• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.141-150
• /
• 2019

Background: Evidence on associations between occupational diesel exhaust and gasoline exposure and colorectal cancer is limited. We aimed to assess the effect of workplace exposure to diesel exhaust and gasoline on the risk of colorectal cancer. Methods: This case-control study included 181,709 colon cancer and 109,227 rectal cancer cases diagnosed between 1961 and 2005 in Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Cases and controls were identified from the Nordic Occupational Cancer Study cohort and matched for country, birth year, and sex. Diesel exhaust and gasoline exposure values were assigned by country-specific job-exposure matrices. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated by using conditional logistic regression models. The results were adjusted for physical strain at work and occupational exposure to benzene, formaldehyde, ionizing radiation, chlorinated hydrocarbons, chromium, and wood dust. Results: Diesel exhaust exposure was associated with a small increase in the risk of rectal cancer (odds ratio - 1.05, 95% confidence interval 1.02-1.08). Gasoline exposure was not associated with colorectal cancer risk. Conclusion: This study showed a small risk increase for rectal cancer after workplace diesel exhaust exposure. However, this finding could be due to chance, given the limitations of the study.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.408-415
• /
• 2018

Background: Nursing home resident care is an ongoing topic of public discussion, and there is great interest in improving the quality of resident care. This study investigated the association between nursing home employees' job satisfaction and residents' satisfaction with care and medical outcomes. Methods: Employee and resident satisfaction were measured by questionnaire in 175 skilled nursing facilities in the eastern United States from 2005 to 2009. Facility-level data on residents' pressure ulcers, medically unexplained weight loss, and falls were obtained from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Long-Term Care Minimum Data Set. The association between employee satisfaction and resident satisfaction was examined with multiple and multilevel linear regression. Associations between employee satisfaction and the rates of pressure ulcers, weight loss, and falls were examined with simple and multilevel Poisson regression. Results: A 1-point increase in overall employee satisfaction was associated with an increase of 17.4 points (scale 0-100) in the satisfaction of residents and family members (p < 0.0001) and a 19% decrease in the incidence of resident falls, weight loss, and pressure ulcers combined (p < 0.0001), after adjusting for staffing ratio and percentage of resident-days paid by Medicaid. Conclusion: Job satisfaction of nursing home employees is associated with lower rates of resident injuries and higher resident satisfaction with care. A supportive work environment may help increase quality of care in the nation's nursing homes.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.225-229
• /
• 2021

Background: The socioeconomic burden of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) is significant, and kitchen work is a high-risk occupation for MSDs due to the intensive manual workload and repetitive movements that are involved. However, there are very few studies on MSDs and rest breaks as a workplace intervention among kitchen workers. This study examined the relationship between insufficient rest breaks and increased MSD risk among Korean kitchen workers. Methods: Sociodemographic and occupational factors of 1,909 kitchen workers were collected from the 3rd-4th Korean Working Conditions Survey data. Five items on rest breaks at work were categorized into two groups, "sufficient" and "insufficient." The number of MSDs and work-related MSDs (WMSDs), an outcome variable, was obtained from the sum of MSDs/WMSDs in three anatomical sites (back, neck, and upper limb, lower limb). The association between rest breaks and MSDs was estimated using zeroinflated negative binomial analyses, with adjustments for age, education level, and weekly working hours, and the analyses were stratified by sex. Results: After adjustment, significant associations were found between insufficient rest breaks and an increased risk of MSDs (odds ratio [OR] 1.68 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.11-2.54) and WMSDs (OR 1.40 95% CI 1.01-1.96) among female kitchen workers. Insufficient rest breaks were significantly associated with MSDs in female kitchen workers in all three anatomical sites. Conclusion: This study emphasizes the need for rest breaks as a workplace intervention for preventing MSDs in kitchen workers. Further studies to reveal the causality of this relationship are required.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
• /
• v.44 no.2
• /
• pp.78-84
• /
• 2021

In addition to physical risks such as electrical, chemical, and mechanic ones in the workplace, psychosocial risks are also raising as an important issue in recent years in connection with human rights and work-life balance policies. The purpose of this study is to confirm the degree of effect of the psychosocial risk management plan at the workplace on workers through logistic regression analysis. Input data for logistic regression analysis is the results of a survey of 4,558 people conducted by the Institute for Occupational Safety and Health were used. There are 9 independent variables, including the change a workplace and confidential counseling, and the dependent variable is whether the worker feels the effect on the psychosocial risk management plan. As a result of this study, changes in work organization, dispute resolution procedures, provision of education program, notification of the impact of psychosocial risks on safety and health, and the persons in charge of solving psychosocial problems are shown effective in reducing worker's psychosocial risks. This study drives which of the management plans implemented to reduce the psychosocial risk of workers in the workplace are effective, so it can contribute to the development of psychosocial risk management plans in the future.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.96-101
• /
• 2024

Background: Silicosis among workers who fabricate engineered stone products in micro or small-sized enterprises (MSEs) was reported from several countries. Workplace exposure data of these workers at high risk of exposure to respirable crystalline silica (RCS) dust are limited. Methods: We surveyed workers performing cutting, shaping and polishing tasks at 6 engineered stone fabricating MSEs in Sydney, Australia prior to regulatory intervention. Personal exposure to airborne RCS dust in 34 workers was measured, work practices were observed using a checklist and worker demography recorded. Results: Personal respirable dust measurements showed exposures above the Australian workplace exposure standard (WES) of 0.1 mg/m³ TWA-8 hours for RCS in 85% of workers who performed dry tasks and amongst 71% using water-fed tools. Dust exposure controls were inadequate with ineffective ventilation and inappropriate respiratory protection. All 34 workers sampled were identified as overseas-born migrants, mostly from three linguistic groups. Conclusions: Workplace exposure data from this survey showed that workers in engineered stone fabricating MSEs were exposed to RCS dust levels which may be associated with a high risk of developing silicosis. The survey findings were useful to inform a comprehensive regulatory intervention program involving diverse hazard communication tools and enforcing improved exposure controls. We conclude that modest occupational hygiene surveys in MSEs, with attention to workers' demographic factors can influence the effectiveness of intervention programs. Occupational health practitioners should address these potential determinants of hazardous exposures in their workplace surveys to prevent illness such as silicosis in vulnerable workers.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.358-367
• /
• 2023

Background: This study aimed to develop and assess the psychometric features of the Physical Activity at Workplace Questionnaire (PAWPQ) based on the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) to evaluate employees' physical activity (PA) behaviors at the workplace. Methods: This psychometric cross-sectional study was conducted on 455 employees working in one of the gas refineries in Iran. The participants were selected using the proportional stratified sampling method in 2019. The data collection tools were a demographic information questionnaire, the short form of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), and a questionnaire developed based on the SCT, whose psychometric features were confirmed in terms of validity and reliability. Data were analyzed using SPSS₂₂ and AMOS₂₀ software. Results: The first version of PAWPQ-SCT had 74 items. After evaluating content and face validity, nine items were removed. The results of the content validity index (0.98), content validity ratio (0.86), and impact score (3.62) were acceptable for the whole instrument. In exploratory factor analysis, after removing seven items-58-item final version of the scale-six factors could explain 73.54% of the total variance. The results of structural equation modeling showed the acceptable fit of the model into the data (RMSEA = 0.052, CFI = 0.917, NFI = 0.878, TLI = 0.905, IFI = 0.917, CMIN/DF = 2.818). Cronbach's alpha coefficient and Intraclass Correlation were 0.90 and 0.86, respectively. Conclusion: This study confirmed that the psychometric features of the 58-item final version of PAWPQSCT constructs were acceptable in a sample of Iranian employees. This questionnaire can be used as a valid and reliable tool to evaluate Iranian employees' PA behaviors and develop effective educational interventions for workers and managers.

• Asia-pacific Journal of Multimedia Services Convergent with Art, Humanities, and Sociology
• /
• v.9 no.10
• /
• pp.797-808
• /
• 2019

In a closed workplace, the management of the workplace is important because the environmental data at the workplace has a great influence on the safety of workers. Today's industrial sites are transformed into data-based factories that collect and analyze data through sensors in those sites, requiring a management system to ensure safety. In general, a safety management system stores and manages data on a central server associated with a database. Since such management system introduces high possibility of forgery and loss of data, workers often suspect the reliability of the information on the management system. In this paper, we present a worker safety management system based on the EOS blockchain which is considered as third-generation blockchain technology. The developed system consists of a set of smart contracts on the EOS blockchain and 3 decentralized applications associated with the blockchain. According to the roles of users, the worker and manager applications respectively perform the process of initiating or terminating tasks as blockchain transactions. The entire transaction history is distributed and stored in all nodes participating in the blockchain network, so forgery and loss of data is practically impossible. The system administrator application assigns the account rights of workers and managers appropriate for performing the functions, and specifies the safety standards of IoT data for ensuring workplace safety. The IoT data received from sensor platforms in workplaces and the information on initiation, termination or approval of tasks assigned to workers, are explicitly stored and managed in the EOS smart contracts.

• Proceedings of the Safety Management and Science Conference
• /
• 2006.04a
• /
• pp.1-8
• /
• 2006

By the effect of globalism and information the workplace environment is complicated and diversified little by little. The job stress due to the life style, the idea and culture, and the automated facility system etc. is to a tendency which compared to increase more. It will not be able to prevent a industrial accident basically because the oriental and western life style is different. Therefore this paper presents the Korean life change unit model through statistical testing in order to minimize industrial accident with the proposed life change unit factors on the workers living In the middle area. Finally, the analytical result of this paper can be easily used in order to minimize the industrial accidents by the job stress with the worker and the occupational safety & health manager in real fields.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.244-247
• /
• 2020

The occurrence of the shift work disorder (SWD) in health-care workers (HCWs) employed in 24/7 hospital wards is a major concern through the world. In accordance with literature, SWD is the most frequent work-related disturb in HCWs working on shift schedules including night shift. In agreement with the Luxembourg Declaration on workplace health promotion (WHP) in the European Union, a WHP program has been developed in a large Hospital, involving both individual-oriented and organizational-oriented measures, with the aim to prevent the occurrence of SWD in nurses working on shifts including night shift. The objective assessment of rotating shift work risk and the excessive sleepiness were detected before and after the implementation of the WHP program, by using the Rotating Shiftwork-questionnaire and the Epworth Sleepiness Scale. The findings of this study showed the effectiveness of the implemented WHP program in minimizing the impact of shift work on workers' health and in preventing the misalignment between sleep-wake rhythm and shift working.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.47-54
• /
• 2016

A confined space means places where the risk of damage to health caused by lack of oxygen or hazardous gases in inadequate ventilation conditions and the risk of fire and explosion caused by flammable substances. Asphyxiation accidents in a confined space occured every year and also occurred more than two people at the same time. In this study, we surveyed the domestic statistical data occurred the lack of oxygen in confined space for the last 10 years(2006-2015) and, analyzed the accident by industries sector, workplace size etc. 17 fatal work accidents that occurred in confined spaces in Korea between 2013 and 2015 were investigated and analyzed using the database of the KOSHA and suggested interventions to minimize asphyxiation accidents in confined spaces. This paper is expected to be used to establish interventions planning and training as a preventive measures in workplace having confined spaces.