Hazardous Work Environments Research Articles

Design and Implementation of a Cable Inspection Robot for Cable-Stayed Bridges

SUMMARY Cable is the most important bearing structure of the cable-stayed bridges. Its safety has been of crucial public concern. Traditional manual cable inspection method has many defects such as low inspection efficiency, poor reliability and hazardous working environment. In this paper, a new wirelessly controlled cable-climbing robot enabling safe and convenient inspection of stay cables is proposed. The designed robot is composed of two modules, joined by four turnbuckles to form a closed structure that clasps the cable. The robot is controlled wirelessly by a ground-based station, and a DC power is supplied via an onboard lithium battery. The climbing principle and mechanical structure of this robot are introduced. The static model of the robot during obstacle negotiation is established. The relationships of the driving force and resistance with obstacle height to determine the obstacle-negotiation capability of the robot are obtained. The effects of cable diameter, cable inclination and preload force on obstacle climbing ability of the robot are also analyzed. The experiments verify that the robot could climb random inclined cables and overcome an obstacle of 2.42 mm in height with a mass of 5 kg payload.

Risk of Leukemia and Brain Tumors in Children Exposed to Pesticide Residual in Households and Approaches to Reduce its Side Effect

Context: Using various pesticides to control pests and vectors of diseases has a long history in households worldwide. However, most pesticides are considered toxic to and harmful to the environment. Evidence Acquisition: Electronic databases such as Google Scholar, PubMed, and Scopus were searched using the following search terms: “children”, “pesticide residues”, “risks”, “leukemia”, and “brain neoplasms”. This review was designed to identify the relevant electronic studies published from January 2000 to February 2020. Results: Children are more susceptible to pesticides because of their underdeveloped metabolic processes and disability to detoxify chemicals. Over 30% of the children’s diseases are due to environmental factors, including pesticides. The possibility of children’s pesticide exposure inside of urban houses is more than outside. In general, children can be exposed to pesticides in two ways: Direct and indirect contact. Direct contact refers to hand-to-mouth behavior in daily plays that absorbs household pesticides. Indirect contact refers to exposure via their parents’ work in hazardous environments and during pregnancy. There is a significant association between pesticide exposure via households and some cancers in children, such as leukemia and brain tumors. Conclusions: Due to the positive association between pesticide residues in households and the risk of cancers in children, public health policies must be adopted to minimize children’s exposure to pesticides in the urban household.

Research on Software Design of Intelligent Sensor Robot System Based on Multidata Fusion

With the advent of robots combined with artificial intelligence, robots have become an indispensable part of production and life. Especially in recent years, the collaboration between humans and machines has become a research trend in the field of robotics, with high work efficiency and flexibility. The advantages of safety and stability make intelligent robots the best choice for the current industrial and service industries with high labor intensity and hazardous working environments. This paper is aimed at studying the software design of an intelligent sensor robot system based on multidata fusion. In this paper, through the needle robot’s high precision requirements and the problem of fast response, a path design method based on the ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm is proposed. Path planning is performed by intelligent robots for obstacle avoidance experiments, while global optimization is performed by the ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm. For adaptive functions including obstacle reduction and path information length, the safest and shortest path is finally achieved through the ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm. The experimental results show that using the ant colony optimization algorithm to perform simulation experiments and preprocessing operations on the data collected by the sensor can improve the accuracy and effectiveness of the data. The ant colony algorithm performs fusion and path planning, and on the basis of ensuring accuracy, it can speed up the convergence speed. Through the data analysis of obstacle avoidance experiments of intelligent robots, it can be concluded that it is very necessary for intelligent robots to install ultrasonic sensors and infrared sensors in obstacle avoidance, because the error between the test distance of the ultrasonic sensor and the infrared sensor and the actual distance is 0.001.

Prevalence of Occupational Skin Diseases and its Predisposing Factors in Leather Tanning Workers of Southern India

Skin diseases are a major occupational health issue in tannery workers because of work related exposure to various toxic chemicals used in tanning process. In the present study, prevalence of various skin diseases and predisposing factors in tannery workers were investigated.A cross sectional study including 114 tannery workers (male-89; female-25) employed at different tanneries of Southern India was carried out. Face to face interview with pre-designed questionnaire and health examination was conducted. Skin samples obtained from the participants were subjected to microscopic examination and microbial culture for diagnosis of skin diseases. The prevalence of occupational skin disorders were 39% among the study participants. Contact dermatitis (16%), skin infections (16%), eczematous lesions (7%) and nail discoloration (1.75%) wereidentified. Skin infections of fungal origin were identified among 11.4% of subjects. The skin infections of fungi; tenia corporis, tenia cruris, tenia unguium, tenia versicolor, tenia pedis and Pityriosis versicolor were identified. Bacterial skin infections identified were associated with contact dermatitis. Lack of PPE usage was reported among 30% of workers. Hazardous working environment, chemical exposure, humidity and lack of PPEusage were significantly associated with increased skin disease incidence(p<0.05), indicating the major predisposing factorsfor Occupation skin diseases.The findings of the study emphasize that,workers in the pre-tanning section and tanning sections are more vulnerable to occupational skin diseases.Compliance to use of PPEs, engineering controls to reduce exposure, education, frequent health surveillance and early identification & treatment could mitigate the occupational skindiseasesamongtannery workers.

Application of fuzzy DEMATEL method for analysing of accidents in enclosed spaces onboard ships

The present study provides a robust and systematic approach for the analysis of accidents in enclosed spaces onboard ships. An enclosed space is considered a hazardous working environment since its atmosphere contains substances harmful to health. Despite improvements in safety standards, accidents in enclosed spaces remain a major concern for the shipping industry today. Therefore, this paper analyses accidents to identify the factors causing them. The study makes use of a fuzzy DEMATEL (Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) method to evaluate causal factors which can be mitigated through the adoption of certain measures. The study focuses on 101 enclosed space accidents/incidents, which have led to 93 deaths and 96 injuries, and determines their causal factors. The study findings emphasize the fact that human error and weaknesses in organizational factors are primarily responsible for accidents in enclosed spaces. Accordingly, effective control measures have been identified which can prevent accidents and enhance the safety and sustainability of the shipping industry. This study overall makes a contribution to safety management in the shipping industry.

Oncology nursing workforce: challenges, solutions, and future strategies.

The global oncology nursing workforce is essential to achieving Sustainable Development Goals 3.4 (reduce non-communicable disease morbidity by a third by 2030) and 3.8 (universal health coverage). Unfortunately, challenges to a robust oncology nursing workforce include nursing shortages, recruitment barriers (eg, perceptions of a demanding specialty with complex care and hazardous work environments), and burnout. Innovative recruitment strategies, onboarding and continuing education programmes, occupational safety measures, and burnout prevention interventions are documented solutions. The long-term effect of COVID-19 on oncology care worldwide is unknown, but immediate therapy interruptions, workforce consequences, and threats to standard oncology nursing practice are addressed here. Retention of experienced oncology nurses is crucial for future cancer control in all countries and must be addressed, particularly in resource-constrained countries with few oncology nursing staff and continuing out-migration of nurses to resource-rich countries. As the cancer burden worldwide increases, the future of the oncology nursing workforce is reflected in the call from the International Council of Nurses, Nursing Now, and WHO for nurses to move to higher levels of leadership, advocacy, and policy making (ie, national cancer control planning) and assume responsibility for their key role in achieving global goals for cancer control.

Analyses of Work Efficiency of a Strawberry-Harvesting Robot in an Automated Greenhouse

Protected cultivation systems such as greenhouses are becoming increasingly popular globally and have been adopted because of unpredictable climatic conditions and their ability to easily control micro- and macroenvironments. However, limitations such as hazardous work environments and shortages in labor are major concerns for agricultural production using these structures. This has led to the development and adoption of robotic systems. For the efficient use of robots in protected cultivation systems, we formulate the work efficiency problem and model a three-dimensional standard strawberry greenhouse to analyze the effectiveness of a strawberry-harvesting robot compared to different levels of human workforce (experienced, average, and beginner). Simulations are conducted using Quest software to compare the efficiency of different scenarios of robotics to humans. Different methods of improvement from battery capacity and charge rate to harvesting speed are investigated and optimal conditions are recommended. The average hourly production of the robot is about five times lower than that of skilled workers. However, robots are more productive due to their ability to work around the clock. Comparative analyses show that a reduction in harvesting time per strawberry from 3 to 1 s would result in an increase in daily production from 347.93 to 1021.30 kg. This would lead to a five-fold increase in comparison to present daily production. A 10% improvement in battery charge time would result in the battery capacity gaining two extra hours from the current 10 h and would cut the current 2 h needed for charge to 1 h. This paper proposes an operation process and suggestions for changes needed for improving the work efficiency of robots in a greenhouse. This could be extended to other crops and greenhouses.

Influence of Ethical Leadership in Managing Human Resources in Construction Companies

AbstractConstruction companies are often notorious for high employee turnover and antisocial behavior. In a hazardous work environment, arduous scheduling tasks, unethical supervision, and working ...

Mental health of chemical workers: violation risk factors

Aim. To study the structure of psychosocial maladjustment in chemical workers and assess the contribution of industrial and non-industrial risk factors in the formation of mental illness.
 Methods. It was analysed of hygienic assessment of the leading harmful production factors chemical, physical, factors of severity and intensity of labor. During the periodic medical examination, the mental health status of 1,226 people was examined, with a focus on professional experience, mental hygiene aspects of production factors, as well as individual and personal characteristics of employees. Confidence intervals and standard errors estimating, the logistic regression models fitting were performed using R Statistical Software with significance level 0.05.
 Results. The working environment hazards in organic synthesis included chemical risk factor, continuous noise exceeding the permissible exposure limit, emotional stress and life-threatening conditions (fire and explosion hazards in the work). The general assessment of working conditions was performed using clauses 5.15.11 P 2.2.2006-05-harmful working conditions of the second-third degree (3.23.3). Working conditions at all stages of the manufacturing process of pyroxylin powders were assessed as harmful to the third-fourth degree (3.33.4), including the chemical factor, the severity and intensity of work, fire and explosion hazards in the work. It was revealed the dependence of the development of psychosocial maladjustment on non-work-related factors (such as the level of education, marital status), conditional work-related factors (level of material security). Also, the dependence of the structure of pre-existing mental health condition on the work-related and developmental characteristics (work experience) of labor in chemical production was found.
 Conclusion. Working conditions in the studied industries correspond to the 3rd harmful class, 2nd and 3rd degrees in the production of organic synthesis (3.23.3), while at the production of pyroxylic powders, it is close to dangerous (3.33.4); the structure and risk of the developmental process of employee maladjustment are determined by the feature effect of workplace hazards.

Hybrid force/position control of master and slave robotic systems

ABSTRACT For certain robotic applications, the manipulator should be tele-operated to reach a specified position or track a desired trajectory, with desired compliance, in a hazardous working environment. Hence, how to construct a two-way position/force-transmitted master/slave system for tele-manipulating end-effector motion by an operator is a relevant research topic. Here, a novel low-cost system structure has been constructed with a Novint Falcon tactile device as the master control and a 5 DOF robot arm the slave end. Appropriate position and contact force transformation between both mechanisms were established and transmitted through an RS232 interface. An operator can manipulate the Novint Falcon tactile device to deliver the position and force output commands to the slave robot arm controller for monitoring the position and force responses of the end-effector. A torque/force sensor was installed at the robotic wrist to measure the contact force, and feedback to the master end as hand feeling for two-way impedance motion harmonization. The experimental results show that the operator can tele-operate the robotic manipulator to follow the commanded trajectory with appropriate contact force and get proportional force feedback to the operator’s hand, via the Novint Falcon device.

Development of Chemical Protective Clothing Using Multilayer Fabric for Hazardous Chemicals Handling

ABSTRACT Protection against the safety of people is enforced for the certain occupations when they might be exposed to hazardous chemicals during handling. This research provides an importance of chemical protective clothing, along with its necessity during various industrial applications. The aim of the research is to develop more comfortable and efficient protective cloth for the chemical industry workers. Developed multilayer fabric is to protect them from harmful chemical hazards with five layers, the outer shell made of polyester as it has low absorption and carbon fabric for its higher support. It provides a good strength to the fabric and polyester has a good resistance to lab grade chemicals. The middle layer comprises spun-bonded non-woven sandwiched with carbon fiber. The inner layer is made up of cotton fabric as it gives good absorbency and comfort. In this research, 100% polyester fabric, polyester/cotton fabric and 100% knitted polyester fabric have been used as a comparison in chemical protective clothing. Scanning electronic microscope (SEM) was used to observe the morphology of coated surfaces of protective for process versatility and the highly specific surface area. In this paper, the thermal properties of developed multilayered structures were statistically investigated. The chemical protection, good air permeability, abrasion resistance, fabric stiffness and tearing strength have been performed. The results provide new insights into the development of functional garments/materials and better methods for evaluating the performance of these materials under hazardous work environments.

Nodulization of graphite in cast iron by addition of plastic resin

An addition of active metals such as magnesium and cerium to molten cast iron gives rise to solidified spheroidal graphite. Such alloys are called nodular cast iron, spheroidal graphite cast iron or ductile cast iron. However, the manufacturing of nodular cast iron has some issues including a difficulty in process control, a hazardous working environment and the unstable price of rare earth metals. To build an alternative way to produce nodular cast iron, this study examined the feasibility of nodulizing graphite by using plastic resin instead of active metals. It is presumed that the contact of plastic resin with molten cast iron results in its thermal decomposition, generating gas and carbon clusters that act as nuclei for precipitation of nodular graphite. Laboratory tests demonstrated a partial nodulization of graphite precipitating into cast iron that came in contact with a polyethylene sheet during the process of solidification. This result suggests an application potency of waste plastics for controlling microstructure of ferrous alloys, contributing to promotion of their recycling.

Who maintains good health functioning? The contribution of social, work-related and behavioural factors to mental and physical health functioning trajectories in ageing employees

ObjectivesThe determinants of poor functioning and subsequent early exit from work are well established but very little is known about the positive determinants of maintaining good functioning among the ageing...

How the Bidi Tobacco Industry Harms Child-workers: Results From a Walk-through and Quantitative Survey.

ObjectiveBidi is an inexpensive, low-processed, hand-rolled tobacco product. In Bangladesh, especially in Rangpur, tobacco farming and bidi processing are common. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the impact of bidi making on children working in bidi factories.MethodsThis qualitative(walk-through survey) and quantitative(questionnaire-based survey and a urine cotinine level quantitation) study was conducted in Rangpur, Bangladesh in 2017. Study population included child-workers aged ≤14 years who were regularly employed as bidi makers.FindingsThe results of the walk-through survey revealed hazardous working environments at bidi factories. For the quantitative survey, 171 child-workers were categorized into “less-working”(<5 hours/day) and “more-working”(≥5 hours/day) groups; additionally, “forced-working”(forced into work by parents) and “voluntary-working”(working voluntarily) groups were delineated within the same population. In the logistic regression analysis, odds ratios(ORs) of respiratory symptoms and unusual absence(absent ≥5 days/month) were higher in the “more-working” group than in the “less-working” group(unusual absence: OR, 2.91; 95% confidence interval[CI], 1.43-5.94), and this association became higher in the “forced-working” group with longer working hours(OR, 5.68, 95%CI 2.30-14.00).ConclusionsCheap, hand-rolled tobacco(bidi) is harmful to the health of bidi-making child-workers. Children in poverty bow to the demands of cheap labor and poverty and jeopardize their health and future prospects by working in bidi factories. Tobacco control policies should consider the social effects of tobacco beyond its biological effects.

Bem-estar no Trabalho: Evidências na Indústria da Construção

Trabalhadores que atuam na indústria da construção são expostos a diversos fatores estressantes, e realizam tarefas exigentes em ambientes de trabalho perigosos, afetando a saúde, a segurança e o bem-estar. O objetivo desta pesquisa é identificar os principais aspectos que estão sendo relacionados ao bem-estar no trabalho (BET) em profissionais do setor da construção. O método consiste na execução de uma Revisão Sistemática da Literatura (RSL) em 10 bases de dados internacionais. Um total de 93 publicações apontou 89 aspectos relacionados ao tema. Dentre os principais aspectos encontrados, 31% referem-se a medidas de BET e estresse, 19,8% a saúde física, 14,5% a segurança, 6,1% a saúde mental e 4,4% a aspectos gerais. Os achados desta pesquisa refletem razoavelmente a singularidade dos profissionais da indústria da construção e ratificam a necessidade de uma abordagem convergente a respeito do tema, que, certamente, poderia proporcionar práticas mais eficientes e objetivas de fomento ao bem-estar

Robotic trajectory tracking: Bio-inspired position and torque control

As far as complex contact-based manufacturing tasks are concerned, humans outperform machines. Indeed, conventionally controlled robotic manipulators are limited to basic applications in close to ideal circumstances. However, tedious work in hazardous environments, make some tasks unsuitable for humans. Therefore, the interest in expanding the application-areas of robots arose. This paper employs a bottom-up approach to develop robust and adaptive learning algorithms for trajectory tracking: position and torque control in the presence of uncertainties and switching constraints. The robotic manipulators mimicking the human behavior based on bio-inspired algorithms, take advantage of their know-how. Simulations and experiments validate the concept-performance.

Safety Management in Sea Reclamation Construction: A Case Study of Sanya Airport, China

Urbanization has increased the burden on land resources. Artificial island construction has been proven as an effective method for addressing these land resource problems; however, few studies have been conducted on the safety of sea reclamation construction. This paper proposes a systemic approach to the complete safety management process in sea reclamation engineering, including safety system design, analysis, control, and assessment, using the Sanya Sea Reclamation Airport, Hainan Province, China, as a case study. A total of 145 steel cylinders must be vibrated and sunk into the seafloor to create a 9 km quay wall. Owing to their large size, the steel cylinders have been divided into different segments, and an assembly jig is employed to ensure a safe production process. Considering the hazardous working environment in sea reclamation construction, a numerical analysis is conducted to investigate the safe repertory of these steel cylinders and verify the reliability of the selected scheme for their transportation. Finally, control measures are adopted to ensure a safe vibration and sinking procedure for the steel cylinders. The proposed approach could be used to provide safety management guidelines for artificial island engineering and construction.

Application of Convolutional Neural Network for Classification and Tracking of Weld Seam Shapes for TAL Brabo Manipulator

With ongoing advancements in robotics, robotic welding has gained popularity in industries since it reduces human intervention in hazardous and unpleasant working environment. Welding is a process in which two workpieces are joined together. The edge interface of the two halves are called weld seam. The main scope of this paper is online detection and classification of different shapes of weld seam from webcam using 2D Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) in MATLAB. The problem with real time detection of weld seams accurately is that images contain high noise levels that are difficult to process leads to reduced tracking accuracy with traditional image processing techniques. To surpass this problem, this paper presents a low cost solution to detect and trace weld seam using CNN which has the powerful feature extraction capability and images are captured using webcam. This proposed methodology can be used to detect any weld seam shapes and classify automatically. To detect the weld seam, 1000 datasets of different weld shapes have been created with noise using 2D vision sensor and it is pre trained by 2D convolutional technique. Using this pretrained CNN model, live weld shape images are captured and classified according to the different shapes making the robot to track corresponding weld seam path. Experimental analysis is performed in 5 DOF TAL Brabo manipulator in which servomotors of the robotic arm are controlled by Trio motion controller which can communicate with MATLAB through ActiveX COM object. Experimental validation has been done based on probability scores and accuracy.

Applied Machine Learning in Agro-Manufacturing Occupational Incidents

Commercial grain elevators are hazardous agro-manufacturing work environments where workers are prone to serious and life-threatening injuries. The aim of this study is to give insight into safety risks in grain handling facilities through information processing of workers’ compensation data on agro-manufacturing occupational incidents within commercial grain elevators in the Midwest region of the United States between 2008 and 2016. The severity of occupational incidents is determined by total dollar amount incurred on medical, indemnity, and other expenses in workers’ compensation claims. The most important factors that affect the cost escalation of occupational incidents are extracted using bootstrap partitioning method, and are applied as input for constructing two machine learning models: random forests decision trees, and naïve Bayes. Both models show high accuracy (87.64% and 92.78% respectively) in predicting that a future claim is classified as either low or medium, severity. The models contribute to identifying high injury risk groups, and prevalent incident causes, allowing a more research-based focused intervention effort in grain handling workplaces. In addition, the results are applicable in forecasting cost severity of future claims, and identifying factors that contribute to the escalation of claims costs.

Oral and general health status of battery factory workers in Amman, Jordan: Cases presentations and review

Background: Workers in industrial battery factories frequently exposed to a hazardous working environment that causes adverse effects on their oral and general health. Aim: The aim of this study is to highlight oral and general health status among battery workers exposed to sulfuric acid-lead fumes and mists in the production site. Cases of deteriorated oral health presented. Subjects and Methods: The sample consisted of 24 participants working in the production site and 15 in the nonproduction line matched in age and employment period, acts as controls. Structural questionnaires on oral and general histories had been completed by interviews. Clinical examinations were carried out to assess dental erosion, oral hygiene, periodontal status using the appropriate indices. The data were statistically analyzed. Results: Questionnaires of workers in the production line revealed that more than two-thirds (67%–86%) of the workers had complaints of teeth sensitivity, dry mouth and nose, disturbed sense of taste, burning/itching eyes, and abdominal distress. They exhibited significantly higher scores of dental erosion, poor oral hygiene, and gingivitis compared with the control group (P