Lack Of Safety Knowledge Research Articles

Construction safety challenges and opportunities at design stage for building industry in Pakistan

The implementation of Design for Construction Safety (DfCS) at the early design phase can proactively identify and address potential hazards in construction projects. By integrating safety considerations into the design process, it becomes possible to eliminate or minimize risks before they become costly and dangerous issues can also be avoided during construction. To gain insights into the current practices and barriers faced by professionals in the construction industry of Pakistan regarding DfCS, a comprehensive study was conducted. This study utilized a combination of questionnaire-based surveys and interviews to gather data from various stakeholders involved in the design and construction processes. The research revealed that DfCS was absent in the standard design practice. The weaknesses identified for the implementation of DfCS were designers’ inevitable doubts about increasing cost, schedule problems, absence of contracts and regulations, designers’ lack of safety knowledge and skills. The largest influential factors were regulatory liability on the designer (29%) and increasing costs (27%). The study identified that less trained worker were rated 59% for site accidents. 87% of respondents suggested revision of contract and regulations. The study proposed a framework to check constructability with respect to safety standards. Alternative project delivery method i.e., Design Build (DB) was recommended to reduce health and safety accidents and barriers.

Assessing System-Wide Safety Readiness for Successful Human–Robot Collaboration Adoption

Despite their undisputed potential, the uptake of collaborative robots remains below expectations. Collaborative robots (cobots) are used differently from conventional industrial robots. The current safety focus of collaborative workspaces is predominantly on the technological design; additional factors also need to be considered to cope with the emerging risks associated with complex systems. Cobot technologies are characterized by an inherent tradeoff between safety and efficiency. They introduce new, emergent risks to organizations and can create psychosocial impacts on workers. This leads to a confusing body of information and an apparent contradiction about cobot safety. Combined with a lack of safety knowledge, this impedes the introduction of cobots. A multi-step methodology was used, including a literature review and conceptual modeling. This article argues for the need for a system-wide safety awareness readiness assessment in the consideration phase of cobot implementation to alleviate the knowledge deficit and confusion. This work will benefit both researchers and practitioners. In addition, it defends the appropriateness of a maturity grid model for a readiness assessment tool. The building blocks for an easy-to-use and practically applicable tool are proposed, as well as an agenda for the next steps.

Latent class analysis of occupational accidents patterns among Iranian industry workers

Occupational accidents (OA) are among the main causes of disabilities and death in developing and developed countries. The aims of this study were to identify the subgroups of OA and assess the independent role of demographic characteristics on the membership of participants in each latent class. This cross-sectional study was performed on 290 workers between 2011 and 2017. Data gathering was done using the reports of accidents recorded in filed lawsuits. Descriptive statistical analysis was done using SPSS 16 and LCA was done using PROC LCA in SAS9.2. For latent classes were identified; namely “critical due to distractions and lack of supervision” (40.1%), “critical due to lack of safety knowledge” (27.9%), “critical due to fatigue and lack of supervision” (13.1%), and “catastrophic” (18.8%). After adjusting for other studied covariates, being illiterate significantly increased the odds of membership in “critical due to fatigue and lack of supervision” (OR = 4.05) and “catastrophic” (OR = 18.99) classes compared to “critical due to distractions and lack of supervision” class. Results of this study showed that the majority of workers fell under the latent class of critical due to distractions and lack of supervision. In addition, it should be noted that although a relatively small percentage of the workers are in the catastrophic class, the probability of occurring death is quite high in this class. Focusing on the education of workers and enhancing manager’s supervision and employing educated workers could help in reducing severe and catastrophic OA.

Safety Culture Measurement Among Chinese Undergraduates at a Private University: Development and Validation.

Relatively low level of safety culture among undergraduates and the imperfection of safety management system for students in university result in numerous safety problems. Researches on the safety culture of undergraduates in public universities are much more than those in private universities. Aiming to find out the potential and specific factors that affect the safety culture in the former are different from those in the latter, an anonymous questionnaire survey was conducted among 4,531 students in a private university in Shaanxi province, China. Gender, education background, grade, hometown, one-child policy, major, community, and driver's license on their safety beliefs and behaviors are treated as potential factors in the survey. According to the average score of each item, the investigated private university students are lack of safety knowledge, but perform well in traffic safety behavior. The results show that female students show better safety beliefs and safety behaviors than male students whilst the safety beliefs and safety behaviors of the student majoring in medicine is better than those of students in other majors. The students who live in more developed cities, who are from one-child family and who have driving license, show better safety beliefs and safety behaviors than others. The effective community system of mixed majors is conducive to the formation of good safety beliefs and safety behaviors of college students. The results highlighted that universities should formulate the corresponding intervention strategies to prevent safety problems of the college students according to the specific proportion of gender, major distribution and other actual situation.

A knowledge-based approach for enhancing fall prevention in the construction industry

Lack of safety knowledge is one of the factors influencing the risk of falling in the construction sector. The significance of safety knowledge has been frequently highlighted; however, there is a lack of development in a systematic knowledge management system. This paper proposes a concept of developing a knowledge management tool based on safety to facilitate the processes of risk management in the construction sectorrelated to falls. A prototype will be designed on the basis of this concept to allow users to perform the risk management process during the design stage. It is anticipated that this prototype will aid users to identify fall risks, and in enabling decision support based on risk management for preventing accidents/injuries in the construction sector related to falling.

Study on identification and classification of hidden dangers in highway toll stations based on accident causation theory

Aiming at high safety risk of expressway toll station, based on the theoretical model of accident cause, this paper makes a systematic analysis and correlation test on the unsafe state of object, personal unsafe behaviour, and the imperfection of safety management system within the jurisdiction of expressway toll stations. Through statistical analysis, the types and distribution areas of unsafe physical state, the types and main causes of unsafe behaviours within the jurisdiction of toll stations are identified. The results show that: education and training, risk management and control, hidden dangers, operating procedures, equipments and facilities management, emergency management, etc., have a great impact on the physical safety of highway toll stations; bad driving habits, trouble free mentality, poor safety awareness, lack of safety knowledge are the main reasons for unsafe behaviours. The results of the study have guiding significance for the risk management of toll station.

Relationship Analysis of Causal Factors in Coal and Gas Outburst Accidents Based on the 24Model

Abstract In order to identify the causal factors of 88 coal and gas outburst accidents and their relationships, this paper proposed a cause classification framework based on the accident causation “2-4” model (24Model). The correlations between the high level and low level causes were analyzed by the Chi-square test for independence. Results showed that root causes, indirect causes and unsafe acts were prevalent in all cases. The main direct causes were violation operation and violation action; the main indirect causes were lack of safety knowledge and low safety awareness; the main radical cause was safety management procedures; the main root causes was safety depending on safety awareness. And there were ten groups of causes with significant correlation between the high level and low level causes. The work paths of different causes in coal and gas outburst accidents were identified by using the proposed cause classification framework.

Analysis of the Case of Fire Fighters Casualties in the Building Collapse

Using the “2-4” model of behavior safety to study the cause of the fire fighters sacrifice caused by the building collapse since 2003, the direct cause of deaths lies in unsafe act and the unsafe state of the material. To analyze further, the lack of safety knowledge and weak safety awareness, the lack of safety habits is the remote cause of the casualties, the fire brigade's security management system is the primary cause of some problems, the construction of fire safety culture is the root cause. The focus on fire prevention and investigation, and improvement of the system of full-time security staff, the establishment of a unified system of fire accident investigation, the implementation of the disposal of the program to prevent such incidents from happening again were put forward in this article.

Mandatory Helmet Legislation Reduces Serious Bike Injuries & Deaths

Source: Macpherson AK, To TM, Macarthur C, et al. Impact of mandatory helmet legislation on bicycle-related head injuries in children: a population-based study. Pediatrics. 2002;110:e60.The authors from Toronto, Canada, studied Canadian children with injuries related to bicycle crashes that led to hospitalization in fiscal years 1994–1998. They compared 4 provinces that have legislation requiring helmet use to provinces without legislation. Bicycle-related injuries were divided into those of the head versus injuries to “other” parts of the body using External Injury Codes (E codes) and International Classification of Disease Codes, Ninth Revision (ICD-9 codes) and calculated for the 2 groups.During the 4 years of study, 9,769 children were admitted to Canadian hospitals after bicycle crashes. Thirty-five percent of children sustained injuries to the head while 65% had injuries to other parts of the body. The head injury rate was similar in the 2 groups (no legislation provinces versus helmet legislation provinces) prior to enactment of helmet legislation. However, after enactment (data from provinces were combined for this study, irrespective of timing of legislation), there was a 45% decrease in head injuries in the provinces with legislation compared to a 27% decline in provinces without legislation (P=.001). Non-head injuries also declined over the 4 years of study, but did not differ significantly between provinces with and without helmet legislation. Fifty-eight children died from bike-related injuries. Death rates were consistently lower in provinces with helmet legislation compared to those without helmet laws.There are about 67 million bicycle riders in the United States,1 and about 900 are killed each year in crashes. About 800 of these deaths involve a crash with a car.2 Nonfatal injuries cause approximately 567,000 people to seek care in an emergency department and about two-thirds of these injuries occur in children and adolescents.2Head injuries are the most likely cause of severe injury in bicycle crashes and are present in about one-third of emergency department visits, two-thirds of hospital admissions and three-quarters of bicycle-related deaths.3 Use of helmets has been shown to reduce the risk of brain injury by 63–88% and injuries to the mid-face are reduced by about 65%.4 The above report, which demonstrates a decreased risk of head injuries in Canadian provinces requiring helmet use, supports these previous studies.The authors do not report information on what proportion of the children in each province actually wore helmets. Unfortunately, helmet use remains low in the US. About 25% of children 5–14 years of age wear a helmet when riding a bike and teenagers rarely use helmets.5 Reasons for non-use include fashion issues, discomfort, and lack of safety knowledge. Universal helmet use by children 4–15 years of age could prevent between 135 and 155 deaths and between 39,000 and 45,000 head injuries annually in the US. Every dollar spent on a bicycle helmet saves $30.00 in direct medical and other costs to society.6Prevention strategies for bicycle crash injuries include educational programs, helmet distribution, safe parks and roads, and legislation. However, legislation appears to be more cost-effective than educational programs.7 Pediatricians should continue to emphasize to parents that trauma is the number one killer of children over age 1 year and that simple safety practices such as helmet use while bike riding save lives and decrease morbidity. Furthermore, pediatricians and parents need to model behavior and use helmets when bike riding.

Cross-national comparison of injury mortality: Los Angeles County, California and Mexico City, Mexico

Cross-national comparisons of injury mortality can suggest possible causal explanations for injuries across different countries and cultures. This study identifies differences in injury mortality between Los Angeles (LA) County, California and Mexico City DF, Mexico. Using LA County and Mexico City death certificate data for 1994 and 1995, injury deaths were classified according to the International Classification of Diseases Ninth Revision-Clinical Modification external cause of injury codes. Crude, gender-, and age-adjusted annual fatality rates were calculated and comparisons were made between the two regions. Overall and age-adjusted injury death rates were higher for Mexico City than for LA County. Injury death rates were found to be higher for young adults in LA County and for elderly residents of Mexico City. Death rates for motor vehicle crashes, falls, and undetermined causes were higher in Mexico City, and relatively high rates of poisoning, homicide, and suicide were found for LA County. Motor vehicle crash and fall death rates in Mexico City increased beginning at about age 55, while homicide death rates were dramatically higher among young adults in LA County. The largest proportion of motor vehicle crash deaths was to motor vehicle occupants in LA County and to pedestrians in Mexico City. These findings illustrate the importance of primary injury prevention in countries having underdeveloped trauma care systems and should aid in setting priorities for future work. The high frequency of pedestrian fatalities in Mexico City may be related to migration of rural populations, differing vehicle characteristics and traffic patterns, and lack of safety knowledge. Mexico City's higher rate of fall-related deaths may be due to concurrent morbidity from chronic conditions, high-risk environments, and delay in seeking medical treatment.