Hostel dwellers form a larger part of the urban population in South Africa (Ramphele, 1999). These hostels were initially created as temporal arrangement for African men moving from rural to urban areas seeking for employment. Due to housing shortage in urban areas they eventually became permanent residential accommodation. However, observations into the environmental conditions in these hostels have raised concerns about the health and well being of residents and neighbouring communities. The area of study was selected on the basis of the current depleted living conditions due to mismanagement of facilities provided by both the occupants and the hostel administrators. The study was a cross sectional descriptive study involving all three Durban Metropolitan block hostels. Assessing (i) the quality of block hostel environment (indoor and outdoor) through visual inspection (walkthrough), (ii) the exposure measures and outcomes (biophysical environment assessment) by means of questionnaire survey, air testing and microbial identification. Sixty three (63) hostel inventory were completed, followed by the administration of 450 questionnaires, and 646 surface and air samples were collected in the indoors of the selected hostel blocks including the control outdoor samples. The demographic profile of the hostel dwellers in the selected hostel blocks revealed that in the five bed type dormitories the habitable space per individual was 3 m 2 to 3.8 m2. Whilst in the ten bed type dormitories the habitable space per individual was 3.3 m 2 to 3.6 m2 . This was not even close to the World Health Organization suggested habitable space of 12 m2 (WHO, 2000) and was therefore regarded as overcrowding. Lack of access control in the hostels exacerbated by the socio-economic demands of the living environments, e.g. unemployment, was to blame for overcrowding. This overcrowding of the hostels was overloading the services, causing enormous number of blockages and bursts of wastewater pipes resulting in the system not functioning. This situation resulted in the accumulation of dampness in the indoor environment, and hence creating conditions favouring the growth of indoor mouldiness in the buildings. This was further supported by evidence that 47% of the occupants in the selected hostel blocks were experiencing respiratory symptoms and 53% experiencing non-respiratory symptoms. The most recorded respiratory symptoms were pulmonary tuberculosis (14.3%), chest tightness (12.2%), sore and dry throat (7%), sinus congestion (7%) symptoms. Whilst the most recorded non-respiratory symptoms were headache (11.5%), dry and itchy skin (11.5%), stomach upset (6.3%) and fatigue (3.6%). Forty five percent (45%) of the respondents were current smokers and 80% of them had a tendency of smoking indoors. The results of the surface and air samples indicated that the level of indoor mould growth in the selected hostel blocks was at 37, 24%. Surface moulds were at 58% and airborne spores were at 42%. Statistical analysis of data revealed a significant relationship between exposure factors and outcomes in the 5, 10 and 15-bed type dormitories. Incidence Risk Rate (IRR) and the p-value (p . 0.01) were used to determine relationships between exposure factors and outcomes. Certain factors were very much supportive in the development of selfreported symptoms in the selected hostel blocks of the three hostels under certain circumstances and these were the hygiene state of the building, leaking pipes, smoking habits and total mea and dg surface moulds. At all levels of the analysis the hygiene state of the building was very much supportive in the development of self-reported symptoms. Other exposure factors were not supportive at all, for example, structural defects, bed-types, different floor levels and participants' perception of overcrowding. A review process of the role of legislation in controlling the adverse health effects revealed that certain aspects of the legislation relating to building standards requirements, sanitation requirements, ventilation requirements, space and density requirements, and air quality standards requirements were violated. Therefore, the findings of the study recommended that a proper management plan must be developed to enhance living standards. This plan shall include a routine maintenance of the building structures, the development of a culture of self-care, as well as access control in the hostels. In addition to that where there are signs of visible moulds on walls and ceilings adequate control measures are highly recommended using commercially available measures in order to provide a healthy living environment. In conclusion is the adoption of a compliance policy towards legal requirements pertaining to building standards as defined in the National Building Regulations Standards Act (Act 103 of 1977). This study has showed that necessary iii steps need to be taken in South Africa in order to combat this problem. Further research need to be taken in order the inhabitable buildings to be better living environment improving the existing building structures. / Thesis (MMed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2007.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Tuberculosis (TB) to be a global emergency (Baral, Karki & Newell, 2007). In KwaZulu-Natal 5704 TB cases were registered in 2009 (KwaZulu-Natal Uthukela Health District report, 2009). According to Mak, Mo, Cheung and Woo (2006) pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) has the longest history compared to other two types of infectious diseases which are HIV/AIDS and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The purpose of this study was to explore student nurses’ risk perceptions of contracting tuberculosis (TB) during their clinical placement in a selected KwaZulu-Natal College of Nursing campus. The researcher used quantitative descriptive exploratory design. A questionnaire with closed and open ended questions was used to collect data from the respondents. Data was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 15. One hundred and thirty-two respondents participated in the study, 66 (50%) were first year students and 66 (50%) were second year students. The majority of the respondents were females n= 93 (70, 5%). The findings of the study indicated that student nurses perceived TB as a serious disease and they perceived themselves to be susceptible to contracting the disease during clinical placement. They also displayed good knowledge of preventive measures of risk perceptions, the highest mean score was 3, 79. The Fisher’s exact test was performed to establish a relationship between the variables, and it showed that there was a relationship between age and perceived barriers, p-value was 0,039. In conclusion, the respondents displayed relevant knowledge on TB preventive measures and positive perceptions of contracting TB, which will be the predisposing factors for behavioural change. / Thesis (M.N.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

No description available.

Rivers all around the world have become increasingly polluted with heavy metals, largely due to industrialization and urbanization. Organisms exposed to high concentrations of heavy metals have shown evidence of biotoxicity and physical deformities. With biomagnification in mind, the possibility that this contamination may soon directly affect humans is a real concern, and policies in manufacturing industries worldwide may have to be reformed. In this study, we measured the concentrations of arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), and lead (Pb) in the Hatillo River and compared these values to those measured in the Tarcoles River, a highly polluted river, and Terciopelo Creek, a relatively clean river. The results showed that the Hatillo River had significantly lower levels of most detected heavy metals than both the Tarcoles and Terciopelo. Overall, sediments in all rivers showed high levels of heavy metal content--especially in chromium, copper, nickel, and lead--which could build up and affect organisms over a long period of time.

The thesis had its starting point in the first paragraph of the eleventh chapter in the Swedish social services act, which discusses the immediate risk assessments that has to be made when the social services receive a report about a child. The thesis highlights an area that has received a lot of attention in media since the spring of 2014, when an eight year old girl was fatally abused by her legal guardians. The social services had at the time received a report about the girl but it was left unread. This tragic case has brought attention to the routines used by the social services for dealing with reports and risk assessments. This thesis was conducted through individual interviews with social workers working with children and families in the social services, with the aim to acquire an enhanced understanding of how social workers perform immediate risk assessments and what these assessments are based on. The results of the study showed that several of the municipalities had a routine for how to handle incoming reports, but lacked specific routines regarding the immediate risk assessments. Without specific routines, the informants stated experience, intuition and cooperation with co-workers and managers as important factors of making risk assessments. / Studien tog avstamp i socialtjänstlagens elfte kapitel, första paragrafen, vilken behandlar den omedelbara skyddsbedömning som ska göras av socialtjänsten vid en inkommen anmälan gällande ett barn. Studien belyser ett medialt uppmärksammat område som sedan våren 2014 blivit vida diskuterat då en åttaårig flicka misshandlades till döds av sina vårdnadshavare. Socialtjänsten hade då fått in en anmälan om flickan men som ingen ännu hade läst. Detta tragiska fall har uppmärksammat socialtjänstens rutiner kring anmälningar och hur de genomför skyddsbedömningar. Studien genomfördes genom individuella intervjuer med socialsekreterare som arbetar inom Barn och familj i socialtjänsten och syftet med studien var att få en ökad förståelse för hur socialsekreterarna utför skyddsbedömningar och vad som ligger till grund för dessa bedömningar. Studiens resultat visade att det i flera av kommunerna fanns en rutin för hur en inkommen anmälan skulle hanteras, men att det saknades specifika riktlinjer för hur de omedelbara skyddsbedömningarna skulle göras. I avsaknad av specifika riktlinjer uppgav informanterna att erfarenhet, intuition och samarbete med kollegor och chefer utgjorde viktiga delar av att göra skyddsbedömningar.

Lead (Pb) is a known toxicant that affects young children. It is believed that old water reticulation systems are prone to lead leaching from the walls of lead pipes and fixtures where water is conveyed to households. Many households in Christchurch city particularly in the Northwestern and Central parts of the city contain old water reticulation systems thereby, putting children at considerable health risks. The purpose of this dissertation is to identify the hazards of lead exposure that comes from old water reticulation system of Northwest (NW) Christchurch water supply to households, characterize the health risks due to such contamination and, finally, to suggest possible ways to minimize the hazards. This is accomplished by conducting a systematic review of literature on the exposure patterns of lead from reticulation systems and a literature review of the possible dose response patterns of health effects of lead contamination from old water reticulation systems on children. Thus, this dissertation involves a literature based risk assessment of lead contamination of drinking water supply in the Northwest Christchurch Zone and particularly, its effects on young children. The selection process of the research studies is based on whether they offer accurate and suitable information on the risk of adverse mental function in infants and young children due to environmental lead exposure; whether the studies have been peer reviewed by qualified scientists; whether the results are confirmed by other studies; and involves only human subjects. Future research may consider whether lead levels in drinking water are seasonal; whether these values are significant to health or, the possible role of the government in tightening product controls when monitoring the availability and health risk of high lead drinking water supply plumbing products available in the New Zealand market.

Volcanic eruptions produce a range of hazards which can impact society. The most widespread of these hazards is volcanic ash fall which can impact a range of critical infrastructure. Power systems are particularly vulnerable to ash fall hazards and the resulting impacts may lead to power supply disruption. This can lead to cascading disruption of dependent systems, such as hospitals, water and wastewater treatment plants, telecommunications and emergency services. Typically, large emergency power generator sets are used to provide emergency power supply for essential services during electrical power outages. There has been little study of what impact ash fall exposure will have on generator performance. International experience suggests large generators can experience rapid performance reduction when exposed to high concentrations of suspended or falling ash due to obstruction of air filters and radiators, causing overheating of the engine and shut down of the generator system. However, it is not clear at what ash fall thresholds generators are likely to be disrupted. This research uses custom designed empirical laboratory experiments to investigate the performance of large generators subjected to a range of volcanic ash fall types and intensities, simulating both proximal and distal ash fall exposure from a range of eruptive styles. It also investigates the application of temporary external filters to minimise the ingestion of volcanic ash into generator housings. The results are used to inform recommendations on the likely impacts of ash to generators and the most effective type of mitigation, which maximises filtration whilst maintaining generator performance. Control tests recorded high particle concentrations (~0.006 mg/m3) which indicate substantial ash contamination is possible. Multiple factors were considered to determine the best mitigation measure including the lowest particle concentration, highest air speed and the ease with which the measure could be fitted. The study found material filtration to be the most effective measure; however as the quality of filtration increased, the air speed was reduced and thus so was the volume of air available to the generator engine. Therefore, the type of filtration required is dependent the ash fall intensity. The study also found that a deflection hood is an effective mitigation measure; maintaining airspeed while reducing particle concentrations within the generator. This research informs risk management strategies for critical infrastructure organisations to reduce the risk of generator disruption during volcanic ash falls.

Business continuity is an area of research that ensure continuity of enterprise operations. Business continuity requires knowledge and input from business and IT leaders to assess and manage risks associated with critical business processes to develop a plan that can allow the organization to resume operations. Organizations that have a holistic enterprise risk management approach can better manage business and technology risks. The increasing dependency on technological resources asserts the need to assess business and technology risks to develop business continuity. Nevertheless, governance and enterprise leaders find difficult to determine the scope and impact of risks associated with enterprise operations. In organizational contexts, business continuity planning is perceived as an element of contingency instead of an opportunity for improvement. In addition, there is a lack of academic literature related to the organizational implementation of a business continuity plan. For this reason, there is a need to merge enterprise risk management and governance of enterprise IT views to provide an integrated perspective of business and technological risk in the im-plementation of a business continuity plan.The objective of the study relies on assessing how the implementation of a business continuity plan is conducted, together with its challenges and benefits, to provide insights on the elements that facilitates a business continuity plan implementation. The study focuses on the preparation phase of a business continuity plan, where enterprise risks are identified, evalu-ated and mitigated. The study results are based on a case study performed at a multination retail and manufacturing enterprise in Spain. The results indicates that awareness from the higher governance body and senior management on the dependency that enterprises have developed on IS/IT key resources is a factor that influence how risk management and technology risk is perceived in organizations. This influence how the higher governance body views the need to implement enterprise risk management, governance of enterprise IT and business continuity initiatives. Likewise, the elements facilitating a business continuity imple-mentation are associated with the sponsorship and leadership from organizational actors, the involvement of an external organizational agent that can bring expertise and methodology related to business continuity planning, identification of enterprise critical areas and processes and the creation of business and IT risk scenarios to depict threats to the organization operations and processes. This internal reflection brings challenges and benefits to the or-ganization and both are addressed in the study.The study concludes with the presentation of two high level frameworks that can aid enter-prise leaders to visualize and understand the influence that enterprise risk management and governance of enterprise IT has on the implementation of a business continuity plan and the underlying elements that facilitate a business continuity plan implementation in organizations.

No description available.

Syftet med arbetet är att identifiera arbetsmiljörisker genom att analysera arbetsmomenten och arbetsmiljön vid en separatoröverhalning ombord ett fartyg. För att identifiera arbetsmiljörisker användes Arbetsmiljöverkets föreskrift AFS 2012:02, bedömningsmallen KIM 1 och programmet ALBA. Resultatet av arbetet visar att det finns belastningsrisker och punkter att förbättra. Ett förslag på förbättringar är att ytterligare en arbetsyta på det undersökta fartyget bör utformas för att möjliggöra en bättre arbetsställning och minska antalet lyft. Resultatet visar även att det är viktigt att använda rätt lyftteknik för att minska risken för belastningsskador. Arbetet kan användas för grund till fortsatta studier inom arbetsmiljö till sjöss. / The purpose of the study is to identify work hazards by analyzing the work activities and work environment during a separator overhaul onboard a ship. To identify risks the study used the Swedish Work Environment Authority´s regulation AFS 2012:02, the assessment form KIM 1 and a biomechanical program ALBA. The results show that there are risks for stress load on the body and that there is room for improvements. An example of an improvement is to design an additional workbench to allow proper work postures and decrease the number of lifts. The results also show the importance of using the right technique while lifting to reduce the chance of stress load. The study can be used for further studies on the work environment hazards onboard ships.