IRAN OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH JOURNAL
Year:2015 | Volume:12 | Issue:3|Papers Count:11

Background and aims: one of the most important elements in the HSE-MS quality management system is “Audit”. Audit is the conformity of the subject with the standard requirements and regulations. The goal of this research is to design an audit procedure for health, safety and environmental quality management system based on HSE-MS in the field of printing industry considering its special condition and requirements.Methods: Considering the importance of audit methods and related results, in this study we have analyzed and investigated the weakness and strengths of three major methods of Auditing (D& S, MISHA, OGP) and based on this we have developed and designed an audit method for print industry (AMPI) with five major criteria and twenty five sub criteria. Afterward the criteria were tested and weighted using ANP and DEMATEL methods with 15 questionnaires filled by field specialists, which later were analyzed by “super decision” software.Results: the output results from “super decision” software shows that the indicator of “management and commitment” with the normal weight of 0.249 has the highest priority, “risk management” indicator with normal weight of 0.237 is the second, “performance Monitoring” with normal weight of 0.196 is the third and “personnel Management” with normal weight of 0.164 is the forth, and “workplace technology” with normal weight of 0.153 is the fifth indicator. The effectiveness “showed by D” of management and commitment has the highest value compared to the other indicators.Conclusion: results of this research showed that the most important and effective indicator in the field of auditing the health, safety and environment quality management system in print industry is the indicator of “management and commitment”, and by implementing effective methods of management and commitment we can achieve standards more successfully in the field of auditing.

Background and aims: Maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) represents physical work capacity. Therefore in physically high demand jobs like firefighting, precise evaluation of employees' aerobic capacity in order to ensure their physical capabilities and fitness for work duties is vitally important. The aim of this study was to evaluate maximal aerobic capacity and its associated factors in firefighters.Methods: In this cross-sectional, descriptive, analytical study, 31 firefighters from suppression division of Tehran Fire Department were selected randomly. Sociodemographic questionnaire and also Tuxworth and Shahnavaz step test method were applied as research tools. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics via SPSS19 software.Results: The results showed that the mean VO2max in firefighters was 36.18 ± 3.28 ml/kg/min. VO2max had significant negative correlation with weight (P=0.017, r=-0.43).There were not any significant relationships between VO2max and marital status, having another job, smoking experience, height, age group, BMI, and job title (a=0.05).Conclusion: The mean VO2max in firefighters was at average level according to its norm values (34- 42 ml/kg/min for 20- 29 years old, 31- 38 ml/kg/min for 30- 39 years old and 27- 35 ml/kg/min for 40- 49 years old), and higher than the other job groups' reported values in other studies but in comparison with other firefighters in other countries, their VO2max was less. According to the importance of firefighters' job and also the results of the study, making effort in order to enhance firefighters' VO2max is really important. In addition, doing similar research by the other methods for evaluating VO2max like treadmill and ergo cycle and comparing the data is suggested.

Background and aims: One of the disorders which make some limitation for people is cervical spine injury. It causes disturbances in the upper sensory and motor extremities. This complication limits daily activities. The aim of this study is to design a manual toothbrush for cervical spinal cord handicapped (tetraplegia C5-C7) that is in compliance with the movement restrictions of this group. The tool’s convenience was measured by the usercentered method.Methods: The research methodology of this study is a case study and data were collected by field study and questionnaires. The UCD method was also used to gain information and pertinent feedback of the users. In this study, 27 volunteers participated. Based on preliminary questioning and implementing the phases of user- centered approach, the final design of the toothbrush was achieved. In the final stage of UCD in which the aim was to provide the comfort parameters of tetraplegia handicapped C5-C7’s manual tool, the satisfaction questionnaire of manual tool was used to determine the convenience level.Results: By using UCD method and gaining the feedbacks of the users, it is concluded that the physical properties of the toothbrush should be matching with the movement limitations of the hands. In this phase, the authors provided a list of dimensional properties that finally were applied in design.Conclusion: It seems that emphasis on user autonomy is the most important item in product design for this group that is provided by the coordinating the manual tools’ form, mechanism and dimensions with the limitation of user’s hands.

Background and aims: Every year many people suffer from numerous injuries in occupational accidents. Determination of factors that can cause the most problems in a process is an important step to improve the situation. Pareto chart can be used to explore issues that can cause most of the problems. The aim of this study is to investigate occupational accidents in Gonabad using Pareto chart.Methods: This research is a descriptive - analytical study that is based on data recorded by the work office of Gonabad between 2009-2012 using Pareto chart and analyzed by minitabs software.Results: According to the results of this study totally 87 accidents occurred, and most of accidents were related to the construction industry (50.87%). The most common type of accident was entrapping (34.61%) and the highest rate of accidents was related to the morning shift (84.61%). These accidents in 13.14% cases lead to death and in 86.10% of cases lead to amputation.Conclusion: On the results showed in this study authorities should pay more attention to construction accidents, causes of falling, falling objects, and …. That has much more portion in severe consequences of accidents. And in order to prevent such accidents and their causes more human and financial resources allocated.

Background and aims: Job stress is an important factor in creating physical and mental problems for the employees and has negative consequences for the organization. The present study aims to examine job stress (decision making, performance evaluation, work load and responsibility/ authority) on job satisfaction of the accountants.Methods: This is an applied study using correlation analysis to examine the relationship between the variables. The required data is collected using JRTS questionnaire (Kahn et al.1964). The Michigan’s organizational assessment questionnaire is selected as the scale of job satisfaction. The population includes all accountants employed in manufacturing, merchandising and service enterprises of Yazd. Using simple random sampling, 179 individuals are selected between them as the sample. The data is also analyzed by LISREL software.Results: Due to the absolute value of the t-statistic 2.72 and the negative amount of impact 0.20, it can be concluded that job stress have a significant and negative impact on job satisfaction. Further, according to the absolute value of the t-statistic for the decision, performance evaluation and workload that is less than 1.96, it can be concluded that these components have no significant effect on job satisfaction. The absolute value of t-statistics of the components of responsibility / authority is equal to 2.44 and the amount of impact is negative and equal to 0.52; therefore, it can be concluded that the responsibility / authority have a significant and negative impact on job satisfaction.Conclusion: Considering the impact of job stress on job satisfaction, implementing effective strategies by managers is imperative to reduce job stress of accountants such as specifying the scope of work and giving sufficient authority to perform job responsibilities.

Background and aims: Working women who treated for breast cancer have reported a variety of problems following their return to work, however, in our country, information about the experience of returning to work after breast cancer are not reported. This study investigated the experience of returning to work in paid employed women survived from breast cancer.Methods: This qualitative research with purposive sampling of content analysis was performed on 20 employed women who survived from breast cancer and had the experience of returning to work. Semi-structured interviews were conducted. To confirm the accuracy of the data, the opinions of teachers and fellow participants were used. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis by Lundman and Graneheim methods.Results: Experiences of women in relation to return to work following breast cancer were classified in four categories of attitude to work, return to work issues, problems at work environment and advice of experts about return to work after breast cancer. Women in various occupations experienced job loss, demotion, unwanted changes in tasks, problems with boss and colleagues, changes in attitude to work and decreasing physical ability.ConclusionThe findings of this study can be beneficial for health care professionals, patients and colleagues in providing social support for working women who survived from breast cancer.

Background and aims: Extremely low frequency magnetic field (ELF) is a Spectrum of electromagnetic waves with the range of 30 to 300 Hz. The average magnetic field exposures in the workplace have been found to be higher in “electrical occupations” compared to the other occupations such as office work. The interaction between magnetic fields produced by power lines and substations with living organisms are not fully understood and still open to many researchers.Methods: The three axes TES-1394 was used for magnetic field measurement. Magnetic field measurement conducted based on the IEEE std 644-1994 standard. Firstly all magnetic field sources were detected, then the measuring stations were determined nearby and around the source. The occupational groups with exposure to magnetic field were identified to determine the maximum exposure level and then to compare with ISIRI 8567 national standard.Results: The minimum and maximum measured magnetic field were in near of 63 Kv lines (1.03mT) and generators (17.6 mT), respectively. The mean of magnetic flux density nearby the generators building source was significantly different from the other sources. The environmental amount of magnetic flux density in 230 Kv (1.58 mT) post was higher than the other environments. Maximum exposure (17.6 mT) of occupational groups was related to engineer’s of generators building.Conclusion: Our results of the magnetic flux density measurement close to sources matched with the other relevant studies except for control room. The maximum exposure level of the occupational groups was not higher than the occupational exposure standard value.

Background and aims: In the field of chemical agents at workplaces, traditional measurement method for assessing the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) concentration is using a gas chromatograph generally equipped with a flame ionization detector (GC-FID). However, there are some limitations in working with this equipment including equipment accessibility, necessity of highly trained operators, and the high cost of sample analysis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of photoionization detector (PID) as a substitution for GC-FID in the measurement of toluene as a representative of the VOCs in experimental studies.Methods: This study was carried out by an experimental set up for generating toluene known concentrations at 5, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1000 ppm with relative humidity 13% ±2. The concentration values were measured with PID as well as the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) 1501 reference method and results were compared.Results: The results showed a significant difference between the two methods at concentrations higher than 50 ppm while there was no significant difference at 5 ppm and 20 ppm. The correlation coefficient of the toluene concentrations at 5 to 1000 ppm was 0.999. The correction factor for the PID was 1.05 at the studied concentration range.Conclusion: Although the results presented by PID were different from those extracted from the NIOSH reference method, the response was linear. Thus, in studies of measuring airborne concentrations of toluene using this type of detector; the reading values must be corrected by the calculated correction factor.

Background and aims: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a group of organic compounds that are produced during the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and petroleum products and are widely spread in the environment. Newsagents may be exposed to urban pollutions such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The aim of this study was to assess the breathing zone exposure of newsagents to PAHs in Tehran during the cold and warm seasons.Methods: Eight substances were selected as indicators of PAHs pollution in urban air and exhaust of vehicles. Personal sampling was performed in gas and particulate phases according to the NIOSH 5515 method by using XAD-2 adsorbent and PTFE filter (37 mm). Samples were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS).Results: Benzo [a] anthracene had the highest concentration among all PAHs in the breathing zone air of newsagents in the warm and cold periods. Benzo [ghi] perylene had the lowest values in both seasons. Results of the Mann-Whitney test showed that breathing zone concentration of all PAHs except Benzo [ghi] perylene (P-Value = 0.089) had significant associations with seasonal variations.Conclusion: Although Newsagents had significant exposure to PAHs however, the level of exposure in all monitoring stations was less than exposure limit values. PAHs breathing zone exposure was depending on the seasonal variation and greater concentration of PAHs was described in the cold period.

Background and aims: Safety climate is an important index for safety management performance appraisal and occupational health within the workplace that can be used for the evaluation of employee’s attitude toward safety problems. The aim of this study is the investigation of relationship between different dimensions of safety climate with safety performance among aeronautical industries.Methods: for measuring safety climate, Zaide et al. (2011) questionnaire with dimensions such as management commitment, safety problem communications, acceptance of responsibility by management, safe environment, risk perception, job satisfaction, safety issues awareness, and for measuring of safety performance, Arshadi et al. (2011) questionnaire based on Sui et al.(2003) were used. For investigation of relationship between safety climate factors and safety performance and for data analysis SPSS V: 19 and Structural Equation Modeling exclusively Smart PLS were used.Results: Results of this research indicated that management commitment with path coefficient of 0.672 and T- Value of8.110; safe environment with path coefficient of (0.743) and T- Value of 16.362; safety problem communications with path coefficient of 0.677 and T- Value of 9.42; acceptance of responsibility by management with path coefficient of 0.577 and T- Value of 10.597; job satisfaction with path coefficient of 0.641 and T- Value of 11.847; safety issues awareness with path coefficient of 0.317 and T- Value of 2.536; risk perception with path coefficient of 0.444 and T- Value of 3.941effect on safety performance. The management commitment factor with the average of (4.29) was appeared to be the first priority and safety problem communications with the average of (2.22) was the last priority.Conclusion: Perceptions and ideas of employees indicated that safety performance depends on management commitment, safety problem communications, and acceptance of responsibility by management, safe environment, risk perception, job satisfaction, and safety awareness and effort of managers of airports for enhancement of safety climate are mandatory.