International Journal of Occupational Hygiene
Volume:11 Issue: 1, Mar 2019

Grip and pinch strength are the most important factors affecting the hand’s performance. This study was aimed to evaluate the relationship between maximum aerobic capacity (Vo2max) and to rate the perceived exertion (RPE) with grip, pinch strength and endurance and their impact on these factors.


 This cross-sectional study was performed on 83 male students and office workers through simple random sampling. The Step test, Borg scale, dynamometer, and pinch gauge were used to assess the Vo2max, RPE, grip strength, pinch strength, and endurance, respectively.


 The findings of this study indicated that there are direct relationships between the Vo2max with grip strength and endurance, and between BMI with pinch strength and endurance. On the other hand, there is an indirect relationship between RPE with grip strength, pinch strength and Vo2max. There was no relationship between RPE with grip and pinch endurance. It was also found that there are direct relationships between BMI with grip and pinch strength, pinch endurance, and Vo2max. Finally, no relationships were observed between the BMI and grip endurance. It was found that Vo2max had no effect on the grip strength, pinch strength, and pinch endurance, but it influenced the grip endurance.

Firefighters are more facing to stressful situation than many other occupations. The purpose of this study was to investigate the way of firefighters’ respond to occupational stress, and to create a theoretical model for this response regarding the Iranian culture. In this qualitative study, grounded theory with a Glaser approach was applied. A purposeful sampling method was carried out on 28 firefighters at one of the major firehouses in Tehran. After collecting the data and identifying the pattern, the final result was re-backed to participants to redesign a pattern with minor refinements. The results showed that firefighters experience both stress and post-traumatic growth. These two phenomena compete with each other and the outcomes that the individual experiences are the result of this competition. When an individual selects a passive reaction, post-traumatic stress will be overcome, and post-traumatic growth will be prevailing when he tries to change the situations and negative emotions effortful. Interpersonal, cultural and organizational factors play an important role in overcoming stress or post-traumatic growth in firefighters. By designing interventions, this group can be guided to personal growth

This study was aimed to investigate the interrelations among shift work, job stress, job satisfaction, and health at Shazand Petrochemical Company in Iran. The current research was carried out in two phases. The influencing and influenced variables and specified their priorities as per level of influence were identified in the first phase. An integrated Fuzzy-DEMATEL method was applied to analyze this study. A multiple regression method was used to determine the significance of the variables in the second phase. The results of this study indicated that the shift work was the most effective variable in health. Whereas, job satisfaction and job stress were in the second and third places, respectively. The multiple regression analysis was confirmed that the results of the fuzzy-DEMATEL regarding shift work, job stress, and job satisfaction significantly affect employees’ health. It can be concluded that shift working, where night shifts included, would have negative impact on health. This finding emphasized the importance of shift work as a major challenge in industrial workplaces.

Industrial accidents that have occurred in oil and gas industries have always created trouble for these industries’ workers. The pre-startup and start-up of refineries accidents are one of the most critical challenges in this area. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the Pre-Startup Safety Review (PSSR) process and its compliance assessment. This descriptive-analytical study was carried out in a gas refinery in 2018. The study tools included the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Guideline and the PSSR executive method in a gas refinery. Data analysis was performed via SPSS software version 22.0. The significance level in this study was considered 0.05. The results showed that the highest and lowest compliances were related to the accident management and emergency response (65%), readiness for assignment (12%). Also, the frequency rate of accidents showed a significant difference (p<0.001) between refineries which was performing PSSR and did not do this process. The findings indicated that PSSR implementation can play a significant role in controlling and reducing accidents, as well as stopping and interrupting process operations. Besides, PSSR checklist details more accurately implementation, helps the process of pre-startup safety review to be controlled better and be more productive.

Smartphones are one of the latest technologies which have a profound impact on users’ daily life. This technology was adapted to meet the expectations of users in different age’s groups, but elderly users may encounter some difficulty while using these devices. The current study was aimed to evaluate the usability of smartphones for elderly users, and assess their level of satisfaction with these devices. The number of 30 elderly subjects with previous experience of using a smartphone were invited to take part in the study. Participants were asked to unlock the phone, enter their contact list and call a specific person, add a new number to their contact list and save it, compose a text message and send it, set an alarm, and locate the nearest bank with the help of a smartphone map application. Demographic questionnaires and System Usability Scale (SUS) were filled out by the subjects and a Visual Analog Scale (VAS) was used to assess user’s satisfaction. The average time spent on completing different tasks, namely unlocking, finding a specific contact, adding a new number, texting, setting an alarm, and using a map were: 45.6, 79.4, 119.5, 113.5, 54, and 48 seconds ,respectively. The mean score for SUS and satisfaction were 59.13 and 62.5, respectively, which were acceptable for these two factors. Age is an important factor in the usability of this technology, with older people stating lower levels of usability. Since the results of the study showed that smartphones need to become more usable for this group of users, it can be said that age of consumers is an important factor that should be taken into account when designing new technologies.

An accurate assessment of performance of Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) system allows managers to identify strengths and weaknesses in the HSE system. This paper mainly was aimed to assess the performance of HSE management system using Fuzzy Data Envelopment Analysis (FDEA) model in the smelting industry. The indices of performance evaluation of process HSE management systems of smelting industries were weighted and ranked by Fuzzy System. Then, based on the weights of performance indices and data collected in the case study, performance was evaluated via DEA. The FDEA model was solved using a network model with constant returns to scale. According to the results, environment was the most important index of efficiency. Number of HSE Expert (0.16) and annual HSE Budget per employee (0.17) were the most important input indices in HSE performance system. Ergonomic risk control (0.08), Fire source control (0.08), and waste water quality (0.08) were the most important output indices in HSE performance system, respectively. The different performance criteria or safety performance with varying levels of significance can be used in each step of the assessment process. Budget of HSE was ranked the most important of HSE performance input indicators. This index affects other input indicators. Risk control in the three areas of safety, health, and the environment was one of the most important indicators of performance appraisal output. To evaluate systems safety, a performance evaluation system based on multiple inputs and multi-outputs was more applicable than other systems.

Because, today, the world is suffered from chronic diseases which their etiologies are chemical and psychosocial hazards. Among them, the cancer and respiratory problems are the common which challenges of both developed and developing countries. Majority of its exposures are workplace. These challenges are very common in developing countries like Ethiopia. Similarly, the main objectives of this was to explore the prevalence of the occupational exposures in Ethiopia. Systematic review was applied to search scientific articles based on keywords, titles, and other searching strategies. All searching engines were applied like PubMed, web of science, Scopus, embase and google scholar. Eligibility criteria was conducted based on the exclusion and inclusion rules. Occupational exposure in Ethiopia is very vast and complicated since its sources are not quietly addressed whereas occupational health services at workplace is infant stage. The literatures review conducted also revealed that occupational exposures to variety of the hazards were highly prevalent in occupational respiratory symptoms followed by needle stick and sharp materials injuries, especially for health care workers. The occupational dust exposures are significantly happened in both cement and coffee processing factories. The researches related to occupational lead and pesticides exposures are almost none, which needs attention in the next research gaps. Occupational exposure with radon at workplace was associated with a 2.62% increase (95% CI 2.52%; 2.73%) in mortality, independent of PM2.5 exposure which large mortality risks were observed among individuals from respiratory, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases which has highest association with others health problems. Preliminary assessment and environmental cleaning with appropriate protective device might be decreased the exposure. According to this review analysis, the occupational exposure with respiratory symptom was prevalence (85%) in cement factories followed by 78% in coffee processing factory. There was no intervention taken by the reviewers to indicate the reducing level of the exposure. However, as were recommended by the original researchers of those reviewed articles, wearing of protective devices and conditioning of the working environments can be reduce the exposure level of the workers at workplace. Pre intervention to workplace hazards is very important to minimize the exposure level at workplace and to reduce the cost of treatments. From these results point of view, conditioning(ventilating) the workplace, providing protective devices and designing appropriate engineering controls to minimizing the exposures  levels are  the key  factors to reduce medical costs.