Journal of Health and Safety at Work

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Introduction: Besides the occupational accident physical, psychological damages, and its economic losses, it can have a serious effect on the quality of working life. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of occupational accidents on the quality of working life and its dimensions among workers in a steel manufacturing companies.   
Material and Methods: This case-control study was carried out among 100 workers (case) with an occupational accident history and 100 workers with no history of incident (control) in the production lines of a steel company during the period of 2012 to 2016. The study was conducted after matching the confounding variables such as age, work history, income level, etc. Data were collected using the NIOSH quality of work life questionnaire. For statistical analysis, SPSS 16 was used and χ2 and paired t-test statistical analysis were performed.
Results: According to the results of current study, the quality of work life average scores of the case (47.6±2.3) and control (49.5±2.3) groups was highly significant (p<0.001). Also, six out of eight dimensions of the quality of life was significantly affected by occupational accidents, but the highest and lowest influence was found on ergonomics and safety aspect, and the work and life aspect, respectively.
Conclusion: According to the result of this study, it can be concluded that occupational accidents are one of the important factors that influence the workers’ quality of work life. Therefore, quality of working life can be considered as a helpful tool in increasing job satisfaction, improving the efficiency and employability of employees and preventing accidents.

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Introduction: Prevention of occupational accidents is of a great importance. Analysis of accidents and their causes could prevent the accidents recurrence. The study objective was to investigate the causes of occupational accidents in a dispatching project.
Material and method:  This research is descriptive-analytic. Data were extracted from the reports of occupational near-misses and accidents recorded between 2013 and 2017 and analyzed using Tripod-Beta model. Then direct, indirect and root causes of the accidents were identified. Based on the causes identified, a questionnaire was developed to analyze the workers’ mental patterns in relation to the real causes, and Friedman test was used to rank the causes.
Results: The results showed the falling/dropped objects hit a person, inappropriate working conditions and lack of safety trainings were, respectively, the most important direct, indirect and root causes as per the analysis results. The leakage of flammable and explosive substances, hazardous conditions in the workplace and discrimination in rewards were the most important causes from the employees’ views.
Conclusion: Identifying and ranking the most important causes of accidents would help to prevent the occurrence of similar events. Also, the analysis of the causes based on the employees’ mental patterns could be effective in the prevention of accidents.

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Introduction: Occupational accidents are one of the major challenges of the industrial workplaces. The identifying of the effective causes of the incidents occurrence, could be used to prevent them. This study was aimed to determine basic causes of occupational accidents in a vehicle manufacturing company.
Material and Methods: The occupational accidents leading to loss of time, which cause losing at least one working day, occurred from 2012 to 2017 were analyzed using the Tripod-Beta method and the causes of their occurrences were determined from the active failures to the root causes. The data were analyzed using the SPSS-22 software.
Results: Eighty percent of the occupational accidents that occurred in a vehicle manufacturing company were related to 6 root causes, i.e. the weakness of OR (20%), EC (17%), MM¬ (12%), CO (10%), IG (10%) and DE (9%). Absence of necessary authority to stop working is the most important reason for the occurrence of the weakness of Organization system with a rate of 28%.
Conclusion: By handling three root causes appropriately, i.e. improving OR, EC and MM, more than 50% of accidents can be prevented. Proper hiring of workers, exact definition of accountability and an accurate job description to the employees, proper monitoring and supervision, and near-miss recordings are suggested to reduce this incidence rate.

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Introduction: Maintaining and improving organizational safety requires a strong safety culture. Following the occurrence of occupational incidents, proper registration, reporting, and investigation is a key requirement for safety culture to provide an appropriate learning culture. As a result, this study was carried out to assess the culture of occupational incident registration, reporting, and investigation in the province of west Azarbaijan’s industries.
Material and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, data on the culture of registration, reporting, and investigating occupational incident were collected using a 68-item questionnaire. A total of 420 employees from a number of construction and mine companies, as well as hospitals participated in this study.
Results: The results of study showed that the average total score for the culture of registration, reporting, and investigating occupational incidents was 3.08 (±0.38), with the factor of corrective action had the highest 3.17 (±0.72) and the reasons for lack of reporting had the lowest 2.90 (±0.54) scores. There was also a significant relationship between the average score of the culture of registration, reporting, and investigating occupational incidents with education, industries, and companies. Employees who attended training courses had a lower mean score for the culture of occupational incident’ registration, reporting, and investigation than those who did not take training courses. The mean score of the culture of registration, reporting, and investigating occupational incidents of the employees who had experienced an occupational accident was lower than those who had not experience occupational accidents in the past.
Conclusion: The findings of this study revealed that corrective actions is necessary after the occurrence of occupational incidents. Attending training courses and having an occupational accident experience had no positive impact on promoting culture of registration, reporting, and investigating occupational incidents.

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Introduction: In process industries, some of the primary events may result in secondary events in an industrial unit called the domino effect. Since refinery storage tanks are always at risk of fire and explosion, quantitative risk assessment is important in determining the severity and outcome of an accident, taking into account the effects of dominoes on the main industry, neighbors, and society and can play an important role in risk management. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to quantitatively evaluate the risk of condensate storage tanks taking into account the domino effect.
Material and Methods: The technique used in this study was Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA), the analysis of the consequences of which was performed using PHAST (7.22) after setting goals, studying the process, identifying hazards and scenarios. Then, to determine the extent of the domino effects of the escalation vectors were matched against the threshold, and after screening, the overall vulnerability of the repositories for mapping individual risk levels was calculated.
Results: In the leakage scenario, after considering the domino effects, the risk contour 10-4 to about 250 meters and the risk contour 10-5 to about 400 meters increased. Also in the catastrophic rupture scenario, the radius of risk contour of the 10-5 increased to100 m after considering the domino effects up to around damage tank.
Conclusion: As can be deduced from the results, using this method can give a clear picture of the consequences of chain events and the probability of damage to nearby employees, equipment and neighbors, which is very important in risk, emergency and crisis management.

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Introduction: Nearly half of occupational accidents in Iran occur in construction sites. Therefore, modeling of occupational accidents in these sites is one of the solutions to design safety strategies to reduce occupational accidents in the field of construction. This study was designed and conducted with the aim of modeling the cause-consequence of accidents in construction sites.
Material and Methods: This study was conducted based on a retrospective analysis of 10-year accident data (2010-2019) in Iranian construction sites in 2020. The main variable included the types of occupational accidents in construction sites. The study tool included accidents checklist as well as a detailed report of the studiedaccidents. The required data were collected based on a conceptual model designed to model the cause-consequence of accidents in the construction sites. Cause-consequence modeling of the studied accidents has been done based on the structural equation modeling and using IBM SPSS AMOS v. 22.0.
Results: The frequency of the studied accidents was 3854 accidents. The annual averages of AFR and ASR indices were 17.27 ± 8.54 and 322.42 ± 44.23 days, respectively. The results of cause-consequence modeling of these construction accidents showed that individual and occupational, safety training and risk assessment factors as well as variables related to these factors have a negative and significant relationship with the indicators of the construction accidents, and the factors of environmental conditions and unsafe acts and variables belonged to these factors have a positive and significant relationship with these indicators (p < 0.05).
Conclusion: The findings of the study revealed that the highest impact factors on accident indicators were related to safety training, risk assessment and unsafe acts and their variables. Therefore, the results of this modeling can help to design safety strategies in construction sites.

 

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Introduction: Due to occupational accidents, many costs are annually lost from the countries’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Estimating these costs can be essential for optimal investments and establishing appropriate policies in many countries, such as Iran. The present study aimed to review the studies conducted on the safety economics and the costs of accidents in Iran from 2000 to 2021.
Material and Methods: The reliable databases “Web of Science”, “Embase”, “IranDoc”, “SID”, “Magiran”, “Google Scholar”, “PubMed” and “Scopus” were used to conduct this research. Articles in these databases were searched and extracted by searching for keywords such as “accident”, “cost of accidents”, “occupational accidents” and “Iran” in Persian and English from 2000 to 2021.
Results: Among the 66 identified articles, 19 were selected as final articles, of which 11 studies were carried out in the transportation industry and eight in other industries. Among these studies, nine studies only examined and stated the total costs, and six studies separately examined and stated the direct, indirect, and total costs. Four other studies also investigated and expressed the costs caused by accidents in other ways. Most notably, in three studies, the number of direct costs is higher than indirect costs. Similarly, only six studies estimated the damage to the GDP, ranging from 0.03% to 6.46% of the GDP.
Conclusion: The results of the review of studies showed that occupational accidents cause the loss of a significant part of Iran’s GDP. It is recommended to carry out further studies on the relationship between investment in the safety sector and reducing the costs of accidents concerning the grouping of jobs, mainly in the process, service, and production industries, to prevent wasting such heavy costs.

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Introduction: Occupational accidents are one of the most important risk factors for developing countries. In addition to designing preventive measures to prevent accidents, comprehensive research of accidents is considered as an undeniable necessity to reduce the risk of accidents. Thus, the first step is to find the root causes of their occurrence, which will certainly be possible with the use of appropriate techniques.
Material and Methods: In this study, first, the appropriate criteria for designing the accident analysis method were collected. In the second step, commonly used techniques were collected through known databases. In the third step, the collected techniques were scaled based on the selected criteria using the TOPSIS method, and ultimately, the new method (FAM) was developed. Finally, by analyzing three different accidents with the developed technique and four other common techniques, as well as using the ANP method, the developed technique was tested and confirmed.
Results: Based on the studies conducted to identify appropriate criteria for comparing accident analysis techniques, finally 6 criteria were selected for to be used in the study process. According to the findings, the FAM method with a normal final weight of 0.2684 was considered the priority in occupational accident analysis.
Conclusion: The output of this study was the introduction of the FAM technique. Using the strengths of the four techniques and covering their weaknesses, this technique can help identify and determine the causes of accidents graphically, systematically, and by minimizing the work attitude of analysts at three levels.

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Introduction: In recent years, driver’s drowsiness has been one of the leading causes of road accidents, which can lead to physical injuries, death, and significant economic losses. Statistics show that an efficient system is needed to detect the driver’s drowsiness, that gives the necessary warning before an unfortunate event occurs. Therefore, this review study was conducted to investigate the studies on driver’s drowsiness sensors and to present a combination of diagnostic methods and an efficient model design.
Material and Methods: This narrative review study was conducted through a systematic search using “driver” and “drowsiness detection” as search keywords in indexing databases including Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Sciences. The search encompassed the latest related research conducted in this field from 2010 to September 2020. The reference lists were also reviewed to find further studies.
Results: In general, researchers evaluate driver’s drowsiness using three methods including vehicle-based measurement, behavioural measurement, and physiological measurement. The details and how these measurements are made make a big difference to the existing systems. In this study, which is a narrative review, the three mentioned measurements were examined using sensors and also the advantages and limitations of each were discussed. Real and simulated driving conditions were also compared. In addition, different ways to detect drowsiness in the laboratory were examined. Finally, after an analytical comparison of the methods of diagnosing drowsiness, a diagram was presented based on which an efficient and combined model was developed.
Conclusion: Taking into account the limitations of each of the methods, we need a combination of behavioural, performance, and other measures to have an efficient drowsiness diagnosing model. Such model must be tested using simulations and in real world situations.

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Introduction: Iran has the most extensive maritime transport fleet in the Middle East, with 2700 km of water border with other countries in the region. However, the complex and hazardous marine environment has turned this advantage into a disadvantage. On the other hand, technological advancement has added to the complexity. Thus, new accident analysis tools should be developed to bring unity to marine casualty analysis and improve the analyst’s power of discovery from incident information. The current project aims to develop a specialized AcciMap-based marine accident investigation method.
Material and Methods: The primary stages of this applied descriptive study include data collection, method development, and validation. The necessary information about the factors leading to marine accidents was initially gathered through a review of previous studies, expert interviews, and analysis of actual cases. The AcciMap technique was then partially developed, and marine experts approved the designed model.
Results: This study’s results included an AcciMap model established on three levels: external influences (national and international), intra-organizational factors, and environmental/individual conditions and individual activities. Whereas external factors (international and national) are categorized into three main layers, two sublayers, and 13 secondary sublayers, intra-organizational factors are categorized into two main layers, 11 sublayers, and 35 secondary sublayers, and environmental/individual conditions and individual activities are organized in one main layer, three sublayers, and 11 secondary sublayers.
Conclusion: The developed approach can identify flawed levels and determine who is responsible for implementing corrective action. Because it includes emerging components that are effective in accidents, the method used in this study can better examine data from marine accidents.

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Introduction: Medical centers, as complex technical-social systems, are exposed to the risk of fire incidents. This study analyzes the causes and contributing factors of the fire accident at Sina Mehr Clinic to prevent similar accidents, resulting in 19 deaths and 14 injuries.
Material and Methods: The causes and contributing factors for accidents in medical centers are found through studies related to laws and regulations, official accident reports, expert reports of regulatory bodies, interviews with experts, and review of past studies, extraction, and categorization. Accident analysis methods included AcciMap and STAMP. Finally, experts’ opinions were used to confirm and strengthen the findings.
Results: The most critical root and hierarchical causes of the weakness of medical center management in the field of safety, dangerous conditions, fire accidents, and emergency response are the issuance of a legal building completion permit for a building that violates national building regulations and the issuance of a legal permit for a medical institution for a building with residential use, as well as the insufficiency of supervision by government and public institutions with horizontal relationships with each other and vertical relationships with universities of medical sciences, labor offices, and firefighting organizations, as the direct supervisors of medical centers.
Conclusion: The AcciMap and STAMP findings indicate that the priority is to amend the regulations for the establishment, operation, and activity of medical centers with an emphasis on safety regulations, as well as the frequency and shortening of feedback loops such as inquiring about the building completion permit from the municipality, announcing the establishment of a medical center to other governmental and public supervisory authorities, and the reporting of unsafe cases directly by supervisors to the Ministry of Health. Legal authorities are the most crucial cycle in the resilience of fire incidents and their consequences in medical centers.
 

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Introduction: Risk assessment matrix is a tool used in a project’s risk assessment process to identify the probability of risks and evaluate the potential damages caused by those risks. Generally, a risk assessment matrix is drawn in a two-dimensional form, with two factors: the severity of the accident and the probability of its occurrence. So, the purpose of this study is to develop a specific risk assessment matrix in a three-dimensional form by using the accident severity grade (ASG) rating system, the accident probability, and taking into account the preventive approach that helps occupational injury risk assessment in the automobile industry.
Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 1402 (2023) in one of the automobile assembly industries. One hundred cases were randomly selected by examining the reports of this industry’s past accidents. The ASG scoring checklist was designed and completed by the experts to assess the severity of accidents. Then, considering the ASG score, the frequency of the accident, and its preventability, a three-dimensional risk assessment matrix specific to this industry was presented.
Results: According to the findings of the accident analysis, a total of 658 accidents and 15,019 lost working days were recorded in this period. The most influential factor in the occurrence of accidents is related to “surface condition” (influence factor = 0.6), and the least of them belongs to the “weather conditions” (influence factor = 0.028). The results of the three-dimensional matrix show that when the ability to prevent accidents increases, the risk of accidents decreases.
Conclusion: Using the accident severity grade (ASG) and preventability in the proposed three-dimensional risk assessment matrix, the accident severity can be quantified immediately after the accident. This approach allows monitoring workplaces during the accident, leading to timely control and risk management implementation.
 

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Introduction: Driving has various harmful factors due to its nature, which affect drivers’ health directly and indirectly. Therefore, it is necessary to know the situation and prevalence of these factors in drivers to implement preventive measures.
Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study is a part of a cohort study conducted (2016 to 2018) among the professional drivers of Shahroud, Iran. Data related to background information, blood pressure, height, weight, waist circumference, body mass index, blood factors, hearing loss (dB), respiratory performance indicators, sleep disorders, and accidents were collected from the participants with standard tools and methods.
Results: This study examined 1461 male professional drivers with an average age of 37.30±6.96 years. A total of 426 participants had metabolic syndrome. 797 and 942 people had different degrees of hearing loss, respectively, in the right and left ear. About 129 people had obstructive sleep apnea, and 1330 people had insomnia. Investigations showed that 351 drivers had at least one accident.
Conclusion: This study showed the prevalence of health risk factors in professional drivers at the examined time point. Considering the vital role of drivers in transportation and the country’s economy, it seems necessary to pay more attention to the health of this occupational group. Regular health screening, healthy lifestyle training, improvement of working conditions, and stress management are some interventions that can effectively improve drivers’ health.