Assessing the common occupational health hazards and their health risks among oil and gas workers
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.
VACCELERATE Volunteer Registry: A European study participant database to facilitate clinical trial enrolment
Introduction: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has evidenced the key role of vaccine design, obtention, production and administration to successfully fight against infectious diseases and to provide efficient remedies for the citizens. Although clinical trials were rapidly established during this pandemic, identifying suitable study subjects can be challenging. For this reason, the University Hospital Cologne established a volunteer registry for participation in clinical trials first in Germany, which has now been incorporated into the European VACCELERATE clinical trials network and grew to a European Volunteer Registry. As such, VACCELERATE's Volunteer Registry aims to become a common entry point for potential volunteers in future clinical trials in Europe. Methods: Interested volunteers who would like to register for clinical trials in the VACCELERATE Volunteer Registry can access the registration questionnaire via http://www.vaccelerate.eu/volunteer-registry. Potential volunteers are requested to provide their current country and area of residence, contact information, including first and last name and e-mail address, age, gender, comorbidities, previous SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination status, and maximum distance willing to travel to a clinical trial site. The registry is open to both adults and children, complying with national legal consent requirements. Results: As of May 2022, the questionnaire is available in 12 countries and 14 languages. Up to date, more than 36,000 volunteers have registered, mainly from Germany. Within the first year since its establishment, the VACCELERATE Volunteer Registry has matched more than 15,000 volunteers to clinical trials. The VACCELERATE Volunteer Registry will be launched in further European countries in the coming months. Conclusions: The VACCELERATE Volunteer Registry is an active single-entry point for European residents interested in COVID-19 clinical trials participation in 12 countries (i.e., Austria, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Lithuania, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Turkey). To date, more than 15,000 registered individuals have been connected to clinical trials in Germany alone. The registry is currently in the implementation phase in 5 additional countries (i.e., Belgium, Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel and the Netherlands).
Assessing the common occupational health hazards and their health risks among oil and gas workers
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.
Analysis of safety climate factors and safety compliance relationships in the oil and gas industry
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.
Safety and risk analysis in digitalized process operations warning of possible deviating conditions in the process environment
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.
Analysis of safety climate factors and safety compliance relationships in the oil and gas industry
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.
Impact assessment of COVID-19 non-pharmaceutical interventions in long term care facilities in Cyprus: Safety improvement strategy
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.
Impact of Weak Signals on the Digitalization of Risk Analysis in Process Safety Operational Environments
Weak signals in risk analysis digitalization are of great importance for preventing major accidents in risk analysis in the process industry, especially for process operations and production. However, some of the negative impacts are incorrect operational risk identification, significant inventory carrying costs, disruption of risk frequency, and risk consequence analysis, all of which will signal inaccurate information about unforeseen and current dangers in process facilities and operational environments. While the positive impacts are viewed as an early warning system that provides information on operational risk system status, the identification of potential risk weaknesses in process facilities, indicators of a transition or an emerging problem that may become significant in the future, highlighting future assumptions, challenge our views of the future and expand the selection of a processing facility. Lastly, weak signal identification in the digitalization of risk analysis can provide relevant information in supporting, assessing and analyzing the risks associated with the operation, in order to design a technical system and estimate the industry’s level of accident risk, as well as the possible control of a system. The present research will provide valuable information to the process industry on how to protect their operational facilities and increase process safety by providing information on weak safety risk monitoring systems in operations, strengthening the processes of the operational area.
Impact assessment of COVID-19 non-pharmaceutical interventions in long term care facilities in Cyprus: Safety improvement strategy
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.