Area Of Occupational Health Research Articles

THE ROLE OF THE INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (IMS) IN IMPROVING PERFORMANCE IN THE AREAS OF QUALITY, HEALTH, SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT (QHSE): A CASE STUDY OF THE ALGERIAN LOCAL PETROLEUM COMPANIES «ENAFOR & ENTP»

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the impact of the integrated management system (SMI) on improving performance in the areas of quality, environment and occupational health and safety in Algerian petroleum companies. Theoretical Framework: The study draws on concepts of integrated management systems, which combine multiple performance dimensions to improve operational efficiency and employee well-being. Method: A quantitative approach was adopted, surveying a sample of 100 managers and employees from ENAFOR and ENTP, two local petroleum companies in Hassi Messaoud, Algeria. Data were collected via a structured questionnaire to evaluate the SMI's influence across the targeted performance areas. Results and Discussion: Findings indicate that the SMI significantly enhances worker performance, with the quality dimension contributing most prominently, while the environmental dimension has the least impact. The discussion highlights the need for comprehensive SMI implementation, emphasizing operational coordination to increase efficiency and reduce risks. Research Implications: The study suggests that Algerian local petroleum companies should adopt a more integrated SMI approach, aligning quality, environment, and safety standards to ensure sustainable performance. Emphasis on environmental improvements could further enhance worker engagement and performance outcomes. Originality/Value: This research contributes to understanding SMI's practical implications in high-risk industries, underscoring the value of an integrated approach to quality, safety, and environmental management.

Vicarious trauma and the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of organisations.

Vicarious trauma (VT) is an occupational challenge incurred through hearing about traumatic experiences of others such as child maltreatment, mass casualties, and others while serving in helping professions. Without sufficient resources and support, long-term exposure can lead to symptoms such as intrusion, avoidance, arousal, emotional numbing, anxiety, and decline in one's ability to work. Organisations can mitigate VT's impact by addressing the needs of staff through 5 evidence-informed areas of occupational health. This project explored the impact of VT-informed practices on organisational responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. We compared responses from 50 organisations on strengths and weaknesses in core areas of being VT-informed to how those organisations responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. Subscales of the VT Organizational Readiness Guide (VT-ORG) were utilized as the exposure variables and 4 new COVID-19 questions served as the outcome. We ran a series of multilevel linear regression models with clustering controlled for at the organisational level. Staff ratings on 4 of the 5 pillars of the VT-ORG were positively associated with the organisation's responsiveness to the pandemic. Various demographic factors of the employees were negatively associated with organisations' responsiveness to the pandemic. While this study contributes to the growing research on VT, it also provides justification for helping organisations to become VT-informed; it provides evidence that being prepared for VT can also be useful to support workers and their communities during emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

An updated job-exposure matrix for occupational noise: development and validation.

The aim of this study was to create a quantitative job-exposure matrix (JEM) for noise including a large set of measurements for the Swedish workforce, a detailed exposure-level assessment, spanning over an extensive time period from 1970 to 2014. The JEM was developed by 2 teams, each with an experienced occupational hygienist and an occupational safety engineer. Each pair assessed the exposure using measurements performed and reported by occupational hygienists, occupational safety engineers, or similar, from 1970 to 2014. The measurements included either the original LAeq(8h) measurements or an LAeq(8h) levels calculated from partial measurements of the working day, provided that the measurement targeted a regular task usually performed during a full workday. The collection of measurement reports was done in 2008 and 2012 by contacting clinics working in the area of occupational health or occupational safety engineers and their submitted reports were added to our own material. Noise exposure assessments were inserted at the appropriate time period for the relevant job family. The final matrix was developed in a consensus procedure and the validity was investigated by comparison of the 2 team's individual results. The noise JEM contains 321 job families with information regarding occupational noise from 1970 to 2014. The time-period label has a 5-yr scale starting in 1970. The estimated average 8 h (TWA) noise level in decibels [dB(A)] for every job family and 5-yr period was coded as 1: <70 dB(A), 2: 70 to 74 dB(A), 3: 75 to 79 dB(A), 4: 80 to 84 dB(A) or 5: 85(+) dB(A). The validation showed no systematic difference in relative position and very high agreement in the ordering of paired ordinal classifications. The JEM has also successfully been applied in several epidemiological studies. We present a JEM for occupational noise using Swedish data from 1970 to 2014 with a higher degree of sensitivity in assessed noise exposure compared with the previously existing version. Repeated application of the JEM, in epidemiological studies, has shown consistent results and contributed to yielding important findings.

Modern Forms of Occupational Health and Safety Training as a Factor Influencing the Development of Safe and Health-Promoting Behavior Among Employees

Abstract In times of strong economic growth, one of the elements of a company's competitiveness is innovation. It determines a company's development and its success. Appropriate innovation management within a company is determined by specific activities in the areas of research, planning, implementation, diffusion and control. Innovation can relate to products, processes, organization and marketing. In the area of occupational health and safety, there are many innovations that improve the quality and productivity of work and have an impact on occupational health and safety. This paper presents the results of a study conducted using a survey of companies that use modern forms in the area of training to improve safety in their companies. The survey was conducted at the end of 2022 in 25 SME companies in the Silesian Voivodeship. The results of the survey were compared with trends in Poland and worldwide, based on publicly available reports and communications. The aim of the article is to highlight the level of training related to occupational health and safety and the demand for innovative forms of such training. Health and safety training is the cornerstone of creating safe work awareness in employees. Surveys of Polish companies indicate major problems in this area. According to Polish employees, training is boring, overloaded with theory and rarely deals with the practical side of work. This paper identifies modern forms of health and safety training and assesses the impact on safe employee behavior in the workplace. The results confirmed that there is a great need for modern training methods to improve the level of occupational safety in enterprises.

Systematic Review of Biological, Chemical, Ergonomic, Physical, and Psychosocial Hazards Impacting Occupational Health of United States Forestry Workers

Abstract Forestry is one of the most hazardous occupations, due in part to the biological, chemical, ergonomic, physical, and psychosocial aspects of the job. Here, we review health risks in forestry occupations, including those in professional and technical forestry, logging, and forestry support, from the standpoint of biological (e.g., insects/arachnids, plants), chemical (e.g., diesel exhaust), ergonomic (e.g., awkward postures, forceful motions), physical (temperature, noise, vibrations, radiation), and psychosocial (e.g., workplace factors that cause stress, strain, or interpersonal problems for the worker) issues. We conducted a systematic review over a 10-year period (2011–2021) to assess health hazards identified in studies conducted on these occupations and reveal knowledge gaps for future studies to address. This study focuses on occupational health rather than occupational safety. Other forestry worker occupational health and safety studies have focused on analyzing injuries and deaths directly relating to transportation and/or contact with objects such as trees or logs and equipment; however, the areas of occupational health highlighted here have been understudied. Future work should focus on these areas, with an emphasis on intervention strategies that eliminate or mitigate the deleterious health effects of occupational exposures. Study Implications: Forestry workers are exposed to occupational health hazards in their outdoor workplace. This review analyzes published work for a 10-year period (2011–2021) with broader implications such as (1) greater understanding of gaps in the literature for key occupational health hazards facing United States forestry workers and (2) better information on the need for more in-depth studies to collect information about exposure assessments to improve worker protection. This literature review can help forestry workers, managers, and scientists mitigate exposures and protect health.

Continuing work in times of COVID-19: Protection measures in the workplace for health professionals.

The arrival of COVID-19 in Brazil and the accelerated process of dissemination/contamination added to the evolution of the clinical picture of the disease, and the saturation of the capacity of health services, creating new challenges for researchers, governments, and professionals involved in the occupational health area. This article aims to systematize and synthesize the proposals adopted by the legislation and by the Brazilian State, with a focus on worker protection and guaranteeing a safe work environment for the performance of their professional activities. This is qualitative bibliographical research of the narrative literature review type, developed from October 2020 to June 2021 in legislation databases using the strategy: "COVID-19" AND "coronavirus/coronavirus" AND "worker health" on official Brazilian government websites. The lack of an emergency plan for efficient actions to respond to the epidemic caused and is still causing the daily deaths of workers. There is a need to guarantee the effectiveness of national and international policies and norms that have been neglected by the Brazilian government.

Machine learning in Occupational Safety and Health - a systematic review

With the development of technology, machine learning (ML), a branch of computer science that aims to turn computers into decision-making agents using the most appropriate algorithms, is also paving its way in the modern world. This systematic review arises from the need to understand the impact and report the best practices for applying ML in occupational safety and health. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines were used to provide the best research results. From the 759 identified papers, only 42 were included in the study after applying both exclusion and inclusion criteria. Application is primarily used in accident and risk assessment, and construction and office work are the leaders in applications. The applied methods mainly consist of classification (injuries, accidents, monitoring data), prediction (of hazards), and regression (to find patterns of accidents to prevent them). In conclusion, decision-makers and workers are taking advantage of various artificial intelligence techniques to find solutions in the occupational safety and health environment when experts have access to correct data, either in real-time or recorded datasets. However, it is necessary that in future investigations, limitations of using ML applications in occupational safety and health area be improved and their full potential is achieved.

FAIR environmental and health registry (FAIREHR)- supporting the science to policy interface and life science research, development and innovation.

The environmental impact on health is an inevitable by-product of human activity. Environmental health sciences is a multidisciplinary field addressing complex issues on how people are exposed to hazardous chemicals that can potentially affect adversely the health of present and future generations. Exposure sciences and environmental epidemiology are becoming increasingly data-driven and their efficiency and effectiveness can significantly improve by implementing the FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) principles for scientific data management and stewardship. This will enable data integration, interoperability and (re)use while also facilitating the use of new and powerful analytical tools such as artificial intelligence and machine learning in the benefit of public health policy, and research, development and innovation (RDI). Early research planning is critical to ensuring data is FAIR at the outset. This entails a well-informed and planned strategy concerning the identification of appropriate data and metadata to be gathered, along with established procedures for their collection, documentation, and management. Furthermore, suitable approaches must be implemented to evaluate and ensure the quality of the data. Therefore, the 'Europe Regional Chapter of the International Society of Exposure Science' (ISES Europe) human biomonitoring working group (ISES Europe HBM WG) proposes the development of a FAIR Environment and health registry (FAIREHR) (hereafter FAIREHR). FAIR Environment and health registry offers preregistration of studies on exposure sciences and environmental epidemiology using HBM (as a starting point) across all areas of environmental and occupational health globally. The registry is proposed to receive a dedicated web-based interface, to be electronically searchable and to be available to all relevant data providers, users and stakeholders. Planned Human biomonitoring studies would ideally be registered before formal recruitment of study participants. The resulting FAIREHR would contain public records of metadata such as study design, data management, an audit trail of major changes to planned methods, details of when the study will be completed, and links to resulting publications and data repositories when provided by the authors. The FAIREHR would function as an integrated platform designed to cater to the needs of scientists, companies, publishers, and policymakers by providing user-friendly features. The implementation of FAIREHR is expected to yield significant benefits in terms of enabling more effective utilization of human biomonitoring (HBM) data.

The Application of Maintenance Functions in The Human Resources Management of Islamic Financial Institutions

Sharia Savings and Loan Cooperatives are unique in that they must balance their business principles with high and volatile work demands. The care function of human resource management is an essential aspect of ensuring employee well-being and job satisfaction within organizations, including sharia savings and loan cooperatives. This study specifically focuses on examining the application of maintenance functions at KSP BMT Surya Abadi Jenangan Ponorogo, an esteemed Islamic financial institution that has experienced rapid development in Indonesia and has contributed to economic improvement through its diverse financing products. This research aims to provide valuable insights into the organization's practices and contribute to the broader understanding of human resources management in Islamic institutions and ultimately improve the quality of their workforce and service performance. Through a comprehensive analysis, this study has illustrated the practices carried out by the organization in maintaining employee welfare and retention. KSP BMT SURYA Abadi Jenangan Ponorogo demonstrates efforts in prioritizing employee welfare and retention, with notable aspects including occupational health and safety, communication, and human resource welfare programs, although improvements are needed, particularly in the area of occupational health and safety.

Occupational Health and Safety in Workplace: A Theoretical Approach

This paper focuses on occupational health and safety of employees in the workplace and the laws so implemented. Occupational health and Safety is an integrated field that is concerned with the health, safety, and welfare of workers in all jobs. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was found in 1970 as a result of the realization that all employees should have a reasonable expectation of safety at work. Occupational safety and health have grown to be a top concern for stakeholders when it comes to caring for the human resources because of the huge number of accidents and exposures that take place in all types of workplaces and the effects that these have on workers' organizations, society, and nations. This article addresses various policies that were implemented to guide the stakeholders. Further, this paper examines the development in the area of occupational health and safety in India. It also brings up light on the facilities that is brought up in the field of occupational health like the occupational hygiene, occupational medicine, etc. Finally the article ends by recommending to enhance the occupational risks for immigrants. Since Occupational health and safety are less concerning and not being discussed much, it has to be given attention.

EMPLOYEE AND EMPLOYERS ROLE IN ENSURING SAFE WORKING ENVIRONMENT BY MAINTAINING HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORKPLACE

The area of occupational health and safety encompasses efforts to ensure thephysical, mental, and emotional well-being of workers worldwide. Every human organization hasgenuine reasons to be concerned about its employees' health and safety. Management should place ahigh value on health and safety programs for workers since they have the potential to save lives,continue strengthening, and decreased costs. This article's purpose is to research and assess thecompany's safety procedures, strategies, and policies. The goal of an industry's safety managementprogram is to create a workplace in which every employee can do their job without risk to their healthor safety.

3D Hand Scanning Methodology for Determining Protective Glove Dimensional Allowances.

There are two types of dimensional allowance (inner and external) related to two distinct areas of occupational health and safety: those being a measure of fit of personal protective equipment (PPE) and those determining the safe and comfortable human interaction with tools and machines, e.g., the latter ones result from wearing PPE increasing the dimensions of the human body and generating limitations in the work environment. In this paper, they are taken to mean the difference between the dimensions of a bare and gloved hand (including glove construction and materials). Dimensional allowances are important in designing the work environment, e.g., machine control panels and tools. The absolute and relative maximum values of dimensional allowances determined in this study for a hand in a firefighter's protective glove for the main anthropometric data are: 16.90 mm (5.90%) for length, 12.00 mm (13.77%) for width, and 15.70 mm (7.96%) for circumference. The obtained results are useful for designers, and especially for designing keys on control panels and LCD touch displays and monitors integrated with machines.

Osh risk management of tank sinking procedure using bow tie analysis on the construction of a shell gasoline station in Surabaya

Introduction: The rate of work accidents in the construction sector is still high. Such a situation has led to the need for risk management in the area of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH). This study is aimed at finding the OSH risk management of the tank sinking procedure using Bow Tie Analysis method in the construction of a Shell Gasoline Station in Surabaya. Methods: This is a qualitative descriptive study with case study design. The subjects of the study were the employees of PT Usaha Jaya Engineering who worked on the Tank Sinking procedure in the construction of a Shell Gasoline Station in Surabaya with the minimum service period of 2 years and with a total number of 7 people. Data collection was executed using primary data derived from interviews and field observation as well as secondary data in the forms of supporting documents from the company. Results: As many as 9 hazards were found in the tank sinking procedure in the construction of a Shell Gasoline Station in Surabaya. These hazards were caused by 5 factors, i.e., human, machine/equipment, method, material, and environment. The possible consequence of such hazards is that the employees may experience light to serious injuries and even fatality. Prevention and mitigation measures might be implemented in 4 hierarchical steps of risk management, i.e., substitution, technical management, administrative management, and personal protective equipment (PPE). This study found 6 escalation factors and the barrier of escalation factor in the tank sinking process. Conclusion: The tank sinking procedure in the construction of a Shell Gas Station in Surabaya was a job with risks of work accident. Prevention and mitigation measures derived from the Bow Tie analysis might be implemented to prevent work accidents from occurring.

Development and validation of tools to screen occupational mental health and workplace factors influencing it: for the Indian workforce

An imbalance in the key organizational psychology constructs viz. "Workload", "Reward", "Community", "Control", "Values" and "Fairness" are potential factors leading to negative occupational mental health, i.e. burnout. Burnout, a psychological syndrome is the combination of emotional exhaustion, sense of reduced compassion and accomplishment. To note, the concept of occupational mental health in a nation with second largest workforce is nascent. Further, the utility of existing western tools in Indian subcontinent is limited by culturally inappropriateness, patented, less comprehensible and other factors. Present study attempted to develop tools to screen occupational mental health and workplace areas. Conventional steps involved in psychological tool development, viz. construct identification, drafting of pertinent questions, content validation, field testing of questions and others were adopted. After series of steps, tools for screening occupational mental health and key constructs influencing mental health at workplace (workplace assessment) were developed. The screening tools exhibited adequate test-retest reliability, internal consistency/reliability (cronbach's α>0.73) and correlation (correlation coefficient >0.6) with the general mental health in larger evaluation of 153 consenting workers. The proposed simple and easy to administer tool requires development of normative scores thereby aiding early diagnosis and management of those requiring intervention.

Working conditions and mental illness among nursing workers.

The growth of mental illness has aroused the interest of the occupational health area in the study of the relationship between work and mental health. Among health workers, nursing represents the largest contingent of workforce in the sector and, due to frequent exposure to numerous stressors, they present a significant increase in work-related mental illness. The objective of this study was to identify the most frequent illness and mental distress processes among nursing professionals in Brazil and relate them to working conditions and coping strategies described in recent scientific literature. The integrative review was conducted in electronic health databases, in May 2020, and resulted in the selection and analysis of 17 studies. The results show that the hospital environment and its working conditions, overload of activities, precarious working conditions, short deadlines to carry out activities and conflicting relationship with the team and users constitute the main scenario of studies on illness and mental distress of nursing workers. The most frequent illness and mental distress processes involve the consequences of stress such as: anxiety, demotivation, bad mood, body aches, musculoskeletal disorders, irritability, alteration of menstrual flow, insomnia, attention and concentration deficit, gastric and duodenal ulcers, fatigue, migraines, among others. The strategies adopted by workers to minimize work stress are predominantly individual, pointing to a gap in studies, or in reality itself, about collective strategies.

Endüstri 4.0 Sürecinde İş Sağlığı ve Güvenliği Uygulamaları

Significant advances are experienced in the area of occupational health and safety (OHS) practices as a result of technological developments and emerging new technics in the Industry 4.0 Process. Innovative production methods and factors such as advances in software and programming, simulation and augmented reality, internet of things, smart production systems, Big Data, cyber-physical systems, which are all along the fundamental elements of the Industry 4.0 process, bring new problems in the area of occupational health and safety. Based on this foresight, the latest developments, problems, challenges, and solutions in the field of OHS are being reviewed and evaluated in this study by utilising the previous literature.

A multivariate approach towards the measurement of active employee participation in the area of occupational health and safety in different sectors of the economy

Research background: Despite a dynamically growing exploration of broadly understood employee participation, there is still space left for more in-depth or new analyses in this area, and occupational health and safety (OHS) serves as a good example in this respect. In empirical studies, employee participation in the field of occupational health and safety is not treated as a separate element of ensuring safety in the organisation, but only as a minor element of occupational health and safety management, or as just one of the elements building a safety culture. Purpose of the article: The aim of the paper is to propose a synthetic measure of active employee participation in OHS taking into account the depth and scope of this participation. A comparative analysis of the level of active participation of OHS at medical facilities and in other sectors of the economy was also performed. Methods: The theoretical model for active employee participation in OHS was tested by means of a survey using the PAPI (Paper &amp; Pen Personal Interview) method. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used. The developed construct (characterised by an adequately high level of validity and reliability) was used in a comparative analysis of medical institutions with other sectors of the economy with the use of the Mann?Whitney U test. Findings &amp; value added: This research fills the theoretical gap in the model approach to participation in OHS. It has been found (EFA and CFA analyses) that active employee participation in OHS consists of one dimension (15 items). The model for active employee participation in OHS and the universal measurement scale developed and validated in this study represent a step forward towards the effective and reliable measurement of employee participation. In addition, the research has shown that the level of active employee participation in OHS at medical facilities is lower than in other sectors of the economy. The added value of this paper results from the approach to measuring employee participation in OHS which takes into account the depth and scope of this participation. The tool is consistent with international regulations and standards in the field of OHS, and thus can be used in other countries to assess active employee participation in OHS, regardless of the size and profile of the company or the sector of the economy.

Information management in the area of occupational health and safety for the prevention of occupational accidents in companies

Objective: to analyze the culture and control of occupational health and safety management to reduce occupational accidents among workers in companies in the city of Juliaca-Puno, 2022. Methods: a non-experimental transectional design was used, based on a quantitative, basic and descriptive methodology. The sample consisted of 200 workers to whom a questionnaire was applied. As for the statistical data analysis, SPSS V.26 software was used. Results: the predominant economic activity is commerce (59%), with activities in the administrative area (53%). In addition, safety and hygiene induction was 61.5%, knowledge of occupational hazards 57%, induction in the handling of machinery and equipment 70.5%, safe working environment 55.5%, while training on industrial safety and hygiene 61.5% and control measures or sanctions for non-compliance 46.5%, are applied some. Conclusions: The culture and control of occupational health and safety management for the prevention of occupational hazards in companies in Juliaca are insufficient, due to the lack of greater training, compliance and control to promote occupational health and safety where people are exposed to various risks.

A comprehensive analysis of the causal factors in repair, maintenance, alteration, and addition works: A novel hybrid fuzzy-based approach

Despite the recent improvements made to the area of occupational health and safety (OHS) within the construction sector, the Repair, Maintenance, Minor alteration, and Addition (RMAA) works have been given scant attention. In this study, given the significance of the injuries reported in the RMAA sector, a meticulous investigation is conducted into the causal factors contributing to the related accidents by capturing their causal interrelationships together with their importance levels. To this end, first, a comprehensive list of factors contributing to RMAA accidents was obtained through an extensive literature review and experts’ interviews. Then, through the lenses of qualified relevant experts in Hong Kong, the proposed interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy (IVIF) DEMATEL and IVIF analytic network process were employed to respectively uncover the cause-and-effect relationships among these factors and prioritize them. The findings show that “the lack of assessment and praising of workers’ OHS understanding and performance,” “the high turnover rate of workers resulting in difficulties in providing safety training and education,” and “lack of safety training for workers” are the most critical causes to be given full attention by construction safety managers. The methodological approach proposed in this study brings about two theoretical contributions: unraveling interrelationships existing among the causal factors, and prioritization of them considering their interrelationships. The findings reported in this study also aid decision-makers in improving the critical causal factors in a way to enhance the OHS of RMAA sector.

Application of Forecasting as an Element of Effective Management in the Field of Improving Occupational Health and Safety in the Steel Industry in Poland

(1) Background: Every day, human beings fall victim to accidents. We implement solutions aimed at reducing accidents in everyday life, but we are not able to eliminate all accidents from our life. This article addresses the issue of forecasting accidents at work in the steel industry in Poland. Particular attention is paid to other accidents, given that those events are most often recorded in the sector under analysis. (2) Methods: The process of predicting quantitative data on the number of persons injured in other accidents in 2009–2018 employed Holt’s models: with an additive and multiplicative trend, with the trend smoothing effect in the multiplicative and additive formula. (3) Results: The forecasts prepared on the basis of Holt’s models and the combined model show a decreasing trend in the number of persons injured in other accidents in the steel sector, which is a positive development in the area of occupational safety and health. (4) Conclusions: The number of persons injured in other accidents at work in the steel sector shows a downward trend, which is significant and valid information for managers. The analysis of the results indicated that the combined forecast model best reflects the accidents at work in the steel industry.