Journal of Health and Safety at Work

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Introduction: Children have been known to spend most of their time at school. They learn their sitting habits in this period of time. Incorrect sitting postures and inappropriate school furniture can result in abnormalities in the vertebral column, back pain, neck pain, Fatigue and discomfort. Hence, this study was aimed to examine the match between students’ body dimensions and existing benches and desks dimensions in Hamadan female primary schools.

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Material and Method: In this study, 624 students of Hamadan female primary schools were investigated and some of their anthropometric dimensions including shoulder height, elbow height, knee height, popliteal height, popliteal-buttock length and hip breadth were measured. In this sense, a chair (with adjustable height, depth and elbow support) and a caliper with movable jaw were used for measurement of anthropometric dimensions. The measurements were performed in a way that thighs were in full contact with the seat, there was a right angle between the thighs and legs, the feet were in full contact with the movable pedal, the trunk was straight and the back and hips were in full contact with the backrest. Following, the match of the dimensions of existing benches and desks with the appropriate dimensions (based on the students’ anthropometric dimensions) were examined.

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Result: The results showed that the seat height, seat depth, seat width, back rest height, desk height, underneath desk height were in acceptable rangefor 10.1%, 17.3%, 5.6%, 53.5%, 1.9% and 31.1% of students, respectively.

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Conclusion: Despite differences in the body dimensions of primary school students, there is no regularity in using of school furniture. Overall, the dimensions of existing benches and desks are not matched with the anthropometric dimensions of students.

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Introduction: This paper aims to explore the main effect of night shift rotation speed on the pattern of melatonin secretion and the sleepiness, among control room operators (CORs) in a petrochemical industry
Material and method: In this study, 60 CORs operators within two different patterns, including 7 nights and 3 nights shift works were selected from a petrochemical industry to investigate the influence of rotation speed on their melatonin secretion and the sleepiness pattern. Thus, melatonin was sampled from saliva, and the sleepiness and sleep quality were assessed using Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS) index. Data analysis was carried out using spss18, Chi square, t-test, and GLM model.
Results: Melatonin values and their general changes during shift were noticeably different in two proposed patterns (P <0.05). The sleepiness index was significantly different only at 3:00 in both patterns, whereas the interaction of light and caffeine on both melatonin changes and sleepiness was not significant (P <0.05). Moreover, a significant difference was observed between the process of melatonin changes and sleepiness in the two studied patterns (P <0.05).
Conclusion: Adopting slower shift schedules rotations would be more appropriate, from the viewpoints of the importance of alertness and performance for human error prevention, among people working in serious worksites such as control rooms.

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Introduction: Industrial firefighting (IFF) constitutes a high-risk occupation within the domain of process industries. Firefighting teams serve as the operational component of the incident command team. This study aims to assess the alignment of physical fitness assessments conducted in selected Iranian process industrial firefighting settings and to scrutinize the extent of compliance with The U.S. National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) requirements by analyzing the resultant percentages of similarity in test outcomes.
Material and Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was undertaken across 14 Iranian process companies, encompassing two refinery companies and 12 petrochemical companies, employing a census sampling approach. The study’s benchmark was NFPA1582-2018. Data analysis was performed utilizing SPSS 27 software. This investigation focused on assessing the percentage of essential parallels within five distinct groups, along with their corresponding sub-components, in alignment with the tests and elements stipulated in the NFPA standard.
Results: Most of the selected companies (58%) lacked a cohesive program or established standard to assess the fitness of their firefighting personnel. Among the subset of companies (42%) that did employ an evaluation standard, in the majority of instances, a minimal proportion (less than 20%) underwent individualized assessments in line with the components outlined in NFPA 1582-2018 for physical fitness evaluation tests.
Conclusion: Given that 58% of the surveyed process companies in this study lacked a cohesive fitness assessment program and 42% demonstrated limited compliance with NFPA 1582-2018 in the assessed components, this issue underscores the critical need to evaluate the components quality and conduct a technical needs assessment. Developing adaptable and suitable components aligned with the work conditions prevalent in the process industry becomes imperative. Additionally, there must be existed a legal mandate for the pertinent ministry to implement an integrated framework. This scenario necessitates that process companies reevaluate their approaches concerning the selection and oversight of their firefighting personnel.