IRAN OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH JOURNAL
Year:2017 | Volume:14 | Issue:2|Papers Count:19

Background and aims: Implementation and establishment of a health, safety and environment (HSE) management system however successful, yet there will be no guarantee in its quality of performance. Therefore, a comprehensive performance evaluation system is essential for monitoring, evaluating, and continuous improvement of these systems. If these evaluations are based on company's strategic planning, they are on the right path. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the implementation of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) on improvement of HSE management system in a big production company in Iran.Methods: This study is a cross-sectional applicable survey. Initially, some studies based on theoretical context were carried out and then BSC was implemented in HSE system of the company. Finally, a conceptual model to evaluate the performance of HSE management system in the form of Balanced Scorecard was designed and by this model, the performance of HSE management system was evaluated and compared before and after the implementation of the BSC.Results: The results showed that after the implementation of the BSC, HSE management system through 67 performance indicators that evaluated, in 43 indicators (64.2%) had improvement and major progress was visible in terms of internal processes and customer. Poor performance was in terms of growth and learning than other strategic perspectives, so the company needs to devote more effort to provide a platform for learning and development in the field of HSE.Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that the implementation of BSC can improve the performance of the HSE management system.

Background and aims: Nowadays, cleanrooms have become impartible parts of an industry with sensitive products. Sources of contamination in cleanrooms are impaired performance and quality sensitive products in the cleanrooms. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of HEPA filter and check the concentration and number of airborne particles in cleanrooms for pharmaceutical industry.Methods: This study an experimental study that was conducted at 2015 in the pharmaceutical industry. The method of this study investigated the HEPA filter leakage test and number concentration of particles in the cleanroom according to the ISO 14644 – 3 standards. 17 HEPA filters were studied for cleanroom with cleanliness class B, C and D. The leakage filters using aerosol photometer, aerosol generator and Positive injection pump and the Particle Counter was used to measure the concentration of particles.Results: In HEPA filter leakage test, 17 filters have been tested and only 3) 18 % (filters indicate leakage and had an efficiency lower than standard limits. Other filters had a no leakage and show acceptable results (99.99%). The results show that with increasing velocity, permeability and pressure drop in the range of particle size increased and decreased quality factor. In addition, the measurement results show that the concentration of particles in the cleanroom the average density of particles pollution in the cleanliness class B, C and D of the ISO-14644 standard limits was lower.Conclusion: the study showed that the airborne particles concentration are lower than the permissible limits which determined by ISO 14644 standards. Interestingly in this study, the impact of high air quality cleanroom was a good performance HEPA filters.

Background and aims: Planning to increase production and efficiency of human resources in productive organizations without estimating the economic costs imposed on the organization would cause ignorance of the actual value of safety in workplaces. From among financial costs of the productive organizations, the subject of safety promotion through decreasing the probable hazards are often in line with reluctance of employers and therefore they will try to decrease these mentioned costs. The object of this study was to determine the numerical value of safety from the perspective of the refinery staff through computing the amount of money, which the staffs tend to receive to tolerate unsafe conditions in the workplace. This amount will be equivalent to the importance of preventing accidents and promoting the safety condition in the workplace from the perspective of the labor force.Methods: In this study, by applying Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) and determining the amount of willingness to accept (WTA) of employees in exchange for the waiver of improving safety in the workplace, the economic value of safety in Esfahan Oil Refining Company was estimated from the employee's perspective. For this purpose, a questionnaire was provided and by creating a hypothetical market scenario for safety as non-traded goods, data relating to the safety value were asked from 140 operational employees and analyzed by applying 2-steps questionnaire including the pre-test and post-test during 2014.Results: Based on the results of this study, the WTA for a month for each employee at the refinery was estimated at 2 million and five hundred thousands Rials. The total economic value estimated for the safety of the refinery personnel for 1, 300 people employed in operational units, estimated to be 39 billion Rails. Considering the total annual cost of refinery safety that is 6, 700, 000, 000 Rials, it was clear from the employee's perspective, the economic value of safety is 5.8 times greater than the cost of refinery’s existing safety programs in the workplace.Conclusion: According to this study, reconsidering the annual budget required to implement safety measures described and from an economic point focusing on the search for optimal conditions for market efficiency and cost effectiveness of the safety measures is important.

Background and aims: Aerodrome surface safety and in particular safety of flight environment around it are acknowledged globally as one of the aviation's greatest challenges. Aeronautical industries development within recent decays and employment of innovated technologies and procedures, encountered with multiple risk that threating the aviation safety. The main purpose of this research was identification and prioritzing of risky factors affecting on aircraft operation on aerodrome and flight environment around it.Methods: In this survey, descriptive method was used and a questionnaire with 22 items prepared and distributed between the research statistical population including Tehran Province aeronautical personnel whom were about 420 persons of which 201 were selected based on Morgan table. The reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (0.8) and its validity checked by content, structural and Lawshe methods. SPSS software version19 plus SEM (LISREL 8.5) were used for analyzing the data.Results: Research finding indicates that human factors, equipment factors, software factors and hardware factors have positive and direct effect on risk of aircraft operation on aerodrome surface and flight environment around it. Impact of human factors are 0.90, environmental factors.78, hardware factors 0.69 and software factors 0.52.Conclusion: Safety level enhancement is required on and in the vicinity of an aerodrome through planning and implementation of safety management system, knowledge and safety culture development for all human resources, installation of new aerodromes equipment, and coordination with relevant organization for preventing of potential dangers.

Background and aims: Hospital personnel are exposed to various occupational hazards because of their job circumstances. The aim of this study was to investigate the ergonomic problems of hospital from the perspective of human-system interface technology and to recommend the strategies for improvement.Methods: In this qualitative study, the conceptual framework of hospital ergonomic problems was extracted through the literature review from the perspective of human-system interface technology. Eighteen staffs and experts were participated in the semi-structured interview and focus group discussion according to the conceptual framework. Theme analysis was used to extract the ergonomic problems and their corresponding solutions.Results: In total, 14 ergonomic problems were categorized based on a human-system interface framework. Their corresponding solutions were extracted based on the hierarchy of controls, including elimination and substitution, engineering controls, administrative controls and PPE.Conclusion: Some of the ergonomic problems related to working posture, shift work, workload, job satisfaction and personal relationships are more important problems. The control framework extracted from this study can be used to reduce the ergonomic problems and to recommend the strategies for improvement.

Background and aims: Use of a comprehensive and standard-based scenario is of pivotal importance in conducting emergency exercises. Despite the importance of such scenarios, there is no approved, universal pattern used by Iranian industries for designing them. This study firstly aimed at providing a pattern for developing emergency scenarios. Secondly, a set of scenarios which currently are used by major Iranian industries were selected and the confirmatory of them with the proposed pattern were investigated.Methods: At first the content of ISO 22398 and HSEEP standards were studied thoroughly and, by integrating these two, a new pattern was constructed, next, its validity and reliability were determined. Finally, 61 scenarios used by process industries in Iran were collected and the conformity of them with the new pattern was surveyed.Results: The extracted pattern contained five main sections and 41 subsections. The conformity of examined scenarios with the proposed pattern showed that only subsections such scenario preparation and scenario implementation were considered in all of the scenarios.Conclusion: The findings of this study emphasize the necessity of using a universal pattern for developing emergency exercise scenarios. Training of this pattern to individuals who involved in developing emergency scenarios would improve the quality of scenarios used by industries and make them stronger against real emergencies.

Background and aims: Organic solvents are a group of chemical compounds widely used in various industries and so far the relationship between chronic exposure to them and some physical and neurological diseases has been proved. On the other hand, fatigue causes damage to the person, reduction in work efficiency and increase in occupational accidents. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between occupational exposure to organic solvents and fatigue in workers in a paint factory.Methods: This descriptive - analytical and cross - sectional study was performed on 206 workers of paint and textile industries, respectively as case and control groups. Sampling of organic solvents was performed according to the standard method of NIOSH-1501. After determining the concentration of solvents, Multidimensional Fatigue Questionnaire (MFI) and demographic and occupational information questionnaire were used to assess fatigue. For statistical analysis of the data, independent t- test and logistic regression were used.Results: The mean fatigue scores in five dimensions using independent t-test showed that in physical aspects of fatigue, reduced activity, reduced motivation, mental exhaustion and total scores of MFI, there is a significant difference between the two groups (p<0.05), so that the biggest difference between the two groups was observed in reduced motivation and mental fatigue. Logistic regression showed that the odds ratio for these impairments in case group is about 2.5 control group.Conclusion: The results of this study showed that there was a prevalence of fatigue in 4 dimensions of physical, reduced activity, reduced motivation and mental fatigue in people exposed to organic solvents so that mental fatigue and reduced motivation was mostly prevalent among people exposed to solvents compared to their control group.

Background and aims: Sleep disorders are among the most prevalent disorders today and especially in the industrial and developed countries. Their prevalence have been varied in different populations. The occurrence of these disorders in working population can cause occupational injuries and reduces the performance of the employees. It also can be hazardous. In this article, the association between sleep disorders and the work ability index are considered.Methods: This is a cross-sectional study performed in a dairy company on all the employees in the year 2013. In this study, the Stop Bang questionnaire for assessment of the sleep apnea, Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) questionnaire for assessment of sleepiness, and the work ability index (WAI) for assessment of work ability were used. The gathered data from these questionnaires were analyzed in conjunction with the demographic data.Results: In this study, 215 workers were finally considered. The associations between the three questionnaires (WAI, ESS, and STOP Bang) were statistically significant. There were also significant associations between age and WAI and STOP Bang; the level of education and ESS; work history and STOP Bang; smoking and all three questionnaires; pack-years of smoking and STOP Bang; and also the employee's body mass index (BMI) and STOP Bang. There was positive correlation between ESS and STOP Bang and both these questionnaires were negatively correlated with WAI.Conclusion: The results showed a strong correlation between sleep disorders (sleepiness and sleep apnea) and the work ability index. It is important to consider the sleep hygiene and performance of screening for sleep disorders in the employees to reduce the irreversible injuries and associated problems and also reduce the problem of lowered productivity.

Background and aims: Bio-aerosols of indoor air of hospital wards are significant harmful factor for human health and play important role on nosocomial infections. Therefore, diversity and concentration of fungal bio-aerosols in indoor air of Imam Khomeini and Alavi hospitals were investigated in this study.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2 educational hospitals of Ardabil city in 2016. ZTHV02 sampler and sabarose dextrose agar along with chloramphenicol antibiotic were used to evaluate and determine the airborne fungal concentrations. Culture slide technique was applied to diagnose fungi and the colonies density was reported based on CFU/m3.Results: Mean fungi concentrations were 52.42 and 43.4 CFU/m3 in Emam and Alavi hospitals, respectively. Nursing station of dialysis ward in Imam Khomeini Hospital and vaginal delivery room and inpatient room of men urology and neurology in Alavi hospital had the highest fungal infection load. On the other hand the least fungal infection load were observed in dialysis and emergency respiratory isolation wards of Imam Khomeini and ICU in Alavi hospitals. The most prevalent fungi species isolated from air samples of Emam hospital was penicilium followed byAspergillus niger, Aspergillus, Cladosporium and Candida and for Alvi hospital; penicilium followed by Aspergillus, Aspergillus niger, Paecilomyces and Candida. No significant correlations were found between fungi concentrations and temperature and humidity of the sampling sites. However, fungi levels significantly were higher in morning shift comparing to evening shift (p<0.01).Conclusion: High concentration of airborne fungi bio-aerosols in Ardabil hospitals may be important health risks for health workers and the patients.

Background and aims: The aim of the present research was to design and test a structural modeling of precedents and outcomes of occupational commitment. The variables in this model are included: precedents (conscientiousness, transformational leadership and Islamic work ethic and psychological climate) and outcomes of occupational commitment (turnover intention, emotional exhaustion and self development behavior).Methods: The research method is descriptive-correlation. The sample (according to the entry requirements for this study) consist of 210 Khuzestan Steel Company employees who selected by Stage random sampling (males=199; female=11). The occupational commitment, psychological climate, NEO personality trait, General transformational leadership, Islamic work ethic, turnover intention, Burnout and self development behavior scales was used to collect research data. Fitness of the proposed model was examined through structural equation modeling) SEM (by using amos-21 software package. also the bootstrap procedure was used for examine the indirect effects.Results: Findings indicated that the proposed model fit the data properly. Better fit has been obtained by omitting 1 non-sighnificant path. Among 10 direct hypotheses just one hypothesis has not been confirmed (the direct effect of transformational leadership on the occupational commitmen).All of the indirect effects was confirmed.Conclusion: the present study provides insight about the role of individual, cultural and organizational variables in improving one's commitment to the occupational and thus reduce emotional exhaustion and turnover and the Costs arising from them.

Background and aims: Formaldehyde (FA) is a colorless toxic gas used as a disinfectant and preservative and known as a carcinogen and strong irritant. Due to its germicidal, preservative and fixative properties, formaldehyde or other chemicals that potentially produce formaldehyde, are used in some cosmetics. OSHA has warned about hairdresser’s exposure to FA higher than threshold limit values. Because of the importance of this air pollutant and the lack of enough studies in Iran, the present study aimed at occupational monitoring of FA exposure in hair salons in Hamedan and Kermanshah cities.Methods: Short term (n=20) and long term (n=45) air samples were collected on sorbent tubes in the breathing zone of selected hair dressers and then analyzed based on methods NIOSH 2016 and 2541, respectively.Results: The concentrations of FA in short-term and long-term samples were in ranges of 0-0.6935 and 0-0.6034 ppm, respectively. There were no statistically significant differences between mean concentrations of FA in long- term and short-term samples and also between studied work tasks (based on used cosmetics).Conclusion: According to obtained results, the concentration of FA in some samples was higher than Iran’s OEL (0.3 ppm). Therefore, it is necessary to do more occupational exposure monitoring and apply control measures such as installing proper ventilation systems, correcting the existing systems, supervising the quality of cosmetics, and training programs for target group.

Background and aims: Dust emission is one of the main health and environmental problems during the crushing, screening and conveying process in mining company. The goal of this study was designing, implementation and evaluation of industrial ventilation and combination with a water spray for control the airborne particles as well as economic analysis on crushing unit of a mining company.Methods: After ensuring the lack of destructive effect of humidity on material properties, a water spray system was designed and installed for settling some of produced dusts. Other emitted particles were also controlled by designing and implementation of local exhaust ventilation system. This system was evaluated after installation. For collection of dust, three Stairmand cyclone with high efficiency were used. Finally, the efficiency of water spray and industrial ventilation systems was investigated as single and combined in the control of fugitive particles in ambient air, occupational exposure and environmental emission.Results: The efficiency of the wet and ventilation system, alone and combined in reducing workplace dust concentration were 49%, 76% and 95%, respectively. Moreover, the efficiency of the wet, ventilation and combined system in reducing the exposure to repairable particles were 54%, 73% and 88%, respectively.Conclusion: According to the present evaluations by implementing the combination of these two systems, the occupational exposure of workers, ambient dust concentration and emitted dust to environmental was fell to less than permissible limits. According to the economic analysis, over 80% of total costs by combined procedure was reduced. Therefore, this system can be proposed as an effective and cost-effective in such conditions.

Background and aims: Health literacy leads to gain capacities and necessary perception of health information and services to individuals, so that, they can take health decisions. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the workers' Health literacy in one of the Iran Khodro's piece making factory in 2015.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 157 workers of Mehrcam Pars Company in 2015 were selected using appropriate stratified random method in each workshop. Then through simple random sampling, subjects were enrolled. Questionnaire was completed by selfreporting through workers. To collect the data, Iranian adult health literacy questionnaire (HELIA) was used. Data were analyzed using the SPSS v.21 software.Results: The subjects, in terms of access to health information, 79% had poor access, 56.1% had poor reading skills. In terms of understanding, 77.1% were not in a good condition. In the evaluation, on average, half of those had not adequate health literacy level and were not long enough (22.9% and 20.4% respectively). In the use of health information, 61.8% had insufficient levels of health literacy. Understanding and evaluating has a direct effect on the mean score of information. So that, the understanding and evaluating were the appropriate predictive to apply health information.Conclusion: Overall, the health literacy was inappropriate in individuals. This issue shows the more attention to health literacy in educational and interventional programs. It is necessary for this purpose to design and apply comprehensive program, media, and simple and understandable educational materials.

Background and aims: Nowadays, the efficient human resource is one of the most important factors in productivity. However, spirituality at work is the underlying theme in employees' empowerment that has become a key issue in health management system. This comprehensive review was performed to identify and explain the underlying variables. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to explain the pattern of causal relationships between at work and psychological variables in Babol University of Medical Sciences.Methods: This study is cross-sectional descriptive-correlation. The population of the study includes directors and human resource professionals in Babol Medical Sciences University, who were selected using purposive sampling. The raw data collected using paired comparisons questionnaire and analyzed through DEMATEL approach.Results: According to the importance of parameters (ri+cj), the results of the data study showed spirituality at work (6.94) is the most important variable, and so employee' s creativity (6.05) is identified as the least important variable in this causal relation. Among the variables studied, organizational climate (1.45) introduced as the most influential variable (ri-cj), and the employee creativity (-1.21) selects as the low influential variable, and the least amount of impact to be allocated.Conclusion: Babol University of Medical Sciences administrators can implement appropriate programs to increase spirituality and retreat the background for possible improvement in their employees' mental abilities.

Background and aims: Occurrence of accidents in the petroleum industry cause irreparable damage to human life. Understanding the causes of accidents takes place with analysis. One of the most important steps in accident analysis is a conscious selection of accident analysis method due to the existence of high variety of methods and various effective criteria. This study was carried out with the aim of selecting the optimal method for analysis of accidents in petroleum industry.Methods: A multi–criteria decision model was developed which was comprised of the analytic network process to obtain the criteria weights (which was used for selection of the accident analysis method) and fuzzy TOPSIS for ranking of the accident analysis methods.Results: Based on the results, 8 criteria and 19 sub criteria were used for selection of the accident analysis method. The factors of multiple levels cause identification capability, training need and levels of analysis with final weights of 0.375, 0.168 and 0.088 (respectively) had the most important weights in method selection. Based on fuzzy TOPSIS ranking of accident analysis method, tripod beta was selected as the optimal method and other methods such as BOW tie and MTO were in subsequent priorities.Conclusion: The results showed that there were several criteria (with different weight) for selecting the optimal method of accident analysis. Based on important of criteria incorporated in the present study, the optimal method for petroleum accident analysis is Tripod beta. Incorporation of Tripod beta in combination with the other methods may be resulted in numerous benefits in accident analysis.