Safety, Volume 7, Issue 4 (December 2021) – 19 articles

This research aims to help develop aviation safety policies for the general aviation industry, especially for flight training schools. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP), fuzzy AHP, and fuzzy integral methods were used to find variables that impact aviation safety for training pilots in Korea and the United States using survey participants’ experience and perceptions. The results represent the circumstances of aviation safety in the real world where single pilot resource management, especially situational awareness, is crucial. The authors find that integral fuzzy AHP provides more explicit considerations, making up for the ambiguity of the linguistic responses caused by the AHP and fuzzy AHP. Full article

Older adults (aged 65 or older) are at higher risk of involvement in motor vehicle crashes. Many studies have been conducted on older road users’ safety, but how older people’s driving behavior and demographic characteristics, and warnings of side effects of prescription medication, are associated with their crash risk has not been fully investigated. Aimed to address this knowledge gap, a mail survey of older drivers in Illinois, U.S. was conducted. Information on respondents’ driving behaviors, demographic characteristics, physical conditions, medication use, crash experience, etc. was gathered. Response distributions, odds ratios, and logistic regression models were employed to analyze the survey data. The results showed that most respondents kept a high level of mobility despite driving difficulty and medication use. Older drivers’ crash risk is mainly affected by external factors (driving exposure, alcohol consumption, and medication use) rather than their demographic characteristics and driving difficulty. Warnings from physicians on the side effects of prescription drugs had no significant effects on older drivers’ crash risk. Given the importance of mobility to older adults, the focus needs to be placed on providing a safe roadway system and safe driving advice for older drivers, particularly those who are on medication. Full article

The collapse of a 30-year-old hotel building in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province on 12 July 2021 raised legitimate questions about the identification of old buildings’ condition and risks stemming from remedial operations. This short communication reports and investigates the causes of this accident, which led to 17 deaths and 5 injuries. Subsequently, it describes the rescue actions undertaken, including logistic means, operational strategies, and procedure sequencing. The causes of the accident were attributed to: (i) the poor quality and fragility of the building, (ii) illegal renovations and extensions, as well as (iii) the laxism of relevant departments that failed to timely check the risk level of the building before these renovations. Thanks to efficient organization and management, the rescue operations were completed within 42 h. Based on this preliminary analysis, some recommendations are proposed to prevent similar incidents in the future. Full article

A huge gas explosion occurred on 13 June 2021 in Shiyan City, China, resulting in 25 casualties and serious injuries to 37 people. The main victims of this explosion were stall keepers and customers buying breakfast and fresh vegetables in the food market. There is a continuous need to enhance the understanding of such unfortunate events, given the dangers they pose. This study analyzes the causes of this accident considering the general background and scenes of the explosion, and then describes the rescue operations undertaken. The investigation results revealed that the explosion was caused by the poor maintenance of gas facilities and negligence of safety regulations. It is, therefore, recommended that the control of these two main aspects be strengthened to reduce the recurrence of such unfortunate accidents. Full article

Recently, the shipping industry has been under increasing pressure to improve its environmental impact with a target of a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, compared to the 2008 levels. For this reason, great attention has been placed on alternative zero-carbon fuels, specifically ammonia, which is considered a promising solution for shipping decarbonisation. In this respect, a novel ammonia-powered fuel-cell configuration is proposed as an energy-efficient power generation configuration with excellent environmental performance. However, there are safety and reliability concerns of the proposed ammonia-powered system that need to be addressed prior to its wider acceptance by the maritime community. Therefore, this is the first attempt to holistically examine the safety, operability, and reliability of an ammonia fuel-cell-powered ship, while considering the bunkering and fuel specifications. The proposed methodology includes the novel combination of a systematic preliminary hazard identification process with a functional and model-based approach for simulating the impact of various hazards. Furthermore, the critical faults and functional failures of the proposed system are identified and ranked according to their importance. This work can be beneficial for both shipowners and policymakers by introducing technical innovation and for supporting the future regulatory framework. Full article

In organic agriculture, synthetic pesticides and treatments are substituted by natural remedies with interesting success for product yield and environmental outcomes, but the safety of these bio-based products needs to be assessed in vertebrate and human models. Therefore, in this paper we assessed the safety profile of sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) wood distillate (WD) on the different cellular components of tissues implied in transcutaneous absorption. We investigated the viability of different cell lines mimicking the skin (HaCaT keratinocytes), mucosa (A431), connective (normal human dermal fibroblasts, NHDF) and vascular (human umbilical vein endothelial cells, HUVEC) tissues after exposure to increasing concentrations (0.04–0.5%, v/v, corresponding to 1:2800–1:200 dilutions) of WD. A short exposure to increasing doses of WD was well tolerated up to the highest concentration. Instead, following a prolonged treatment, a concentration dependent cytotoxic effect was observed. Notably, a different behavior was found with the various cell lines, with higher sensitivity to cytotoxicity by the cells with higher proliferation rate and reduced doubling time (human keratinocytes). Moreover, to exclude an inflammatory effect at the not cytotoxic WD concentrations, the expression of the main inducible markers of inflammation, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and microsomal prostaglandin E synthase-1 (mPGES-1), were assessed, and no improvement was found both after brief and prolonged exposure. In conclusion, our data exclude any inflammatory and cytotoxic effect at the lowest WD concentrations, namely 0.07% and 0.04%, mimicking some recommended dilutions of the product and the potential exposure doses for the operators in agriculture. Nevertheless, higher concentrations showed a safe profile for short time usage, but caution should be used by farmers following persistent product exposure. Full article

Strengthening the learning culture and the safeguards in organizations can enhance safety and performance in preventing incidents. The effective implementation of human performance improvement and operational learning can support the organization in achieving these goals. However, there is no streamlined implementation framework that considers the alignment of strategic and tactical actions in the management system cycle to implement human performance improvement and operational learning. This paper presents an implementation framework that fills the above gaps. It consists of four steps: (1) establish/validate a strategic objective, (2) conduct an assessment, (3) develop a plan, and (4) execute the plan. The proposed framework also includes a site tour phase during operational learning as an alternative to storytelling, which has an inherent bias. This framework was tested in the land transportation system of one of Indonesia’s biggest oil producers. Full article

The utilization of risk acceptance criteria (RAC) can help a business to judge whether the risk level concerning any process involved in its working environment is acceptable or not, especially when the risk has a significant societal impact. Thus, the main intention of this study is to make known the current state-of-the-art concerning RACs and to propose new interpretations of it by surveying, for first time, the scientific literature about the RACs associated with the occupational health and safety (OHS) risk-assessment methodologies (RAA). A second objective of this work is the attainment of a prediction for the evolution of the quantity of the publications concerning OHS-RACs, and a third one is the derivation of an algorithm (via a flow-chart) in order to illustrate the process of the formation of new OHS-RACs. The work consists of two parts, (a) exploring and presenting methods of developing RACs in OHS; (b) classifying, analyzing, and benchmarking relevant published scientific articles by surveying the Scopus data base with proper search-hints, through a time interval of 20 years (January2000–December 2019). The review has defined a plethora of RAC-papers with reference to OHS, which is a remarkable percentage in comparison with the other fields aggregated, and this outcome proves that the issue of utilizing RACs is fundamental for the field of OHS. Additionally, it has been deduced that, day after day, there is an increasing tendency for the scientific community to develop and use RACs in the field of occupational safety, as this is evident by their frequent reference to the risk analysis and assessment (RAA) process. Our specific research methodology has been compatible with the PRISMA protocol. A prediction for the evolution of the quantity of the OHS-RAC publications is also given by confirming the Poisson stochastic process. Finally, we propose a generic guideline framework that can contribute to the establishment of new empirically-generated OHS-RACs. Full article

Injuries sustained while performing electrical work are a significant threat to the health and safety of workers and occur frequently. In some jurisdictions, non-fatal serious incidents have increased in recent years. Although significant work has been carried out on electrical safety from a human factor perspective, reviews of this literature are sparse. Thus, the purpose of this review is to collate and summarize human factors implicated in electrical safety events. Articles were collected from three databases (Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar), using the search terms: safety, electri*, human factors, and arc flash. Titles and abstracts were screened, full-text reviews were conducted, and 18 articles were included in the final review. Quality checks were undertaken using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool and the Critical Appraisal Skills Program. Environmental, individual, team, organizational, and macro factors were identified in the literature as factors which shape frontline electrical worker behavior, highlighting the complexity of injury prevention. The key contributions of this paper include: (1) a holistic and integrated summary of human factors implicated in electrical safety events, (2) the application of an established theoretical model to explain dynamic forces implicated in electrical safety incidents, and (3) several practical implications and recommendations to improve electrical safety. It is recommended that this framework is used to develop and test future interventions at the individual, team, organizational, and regulator level to mitigate risk and create meaningful and sustainable change in the electrical safety space. Full article

Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) systems are often implemented seeking for reducing risk of Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WMSD) development and increasing productivity. The challenge is to successfully implement an industrial HRC to manage those factors, considering that non-linear behaviors of complex systems can produce counterintuitive effects. Therefore, the aim of this study was to design a decision-making framework considering the key ergonomic methods and using a computational model for simulations. It considered the main systemic influences when implementing a collaborative robot (cobot) into a production system and simulated scenarios of productivity and WMSD risk. In order to verify whether the computational model for simulating scenarios would be useful in the framework, a case study in a manual assembly workstation was conducted. The results show that both cycle time and WMSD risk depend on the Level of Collaboration (LoC). The proposed framework helps deciding which cobot to implement in a context of industrial assembly process. System dynamics were used to understand the actual behavior of all factors and to predict scenarios. Finally, the framework presented a clear roadmap for the future development of an industrial HRC system, drastically reducing risk management in decision-making. Full article

The ergonomic assessment of adopted working postures is essential for avoiding musculoskeletal risk factors in manufacturing contexts. Several observational methods based on external analyst observations are available; however, they are relatively subjective and suffer low repeatability. Over the past decade, the digitalization of this assessment has received high research interest. Robotic applications have the potential to lighten workers’ workload and improve working conditions. Therefore, this work presents a musculoskeletal risk assessment before and after robotic implementation in an assembly workstation. We also emphasize the importance of using novel and non-intrusive technologies for musculoskeletal risk assessment. A kinematic study was conducted using inertial motion units (IMU) in a convenience sample of two workers during their normal performance of assembly work cycles. The musculoskeletal risk was estimated according to a semi-automated solution, called the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) report. Based on previous musculoskeletal problems reported by the company, the assessment centered on the kinematic analysis of functional wrist movements (flexion/extension, ulnar/radial deviation, and pronation/supination). The results of the RULA report showed a reduction in musculoskeletal risk using robotic-assisted assembly. Regarding the kinematic analysis of the wrist during robotic-assisted tasks, a significant posture improvement of 20–45% was registered (considering the angular deviations relative to the neutral wrist position). The results obtained by direct measurements simultaneously reflect the workload and individual characteristics. The current study highlights the importance of an in-field instrumented assessment of musculoskeletal risk and the limitations of the system applied (e.g., unsuitable for tracking the motion of small joints, such as the fingers). Full article

Abu Dhabi’s government has taken several initiatives to improve the safety of the city’s highways, such as reducing traffic accident occurrence, red light violations, and property damage associated with traffic accidents. However, the intersections are still associated with many severe accidents, property damage associated with accidents, and red light violations. To help authorities pinpoint the major contributors to the deterioration of the safety performance of the signalized junctions, this study employed a negative binomial regression model to investigate the effect of geometric road conditions (in terms of the number of lanes of streets found in four-leg, three-leg, and different types of intersection) on property damage, red light violations, and severe accidents as safety performance indicators. The research found that, in both three-leg and four-leg intersections, most accidents and traffic light violations occur when minor streets pass through the intersection. This can be solved by converting these minor streets into major streets by increasing the number of lanes. This way, the capability of the minor street’s handling of increased traffic from the major streets significantly increases. The results also show that traffic speed is a major contributor to safety performance deterioration in these intersections. This can be solved by posting speed limits at these intersections. Results have also shown that, in Direction 1, when the main street passes through the intersection, the property damage type of accident is significantly high. This may be due to the presence of a potentially hazardous property or road design flaws on that side of the road. This effect needs further investigation to determine the hazardous property or the road design flaws causing these accidents. Full article

Even though validation is an important concept in safety research, there is comparatively little empirical research on validating specific safety assessment, assurance, and ensurance activities. Focusing on model-based safety analysis, scant work exists to define approaches to assess a model’s adequacy for its intended use. Rooted in a wider concern for evidence-based safety practices, this paper intends to provide an understanding of the extent of this problem of lack of validation to establish a baseline for future developments. The state of the practice in validation of model-based safety analysis in socio-technical systems is analyzed through an empirical study of relevant published articles in the Safety Science journal spanning a decade (2010–2019). A representative sample is first selected using the PRISMA protocol. Subsequently, various questions concerning validation are answered to gain empirical insights into the extent, trends, and patterns of validation in this literature on model-based safety analysis. The results indicate that no temporal trends are detected in the ratio of articles in which models are validated compared to the total number of papers published. Furthermore, validation has no clear correlation with the specific model type, safety-related concept, different system life cycle stages, industries, or with the countries from which articles originate. Furthermore, a wide variety of terminology for validation is observed in the studied articles. The results suggest that the safety science field concerned with developing and applying models in safety analyses would benefit from an increased focus on validation. Several directions for future work are discussed. Full article

There is a worldwide interest in implementing collaborative robots (Cobots) to reduce work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WMSD) risk. While prior work in this field has recognized the importance of considering Ergonomics & Human Factors (E&HF) in the design phase, most works tend to highlight workstations’ improvements due to Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC). Based on a literature review, the current study summarises studies where E&HF was considered a requirement rather than an output. In this article, the authors are interested in understanding the existing studies focused on Cobots’ implementation with ergonomic requirements, and the methods applied to design safer collaborative workstations. This review was performed in four prominent publications databases: Scopus, Web of Science, Pubmed, and Google Scholar, searching for the keywords ‘Collaborative robots’ or ‘Cobots’ or ‘HRC’ and ‘Ergonomics’ or ‘Human factors’. Based on the inclusion criterion, 20 articles were reviewed, and the main conclusions of each are provided. Additionally, the focus was given to the segmentation between studies considering E&HF during the design phase of HRC systems and studies applying E&HF in real-time on HRC systems. The results demonstrate the novelty of this topic, especially of the real-time applications of ergonomics as a requirement. Globally, the results of the reviewed studies showed the potential of E&HF requirements integrated into HRC systems as a relevant input for reducing WMSD risk. Full article

Poor cockpit monitoring has been identified as an important contributor to aviation accidents. Improving pilots’ monitoring strategies could therefore help to enhance flight safety. During two different sessions, we analyzed the flight performance and eye movements of professional airline pilots in a full-flight simulator. In a pre-training session, 20 pilots performed a manual approach scenario as pilot flying (PFs) and were classified into three groups according to their flight performance: unstabilized, standard, and most accurate. The unstabilized pilots either under- or over-focused various instruments. Their number of visual scanning patterns was lower than those of pilots who managed to stabilize their approach. The most accurate pilots showed a higher perceptual efficiency with shorter fixation times and more fixations on important primary flight instruments. Approximately 10 months later, fourteen pilots returned for a post-training session. They received a short training program and performed a similar manual approach as during the pre-training session. Seven of them, the experimental group, received individual feedback on their own performance and visual behavior (i.e., during the pre-training session) and a variety of data obtained from the most accurate pilots, including an eye-tracking video showing efficient visual scanning strategies from one of the most accurate pilots. The other seven, the control group, received general guidelines on cockpit monitoring. During the post-training session, the experimental group had better flight performance (compared to the control group), and its visual scanning strategies became more similar to those of the most accurate pilots. In summary, our results suggest that cockpit monitoring underlies manual flight performance and that it can be improved using a training program based mainly on exposure to eye movement examples from highly accurate pilots. Full article

Several research studies conducted in North America and Europe have consistently shown that converting signalized intersections into roundabouts leads to safety benefits. These studies have led North American and European transportation agencies to convert hundreds of signalized intersections into roundabouts over the last few decades. Meanwhile, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, the largest emirate in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has replaced many of its long-standing roundabouts with signalized intersections (i.e., controlled by traffic lights) despite the fact that no UAE-based scientific study comparing the safety performance of these two intersection types can be found in the literature. Hence, the objectives of this paper are to (i) identify factors that significantly contribute to fatal intersection-related crashes and (ii) assess the in-service safety performance of signalized intersections and roundabouts. It is anticipated that the findings from this research will provide road designers and decision-makers with much needed scientific guidance on which factors contribute to fatal intersection crashes as well as on whether converting existing roundabouts into signalized intersections improves public safety or not in Abu Dhabi. The findings from this research should also benefit neighboring Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries considering their similarities in road design, traffic characteristics, and driving culture. Full article

The presented state of the art can be intended as an overview of the current understandings and the remaining challenges on the phenomenological aspects involving systems operating at ultra-low temperature, which typically characterize the cryogenic fuels, i.e., liquefied natural gas and liquefied hydrogen. To this aim, thermodynamic, kinetic, and technological aspects were included and integrated. Either experimental or numerical techniques currently available for the evaluation of safety parameters and the overall reactivity of systems at cryogenic temperatures were discussed. The main advantages and disadvantages of different alternatives were compared. Theoretical background and suitable models were reported given possible implementation to the analyzed conditions. Attention was paid to models describing peculiar phenomena mainly relevant at cryogenic temperatures (e.g., para-to-ortho transformation and thermal stratification in case of accidental release) as well as critical aspects involving standard phenomena (e.g., ultra-low temperature combustion and evaporation rate). Full article

Communication campaigns are commonly used in the traffic and road safety sector to raise public awareness of the importance of avoiding risky road user attitudes and behaviors. Surprisingly few of these communication campaigns evaluate their effectiveness in a formal and comprehensive manner. The core aim of the present systematic review is to identify the type of studies that evaluate the effectiveness of campaigns in this sector, in order to identify and contrast their main findings. This systematic review followed the PRISMA methodology, by means of which the relevant articles based on the search term were identified. A total of 613 indexed articles were filtered, and a final set of 27 articles directly addressing the issue was analyzed. Search strategies were developed and conducted in WOS, Scopus, NCBI, Google Scholar and APA databases. The selected articles point out that, although advertisements alone have a certain positive effect, their effectiveness is substantially increased if they are accompanied by other preventive measures such as legislation or road safety education. In any case, more evaluations of traffic campaigns are needed to identify which techniques are effective and which are not, and which should therefore be replaced by new methods of behavior modification in future communication campaigns. Full article