Varianou - Mikellidou, Cleo

The workplace's burden remains a significant concern to workers in the oil and gas industry, where workers are continually exposed to various kinds of occupational risks. The study aimed to identify the different health hazards and their sources across the oil and gas industry to determine the risks associated with health hazards. Methods: A qualitative approach was employed to identify the different hazards connected with the operational environment. A total of 1000 questionnaires were distributed randomly across the various departments in the Nigerian oil and gas industry, and 327 returned to the research team. Analysis of data was carried out using the SPSS. Results: The result shows that ergonomic hazards were found to be most predominant among the hazards assessed in the industry. Ergonomic hazards are 30%, physical hazards 26%, chemical hazards 23%, psychosocial hazards 18%, and biological 3%. Conclusion: Considering the aims of this study, the hazards that exposed workers to ill-health were identified with their sources in the oil and gas operational environment. Some of the health hazards were identified to have short-term health effects on workers, such as headaches, skin burn, eye and skin irritation, and rashes. In contrast, musculoskeletal disorders, respiratory disease, leukaemia, asphyxiates, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease are long-term health effects caused by other hazards. Recommendations: Adequate supervision should be imposed on the workers in their workplace, proper hazards assessment should be conducted in the industry, and compulsory medical testing should be carried out on workers always to know their health status.

Working environment is constantly changing with working population increasing in terms of ageing, feminization and immigration. Due to the changes in the working pattern, new emerging risks have been introduced at the workplace along with many challenges that employers are called to manage. While ageing has been identified by Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) community as an emerging risk, organisations stand in need of guidelines on how to manage this additional challenge. Occupational Health and Safety Performance (OHSP) is acknowledged as one of the factors affecting the future of an organisation and should be considered when dealing with OSH management with the aim to accomplish Industrial System Productivity (ISP). Nowadays, OSH management should be able to adapt to changes and consider emerging risks within the risk assessment, the procedures and policies. The aim of this paper is to introduce guidelines and practical solutions on OSH management helping the employers and employees adapt to the changing working environment, while explicitly considering individual's characteristics. Using the focus group method, factors affecting the ability to work have been identified and valued. In particular, the Work Individual Performance (WIP) tool is introduced as a tool which is specifically designed to identify factors, potentially affecting the performance of the workers and assist the employers in the identification and implementation of protective and preventive measures, focusing on worker's well-being, OHSP and ISP. The tool has been tested in 2019, during a research which took place in Cyprus involving the police workforce (559 police officers).

The oil and gas industry's capability to operate effectively in acceptable risks and hazardous situations is mainly dependent on safety. Infractions of safety standards and procedures are frequently highlighted as a causal factor that leads to accidents and other expected outcomes. As a result, having a broad understanding of effective management strategies for improving compliance with safety rules and procedures is more than necessary. The present study focuses on safety climate factors and their impact on safety compliance, enhancing safety rules and procedures to reduce the accident risks in Nigerian's oil and gas industry. The obtained associations were analyzed using a questionnaire-based methodology. The workers were given a total of 1000 questionnaires, of which 327 were returned to the team of researchers. As a consequence of the data analysis, the causal relationship was stable, which improved the factor structure's predictability and reliability. Workplace pressure was the safety climate characteristic that had the most significant consequence on safety compliance. The research findings have added to our understanding of improving and ensuring workplace safety compliance, including practical safety supervision approaches, accessibility of safety systems, and employee safety competency. Also, adequate supervision and monitoring should be the primary priority of the management and always keep the workers on the effective track in their job compliance. Integrating workers into organizational activities will aid in improving safety compliance and adhering to any project or task's safety standards and procedures. Finally, management should avoid putting workers under any strain to prevent violating safety rules while executing their duties.

Working environment is constantly changing with working population increasing in terms of ageing, feminization and immigration. Due to the changes in the working pattern, new emerging risks have been introduced at the workplace along with many challenges that employers are called to manage. While ageing has been identified by Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) community as an emerging risk, organisations stand in need of guidelines on how to manage this additional challenge. Occupational Health and Safety Performance (OHSP) is acknowledged as one of the factors affecting the future of an organisation and should be considered when dealing with OSH management with the aim to accomplish Industrial System Productivity (ISP). Nowadays, OSH management should be able to adapt to changes and consider emerging risks within the risk assessment, the procedures and policies. The aim of this paper is to introduce guidelines and practical solutions on OSH management helping the employers and employees adapt to the changing working environment, while explicitly considering individual's characteristics. Using the focus group method, factors affecting the ability to work have been identified and valued. In particular, the Work Individual Performance (WIP) tool is introduced as a tool which is specifically designed to identify factors, potentially affecting the performance of the workers and assist the employers in the identification and implementation of protective and preventive measures, focusing on worker's well-being, OHSP and ISP. The tool has been tested in 2019, during a research which took place in Cyprus involving the police workforce (559 police officers).

From the perspective of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS), the concept of work ability is based on the balance between individual characteristics and work demands. If the personal characteristics of the worker meet the work demands, then work could be part of a healthy life. However, work might affect worker's health due to physical or psychosocial factors that do not meet worker's abilities and expectations. Older workers are probably facing additional challenges in comparison to younger ones. Several studies have shown that Work Ability Index (WAI) decreases with factors such as ageing, unsatisfactory working conditions, poor organisation management and lack of freedom. Improvements in the working environment and ergonomic equipment are factors positively affecting WAI. A nationwide study on the ageing workforce has been conducted during 2018 in Cyprus. Based on information elicited through questionnaires and interviews, the factors affecting positively and negatively the ability to work have been identified on different age groups. Variables such as work demands and the work environment, features of work organisations, characteristics of company/ organisation, as well as employee characteristics, have been evaluated as potential factors affecting the ability/performance of the workers. Our findings indicate that personal characteristics are more crucial than work demands and working environment for the performance of the workers of all age groups and that poor ergonomic conditions particularly affect older workers. Also, health status and sleeping quality might be major factors affecting all age groups, while gender and years of experience affect younger workers.

The current COVID-19 crisis has changed our everyday lives almost in every aspect. Many people worldwide have died or hospitalised due to the severe impact of COVID-19 on the vulnerable population, and in particular to the elderly residents of long term care facilities (LTCF). The problem is amplified due to the fact that many of those occupants also suffer from comorbidities (e.g. respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, etc.) and are therefore regarded as a susceptible host to severe COVID-19 disease. Impacts can be felt in the wider societal safety level. The aim of the present study is, therefore, to present the first National multimodal quality and safety improvement strategy plan for the LTCF in the Republic of Cyprus. The current program focused on the intensification of COVID-19 epidemiological surveillance, the promotion of educational training on best practises in infection control and prevention, and the implementation of additional non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), according to the recommendations of ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control) and WHO (World Health Organization). This innovative program fostered the interconnectivity and collaboration among the local authorities, academia and the local leaders of the LTCF. In addition, this program reinforced the importance of volunteerism and active participation of medical students in the National initiatives against the COVID-19 pandemic. The effectiveness of the adopted multimodal advanced care-safety planning program is appraised based on the reported new confirmed COVID-19 cases among LTCF healthcare workers and occupants, after the introducing and implementation of the selected NPIs. This multimodal strategy plan seems to be capable of reducing significantly the number of new cases of COVID-19 infections in LTCF and as a result, to also affect the residents’ death number.

The domain of occupational safety and health (OSH) is forced to respond to the requirements set by the rapid technological development and progress in order for the organizations to attain acceptable organizational safety and health maturity levels. Being able to understand weak signals and to develop mechanisms for their identification and management, can potentially lead to safer and healthier workplaces. The systematic and on-time identification of weak signals and their origin provides the potential for early intervention. If the threat is not recognized at an early stage, then the possibility of successful intervention is minimized along with the potential to abolish unwanted consequences and impending major disasters. This paper investigates and analyzes the current knowledge and use of weak signals within the OSH domain. The investigation is primarily based on the review of existing OSH literature, and is supplemented by a technical examination of selected major industrial accidents with respect to the documented existence of weak signals before their occurrence. The findings of this investigation provide a theoretical contribution towards a better understanding of the nature and current impact of weak signals within the OSH domain. Furthermore, they highlight the lack of weak signals consideration within traditional occupational health and safety management systems (OHSMS), and indicate that their explicit management can potentially enhance the global effort made for the minimization of occupational accidents, diseases and dangerous occurrences.

The process industry operates in high risks and hazardous environments that impose significant risks on workers' lives, assets-loss, and operational environments. Using the digitalized method for analyzing risk in the process operations to identify and evaluate risk emanated in the working environment is considered as a possible way of providing a warning of deviating conditions in the process environment. From this research, we realized that digitalizing process operations are highly relevant to the process industry, due to challenges such as fire, explosion, and toxic release to the environment. However, the focus on risk analysis using a digitalized method is to support decision-making by assessing and analyzing the risks associated with the operation, designing a technical system, and estimating the industry's accident and possible controlling measures. This research provides a viable solution to the process industry with risk and hazard in their process environment by installing an alarm system on the processing plant, which will give early warning information of unforeseen risk. Some of the benefits of digitalized process operations are the virtually eliminating transcription risk and hazard from the operational environment, the increased copy factor of understanding between process operation and workers, as well as to provide an early warning deviation that will interrupt the operating system. This research's findings have identified a valuable process of the digitizing process industry for useful risk analysis and protection of the operational environment.

Background: Occupational therapy is a physically, psychologically and cognitively demanding job. This study aims to explore the epidemiology of musculoskeletal injuries, mental issues, and burnout in occupational therapy practitioners in Greece and Cyprus. Method: A survey was conducted, including the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory, and the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire. Results: Out of 247 respondents, 70% reported severe lower back pain, 9.7% of Greek occupational therapists were in the moderate and high PHQ-9 scale, while disengagement and exhaustion were found 2.026 (±0.54) and 2.592 (±0.533) respectively. Conclusion: High rates of burnout, correlated with psychological and musculoskeletal disorders were identified in both countries. Work-related stress and musculoskeletal disorders may be more evident in countries hit by recession. © 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Our well-being depends in a way on how well we perform or how well we adapt in our changing personal lives and in our changing work environment. Both factors are important and need to be examined since they are dealing with physiological and psychosocial factors that affecting workers. Nowadays emerging risks such as ageing, feminization, migration, globalization, technical innovation with their multiple dimension, bring changes to the workplace. Thus, in the context of Occupational Health & Safety (OHS), employers are enforced to search for new kinds of preventive measures to protect their workers and business. This PhD thesis is examining one of these emerging risks; ageing. The ageing of the population caused the ageing of the workforce. Ageing is a process rather than a state and individuals might experience it in a different way. Chronological age is not a determinant factor for an individual to understand his/ her health status. Therefore, this heterogenous process is examined, presenting the changes that might occur in psychosocial and physiological way and in regard to OHS. A nationwide study was conducted in Cyprus as a case study of this thesis, aiming to identify factors that affect the performance of the worker, finding that health status is the most important factor and age by itself cannot determine the performance of the worker. Furthermore, the use of Work Individual Performance (WIP) tool and Occupational Health, Safety & Ageing Management System (OHSAMS) are suggested to be used by organisations in order to manage OHS in the context of ageing, aiming to give recommendation measures to employers and work-life balance to employees.