months was 48.77. Nordic questionnaire was the most commonly used technique for assessing back pain, and RULA and REBA were the most commonly used method for determining risk factors. All risk factors were categorized into nine groups: biomechanical, workplace design, tools and equipment, environmental, temporal aspects of job design, job content, organizational aspects, personal characteristics, and training. According to the findings, about half of the workers in Iran experienced low back pain. Considering the widespread risk factors and the high prevalence of low back pain among various occupational groups, it is suggested that appropriate measures be taken based on the findings of this study.

    Keywords: Prevalence, Low back pain, Systematic review, Iranian workers
  • Soheil Abbasi, Payam Khourdustan, Rasoul Sayyadi, Saeid Jalilpour, Seyed Shamseddin Alizadeh * Pages 256-271

    The likelihood of incident occurring in oil and gas industries is high due to the inherent risks associated to high temperature, high pressure, hydrocarbon, and etc. One of the prominent incidents that have taken place is the Texas refinery explosion. The purpose of this review was to investigate the causes of the BP Texas refinery incident. There are three sources of references for the reviewed articles: Web of Science, Scopus, and Science Direct. The search results were filtered according to six selection criteria, and after reading the abstracts and full texts, ten articles were included in this review. These studies and reports were reviewed to understand modeling and simulation of the incident process and to identify the root causes of the incident. The review highlights the main factors that led to the incident including: lack of management of change (MOC), maintenance, preliminary hazard analysis, lack of effective safety barriers, and human errors in some sectors. It is recommended that lessons learned from the incident be shared to relevant parties to improve the process safety and further studies on safety barriers and their failure instead of simulation of the incident dynamics.

    Keywords: Texas Refinery, Explosion, Incident, Process Safety, Hazard Analysis
  • Khalil Taherzadeh Chenani, Farzan Madadizadeh * Pages 272-273