Archives Of Occupational Health
Volume:2 Issue: 4, Oct 2018

The last strategy to protect workers' hearing against load noises is use of hearing protection devices. The efficiency of wearing headphone depends on its full time application. After education, we need to evaluate the efficiency of the conducted training course. One of the most important factors affecting a valid assessment is existence of an appropriate questionnaire
to evaluate the course properly. In order to standardize and investiagte the validity of the researcher-made questionnaire, 12 experts were asked to review it. To determine the questionnaire's validity, we used the face validity and content validity. In order to determine the quantitative content validity, we applied the content validity ratio (CVR) and content validity index (CVI). Then, reliability of the questionnaire was investigated by Alpha-Cronbach method. We designed 30 questions as the questionaire's items, containing five demographic questions, 10 response questions, four content questions, four learning questions, four behavior evaluation questions, and seven questions about the outcomes. In experts' content evaluation, questions with CVR of higher than 0.56 were selected; while, the CVI of the remaining questions was 0.91. The overall reliability of the research tool was 0.83 using the internal consistency. This study provided a valid and reliable questionnaire for assessing the Kirkpatrick model. This questionnaire can be used as an appropriate tool to evaluate the training courses in accordance with the BASNEF model to increase the duration of using headphones by workers.

Process industries are very complex and defective, therefore they are prone to crisis. An industrial crisis is an event with a low likelihood of occurrence but severe consequences that threatens the survival of an organization .It is described by the cause or the reasons of ambiguous and unknown solutions. It is also believed that the decisions should be made as soon as possible and not under pressure from time to time. This study was aimed to analyze and to value factors affecting industrial crisis management in the process industries through fuzzy AHP. This study was conducted in Tehran in 1397. Following a library study and the use of experts, a comprehensive and suitable model for managing the industrial crises was selected. A paired comparison questionnaire was developed to allow the experts to compare the elements two by two and to express the relative superiority of one to the other. Finally, by using the fuzzy hierarchy analysis method, the importance of this criteria and sub-criteriafor crisis management was identified. The results, compared with other factors in the research, showed that the crisis prevention factor had the highest relative weight (6 3/0). After this factors, disaster preparedness (22/0), crisis management (1 2/0), and post-crisis management (03/0) had the highest importance. “Risk management”, "training, simulation", "identity crisis" and "assessing, correcting" were respectively the most important sub-criteria for each phases of crisis management. The present study showed that crisis prevention was the most important criterion for the effective management of industrial crises and" rapid alert inspection", "risk management" and "response to emergency conditions " were considered to be the sub-criteria. So, in order to effectively manage the industrial crisis, the managers and investors need to pay most attention to the risk management sub-criteria (the most important sub-criteria was to prevent a crisis with relative weights 4- 4/0 compared with other sub-criteria of this factor).

Construction activities are dicey businesses such that the existing peril not only threatens the person's safety, but also has health impacts. Inappropriate work postures, vibration and prolonged standing from using physical workload resources are known to cause musculoskeletal disorders among construction workers. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the physical posture of construction workers using key indicator method. In this descriptive-analytical study, 150 construction workers were assessed in Bojnourd city. They included reinforcement workers, plasterers, tile installers, stoneworkers and painters. Thirty individuals from each of these professions were evaluated. This study was conducted using simple randomized sampling and in-person sessions. The prevalence of musculoskeletal discomfort was evaluated using Nordic questionnaire while working postures was assessed using KIM. Data was analyzed by chi-square. with SPSS19 software (P-Value =0.05). The mean age of the workers was 29.28 (6.329), the average working experience was 4.91 ( 5.574) years and the mean duration of work was 6.34 (1.16). The Min and Max scores for workers' postural work were 18 and 64, respectively; and the average final score was 40.59 (11.941). There was no significant difference in terms of the relationship between the final score with age and work experience. However, a significant difference was observed in relation to the duration of the work and the type of task. The average final score for the reinforcement workers, stone workers, plasterer, painter and tile installer was 50.67 (8.227), 47.6(6.29), 45 (6.052), 5.188 (38), and 21.7 (3.12), respectively. Musculoskeletal disorders are frequent in construction workers. Consequently, appropriate measures should be taken to reduce musculoskeletal disorders among construction workers. These measures include provision of ergonomic guidelines in the design of work stations, tools and training of workers in the field on correct lifting techniques.

Bakery workers due to the nature of their job are at risk of musculoskeletal disorders caused by ergonomic factors. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the biomechanical risk factors for musculoskeletal disorders in bakery workers. In this study, all tasks of baking Sangak, Taftoon and Lavash in the bakeries in Gonabad were selected based on census method, and, Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA) method was used for task analysis and job was degraded to tasks, actions and movements., LUBA and OCRA method was implemented to identify common risk factors in repetitive tasks that can contribute to develop musculoskeletal disorders of upper limbs. Finally, the results were analyzed using SPSS 17. According to the results of this study, the score of OCRA index for employees as Chanegir (a person who makes dough balls) and baker investigated in 3 types of bakery was more than 4(red area). In general, LUBA score was obtained more than 10 for the 83.33% of workers in Tafton bakeries, 100% of Sangak bakery employees and 91.66 % of workers in Lavash bakery. LUBA score for any samples was not below 5 (action level one). Highest relative discomfort score for Nangeer (a person who takes bread out of oven) and baker of Tafton bakery was in back area and in Chanegir was neck and shoulder area. Highest relative discomfort score in Shater, Chanegir and Nangeer of lavash bakery is was lumbar area and neck and in Shater and Nangire of Sangak bakery was in elbow and wrist area. The correlation results of OCRA index and LUBA in Lavash, Sangak and Taftoon bakery were 0.26, 0.03 and 0.24 respectively. The results showed that the risk of musculoskeletal disorders due to repetitive tasks was relatively high in the bakeries and ergonomic interventions were required in order to redesign the job.

A large part of the compensation payments is allocated to the musculoskeletal disorders of the injured employees. The economic losses imposed by these disorders affect not only the individuals, but also the organizations and communities. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of educational intervention on improving the working conditions of the computer-using employees working in Yazd University of Medical Sciences. This semi-experimental study was conducted among the employees of Yazd University of Medical Sciences. In this regard, 100 computer users were randomly selected and the study was conducted in three stages of investigating the current situation, implementing the educational intervention, and re-investigating the situation. We collected the information one month before and one month after the educational course. For this purpose, we used the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) checklist 1910/0900 (31 questions).We analyzed the data using SPSS version 19 and run Chi-square and descriptive statistics to determine the frequency. The significance level was also considered at 0.05. We found that the postures of the participants were unfavorable before the intervention and they were unconscious about it. However, after the intervention, we observed a significant change in their postures (P <0.05). Moreover, we investigated the effect of intervention on desk and workstation medical condition and found no significant difference between the results before and after the intervention (P> 0.05). In other words, we cannot change the inappropriately designed desk or workstation by the training intervention. Interventions based on the ergonomic training had a positive effect on the improvement of participants' posture at work. This improvement one month after the intervention can confirm the sustainable effectiveness of such programs. In addition, educational intervention did not have any effect on the workstations; the training program could not change the workstations that were undesirable in terms of ergonomics.

In order to protect human resources, health and safety management systems such as OHSAS 18001, which is based on prevention, are necessary in projects. Therefore, the present study analyzes the incidents and evaluates the monitoring safety performance indicators based on work experience before and after the implementation of OHSAS 1800. This descriptive analytical study was performed on all incident victims during 2004 to 2011 at Yazd Combined Cycle Power Plant by census method. Data were extracted from the incident report checklists as well as technical protection committee documents of the plant. The AFR, ASR, FSI, FR, and IR indices were calculated based on OSHA standard before and after the implementation of OHSAS 18001. Descriptive statistics, Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Chi-square were used for data analysis. Meanwhile, the significance level was considered equal to 0.05. 287 work-related incidents occurred during an 8-year period (2004-2011(. The 44.9% of incidences (n=129) were reported in the age group under 30 years and the lowest incidence rate was observed in the age group over 50. 97% of the incidents were reported in men while 2.8% of the incidents were reported in women. According to the results, there was a significant relationship between age and work experience as well as age and marital status. There was also a significant decrease in the indices in the years after the implementation of OHSAS 18001. The results showed that the implementation of safety systems and deployment of OHSAS 18001 has reduced the incident indices based on work experience. Therefore, health and safety management systems are suitable tools for reducing incident rates and incident indices are also appropriate for monitoring the safety performance.

Postural evaluation can assist in detecting or predicting the risk factors of musculoskeletal disorders. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders and to assess the body status of employees of administrative departments of Shahid Chamran University of Ahwaz during work using RULA method. This cross-sectional study was carried out on 266 university staffs using Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ). The workstations of the employed individuals were selected using RULA questionnaire. The data were analyzed by SPSS Version 16 using Chi-square and independent t-test. The participants of the study included 47.7 percent of female and 52.3 percent of male employees. The results showed that backache (53.4%) and the neck ache (53.4%) had the highest prevalence within the employees. In addition, 62.5 percent of people were at the corrective levels of 2 and 3. Inappropriate postures can act as an important risk factor regarding musculoskeletal disorders. The results revealed that women were at a higher risk of ergonomic risk factors.