Safety Matters Research Articles

Official controls according to Integrated Regional Plan in Campania Region 2011/2014.

Due to EU law, European citizens enjoy one of the highest worldwide food safety standards. Along the entire food supply chain, mandatory controls are made to ensure that plant and animal products healthiness and food and feed safety are properly labeled and comply with the strictly EU rules. The process of review of European legislation began with the promulgation of the Regulation 178/2002/EC (Official Journal of the EC no. L31 of 01/02/2002) and was completed with the hygiene package. Regulation No. 178/2002/EC (the General Food Law) laying down the general principles and requirements of food law, establishing the European Food Safety Authority and laying down procedures in matters of food safety.

Patient preference study for different characteristics of systemic psoriasis treatments (Protimisis).

"The Protimisis" study was a multicenter, cross-sectional study investigating the relative importance and economic value that patients assign to different characteristics of systemic psoriasis treatments. Treatment preferences were investigated with the DCE methodology and patients had to decide over the most important aspects of different psoriasis treatments. A questionnaire regarding demographic data/medical history and the DLQI and EQ-5D-3L questionnaires were also completed. A total of 310 patients were included. Out of those, 37.4% reported using oral medications for psoriasis as their most recent treatment, while the remaining patients reported treatment with injections once per week (14.8%), injections twice per week (7.4%), injections once every three months (29.4%) and intravenous injections every two months (8.4%) as their most recent treatment. Mean DLQI score was 6.6 (SD 6.5), and in the EQ-5D-3L index, 71.0% of patients reported having problems with anxiety or depression. DCE analysis showed a clear preference for treatments with longer dosing intervals, rapid onset of action, lasting clinical response, low risk of SAEs and lower cost. The risk of SAEs was the most important treatment characteristic (54% of patients). Older patients showed less concern for safety matters than younger patients. The highest willingness-to-pay was recorded for treatments with longer dosing intervals and for safer treatment options.

Assessing the Importance of Domestic Vaccine Manufacturing Centers: An Overview of Immunization Programs, Vaccine Manufacture, and Distribution.

Vaccines have significantly reduced the detrimental effects of numerous human infectious diseases worldwide, helped to reduce drastically child mortality rates and even achieved eradication of major pathogens, such as smallpox. These achievements have been possible due to a dedicated effort for vaccine research and development, as well as an effective transfer of these vaccines to public health care systems globally. Either public or private institutions have committed to developing and manufacturing vaccines for local or international population supply. However, current vaccine manufacturers worldwide might not be able to guarantee sufficient vaccine supplies for all nations when epidemics or pandemics events could take place. Currently, different countries produce their own vaccine supplies under Good Manufacturing Practices, which include the USA, Canada, China, India, some nations in Europe and South America, such as Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, France, Argentina, and Brazil, respectively. Here, we discuss some of the vaccine programs and manufacturing capacities, comparing the current models of vaccine management between industrialized and developing countries. Because local vaccine production undoubtedly provides significant benefits for the respective population, the manufacture capacity of these prophylactic products should be included in every country as a matter of national safety.

Fire risk Analysis with Fishbone Analysis Method in Surabaya Hospital

Fire is adisaster that comes from the unwanted flame that can cause losses. Surabaya hospital is a teaching hospital and a government referral hospital that provides various medical services such as x-rays, hemodialysis, laboratory, etc. All of those services also have a risk of fire. This research aims to analyze the hospital’s policy and its compliance on fulfilling the standard regarding the prevention and the countermeasures of fire in Surabaya Hospital by using Fishbone Analysis method. This research is descriptive with cross-sectional design conducted in February 2017. The sampling technique in this research is purposive sampling technique which is two persons as informants, those are the Head Division of General Matter and the Head of Maintenance Facility Installation at Surabaya Hospital. The population is all room with the risk of fire in Surabaya Hospital. The data collection technique is using the questionnaire in interviews and the observation checklist sheet. The research result shows that Surabaya Hospital has already had all policy regarding the prevention and the countermeasure of fire accident (100%) and as a whole for the percentage of the suitability of compliance regarding its fire protection system is in a good category (41,4% + 48,3% = 89,7%). But from the total fulfillment, there are around 48.3% which still not up to the regulation standard. This condition will have a big impact on the effectiveness of the fire protection system it self, just in case, the fire accident happens in Surabaya Hospital. Base on that result, Surabaya Hospital need to form cooperations with the experts of Occupational Health and Safety matter on fulfilling the fire protection system so it in accordance with the regulatory standard in Indonesia.

Study on Application of Non-technical Skills to Prevent Marine Accident

In the past, the maritime industry has approached the matter of maritime safety from a predominantly technical lens. The reliance on technical hardware to maintain marine safety is evidenced through the many innovations to and requirements concerning ship design and equipment. However, despite these many preventative technical innovations, marine accidents have continued to occur.

Tourist safety and security in the Central Region of Ghana -overview and case study

As a result of the sharp rise in the interest for tourism activities, safety and security matters have also become one of the forces causing vicissitudes in the tourism industry in the world. Since tourism sector is contributing greatly to environmental sustainability, tourist safety is also now critical to tourism growth. In the travel and tour experiences, the satisfaction of a tourist is discussed as part of a tourist’s post-procured and consumed assessment of the destination. Review of the three most prominent tourism plans in Ghana was conducted in this study. It was discovered that there was no tourist safety policy and establishment of tourism office in most of the MMDAs. This situation has bred weak governmental administrative linkages and neglect of tourist safety and security at the MMDAs. Three tourist facilities in the Central Region of Ghana were chosen for the review-study. Responses of 550 tourists were reviewed in the study. Chi-square test was used to test whether the feeling of safety at the destination was influenced by their purpose of visit. The lingering thought-provoking question about these visits is, how safe and secured are the tourists and visitors in these facilities? It is recommended that GTA should lead the campaign exercise in these three facilities to produce a digital tourist safety and security documentary about each facility and this can assist and boost the confidence of potential tourists to appraise the safety and security of the destination before traveling.

Exploring Internet of Things (IoT) in Safety and Security Environment

Internet of things (IoT) is new technology aimed to achieve the goals of daily life because every transaction via the Internet and we have to live with it. The aim of this study is to enhance the security and safety objectives to virtually monitor the organizations before the problem occurs as a preventive measure by implementing new monitoring technology using multiple sensors. Internet of things is a new technology in security and safety environment. In this study the implementation of this new technique will focus on the Office of Security and Safety Affairs, which allows them to monitoring through the screen about the work environment in the company and inform the management about the incident such as fire or suffocation in a room by sending an email and also by notification in the screen. In each room, we have implemented sensors and through which the data are sent to the servers. This technological development contributes to the organizational growth by controlling any remote device and to take quick decisions in an unforeseen event and provide proper protection during such occurrence. This technological evolution in the name of the Internet of things (IoT) in our regular work environment helps to increase remote monitoring and roaming capabilities. This exploratory study based solution is implemented to use new things in the raspberry pi3 device and the sensor that is connected through the internet. This Sensor will monitor occurring in their location and the data is sent to the server in order to monitor security and safety of the organization from control Centre located remotely. This technology also enables communication with the Office of Security and Safety notified about any event and can send an email alert or notification through their Monitoring screen. This study is an innovative advent with regard to safety and security, helping to communicate with the human and the network. Internet of Things is nearly the things that can control remotely over the internet. This technology helps companies that need the work environment to integrate with the Internet of Things, which will help them through it in safety and security matters. Keywords: Internet of Things (IoT), Remote Monitoring, Safety & Security, Sensors.

Evaluation of 1-Nitropyrene as a Surrogate Measure for Diesel Exhaust.

We investigated the viability of particle bound 1-nitropyrene (1-NP) air concentration measurements as a surrogate of diesel exhaust (DE) exposure, as compared with industry-standard elemental carbon (EC) and total carbon (TC) measurements. Personal exposures are reported for 18 employees at a large underground metal mine during four different monitoring campaigns. Full-shift personal air exposure sampling was conducted using a Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) compliant diesel particulate matter (DPM) impactor cassette downstream of a GS-1 cyclone pre-selector. Each DPM filter element was analyzed for EC and organic carbon (OC) using NIOSH Method 5040. After EC and OC analysis, the remaining portion of each DPM filter was analyzed for 1-NP using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS). We observed high correlations between the quantiles of 1-NP and EC exposures across 10 different work shift task groups (r = 0.87 to 0.96), and a linear relationship with a slope between 6.0 to 6.9 pg 1-NP per µg EC. However, correlation between 1-NP and EC was weak (r =0.34) for the 91 individual sample pairs due to low EC concentrations and possible heterogeneity of DE composition. While both 1-NP and EC differentiated between high and low exposure groups categorized by job location, measurements of 1-NP, but not EC further differentiated between specific job activities. Repeated measurements on individual subjects verified the relationship between 1-NP and EC and demonstrated substantial within-subject variability in exposure. The detection limit of TC air concentration ranged between 18 and 28 µg m-3 and was limited by OC contamination of the quartz filters in the MSHA compliant DPM samplers.

Bienestar policial: Una mirada a la salud, a la seguridad ocupacional y a la prevención de los riesgos ocupacionales de los policías en El Salvador

Poco se escucha y analiza sobre la protección y el cuido del policía en el ámbito laboral. El imaginario colectivo los considera máquinas incansables y les exige una entrega extraordinaria para aniquilar el crimen. Se soslaya la dimensión laboral y personal del policía, se ignora su cansancio y riesgo a perder la vida, sus aspiraciones personales y preocupaciones familiares. Este estudio se ocupa de explorar la labor de la División de Bienestar Policial de la Policía Nacional Civil, específicamente en materia de salud y seguridad ocupacional, para analizar si sus acciones consideran las disposiciones de la Ley General de Prevención de Riesgos en los Lugares de Trabajo y si así se coadyuva a la instauración de entornos laborales sanos. Las premisas son dos: i) el bienestar laboral supone la ejecución de medidas de salud y seguridad ocupacional; ii) la relación directa entre el bienestar laboral de los policías y el desempeño de sus labores.

Understanding how patients use visualization during ablation of atrial fibrillation in reducing their experience of pain, anxiety, consumption of pain medication and procedure length: Integrating quantitative and qualitative results

BackgroundPatients who undergo radiofrequency ablation of atrial fibrillation with a light conscious sedation often feel pain during the procedure which can be difficult to relieve with pharmacological pain treatment alone. In a quasi-experimental study, it was found that visualization together with usual pain medication reduced the amount of analgesics used. In addition, patients spontaneously expressed pain significantly fewer times outside the scheduled measurements. No difference was found in the perception of pain intensity or anxiety and procedure length in the study. In a subsequent qualitative study with patients from the intervention group in the quantitative study, patients reported visualization as a positive experience which helped them manage pain and anxiety by supporting their individual strategies and without inconvenience. AimTo examine patients' experiences with the effect of visualization during ablation of atrial fibrillation and its association with pain intensity, anxiety, pain medication and procedure length. MethodsA mixed-method study with explanatory sequential design including a quasi-experimental study with a control and an intervention group and a qualitative interview study with semi-structured interviews. The results from the two studies in the mixed method study have been integrated by merging and constructing follow-up joint displays. ResultsThree themes were identified from the integration of the results from the quantitative and qualitative studies when analyzing and interpreting the results: “Zero pain is not always the goal”; “Not a real procedure time reduction but a sense of time shrinkage” and “Importance of the nurse's presence, visualization or not”. ConclusionVisualization can help patients to manage procedural pain when going through ablation of atrial fibrillation but the effect of an intervention such as visualization cannot be measured by pain intensity because the effect of visualization helps patients to cope with the pain and not to reduce the experience of pain intensity. It was shown that the patients had a feeling of reduced procedure time, although it was not reduced statistically significantly by using visualization. Finally, patients did not feel high anxiety during the procedure which was in line with very low values of anxiety measured in the quantitative study but at the same time the presence of the staff was of great importance to them in providing a feeling of security. A reduction of analgesics as found in the study is not only a matter of safety, it is also important in the patient's perception.

Accommodating Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Indonesia: From Immigration Detention to Containment in “Alternatives to Detention”

Considered the last ‘stepping stone’ before Australia, Indonesia plays an important role in immobilising secondary movements of asylum seekers and refugees in Southeast Asia. While migration scholarship has dedicated substantial attention to immigration detention and the deplorable living conditions inside immigration detention centres (IDCs), this article explores “alternatives to detention” (ATD) in two Indonesian localities: the city of Makassar and the province of Aceh. Seeking to contribute to a critical examination of ATD more generally, this article examines individual freedom, mobility, mechanisms of care and aid provision, protection of rights, self-determination, and matters of personal safety. The article illustrates the remaining limitations and the lack of rights that asylum seekers and refugees in Indonesia continue to face outside of IDCs. A durable solution, in the form of integration, is not available to asylum seekers and refugees, as they are prevented from integrating into the local host societies, and their social and economic mobility remains widely restricted. Yet at the same time, despite more physical mobility in ATD, asylum seekers and refugees remain contained within Indonesia as their onward movement remains deterred as well.

Presença de hidrocarbonetos policíclicos aromáticos em produtos alimentícios e a sua relação com o método de cocção e a natureza do alimento

Resumo Hidrocarbonetos Policíclicos Aromáticos (HPA) podem estar associados à carcinogênese em humanos. Tais compostos penetram no organismo pelo trato gastrointestinal, o que faz da dieta uma importante via de contaminação. O objetivo desta revisão é analisar a relação entre a formação/ingestão desses compostos e a alimentação. Foi encontrada associação direta do método de cocção empregado com o aumento dos níveis de HPA nos alimentos e a formação de novos compostos. A fonte térmica aplicada, a composição do alimento, o tipo de óleo utilizado, especialmente nos processos de fritura, bem como o tipo de tratamento empregado ao alimento antes da cocção, são fatores que influenciam o teor de HPA no produto final. A legislação brasileira é pouco abrangente em relação a esses compostos e a necessidade de ampliação das normas nacionais se torna ainda mais evidente quando este tema é visto como uma questão de Segurança de Alimentos.

The Role of Auditing, Food Safety, and Food Quality Standards in the Food Industry: A Review.

Food safety and quality audits are used widely in the food industry for various reasons (to evaluate management systems, obtain certifications to certain food safety and quality standards, assess the condition of premises and products, confirm legal compliance, and so on). Nowadays, the increased interest of consumers on food safety and quality matters, triggered mainly by recent food scandals, has enabled the public and private food sectors to develop a variety of food safety and quality standards. These standards have both advantages and disadvantages and their effectiveness depends on several factors such as the competency and skills of auditors and the standard used in each case. Although the industry continuously invests in developing and improving these systems, the number of foodborne outbreaks per year appears to be quite stable in both Europe and the United States. This may be an indication that additional measures and techniques or a different approach would be required to further improve the effectiveness of the food safety and quality management systems. This article examines the role of audits and food safety and quality assessment systems in the food industry, presenting the results of several studies and briefly describing the main food safety and quality standards currently used in Europe (with particular emphasis on the United Kingdom and Greece), the U.S., Australia-New Zealand, and Asia.

Clinician Numeracy: Use of the Medical Interpretation and Numeracy Test in Foundation Trainee Doctors

Patient safety is a priority in healthcare today. Good clinician numeracy in doctors contributes to patient safety, since it is essential for accuracy in prescribing, and in data interpretation. Evidence, however, suggests that although doctors are assumed to be highly numerate, they often make errors in drug dose calculation and struggle to interpret medical statistics. Having developed a new assessment measure, the Medical Interpretation and Numeracy Test (MINT), we describe its use to evaluate clinician numeracy in 135 recently qualified doctors in the UK ("foundation trainees," i.e., in their first two years post-graduation). The maximum possible test score was 43; the range of scores was 14 – 42 (33 – 98% correct), with an interquartile range of 29 – 38 (67 – 88%). Mean score was 32.76 (76%), with a 95% confidence interval of 31.6 to 33.9. Drug dose calculation errors were common, and potentially hazardous. Two thirds of participants had difficulty with simple data interpretation tasks designed for patients. Almost a quarter could not select the better of two treatment options when data were presented as relative risk reduction, absolute risk reduction or number needed to treat. Our study suggests that a significant proportion of medical graduates have poor clinician numeracy. Such doctors may harm patients by making mistakes in drug dose calculation and through flawed medical decision making. While further research is needed to investigate clinician numeracy in doctors, we believe that there is sufficient evidence to incorporate clinician numeracy into undergraduate and postgraduate medical education programs as a matter of patient safety.

스포츠클라이밍 안전사고 원인에 대한 내러티브

This study started with the point of view that, in spite of the grave importance of the keen awareness of safety in sports climbing, no serious academic attention has been paid to this matter. As a research method, I myself took part in the sports climbing fields, extracting the factors about safety problems through observations and interviews, and codifying the contents from the interviews. The results of the research are follows: First, the main problem is there is no standard manual about education, which makes the educational contents vary according to who the teachers are and the education itself disorganized. We need the standard manuals about the education. Second, there are too many disqualified teachers, which also give birth to numerous groups with elusive expertise. We need to establish the expert groups to conduct the education. Third, the teachers themselves have no keen sense of safety, blindly trusting their equipment, even though their gears are not so excellent in the safety aspects. I hope this study will help the sports climbers to be more aware of the safety matters.

Health and safety matters! Associations between organizational practices and personal support workers\u2019 life and work stress in Ontario, Canada

BackgroundThe home and community care sector is one of the fastest growing sectors globally and most prominently in mature industrialized countries. Personal support workers (PSWs) are the largest occupational group in the sector. This paper focuses on the emotional health of PSWs working in the home and community care sector in Ontario, Canada. The purpose of this paper is to present evidence on the associations between PSWs’ life and work stress and organizational practices of full-time and guaranteed hours, and PSWs’ perceptions of support at work and preference for hours.MethodsData come from our 2015 survey of 1543 PSWs. Dependent variables are life and work stress. Independent variables are: objective organizational practices of full-time and guaranteed hours, and subjective organizational practices of perceived support at work, and preferred hours of work. Descriptive statistics, correlations and ordinary least square regression analyses with collinearity tests are conducted.ResultsOrganizational practices of employing PSWs in full-time or guaranteed hours are not associated with their life and work stress. However, those who perceive support from their organizations are also the ones reporting lower life and work stress. In addition, those PSWs perceiving support from their supervisor report lower work stress. PSWs would like to work in their preferred hours, and those who prefer to work more hours report lower life and work stress, and conversely, those who prefer to work less hours report life and work stress.ConclusionFor PSWs in home and community care, perceived support from their organizations and supervisors, and employment in preferred hours are important factors related to their life and work stress.

Testing the Great Lakes Compact: Administrative Politics and the Challenge of Environmental Adaptation

This article examines public involvement in the six-year administrative review of an application by Waukesha, Wisconsin, to draw water from Lake Michigan to replace its radium-contaminated local water supply. The article shows that public positions on the proposal inverted the typical relationship between partisanship and environmental attitudes, prompting both supporters and opponents to ignore scientific evidence and the central matter of water safety. In successive rounds of state and regional administrative review, these political stances induced administrators to engage in increasingly legalistic forms of assessment. Although Waukesha’s application was approved in 2016, such administrative dynamics may limit the ability of the recently enacted Great Lakes Compact to address current and prospective water safety problems in the region. The case typifies an emerging pattern in water governance in the United States: contentious administrative politics drive cooperative agreements to resemble adversarial proceedings, limiting their ability to adapt to new environmental problems.

Application of Theory of Planned Behavior in the motor vehicle repair and service industry

The objective of this paper is to examine the determinant factors of consumer safety behavior in the motor vehicle repair and service industry. A total of five hundred respondents were chosen through stratified random sampling. Multiple regressions were used to identify the factors that contribute to consumer safety behavior. The factors include attitude toward accident risk, social norm, perceived behavioral control and safety priorities as prescribed in the Theory of Planned Behavior. Results show that all factors can explain 39.7% variance in safety behavior of consumers and safety priorities become the main determinant factor. This research holds significant implications to government, industries and most importantly, consumers so that policy and educational programs can be proposed to inculcate good behavior among consumers especially on safety matters.

A COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT OF SAFETY CLIMATE AMONG PETROLEUM COMPANIES

Introduction: Occupational health and safety is an important component of national development. Occupational health and safety is relevant to all branches of industry, business and commerce including traditional industries, information technology companies. Safety climate can be regarded as the surface features or indicator of safety culture emerged from workforce’s attitudes and perceptions. Organizational climate is conceived to be a critical determinant of individual behavior in organizations. Aim of work: The current study was designed to perform a multi-level comparative analysis on employee’s perception for safety climate dimensions in petroleum and petrochemical of three industrial sectors; multinational, investment and public, in Egypt. Materials and methods: Data were collected utilizing a modified-NOSACQ-50 questionnaire for the seven safety domains including 66 questions, constructing safety climate dimensions which are; management commitment, safety training, workers’ involvement, safety communication and feedback, safety rules and procedures, and safety promotion policies, as well as self-reported safety behavior of employees. The questionnaire was distributed to 6 petroleum companies (two companies of each sector) targeting all employees. Results: Analysis of data revealed significant differences in employee’s perception on safety management practices among the three petroleum sectors especially in worker involvement domain and safety rules and procedures applied in those companies. Conclusion: Workers’ involvement was the main extracted factor for proper safety climate establishment within an organization and should be taken into consideration for decision making in safety matters. The research provides useful information for project managers and safety practitioners who desire to improve safety performance within an organization.

Thermal Model for High Capacity Lithium-Ion Battery at the Cell Scale and Experimental Validation

The electrochemical storage of electrical energy presents a major challenge in the context of energy transition. The lithium-ion technology is going to become the most cost-efficient way to store energy and offers the best opportunity for the following applications: stationary storage and electrical vehicles, due to their high energy density. Moreover, battery energy storage promotes the implementation of renewable energies into the power grid while answering their intermittence. However, the lithium-ion battery is prone to degradations, that impact on the performances and lifespan, as far as consumers or investors are concerned, the use of rechargeable batteries is foremost a matter of lifespan and safety. The degradation mechanisms depend on thermal behavior of the battery. Management of the energy systems and optimization of battery performances, require to develop battery management systems (BMS). The temperature estimation allows improving the electrical response for the BMS, and thermal estimation allows to help this system to preserve the thermal limits of the battery and improves the energy management. It is for these reasons that it is necessary to further increase the current performance of lithium-ion batteries with a thorough understanding of thermal behavior. This study presents a thermal model of the lithium-ion battery at cell scale using a localized constant approach to facilitate the implementation in the simulation platform of energetic systems. With this process, it is possible to anticipate the thermal behaviors and will allow to dimension a cooling system to optimize the battery energy management. The thermal model is coupled with an electrical model to estimate the cell voltage and the internal resistance with respect to the temperature. The electro-thermal model has been developed to estimate the temperature on the battery from dynamic current profile and ambient temperature. The parameters which characterize the thermal behavior in the cell takes into account the following items: the thermal capacity, the internal resistance, the reaction entropy and the thermal conductance between the core of the cell and casing. Thermal model allows having a good estimation of the surface temperature at the cell level from few data input such as current, voltage, state of charge (SOC), ambient temperature and good thermal parameters. It enables to reproduce the thermal behavior of the cell and given a critical temperature to predict the cell heating. The model was experimentally validated and simulation results are in very good agreement with temperature data measurement. The relative error between the temperature data and simulation is lower than two percent. It has been also shown that thermal distribution on the surface is uniform for periodical solicitations of current. In the end, this model could be implemented to estimate battery pack temperature and for the dimensioning of a cooling system, and it could be implemented in an energetics system simulation platform to improve the performances estimation of storage systems.