Open Journal of Safety Science and Technology最新文献

{"title":"Applying Lean Thinking to Improve Operational Safety in Oil and Gas Industry","authors":"Desalegn Yeshitila, D. Kitaw, Kassu Jilcha","doi":"10.4236/ojsst.2021.113009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4236/ojsst.2021.113009","url":null,"abstract":"The oil and gas industry with its stringent safety policies, standards, rules and procedures still experience minor-to-major operational accidents/incidents in petroleum exploration and production processes. The root causes of incidents in upstream and downstream sectors are attributed to humans and organizational factors. The sector has been revolutionizing its safety system by way of risk identification and management and hazards hunt at a workplace to reduce the risk level of fatal and non-fatal injuries. In this research, the authors apply lean philosophy to surface the challenges of oil and gas safety system in an innovative way by identifying problems at root source and addressing it with employees’ engagement and involvement to continuously improve the safety system. The application of lean thinking has been proven in healthcare and manufacturing industries where this research makes parallel to take advantage of the experiences of the lean founders. Safety should not be a priority as priorities could change based on situations. Instead, safety should be an embedded business value that could be value streamed along the value chain, with value considered from the perspective of customer value that can also include the internal customer, employees. The purpose of this study is to find out why stringent oil and gas safety standards, procedures and rules have not spared the industry from occurrences of occupational accidents and incidents. Therefore, this study aims in addressing how offshore oil and gas exploration and production operational safety can be improved through lean thinking, where upstream work processes are streamlined to improve workplace visibility, eliminate wastes, improve structural sustainability as well as HSE risks and improve operational safety. The study focuses on human side of occupational safety improvement through direct employees’ involvement, workforce engagement and lean thinking application using lean philosophy, practice and tools. The study comprises five parts that are: Introduction, literature review, research methodology, result, discussion and conclusion.","PeriodicalId":183634,"journal":{"name":"Open Journal of Safety Science and Technology","volume":"164 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114661816","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Study of Farm Vehicle Crashes in Delaware","authors":"Kasra Karimi, A. Faghri","doi":"10.4236/ojsst.2021.113008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4236/ojsst.2021.113008","url":null,"abstract":"The increasing number of traffic conflicts between farm vehicles (FVs) and other motorists on public roads has raised safety concerns for Delaware transportation authorities. Farm Vehicle Crashes (FVCs) are less frequent than passenger car, truck, and motorcycle crashes and therefore, have not received proper attention in the past. This study provides a descriptive statistical analysis of FVCs in Delaware between May 2005 and August 2020 to present a better understanding of the characteristics of these crashes. The crash data was extracted from the DelDOT crash database and the State Police Annual Reports. The statistical analysis was performed using MATLAB and crash mapping was performed using ArcGIS Pro. The results show that an average of 14 FVCs occurred each year in this period; however, the annual number of FVCs has been constantly increasing since 2016. The percentage of fatal crashes among FVCs was found to be 3.7 times the state’s average for all crashes. Sussex county accounted for nearly half of these crashes. About two-thirds of FVCs took place within the rural boundaries and the rest in urban zip codes. Two peaks were observed throughout the year, one from April to July and another from August to October. The majority of the FVCs occurred during daylight, in clear weather and on a dry surface; however, crashes during dark (not-lighted) conditions were nearly 2.5 times more likely to result in injury than in daylight. Major collectors were associated with the highest risk of FVCs among all function classes. Rollovers and head-on collisions were few in numbers but had the highest percentage of personal injuries. Rear-end collisions, the most common collision type, were found to be overrepresented among crashes under dark (not-lighted) conditions. In conclusion, this study shows that the severity of FVCs is higher than the average for all crashes. Further, the high percentage of rear-end FVCs under dark conditions implies the importance of improving the visibility, lighting, and marking of FVs.","PeriodicalId":183634,"journal":{"name":"Open Journal of Safety Science and Technology","volume":"22 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125584997","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sensitivity Analysis of Rock-Fill Dam Break Flood on Different Dam Break Durations","authors":"Changwen Li, Huabin Gao, Zhaoming Xu, Yan Huang","doi":"10.4236/ojsst.2021.113007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4236/ojsst.2021.113007","url":null,"abstract":"The dam break pattern of rock-fill dams is normally gradual failure. This kind of dam failure is caused by seepage piping or overtopping, in which dam crest overflow is more common. The dam breach expansion process shall depend comprehensively on the structure pattern, material property of dam, and damsite cross sectional topography. And the break duration has a significant impact on the magnitude of break flood and the counter-measures for excess-standard flood. Take the Karot Hydropower Project constructed on the Jhelum River in Pakistan as an example, the dam break mathematical model is set up to analyze the sensitivity of damsite discharge process, downstream highest flood water surface profile and flood peak appearance time to dam break duration. The results show that: with the increase of dam break duration, damsite peak discharge is decreased sharply, flood peak appearance time extends, on-way highest water levels below Karot dam are lowered significantly, and some settlement places below Karot dam can avoid being inundated until the break duration reaches a critical value. If encountering probable maximum flood, the dam break occurs when the reservoir water level reaches dam top EL, some measures can be taken to extend the break duration, so as to effectively reduce the loss of downstream flood. The research results will help to understand the relationship mechanism between rock-fill dam break flood and break duration and provide a scientific basis or some solutions for optimization design of dam and counter-measures of dam break flood.","PeriodicalId":183634,"journal":{"name":"Open Journal of Safety Science and Technology","volume":"65 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133572390","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An Examination of Causes of Accidents and Hazards in the Ghanaian Construction Industry","authors":"D. Osei-Asibey, J. Ayarkwa, A. Acheampong, E. Adinyira, P. Amoah","doi":"10.4236/ojsst.2021.112006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4236/ojsst.2021.112006","url":null,"abstract":"This study aims to examine the causes of accidents and hazards in the Ghanaian construction industry (GCI) from the perspectives of key stakeholders, and also the available legal regulations and provisions regarding remedies for redress in case of accidents. A qualitative research strategy with in-depth face-to-face interviews was adopted. Participants for the interview were seven of which are Contractors, Consultants, Construction Workers, and Suppliers/ Manufacturers using data saturation principle. The selection of interview participants was based onpurposive sampling, while data was analyzed using the content analysis technique. Five major causes of accidents and hazards that are critical for remedying were identified, including common law liabilities of the Employer who is the Contractor, with a duty to ensure that adequate provisions are made for the works to be carried out safely. The findings of the study provide adequate knowledge to the contractor and other stakeholders of the roles, duties,and responsibilities to ensure improved implementation of CHS practices. The study examined the legal basis and consequences for causes of accidents and hazards in the Construction Industry. Since large construction firms were considered in the current study, it is recommended that similar studies be conducted involving small and medium enterprises.","PeriodicalId":183634,"journal":{"name":"Open Journal of Safety Science and Technology","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129347061","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessment of Implementation of Fire Risk Reduction Rules at Petroleum Dispensing Stations in Kisumu County, Kenya","authors":"Carolyne Kebut, C. Mburu, R. Kinyua","doi":"10.4236/ojsst.2021.112005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4236/ojsst.2021.112005","url":null,"abstract":"Fire safety is an essential aspect in each workplace; its efforts are geared to the preservation of life and protection of property. Petroleum dispensing stations handle highly flammable and combustible materials that ignite at any given time at a conducive condition. The government of Kenya has instituted various laws and legislation to alleviate the fire safety status of such workplaces which should be adhered to. The study aimed to assess the implementation of Fire Risk Reduction Rules in Kisumu County which will provide bases for the improvement of the available fire risk reduction rules and gauge the Fire safety status in petroleum dispensing stations. Research methods employed involved physical observation, interviews, and measurements. The study established that 27(90.3%) Branded petroleum dispensing stations and 11 (68.8%) of independent petroleum stations had implemented safe storage and handling of highly flammable petroleum products, none of the stations had fully implemented the provisions in the Fire risk reduction rules, however, branded petroleum dispensing had better performance in the implementation than the Independent Petroleum dispensing stations. In view of the findings, the study recommends beef up of capacity in the directorate of occupation safety and health personnel to enable workplace inspections and awareness creation and enforcement on implementation of the Fire risk reduction rules as well as improvement of the available rules to be more specific on nature of works in petroleum dispensing stations.","PeriodicalId":183634,"journal":{"name":"Open Journal of Safety Science and Technology","volume":"85 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129982924","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Farm Vehicle Crashes on U.S. Public Roads: A Review Paper","authors":"Kasra Karimi, A. Faghri","doi":"10.4236/OJSST.2021.112004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4236/OJSST.2021.112004","url":null,"abstract":"Farm vehicles (FVs) are not primarily designed for road transportation purposes, but often need to share the roads with other motorists. The interference of these large, slow-moving vehicles with the regular traffic can lead to hazardous situations and cause severe crashes. Farm Vehicle Crashes (FVCs) are rare compared to the total number of road crashes, and hence, have been neglected by many. This has been reflected in various aspects including data collection, education, legislation, and prevention. The number of FVCs in the U.S. has been steady over the last decade. This paper conducts a literature review to put forth a better understanding of this safety issue from a transportation standpoint. The main goal of this study is to identify the characteristics of FVCs, the unique contributing factors in FVCs, and possible strategies to mitigate the issues involved. It appears that despite their lower frequency, the rate of severe injuries and fatalities in FVCs is significantly higher than the average for all crashes. The percentage of fatal crashes in FVCs can be nearly five times higher than average for all road crashes. Further, it is estimated that FVs are overrepresented in road crashes considering their low exposure on the roads. The crash contributing factors including time- dependent variables, weather and road surface conditions, location, road classification, manner of collision, and driver’s characteristics are discussed based on the result of multiple studies in different states of the U.S. Several unique characteristics of FVCs distinct them from non-farm vehicle crashes which can result from the characteristics of FVs, rural roads, and the nature of farming tasks. Improvements in lighting and marking, equipping farm vehicles with Rollover Protective Structure (ROPS) and seatbelts, educating the public and farmers, and roadway improvements are recommended as potential safety improvement strategies for mitigating the frequency and severity of FVCs.","PeriodicalId":183634,"journal":{"name":"Open Journal of Safety Science and Technology","volume":"31 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115047896","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Development of Non-Contact Detection of a Charged Conductor and Visualization System","authors":"Kazuma Nogi, Y. Kuwahara, T. Ushimoto","doi":"10.4236/OJSST.2021.111002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4236/OJSST.2021.111002","url":null,"abstract":"At a substation, the condition of an applied voltage is checked using a bulky contact-type electroscope. Although it is important to secure a safe working environment, it is a burden to workers. In addition, in an emergency investigation or at the time of an accident, an operator may erroneously recognize a power interruption and cause an electric shock. Therefore, it is desirable to develop technology that can easily distinguish the charged condition from a distance. In this research, the focus was on the slight vibration of the conductor owing to the Coulomb force generated when a high voltage was applied. A system for visualizing the charging state by detecting the vibration with radar and combining it with a stereo camera was developed. Its performance was then confirmed at an experimental site and substation. In addition, the effectiveness of a method that used independent component analysis to identify the harmonics of the power supply frequency and vibration resulting from the applied voltage was demonstrated.","PeriodicalId":183634,"journal":{"name":"Open Journal of Safety Science and Technology","volume":"22 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125133650","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Protecting Legal and Illegal Voluntary On-Road Collectors","authors":"K. Beer, T. Bowrey, T. Beer","doi":"10.4236/OJSST.2021.111001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4236/OJSST.2021.111001","url":null,"abstract":"The health community uses a harm reduction model that deals with harm reduction at four levels: conceptual, practical, policy, and programmatic. The road safety community has adopted the Safe System as their harm reduction model. The Safe System is underpinned by the key principles: people make mistakes, the human body has limited biomechanical tolerance, there is a shared responsibility for creating a safer system and we aspire for zero death and serious injury in transport. The interacting elements/levers to achieve these principles are road and roadsides (infrastructure), safe people, safe vehicles, and safe speeds. Using on-road collectors as a specific example, the relationship between the health-based harm reduction model and the Safe System reveals that the Safe System assumes the conceptual, practical and policy levels to be pre-determined, and thus restricts itself to the programmatic level of the health-based harm reduction model.","PeriodicalId":183634,"journal":{"name":"Open Journal of Safety Science and Technology","volume":"135 4","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"120922255","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Job Control and Safety Citizenship: Examining the Relationship in Two Companies Based in Midwestern United States","authors":"Nat J. Stephens, C. Pinion","doi":"10.4236/ojsst.2020.103006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4236/ojsst.2020.103006","url":null,"abstract":"Background: Job demands, or time-based restraints perceived by employees, can have a direct impact on an employee’s level of safety citizenship and safety compliance. However, job control, or the perceived autonomy over the timing and methods of an employee’s work, can help employees manage those job demands. Objective: To assess the relationship between self-reported job control and self-reported safety citizenship. Method: A 34-item survey was used in a cross-sectional study to assess the relationship between self-reported job control scores (JCS) and self-reported safety citizenship (SCS) among employees working at a construction company and distillery/bottling facility in the Midwestern region of the United States. Descriptive statistics (means and frequencies) and an ANCOVA (analysis of covariance) were performed on a saturated model. Results: The study had a 77% response rate. Results indicate a statistically significant association between JCS and SC exists when controlling for job position and sex [F (6, 145) = 40.03, p < 0.00001, adjusted R-square = 0.61]. Conclusion: Employees with low job control have lower levels of self-reported safety citizenship.","PeriodicalId":183634,"journal":{"name":"Open Journal of Safety Science and Technology","volume":"173 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122286674","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Investigation into Road Construction Safety Management Techniques","authors":"D. Nkurunziza","doi":"10.4236/ojsst.2020.103007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4236/ojsst.2020.103007","url":null,"abstract":"Rwanda is undergoing rapid development in transportation through constructing new roads and upgrading existing ones. During implementation of these projects, many accidents for road workers, road users and environment issues are raised due to unsafe road construction management techniques. This existing problem was carried out within the City of Kigali for three ongoing road construction projects namely road Ruliba-Karama-Nyamirambo, Kigali Urban Road Upgrading Projects of Agatare and the Sonatube-Gahanga- Akagera road, in order to investigate about the road construction safety management techniques. From the findings, 64.28% results showed that the maintaining of health and safety policy in the road construction sites is applied and there exist different means of maintaining safety, such as the provision of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) to the workers at the level of 57.14% as per the project managers; but from the field observations, it is alarming, and many workers do not wear as required. It was also found that 50% of accidents occurring in excavation works among all work performed during road construction are due to lack of adequate safety measures. The paper indicated that 85.71% of the concerned workers do conduct training and induction in their road safety construction sites, but on the other hand the level of accidents due to lack of safety recorded in the road construction sites is still high at the level of 78.57%. The mostly affected are unskilled laborers and this observation begs the question about the training and induction of workers in road safety and its effectiveness of on the concerned workers. The paper suggests some different safety measures to apply for providing safe road working environment according to the standard and gives some key recommendations for Rwanda.","PeriodicalId":183634,"journal":{"name":"Open Journal of Safety Science and Technology","volume":"37 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133738850","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}