نشریه بهداشت کار و ارتقای سلامت
سال چهارم شماره 4 (پیاپی 15، زمستان 1399)

Each year, many accidents occur in processing industries such as oil, gas, and petrochemicals. Processing industries mostly work with hazardous chemicals and units in high temperature and high-pressure conditions like reactors and storage tanks. The study aimed to model the consequences of a complete tank rapture (explosion and fire) and specify the intensity caused by the events.

The applied method in this study was based on the Quantitative Risk Assessment method. This method is used for risk assessment in chemical, petroleum, gas, and petrochemical processes and transport industries. Initially, the process associated with the monomer vinyl-chloride storage tank was identified. At the next stage, the scenarios and probable hazards were identified and defined and the PHAST Risk 7.11 was run for modeling the consequences.

The most dangerous consequences of vinyl-chloride storage tanks include sudden fire and explosion in a complete tank rapture. In a full tank-explosion, the radiation of the explosion wave was once recorded as 79 meters with the death probability of 99 percent.

Each explosion or probable rapture in monomer vinyl-chloride tanks may cause terrible consequences. The vinyl-chloride monomer storage process is a high-risk process that is not tolerable. To reduce the risk, the consequence intensity, the consequence probability, and the exposure amount should be reduced. To this end, it is highly recommended to use smaller tanks, modify operational variables (capacity, pressure, temperature, etc.), and reduce the level of exposure in similar projects.

Occupational skin diseases and hand contact dermatitis specifically are among the most common occupational diseases among the healthcare workers. Since surgical technologists have contact with allergens and irritant substances are more susceptible to hand contact dermatitis. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of occupational hand contact dermatitis and effective factors among surgical technologists in five educational centers affiliated to Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences.

The present cross-sectional study was conducted over 125 surgical technologists working in the hospitals affiliated with Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences who were selected via census sampling. Later, 97 participants who met the inclusion criteria were investigated. Data were collected by Nordic Occupational Skin questionnaire (NOSQ-2002) through interview and analyzed by SPSS software version 23.

The findings indicated that 68% of the examined technologists were female and 57.7% were over 37 years old. The prevalence of hand dermatitis was 45.4% (44 people). The highest prevalence was observed at the back of hands (24.7%) and between fingers (17.5%).  Contact hand dermatitis had a significant correlation with the participants’ gender (p = 0.002), work experience (p = 0.028), and frequency of hand washes (p = 0.021). Moreover, having a history of eczema and allergy (P-Value≤ 0.01) was significantly effective in increasing hand contact dermatitis.

The prevalence of hand contact dermatitis is high among surgical technologists. Therefore, hospital managers are required to plan for preventive measures and control the current situation. Furthermore, future researchers are recommended to carry out more studies on allergic dermatitis.

Today, improvement of a labor inspectorate is an indicator of a countrychr('39')s economic and social growth development. So, inspectors need to perform a level of competence, professional knowledge, and skills. Training should meet these particular needs.

This cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the educational priorities over 80 occupational health inspectors in Tehran province. The study tools included an attitude questionnaire and a knowledge test in occupational health based on the instructions provided by Ministry of Health inspection. The reliability and validity of these tools were evaluated and confirmed by quantitative and qualitative (Delphi) methods by experts in each field.

The attitude of inspectors was in the desirable range (total score of 4.669). Knowledge status was low in all fields (in the 70% threshold) and very low in some cases. Regarding the educational priorities, chemical agents with an average of 4.121 and the lowest percentage of correct response were placed at the first priority of education. The sound and vibration with an average of 1.325 were laced at the seventh priority of education. Moreover, ergonomics, thermal stress, biological, and radiation were placed from the second to sixth levels of priority.

Due to the low knowledge level of the studied participants and their abilities, these workers should be trained as inspectors in the realm of sound. To this end, continuous educational planning is required based on needs assessment studies.

Assessment of the consequences of hazards such as fire and explosion is one of the most urgent and important steps to improve the level of safety in the current stations and those that are in the design process. The purpose of this study was to review the model of CNG Compressed Natural Gas releases and the range of damages to individuals and equipment. Moreover, we examined the observance of  safe distance of this station to its surroundings.

In this study, modeling the effects of fire and explosion on the CNG fuel station in Isfahan province was performed using ALOHA software. In this model, six scenarios were designed to create a hole with a diameter of 0.03m and a gap of 0.2m and width of 0.2 m in a pressure vessel.

It was observed that the toxic atmosphere was within the distance of 55 meters at a concentration of 65000 ppm. In the case of a gap, the toxic vapor cloud range could increase to 66 meters. The flammable superpower range was 89meters for the hole but 107 meters for the gap. The thermal radiation from the jet fire to the distance of 25meters was 10 kw/sqm for the hole, but the thermal radiation was 10 kw/sqm for the gap to 35meters.

The most dangerous scenario was the Jet Fire, which involved not only the  CNG station, but also the municipal parking area. Furthermore,  the thermal radiation produced by the gap was greater than the hole with regard to the involved range.

Loud noise is one of the harmful factors that affects industry workers seriously. In the steel industry, a wide range of equipment and machinery are used in the production processes, which are considered as the sources of annoying noise. Sound has immediate and delayed harmful effects on the process of concentration and increases blood pressure. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of noise in two different ranges in the control and case groups within the authorized (between 60 to 85 dB) and unauthorized (above 85 dB) categories in the steel industry.

This cross-sectional study was conducted among 300 workers in Isfahan Steel Industries. Environmental sound assessment was performed to determine the distribution of sound pressure level according to the ISO 9612 standard in the companychr('39')s production units. In this method, the number of exposed people, the exposure time, and the weight factor corresponding to the sound pressure level were calculated in 30 minutes. The DASS-42 and Harmon Jones (DARQ) questionnaires were used to predict the mental state of the participants and to measure the severity of mood swings and arousal. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS statistical software (ver22).

Based on the findings, age had a significant effect on depression, marital status had a significant effect on anxiety, and work shift had a significant effect on the level of stress and cognitive dissonance of employees. The stress mean was significantly higher in the case group (14.40 ± 1.66) than the control group (p <0.001). This indicates the effect of sound intensity level on the increase of stress and cognitive dissonance of workers in a noisy environment. With increasing exposure to sound, the participants’ stress decreased (p <0.05).

Considering the positive and significant relationship of noise level with stress and cognitive inconsistency of workers in the case group, it is necessary to take effective preventive measures to prevent psychological harm and maintain the workerschr('39') health in this industry. In order to reduce noise, a number of applicable solutions have been proposed including spatial planning, selection of suitable materials, control of noise pollution related to outdoor construction, control of noise pollution related to indoor construction, and training.

One of the definitive ways to reduce occupational accidents among workers is to promote their safety culture. Aboureihan Pharmaceutical Company is one of the leading companies in the field of pharmacy in Iran. Based on the documentary evidences as well as information collected from credible sources, the following research was carried out to investigate the safety culture of the staff.

This descriptive survey was carried out among all employees (400 people) of Aboureihan Pharmaceutical Company. The study sample consisted of 135 people selected randomly from the whole statistical population. The participants’ information was obtained by the completion of demographic and safety information questionnaires. The validity and reliability coefficients of the safety culture questionnaire were confirmed by several experts. The applied statistical methods include descriptive statistics (to show frequency tables and percentages) and inferential statistics.

Findings showed that the safety culture in was above the average level among the company employees and the safety culture variable had a significant relationship with the place of work and average salary (α = 0.05). However, safety culture had no relationship with gender, marital status, level of education, work experience, job title, education, and age. Furthermore, the analysis of variance confirms the results of regression coefficient of determination of impact of demographic variables.

It can be predicted that the level of safety culture can be predicted by gender, marital status, education, education, work experience, job title, place of work, and age.

Proper assessment of the employees’ ability to work from an economic point of view is important for employers since it is one of the ways to increase human resource productivity. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between job stress and ability to work in nurses of hospitals affiliated to Ahwaz University of Medical Sciences.

The present study was analytic and cross-sectional. The participants were 250 nurses with at least one year of work experience selected from all 8 hospitals affiliated to Ahwaz University of Medical Sciences using proportional sampling method. The dimensions of job stress and work ability were measured through the JCQ and WAI Questionnaires. For data analysis, descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U, Spearman correlation coefficient , and Kruskal-Wallis were used by SPSS20.   

 Work ability had a significant and direct correlation with and the decision making authority ( r= 0.161, p-value = 0.011) and physical isometric load (r= 0.136, p-value = 0.032). In contrast, a significant and inverse relationship was found between job ability and psychological needs (r=-0.177, p-value =0.005). No significant difference was observed between the ability to work and other dimensions of occupational stres.

In most nurses, moderate to high levels of job stress and moderate levels of  job ability were observed. To reduce their job stress and increase their ability to work, free decision making and social support should be increased, physical and psychological stresses should be adjusted, and job security should be enhanced.

One of the ways to promote safety in the workplace is creating the safety culture. To this end, safety culture has been studied and promoted with the help of 4E technique in Esfarayen steel industry.

This is a descriptive-analytical and interventional study  that evaluated safety culture using the HSE standard questionnaire and then promoted the safety culture with the help of 4 E technique. The results were then studied and compared using the statistical statistics by SPSS16 and Excel2010 software.

The mean score of safety culture was 326±10.17 before and 395±15.8 after the intervention. Pair t-test showed that the interventions were effective in improving the safety culture (p = 0/0001). The findings showed that 4E technique is one of the effective factors in improving the safety culture.

The findings showed that the educational issue of technical and participatory interventions is among the main and important pillars in promoting the safety culture. As a result, the participants’ knowledge, skills, and positive attitudes to safety and safety issues of the organization increased.