Search Results (25)

Chainsaws are widely used in various occupational settings, including forestry, landscaping, farming, and by homeowners for tasks like tree felling, brush clearing, and firewood cutting. However, the use of chainsaws poses significant risks to operators and bystanders. This research quantified and compared occupational and nonoccupational injuries caused by contact with chainsaws and related objects during the period from 2018 to 2022. The emergency department and OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) data were used to characterize the cause and nature of the injuries. Results suggest that for this five-year period an estimated 127,944 people were treated in U.S. emergency departments for chainsaw-related injuries. More than 200 non-fatal and 57 fatal occupational chainsaw-involved injuries were found during the same period. Landscaping and forestry were the two industries where most of the occupational victims were employed. Upper and lower extremities were the most likely injured body parts, with open wounds from cuts being the most common injury type. The majority of fatal injuries were caused by falling objects such as trees and tree limbs while using a chainsaw. Our suggestions to reduce injuries include proper training and wearing personal protective equipment, as well as making sure any bystanders are kept in a safety zone away from trees being cut. Full article

Polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) and para-phenylenediamines (PPDs) are emerging classes of anthropogenic contaminants that are environmentally persistent (most often found in ground and surface water sources), bioaccumulative, and harmful to human health. These chemicals are currently regulated in the US by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Analysis of these contaminants is currently spearheaded by mass spectrometry (MS) coupled to liquid chromatography (LC) because of their high sensitivity and separation capabilities. Although effective, a major flaw in LC-MS analysis is its large consumption of solvents and the amount of time required for each experiment. Direct analysis in real time mass spectrometry (DART-MS) is a new technique that offers high sensitivity and permits rapid analysis with little to no sample preparation. Herein, we present the qualitative and quantitative analysis of PFASs and PPDs by high-resolution DART-MS, interfaced with ion mobility (IM) and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) characterization, demonstrating the utility of this multidimensional approach for the fast separation and detection of environmental contaminants. Full article

The safety of construction and maintenance work zones has been highlighted as a crucial aspect of construction management that requires special attention due to the increasing number of fatal and non-fatal injuries in recent years. Temporary traffic control (TTC) is required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to improve overall safety performance during road construction and maintenance projects. The fact that speeding and distracted drivers may overlook TTC warning signs and directions has been reported as one of the leading causes of work zone incidents. This study aimed to examine both the impact of temporary portable rumble strips (TPRSs) on traffic speeds and the response of different vehicle types in road work zones, including trucks and cars. Accordingly, field experiments were conducted in collaboration with the Road Commission for Oakland County (RCOC) in Michigan. The findings indicate that TPRSs have a statistically significant impact on the driving speed of light vehicle drivers but not on medium and heavy vehicles, such as trucks. This study contributes to the existing literature by quantifying the safety benefits of TPRS use, providing valuable data for policymakers and construction professionals. By demonstrating the effectiveness of TPRSs in reducing the speed of light vehicles, this research supports the implementation of these systems as a practical measure for enhancing safety within road construction work zones. Additionally, this study highlights the need for tailored approaches to address the limited impact on larger vehicles, underscoring the importance of developing complementary strategies to ensure comprehensive safety improvements across all vehicle types. Full article

Epoxy adhesives possess excellent mechanical properties, durability, and stability in harsh environments, making them suitable for producing engineering materials. This study selects four commercially available epoxy adhesives in Saudi Arabia: Epotec YD 128; Sikadur^®-52 LP; Sikadur^®-31 CF; and Sikadur^®-42 MP Slow. Firstly, a comparison of their storage, application, and service temperatures was made, detailing the hazard identification and prevention measures established in accordance with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) guidelines. Subsequently, test samples of the four adhesives were produced, and tensile, compressive, and shear tests were conducted to compare their fundamental mechanical properties. Finally, a gas analyzer assessed the major harmful gases emitted by these epoxy adhesives 120 min after mixing the epoxy resins and curing agents. The results show that Sika 42 exhibits the highest tensile and compressive strengths among other types of adhesives, reaching 75.7 MPa and 133.8 MPa, respectively. It also has the longest pot life of 48 min at elevated temperatures (40 °C), making it suitable for the climatic conditions in Saudi Arabia. However, as a three-component adhesive, its application is complex and associated with the most identified hazards. Sika 31 presents a tensile modulus of up to 10.4 GPa, at least 3.8 times higher than the other adhesives, making it practical for controlling tensile deformation. Additionally, its ultimate shear strain reaches 10.7%, at least 6.6 times higher than the other samples, highlighting its suitability for constructing ductile bonds. After mixing of epoxy resins with curing agents, the presence of NO₂ and SO₂ were detected. However, no harmful gases were detected after 120 min, possibly due to the complete curing of the adhesives. Full article

The chemical components of the e-liquids and aerosols contained in electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDSs), better known as vapes, were evaluated. The analytical technique used was gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, where the extraction and injection methods were established in this study. The work consisted of the analysis of twenty samples of disposable electronic cigarettes prefilled with new e-liquid, of a known brand, flavor, volume, and, in some of them, the percentage of nicotine and the number of puffs per device were indicated on the label. We detected the presence of many substances (at a qualitative and semi-quantitative level), and we achieved the quantification of benzene, toluene, and xylenes (BTX), dangerous substances that cause severe damage to health. Several of the e-liquids and aerosols present BTX concentrations above the permissible exposure limit (PEL), recommended by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA): benzene in aerosol samples 80% > PEL, and toluene in aerosol samples 45% > PEL. The number of chemical compounds found in the samples increases from 13 to 167, the average being 52 compounds for the water extraction method, 42 compounds for the methanol extraction method of e-liquids, and 107 compounds for the direct aerosol analysis. It is a fact that many of those compounds, especially BTX, can cause serious effects on human health, affecting the respiratory, digestive, cardiovascular, pulmonary, and immune systems, as well as the brain. Therefore, the use of these devices should be considered with caution, since the substances and their chemical nature may pose significant health risks to both users and those exposed to secondhand emissions. Full article

Poás Volcano made a magmatic eruption in April 2017. The volcanic outburst resulted in an ash and vapor column towering over three kilometers high. Since that time, there has been a continual release of gases, aerosols, and more recently, ash, posing potential issues for visitors and park rangers. In this work, the potential for exposure to acid gases and aerosols faced by park rangers, officials, and visitors to the Poás Volcano National Park was evaluated, and the concentrations found were compared with the exposure limits established by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The study was conducted between October 2021 and November 2022. the concentrations of HCl(g), HNO₃(ac), HF(g), and H₂SO₄(ac) were determined at three strategic points: the ranger station, the visitor center, and the main crater viewpoint. The maximum concentrations obtained were (7.0 ± 1.6) ppb for HCl(g), (6.2 ± 2.8) ppb for HNO₃(ac), and (0.029 ± 0.044) ppm for H₂SO₄(ac). There were no concentration values above the detection limit (0.94 μg/m³) for HF_(g). By comparing the data obtained with similar studies, it is concluded that the measured values in Poás Volcano National Park are low and only show similarities to the results found in volcanoes within the national territory. The exposure limit established by OSHA (0.02 ppm) was only surpassed by H₂SO_4(ac), and could be the cause of health effects experienced over the years by park rangers. To minimize these risks, the use of personal protective equipment and air quality monitoring is essential. Full article

The construction industry has witnessed a surge in heat-related accidents alongside rising summertime temperatures, exposing workers to potential injuries. The absence of specific heat stress standards by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) underscores the urgent need for more comprehensive and interactive educational materials to prevent such incidents in construction projects. This study proposes the adoption of an interactive Virtual Reality (VR) application to offer construction workers realistic and effective training, mitigating heat-related injuries. During the training sessions, VR headsets were utilized to immerse workers in two lifelike scenarios: (1) Addressing self-care during heat exhaustion; (2) Assisting a coworker experiencing heat exhaustion. A case study evaluated the effectiveness of the proposed VR training for 82 construction workers from two companies. Company A had traditional training, while Company B used VR training. Both groups took pre- and post-assessment surveys with six questions. The pre-assessment found no significant knowledge difference between the groups. After training, VR showed a significant reduction in incorrect answers compared to traditional training. Statistical tests confirmed the superiority of VR training (p-value = 0.00152 < 0.05), suggesting its effectiveness in preventing heat-related injuries in construction compared to traditional training methods. Full article

Addressing safety risks in construction is an ongoing priority, and integrating safety considerations into construction scheduling is a crucial aspect of this effort. A notable challenge is the safety risk posed by concurrent tasks, which has received limited attention in prior research. This study aims to address this research gap by introducing a novel Building Information Modeling (BIM)-based model that assesses the increased hazardousness resulting from overlapping construction activities. Historically, research has predominantly focused on individual task safety, with less emphasis on the risks associated with overlapping activities. Our innovative approach introduces the concept of a ‘source–target’ match, which evaluates the degree of hazardousness escalation when activities overlap. Drawing on data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) fatal accident reports, we extracted 11 hazardous and 9 susceptibility attributes to build a source–target match table. This table reveals the characteristics of activities that generate hazardous conflicts when overlapping. The key contribution of this research is the assessment, prioritization, and visualization of risk levels in a BIM environment. This framework empowers safety managers to proactively address safety risks resulting from overlapping construction activities, ultimately reducing accidents in the construction industry. By shedding light on this overlooked aspect of construction safety, our research highlights the importance of integrating safety considerations into construction scheduling and provides a practical tool for mitigating risks, enhancing workplace safety, and ultimately improving project outcomes. Full article

The detection of ammonia is very crucial for the welfare of modern society because of its hazardous effect on the environment and human beings. High response time is one of the serious concerns of most of the ammonia detectors reported so far in the literature. This issue has been comprehensively addressed in the present investigation. Herein, the solvothermally synthesized Cu-BTC was combined with the 5 wt%, 10 wt% and 20 wt% of partially reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The structural, spectroscopic, morphological and electrical studies of as-synthesized CuBTC@rGO-5wt%, CuBTC@rGO-10wt% and CuBTC@rGO-20wt% were done by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and current-voltage (I-V) characterization. The chemiresistive sensor based on Cu-BTC@rGO was developed on a copper-coated glass electrode via the shadow mask technique. It shows excellent sensing properties for CuBTC@rGO-10wt% in a range of 10 ppm to 80 ppm with a high stability of up to 30 days, good linearity, and excellent response/recovery time, i.e., 84 s and 125 s, respectively. The limit of detection has been established as 10 ppm, which is below the maximum residue limit established by the OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration). Full article

In addition to human health, there are typical pollutants that significantly determine the quality of life and deteriorate the quality of the air. Although these pollutants are familiar in outdoor environments, they also pose a health threat in indoor environments. These need to be monitored and controlled. Children, who spend most of their time in these environments, are especially exposed to these pollutants, and such contaminants pose a threat during their learning and growing periods. In this study, the detection of heavy metals in indoor dust in educational institutions and their health risks were evaluated. Heavy metals such as arsenic, lead, mercury, and cadmium, which are named differently due to their densities, were detected, and their effects on children were determined. The measured values of heavy metals cadmium and arsenic were above the standard values of OSHA (Occupational Health and Safety Administration), one of the health and safety organizations. However, when educational institutions were examined, an increase in the amount of arsenic due to drinking water used, cadmium batteries containing batteries, the use of batteries, and the pigment feature in oil paint derivatives supplied with cadmium may increase the values. The other heavy metals such as Al, Zn, Hg, and Pb remained below the limit values. A health risk assessment was made by considering the data obtained from the samples taken from the educational institutions in Konya province, as well as factors such as environmental conditions, the number of students, the area per capita, temperature, and humidity. The causes of polluting sources and the precautions to be taken have been determined. Full article

Hand-arm vibration (HAV), which potentially causes vibration white finger (VWF), and occupational noise are serious issues in the agricultural and forestry industries. Generally, agricultural workers operate as single-family/small businesses and thus are exempted from Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations/laws for noise and HAV otherwise applicable to other industries in general. The agricultural/forestry sectors are at increased risk as working hours are longer than a typical 8-h work shift putting them at greater risk of hearing loss. The study was conducted to assess the possible association between hearing sensitivity on combined exposure to noise and hand-arm vibration. A systematic literature review was conducted on exposure to noise and HAV in the agricultural/forestry sector and the resulting impacts on hearing. The peer-reviewed articles in English were searched with 14 search words in three databases of PubMed, Ergo Abstracts, and Web of Science without any filter for the year for fully available article text. The database literature search resulted in 72 articles. Forty-seven (47) articles met the search criteria based on the title. Abstracts were then reviewed for any relationship between hearing loss and hand-arm vibration/Raynaud’s phenomenon/VWF. This left 18 articles. It was found that most agricultural workers and chainsaw workers are exposed to noise and VWF. Hearing is impacted by both noise and aging. The workers exposed to HAV and noise had greater hearing loss than non-exposed workers, possibly due to the additive effect on temporary threshold shift (TTS). It was found that VWF might be associated with vasospasm in the cochlea through autonomous vascular reflexes, digital arteries narrowing, vasoconstriction in the inner ear by noise, ischemic damage to the hair cells and increased oxygen demand, which significantly affects the correlation between VWF and hearing loss. Full article

Laborers are particularly vulnerable to exertional injuries and illnesses, as they often engage in heavy physical work for prolonged hours, yet no studies have examined the top causes of catastrophic exertional injuries and fatalities among this population. The purpose of the investigation was to characterize the top causes of exertional injury and fatality within open access, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reportable data. A secondary analysis of OSHA reported injury and fatality data was performed through open access records from OSHA Severe Injury Reports (2015–2022) and OSHA fatality inspection data (2017–2020), respectively. The research team characterized each reported injury and fatality as “exertion-related” or “non-exertion-related. Injury and fatality rates were reported per 100,000 equivalent full-time worker years and included 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Of 58,648 cases in the OSHA Severe Injury Report database from 2015–2020, 1682 cases (2.9%) were characterized as exertional (0.20 injuries per 100,000 full-time worker years, 95% CI: 0.19, 0.22). Heat-related injuries encompassed 91.9% of the exertional injuries (n = 1546). From the 2017–2022 OSHA fatality inspection database, 89 (1.9%) of 4598 fatalities were characterized as exertion-related (fatality rate: 0.0160 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers, 95% CI: 0.009, 0.0134). The exertion-related fatalities primarily consisted of heat-related cases (87.6%). Exertion-related injuries and fatalities were most reported in Southeast states, in the construction and excavation industry, and among nonunionized workers. As heat stress continues to be recognized as an occupational health and safety hazard, this analysis further highlights the need for targeted interventions or further evaluation of the impact of heat stress on construction and excavation workers, nonunionized workers, and workers in Southeastern states. Full article

The growing demand of society for gas sensors for energy-efficient environmental sensing stimulates studies of new electronic materials. Here, we investigated quasi-one-dimensional titanium trisulfide (TiS₃) crystals for possible applications in chemiresistors and on-chip multisensor arrays. TiS₃ nanoribbons were placed as a mat over a multielectrode chip to form an array of chemiresistive gas sensors. These sensors were exposed to isopropanol as a model analyte, which was mixed with air at low concentrations of 1–100 ppm that are below the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) permissible exposure limit. The tests were performed at room temperature (RT), as well as with heating up to 110 °C, and under an ultraviolet (UV) radiation at λ = 345 nm. We found that the RT/UV conditions result in a n-type chemiresistive response to isopropanol, which seems to be governed by its redox reactions with chemisorbed oxygen species. In contrast, the RT conditions without a UV exposure produced a p-type response that is possibly caused by the enhancement of the electron transport scattering due to the analyte adsorption. By analyzing the vector signal from the entire on-chip multisensor array, we could distinguish isopropanol from benzene, both of which produced similar responses on individual sensors. We found that the heating up to 110 °C reduces both the sensitivity and selectivity of the sensor array. Full article

In 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued two emergency temporary standard regulations related to COVID-19 hazards in US workplaces. One regulation covered healthcare sector workers, while the second regulation would have covered workers at firms with 100 or more employees. This paper conducts an original mortality risk analysis for these regulations. Mortality risk analysis evaluates the increase or decrease in expected mortality associated with a new policy, such as a rule or regulation, taking into account economic factors like lost income due to regulatory costs. If we accept OSHA’s cost and health benefit estimates at face value, we find that the first regulation related to COVID-19 hazards in the healthcare sector reduces risk initially but increases risk over a longer time horizon. We find that the second regulation would reduce risk according to OSHA’s main estimates but may not reduce risk after including some ancillary costs and adjusting the agency’s prevented hospitalizations estimate based on more reasonable assumptions. Moreover, OSHA’s economic analysis for the two regulations in question does not purport to comprehensively evaluate costs; ergo, our mortality risk estimates probably underestimate countervailing mortality risks stemming from these regulations. We review some of OSHA’s underlying assumptions that could change the outcomes of our mortality analysis. These estimates demonstrate that OSHA would benefit from more comprehensive consideration of costs in its economic analysis. Full article

Skid steers are versatile self-propelled machines that are regularly used in a variety of recreational applications and occupational industries. They can be hazardous for both operators and bystanders. The purpose of this paper is to describe patterns of skid steer injuries in the US from 2015 to 2020. Data were obtained from Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) accident reports and the severe injury database. Agriculture-related incidents were obtained from AgInjuryNews. The study identified 312 skid steer-related injuries (2015–2020) in OSHA, with an additional 68 agricultural injuries identified using AIN. Construction, administrative and waste management, and agriculture industries were the top three industries with the highest number of injuries. Bystander workers experienced a higher number of injuries than operators. Contact with the machine was the most prevalent and more fatal than the other injury events. Agricultural skid steer injuries involved a broad age range of victims, from very young children to adults. These findings emphasize the need for improved safety engineering and clear safety guidelines for skid steer operators and those who are around skid steers. With the increased prevalence of skid steers across industries, it is imperative to have cohesive and comprehensive safety regulations, guidelines, and policy enforcement. Full article