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To analyze the system development, manufacturing practices and system evaluation procedures of representative PPES manufacturers, two companies (i.e., one "small", referred to here as "simple manufacturer (SM)", and one "large", referred here as "complex manufacturer (CM)" — in terms of workforce, market presence, and capital) that develop first responder PPES, which voluntarily agreed to participate in the research were chosen. The complex PPES is an Air-Pak, a self contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) used by first responders for artificial breathing in life-threatening scenarios and the simple PPES is the Fire-Eye device, a thermal sensor that attaches to the visor of the firefighter in order to convey the visual warning of the ambient thermal environment. In order to differentiate the two distinct methodological approaches, the dissertation has been split into two different parts. The first methodology is a "case study" type of empirical investigation which follows a triangulation approach utilizing surveys, structured interviews, process and system observations, and examination of archival records. The second type of methodology is an experimental empirical research one, which involves laboratory-scale and full-scale real-life fire scenarios to conduct product evaluation. The research goals of the case study research were to identify the problems faced by the manufacturers of PPES and to formulate guidelines with regards to manufacturing, compliance, design and development processes, etc., for the PPES manufacturers. The investigation sought answer to the following key questions: a) How do PPES manufacturers currently approach the systems design and development process and what best practices in manufacturing and quality control have they adopted? b) What human factors and ergonomic measures are adopted by these companies while designing their products and what human testing is conducted by companies? c)What safety measures are considered by the safety designer while designing the product? The recommendations also include modifications to the product design process taking into account the market trends in the product design processes, involvement of ergonomics and safety aspects. The research goals for the experimental part of this dissertation were to identify appropriate evaluation methods and conduct the PPES evaluation in simulated fire environments. The Fire-Eye device primarily functions in hot environments and warns the firefighters of the ambient temperature. Therefore, the laboratory-scale evaluation was conducted using test methods such as the Static Oven, Fire Equipment Evaluator, and Radiant Panel, methods which represent controlled environment test conditions. The Fire-Eye device was also evaluated in realistic fire environment created in an ISO burn room by conducting several tests using different types of fuels such as Heptane, Natural Gas, and Living-room set-up (i.e., furniture as fuel). The Fire-Eye device was tested for repeatability and reproducibility of its performance in both of the experimental settings. Statistical data analysis was conducted to determine any differences in performance of the Fire-Eye device among each laboratory-scale methods as well as to compare the performance of the device between laboratory-scale and full-scale fire environments in identical heat locations. The results suggest that a dual approach (laboratory-scale and full-scale fire environment) for evaluating the performance of PPES is more effective than is testing the device in either one of the methods. / Ph. D.

Many south Asian countries are deficient in appropriate documentation, legislation and surveillance related to occupational health and safety (OHS). All these countries have high OHS incidence rate and labourers working in these countries are constantly exposed to occupational accidents and diseases. Although occupational accidents and work-related concerns have been in debate for a long time, no concrete moves have been taken, making situations worse and posing consistent coercions to an increasing labour force. The current research was carried out to examine the main hazards faced by construction workers in Pakistan and the response of health, safety and environment (HSE) department in plummeting these hazards and in certaining sustainability in construction companies in Pakistan. Workers working in the construction industry are incessantly bared to unsafe working conditions and have to confront several kind of hazards. This embraces exposure to sound, dust and toxic substances, issues of ergonomics, stress etc. This study employed a comprehensive fact-finding design. Data was harbored using interviews, academic articles and reports from international and national organisations. Employer, administration and labourers all lack knowledge about OHS issues in Pakistan. The majority of the labourers are unskilled, uninformed and unregistered. There are no native directives, which are coupled with both OHS and the construction industry. There is an absence of safety ethics, and neither reporting nor monitoring is conducted in the construction business. Companies see HSE issues as an economic burden which will eventually end up mounting production costs. Labourers don’t follow safety instructions; they don’t wear personal protective equipment (PPE), they reckon wearing this equipment would cause obstruction in their work and would influence their productivity. The use of PPE is essential in the construction activity, as it is considered as the last line of defence. All this has affected the construction industry tremendously collectively in terms of financial loss, human loss and image loss, and injury incidence rates have increased alarmingly. Implementation of sustainable development is a core responsibility of an HSE department. Dearth of HSE means lack of sustainability in the construction sector. Today, sustainability is an important aspect of development. It means that development should not only be economically feasable but also socially and environmentally viable both for current and future generations. There is much need to formulate new strict policy and laws or to amend old ones, laws which are effective and practical in promoting HSE and sustainability norms in the construction sector of Pakistan. The main hazards that are faced by construction workers are falling from height, lifting activity and electrocution. HSE departments play a chief role in minimizing worksite accidents and in promoting sustainable development in work settings. For ensuring sustainable practices on construction sites, HSE departments formulate integrated working policy, keeping in mind social, environmental and econmical aspects and considering inputs from all stakeholders. In addition, they look for innovative green technologies and green materials which are more environmental friendly, economical and require less energy.

Safety is an essential part of the paper industry, as the industry can be very hazardous and accidents can lead to serious injuries for the people involved. In order to mitigate and prevent accidents, it has been shown that proactive measures are of great value. One type of proactive measure is the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), such as gloves, hard hats, safety glasses and reflective vests. Despite that it is often required to wear PPE in a work place, it is not always guaranteed and non-usage can affect the safety of workers. To detect unsafe conditions, such as non-usage of PPE, automated video monitoring with image recognition can be useful. The intention of this work is to investigate whether an image recognition model can be created using the cloud service Azure and used in a system that can detect PPE, which in this work is limited to reflective vests. The work results in an artifact using an image recognition model. Additionally, this work examines how the training data can affect the model's performance. It is found that the model can be improved by training the model on images with varying backgrounds, angles, distances, and occlusions. While there are many advantages with automated monitoring, the use of it can raise questions regarding the privacy of the people being monitored and how it can be perceived in a workplace. Therefore, this thesis examines the privacy concerns and attitudes regarding an image recognition system for monitoring. This is accomplished by performing a literature study and interviews with employees at a paper mill. The results reveals challenges with systems for automated monitoring as well as factors that can affect how employees feel about them.

Explosives have become increasingly common on the battlefield worldwide. Military personnel and civilians often experience blast loading to the lower extremity due to its direct contact with the ground and floor of vehicles. The pressure and axial loading from these incidents often lead to detrimental injuries. These injuries can be due to a number of mechanisms terming them primary, secondary, tertiary, or quaternary blast injuries. Of these injuries, this study will focus on primary and tertiary injuries, specifically bone fractures, compartment syndrome, and soft tissue disruption which often result from blast loading due to these mechanisms. However, the pressure and load levels causing these injuries are unknown. Currently, the methodologies, which study the injury criteria and design of blast mitigating structures, are limited. The main limitations are the lower rates of testing (automobile), specimen limitation (cadavers, surrogates, etc.), cost, and testing repeatability. Consequently, the goal of this dissertation is to develop a realistic computational model which can be used to improve the injury criteria, personal protective equipment (PPE), and vehicular structure in a cost effective and timely manner. Three Aims were thus pursued. For Specific Aim 1, a standing lower extremity was developed, verified, and simulated with several open-air blast loading conditions. Specific Aim 2 focused on validating the lower extremity model using experimental drop tower test results. In the drop tower simulation, the lower extremity model was successfully converted into a seated posture model and setup with similar loading and boundary conditions as the experiment. Specific Aim 3 involved incorporating a boot into the standing lower extremity model and evaluating its ability to mitigate pressure waves. In summary, Specific Aims 1 and 2 developed, verified, and validated a realistic human lower extremity model for the use in blast simulations. Specific Aim 3 further confirmed the models use in developing PPE.

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This research has aimed to understand supply chain resilience in the federal government, specifically healthcare PPE supply chain resilience. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the fragility of global supply chains. Before COVID-19, low-cost medical supplies such as personal protective equipment (PPE), which typically requires less skilled labor, had been produced in China and Malaysia and imported to the United States. However, COVID-19 created an overwhelming shortage in medical supplies globally, forcing the United States to create federal policies that could make their domestic supply chain lines more resilient to external disruptions. This research explored the effects of one such policy intervention, the “Making PPE in America Act” of 2021, on maintaining healthcare supply chain resilience of the healthcare supply chains for non-military areas of the U.S. government. Two qualitative studies were conducted to examine the federal government’s response to this issue and its impact on the industry. The research provides valuable insights into the resilience of the healthcare supply chains for non-military areas of the U.S. federal government. It enhances limited scholarly literature on healthcare supply chain resilience through the lens of U.S. civilian healthcare federal government organizations. The research highlights the importance of an organizational-level definition of supply chain resilience, which should be articulated throughout the organization to ensure a holistic approach. It also recommends incorporating technologies to facilitate predictive analytics, real-time data, and technology automation. Federal agencies and industry partners can use this research to develop and implement strategies to improve or, in some cases, create strategies that will positively impact their supply chain resilience posture.Keywords: Global value chain, healthcare, personal protective equipment, reflexive thematic analysis, supply chain resilience / Business Administration/International Business Administration

Current situation: Nurses' health can be endangered by various influences. One of the possibilities of prevention is personal protective equipment (PPE) which provides effective protection against infectious agents and other risk factors, both for the nurse and the patient. The aim of the thesis was to find out the nurses' awareness of PPE and its use. Find out which PPE nurses use and evaluate whether they use it properly. Methods: The research was carried out using a qualitative method, a technique of non-standardized in-depth interviews and observation. 16 nurses attended the interviews and were observed during 112 nursing activities. Qualitative research was supplemented by an interview with the institutional epidemiologist and a nurse from the department of epidemiology. Results: Nurses use PPE to protect their health and are well-aware of the risks. They realize that it also protects the patient. Nurses commonly use gloves, face masks and protective aprons. When choosing proper PPE, they base their choice primarily on the standard of nursing care, legislation, the nature of the activity performed, the specifics of the department, the risks involved or the type and method of transmission of the respective disease. At workplaces there are a sufficient number of several types of PPE and nurses have the opportunity to educate themselves on the issue. However, there are some obstacles to the correct use of PPE. These obstacles include: lack of information, lack of staffing, pressure on performance and time stress. During the observation the most frequent errors were found in the use of gloves and taking off PPE. Recommendations for practice: The introduction of comprehensive training on individual PPE, increased checks by managers, regular updating of standard nursing procedures, sufficient staffing and sufficient spare protective equipment at the department may contribute to increasing the level of use of PPE.

Injury from blast is significant in both military and civilian environments. Although injuries from blast are well-documented, the mechanisms of injury are not well understood. Developing better protection requires knowledge of injury mechanisms and material response to blast loading. The importance of understanding how soft materials such as foams and fabrics behave under blast loading is further apparent when one realizes the capacity for some of these materials, frequently used in protective ensembles, to increase the potential for injury under some conditions. The ability for material configurations to amplify blast pressure and injury has been shown experimentally by other researches, and numerically in this study. Initially, 1-D finite element and mathematical models were developed to investigate a variety of soft materials commonly utilized in ballistic and blast protection. Foams, which have excellent characteristics in terms of energy absorption and density, can be used in conjunction with other materials to drastically reduce the amplitude of the transmitted pressure wave and corresponding injury. Additionally, a more fundamental examination of single layers of fabric was undertaken to investigate to the effects of parameters such as fabric porosity and density. Shock tube models were developed and validated against experimental results from the literature. After the models were validated, individual fabric properties were varied independently to isolate the influence of parameters in ways not possible experimentally. Fabric permeability was found to have the greatest influence on pressure amplification. Kevlar, a ballistic fabric, was modelled due to its frequent use for fragmentation protection (either stand-alone or in conjunction with a hard ballistic plate). The developed fabric and foam material models were then utilized in conjunction with a detailed torso model for the estimation of lung injury resulting from air blast. It was found that the torso model predicted both amplification and attenuation of injury, and all materials investigated as a part of the study had the capacity for both blast amplification and attenuation. The benefit of the models developed is that they allow for the evaluation of specific protection concepts.

Injury from blast is significant in both military and civilian environments. Although injuries from blast are well-documented, the mechanisms of injury are not well understood. Developing better protection requires knowledge of injury mechanisms and material response to blast loading. The importance of understanding how soft materials such as foams and fabrics behave under blast loading is further apparent when one realizes the capacity for some of these materials, frequently used in protective ensembles, to increase the potential for injury under some conditions. The ability for material configurations to amplify blast pressure and injury has been shown experimentally by other researches, and numerically in this study. Initially, 1-D finite element and mathematical models were developed to investigate a variety of soft materials commonly utilized in ballistic and blast protection. Foams, which have excellent characteristics in terms of energy absorption and density, can be used in conjunction with other materials to drastically reduce the amplitude of the transmitted pressure wave and corresponding injury. Additionally, a more fundamental examination of single layers of fabric was undertaken to investigate to the effects of parameters such as fabric porosity and density. Shock tube models were developed and validated against experimental results from the literature. After the models were validated, individual fabric properties were varied independently to isolate the influence of parameters in ways not possible experimentally. Fabric permeability was found to have the greatest influence on pressure amplification. Kevlar, a ballistic fabric, was modelled due to its frequent use for fragmentation protection (either stand-alone or in conjunction with a hard ballistic plate). The developed fabric and foam material models were then utilized in conjunction with a detailed torso model for the estimation of lung injury resulting from air blast. It was found that the torso model predicted both amplification and attenuation of injury, and all materials investigated as a part of the study had the capacity for both blast amplification and attenuation. The benefit of the models developed is that they allow for the evaluation of specific protection concepts.