pISSN: 2008-5109
eISSN: 2008-5435
Editor-in-Chief:
Mohammadreza Monazzam Esmaeilpour, PhD.
Vol 9 No 4 (2017)
Published:
2017-10-09
Original Article(s)
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Samen district is located in the city of Mashhad, Khorasan Razavi Province, Iran and is most famous for housing the shrine of Imam Reza. Every year, 32 million pilgrims visit the Imam Reza shrine from inside and outside the country. The question of noise pollution in this district, has been neglected compared to other forms of pollution. We investigated noise pollution using Geographic Information System (GIS) in this district. Equivalent sound level, sound pressure level, noise pollution level and traffic noise index, were measured in the summer and fall of 2016. The measurements were done using EPA guidelines and were analyzed. GIS was employed to prepare the zoning map of the measured equivalent sound level and maximum sound level. The values of equivalent sound level at all of the measured stations exceeded the noise pollution guidelines suggested by Iranian Environmental Protection Organization. The value of this parameter for 87.5% of stations was 75 dB in summer. The noise pollution level value in 78% stations was higher than 82 dB in summer, and the value of this parameter in fall for 75% stations was higher than 79 dB. This area is suffering from a high degree of noise pollution. Noise maps due to being able to detect peoples’ habits of moving around the different parts of the city and at different times could facilitate computer-assisted control of the urban traffic.
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This cross-sectional descriptive study conducted with 114 municipal solid waste workers. They were recruited from workers who worked on 5 sanitary landfill areas in southern Thailand, between January and May 2017. Information was collected via a questionnaire. Data analysis comprised of descriptive and analytical components. The health problems noted with the study group over the period were musculoskeletal problems (65.8%), skin problems (58.8%), respiratory disease (47.4%), nail problems (45.6%), gastrointestinal problems (42.1%), and eye problems (20.2%). General characteristics, work type characteristics, the use of PPE, and the personal hygiene behavior of municipal solid waste workers were significantly associated with adverse health effects among these workers at P<0.05. There appears to be a strong correlation between waste disposal work and some health problems. The prevention and reduction of adverse health effects among municipal solid waste workers should include improving their education on how to reduce health risks while working.
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Human errors are considered as one of the main causes of incidents in the field of health care.it is very important to predict errors and identify the factors causing them. Chemotherapy ward is considered as one of the most dangerous working environment, where errors can cause severe damages in patients, psychological trauma in the service-provider cadre, declining credit and legal consequences. Since there is no study in this regard and according to the high number of chemotherapists in Iran, the present study was performed to identify and assess physician and nurse’errors during chemotherapy process, and to determine the corresponding risk and safety principles. A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in chemotherapy ward at Imam Reza hospital in Kermanshah. Different activities were carried out in this study, including: review literature, examining statistics and scientific resources, interviewing with physicians and nurses in chemotherapy, training the aim and research methodology, studying the instructions of chemotherapy, and monitoring activities and measures. Tasks were analyzed by (HTA) method, then errors were identified by SHERPA instruction, and their risks were evaluated, finally, appropriate control measures were presented to reduce the risks of errors. A total of 459 errors were identified among the 122 task, 10.46 percent of errors were unacceptable, and 42.11 percent were undesirable. Most of the errors were functional, and the fewest were retrieval. These errors occurred for some reasons including: lack of doctors and nurses in relation to the large number of patients, lack of comprehensive guidelines, lack of cooperation between doctors, lack of proper training. According to the results and assessment of obtained risks, functional errors should be prioritized to control and reduce errors, which is possible through the development of guidelines and training courses, the careful monitoring of supervisors and frequent checkup, registering errors and disclosing.
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Maximal Aerobic Capacity (VO2-max) is an indicator of the preparedness of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems and a tool to estimate the physiological fitness of individuals for their work. This study aimed to measure the VO2-max and Physical Work Capacity (PWC) of workers at a metal industry and the factors affecting it using a single-stage step test. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 60 workers in a metal industry in Tehran, in 2017. Data collection tools were a questionnaire including separate sections asking about demographic and anthropometric (height, weight, and BMI) characteristics. Quantitative variables were recorded after being measured. The Tuxworth and Shahnawaz method and step test were used in order to estimate VO2-max and PWC. Data were analyzed using SPSS 22. The relative humidity of the place was 40% and local air pressure was 879 atmospheres. The average VO2-maxand average maximum PWC of the study population were 3.13±0.283L/min and 15.65±1.41 kcal/min, respectively. There was a significant relationship between VO2-maxusingsingle-stage step test and BMI (P=0.01), number of hours of exercise per week (P=0.009) and age (P=0.01). The step test is a rapid, easy and low-cost method to estimate physiological adaptation and PWC of individuals. Variables such asage, hours of exercise per week and BMI are effective on aerobic capacity.
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At present, metals are used in many industries and working places so the consequence use and exposure to toxic metals is some human health risks. In order to protect the exposed people to these metals, identification of toxic metals in biological samples can be an effective strategy in the controlling of people's health. In the present research, ultrasound-assisted emulsification with solidification of floating organic droplet microextraction procedure (USAE-SFODME) combined with atomic absorption spectroscopy was used for pre-concentration and determination trace amount of iron (III) from water and urine matrices. This research consisted of preparation of samples containing iron (III), iron extraction and analysis with flame atomic absorption spectroscopy equipped with iron hollow cathode lamp with analysis wavelength of 248.33 nanometers. Optimization of the extraction conditions was carried out for ligand volume, solvent volume, temperature, sonication time and pH. Detection of limit (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were respectively 0.378 and 1.147 μg mL-1 in this research. The proposed method in pre-concentration and analysis trace amount of iron in aquatic samples can be established as a successful method. One of the important advantages of this approach reduces the operator exposure to toxic substances.
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The successful implementation of the preventive interventions and corrective actions are considerably dependent on the existence of a sound system for incidents record keeping and analyzing. This study evaluated the adequacy of injury and illness report forms and resolved the found limitations to improve the safety management systems in general. A structural surfing method was employed to search the intended information. All obtained information forms of the foreign countries that conveyed less information than to the base form were excluded from the study. Accordingly, five forms remained in the research path. Overall structure of all forms was compared to three sections. In aforementioned forms, 12% of total information belonged to the workplace and employer information section, 55% and 33% was in the incident information and injured worker information sections, respectively. Iran's Social Security Form (ISSF) has 60% of all listed entries for workplace and employer information section. About 40% of all other information entries for this section are missed. This form contained 60% of the workplace information section, 28% for accident information and 54% for injured person information. Accident condition section for ISSF is nearly complete. ISSF lacks some necessary information in the recording of outcomes of accident and medical treatment information. Finally, we suggested a revised form presented based on the strengths and weaknesses of all forms. This form proposed to will be used in a pilot study in fields for reporting occupational accidents and then be legally present for implementation.
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Control room is the heart of each system in which even a minor error can result in irrecoverable consequences. The purpose of this study was to determine the Probable Control Modes (PCMs) and Cognitive Failure Probability (CFP), and also build a Cognitive Demands Profile (CDP) in a petrochemical control room, using Cognitive Reliability and Error Analysis technique (CREAM). First, tasks of Boardman (B.M), Shift Control (S.C), and Head Control (H.C) in control room were analyzed, applying hierarchical task analysis. Following, PCM, CFP and CDP were determined for the analyzed tasks. According the results, control modes for the tasks of B.M and S.C were determined as opportunistic; while for H.C tasks it was obtained as tactical. Of the all error types, execution failure (48.57%), interpretation failure (18.57%), planning failure (15.71%), and observation failure (17.15%) were identified. The most important CDPs were communicated, monitor, execute, plan, diagnose, evaluate, co-ordinate, verity, record, and scan. Based on the findings, number of simultaneous goals, time of day and adequacy of training and experience in the study field were the Common Performance Conditions that led to reduction of performance reliability. These factors contributed to the opportunistic control mode. In order to prevent or reduce cognitive errors in the control room, we need to know the exact type of cognitive activities, and develop a comprehensive program to increase the knowledge and skills for performing the cognitive activities.
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The city environment has a crucial role in mental and social health promotion. Improvement of quality of the cityenvironment depends on the promotion of the hard and soft infrastructures in the urban area. However, addressing soft infrastructures in urban spaces design is often neglected, because the factors shaping it are non-physical inmany cases. This study aimed to study life-giving events as one of the soft infrastructures that improving qualityof life in built environment. The main question of this research was as follows: what are the effective factors information of life-giving events. In this regard, the qualitative analysis has been selected in order to analyzedifferent levels of life manifestation in space by studying theorists’ visions on the subject of life, which providethe basis for shaping the lived space. Then, observation-gathering method has been used in order to identifyvarious aspects of life-giving cultural events, by selecting number of life-giving cultural events of Tehran asaccessible population sampling. The results show that these events involve different levels of life—structural,functional, semantic-conceptual, and livable life—in a form of a system. In addition, the results indicate certainfactors in defining this category of events including: “features,” “capabilities,” and “providing the possibilities”which create the basis for reproducing life-giving events under similar conditions.
