Occupationally induced heat-related illnesses (HRI) can play a huge part in the lives of employees working within outdoor kitchens. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health [NIOSH] (2016), “exposure to heat can result in injuries, disease, reduced productivity and death”. When working in outdoor environments, it is important to limit exposure time of direct sun or heat as well as to stay properly hydrated. One way to ensure limited occupational heat exposure is by measuring the Heat Index of the worker's environmental conditions. The purpose of this study is to determine whether there was a difference between the indoor and outdoor Heat Index measurements among various kitchens. Multiple locations within eight, freestanding, take-away service kitchens were sampled over a period of three days. A 3M QUESTemp 46 Heat Stress Monitor was used to sample the outdoor and indoor environmental conditions, specifically capturing the indoor Heat Index measurements. The outdoor Heat Index was reported with meteorological data from Weather Underground linked to the National Weather Service. Multiple statistical analyses were performed to understand and explore the relationships between or among the difference of indoor to outdoor Heat Index measurements, as well as kitchen production levels and forced air ventilation. The results showed that higher production kitchens had a significantly greater increase in Heat Index compared to low production and high production kitchens with forced air ventilation. Due to the small sample size of this study, it is recommended that future efforts to compare indoor and outdoor Heat Index measurements for kitchens include a larger sample size of both kitchens and locations.

Abstract Purpose: To determine the prevalence and factors associated with injury in professional ballet and modern dancers, to explore dancers’ attitudes and perceptions of injury, and to assess if dancers are reporting their injuries and reasons for not reporting injuries. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was undertaken in professional ballet and modern dance companies in Canada, Denmark, Israel, and Sweden. Results: The point prevalence of injury in dancers is high (55% ballet; 46% modern) and most have chronic pain. Years dancing professionally and rank were associated with injury in ballet dancers. Attitudes towards injury vary and some dancers are continuing to dance when injured. Greater than 15% of all injured dancers have not reported their injury. Conclusions: Injury is common in dancers and there is an urgent need to investigate interventions to help control injury and understand the long-term implications of these conditions in this population.

Abstract Purpose: To determine the prevalence and factors associated with injury in professional ballet and modern dancers, to explore dancers’ attitudes and perceptions of injury, and to assess if dancers are reporting their injuries and reasons for not reporting injuries. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was undertaken in professional ballet and modern dance companies in Canada, Denmark, Israel, and Sweden. Results: The point prevalence of injury in dancers is high (55% ballet; 46% modern) and most have chronic pain. Years dancing professionally and rank were associated with injury in ballet dancers. Attitudes towards injury vary and some dancers are continuing to dance when injured. Greater than 15% of all injured dancers have not reported their injury. Conclusions: Injury is common in dancers and there is an urgent need to investigate interventions to help control injury and understand the long-term implications of these conditions in this population.

<p> Construction safety is an essential aspect of the construction industry and measuring safety performance has been of continuing concern. Most of the preceding studies concentrated on two widely used metrics in industry to evaluate and improve safety performance, EMR and incidence rates. However, it is recognized that these metrics have shortcomings, such as being reactive and not proactive, or representing a macroscopic approach and not microscopic approach, or disregarding the events that lead to accidents and only being result-oriented. Improving safety is one aspect of a research but using an appropriate safety measure is as important. Using these parameters comes with their limitations, and they need to be well understood while drawing conclusions so as not to mislead an owner while comparing companies' safety performance or making a decision to select a safe contractor, the same holds true for the contractor's own management while self-assessing its safety performance and deficiencies. </p><p> This study focused on a new safety performance metric by introducing a proactive safety performance measurement system through observed safety violations of OSHA standards. The new metric, site safety performance value (SSPV) was based on OSHA's Gravity Based Penalty (GBP) system and quantified general contractors' site safety performance to measure their ability to comply with OSHA safety rules and regulations. This metric is a leading indicator based on pre-accident driven data. It was also used to develop a new predictive model to evaluate general contractors' safety performance and examine the relationships between the project and company demographics and the proactive safety measure, SSPV, for advancement of construction safety performance. The statistical model constructed can predict future contractor safety performance, and it may contribute to the contractor selection process. The methodology additionally included an investigation of specific construction trades to find out which trades carry the highest risk in terms of safety and impact construction safety performance the most. </p><p> The findings of this study can be used by numerous groups including the general contractors, owners, safety professionals and researchers to identify where safety performance can be improved, and determine the significant parameters that could help identify the areas of concern by utilizing a new proactive safety performance evaluation system.</p>

<p> Low back pain (LBP) is the most prevalent work-related musculoskeletal disorder. Occupational risk factors have been studied for current ergonomic prevention strategies; however, other underlying mechanisms may exist since not all workers performing the same task develop the same severity. Previous research has identified personal and psychosocial risk factors that also contribute to LBP. Research quantifying the interactive effects of the various personal, psychosocial and occupational factors is limited, along with research on the effect of risk factor combinations on LBP severity. </p><p> The objectives of this study were to: 1) study the various factors that are known to be involved in low back pain and analyze interactions, and 2) develop a model to predict low back pain and validate it. In order to address these objectives, 2 studies were conducted. </p><p> The first study investigated the effects of various personal, genetic, occupational and psychosocial factors on two subjective LBP severity ratings: Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and a Visual Analog Scale (VAS), and three physician-based ratings: MRI severity, canal stenosis and nerve impingement. Personal and psychosocial factors, in addition to occupational factors, were found to significantly affect the severity ratings. </p><p> The second study involved building predictive models of LBP severity for each risk factor category as well as a combined risk factor model. Results showed that the combined risk factor models considering interaction effects both within and across risk factor categories were significantly better in predicting severity ratings than the individual models. However, validation conducted using 5 random samples showed inconsistent accuracies. Results obtained may help to develop a more reliable way to predict and, hence, prevent chronic LBP.</p>

<p> Stress has long been conceptualized as consisting of two factors, eustress, or good stress, and distress, or bad stress (Selye, 1956). The occupational stress literature identifies <i>challenge</i> stressors as those associated with favorable outcomes, and <i>hindrance</i> stressors as those associated with negative outcomes (Cavanaugh, Boswell, Roehling, &amp; Boudreau, 2000). The current study had three objectives: 1) to investigate occupational level stressor appraisal by K-12 teachers, 2) to explore how the perception of the availability of resources influences individual level stressor appraisal, and 3) to test differential outcomes of challenge and hindrance stress. Results indicate that K-12 teachers appraise workload as a hindrance stressor more than as a challenge stressor, which is contrary to existing management literature categorizing workload a challenge stressor. Perceived resources also accounted for significant variance in individual appraisal of stressors as a hindrance. Results pinpoint precise personal and organizational resources that contribute to stressor appraisals as a hindrance. Finally, hindrance stress significantly detracted from engagement while challenge stress did not affect work engagement.</p>

Behavior as related to occupational danger was explored in this research by examining industrial workers' reactions to accidents they had on the job. An observational study was conducted using longitudinal data to investigate relationships between hypothesized antecedent conditions and the occurrence of accidents at a large petrochemical refining and manufacturing complex. Models were developed that indicated the extent to which job-related injuries affected the duration of subsequent accident-free periods prior to another accident. Results indicated that a worker's job category and cumulative accident history as well as characteristics associated with previous accidents reliably influenced accident propensity. The tendency to be involved in accidents was unrelated to seasonal or weekly influences. Results are discussed in terms of the relative magnitude of various system factors on accident liability. It is anticipated that the theoretical and analytical techniques employed will be useful in developing strategies for clarifying the mechanisms through which workers perceive, assess and respond to danger in the workplace and enhancing decisions with regard to the targeting of prevention efforts.

Background: Farming is an hazardous occupation. The underlying determinants of farm injury are not well understood among adolescent populations, particularly from a gender lens. Objectives: (1) To evaluate the association between gender and occupational health and safety practices reported for hazardous work among working adolescent farm children; and, (2) to evaluate the association between use of such practices and time to farm injury, and also whether such associations vary by gender. Methods: Survey data from an existing farm injury cohort were available for analysis. Occupational health and safety practices were: non-use of personal protective equipment, non-use of training and supervision for work with heavy equipment, non-use of training and supervision for work with large animals, and conduct of hazardous tasks. Logistic regression was used to examine associations between gender and use of safety practices, and Cox regression was used to examine relationships between occupational health and safety practices and time to first injury. Results: Girls reported increased odds for the non-use of personal protective equipment (adjusted OR 2.39 [95% CI: 1.16, 4.94]). There was no evidence of an association between gender and the conduct of hazardous tasks (adjusted OR 0.69 [95% CI: 0.28, 1.73]). Gender patterns surrounding non-use of training and supervision for work with equipment (adjusted OR 2.38 [95% CI: 0.53, 10.66]) and with animals (adjusted OR 1.52 [95% CI: 0.75, 3.06]) were not significant. Use of personal protective equipment (adjusted HR 1.25 [95% CI: 0.76, 2.06]) did not significantly reduce the risk of farm injury, neither did use of training and supervision during equipment work (HR 1.25 [95% CI: 0.69, 2.28]), nor during animal work (HR 1.06 [95% CI: 0.59, 1.92]), or the conduct of hazardous tasks (HR 1.04 [95% CI: 0.67, 1.63]). Further, there was no significant modification of these associations and injury by gender. Conclusions: Among adolescents, farm occupational health and safety practices appear to vary by gender. Girls on farms report fewer exposures to hazards, and receive less training and supervision and less use of personal protective equipment, consistent with assigned tasks. While gender appears to play a role in the assignment of farm tasks and occupational health and safety practices, these practices did not reduce the likelihood of subsequent injury. As well, the latter associations did not appear to vary by gender. A public health approach that recognizes gender as a determinant of hazardous farm exposures and associated occupational health and safety practices is needed. / Thesis (Master, Community Health & Epidemiology) -- Queen's University, 2010-09-19 19:25:41.479

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