Varianou - Mikellidou, Cleo

2021, Boustras, Georgios, Dimopoulos, Christos, Varianou - Mikellidou, Cleo, Chizubem Benson, Christos D. Argyropoulos

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.

2021-08, Dimopoulos, Christos, Varianou - Mikellidou, Cleo, Boustras, Georgios, Olga Nicolaidou, Neophytos Mikellides

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).

2021, Boustras, Georgios, Vogiazanos, Paris, Varianou - Mikellidou, Cleo, Pana, Zoe- Dorothea, Christos D. Argyropoulos, Christos Haralambous, Michalis Andreou, Valentinos Silvestros, Fani Theofanous, Soteroulla Soteriou, Ioanna Gregoriou, Andri Jaber Apostolidou, Anna Demetriou, Maria Athanasiadou, Carolina Stylianou, Maria Michael, Herodotos Herodotou, Denise Alexandrou, Olga Kalakouta

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.

2019-07-01, Boustras, Georgios, Dimopoulos, Christos, Varianou - Mikellidou, Cleo, Anyfantis, Ioannis D., Nicolaidou, Olga, Wybo, Jean Luc, Guldenmund, Frank W.

During the last decades, humanity experiences an increasing demographic change. The relative percentage of older people is growing, while fewer young employees are entering the labour force. This phenomenon is directly connected with ageing of the workforce. Older workers constitute a special group with characteristics that require special attention from the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) point of view. The aim of this paper is to address what changes occur in ageing workers as a result of physical and psychological processes and the possible impacts of these at work in relation to OHS and the concept of sustainable work and workplaces. In addition, this paper discusses factors affecting work ability and worker's performance in relation to the ageing phenomenon. Finally, based on the literature, the paper proposes measures to minimize age-related risks and increase awareness. These measures should be designed and adopted at the early stages of working life and continue until retirement. By reducing risk factors of employees, the rate of occupational accidents and occupational diseases may be decreased, thus saving costs for employers, health system and insurance costs, while simultaneously facilitating a healthier retirement for the working-age population.

2021, Boustras, Georgios, Dimopoulos, Christos, Varianou - Mikellidou, Cleo, Olga Nicolaidou, Neophytos Mikellides

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).

2020-08, Boustras, Georgios, Dimopoulos, Christos, Varianou - Mikellidou, Cleo, Olga Nicolaidou, Ioannis Anyfantis, Paris Messios

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.

2018-12, Louisa Marie Shakou, Varianou - Mikellidou, Cleo, Boustras, Georgios, Dimopoulos, Christos

Critical Infrastructure Protection is a relatively new scientific domain stemming from an American Presidential directive PDD-63 of May 1998. Critical Infrastructure (CI) performance and protection are national priorities for all European Union (EU) countries following the introduction of the EU Directive 2008/114/EC, which takes an all hazards approach. This paper has an international focus. At the global and European level, the interest in identifying the impacts of climate change on CIs and extreme weather events (EWE) has increased in the last decades, following several high-profile so-called natural disasters. Concern is evidenced by the UN Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the EU Commission's Staff Working Document on Risk Assessment and Mapping; Guidelines for Disaster Management, SEC (2010) 1626. This paper presents and discusses scientific work which has been published in this area, with a focus on energy CI. The impacts of climate change and extreme weather events on energy CI are initially identified. Important aspects in CI protection such as risk assessment, interdependencies with other sectors, and adaptation/resilience options are subsequently presented and discussed.

2022, Chizubem Bensonch, Christos D. Argyropoulos, Boustras, Georgios, Varianou - Mikellidou, Cleo, Dimopoulos, Christos

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.

2018, Varianou - Mikellidou, Cleo, Boustras, Georgios, Dimopoulos, Christos, Louisa Marie Shakou

Critical Infrastructure Protection is a relatively new scientific domain stemming from an American Presidential directive PDD-63 of May 1998. Critical Infrastructure (CI) performance and protection are national priorities for all European Union (EU) countries following the introduction of the EU Directive 2008/114/EC, which takes an all hazards approach. This paper has an international focus. At the global and European level, the interest in identifying the impacts of climate change on CIs and extreme weather events (EWE) has increased in the last decades, following several high-profile so-called natural disasters. Concern is evidenced by the UN Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the EU Commission's Staff Working Document on Risk Assessment and Mapping; Guidelines for Disaster Management, SEC (2010) 1626. This paper presents and discusses scientific work which has been published in this area, with a focus on energy CI. The impacts of climate change and extreme weather events on energy CI are initially identified. Important aspects in CI protection such as risk assessment, interdependencies with other sectors, and adaptation/resilience options are subsequently presented and discussed.

2021-07, Dimopoulos, Christos, Boustras, Georgios, Varianou - Mikellidou, Cleo, Olga Nicolaidou, Cleo Varianou-Mikellidou, Neophytos Mikellides

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.