Journal of Occupational Hygiene Engineering
Year:2017 | Volume:3 | Issue:4|Papers Count:8

Introduction: The correspondence analysis method is the best method to optimize matrix functions by which the risk-injury matrix was analyzed. This method can reduce the information contained in the risk-injury table and can also determine the correlation between the variables in the matrix. The aim of this study was to present the dimensions of accidents and occupational hazards based on the risk-injury affinity groups, and to manage the occupational accidents using these dimensions.Methods: In this study, the reports of occupational accidents registered in the Social Security Organization in a period of ten years from the beginning of 2005 until the end of 2014 (222, 300 incidents) were collected and the type of the risk and injury related to any accident was identified based on the criteria of the International Labour Organization and classified in a risk-injury matrix (18 × 18). Using the correspondence analysis, the dimensions were identified individually; these dimensions show the most correlation between risks and injuries, which can facilitate decision-making in the risk assessment process in companies covered by the Social Security Organization.Results: Hair's criterion recommends that dimensions with inertia higher than 0.2 are suitable for the study and interpretation of the results. So, in this study, among the obtained dimensions, the dimensions with the inertia (an eigen value) greater than 0.2 including dimension 1, dimension 2, and dimension 3 were considered and the correlation between the variables was obtained based on a singular value (variable distance from the centeroid). In this study, a singular value of dimension1 was 0.750, a singular value of dimension 2 was 0.647, and a singular value of dimension 3 was 0.521.Conclusions: The dimensions obtained create new opportunities for the development of applications to analyze, interpret and automatic management of occupational accidents to minimize uncertainty and increase the objectivity that is not achievable with the current methods. The findings of the present study confirm that these three dimensions indicate the summary of occupational injuries.

Introduction: Today, every organization needs healthy and efficient employees to survive and develop, and also organizations should be able to utilize the full potential of their employees and put the right person into every position. To achieve this goal, HSE management programs should be seamlessly implemented to eliminate parallel activities and create a balance in the organization's current affairs by motivating the staff, increasing productivity, and saving money. Therefore, this study aimed to study the efectiveness of HSE management programs and its relationship with job satisfaction in the Noosh Azar Companyat the west of Tehran.Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, 60 persons from the staff of the Noosh Azar Company were randomly selected using the Cochran formula. The assessment tool was a researcher-made questionnaire, which its validity was confirmed by the professors and faculty members and its reliability was measured using Cronbach's alpha. Data were analyzed using the SPSS 22 software.Results: The results showed that there was a significant and positive correlation between the total score of the HSE programs and the total score of job satisfaction and all of its dimensions before and after the intervention. Regarding the ranking of the HSE management indicators, "professional health control programs" had the highest scores and regarding the ranking of the job satisfaction indexes, "technical management" had the highest score.Conclusions: Considering the significant relationship between job satisfaction and HSE management programs, it is recommended that these programs be implemented coherently and with a higher quality to improve the employees' satisfaction.

Introduction: This article studied the possible causes of human error-induced incidents in the petrochemical industry maintenance activities by using Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS). The aim of this study was to anticipate and identify these causes and propose corrective and preventive actions.Methods: In this study, the maintenance department in the Zagros Petrochemical Company located in Asaluyeh, Iran, was selected for research. A checklist of human error-induced incidents was developed based on the four HFACS main levels and nineteen subgroups. The hierarchical task analysis technique was used to identify maintenance activities and tasks. The main causes of possible incidents were identified by checklist and recorded. Corrective and preventive actions were defined depending on priority.Results: Analyzing the worksheets of 444 activities in four levels of HFACS showed that 37.6% of the causes were at the level of unsafe actions, 27.5% at the level of unsafe supervision, 20.9% at the level of preconditions for unsafe acts and 14% of the causes were at the level of organizational effects. The HFACS subgroups showed errors (24.3%), inadequate supervision (14.8%), and violations (13.2%) with the most frequency.Conclusions: According to the findings of this study, increasing the training effectiveness of operators and supervision improvement respectively are the most important measures in decreasing the human error-induced incidents in petrochemical industry maintenance.

Introduction: Healthcare centers are one of the main organizations, which play an important role in maintaining people's health by providing healthcare services. Therefore, paying attention to the quality of work life (QWL) and job performance in healthcare workers is very important. The aim of this study was to assess the quality of work life and its relationship with job performance in health care workers.Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted on 136 healthcare workers of healthcare centers in Islam Abad West city. Data collection tools were 3 questionnaires: demographic, QWL, and job performance questionnaires. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, one-way ANOVA and Pearson correlation coefficient were used.Results: The mean (SD) age of the healthcare workers was 36.42 (8) years. Most of the practitioners in this study were females and married. The mean (SD) scores of QWL and job performance were 76.91 (13.25) and 52.5 (9), respectively. There was a significant relationship between QWL and job performance (P<0.001). Furthermore, the relationships between QWL and the educational level as well as between job performance and sex and the educational level were significant (P<0.05).Conclusions: According the results of this study, the healthcare workers' QWL was lower than the average level and job performance was higher than the average level. So, increasing salary, encouraging the employees to continue their educations, and providing retraining courses that are related to their job can be useful to improve the current situation.

Introduction: One of the major problems in hospitals resulting in a high prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among employees is activities related to handling patients. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in people with a patient-handling task using the movement-and-assistance-of-hospital patient (MAPO) index in 2015 in one of the military hospitals in Tehran.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 230 nurses in a 400-bed military hospital in Tehran. The instruments used in the study included the Nordic questionnaire, MAPO index checklist, and demographic questionnaire. Data were analyzed using the chisquare test by the SPSS 16 software.Results: The main results showed a high prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among employees, especially low back disorders, shoulder, wrist, and back pain. Back pain disorder with 75% prevalence was the most common disorder among the employees. Also, the prevalence rate of musculoskeletal disorders in female employees was more than in men.Conclusions: The results of this study show that the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among nursing personnel with a patient-handling task is high and therefore ergonomic intervention in environmental design, tools and equipment needs to be done.

Introduction: Emergencies can impose huge tolls on the organizations. Such consequences, due to aggregation of the experts, could lead to the more catastrophic outcomes in the academic environments. Usually, the academic environments are less familiar with the management of the emergencies. The present paper aimed to measure the preparedness level against the emergencies in the Hamadan University of Medical Sciences.Methods: In this study, a basic checklist was developed based on the ISO 22399: 2003. Then, an audit team was established and conducted the audit process. Five core elements that were investigated included planning, organizational structure, resources, communication and scenario analysis. These items were scored 0-3 according to the sampling audit evidences.Results: The overall status of all elements was assessed as "unacceptable". The least score belonged to the scenario analysis and the most was related to the resources.Conclusions: Regarding the obtained results, it seems that there is a vital need to establish an emergency management system for Hamadan University of Medical Sciences. The most practical offer is following the accepted standards for implementing an emergency management system.

Introduction: Mental workload is one of the factors that influence the behavior, performance and efficiency of nurses in the workplace. There are diverse factors that can affect the mental workload level. The present study aimed to investigate the mental workload and its determinants among nurses working at one hospital in Kermanshah City, Iran.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 203 nurses were selected from 5 wards of infants, emergency, surgery, internal and ICU and surveyed. Data collection tools were demographic and NASA-TLX questionnaires. The data were analyzed using Independent sample t-test, ANOVA and statistics descriptive with the SPSS 16 software.Results: The mean (standard deviation) of overall mental workload was 69.73±15.26. Among different aspects of mental workload, the aspect of "effort" with an average score of 70.96±15.23 was the highest and the aspect of "frustration and disappointment" with an average score of 44.93±25 was the lowest one. There were significant relationships between the physical aspect of workload with age, type of shift working, number of shifts, type of employment, between temporal aspect of workload with BMI, type of employment and work experience, and between the aspect of effort and BMI (P £ 0.05).Conclusions: Due to the different amounts of mental workload in the studied hospital wards, relocation of nurses between wards can improve the situation and increase in the number of nurses can lead to decrease mental workload.

Introduction: Styrene monomer is a volatile organic compound that has many applications particularly in plastic, rubber and paint industries. According to the harmful effects of these compounds on human and environment, reducing and controlling of them seem necessary. Therefore, in this study removal of styrene was investigated using the photocatalytic process of titanium dioxide nanoparticles stabilized on ZSM-5.Methods: After stabilization of titanium dioxide nanoparticles on ZSM-5 zeolite, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffractometry (XRD) analyses were used to determine the characteristics of nanoparticles. Experiments were conducted at ambient temperature in a laboratory scale. Concentrations of the produced styrene in the experiments were 50 and 300 ppm, and the input flow rate was 1 l/min.Results: The images and spectra obtained through XRD and SEM-EDAX showed that nano-catalysts are well-stabilized. The results showed that by increasing the input concentration of styrene from 50 to 300 ppm, the photocatalytic removal efficiency was reduced. Also, adsorption capacities of the catalyst bed in concentrations of 50 and 300 ppm were calculated 16.3 and 19.4 mg/g of adsorbent, respectively.Conclusions: The results show that the use of hybrid bed can increase the removal efficiency of contaminants. Also, due to low cost of application of these systems compared to conventional methods, it is recommended that more comprehensive studies be conducted regarding the optimization of the parameters affecting the process of photocatalytic removal.