Occurrence Of Safety Incidents Research Articles

Mining industry development, enforcement intensity of security policy and intra-city development disparity

China, the world's largest developing country, is rich in mineral resources, albeit unevenly distributed geographically. Some cities with a surplus of mineral resources may form path dependence on these natural resource industries, leading to imbalanced urban development and widening development disparities within cities. However, in the event of safety incidents in the mining industry, local governments are compelled to regulate the excessive development of the mining sector and enhance the enforcement intensity of safety production policies. This study, based on the measurement of the Gini coefficient using nighttime light data for 281 prefecture-level cities in China, manually compiled the locations and death tolls of mining industry production safety incidents from 2001 to 2020, established an empirical analysis framework based on the instrumental variable two-stage least squares method. The research findings indicate: (1) Since the beginning of the 21st century, China's mining industry has experienced significant growth propelled by market-oriented reforms. However, it has also played a notable role in widening development disparities within cities. Robust results were obtained through instrumental variable estimation using the standard deviation of urban ground slope as a geographical indicator. (2) The occurrence of safety incidents in the mining industry will immediately escalate the enforcement intensity of regional safety policies, creating a significant inhibitory impact on alleviating the widening development disparities within cities caused by the expansion of the mining industry. In the case of larger safety incidents with a death toll of 3 or more, this impact will become even more pronounced. (3) Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the outlined mechanism is prominently present in the middle area, where the mining industry is relatively developed. In contrast, there is no significant correlation between the occurrence of safety accidents and the escalation of safety policy implementation intensity in the economically developed eastern region and the western region with lower levels of infrastructure development. However, in cities with a higher proportion of the mining industry, the aforementioned relationships remain stable. (4) Once a mining accident involving fatalities occurs in a prefecture-level city, local governments generally strengthen the enforcement of safety policies, comprehensively eliminate hidden dangers in production safety. This shift leads to a reversal in the impact of the mining industry on the development disparity within the city, changing from an expansion to a reduction effect. Moreover, this reduction effect persists for five years. In the case of a serious safety production incident resulting in 10 or more deaths, the impact of increased implementation of safety policies also extends for a prolonged period of five years. This article makes a clear marginal contribution to enrich the study on the effects of China's mining industry safety policies.

Safety incidents and obstructive sleep apnoea in railway workers.

Current evidence is lacking to justify more stringent screening for obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) in the rail industry. Population-based studies indicate a complex association between body mass index, age, apnoea-hypopnoea index and vehicle crash risk. To study the association between OSA severity and the occurrence of safety incidents in safety-critical rail workers with a confirmed diagnosis of OSA, and to identify if OSA treatment is associated with the occurrence of fewer safety incidents. A retrospective medical file audit was conducted on railway workers attending health assessments between 2016 and 2018, who met the criteria to be referred for sleep studies. The association between OSA severity, treatment and the number of incidents in the 3 years before their health assessment appointment was explored using a Poisson log-linear regression. A substantial proportion (44%, 274/630) of railway workers with confirmed OSA had at least one incident in the 3 years prior to appointment. The odds of an incident were significantly reduced in those with moderate OSA compared with severe OSA (odds ratio [OR] 0.79, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.64-0.98), but not those with mild OSA (OR 0.97, 95% CI 0.76-1.24). There was a statistically significant relationship between combined OSA severity and treatment status, where the likelihood of an incident increased in those with severe untreated OSA compared with those receiving treatment (OR 1.75, 95% CI 1.16-2.64). Our results suggest that more stringent screening to identify severe OSA early, and close surveillance of treatment of those with severe OSA, should be considered.

Promoting Hospital Safety Culture: The Perspective of Safety Leadership

Cultures of safety share a strong commitment to the goal of achieving zero harm and to continuously implementing the improvements and innovations necessary to achieve this goal. However, in some healthcare organizations today, safety is often undervalued and considered only after the occurrence of safety incidents, with no sense of commitment and no goal of zero harm. This article first briefly introduces the origin and definition of safety culture, the composition of safety culture, and the safety culture pyramid. Secondly, the definition, importance, and impact of hospital safety culture as well as the assessment tools for hospital safety culture are discussed. Finally, many practical leadership guidelines used in other countries to promote hospital safety culture are introduced as references for domestic healthcare organizations. Because patient safety is a dynamic and complex phenomenon, research and surveys of hospital safety culture conducted every two to three years are recommended to ensure best practices in patient safety. Achieving continuous improvement in patient safety and hospital safety culture requires leadership at all levels. In tandem, a total safety culture must be instilled throughout the health system. Commitment from leadership and management is critical to establishing and maintaining a safe, people-centered environment.

The Current Status of Hazardous Waste Management in China: Identification, Distribution, and Treatment

Hazardous waste (HW) management is challenging because of their extreme toxicity to the environment and human beings. In the meantime, the occurrence of safety incidents that is caused by HW disclo...

Uso de pruebas complementarias en urgencias y su relación con incidentes de seguridad

ObjectiveTo analyse the use of complementary tests and their relationship with safety incidents in hospital emergency departments. MethodologyAn analysis was performed on 935 patients seen in the 9 hospital emergency departments. The source of data used for the detection of incidents were: emergency department clinical record and reports, together with face-to-face observation in the department, plus a telephone survey of the patient or family member at one week after the care.Statistical tests used: The Student t test for quantitative variables, Chi squared test for qualitative variables, and the ANOVA test. ResultsA peripheral venous catheter was used in 397 patients (42.4% (95% CI; 39.3-45.5%)), with a variability with significant differences between hospitals (P<.01), with a range of use from 37% to 81.8%. It was also observed that in 23.4% (95% CI; 19.2-27.6%) of the cases, the catheter was not used after the first blood draw. Radiological tests were requested for 351 patients, 37.7% (95% CI; 34.6-40.8%), also with significant differences between hospitals (P<.01), ranging from 24.6 to 65, 1%. Incidents were detected in 95 (10.2%) patients (95% CI; 8.3-12.1%) in the all the study centres. A higher proportion of safety incidents have been observed in patients where peripheral venous catheter has been used (12.8%) than in those in whom they had not been used (8.5%) (P=.03), as well as in patients on whom an x-ray was requested (12.8%) compared to those who did not (8.64%) (P=.04). A longer stay was also observed in cases with an incident (mean 248.9minutes) than in those where there were none (mean 164.1minutes) (P<.001). No statistically significant differences were found in the other parameters studied. ConclusionA relationship was observed between the use of a peripheral venous catheter (many of them without use) and radiological tests and the occurrence of safety incidents in the Emergency Departments.

Schedule Compression Impact on Construction Project Safety

Many construction projects are met with stringent timelines or the threat of exorbitant liquidated damages. In addition, construction schedulers are fre- quently forced to incorporate aggressive schedule com- pression techniques. As already discussed by previous researchers, these schedule compression techniques have direct impacts on project productivity and quality defects. Researchers have also pointed out that schedule compres- sion will affect safety incidents such as Occupational Safety & Health Administration recordable injuries and near misses over long project durations. However, most of the existing studies treated safety as a subcategory of project productivity and project quality, and minimal research has been done to directly quantify the effect of schedule compression on safety at the project level. Therefore, in this research, we conducted a survey and statistical analysis to investigate the relationship between schedule compression and safety in construction projects. We interviewed various members of the Houston construc- tion community from both industrial and non-industrial roles. Statistical analysis was used to identify factors that have significant impacts on the occurrence of safety incidents at an industry specific level.

Is the Principle of a Stable Heinrich Ratio a Myth?

Safety improvements are sometimes based on the premise that introducing measures to combat minor or no-harm incidents proportionately reduces the incidence of major incidents involving harm. This is in line with the principle of the Heinrich ratio, which asserts that there is a relatively fixed ratio between the incidence of no-harm incidents, minor incidents and major incidents. This principle has been advocated as a means of targeting and evaluating new safety initiatives. Both thought experimentation and analysis of empirical data were used to examine the plausibility of this principle. A descriptive statistical analysis was carried out using triangle plots to display the relative frequencies of the occurrence of safety incidents classified as minor, moderate or severe. Thought experiments indicated that the principle of a fixed Heinrich ratio has a dubious logical foundation. Analysis of emergency department attendance and studies of medication errors demonstrated marked variation in the relative ratios of different outcomes. Triangle plots of UK road traffic accident data revealed a hitherto unrecognized systematic pattern of change that contradicts the principle of the Heinrich ratio. This study of the principle of a fixed Heinrich ratio invalidates it: introducing measures to reduce the incidence of minor incidents will not inevitably reduce the incidence of major incidents pro rata. Any safety policies based on the assumption that the Heinrich ratio is true need to be rethought.