Journal of Health and Safety at Work

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Introduction: Permit-to-work system (PTW) system is a documented system to control the activities with inherent risks and probability of accident occurrence. To inform the performance and efficiency of a system, it must be periodically monitored and evaluated, and the permit to work system is no exception of this principle. The aim of the present study was to design and develop software for evaluating the performance of the PTW system.
Material and Methods: This study included two main stages. At the first stage, based on the literature review and interview to the academic and industrial experts, the PTW questionnaire for evaluating the performance was created. The second stage involved the design and implementation of an initial version of a software and the investigation of its usability. Designing the software was performed using system development life cycle (SDLC). The usability of this software was evaluated by Think -Aloud method. Finally, the users’ satisfaction was measured using the Questionnaire for User Interface Satisfaction (QUIS) questionnaire.
Results: Based on the results of the QUIS questionnaire, the overall satisfaction of the designed software was 7.71 in a nine-point scale. The scores of the software performance, display and user interface features, software terminology and information, learning, and overall system capabilities were obtained as 7.58, 7.37, 7.75, 8.11, and 7.74, respectively. Also, the outputs of the excel and SPSS software were in accordance with those of designed software, which show the reliability of the outputs of the designed software.
Conclusion: The designed software facilitate the proper and systematic analysis and it is flexible to evaluate the PTW system and represent types of reports in predefined structures that can be a useful tool in the process industries such as oil and petrochemical refineries and other similar industries.

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Introduction: One of the essential and critical elements for efficient and effective management of emergencies is anticipation and identification of possible types of emergencies. As such, a framework for anticipating and identifying emergencies was designed and tested in two process industries in the form of a case study.
Material and Methods: At first, methods for identifying emergency preparedness and their evaluation criteria were extracted and prioritized with a two-stage fuzzy approach. A fuzzy inference system was then used to calculate the weight of the experts’ opinions. To prioritize the methods, the inputs related to the second fuzzy system were estimated and the final score of the methods was calculated by entering the mentioned variables into the fuzzy system.
Results: The findings pertaining to the final ranking of the methods indicated that, “list of catastrophic accidents and near-misses of the organization’s lifespan”, “MIMAH” and “risk assessment and management” had the highest scores among the identified methods with the final scores of 0.754, 0.750 and 0.725, respectively.
Conclusion: Using this approach will help in more accurate identification of potential emergencies. Consequently, this will lead to the prevention of imposed damages caused by the situation as well as making the wrong investments by eliminating low-priority emergencies.

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Introduction: For years, chemical process industries have reported the unexpected release of highly hazardous liquids and gases. A disaster could not be avoided when these materials were not adequately controlled. The issue of Process Safety Management (PSM) is still being discussed in developing and developed countries. PSM was established to manage the risks of a company’s personnel, properties, products, environment, and credit risks. This study aimed to review the challenges and achievements of PSM implementation and provide recommendations for improvement.
Material and Methods: A collection of scholarly articles published from 2000 to 2023, such as Science Direct, WOS, PubMed, and Scopus, was chosen through a systematic, meticulous review. After thoroughly examining these abstracts, titles, and complete contexts, 49 articles were finally selected for inclusion in the study and classified based on different criteria, such as publication year, authors, achievements, and challenges.
Results: PSM in the United States has been chiefly studied due to the high number of chemical process industries and its presence in the form of OSHA legislation in this country. The areas of operations, audits, and resources have the most challenges in implementing PSM. On the other hand, reducing the severity of incidents in chemical processes and increasing productivity are considered the most significant achievements of PSM implementation.
Conclusion: PSM as an interdisciplinary field has improved  and become more effective over the years.. However, incidents still exist, and the number can increase, considering the growth of industries’ chemical processes. Therefore, a deep look at the issues of risk-based regulations, competency, operational excellence, and learning from incidents is necessary to achieve excellence in PSM.

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Introduction: Barriers play a critical role in mitigating risks and preventing catastrophic incidents in process industries. Human and Organizational Factors (HOFs) significantly influence the performance of safety barriers. This systematic review investigates existing frameworks and methods for assessing the impact of HOFs on safety barrier performance.
Material and Methods: A systematic search was conducted across the Scopus and Web of Science databases, following the PRISMA guidelines. The search aimed to identify studies presenting methodologies for evaluating the influence of HOFs on safety barrier performance in process industries. Data were subsequently extracted from the 16 included studies.
Results: The 16 studies included in this research presented various methods and frameworks examining the impact of HOFs on different types of safety barriers, including technical, operational, and human barriers, across industries such as oil and gas, chemical, and steel. Barrier and Operational Risk Analysis (BORA) emerged as the predominant framework among the studies. Research on operational and human barriers, which depend on human actions and procedures, frequently identified factors such as competence, training, communication, and supervision as key influencers of performance. In contrast, studies on technical barriers highlighted the importance of assessing factors such as maintenance management and procedural compliance.
Conclusion: This research highlights the critical role of HOFs in safety barrier performance within process industries. By systematically reviewing existing methodologies, the study identified their strengths and weaknesses. Findings underscore the need to account for uncertainties in expert judgments and the interplay between HOFs in evaluation models. The integration of fuzzy logic and Bayesian networks is proposed to enhance evaluation processes. Future research should prioritize the development of unified frameworks that address the limitations of current approaches while expanding their applicability across diverse industries.