Now showing 1 - 10 of 102
  • Publication
    Assessing the common occupational health hazards and their health risks among oil and gas workers
    (Elsevier B.V., 2021) ; ; ;
    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.
  • Publication
    Public health and work safety pilot study: Inspection of job risks, burn out syndrome and job satisfaction of public health inspectors in Greece
    (Elsevier B.V., 2022) ;
    Lamnisos, Demetris
    ;
    Adamopoulos, Ioannis
    ;
    Niki Syrou
    This is a cross-sectional, nationwide pilot study conducted in the first quarter of 2021 in Greece. The aim of this study was to report the job risks of public health inspectors in Greece and investigate possible relationships with burnout and job satisfaction. An online survey was created, and the web link was distributed to respondents by email, through the National Public Health Inspectorate Administration, while anonymity was retained. A total number of 78 Public Health Inspectors were contacted and 46 responses were collected (response rate 58.97%). The study found that biological, ergonomic, and psychosocial risks are perceived as most severe in public health inspection. Higher levels of emotional exhaustion were associated with more prevalent ergonomic and psychosocial risks. Job satisfaction was associated with ergonomic risks, but it was most strongly predicted by demographic variables. Perceived quality of job training was found to be negatively related to psychosocial risks. It was concluded that Public Health Inspectors in Greece face a variety of job risks the severity of which contribute to burnout and more specifically to emotional exhaustion. These findings are among the first to address occupational health and safety of Public Health Inspectors in Greece and worldwide and can contribute significantly to the development of the appropriate framework to reduce job risks and emotional exhaustion among employees of Public Health Inspection.
  • Publication
    Atmospheric dispersion and impact modeling systems: How are they perceived as support tools for nuclear crises management?
    (Elsevier B.V., 2015-01-01)
    Yasmine Benamrane
    ;
    Need to clarify how efficiently use ADIM data regarding crisis management practices. This paper focuses on the use of Atmospheric Dispersion and Impact Assessment Modeling (ADIAM) in nuclear emergency management. As a complement to field measurements, these tools participate in emergency decision support regarding the assessment of impacted areas and population protection countermeasures. This paper aims to study how this expertise is used during crisis situation and question the notion of "decision support".Semi-structured interviews have been conducted in 2012-2013 with representatives of the French civilian protection community taking part in the emergency response. Analysis is based on a conceptual framework that assesses how individuals and group of individuals make sense and react to a situation in difficult conditions.Results suggest that if ADIAM systems are used as main emergency support tools by scientific organization to assess areas affected by the release and their potential health impact, their use as a support to civilian protection decision makers is still seeking its place regarding current organization and practices. Results suggest that the main challenge in further integration of ADIAM cartographic results to support population protection decisions needs to take into consideration efforts of the nuclear crisis organization to preserve the balance between different stakeholders' expertise. We argue that in this context, ADIAM cartographic results may find their place as a communication support between scientific advisors and decision makers contributing to favor a shared radiological situation assessment.
  • Publication
    Forest fires’ impact on tourism development: a comparative study of Greece and Cyprus
    (Emerald Group Publishing Ltd., 2013-06) ;
    Purpose: Every year thousands of acres are burned and a number of people lose their lives in forest fires that increasingly surpass the wild land limit and lead on to touristic, urban areas. By and large, Mediterranean countries rely highly on offering a tourist product based on sea, sun, culture and nature. While the sea and sun are not affected by fire catastrophes, places of cultural and natural beauty are indeed hit; tourists end up being uninformed with no proper guidance from the firefighting authorities. This paper seeks to address these issues. Design/methodology/approach: This paper attempts to highlight the relation between fire catastrophes and tourism development, to identify if and how state authorities take into account tourists in the planning and management of appropriate measures. A comparative study between Greece and Cyprus is presented. A number of interviews with stakeholders on the policy and operational level were conducted and the results and their implications are presented. Findings: Planning and suppression is complicated with a number of actors involved in various stages; national tourism organizations in both countries do not take part in the information or planning process. There is an emerging need for the provision of useful, comprehensive, practical information aimed at tourists. Research limitations/implications: The findings of the paper are based in a number of interviews with key policy makers as well as key operational commanders. The participation of the above in the policy making as well as operational phase shows a number of limitations. This paper presents a qualitative approach to the subject. A follow-up quantitative study is already planned. Practical implications: Lessons learnt from previous catastrophes, in-depth analysis of the existing "modus operandi" and "rules of engagement" should provide the necessary background for creating new risk-based, comprehensive, focused communication campaigns. Social implications: Safer societies and lower impact on the environment are the main outcomes of a concerted communication campaign. Tourism represents and multiplies the image of the country as a whole to the world; a solution to the problem would offer added value. Originality/value: The paper is based on a number of in-depth interviews with actors that took part in the actual handling of the two major catastrophes in Cyprus and Greece. The outcome of the interviews is presented for the first time.
  • Publication
    Current Wildland Fire Patterns and Challenges in Europe: A Synthesis of National Perspectives
    (SAGE Publications Ltd, 2021)
    Nieves Fernandez-Anez
    ;
    Andrey Krasovskiy
    ;
    Mortimer Müller
    ;
    Harald Vacik
    ;
    Jan Baetens
    ;
    Emira Hukić
    ;
    Marijana Kapovic Solomun
    ;
    Irena Atanassova
    ;
    Maria Glushkova
    ;
    Igor Bogunović
    ;
    Hana Fajković
    ;
    Hakan Djuma
    ;
    Martin Adámek
    ;
    Miloslav Devetter
    ;
    Michaela Hrabalikova
    ;
    Dalibor Huska
    ;
    Petra Martínez Barroso
    ;
    Magdalena Daria Vaverková
    ;
    David Zumr
    ;
    Kalev Jõgiste
    ;
    Marek Metslaid
    ;
    Kajar Koster
    ;
    Egle Köster
    ;
    Jukka Pumpanen
    ;
    Caius Ribeiro-Kumara
    ;
    Simone Di Prima
    ;
    Amandine Pastor
    ;
    Cornelia Rumpel
    ;
    Manuel Seeger
    ;
    Ioannis Daliakopoulos
    ;
    Evangelia Daskalakou
    ;
    Aristeidis Koutroulis
    ;
    Maria P. Papadopoulou
    ;
    Kosmas Stampoulidis
    ;
    Gavriil Xanthopoulos
    ;
    Réka Aszalós
    ;
    Deák Balázs
    ;
    Miklós Kertész
    ;
    Orsolya Valkó
    ;
    David C. Finger
    ;
    Throstur Thorsteinsson
    ;
    Jessica Till
    ;
    Sofia Bajocco
    ;
    Antonio Gelsomino
    ;
    Antonio Minervino Amodio
    ;
    Agata Novara
    ;
    Luca Salvati
    ;
    Luciano Telesca
    ;
    Nadia Ursino
    ;
    Aris Jansons
    ;
    Mara Kitenberga
    ;
    Normunds Stivrins
    ;
    Gediminas Brazaitis
    ;
    Vitas Marozas
    ;
    Olesea Cojocaru
    ;
    Iachim Gumeniuc
    ;
    Victor Sfecla
    ;
    Anton Imeson
    ;
    Sander Veraverbeke
    ;
    Ragni Fjellgaard Mikalsen
    ;
    Eugeniusz Koda
    ;
    Piotr Osinski
    ;
    Ana C. Meira Castro
    ;
    João Pedro Nunes
    ;
    Duarte Oom
    ;
    Diana Vieira
    ;
    Teodor Rusu
    ;
    Srđan Bojović
    ;
    Dragana Djordjevic
    ;
    Zorica Popovic
    ;
    Milan Protic
    ;
    Sanja Sakan
    ;
    Jan Glasa
    ;
    Danica Kacikova
    ;
    Lubomir Lichner
    ;
    Andrea Majlingova
    ;
    Jaroslav Vido
    ;
    Mateja Ferk
    ;
    Jure Tičar
    ;
    Matija Zorn
    ;
    Vesna Zupanc
    ;
    M. Belén Hinojosa
    ;
    Heike Knicker
    ;
    Manuel Esteban Lucas-Borja
    ;
    Juli Pausas
    ;
    Nuria Prat-Guitart
    ;
    Xavier Ubeda
    ;
    Lara Vilar
    ;
    Georgia Destouni
    ;
    Navid Ghajarnia
    ;
    Zahra Kalantari
    ;
    Samaneh Seifollahi-Aghmiuni
    ;
    Turgay Dindaroglu
    ;
    Tugrul Yakupoglu
    ;
    Thomas Smith
    ;
    Stefan Doerr
    ;
    Artemi Cerda
    ;
    Changes in climate, land use, and land management impact the occurrence and severity of wildland fires in many parts of the world. This is particularly evident in Europe, where ongoing changes in land use have strongly modified fire patterns over the last decades. Although satellite data by the European Forest Fire Information System provide large-scale wildland fire statistics across European countries, there is still a crucial need to collect and summarize in-depth local analysis and understanding of the wildland fire condition and associated challenges across Europe. This article aims to provide a general overview of the current wildland fire patterns and challenges as perceived by national representatives, supplemented by national fire statistics (2009–2018) across Europe. For each of the 31 countries included, we present a perspective authored by scientists or practitioners from each respective country, representing a wide range of disciplines and cultural backgrounds. The authors were selected from members of the COST Action “Fire and the Earth System: Science & Society” funded by the European Commission with the aim to share knowledge and improve communication about wildland fire. Where relevant, a brief overview of key studies, particular wildland fire challenges a country is facing, and an overview of notable recent fire events are also presented. Key perceived challenges included (1) the lack of consistent and detailed records for wildland fire events, within and across countries, (2) an increase in wildland fires that pose a risk to properties and human life due to high population densities and sprawl into forested regions, and (3) the view that, irrespective of changes in management, climate change is likely to increase the frequency and impact of wildland fires in the coming decades. Addressing challenge (1) will not only be valuable in advancing national and pan-European wildland fire management strategies, but also in evaluating perceptions (2) and (3) against more robust quantitative evidence.
  • Publication
    Occupational health and safety in Cyprus: A historical overview
    (Elsevier B.V., 2022-01) ;
    Eleni Leontidou
    This article views the history of occupational health and safety in Cyprus through the lens of the country's rather turbulent modern history, from the first instances of industrialization up to this day. In the early 20th century, great poverty in times of drought and famine led many Cypriot landless to the copper and asbestos mines, where they worked as miners and labourers. The harsh conditions in Cypriot mines led to the emergence of interest on matters of occupational health and safety and subsequently to the promulgation of the first laws for the protection of workers. Progress was slow at times and the division among the ranks of Cypriot workers and labour unionists made things even more difficult. The article discusses the problems faced and the gradual modernisation of the country's industrial, political and legal systems through the establishment of new rules and regulations for the protection of workers.
  • Publication
    Measuring performance within the ageing workforce
    (Elsevier B.V., 2021) ; ; ;
    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).
  • Publication
    Forest fires: proactive and reactive surveillance employing in-situ, aerial, and space technology
    (2013-04-08) ; ; ;
    Pierantonios Papazoglou
    ;
    Diofantos G. Hadjimitsis
    ;
    Kyriacos Themistocleous
    ;
    Silas Michaelides
    ;
    George Papadavid
    Employing technological advances in communications along with the available aerial and space platforms can enable us, to setup a safety monitoring and management system for delivering proactive and reactive surveillance of our forests. This work stresses the importance of protecting our forests considering the socioeconomic impact they have on our world. It also outlines the available platform technologies and proposes a tool for setting up a monitoring system that employs current technologies. This tool simulates forest fires and uses wireless sensors to monitor the fire. Results show that the number and the location of the sensors in a forest are critical in increasing the chances of sensing the fire on time. Since positioning sensors in an organized manner within a forest is tedious if not impossible to implement, it is recommended that areas with higher flammability are equipped with greater number of sensors.
  • Publication
    The future of Safety Science
    (2022) ;
    A. Hale
    ;
    K. Mearns
    ;
    J.L. Wybo
  • Publication
    Analysis of safety climate factors and safety compliance relationships in the oil and gas industry
    (Elsevier B.V., 2022)
    Chizubem Bensonch
    ;
    Christos D. Argyropoulos
    ;
    ; ;
    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.