pISSN: 2008-5109
eISSN: 2008-5435
Editor-in-Chief:
Mohammadreza Monazzam Esmaeilpour, PhD.
Vol 9 No 1 (2017)
Published:
2017-04-23
Original Article(s)
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The Permit to Work System (PTWS) provides a practical framework for the commitment of no harm to people or the environment to be respected by staffs and contractors. Furthermore, PTWS try to provide an effective means for identification of significant hazards and management of HSE risk activities that could result in serious or fatal injuries. The significance of PTWS role is more prominent in industries such as gas and oil refineries. Since a small failure or fault in these industries may lead to a catastrophic human and environmental disasters or enormous economic losses. South Pars Gas Complex (SPGC), Bushehr Province, Southern of Iran, is one of those industries which PTWS is an important part of operational risk and safety management. In this study in 2016, SPGC’s PTWS disconformities are investigated, and an innovative checklist for system disconformity identification is proposed for auditing PTWS procedure. Surveys and interviews with 14 experts by using structured Delphi method in two rounds indicated that questions raised in the checklist are system identification. Finally, audit quarries suggested in the checklist are divided into 10 main categories. First: SIMOPS Immediate, data sharing, 2-High risk activity, 3-Confined space entry activities, 4- HNF activities immediate data sharing, 5-Protecting PTWS counterfeit, 6-Immediate risk assessment, 7-Capability of permits tracing, 8-Capability of MOC and any flexibility, 9-Cost saving capability, 10-Immediate MSDS. This study was promoted PTW systems to ensure that authorized and competent people have thought about foreseeable HSE risks and that these risks are eliminated or minimized by using suitable control measures.
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Safety culture is a set of beliefs, norms, incentives, social and technical roles and functions that make the core of the safety management system. The aim of this study was to examine factors affecting safety culture and its relationship to accidents in the oil depots. This cross- sectional study was conducted in 2016. Overall, 300 employees of 3 oil depots in Tehran Province were selected. About 150 of selected people had not accident in the last 3 yr and 150 of them were injured in the last 3 yr. A questionnaire consisting of 61 questions was used to evaluate the safety culture and effective factors on it. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software ver. 19. The mean of the age, work experience, and safety culture scores were 32.07 yr, 7 yr and 185.8, respectively. There was a significant relationship between safety culture and accidents so that the percentage of positive safety culture among people with a history of accidents (72.6%) was more than percentage of individuals without a history of accidents (39.3%). The age, work experience, education and marital status variables had no significant relationship with safety culture. Among the aspects of safety culture, the management commitment had the highest score and the safety priorities had the lowest score. The percentage of people with negative safety culture in the oil depots and safety culture had a significant positive correlation with the accidents.
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Workplace violence is frequent in medical specialty training setting in Iran. Therefore, development and implementation of workplace violence prevention guideline in this setting is a necessity. Workplace violence has become an issue of increasing concern. Residents are often the first physician that patients will meet them. We conducted this study to evaluate workplace violence against medical residents in Iran. In a cross-sectional questionnaire-based study, we asked 1107 medical residents about violence exposure during past 12 months. Overall, 892 of residents (2010-2011) participated in our study (response rate = 80.6%). Prevalence of experience of psychological and physical violence at work was obtained 63.7% and 19.7%, respectively. Sex, residency program, managerial support and year of education had independent effect on violence at work. Our results showed high frequency of violence at work against Iranian medical residents and indicated importance of development and implementation of workplace violence prevention guideline in medical specialty training setting in Iran.
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The negative consequences of shift work on workers’ health and safety increasingly ignored. The major effects include health effects and effects on quantity of sleep, alertness, life satisfaction, and job performance. The aims of this study were to investigate the relationships between shift work and related health effects and shift work and workers' satisfaction in workers of mining industry located in south-west of Iran. All workers of the mining industry were enrolled in this cross-sectional study in 2013. Data were collected by survey of shift workers (SOS) questionnaire. Subjects were divided into case and control groups. The case group included 155 workers employed in shift work schedule and the control group included 104 workers employed in regular day shifts. SOS questionnaire includes questions about demographic features of workers, shift system, health effects of shift work, and the effect of shift work on workers' life satisfaction. Comparisons between the two groups were performed using the chi-square and t-test. The effects of shift work on sleep disorder (P=0.001), tiredness related to shift work (P=0.001), and workers' personal (P=0.003) and family (P=0.005) life satisfaction were significant. The result of chi-square test indicated that workers in the shift work system spent fewer hours with their families (P=0.05) compared with day workers. Comparisons of findings between the shift workers and day workers in study mining industry revealed that shift work is a risk factor for a number of health effects in shift workers. Workers' personal and family life satisfaction has been affected by shift work.
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Validity of Thermal Comfort Indices Based on Human Physiological Responses in Typical Open Pit Mines
Working in hot environments is one of the common hazards in the workplaces, which can cause heat-related illnesses, affect workers’ health and increase a risk of occupational injuries and accidents. The aim of this study was to assess and compare thermal comfort indices of humidex, Discomfort Index (DI), and ET with physiological responses in the open-pit mines in Tehran Province, Iran. This cross-sectional study was conducted in summer 2016 on 175 male workers in 12 construction materials mines in Tehran Province, Iran. Environmental and physiological parameters were measured simultaneously at three periods and thermal indices were determined as well. In this study, correlation coefficients of indices at different times of day were analyzed. Data were analyzed using SPSS 18 software and Pearson correlation. There was high correlation between thermal comfort indices with each other. All three indices used in this study had an appropriate relationship with core body temperature. Oral temperature had a greater correlation coefficient with thermal indices compared to the tympanic membrane temperature and skin temperature. Humidex had a high correlation coefficient with environmental parameters and physiological responses. The Humidex index is more valid than ET and DI indices. Humidex, among the studied indices, despite being simple, lack of need for sophisticated equipment to measure, low cost and easy interpretation can be used in open-pit mining.
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Harmful physical factors of workplace including lighting may affect the cognitive performance of human. Therefore, tests of job skill assessment (BATTERY method) were used to conduct this study under experimental condition, with the aim of determining the effect of lighting on the accuracy and pace of working in men. This experimental study was conducted on 29 male students in the climatic chamber under the conditions of mild weather (40% relative humidity and dry bulb temperature of 20 °C) in the laboratory of the School of Public Health, Isfahan, Iran in 2016. Participants took a rest for 10 to 15 min. Then they carried out all tests of job skill assessment (BATTERY method) in 0, 40, 80, and 120 min after beginning. The number of errors (accuracy assessment) and the duration of the test (pace assessment) were recorded. There was a significant difference in the mean values of accuracy and pace in exposure to different intensities of lighting (200, 500, 800, 1500 lux) while carrying out the job skill assessment tests (P<0.001). An increase in the intensity of lighting may enhance people’s performance and limit unsafe behaviors by increasing the accuracy and pace of working while conducting cognitive activities.
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The incidence of occupational stress in midwives may lead to increase in the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and decreased work efficiency and quality of care. This study was conducted to determine the rate of MSDs in different body parts and its relation with stress in midwives. This was a cross-sectional (descriptive and analytical) study. The population under study was midwives working in governmental and private hospitals in Nayshabur, Khorasan Razavi Province, Iran, in 2015. All eligible midwives (78 women) entered the study. The standard Nordic Questionnaire and the Altmaier occupational stress questionnaire were used. Data was analyzed by descriptive statistics, correlation, t-test and chi-square. In this population, 67.6% had at least one musculoskeletal disorder. The highest prevalence in the last year was in the shoulder region with 44% and the lowest prevalence was in the elbow (8%). Furthermore, 54% of the midwives had average and 46% had severe occupational stress. There was a significant association between MSDs in some body parts and midwives occupational stress (P<0.05). Both MSDs and occupational stress are prevalent among midwives and they are associated with each other.
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Bank employees, due to the nature of their work experience have high levels of job stress. One of the outcomes of stress is its impact on job performance. This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between the psychosocial stressors and job performance among bank employees in one of the banking centers of the state. This cross-sectional study was conducted among bank employees of west Azerbaijan; 2014. All bank employees participated in this study. The general Nordic questionnaire (QPS Nordic) and human resource productivity questionnaire were used for data collection. The correlation coefficient and regression models were used to examine the relationship between job stress and their scales as an independent variable and performance as a dependent variable. In order to analyze further, structural equation models were used. The results suggested that prevalence of stress among bank employees was in average level (46.6%). There was negative and significant relationship between stress in "task", "social and organizational" levels and job performance. Among the scales of social and organizational levels, the two scales of organizational culture and leadership revealed negative and significant relationships with job performance (P<0.01). A socio-organizational domain can be considered as the main cause of loss of productivity. Hence, measures were suggested towards making further attempts to control the psychosocial factors in workplaces and avoid performance deterioration, particularly in organizational culture and leadership.
