International Journal of Occupational Hygiene
Volume:13 Issue: 3, Sep 2021

The human being is the noblest of all the creations by Allah Rabbul-Izzat. Allah gave special commands to humans which made differences over other species, the hygiene practice is one of them. The researches on toilets, defecation, urination and self-cleansing may be supposed as unthinkable subjects in daily discussions, but these topics are important for health and hygiene perspectives. Designers and manufacturers are busy making aesthetically attractive, ergonomically and anthropometrically defined toilet seats. But there is a need for some adjustments in the size and design of modern toilet seats as per the hygiene perspective. This paper presents a conceptual design framework aimed, increasing the level of hygiene and introduced the three-dimensional designs of sitting and squatting types of toilet seats with some amendments as compared to modern designs, concerning hygiene perspective. The present conceptual design of toilet seats can become the integration of human hygiene practice.  In this study, Solidworks Designing Software was used for three-dimensional designs. This framework study dedicates to Iranian society.

It is necessary for managers in all types of organizations to take an appropriate training approach in order to maintain and promote health, achieve safety, and prevent environmental damages. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of Health Safety and Environment training workshops from the students’ point of view to inform the relevant officials about the participants’ opinions and make efficient decisions in order to improve the quality of training courses in the field of health, safety, and environment. A qualitative study was conducted using face-to-face or telephone interviews with a purposeful number of 37 students studying at the faculty of the health of Qazvin University of Medical Sciences. To analyze data, thematic analysis using a framework approach was applied. Findings related to the students’ viewpoint about the effectiveness of the HSE workshop were presented in six main themes including satisfaction with the educational content, awareness about HSE concepts before the workshop, the importance of HSE subject in the participants’ field of study, important topics presented in the workshop, experience from HSE workshop, major workshop problems, and solutions. Based on the study results, one of the key objectives of all medical universities should be training their students about health and safety matters to potentially prepare them for future job positions with maximum safe behaviors in workplaces. In fact, medical universities play a key role in developing the health and safety knowledge of students helping them in protecting themselves while working in hazardous working conditions.

The prevalence of fire in laboratories is high due to the potential sources of the fire hazards, including the use of various equipment and chemicals, as well as the possibility of human error. Accordingly, this study was designed and conducted with the aim of developing a tool to identify hazards and assess laboratory fire risk. In the present study, we used the Delphi technique in three rounds in 2020 with the participation of 17 experts in the fields of safety engineering, occupational health engineering, chemistry, and chemical engineering. The scattering index of coefficient of variation (CV) was higher than 20% and the acceptance criterion for each item was considered with an average of ≥4. In addition, the validity and reliability of this tool were evaluated using content validity ratio (CVR), content validity index (CVI), and Cronbach's alpha reliability index. After three rounds of Delphi study, the hazard identification and risk assessment questionnaire for laboratory fire were developed with 45 items, including chemical materials and compounds, electricity, and fire response. The coefficient of variation (CV) in this Delphi study was equal to 0.05. The results of the validity and reliability evaluation of this tool showed that the content validity index (CVI) and Cronbach's alpha coefficient were equal to 0.902 and 0.88. The questionnaire of the present study indicated an acceptable validity and reliability for identifying hazards and assessing laboratory fire risk. Therefore, this tool provided a quick, easy, and practical way to identify hazards and assess the risk of laboratory fires.

The jarless cyclone calibration method is an appealing approach because it removes the need for calibration adapters and eliminates potential sources of error that result from poor or inconsistent seals in calibration adapters or calibration jar lids. The aim of this study was to perform a detailed review of the jarless calibration method by (1) examining the rationale behind the initial pressure drop range specified by the method and (2) evaluating the accuracy of the method in contrast to flow rate measurements in a well-controlled, jar protocol. Four types of respirable cyclones and two filter brands with samples from three separate production lots were considered as components of the sampling trains under consideration. Volumetric flow rate and pressure drop were measured under controlled conditions in a cylindrical jar designed for these determinations. The initial challenge pressure range evaluated in this study was modified based on cyclone type. The measured pressure drop fell within the modified range for all configurations considered, indicating the modified ranges were appropriate. The accuracy of the jarless method was then evaluated by comparing measured volumetric flow rates using different calibration methods for various cyclone, filter brand, and filter lot combination. The jarless method provided accurate calibration results utilizing the modified initial pressure drop ranges utilized in this study. Therefore, it is recommended the initial pressure drop range specified by the jarless method be modified to account for differences among cyclone types.

Despite all the positive effects of cell phones on communication, the improper use of these devices may lead to fatigue and many other problems, including academic, physical, and social problems. Among different age groups, students are the most affected due to the importance of cell phones in their educational and communications needs. In this study, we seek to investigate the relationship between improper use of cell phones and fatigue in Iranian medical students. In the present descriptive-analytical and cross-sectional study, 400 students were randomly selected from the Iran University of Medical Sciences by cluster sampling. Data collection tools included demographic information questionnaires, harmful cell phone use (COS), and fatigue (Smets). Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 22 based on the frequency tests, mean, standard deviation, and ANOVA with a significance level of 0.05. The mean age of students was 24.1±5.65. The total population of the study was 56% female and 44%, male. The results revealed that the prevalence of fatigue among students was moderate (56.60%). The status of harmful cell phone use was reported to be moderate (90%). There was a significant relationship between mobile phone use and total fatigue (p=0.029), decreased motivation (p=0.025), and mental fatigue (p = 0.001). Results showed that excessive use of cell phones had an adverse impact on total fatigue, mental fatigue, and motivation. Therefore, it is recommended to design effective interventions to prevent harmful use of cell-phone, student fatigue, and other consequences, including academic failure and reduction of mental health.

The aim of this semi-experimental study based on the pre-post-test method was to discuss the effectiveness of life skills training on assertiveness and work engagement among personnel of Dr. Shariati vocational and rehabilitation center of Tehran. The statistical population consisted of all staff working (18 people) in 2018. Gambriel and Richi (1975) and Selano and Shufili questionnaires (2001) were used to estimate assertiveness and work engagement. The internal coincidence of instruments was 0.88 and 0.95. In total, 60 educational programs were considered as experimental interventions pertaining to life decuple skills (6 hours training for each skill). In order to test the hypothesis, t correlative groups were used. The results showed that experimental intervention influences on the increment of the assertiveness and its subscales (controversial and fundamental) and general work engagement had a negative impact on the attraction and power by interval 95% (p<0/05).

Construction safety performance is traditionally assessed based on workplace conditions and analyzing accident statistics, there is no provision to consider the safety management systems which affect site safety. One of the systems use to measure safety performance is occupational safety and health audit which identify failures within a system and the information gathered assist to determine the best course of corrective action. Therefore, this study was designed and conducted to develop a method for evaluating the safety performance of five highway project sites in India using the Analytic Hierarchy Process and Taguchi loss functions. In the first stage of the study, the Analytic Hierarchy Process was applied by obtaining the judgments of the expert team to determine the weights of the safety audit elements. In the second stage, the five project sites were analyzed and ranked by determining the total loss score using the Taguchi loss functions. Based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process analysis, the weights of the safety management (0.1949), hazard identification and risk assessment (0.1460), and safety education and training (0.1268) had the highest impact on the safety performance of the five project sites. The results of the Taguchi loss functions of the five project sites showed that the total loss score was the lowest and highest for project site 3 (77.89) and site 5 (81.54), respectively. In the current study, an integrated method was developed for evaluating the safety performance of five highway project sites. The weights of the nine safety audit elements were vital in determining the total loss score by using the Taguchi loss functions for ranking the five projects sites based on safety performance. Therefore, using this method can be an effective step in identifying the project site with better safety performance as a benchmarking unit for the other sites.

Ports as one the most important parts of the maritime transport system play a paramount role in world trade. The set of designed and implemented processes in ports can significantly impact the surrounding environment. Therefore, the environmental consequences associated with a variety of activities and processes in ports can threaten sustainable global development. Thus, this study was designed and conducted with the aim of developing a tool for environmental performance evaluation in ports. Twenty-five experts in the field of environment and marine sciences participated in the present study. The study was conducted in three rounds based on the Delphi technique in the years 2019-2020. The index of coefficient variation (CV) and acceptance criteria for each of the parameters in this study were considered <20% and 4≤, respectively. The validity of this tool was evaluated using the content validity index (CVI) and content validity ratio (CVR). In addition, its reliability was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. CV index in the third round of this Delphi was 0.08. Therefore, the green ports performance evaluation questionnaire was developed with six factors and 32 parameters after three Delphi rounds. These six factors of environmental performance included reactive performance (5 parameters), proactive performance (5 parameters), sustainability (5 parameters), socio-cultural (6 parameters), economic (5 parameters), and governance (6 parameters). The results of the validity evaluation showed that the CVR and CVI of this developed questionnaire were 0.875 and 0.906, respectively. In addition, based on Cronbach's alpha coefficient, the reliability of this tool was estimated to be α=0.92. The findings indicated that the developed tool for evaluating the environmental performance in ports had good validity and reliability. Therefore, this tool can be used as an acceptable estimator of the ports’ environmental performance in the maritime transport system.