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Heat stress illnesses, including heat stroke and heat exhaustion, represent a serious, persistent, and growing public health threat to military and civilian populations. Global climate change, due primarily to increased greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, has resulted in measured increases in temperature and humidity. Climate models project warming trends to continue in the future with very high confidence, resulting in more dangerous mean and extreme heat conditions. The associations between environmental heat indicators and observed adverse health outcomes have been increasingly studied for mortality endpoints and among elderly populations. This dissertation aimed to expand this investigation to heat illness morbidity outcomes among active-duty military servicemembers while assessing a range of heat indices. This is an assumed healthy, working-age population that is regularly exposed to outdoor heat in combination with high levels of exertion. Comparable civilian populations, in some respects, include athletes and outdoor laborers such as construction workers or farmers. In Chapter 2, we assessed annual rates of ambulatory encounters, hospitalizations, and reportable events among active-duty soldiers at ten US Army installations from 1991 to 2018 to produce rate ratios for estimation of future climate change impacts. In this chapter, we identified positive long-term associations between annual heat indices and heat stress illness hospitalization and reportable event outcomes. Chapter 3 assessed incident active-duty US military heat stress illness cases at 24 installations between 1998 and 2019 on a daily-scale, resulting in odds ratio exposure-lag-response curves applicable to near-term risk assessment. The daily-scale relationships betweenheat indices and case-defined heat stress illnesses were non-linear, with increasing odds ratios starting from mild temperature ranges, and displayed short-term delayed effects. Finally, Chapter 4 described demographic and body composition risk factor trends in the US military from 1998 to 2019. In this assessment, we identified a null trend for body mass index among heat stress illness subjects over the study period. Overall, our findings demonstrate a connection between temperature and humidity indicators and observed heat stress illness morbidity outcomes among multiple sets of indices and timescales. This dissertation highlights an urgent need for vigilant heat stress prevention and control measures to protect health and maintain performance in hot and humid environments.

[pt] Esta dissertação apresenta resultados da pesquisa sobre as condições de trabalho dos trabalhadores da construção civil do Complexo Petroquímico do Rio de Janeiro - Comperj, que sofreram demissões em massa no período compreendido entre o final de 2014 e o início de 2015. A pesquisa se ateve a trazer elementos sobre as trajetórias ocupacionais desses trabalhadores, observando quais espaços laborais ocupavam antes de trabalhar no Comperj, e como vem se desenvolvendo o processo de realocação no mercado de trabalho desde a paralisação das obras no Complexo. Para a realização deste estudo, foram utilizados instrumentos de investigação como pesquisa bibliográfica, iniciada no projeto de pesquisa, busca por obras recentes sobre o tema nas plataformas, nos bancos de dados, repositórios de teses e dissertações, e, principalmente, por intermédio de entrevistas e observações realizadas no campo empírico da pesquisa. Os dados coletados e analisados sobre as repercussões do rompimento dos contratos com os trabalhadores do Comperj, bem como suas condições de trabalho atuais, revelaram a dificuldade em inserção em postos de trabalho formais dentro de áreas específicas do setor de construção civil e, por conseguinte, o aumento da informalidade e depreciação do preço de sua força de trabalho. A pesquisa mostrou, ainda, as estratégias criadas pelos trabalhadores para tentar driblar o desemprego e suas expectativas de contratação na retomada das obras do Comperj. / [en] This dissertation presents results of the research on the working conditions of the construction workers of the Rio de Janeiro Petrochemical Complex - Comperj, who suffered massive layoffs in the period between the end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015. The research to provide information about the occupational trajectories of these workers, observing which labor spaces they occupied before working in Comperj, and how the process of reallocation in the labor market has been developing since the work stoppage in the ComplexIn order to carry out this study, we used research instruments such as bibliographic research, started in the research project, search for recent works on the subject in the platforms, in the data banks, repositories of theses and dissertations, and, mainly, through interviews and observations made in the empirical field of research. The data collected and analyzed on the repercussions of the rupture of the contracts with the workers of Comperj, as well as their current working conditions, revealed the difficulty in insertion in formal jobs within specific areas of the civil construction sector and, therefore, the increase in informality and the depreciation of the price of its labor force. The research also showed the strategies created by the workers to try to dribble the unemployment and their expectations of hiring in the resumption of the works of Comperj.

<p>  </p> <p>Hazard identification is one of the most significant components in safety management at construction jobsites to prevent undesired fatalities and injuries of construction workers. The current practice, which relies on a limited number of safety managers’ manual and subjective inspections, and existing research efforts analyzing workers’ physical and physiological signals have achieved limited success, leaving many hazards unidentified at the jobsites. Motivated by this critical need, this research aims to develop a human sensing network that allows for ubiquitous hazard identification in the construction workplace.</p> <p>To attain this overarching goal, this research analyzes construction workers’ collective EEG signals collected from wearable EEG sensors based on machine learning, virtual reality (VR), and advanced signal processing techniques. Three specific research objectives are: (1) establishing a relationship between EEG signals and the existence of construction hazards, (2) identifying correlations between EEG signals/physiological states (e.g., emotion) and different hazard types, and (3) developing an integrated platform for real-time construction hazard mapping and comparing the results developed based on VR and real-world experimental settings.</p> <p>Specifically, the first objective establishes the relationship by investigating the feasibility of identifying construction hazards using a binary EEG classifier developed in VR, which can capture EEG signals associated with perceived hazards. In the second objective, correlations are discovered by testing the feasibility of differentiating construction hazard types based on a multi-class classifier constructed in VR. In the first and second objectives, the complex relationships are also analyzed in terms of brain dynamics and EEG signal components. In the third objective, the platform is developed by fusing EEG signals with heterogeneous data (e.g., location), and the discrepancies in VR and real-world environments are quantitatively assessed in terms of hazard identification performance and human behavioral responses.</p> <p>The primary outcome of this research is that the proposed approach can be applied to actual construction jobsites and used to detect all potential hazards, which was challenging to be achieved based on the current practice and existing research efforts. Also, the human cognitive mechanisms revealed in this research discover new neurocognitive knowledge in construction workers’ hazard perception. As a result, this research contributes to enhancing current hazard identification capability and improving construction workers’ safety and health.</p>

Enligt Arbetsmiljöverket förekommer olyckor bland byggnadsarbetare dubbelt så ofta som hos andra arbetstagare. Under år 2015 hade byggindustrin över tre tusen arbetsolyckor som resulterat i sjukfrånvaro, något som motsvarade elva procent av Sveriges totala anmälda arbetsplatsolyckor med sjukfrånvaro. Med tanke på vad en arbetare inom byggnads- och anläggningsbranschen utsätter sig för i det dagliga arbetet är det uppenbart att fokus måste riktas mot säkerheten. Denna studie har utförts på byggavdelningen för underhållsarbete på BillerudKorsnäs Gävle Bruk, där ett förbättringsbehov i det befintliga arbetsmiljöarbetet i upprättandet av arbetsmiljöplaner har konstaterats. Syfte och mål med studien är att skapa ett förslag till en mall för arbetsmiljöplan som är användarvänlig och inkluderar de 13 arbeten med särskild risk som omnämns i AFS 1999:3. En förhoppning är att mallen kommer att bidra till ett förenklande av befintliga rutiner i arbetsmiljöarbetet för byggnadsarbetare och leda till ökad säkerhet på arbetsplatsen samt färre arbetsolyckor. För att få bättre förståelse för hur byggnadsarbetare på BillerudKorsnäs Gävle Bruk ser på arbetsmiljöarbetet och risker på arbetsplatsen har semi-strukturerade intervjuer genomförts, som tillsammans med statistik över olycksfall och tillbud utgjort studiens resultat. Utöver det har en litteraturgranskning genomförts för att ge en överblick över tidigare studier inom området. Vikten i att genomföra riskbedömningar bekräftades genom intervjuerna och blir tydlig eftersom förutsättningarna i det dagliga arbetet inom byggbranschen varierar i stor utsträckning. Varje arbetssituation och risk är unik, det går därför inte att riskinventera endast de 13 arbeten med särskild risk. Intervjuerna har bekräftat ett behov av en förenkling och förbättring i processen med att upprätta arbetsmiljöplaner. En mall för arbetsmiljöplaner har skapats och ska omfatta hur arbetsmiljöarbetet ska bedrivas såsom generell information om arbetet samt en riskbedömning. / According to the Swedish Work Environment Authority (Arbetsmiljöverket), accidents among construction workers occur twice as often as other workers. In 2015 the construction industry had over three thousand work accidents resulting in sick leave, which corresponded to eleven percent of Swedens total reported work accidents with sick leave. Considering what a worker in the building and construction industry expose themselves to in their daily work, it is obvious that focus must be towards safety. This study has been carried out on the building department for maintenance work at BillerudKorsnäs Gävle Bruk. At the company, there is a need for improving the establishment of safety and health plans within the existing working environment work. The aim and objective of the study is to create a draft template for the safety and health plan that is user friendly and includes the 13 works with special risks according to AFS 1999:3. Hopefully the template will contribute to a simplification of existing procedures in the construction working environment planning, lead to increased safety on site and fewer work accidents. To receive a better understanding of the viewpoint of BillerudKorsnäs Gävle Bruks construction workers regarding working environment and risks on site, semi-structured interviews were conducted and together with statistics on accidents and incidents, served as the studies results. In addition, a literature review has been conducted to provide an overview of previous studies in the field. The importance in carrying out risk assessments has been confirmed through interviews and becomes more evident as the conditions in the daily construction work varies in large proportion. Every work situation and risk is unique, therefore a risk assessment can not only consist of the 13 works with special risks. The interviews have confirmed the need for a simplification and improvement in the process of establishing a safety and health plan. A template for the safety and health plan should include how the work environment shall be conducted such as general information about the work and a risk assessment.

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

Många människor arbetar en stor del av sitt liv och det är därmed viktigt med en hållbar hälsa för var enskild individ genom alla deras yrkesverksamma år. Studier visar att både fysisk och psykisk hälsa är viktigt i arbetslivet. Byggindustrin är ett utsatt yrkesområde med stora hälsorisker. Det finns idag mycket forskat inom byggindustrin som helhet men inom yrket plattsättning finns det idag nästan ingen forskning. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att kartlägga muskuloskeletala besvär hos plattsättare och använda modellen för krav, kontroll och stöd i syfte att bedöma om det kan bidra till att förklara någon form av muskuloskeletala besvär. I föreliggande studie har en kvantitativ ansats använts i form av enkät. Undersökningen mätte självskattad allmänt hälsotillstånd, stress, krav, kontroll och stöd tillsammans med subjektiva muskuloskeletala symptom av plattsättare. I studien deltog 13 män med en medelålder på 38 (std=11,6) och fem kvinnor med en medelålder på 31 (std=9,7) som har arbetat som plattsättare 2-26 år. Resultatet indikerar att den övergripande allmänna hälsan, stress, krav och kontroll var god hos plattsättarna. Förekomsten av muskuloskeletala besvär var som högst i nedre delen av ryggen och knä/knäna med en besvärsfrekvens på 72 procent. Muskuloskeletala besvär som en funktion av självskattad krav-kontroll gav ett resultat där de flesta (78 %) hamnade i kategorin "aktiv". Detta begränsade möjligheten till att jämföra självskattade besvär mellan olika kategorier i krav och kontrollmodellen. Slutsatsen är att inom yrket plattsättare finns ett stort problem med muskuloskeletala besvär och vidare forskning är viktigt. / The aim of the present study was to identify musculoskeletal symptoms in pursuit tiler and use the model of demands, control and support in order to assess if it may help to explain the presence of musculoskeletal symptoms. In the present study a quantitative approach was used. The survey measured self-rated general health, stress, demands, control and support together with subjective musculoskeletal symptoms of the tilers. The sample group included 13 men with a mean age of 38 (std= 11,6) and five women with a mean age of 31 (std=9,7) that had worked as a tiler 2-26 years. Result indicates that the overall self-rated level of general health, stress, demand and control was good. The prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms in the lower back and the knee/knees was high with frequency of 72%. Musculoskeletal symptoms as a function of self-rated control-demand categories yielded the following results. Most of the tiler ended up in the categorie for "activ". This limited the ability to compare the self-reported symptoms between different categories in the demand and control model. It is concluded that the profession tiler have a big problem with musculoskeletal symptoms and further research is important.

The objectives of this study were to validate the Maslach Burnout Inventory - General Survey (MBI-GS) and the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI), to determine the construct equivalence and item bias of these instruments for employees in an earthmoving equipment industry in South &ca of different language groups, to determine the correlation between the MBI-GS and the OLBI, and to investigate the relationship between burnout and various demographic characteristics. A random sample of 326 employees in an earthmoving equipment industry of eight provinces in South Africa was taken. The MBI-GS, the OLBI and a biographical questionnaire were used as measuring instruments. Cronbach alpha coefficients, inter-item correlation coefficients, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients and exploratory factor analysis were used to analyse the data The results showed that three factors of the MBI-GS and two factors of the OLBI exist for different language groups. Exploratory factor analysis with target rotations confirmed the construct equivalence of the three factors of the MBI-GS and the two factors for the OLBI for different language groups. No evidence was found for uniform or non-uniform bias of the items of the MBI-GS or the OLBI for different language groups. Results indicated that no differences with respect to levels of burnout exist between various demographic characteristics. Recommendations were made for further research. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.

The objectives of this study were to validate the Maslach Burnout Inventory - General Survey (MBI-GS) and the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI), to determine the construct equivalence and item bias of these instruments for employees in an earthmoving equipment industry in South &ca of different language groups, to determine the correlation between the MBI-GS and the OLBI, and to investigate the relationship between burnout and various demographic characteristics. A random sample of 326 employees in an earthmoving equipment industry of eight provinces in South Africa was taken. The MBI-GS, the OLBI and a biographical questionnaire were used as measuring instruments. Cronbach alpha coefficients, inter-item correlation coefficients, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients and exploratory factor analysis were used to analyse the data The results showed that three factors of the MBI-GS and two factors of the OLBI exist for different language groups. Exploratory factor analysis with target rotations confirmed the construct equivalence of the three factors of the MBI-GS and the two factors for the OLBI for different language groups. No evidence was found for uniform or non-uniform bias of the items of the MBI-GS or the OLBI for different language groups. Results indicated that no differences with respect to levels of burnout exist between various demographic characteristics. Recommendations were made for further research. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.

Dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Technology: Construction Management Department of the Built Environment in the Faculty of Construction Management and Quantity Surveying at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology 2014 / The construction industry contributes significantly to national economic growth and offers substantial opportunities for job creation; however the industry has continually been plagued by workplace accidents. Moreover, employers may not realize the economic magnitude of workplace injury and ill health arising from construction activities. These accidents represent a considerable economic and social burden to employers, employees and to society as a whole. Despite governments and organisations worldwide maintaining an on-going commitment towards establishing a working environment free of injury and disease, a great deal of construction accidents continues to frequent our society. Given the high rate of construction accidents experienced, employers are not entirely mindful of the actual costs of construction accidents, especially when considering the hidden or indirect costs of accidents. Various safety research efforts have attempted to quantify the true costs of worker injuries, however localised systematic information on cost of construction accidents at work is not readily available from administrative statistical data sources, therefore this study was carried out in order to estimate the costs, like lost workdays or lost income, are clearly visible and can readily be expressed in monetary value; for a large part however, economic consequences of accidents are somewhat hidden. Indirect costs following an accident may be disregarded, damage to the company image is difficult to quantify and pricing human suffering and health damage is subject to discussion. Nevertheless, it is possible to get an adequate insight into the costs of accidents and the potential benefits of accident prevention.