Journal of Safety Promotion and Injury Prevention
Year:2013 | Volume:1 | Issue:3|Papers Count:8

Background and Aim: Traffic accident is one of the main causes of mortality in Iran. The damage and injury caused by these accidents threatens human societies severely. Rural accidents are often more severe and show harsher consequences because the operational speed is higher on rural roads and highways. World statistics presented by World Health Organization (WHO) reveal that about 25 percent of all injuries in the world are caused by traffic accidents. Appropriate diagnoses and treatments of traffic black spots, prioritization, defining proper safety countermeasures and geometric design improvements are the main objectives of this study.Materials and Methods: In this study, geometric design parameters are verified in black spots to determine which deficiency is the main cause of safety problem. Sari- Kiasar corridor, which is a rural road, is selected as the case study.Results: Because of the fact that the general topography of Sari- Kiasar corridor is mountainous, the geometric design parameters are very diverse. Thus, after evaluation of geometric parameters, black spots are determined according to the types of accidents, severity of accidents, rate of accidents and the collision scenario. These items are then verified and studied in detail.Conclusion: Results of the assessment show that geometric parameters such as horizontal and vertical curves, poor pavement, poor shoulder quality and poor drainage are contributing factors in increasing accident risk.

Background and Aim: More than 50% of road fatalities occur in the 15 to 44-years old which are the young and active group of the society. One of the effective ways to reduce road accidents is using safety belts. In this study the rate of seat belt use and its associated factors have been estimated in the 15 to 44-years old of Kerman.Materials and Methods: This study was a cross-sectional descriptive and analytical study performed in 2012 and on 506, 15 to 44 years old people visiting the pre-marriage consulting center in Kerman. Sampling was done by convenient sampling. Data was analyzed by SPSS 16 and by using logistic regression.Results: The rate of seat belt use was estimated to be %54.4. People who owned private vehicles used safety belts more than non-owners (P<0.001). Participants claimed that their own safety and preventing injury was the most important reason (59.1%) for using safety belts and forgetting due to mind occupation (33%) were the most important reasons for not using safety belts.Conclusion: Despite the high incidence of road accidents in Iran and despite years passed the first compulsory safety belt regulation, the rate of safety belt use among the society and especially the youth (which are a high percent of the population) is still lower than other countries. These results emphasize the importance of implementing initiatives in this regard.

Background and Aims: Eighty five percent of accidents can be attributed to unsafe acts. Eighty five to ninety eight percent of workplace injuries caused by unsafe acts are due to attitude, behavior and culture. Safety climate is a multi-dimensional structure that describes the attitude and the correct priority of the people towards the safety at work. To assess safety climate, a valid and reliable tool is needed. The aim of this study was developing a psychometric questionnaire to assess safety climate in Iran.Materials and Methods: Using safety literature and other safety climate questionnaire, a 96-item questionnaire was provided. Face validity, content validity ratio and index, construct validity, internal consistency reliability and test-retest reliability were investigated on 550 industrial employees.After validity index survey 43 items questionnaire were obtained. Principal factors were extracted using exploratory factor analysis by Varimax rotation method. To check the reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbach's alpha coefficients and Pearson correlation coefficient was used.Results: For the face validity, CVR (78.5%) and CVI (0.75) related to safety climate designed questionnaire to be acceptable, eleven factors were extracted that covered 58.85 percent of total variance. Cronbach's alpha for most factors more than 0.7 were calculated and Spearman coefficient showed significant correlation between test and retest results.Conclusion: The Safety “Climate Assessment Questionnaire” which has been designed for 43 items and 11 factors has appropriate validity and reliability and can be used to assess the safety climate.

Backgrounds and Aims: Semi automated processes of Iranian tire manufacturing factories lead to significant occupational exposures to benzene and toluene compounds. This study was conducted to evaluate the magnitude and risk of workers exposures.Materials and Methods: Personal monitoring of 100 workers (10 groups) was performed using NIOSH method No.1501 in two tire manufacturing factories in Tehran city. Workplace atmospheric conditions were measured on sampling days. Semi quantitative risk assessment (COSHH) was carried out using questionnaire and respective matrix. Data were analyzed using t-test, correlation coefficient, linear regression and one-way ANOVA. Quantitative values were reported as mean±standard error.Results: Age, work experience and atmospheric parameters had no significant statistical difference in two factories. Occupational exposures to benzene and toluene were 1.09±0.18, 1.88±0.19 and 2.07±0.30, 3.20±0.39 ppm in factories A and B that showed significant increase in B factory and inverse significant correlation with air relative humidity. Exposure to high risk of benzene and medium risk of toluene were 10, 14 and 10, 16 percent of workers in factories A and B, respectively. The correlation between occupational exposure and COSHH assessment was significant.Conclusion: occupational exposure to benzene in tire manufacturing personnel was higher than Iranian standard, therefore, improvement of work conditions using appropriate control measures including automated processes and setting of air relative humidity is recommended. COSHH assessment can be used as a simple, cheap and quick method in workers’ health promotion. Control of personnel exposure through ongoing training is imperative.

Background and Aims: The harms resulted from home injuries are a major factor in child mortality. The current study aims to evaluate the factors associated with the knowledge and performance level of mothers in terms of adopting preventive behaviors to avoid home injuries.Materials and Methods: The target population of this descriptive - analytical study is all mothers of preschool children suffering from home injuries referring to Imam Hossein and Haft-E-Tir hospitals. Mothers’ data were collected using a valid and reliable questionnaire.After dividing the knowledge level and the status of mothers’ preventive behaviors into two groups, the relationship between factors was assessed by using Chi-square and multivariate logistic regression and the status of mothers preventive behaviors were studied as well.Results: Finally, 230 mothers (mean age 5.2 ± 29.4) were studied.75.0 of them had good awareness, and 56.0 % also had a good performance. Mother's absence for at least 8 hours per day (0.12=OR), increase of the number of preschool children (0.03=OR) and employed mother (0.01=OR) are the things that hinder preventive behaviors in home injuries. While the history of home injuries during the past 3 weeks (13.3=OR), mother’s appropriate awareness of preventive behaviors (28.9=OR) and high-income families (2.4=OR) lead to the adoption of preventive behaviors by mothers.Conclusion: Awareness is the only modifiable factor and it can be improved by educational interventions. Support of assistance and social welfare agencies for employed mothers can improve the current status of preventive behaviors in home injuries.

Background and Aims: Traffic crashes are multi-factorial consequences caused by human factors, technical issues and environmental conditions. The present study aimed to determine epidemiology of urban traffic injuries in Iran and role of some human risk factors in occurrence of such outcomes in 2010.Materials and Methods: Through a descriptive cross-sectional study, the records of 515205 injured people injured people due to road traffic crashes were used. Odd ratios for traffic events using regression models with appropriate chances and logistic regression were estimated by considering affecting factors on outcomes of traffic injuries such as age and gender.Results: Data of 515205 drivers including 464401 (90.1%) males were analyzed. From the environmental factors related to road deficiency, the difference between level of the road and its edge line (OR=4.3; 95% CI: 2.8-6.5) and road dropping (OR=2.5; 95%CI: 1.1-6.2) had the most influence on mortalities due to traffic crashes. Sudden change of direction (OR=9.9; 95% CI: 8.2-11.9) and lacking control of vehicle (OR=7.0; 95% CI: 5.8-8.4) had the most effects on either injury or death categories after adjustment for age, gender and lightening.Conclusions: With respect to increased mortalities due to road traffic crashes in Iran, comprehensive studies about epidemiology and risk factors of traffic accidents could be considered as a giant step to control these risk factors and decrease the death burden of such events.

Background and Objective: A considerable amount of sulfur hexafluoride is applied to evaluate the performance of each laboratory hood according to ASHRAE–110-95 method. SF6 is extremely hostile to environment and expensive. In present work, the possibility of conducting this method of hood performance test with less volume of SF6 was investigated.Material and Methods: The performance of a laboratory hood was evaluated using ASHRAE110-95 standard method at three different ventilation capacity as well as three different volumetric flow rates of injected SF6 while a mannequin was located at the front of hood. Face velocity was measured 180 times using a thermal anemometer TA-2 model. Air flow was visualized through injecting low and high volume of smokes at 18 tests. Sulfur hexafluoride was injected at three different volumetric flow rates of 2, 3 and 4 lit/min. The occupational exposure of a hypothetic hood operator was determined 27 times through direct reading.Results: The average and standard deviation of face velocity at hood inlet were 0.42±0.04, 0.6±0.07, 0.7±0.11 m/s respectively, ranging from 0.36-1.1 m/s. the studied hood did not have an acceptable performance when tested with high volumes of smoke, but it did have an acceptable performance while it was tested with low volumes of smoke.Conclusion: The application of ASHRAE 110-95 hood performance test with smaller volume of tracer sulfur hexafluoride gas is not recommended.

Background and objectives: In many studies, chronic diseases are associated with incidence of driving accident. The main objective of the present study is investigation the effect of physical and mental disorders status of bus drivers on the occurrence of crashes.Materials and Methods: This research is a cross-sectional and descriptive-analytical study that was performed on 665 bus drivers' public transportation system in Tehran. The samples were selected randomly and to the proportion of working population in nine bus systems or areas. In order to investigate physical (disease) and mental (family problems) disorders demographic information and health status questionnaires were used. The relationships between variables analyzed through Univariate analysis of variance (UNIANOVA) and Kendall's tau-b tests by SPSS 16 of software.Results: The results showed 68.7% of drivers with mental disorders (with family problems) in both groups from healthy and unhealthy (physical diseases) drivers' had average 3.2 crashes in the last three years. Furthermore the tests of Univariate analysis of variance (UNIANOVA) (F=0.43, p<0.05) and Kendall's tau-b (r=0.112, p<0.01) showed significant and positive correlation between family problems and the number of self-reported crashes over the previous three years.Conclusion: Because of the increased risk of crashes among drivers suffering from mental problems, it is assumed that the removal of economic problems and the use of psychological consultations will reduce family problems including poor emotional relationships of family members which play an important role in increasing attention and concentration of the drivers while driving and consequently reducing traffic crashes.