Journal of Health and Safety at Work

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Introduction: Nowadays, many modern industries require an environment with no contamination by particles and bacteria. An enclosed clean room environment is a place where parameters such as airborne particles, temperature, humidity, air pressure and air flow pattern is controlled. The aim of this study was to evaluate functional parameters of a clean room  in a selected pharmaceutical industry.  

Material and Method: This study was an experimental study conducted in 2015 in a pharmaceutical industry.  The air flow rate and flow rate with airflow capture hood was used and multi sensor devices for measuring temperature, humidity and pressure of multi-sensor device. HEPA filter leakage test and counting concentration of particles in the cleanroom was done according to the ISO 14644 – 3(2005) standards using aerosol photometer and aerosol generator. In this study, 6 clean room relating to the 3 cleanliness classes B, C and D (in accordance with standard EU GMP) were evaluated. Meanwhile, both the 2 and 3-dimensional flow model using Computational Fluid Dynamics Software was simulated in this study.   

Result: Measuring the parameters flow rate and air velocity, temperature (average temperature 20 ° C), relative humidity (below 50%), pressure (pressure less than 15 psi) for every three classes of cleanliness are all acceptable and less than the proposed standard. Furthermore, the results of modelling showed that the pattern of air flow in the room is correct paths in circulation. In the case of leakage test filters, the filter 29 filters tested 5 was leaking and ultimately determine the HEPA filters remove particles that average efficiency is 99.99%.

Conclusion: This study showed that the high volume and good quality of air entering the clean room affect the optimal efficiency and air flow rate, pressure drop and air penetration of the HEPA filters Also, the results of study show that the concentration of airborne particles in clean room is depend on the air flow rate and speed and adopting a good air flow pattern will affect the particle concentration.

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Introduction: Safety in construction needs not only operating the executive laws and instructions but also the safety culture of all the workers in workshops. Safety culture is a factor by which all the workers are committed to having a positive share in the safety of their coworkers and themselves. Therefore, the aim of this study is identification of safety culture factors and ranking occupations in jobsites in order to improve the safety condition and promote the safety culture of high-rise projects.

Material and Method: In this descriptive-analytical study, first, safety culture criteria in construction projects are identified by a literature review. Then, 8 factors of safety culture are weighted using fuzzy analytic hierarchy process. Finally, 10 different occupations in high-rise workshops are ranked from the point of view of safety culture using fuzzy TOPSIS method.  

Result: Results of ranking the criteria show that the most important criteria are safety attitude, supervision, policy of organization and safety training. Moreover, in high-rise construction the site superintendent and supervisor occupations have the highest and laborers have the lowest safety culture.

Conclusion: In this study, after evaluating different construction occupations by hybrid FTOPSIS-FAHP method, the results are compared with the results of previous researches. Here, it was found that the findings are consistent with previous studies. On the other hand, low level of safety culture of construction laborers among the investigated occupations shows weakness in safety training and attitude; hence, the factors such as more safety supervision and training must be considered in order to create a positive safety culture for the workers.

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Introduction: Safety at workplaces is an important issue, and lack of effective and efficient safety management methods based on scientific studies could cost the construction industry. An effective accident investigation and root causes analysis could prevent the occurrence of incidents at minimum cost and time.
Material and Method: First, major accidents in road construction projects were identified by interview and literature reviewing techniques. Then, fault tree was drawn for each main risks. In the next step, in order to calculate occurrence probability and severity of each accident type, a questionnaire was designed and distributed among the participants. Fuzzy logic was employed in calculations, due to the existence of uncertainty in linguistic variables. Fuzzy Fault Tree Analysis (FFTA) was used for calculating the occurrence probability, and importance of each criterion was determined using Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchical Process (FAHP) to calculate the severity of each accident. Finally, risk factors for each accident type was calculated and the risks were ranked accordingly.
Result: Accidents related to crusher and asphalt plant, traffic accidents, heat exhaustion and lack of hygiene and hit by machinery were identified as the most important risks among the eleven investigated accident types.
Conclusion: The findings in this research and also implementing effective safety management techniques, could be helpful on reduction of the probability of accidents root causes and to mitigate related risks.

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Introduction: Occupational health is one of the important issues that can affect productivity and economic development of an organization. This study aimed to determine the effect of didactic interventional Ergonomic-Safety program on workers’ productivity of an assembling industry.
Methods and Materials: This interventional study was conducted on 54 workers of assembling part of an electronic industry. Firstly, QEC method was used for Ergonomic assessment of work place and Hersey-Goldsmith questionnaire was applied for assessment of productivity. Then a comprehensive program was provided using findings of first stage assessment and identifying of existing failures. Second assessment of Ergonomic condition and productivity was done again by using QEC method and Hersey-Goldsmith questionnaire within three month of interventions. Data was analyzed by using of R software.
Results: Mean total productivity score and mean whole body score of QEC were 75.24 and 99.40 in before intervention phase respectively. In after intervention phase, Mean total productivity score and mean whole body score of QEC were 80.16 and 97.92 respectively. Data analysis by paired-samples t-test shows that difference of productivity score in before and after intervention phase was significant (P-value˂0.05). But difference of whole body score of QEC score in before and after intervention phase was not significant (P-value>0.05).
Conclusion: Accomplishment of Ergonomic-Safety intervention had a positive effect on productivity score whereas had not significant effect on general condition of body limbs.

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Introduction: Recent evidence indicates that lighting can affect physiological and neurobehavioral human functions, referred to as non-image forming (NIF) effects of lighteffects. This study aimed to determine the effects of illumination levels and correlated color temperature (CCT) on alertness and performance under NIF conditions.
Material and Methods: In this study, 22 participants were exposed to light at various levels of illumination, including very low illuminance (<5 lux, control) and light conditions with correlated color temperatures (CCT) of 4000 K, 8000 K, and 12000 K at 300 and 500 lux. The data collection process included recording the power of brainwaves (alpha, alpha-theta, beta, and theta), sleepiness and mood scales, and cognitive performance tests for sustained attention, psychomotor vigilance task (PVT), working memory, and inhibitory capacity.
Results: The results indicated that 500 lux light conditions at correlated color temperatures of 8000 and 12000K significantly reduced normalized alpha, alpha-theta power, subjective sleepiness, and performance compared to the dim light condition. Under illumination levels of 300 and 500 lux, there were no significant differences in the measured values of the variables.
Conclusion: Lighting interventions can be used as a supplement to other strategies for increasing alertness and performance in the workplace.

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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: Affinity for Technology Interaction (ATI) refers to the users’ tendency to actively interact with a digital system. ATI is a personal characteristic affecting many aspects of human-technology interaction. The present study aimed to assess the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the ATI scale.
Material and Methods: The Persian version of the scale was developed in accordance with the forward-backward translation approach. The construct validity of the scale was assessed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The correlation of the scale with the Big-five personality traits, need for cognition (NFC), age, gender, and field of study was also investigated.
Results: In contrast to the original scale, the Persian ATI had two components, confirmed by the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The first component contained eight items and the second contained one item, item 3. So, this item was removed from the scale. The 8-item scale demonstrated excellent reliability (coefficient=0.90). The Persian ATI was not significantly correlated with extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism (p>0.05). In contrast, it was significantly correlated with openness to experience (0.175, p<0.01) and NFC (0.36, p<0.01). The Persian ATI score for men was higher than for women. Various age groups were not significantly different in terms of the Persian ATI score.
Conclusion: In contrast to the original version, the Persian version of ATI is composed of eight items. Other characteristics, including unidimensionality and correlation with other personality traits, are similar to the original version.