Poor Safety Performance Research Articles

Assessing the impact of peripheral vision on construction site safety

PurposeThis study aims to observe the impact of peripheral vision on construction safety. The study further intends to create awareness of eye diseases in construction safety, an important root cause for most construction-related hazards and accidents.Design/methodology/approachThis study focuses on the impact of peripheral vision in terms of construction site safety. Experiments were conducted with construction employees with different qualifications, ages, expertise and previous safety training experience. The experiments were conducted with an experiment set consisting of a tangent screen to measure the peripheral angle of the participants. The study measured peripheral vision, which helped determine the vision field accordingly. In this context, a total of 32 participants were investigated in terms of their peripheral visual angle and the field of vision. The data collected were analyzed in terms of several statistical tests such as One-Sample t-test, multivariate ANOVA and multiple linear regression.FindingsThe results of the study indicated that there are significant differences in peripheral vision in terms of age of participants, work qualification, work experience, area of expertise and previous safety training experience. The study further revealed that most of the participants failed to satisfy both OSHA requirements about peripheral vision, and normal limits defined in the previous literature. The study further implies that participants, who reported previous sight problems or eye diseases are more vulnerable to construction site accidents.Originality/valueConstruction site safety remains a major concern for most construction companies despite the latest developments in technology. Several companies are struggling with poor safety performance, occupational injuries and illnesses, and work-related accidents resulting in fatalities. However, the root causes behind several construction accidents are still vague due to different dynamics in the construction industry. Among these root causes, poor sight, vision and or eye diseases constitute an important part. Hence, the study provides empirical evidence with the workers checked for eye health to help policymakers and industry practitioners in terms of developing awareness for eye-related injuries and accidents and review their safety programs accordingly.

Safety Climate in the Indonesian Construction Industry: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Influential Demographic Characteristics

The Indonesian construction industry is a significant contributor to economic growth in Indonesia. However, poor safety performance limits its contributions due to the negative impacts of poor safety on project performance. This research aims to assess the level of the safety climate in the Indonesian construction industry, identify its strengths and weaknesses, and understand the influence of individual demographic characteristics on the safety climate. Data were collected using a questionnaire survey from 1757 respondents working in six large state-owned construction companies in Indonesia. Results indicate that the overall safety climate level is fairly good. However, the safety climate scores of individual safety climate items are observed to vary widely. The scores reveal that construction employees understand the importance of safety and management demonstrates a degree of safety commitment, particularly by having regular safety communications. In contrast, the implementation of safety is limited in reality because safety is not considered a priority at work. Lack of safety resources and limited enforcement of safety rules further hinder the implementation of safety at the project level. Large state-owned construction companies such as those where data were collected should take the lead in changing the work practices in the Indonesian construction industry to improve safety performance. Level of education, length of work experience, position, permanency of job status, work location (project or office-based), and type of project are individual demographic characteristics that influence the level of the safety climate. Understanding the influence of these characteristics on the safety climate allows specific intervention strategies to be used to improve safety.

Identifying the influential contributing factors to micro-enterprises’ workplace accidents using a hybrid D-DEMATEL-IFISM method

IntroductionMicro-enterprises are acknowledged as one of the most high-risk workplaces often due to poor safety practices and performance. Despite ongoing efforts to reduce these workplace accidents, they remain as a serious problem. Therefore, understanding the relationship between the contributing factors to workplace accidents in micro-enterprises remains a key area of interest for safety professionals. MethodThis paper presents a new integrated approach comprised of a D number Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (D-DEMATEL) technique, and an Intuitionistic Fuzzy Interpretive Structural Modeling (IFISM) technique. The DEMATEL technique is applied to determine the cause-and-effect relationships of contributing factors, and D number theory is applied to take into account their uncertain characteristics. Lastly the IFISM technique is used to examine the hierarchical structure of driver-driven relationships. ResultsResults showed that sixteen factors contribute to the micro-enterprises’ workplace accidents in which “repairing or maintaining equipment under unsafe conditions” and “improper use of tools” are the most important causes. The hierarchal structure analysis showed that the root and basic causes of micro-enterprises’ workplace accidents based on the ISM method were the “improper use of tools” and “repairing or maintaining equipment under unsafe conditions”. ConclusionsThis study is the first of its kind to propose a hybrid D-DEMATEL–IFISM method for identifying and evaluating the contributing factors affecting the occurrence of workplace accidents in micro-enterprises. The new method allows insights on contributing factors to be based not only importance, intensity and impact of each identified contributing factor but also on the relationship amongst the contributing factors. Practical applicationThe study presents key information on the main contributing factors to micro enterprise workplace accidents. These results provide safety professionals with evidence which can be used to focus safety efforts, with a view to reducing workplace accidents in micro enterprises.

An analysis of health and safety audits of aquatic facilities in Ontario: 2002–2020

The risk of drowning in swimming pools is a concern for bathers in Canada. The Aquatic Safety Audit (ASA) is a service provided by the Lifesaving Society (LSS) to assess operations of aquatic facilities in Canada. However, the results of these ASA reports have never been analyzed systematically. We compiled and analyzed ASA reports from 2002 to 2020, received from LSS Ontario, to ascertain the most frequently identified recommendations (i.e., safety deficiencies) and identify trends in the data. A total of 59 ASA reports of aquatic facilities that contained swimming pools (i.e., indoor, outdoor, or both) were examined. The study identified a total of 4,589 recommendations. The general audit category of “Aquatic Facility” (n = 4,000 deficiencies) was more problematic than “Emergency and Operating Procedures” (n = 244), “Personnel” (n = 211), and “Communication” (n = 143). The “deck” subcategory of “Aquatic Facility” had the most deficiencies (n = 1,050). The topmost identified deficiencies were “no medical signs at the entrance points” (n = 37, priority concern) and “inadequate lighting levels” (n = 35, primary recommendation). In our comparative analysis, facilities with at least one outdoor pool and municipally owned facilities were more likely to be associated with safety deficiencies, compared to facilities with indoor pools and nonmunicipally owned facilities (e.g., university, military, private sector). Our study noted that noncompliance and violations of legal requirements were common in aquatic facilities in Ontario. Future studies are suggested to further investigate the poor safety performance of facilities, especially those with outdoor pools or are municipally owned.

Numerical study of combustion and heat transfer in a composite heat carrier generator

To investigate the operational problems of the composite heat carrier generator (CHCG) in actual industrial applications such as overheating and poor safety performance, an integrated analytical model was established. For this model, the commercial software Fluent was first applied to simulate the gas-liquid turbulent flow, diesel vaporization and combustion, and the mixing process between the flue gas and the preheated water. Taking the parameters obtained from the Fluent model as the boundary condition, an indirect contact heat transfer model considering the heat transfer between the hot flue gas and the cold water has been solved. Based on this model, the areas where the phenomena of overheating and high thermal stress are prone to occur have been determined, and the size of the water sleeve has been redesigned.

Industrial hazards and safety measures – An empirical study

This paper reviews occupational hazards and safety measures undertaken in Minerals and metals limited companies. Many governments realize that poor safety and health performance result in loss to the state. Safety measures work as a morale booster for the employees working in the plant. Industrial Safety has been one of the major issues of Indian industries. As a secondary effect health and safety also protect employers, customers, suppliers, and members of the public who may experience an impact from the workplace environment. The research is descriptive. Open-ended questions are being prepared and are interviewed among the employee to collect accurate data and results. The process of secondary data collection and analysis is collected for earlier research work. Thus, officious use of secondary data can save both money and time and the sample size is 423 employees and it constitutes managers, staff, supervisors, and workers and the sampling technique is of convenience in nature. The collected data is being carefully analyzed by using the Percentage, Correlation, and chi-square analysis.

Investigating the critical characteristics of thermal runaway process for LiFePO4/graphite batteries by a ceased segmented method

SummaryLithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are widely used as the energy carrier in our daily life. However, the higher energy density of LIBs results in poor safety performance. Thermal runaway (TR) is the critical problem which hinders the further application of LIBs. Clarifying the mechanism of TR evolution is beneficial to safer cell design and safety management. In this paper, liquid nitrogen spray is proved to be an effective way to stop the violent reaction of LIBs during the TR process. Based on extended-volume accelerating rate calorimetry, the liquid nitrogen ceasing combined with non-atmospheric exposure analysis is used to investigate the TR evolution about LiFePO4/graphite batteries at critical temperature. Specifically, the geometrical shape, voltage, and impedance change are monitored during the TR process on the cell level. The morphologies/constitution of electrodes and separators are presented on the component level. Utilizing the gas analysis, the failure mechanism of the prismatic LiFePO4/graphite battery is studied comprehensively.

An Evaluation of a Systematic Series of Cobalt-Free Ni-Rich Core-Shell Materials as Positive Electrode Materials for Li-Ion Batteries

A wide range of Co-free Ni-rich core–shell precursors with different core/shell compositions, core sizes and shell thicknesses heated at various temperatures were evaluated in this work. In all cases, the shell phase had a larger Mn content than the core phase. The heating temperature of the precursor/lithium hydroxide mixture during synthesis must be carefully selected. Core–shell materials made at insufficient temperature have low specific capacity due to low crystallinity and a high percentage of Ni atoms in the Li layer. Materials made at excessive temperature show interdiffusion between the shell and core compositions leading to poor capacity retention and poor safety performance. When the heating temperature is selected appropriately, materials which retain the core–shell structure after synthesis can be made. Two of these materials show excellent specific capacity, capacity retention and safety performance. Accelerating rate calorimetry experiments show that charged core–shell materials with a thick and Mn-rich shell have the least reactivity with electrolyte at elevated temperatures, suggesting such materials will lead to the safest Li-ion cells.

Health and safety (hs) risks normalization in the construction industry: the SMEs perspective

The construction industry is hazardous and experiences poor health and safety performance records; as a result of the abuse and negligence of health and safety policies. Emphasis is now on health and safety management as health and safety risks are now normalised in the construction industry by the actions of construction SMEs. The study assessed the factors promoting health and safety risks normalisation in the construction industry of Nigeria. The study sampled construction professionals and tradespeople, using a well-structured questionnaire and snowball sampling techniques. With a response rate of 72.61% and a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.916; percentage, frequency, Mann-Whitney U Test and factor analysis were used to analyse the gathered data. It was found that there is a low level of occupational health and safety policies application and performance in the construction industry. The poor health and safety performance is prompted by HS risks normalisation promoted by factors such as misconception of and unwillingness to invest in HS, informal and unstructured HS policies, medical issues and excessive workload, Planning and client unwillingness, management commitment issues, and unorganised HS culture. Also, there was no statistically significant difference in the perceptions of the professionals and the tradespeople regarding 89.29% of the assessed variables. Commitment from the management and leadership of the SMEs and making of health and safety culture an integral part of the functioning of the organisations was thus recommended.

Factors affecting safety performance on construction sites: An overview

The construction industry is one of the most significant industries that contribute greatly to achieving economic development. However, it is also considered one of the industries that is always exposed to a high risk of hazards in addition to being full of risky activities. Accidents that occurred in construction industries have caused many defects in project progress, for example, delays in completing the project, increasing project cost, reducing productivity, and creating negative impressions about the company. The major reason for the accidents is poor worker safety performance, with a host of contributing causes. For improving safety performance, the root causes of incidents that occur in construction as well as the factors influencing them must be studied. Health and safety issues are the main problem and concerns in the building industry. Though much development has been made in construction safety, the industry still lacks a lag behind most other industries in terms of safety. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the factors that could affect the safety performance of a construction site to reduce the frequency of accidents.

Safety Management System (SMS) framework development – Mitigating the critical safety factors affecting Health and Safety performance in construction projects

The construction industry is known both for its significance in economic growth and its hazardous nature. The accidents on construction sites not only cause fatalities but also affect project performance severely in term of delayed completion, cost overruns, reduced quality and eventually low productivity. Statistically, poor safety performance is the main cause of the accident on sites due to the number of influencing factors. To improve safety performance, it is inevitable to investigate potential factors involved in safety management. This is a working paper and examines the relative importance of key factors influencing Health and Safety (H&S) performance and the rationale for developing a robust safety management system (SMS) that migrates all factors into one framework. This paper adopts an empirical research methodology based on literature review and secondary data gathered systematically from peer-reviewed journals. There are around sixty H&S factors and these have been assigned to cluster leadings forming six groups namely: ‘organisational’, ‘managerial’, ‘legislative’, ‘social’, ‘environmental’ and ‘personnel’ factors. In developing the rationale for the safety management system (SMS) framework it has become apparent that the effective safety performance can only be achieved through effective (1) implementation of safety regulations, (2) leadership, (3) safety planning, (4) safety compliance, (5) performance measurement, (6) risk assessment, (7) safety inspection, and (8) Safety Culture. These factors are interrelated with each other and they cannot be isolated, however, in order to significantly improve the safety performance target on construction projects, there is a need to re-alignment and re-balance the priorities assigned to factors influencing safety performance.

Safety Personnel’s Perceptions on the Significant Factors that Affect Construction Projects Safety Performance

The Malaysian construction industry has been long categorized as one of the riskiest industries due to the high number of accidents that happened at construction sites. The poor safety performance in the construction industry has caused several drawbacks and failures in the aspects of project performance, cost, project completion time, and productivity. One of the reasons that led to this situation is due to the inadequate awareness of the project safety performance factors. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the significant factors affecting the safety performance of construction projects, based on the perceptions of safety personnel. Fifty-six (56) questionnaires were distributed among construction safety personnel who are working at construction sites in Kuala Lumpur through email and face-to-face methods. The percentage of the returned questionnaire was 100%. The questionnaire was analyzed using the Average Index (AI) analysis to attain the significant factors that affect the safety performance of construction projects. The findings revealed that among significant factors that affect safety performance on the construction project through project level and organization level were safety training, safety rules and safety induction, and performance monitoring. The outcomes of the study could assist relevant parties especially contractors to avoid accidents occur and have a systematic improvement on safety performance indicators at the construction project.

Synthesis of star-shaped allyl phosphazene small molecules for enhancing fire safety and toughness of high performance BMI resin

As a typical aerospace advanced resin-based material, the high brittleness and poor fire safety performance of bismaleimide resin (BMI) has been the key factor restricting its further development. Therefore, two star-shaped allyl functionalized phosphazene small molecules (HMACP, HECP) were designed and synthesized utilizing the nucleophilic substitution reaction between hexachlorocyclotriphosphazene (HCCP) and allyl alcohol/eugenol for enhancing the flame retardant and toughness of BMI. It’s observed with the inclusion of HMACP and HECP, the heat and smoke release behavior of BMI/HMACP and BMI/HECP are effectively suppressed. The fire risk of BMI samples are evaluated by fire growth index (FGI) and fire performance index (FPI) calculated by cone calorimeter results. And with the addition of 5 wt% HMACP and HECP, the FGI of BMI/HMACP-5 and BMI/HECP-5 possess the lowest values of 1.51 and 1.04 kW/(m2 s), respectively. Besides, the FPI of BMI/HMACP-5 and BMI/HECP-5 are highest and the values are 0.36 and 0.37 (m2 s)/kW, respectively, which indicates that the fire safety performance of BMI/HMACP-5 and BMI/HECP-5 are significant improved. Meanwhile the impact strength of BMI/HMACP-5 and BMI/HECP-5 are increased by 117% and 195%, respectively, which means the toughness of BMI resin with the modification of HMACP and HECP is improved. The flame retardant mechanisms of BMI/HMACP and BMI/HECP are investigated systematically. Comparative analysis of the similarities and differences between BMI/HMACP and BMI/HECP are also conducted. Therefore, it can be drawn that the designed HMACP or HECP can effectively improve the toughness and fire safety performance of BMI.

Designing Impactful Construction Safety Training Interventions

Construction workplaces still report an unacceptable number of safety incidents every year. To tackle these disproportionate incident rates, safety training interventions are adopted widely in construction workplaces. Despite their adoption, poor safety performance continues to be a universal and global problem in the industry. In fact, recent research has called into question the effectiveness of training programs that are commonly adopted in the industry. There is also evidence that suggests that training interventions, in many cases, do not yield tangible benefits and may sometimes simply reduce to wasted resources. Therefore, it is important for industry stakeholders to possess a good understanding of the characteristics of training interventions that translate to superior safety performance. Towards achieving this goal, the present article concisely summarizes specific safety training intervention elements, which when integrated into training programs, can translate into superior safety performance and outcomes. The objectives of the research were achieved by performing a review of the construction safety training literature from diverse sources. The findings demonstrate that training interventions that integrate visual cues to guide hazard recognition, immersive experiences in virtual environments, andragogical training principles, personalization of training experiences, testing and feedback, and other elements can improve training effectiveness and outcomes. The article will serve as a resource for industry professionals that seek to address the weaknesses of existing training interventions. Researchers may also use this as a resource to inform the development of the next generation of safety training interventions. Together, the presented research can be leveraged to reduce the number of undesirable safety incidents experienced in construction workplaces.

Review of construction safety performance measurement methods and practices: a science mapping approach

The construction industry is struggling with poor safety performance. Also, the existing construction safety performance (CSP) measurement methods are no longer effective by reaching their point of diminishing returns, which ultimately points to the need for a novel and reliable method for CSP measurement. To do so, a systematic and comprehensive review of existing methods is a prerequisite. Therefore, this study aims to conduct a comprehensive review of CSP research using a science mapping approach. The CSP research literature was retrieved from the Scopus literature database and analyzed using VOSviewer and NVIVO tools, to visualize the domain-specific body of knowledge. The investigation highlighted the most productive and influential contributors, highly focused research levels, project types and phases, research instruments and data sources, CSP measurement methods, key safety practices, current research trends, future research directions, theoretical and practical implications. This study has observed the CSP research paradigm shift from reactive to proactive approach. To this end, 11 safety dimensions that comprise 109 safety practices were identified, and a proactive CSP management approach was proposed.

Safety Leadership, Safety Attitudes, Safety Knowledge and Motivation toward Safety-Related Behaviors in Electrical Substation Construction Projects.

Poor safety conditions and performance are consequences of individual factors as well as organizational and group factors. However, little attention has been afforded to the sequential impact of these factors on safety-related behaviors (compliance and participation) in the Saudi Arabian electrical construction industry. This study examines the causal effects of leadership and attitudes on safety compliance and participation mediated by motivation and knowledge. The research collected 636 surveys in electrical construction projects for nine large contractors between November 2018 and July 2019 in Saudi Arabia. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to determine the mechanism by which leadership and attitudes affected safety compliance and participation through motivation and knowledge. The results indicate that safety leadership and attitude factors as well as their interactions predicted safety motivation and knowledge. Additionally, these factors affected safety participation and compliance via workers’ motivation and knowledge. Safety motivation and safety knowledge positively affected workers’ participation and compliance. Management should encourage and regularly assess effective leadership and attitudes and developing motivation and knowledge among employees can improve organizations’ safety-related behavior performance.

Fire boundaries of lithium-ion cell eruption gases caused by thermal runaway

SummaryLithium-ion batteries are applied in electric vehicles to mitigate climate change. However, their practical applications are impeded by poor safety performance owing mainly to the cell eruption gas (CEG) fire triangle. Here, we report quantitatively the three fire boundaries corresponding to the CEG fire triangle of four types of mainstream cells with the state of charge (SOC) values ranging from 0% to 143% based on 29 thermal runaway tests conducted in an inert atmosphere in open literature. Controlling the SOC and/or selecting a reasonable cell type can alter the minimum CEG and oxygen concentrations required for ignition, thereby changing the probability of a battery fire. The ignition temperature varies greatly according to the type of ignition source type. Temperature and ignition source type play a leading role in the ignition mode. Breaking any fire boundary will stop the ignition of CEG, thus significantly improving the battery safety performance.

Developing a Dynamic Supervision Mechanism to Improve Construction Safety Investment Supervision Efficiency in China: Theoretical Simulation of Evolutionary Game Process.

The construction industry suffers from poor safety performance caused by the joint effect of insufficient safety investment by contractors and inefficient safety supervision by the government because of the information gap between the two sides. The present study aims to put forward a new pathway to improve safety investment supervision efficiency and analyze the decision-making interactions of stakeholders under this new pathway. For this purpose, this study establishes a safety investment information system to eliminate the information gap between the government and contractors for construction projects in China and further develops a dynamic safety investment supervision mechanism based on this. Evolutionary game theory is used to describe the decision-making interactions among stakeholders under the current static supervision mechanism and the dynamic supervision mechanism proposed in this research. Moreover, system dynamics is adopted to simulate the evolutionary game process and analyze the supervision effect and equilibrium state of different supervision mechanisms. The results reveal that the proposed safety investment information system could facilitate the transition of the supervision mode from static to dynamic; the evolutionarily stable strategy does not exist in the current static penalty scenario; and the dynamic supervision mechanism that correlates penalties with contractors’ unlawful behavior probability can restrain the fluctuation of the evolutionary game model effectively and the players’ strategy choices gradually stabilize in the equilibrium state. The results validate the effectiveness of the proposed dynamic supervision mechanism in improving supervision efficiency. This study not only contributes to the literature on safety supervision policy-making but also helps to improve supervision efficiency in practice.

Study on safety performance factors and sustainability in pipeline sleeper construction

Construction industry is an important growth indicator because it generates investment opportunities across multiple related sectors. The construction task or work environment is very risky and hazardous and its susceptibility to accident. The major cause of the accident is the employees' poor safety performance in construction sites. These root causes of accidents and factors influencing them need to be studied in order to improve safety results. In pipeline sleeper construction, safety is a dynamic decision issue close to normal construction cases. The study identifies the critical risk factors affecting the safety performance and ways to achieve sustainability in pipeline sleeper construction to counteract the risk of accident occurrence. Based on the evaluation of the questionnaire survey, the study explains twelve most important factors and sub factors, which were rated to have more than a moderate effect on safety performance. The six keys to sustainable success for integrating worker protection in the assessment of sustainable construction is also discussed.
 Keywords-Hazards, pipeline sleeper, safety performance, risk

Research Progress toward Room Temperature Sodium Sulfur Batteries: A Review

Lithium metal batteries have achieved large-scale application, but still have limitations such as poor safety performance and high cost, and limited lithium resources limit the production of lithium batteries. The construction of these devices is also hampered by limited lithium supplies. Therefore, it is particularly important to find alternative metals for lithium replacement. Sodium has the properties of rich in content, low cost and ability to provide high voltage, which makes it an ideal substitute for lithium. Sulfur-based materials have attributes of high energy density, high theoretical specific capacity and are easily oxidized. They may be used as cathodes matched with sodium anodes to form a sodium-sulfur battery. Traditional sodium-sulfur batteries are used at a temperature of about 300 °C. In order to solve problems associated with flammability, explosiveness and energy loss caused by high-temperature use conditions, most research is now focused on the development of room temperature sodium-sulfur batteries. Regardless of safety performance or energy storage performance, room temperature sodium-sulfur batteries have great potential as next-generation secondary batteries. This article summarizes the working principle and existing problems for room temperature sodium-sulfur battery, and summarizes the methods necessary to solve key scientific problems to improve the comprehensive energy storage performance of sodium-sulfur battery from four aspects: cathode, anode, electrolyte and separator.