International Journal of Occupational Hygiene
Volume:12 Issue: 4, Jul 2020

Many urban farms are designed to be indoors or use traditional soil or energy generation techniques. Microgrids provide local electricity to a small network of users with power storage. Few urban farms and microgrids are designed and engineered to draw energy from extreme weather events producing electricity and water. The current study examines the feasibility of a self-sufficient, adaptive small-scale microgrid farm harnessing power from multiple renewable energy (solar and wind), and rainwater collection techniques while producing food. This study’s objective is to conduct an investigative Root Cause Analysis of an outdoor hydroponic system named Pangea. The study findings suggest an outdoor hydroponic system shares many defects from exposure to shifts in climatic conditions to poor engineering and design. The concept and technological aspect of this work can be transferred to commercial, large-scale greenhouse.

The performance evaluation of HSE based on updated analytical models such as Resilience Engineering particularly in automotive industries is crucial. This research aims to develop the evaluation of the HSE management performance model and incorporate Resilience Engineering principles with the emphasis on a futuristic approach rather than a retrospective one, as well as focusing on strengths issues instead of weaknesses in an organization. This study, as a cross-sectional analysis, carried out in an automotive industry. Four Resilience components were chosen based on the Hollnagel theory as the RE contribution factors. Then, using an expert panel, the main and sub-indices of environmental health safety indices were evaluated and validated via CVI and CVR method. In the consecutive step, the validated indices were made in the format of the questionnaire and finally compiled through the analytical results of the mentioned questionnaire. According to the resilience engineering factors weight were determined that the highest impact for the safety component and the least effect on the monitoring component. In the case of health, experience has the highest impact where prediction comes with the least impact; in the environmental dimension, prediction has the highest impact and monitoring has the least effect relevant to the explanation of the structures. Overall, for HSE performance management, forecasting and monitoring in the aspect of environmental dimension have the highest effect (0/18) and the lowest effect (0/07). In the current study, the performance of HSE management in three dimensions of safety, health and environment as well as four factors including forecasting, response, experience acquisition and monitoring that are derived from data-driven theory research approach is studied in the automotive industry. Based on the analysis results, health (0/40), safety (0/37) and the environment (0/33) have the highest impact in the formation of HSE performance management, respectively. On the other hand, these dimensions cover almost all aspects of HSE (R=1) in its measurement.

15% of world population are Left-handed people. Dominance of right brain hemisphere causes dominance of left side of their bodies also known as left handedness as a minority group. This group differs in some of their motor attributes compared to right-handed majority. This issue is more tangible when it comes to working with tools that requires reasonable degree of precision or power. It is essential to prevent permanent damages with aid of ergonomics principles. The purpose of this research was to examine and highlight the extra stress imposed on the left handers using the tools designs solely designed for right handers and further to come up with suggested solutions. The research was conducted based on user-centered methodology utilizing questionnaire, field observation and interview with users as well as extensive laboratory experiments on left-handed individuals. At first, left-handed samples were selected by Edinburgh “Hand Dominance” survey and then in second survey, a can opener and scissors were identified as the most challenging kitchen tools. The fatigue and tension in the muscles were measured via Electromyography (EMG) tests on the sampled left-handed and right-handed users working with scissors and can openers within the established experiment setting. Finally, the top three proposed design for future can openers were evaluated using AHP methodology and the best design concept was selected. This research highlights significance of considering left-handed people as a minority group of users that demands particular attention in design process of products.

Shift working with the sleep disturbance may lead to an increased body weight, depression levels, and inflammation. The purpose of this study was to determine the association between depression scores, Body Mass Index (BMI) and inflammation markers among rotational shift workers in one of the Iranian Oil Refineries. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 189 shift workers aged 21-52 years old with mean 30.58(±6.970) in one of the oil refineries in Tehran city. Studied population was in an 8 hours backward shift (from night to morning). Demographic characteristics were gathered by a general questionnaire and anthropometric variables including weight and height were measured for calculating body mass index (BMI), were calculated. 21-items Beck Depression Inventory, which was translated in Persian, was used to assess the depressive symptoms. Level of Cortisol, IL-6 and hs-CRP was measured by 8 ml fasting blood sample, using RIA kit in radioimmunoassay method, R&D (Germany) kit in enzyme-linked immunosorbent method and quantitative diagnostic kit in immunoturbidimetry method produced by Pars Azmoon Company, respectively. The results of the current study showed that Il-6 and hs-CRP were higher, in workers with depression scores more than 9 in comparison with workers by depression scores equal or below 9 measured by the 21- Item Beck depression inventory. Although there were not statistically significant. There was inverse association between cortisol level and BMI (P-Value<0.01) and positive association between CRP and BMI (PV<0.01) and borderline positive association between IL-6 concentration with BMI (P-Value<0.05). The results of the study revealed that there was a direct association between inflammation factors with Body Mass Index in Tehran oil refinery shift workers. But, the significant relationship between cortisol level, IL-6 and CRP with Shift Work experience were not found.

Before, during, and after an accident in worksites, many of the details regarding why and how it occurred are lost. To prevent this from happening, Accident Data Recorders (ADR) can be used to record information over long periods of time. Due to their ability to be networked and the fact that many of these can be used to gather information about the same area (guaranteeing there is not a single point of failure if one fail), they can gather the most relevant information leading up to and after an accident. Similar technology already exists in different application areas but the lack of modularity, ability to network, and many other missing features makes them less effective at recording information. By recording all information relating to an accident, it can become much easier to understand how to prevent another accident in the future. This can not only save money but the lives of employees.

In this paper, the effects of different grasp types, grasp widths, coupling types, and wearing gloves on pinch-insertion force have been studied using the discrete wavelet transform method, which was proposed for extracting features from the force-time curves during the experiment that simulates the snap-fit assembly procedure. This paper uses collected Salmanzadeh and Landau [4] experiments data as an application for proposed methodology. This method allows to use of all information obtained from the experiment and considers the whole force exertion process instead of one point of curves and at the same time reduce the number of variables without losing information. The results obtained by applying multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) on the wavelet coefficients are more sensible and more precise than the results of the conventional method based on only one point of the curve. The results show that both wearing glove and grasp type significantly affect the pinch-insertion forces. The second series of results show that the effects of both grasp width and grasp type on pinch force are significant. The third result series show that both pinchinsertion forces are significantly affected by coupling type with/without wearing gloves. Further analysis was performed on the average wavelet coefficients curves that can explain the cause of MANOVA test results. The results of this paper can be used for ergonomic designing of snap-fits to reduce the potential damage of the assembly process.

Human resources as the most important factor in the production and service have always been threatened by several factors. Among them, work-induced accidents are of the most important. Safety risk management plays an important role in reduction of their effectiveness. The purpose of this study is assessment and management of safety risk in automaker industries. This present study was carried out in pre-paint hall of Iran-Khodro Company (surface preparation process). In this regard, FUZZY FMEA method and VIKOR technique were applied to assess the potential detected failure modes and to prioritize corrective actions, as well as representation of appropriate solutions, respectively. Team of HSE experts included 15 persons were used for weighting and prioritizing corrective actions, criteria and scoring of risk factors. The result showed that 6 activities with the risk of “Electric shock”, “Collisions with objects and fire” and “Fire and Explosive” were identified in high level safety risks. Finally, some corrective actions likes “Using of insulation equipment, gloves and flooring”, “General safety training”, “Periodic visit of fire alarm” were used for management of the risks.

Organizational and safety climates are respectively general and specific forms of climates within organizations, which can affect individuals' performance. Organizational climate (OC) refers to the people’s behavioral patterns, attitudes and feelings within the organization. Safety climate (SC) refers to employees' perception of the organizational approach toward safety policies. This study was aimed to investigate the association between OC and SC in one tile industry. This cross-sectional and analytical study conducted using two standard questionnaires, sussman & deep and NOSACQ-50 for the assessment of OC and SC, respectively. The Kolmogorov – Smirnov test was used to evaluate the normality of the quantitative data. Spearman, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests were also used for statistical analysis of the gathered data. Our study represents the existence of significant and positive association between the dimensions of OC and SC. A significant association was found between the OC, working departments and type of employment. In addition, a significant association was found between SC and working departments, as well. Consideration of the OC, as a factor affecting SC, seems to be vital to be taken into account in researches. OC may affect people's attitudes toward organizational safety policies, which may therefore be defined as a factor affecting safety performance of organizations.