Journal of Health and Safety at Work

Introduction: Emission of volatile organic compounds through industrial processes to the environment has been received more attentions currently. Photocatalytic oxidation process as a new emerging technique in air purification can be substituted for conventional techniques such as activated carbon adsorption. In photocatalytic oxidation process, pollutant molecules decompose to water and carbon dioxide molecules. The objective of present study was the examination of influencing parameters such as concentration, relative humidity, and superficial gas velocity on photocatalytic oxidation of Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MEK) in a fluidized bed reactor.

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Material and Method: In this study photocatalytic oxidation of MEK was examined in a fluidized bed reactor. Gamma alumina coated titanium dioxide particles under ultraviolet light were used as photocatalyst. The efficiency of photocatalytic oxidation process was determined using measurement of MEK concentrations at the inlet and outlet of the fluidized bed reactor.

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Result: The study of MEKphotocatalytic oxidation was carried out in the concentration range of 100 to 800 PPM with 25% and 45% relative humidity. Photocatalytic degradation of MEK at the relative 45 % humidity was slightly lower than 25 %. Increasing MEK concentration from 200 to 800 PPM was led to decrease in degradation efficiency. At concentrations of 100 and 200 PPM MEK, increasing superficial gas velocity did not change the degradation efficiency, whereas, at concentrations of 200 to 800 PPM, increasing superficial gas velocity resulted in decrease in MEK degradation.

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Conclusion: In photocatalytic oxidation of MEK, there is a competitive adsorption between water and MEK and at higher relative humidity degradation of MEK decreases. In the fluidized bed reactor increasing superficial gas velocity causes decrement in MEK photocatalytic degradation.Increasinginitial concentration of pollutant results in decreasing ofphotocatalytic efficiency due to the limited number of active sites on the catalyst surface.

Introduction: ”Exposing to danger” or in other words, “risk” is a process which is led to an uncertain result in every field. Project risks are uncertain contingent events or situations that if they occur will have positive or negative effects on project’s objectives. Todays, research and educational process and more complicated and the professional risk management become much more difficult, as a result.

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Material and Method: In this research, the health and safety issues have been studied and analyzed using ISO 14121 and the environmental issues by EMEA to determine the risk level separately for research laboratories and to prioritize corrective measure in each field (school).

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Result: The finding in this study showed that from all the main risks within the rage of 38-86 percent have been decreased. Moreover average of the risk level for the health, safety and environment cases showed a significant decrease (Pvalue<0.0001) by implement controlling and protective countermeasures compariy to the priority state without any measures.

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Conclusion: The risk assessment with hazards control strategy based on ISO 14121 is a compatible method in laboratory site as universities and other reasearch sites.

Introduction: work related musculoskeletal disorders are the most wide spread type of occupational diseases among workers. Awkward body postures during work and manual material handling are among the most important risk factors of musculoskeletal disorders in different jobs. Due to importance of recognizing these factors prevalence and risk factor of work related musculoskeletal disorders, this research was aimed to study the among employees of Kashan City’s Saipa automobile industry in 2011.

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Material and Method: This study is a descriptive-cross sectional study conducted among workers with manual material handling 37 activities and 84 work duties. To recognize musculoskeletal disorders, body map questionnaire was applied and occupational risk factors were evaluated using Key Index Method (KIM). Data was analyzed using SPSS and Excel software.

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Result: Highest prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders was in low and upper back region (%92). Based on the results from KIM, workers in the installing the tire, shuttle-aided fitting of seat, and engine work station had higher risk level with the scores of 66, 52 and 52, respectively. Risk level among three individuals (%3.6) was at 1, 40 (%47.6) at 2, 38 (%45.2) risk level 3, and 3 (%3.6) at 4.

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Conclusion: Awkward body posture, improper twisting and flexion of low back were major risk factor among worker doing manual material handling tasks. Regarding the high prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders, appropriate ergonomic interventions such as engineering and organization interactions can reduce this risk factors (posture, heavy load, duration, workplace conditions) as much as the risk level reach to an acceptable level.

Introduction: Agriculture is one of the oldest jobs in the world and almost 7-2 billion people all over the world are working in this field. In the field of agriculture workers may be always in danger, due exposure to various chemical and physical factors. Despite the dramatic technological developments in agricultural science, this field is still among one of the most dangerous workplaces in the world.

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Material and Method: This study is conducted in the suger cone industry. It is about agricultural machines and their major role in noise production. In order to identify the dominant- source index model was proposed.

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Result: All the agricultural machines were classified and the main characteristics of each group such as type of the machines, their number, the number of operators, and existence of cabin, were determined. Also operator's annual exposure to noise was measured according to the international standards. The data was analyzed with the proposed model formula, and the noise – source indices were calculated.

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Conclusion: The results show that the suger cane reaper poster case I H7000 has the highest noise- production index among all other agricultural equipments. So the suger cane reaper was identified as the main source of sound production in the agricultural industry. This machine in usually being used in harvesting the suger can farms. After identifying this device as the main source of sound in the suger can farming industry, a sound – controlling method was proposed in order to reduce the operator exposure in the caloin. First a fall, the noise frequently of the inside and outside of the cabin was analyzed in case the engine speed was 2100 rpm. After identifying the dominant frequency, the capacity of cabin sound reduction was determined with the usage of cabin transferring reduction index the proposed control method was based on increasing the absorption of the cabin. The results shows that the  Sound pressure level indices in the dominant frequencies of 125, 250, 500, 1000, 1000.2, 90.3 were respectively 100.2,90.3, 86.6,83.6 but after performing the control method the numbers were reduced to 82.1,75.2,80.5,80.2 in the other hand. Sound pressure level in frequencies of 8000, 4000, 2000 was below the permutable limit and does not cause significant dangers. So there will be no need for further reduction in noise levels.

Introduction: Every year thousands of people in Iran loss their lives in traffic accidents. Any those accidents, motorcycle accidents are fatal. Safety attitude is a predictor of risky behavior. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between personality, attitudes to safety and risky behaviors.

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Material and Method: In this study 254 motorcycle drivers were randomly selected in Tehran city, and they were asked to complete personality, the attitude to safety and risky behaviors questionnaire.

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Result: A statistically significant correlation was found between different domains of personality (fear, anger, Emotional styles, altruism, anomaly) and attitude to safety (traffic flow in obedience to the law, driving speed, driving excitement), (P = 0/001). Also between personality and attitude to safety the relationship was statistically significant (p = 0/001).

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Conclusion: Attitude to safety is a predictor for risky behavior. Personality also the impact indirectly on the attitude to safety have and risky behaviors.

Introduction: There are risk of fire accidents in Operating rooms during surgery. Experts estimate annually around 100 fire accidents occur in the operating rooms of United States’s hospitals. 10 to 20 of these accidents lead to severe injuries and about 1 to 2 lead to death. Despite such accidents rarely happen, but they can lead to serious injury or death of patients.

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Material and Method: This Cross-sectional questionnaire based survey was conducted among several hospitals belonged to Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. In this study, all personnel of operating rooms were investigated. Questionnaire were used to collect information and the chi-square test was applied to examine the relationship between the Knowledge of operating room personels on fire prevention and control methods, jobs and work experience. For statistical analysis SPSS14 were used.

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Result: In this study from 220 participants, about 19.72% had full awareness, 19.62% had partial knowledge, 19.37% had low awareness and 40.97% had no knowledge on fire prevention methods, concerning fire control methods. However, 76% of the participate had full awareness and 24% had no knowledge. Test result Statistically showed that the relationship between the awareness of operating room personnel to fire control methods and work experience were significant (P-value <0.05). But, the relationship between the knowledge of operating room to fire control methods and the type of jobs were not significant. Also no significant relationship were found between the level of awareness in operating room personnel to fire prevention methods, work experience and job title.

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Conclusion: The results indicated that the operating room staff awareness of fire prevention and control methods are low. The results also showed that awareness of fires prevention are lower than the awareness of fire control among the studied personel. Regarding to the potential risk of fire in the operating room, it is suggested that in order to increase awareness of vulnerable patients and personnel in operating conditions, measures like educational need assessment, training workshops on fire prevention and control methods should be implemented.

Introduction: In today comparative markets, the organizations and companies will be success that adopt the standards related to their all works and services. By thechnalization and machinism, we are witnessed of higher rate of industrial accidents as well as economic losses in everyday activities. Therefore, the need for occupational safety and health standards is future required, otherwise, a serious losses will rise for those organizations, accordingly.

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Material and Method: IIn this study, the threats, opportunities, weaknesses and strengths were evaluated by one of the tools named SWOT, in one of the assembly industries company in Iran, in order to controlling the operations in this company considering to safety and health standard (OHSAS18001). A comparison of the company’s performance in implementing the safety and health standards was done between years 1387 and 1388 contain in the Company considered, and weighted scoring weaknesses, strengths, threats and opportunities using the matrix of internal factors (strengths and weaknesses) and external factors (treats and opportunities) then, the importance of each factor were determined in the company’s implementation and enforcement of those standards.

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Result: Focusing on the strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats, some strategies to improve the implementation were presented. Any points were weighted based on the most important weaknesses identified as the lack of monitoring contractors, lack of management commitment for implementation of OHSAS18001, no attempt to identify the risks of change, lack of training needs assessment, main strengths identified in the context of adequate budget health and safety, environmental efforts, identify risk for abnormal conditions, the most important threats for immediate delivery customer orders and the opportunity to support the safety and health plans, were determined.

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Conclusion: Sum of the weighted scores in year 87 were obtained for the external factors (opportunities and threats), 2.16 and internal factors (strengths and weaknesses) 1.66. Both of these scores were less than 2.5 (minimum amount of the acceptable rate) so, the company has been poor performance in the implementation of this standard for the year 87 and a weak reaction in the use of opportunities and the minimize threats has. In case of internal factors, it was worse than external one and the situation was more bold of the weaknesses companies to the strengths and of the organization. But, in the year 88, due to changes in the organizational structure of the company, the weighted score for external factors 3.2 and for the internal factors was 3.64, indicating an improvement in the companies conditions.

Introduction: Occupational injuries and accidents as one of the problems have always been considered important in occupational environments. Domino model that Heinrich was formed to pursue the idea of the cause of the accident is the man. Thus one of the effective way to reduce accidents will be control by the unsafe behaviors among workers by promoting safety culture.

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Material and Method: In this descriptive - analytical study, the reliability and exploratory factor analysis was used to evaluate the reliability of the questionnaire. In total 303 questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS 17 software.

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Result: The alpha crumbed, coefficient was 0/86. Structural factor of the questionnaire was evaluated using factor analysis. KMO and Bartlett’s sphericity test coefficient were 0/909 and 9785/057, respectively. The varimax rotation showed that all test questions are based on factors.

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Conclusion: The results indicated favorable validity of this questionnaire for use in detergents and cleaners industries within the country. Considering the load factor safety culture in detergents and cleaners industries, contained 5 factors including “management commitment”, “education and information exchange,” “supportive environment”, “barriers” and “priority to safety”. The obtained the correlations, the highest positive correlation was belong to the “management commitment” (r=0/952), as the strongest correlation with the safety culture.

Introduction: Application of agricultural machineries such as tractor has been yielded a considerable development in different agricultural activities and productions. However, noticeable health problems such as noise pollution impact the users of these off-road vehicles. The purpose of this study was to determine the noise level induced by agricultural tractors and to evaluate the driver’s noise exposure level.

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Material and Method: The sound pressure levels of three brands of tractor include John Deere, Ferguson and Romani were measured by sound level meter model Tes-1358. The characteristics of place for measuring tractors noise pollution were determined based on the ISO standard No 7216, 5131. The acquired data was analyzed using spss16 software.

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Result: The results showed that the highest and the lowest noise level around the tractors were 83.8 dB (A) and 73.9 dB (A) for the John Deere and Romani, respectively. The effect of different transmission gears on the noise level of tractors was not statistically significant Pvalue>0.05. While, the effect of the tractor engine speeds on the noise level was statistically significant Pvalue<0.01. The exposure time of the most of drivers was frequently about 8 hour or more In this regards, the exposure levels of the tractor’s drivers to noise measured between 85-90 dB (A) were higher than the Iranian occupational exposure limit (85 dB (A)).Moreover, mean noise reduction rate of exsisting room which was used upon the typical tractor’s body was 9.5 dB in one octave band.

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Conclusion: Application of standard cockpit and expansion mufflers can effectively reduce noise pollution emission and driver’s occupational exposure. Moreover, regular preventive maintenance and effective hearing conservation program including annual audiometry, hearing protection device, occupational health training for drivers must be implemented.

Introduction: In last decades, due to the increase in the number of VDT works prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders has increased among users. One of the main risk factors for those problems might be related to the computer keyboards. Keyboards might lead to these problems, in different ways. Keyboard geometry is one of the main ways. As a result, the various types and shapes of personal computer keyboards have designed in order to provide a neutral or relaxed posture in the wrist and forearm areas. Slanted, sloped and tilted keyboards are the most important alternative keyboard designs for this mean.

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Material and Method: In this paper, with a systematic approach, related studies were searched in authentic databases and finally eleven studies met to our inclusion criteria for review.

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Result: findings in different studies showed that alternative keyboards clearly can provide an ergonomic neutral posture for the wrist and forearm. As a specific objective in the study, it was found that the best keyboard, to form an ideal posture for the wrist and forearm is ‘NIOSH keyboard‘ because of its ergonomic design.

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Conclusion: Considering the positive effect of the alternative keyboards on the wrist and forearm postures, it is concluded that use of the alternative keyboards can decrease risk factors related to the wrist and forearm postures. Results can be applied by personal computer users, computer designers, occupational hygienists and ergonomists.

Introduction: According to the literature, a large number of people working in industries and service providing personnel, such as firefighters, physicians, and nurses, are shift workers. The spread of shift working in industrial societies and the incidence of the problems resulting from shift working have caused the researchers to conduct studies on this issue. The present study also aimed to investigate melatonin and cortisol circadian rhythms in the security guards of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.

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Material and Method: The present study was conducted among 20 security guards of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. In order to collect the required data, blood samples were taken from the participants in different times of the day (1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, and 22) and cortisol and melatonin levels were determined using radioimmunoassay and enzyme immunoassay techniques, respectively. Then, the data were entered into the SPSS statistical software (v. 16.0) and analyzed using One-Way ANOVA.

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Result: The results showed that as the intensity of light increased during night time, the level of plasma cortisol increased, as well. Besides, no statistically significant difference was found between the plasma cortisol levels in natural light and 4500-lux light. On the other hand, a significant difference was observed between the level of plasma cortisol in natural light and 9000-lux light as well as 4500- and 9000-lux lights. The study findings also showed that as the intensity of light increased at night, the level of plasma melatonin decreased. In addition, a statistically significant difference was found between the plasma melatonin levels in natural light and 4500-lux light. Nevertheless, no significant difference was observed between the plasma melatonin levels in natural light and 9000-lux light as well as 4500- and 9000-lux lights.

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Conclusion: The present study aimed to investigate the subsequences of shift working in the security guards of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences and showed that occupational exposure to bright light could affect some biological markers, such as melatonin and cortisol secretion.

Introduction: Because of some important advantages such as creation job opportunities and providing raw material for some industries, animal husbandry plays an important role in Iran. According to the work force statistics, there are considerable number of employees working in animal husbandries sections. However, there is few information concerning cattle husbandry unit sanitations and workers health and safety condition. The aim of this project was to investigate the health and safety condition of cattle husbandry units and their workers in Babol.

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Material and Method: This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among all the traditional and industrial cattle husbandry units (n=52) in the rural area of Babol city during winter 2010. The data were collected from all of the active cattle husbandry units, and inactive units were omitted from the sample list. The data were gathered by means of tailor-made data collection sheet through an interview and direct inspection done by the environmental health technicians. The data analyzed using descriptive statistical indexes and Chi- square test, and p<0.05 was considered as significant.

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Result: The findings indicated that the mean value of years of work experience was 15.1±12.9 years and 30% of workers were illiterate. Immunization against tetanus was 43%. Only one fourth of the workers had health card and 36% had periodic medical examinations. More than 55% of the participants had not passed health and safety orientation courses. Almost half of the workers experienced work related accidents and 60% of the units had no hygienic toilets. According to Chi-square test result, there were significant statistical correlations between the level of education and years of experience by complying with some health and safety rules.

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Conclusion: Our results indicated that, more attention should be given to educational programs about health issues and a serious supervision of health legislations is necessary.

Introduction: The compliance of Health, Safety and Environment Management System (HSE-MS) requirements and proper HSE performance of employees, are the affecting factors on the organizations prosperity. The objective of present research was to determine the relationship between organizational culture and personnel HSE performance at Saipa Car Manufacturing Company.

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Material and Method: The present research was a deccriptive – correlative study. The Study population of this research were the manufacturing employees of Saipa car manufacturing company (N= 4865). Among the manufacturing employees, 365 employees were chosen as the sample beside on statistical estamination. Data was collected using a questionnaire which had three parts: demographic data, organazational culture and personnel HSE performance indicators. In order to convert the qualitative values of the questionnaire to the quantitative ones, the triangular Fuzzy numbers has been used. The data collected by observation and self- answering method then be analyzed using descriptive statistical tests and Spearman correlation coefficient, considering the relative importance of the indicators obtained form HSE experts’ comments.

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Result: Among the organizational culture indicators of Siapa car manufacturing company, control indicator (with the average score of 0.55) and among the personnel HSE performance indicators of Saipa company, performance indicator (with the average score of 0.66) had better situation, compared to other variebles. The results showed that there is a significant relationship between personnel HSE performance and organizational culture indicators except for Bonus System indicator (with the significant level of 0.112).

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Conclusion: Considering the significant relationship between personnel HSE performance and organizational culture in the studied company, paying more attention to the organizational culture will accordingly improve the personnel HSE performance. Moreover, by improveing and optimizing the cultural indicators, which have the greatest impact on personnel HSE performance a better organizational culture and personnel HSE performance mey be achived in the Saipa company in the future.

Introduction: Occupational injuries are among factors that cause death and disability of thousands individuals in the workplace. Thus, identifying the influential factors of occupational injuries is of paramount importance. Previous researches have indicated that transformational leadership style has an essential role in occupational injuries. Consequently, the aim of the current study is to investigate the role of transformational leadership style in predicting occupational injuries among Esfahan Steel’s employees.

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Material and Method: The current descriptive-correlation study was conducted among 189 Esfahan Steel’s employees in 2012. They were randomly selected through Stratified sampling. Data were collected using transformational leadership style questionnaire (Bass and Avolio, 1990), safety consciousness inventory (Barling, et al., 2002) and safety-related events and occupational injuries questionnaire (Barling, et al., 2002). The obtained data were analyzed thorough descriptive Statistics methods, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients, and regression analysis by SPSS 18.

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Result: The findings of the study showed that transformational leadership style had a significant correlation with safety consciousness and safety-related events (P< 0.05). The Results of regression analysis showed that transformational leadership style reduced the occupational injuries through increasing safety consciousness and reducing safety-related events.

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Conclusion: The present study emphasizes the importance of transformational leadership style and its instruction to mangers and supervisor. The consequences as well as the suggestion for the further study are discussed in this article.

Introduction: Job satisfaction of nurses hasalwaysbeenconcernedin hospitals. It influences the quality of services offered by the nurses. Many nurses leave their job mainly due to the lack ofjob satisfaction.Different factors including the health and safety at work influencejob satisfaction. Thisstudy aimed to evaluate the occupational safety and health status of Khorram Abad’s Shohada hospital and to study its relationship with job satisfaction of nurses there.

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Material and Method: This descriptive-correlation study was carried out in Khorram Abad’s Shohada hospital. All (239)nurses working in 18wards of the hospital were participated in the study. The required data including individual and job characteristics, occupational safety and healthstatus as well as job satisfaction in terms of hospital nurses were collected using standard questionnaire. Collected data was analyzed with SPSS.19, using Kruskal-Wallis,Mann-Whitney and Spearman correlation tests.

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Result: The results showed that the occupational safety and health status of the hospital in 4 different studied areas were in a low level (with an average point of 23.2±5.3) from the participant’s point of view. The job satisfaction of nurses was also low (with an average point of 31.8±5.4). The safety and occupational health status of the hospital had a significant relationship with the nurse’s job satisfaction (P=0.001).

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Conclusion: The job satisfaction of the nurses as well as the occupational safety and health status of the hospital need to be promoted.

Introduction: Eye discomforts and headache are prevalent among computer users. The aim of present study was to determine eye discomforts and headache associated with computer use among dormitory students of Tehran University of Medical Sciences.

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Material and Method: In this cross – sectional study, data were collected using MIRTH (Musculo skeletal Injury Reduction Tools for Health and Safety) questionnaire. The results were Analyzed using SPSS Software and with descriptive statistical indexes as well as correlation test.

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Result: of the 744 distributed questionnaires, 631 students completed the questionnaire (84.4%). The mean age for the studied population was 22.72± 3.6 years. The relative frequency of eye discomforts for the female and male student was 76.38% and 70.11% respectively. The correlation test showed significant relationship between eye discomforts as well as headache with gender, work hours’ with a computer per day and glass use (P-V < 0.05). Also, the correlation between eye discomforts and headache was statistically significant (P-V < 0.01).

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Conclusion: Eye discomforts and headache relating to the computer uses are prevalent among students. The condition is more prevalent among females and prolonged computer users. Interventional and training programs should be considered to prevent and reduction of related problems.

Introduction: Emergency situation is one of the influencing factors on human error. The aim of this research was purpose to evaluate human error in emergency situation of fire and explosion at the oil company warehouse in Hamadan city applying human error probability index (HEPI).

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Material and Method: First, the scenario of emergency situation of those situation of fire and explosion at the oil company warehouse was designed and then maneuver against, was performed. The scaled questionnaire of muster for the maneuver was completed in the next stage. Collected data were analyzed to calculate the probability success for the 18 actions required in an emergency situation from starting point of the muster until the latest action to temporary sheltersafe.

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Result: The result showed that the highest probability of error occurrence was related to make safe workplace (evaluation phase) with 32.4 % and lowest probability of occurrence error in detection alarm (awareness phase) with 1.8 %, probability. The highest severity of error was in the evaluation phase and the lowest severity of error was in the awareness and recovery phase. Maximum risk level was related to the evaluating exit routes and selecting one route and choosy another exit route and minimum risk level was related to the four evaluation phases.

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Conclusion: To reduce the risk of reaction in the exit phases of an emergency situation, the following actions are recommended, based on the finding in this study: A periodic evaluation of the exit phase and modifying them if necessary, conducting more maneuvers and analyzing this results along with a sufficient feedback to the employees.

Introduction: Exposure to respirable fraction of cement dust and its crystalline silica content is the most important occupational risk factor in cement industries requiring more evaluation and monitoring. This study aimed to assess exposure to crystalline silica and cement dust among workers of a cement industry in Saveh city, Iran.

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Material and Method: In this cross-sectional study, 62 samples of respirable dust were collected from breathing zone of the workers in different sections of factory. Determination of respirable fraction of cement dust concentrations carried out using gravimetric method according to the NIOSH method no. 0600. Visible absorption spectrophotometry was used according to the NIOSH method no. 7601 to determine crystalline silica content of respirable dust samples.

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Result: The highest exposure concentrations to respirable fraction of cement dust was observed in the Raw Mill and Cement Mill, and the lowest exposure in Administrative Department and Kiln the range of workers exposure in the production sites were 1.77 to 18.89 mg/m3. The range of workers exposure to the crystalline silica in the production sites was 0.011 to 0.104 mg/m3. The highest and lowest mean of exposures was observed in the raw Mill and cement mill respectively. Occupational exposure to the crystalline silica in 57% of site samples exceeded adjusted TLV recommended by NIOSH and Iranian of Occupational Health Technical Committee (0.05 mg/m3). The average of free SiO2 fraction in whole site samples was 1.17% varying from 0.49% in the cement Mill to 1.53% and 1.7% in crusher and Kiln sections, respectively

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Conclusion: Levels of exposure to cement respirable dust in all productive sections were significantly higher than the adjusted TLV. However, in administrative and control departments it was lower than the TLV level. Regarding crystalline silica, levels of exposure only in “Raw mill” and “kiln” were significantly higher than the adjusted TLV. Highest exposure concentrations to respirable fraction of cement dust recorded in Raw Mill and cement mill, and exposure to crystalline silica in raw Mill, Crusher and kiln, Therefore, preventive measures should primarily be targeted at these units.

Introduction: Train driving is a high responsibility job in railway industry. Train drivers need different cognitive functions such as vigilance, object detection, memory, planning, decision-making. High level of fatigue is one of the caused factor of accidents among train drivers. Numerous factors can impact train drivers’ fatigue but high level of workload is a key factor. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate workload and its relationship with fatigue among train drivers in Keshesh section of Iranian Railway Company.

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Material and Method: This descriptive analytical study was done among 100 train drivers in Keshesh section of Iranian Railway industry. They were selected by simple random sampling. The NASA-TLX workload scale and Samn-Perelli fatigue scale were respectively used to investigate workload and fatigue. Data were analyzed by Paired t-test and Spearman correlation coefficient.

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Result: According to the NASA-TLX results, effort and mental workload with the mean score of 74/22 and 73/31 were respectively the most important attributes of workload among train drivers. No significant relationship was observed between workload and level of fatigue before departure and half an hour before reaching the destination station (P>0.05). However, the relationship between of workload and level of fatigue half an hour before the end of shift (on the way back to the origin station) was statistically significant (P=0.048) among the sample population.

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Conclusion: Effort and mental workload were the most important attributes of workload among train drivers. By focusing on these two variables and adopting fatigue management programs, fatigue and workload can be controlled and the efficiency of the whole system can be enhanced accordingly.

Introduction: Today’s, defective and faulty equipments lose a large part of them energy as noise and vibration which beside their financial costs can be hazardous to the health of people. Vibration as a physical agent can cause an adverse health effect on human to nervous system. These effects, based on body region can be as specific or general systems. Digestion system has a natural vibration of 3-8Hz frequency. When the digestive system is exposed by such vibration, it can make impairment on that system. This study aimed to study vibration effect on digestion irregularities.

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Material and Method: This was a retrospective case-control study conducted in a food industry. The number of 103 workers digestive problem and 431 healthy workers were selected as population study. Exposure to the vibration in the different parts were measured. People with more than 100 dB was considered exposed group. Then, after determining the number of exposed and non exposed groups, data were analyzed using statistical methodologies.

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Result: The acceleration level of vibration was 109.8 dB in the packing section, which was less than standard limit (118.8 dB). Study population had a managed of 24-57 years old with 4-15 years of job tenure. In 59.2% of case comparing to 22.7% of control group were exposed to the vibration. The odds ratio (OR) of prevalence rate of digestive problem among exposed group was 6.3 times more than non exposed group people, in risk of gastrointestinal complications.

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Conclusion: Beside of the other risk factors of digestive problem, vibration can be also an effective cause of adverse health problem: Even by lower level of digestive problem can be seen in the exposed people. So, we suggest in the workplace with vibration risk factor, a digestive health exam be take general medical beside periodic examination. Moreover, it is recommended that researches related to the vibration is widely developed and the vibration standard limits is revised, accordingly.