As vehicle manufacturers continue to increase their emphasis on safety with advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), I propose a ubiquitous device that is able to analyze and advise on safety conditions. Mobile smartphones are increasing in popularity among younger generations with an estimated 64% of 25-34 year olds already using one in their daily lives. with over 10 million car accidents reported in the United States each year, car manufacturers have shifted their focus of a passive approach (airbags) to more active by adding features associated with ADAS (lane departure warnings). However, vehicles manufactured with these sensors are not economically priced while older vehicles might only have passive safety features. Given its accessibility and portability, I target a mobile smartphone as a device to compliment ADAS that can bring a driver assist to any vehicle without regards for any on-vehicle communication system requirements. I use the 3-axis accelerometer of multiple Android based smartphone to record and analyze various safety factors which can influence a driver while operating a vehicle. These influences with respect to the driver, vehicle and road are lane change maneuvers, vehicular comfort and road conditions. Each factor could potentially be hazardous to the health of the driver, neighboring public, and automobile and is therefore analyzed thoroughly achieving 85.60% and 89.89% classification accuracy for identifying road anomalies and lane changes, respectively. Effective use of this data can educate a potentially dangerous driver on how to operate a vehicle safely and efficiently. with real time analysis and auditory alerts of these factors, I hope to increase a driver's overall awareness to maximize safety.

There are three primary routes by which occupational exposure to hazardous substances occurs: inhalation, dermal absorption, and ingestion. Of these, ingestion has been the least studied. Ingestion exposure is typically controlled in workplaces by the provision of clean eating areas that are separated from the work areas, and by encouraging hand-washing prior to eating. However, this control strategy does not affect ingestion exposure that can occur when contaminated hands or objects contact the mouth; these sorts of exposures can occur during work tasks in the general work area. For example, these sorts of contacts can occur when workers wipe their mouths or noses, chew pens or glasses, or bite their nails. Exposure by this pathway is called inadvertent ingestion exposure. In addition to the insertion of contaminated hands and objects directly into the oral cavity, contact can occur with the perioral area (the area surrounding the mouth) and transferred substances can subsequently transfer to the mouth. The aim of this thesis was to study inadvertent ingestion exposure in order to develop a generic predictive screening model to allow occupational hygienists and risk assessors to estimate exposure by inadvertent ingestion for a range of exposure scenarios. The thesis project was carried out in a series of steps, all of which are described below. The steps were carried out in the order presented and the findings from the work on earlier steps influenced the work carried out in later steps.

<p> Inadequate leadership is the reason workplace accidents in the mining industry remain high, making the industry one of the most hazardous operational activities in the world. Unsafe leadership practices may result in death or injury to workers. A group of 30 mining company leaders from 3 gold mines in Zimbabwe revealed an exception to these hazardous practices, however, notable through their outstanding safety improvement records. To better understand what these practitioners were doing, this multicase study research design explored their strategies to improve the workplace safety environment in the mines. Data were collected using audio-recorded semistructured interviews and document analyses. Shewhart&rsquo;s plan-do-check-act conceptual framework anchored the study. Data analysis followed the thematic data analytic approach involving classification, coding, and interpretation to identify common themes. The following themes emerged: planning and organizing, leading, and risk management. The findings indicate that the business leaders created a safe work environment by planning the work to be performed; how the task would be executed; and when, where, and who performed the task. The results of study also indicate that leaders designed the work environment, trained, empowered, and equipped employees with the relevant skills, and provided appropriate technology and personal protective equipment to improve workplace safety. Finally, the research findings indicate that leaders embedded risk management principles and practices in every process or activity, and continuously learned from each event to create a safe work environment. The findings promote social change by encouraging safe behavior and risk-based thinking and practices in the workforce and the community.</p>

Thesis (M.P.H.(Occupational Hygiene)), Faculty of Health Sciences,University of the Witwatersrand, 2009 / This study was aimed at describing the nature of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) inspections and blitzes conducted in the Port Elizabeth Integrated Department of Labour (DoL) in 2005, the nature and number of prohibitions, contraventions, as well as improvement notices issued. The objectives were to determine the number of OHS inspections conducted in the Port Elizabeth Labour Centre (PELC) in 2005; to describe the nature of the inspections and the type of industries inspected in the PELC in 2005; and to determine the frequency and nature of prohibitions, contraventions and improvement notices issued. The data was obtained from the PELC. The results of the study revealed that the inspectorate conducted a total of 1258 and this exceeded the target of 800 OHS inspections for the PELC. However, it is questionable how this target was developed. The target is not representative and does not give an overall picture of conditions in the workplace. The results indicated that inspectors were not competent in conducting boiler inspections as well on Major Hazardous Installation (MHI) since none of these inspections were conducted. On the inception of the OHS task team, there was a sudden increase in inspections conducted in the construction industry in October 2005 as well as the rate of finalisation of incidents in November 2005 and this was attributed to the fact that they were not conducting inspections on other labour laws and were only focusing on OHS. An assessment of the inspectors’ inspection checklists revealed that the inspections were being reduced to just a yes or no tick exercise, with no recommendation on appropriate action to be taken by the employer. It became evident that the inception of a special team in September 2005 contributed to an increased number of OHS inspections, since they were only focusing on OHS issues. This team ensured that in November 2005 there were 43 incidents finalised as compared to the 101 finalised over 11 months. They also ensured that a total of 258 OHS inspections were conducted from September 2005 to December 2005. Although these inspectors were not fully competent in addressing health and s afety issues their momentary focus on OHS activities ensured that they made a difference in the rate of finalisation of incidents. However, when some of the cases were taken to court no successful prosecution could be obtained because there are no OHS focused prosecutors, which have a clear understanding of Act. Discussions with the inspectors revealed that there was a lack of morale and loss of interest in their work, thus causing them not to put in much effort. These discussions revealed that this lack of morale was caused by the frustrations they often experienced in the execution of their duties due to lack of training as well as lack of cooperation from the employers. Furthermore, the inspectors revealed that the great number of resignations from inspectors who were leaving for greener pastures left them with a lot of work with no financial incentive. It also became apparent that there was no objective strategy underlying the number of inspections required relative to the purpose of the inspections, taking into account the nature and complexity of the industry that is to be inspected. The failure of the Service Delivery Unit to give a direction on how qualitative inspections should be measured demoralised them because the focus was only on the quantity (240 inspections per annum) of inspections that are to be conducted by each inspector. It is recommended that training, which should include a proper career path be conducted for inspectors to improve the inspectors’ capability and to motivate them. Strong relations with the South African Police Services and the Department of Justice should be promoted to ensure effectiveness of service delivery. These relations will ensure that inspectors are readily assisted by the police when they deal with uncooperative employers. Training of prosecutors will ensure that they understand the OHSA and its implementation and therefore effectively defend cases that are taken to court. The targets set for inspections should be scientifically supported and take into account the nature and complexity of the production processes. Lastly, revision of salary packages should be looked into to ensure retention of competent staff. The above recommendations will only be effective if the Business Unit Manager and the Regional Manager address them through the National Department of Labour since their implementation will affect all inspectors.

<p> The impact of occupational stress on employees' health and work performance costs U.S. companies $300 billion annually; work-related stress is an issue for private security organizations all over the world. The purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies private security organizational leaders used to mitigate private security officers' occupational stress. The study participants were 4 leaders of a private security organization in Bahrain who had a minimum of 5 years of experience in the private security field and had addressed occupational stress successfully. The human capital theory was the conceptual framework used for this study. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and review of archival documents. Yin's 5-step data analysis plan was applied to the data to generate 4 themes: private security occupational stressors, occupational stress reduction practices, leaders-officers open communication, and health protection policies. The identification and development of job stressor mitigation strategies has multiple implications for positive social change including protecting employees' well-being and increasing their working performance, productivity, and business success. Improving work performance and productivity produces opportunities for employment and supports economic growth and community goodwill. The practices of a successful organization positively influence the society by providing jobs and capital investments, which can improve the quality of life in the community.</p><p>

This thesis offers a commentary on the use of an embedded approach to explore variables impacting on employee safety culture at a large manufacturing plant. A mixed method approach was adopted in order to assess the safety culture of the company. The assessment stage consisted of point-of- work observations; unstructured individual interviews, semi-structured focus groups and a safety culture survey. This afforded a detailed insight into a rich array of context-specific variables impacting on employee perceptions of safety in the company, referenced to leadership style, incident reporting, rule breaking / risk taking, time pressure, communication and reactive approach to addressing safety issues. The safety culture assessment was followed by the development and implementation of two safety culture improvement programmes (interventions). Two matched pairs of departments (two experimental and two control) were chosen in which to conduct the interventions. The first intervention comprised a replication (with enhancements) of Zohar’s (2003) safety climate improvement intervention. The results indicated that low trust towards the management and the researcher, the face validity of the intervention, negative past experiences, insufficiently transparent communication and alienation engendered a high resistance to change. Seeking to address the shortcomings of the first, the second intervention represented a more organic approach, in which the improvement programme was designed to mesh with and complement established quality management systems. An improvement in employee safety performance was observed in the first month following its introduction, however, it is also possible that this was a consequence of a lean manufacturing intervention that took place at the same time. Variables affecting the intervention success were further explored though interviews with a sample of safety experts. This resulted in the development of a six stage model for successful safety culture intervention design and implementation. The insights gained from these studies were fed back to the industrial sponsor to contribute to corporate insight and understanding into variables impacting on employee safety culture and the design of successful safety improvement programs.

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Aspartame (APM) is one of the most widely used artificial sweeteners in the world today. It is present in over 6,000 different products and is consumed by millions of people on a daily basis. Since its approval by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1981, APM has made its way into the normal diets of many people. The negligible caloric content of APM has led to increases in its use by not only diabetics but also a large number of health conscious people. Since the introduction of APM into the food industry, there has been great debate and controversy over the safety of its use. Numerous animal and human studies have shown that APM use is fully harmless and not linked to any negative health effects in humans. On the other hand, other studies have found APM consumption to be associated with a variety of alarming health consequences. These include various types of cancers, genotoxicity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, oxidative stress, neurochemical imbalances, and shifts in gut microbial balance. Many APM users believe that through consuming products that contain APM, they are reducing their risk of some of these conditions while in reality it is possible that quite the opposite is happening. APM use may not be as safe as the public generally assumes. The circumstances that surrounded the FDA's approval of APM and the body of evidence that exists pertaining to APM toxicity raise many questions. An extensive look into the literature has revealed that there are enough reasons to doubt the complete safety of APM. It is important for the public to be made aware of these findings in order to make well-informed decisions and more importantly, to best protect their health.

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The rapidly increasing loss of industrial accidents has become a big barrier to the development of modern industry. Therefore, safety and reliability in the industry should be treated seriously. Although there are many achievements in safety and reliability research, still many challenges are waiting for people to address. Human reliability is one of the most representative challenges. The source idea and methodology of human reliability are very different with facility reliability analysis, so in most system reliability analysis, facility reliability and human reliability are isolated with each other, and sometimes, human reliability is even neglected, which decrease the quality of system reliability analysis. However, according to many safety reports, human factors are always playing the root reason or one of the root reasons to activate the accidents. Regarding that, the integrated model, which involves human reliability and facility reliability, should be constructed. Therefore, in this Ph.D. research, a Markov chain based mathematical model, which contains human reliability and facility reliability, is established. Besides, only a simple model is not enough in solving the integrated reliability analysis problem, so the mathematical will be taken in optimization to find the best solutions for system reliability with the consideration on reliability requirements and budget requirements. Afterwards, based on the optimized result on human reliability, a Cognitive Reliability and Error Analysis Method (CREAM) based method is adopted to predict the real human reliability data, and if the real data fails to meet the optimized human reliability data, the CREAM will be used as a method to reasonably and logically provide a variety of human reliability promotion plans for people use. Finally, facing those plans, a decision supporting model should be built to help people choose the most reasonable plan for current use and future updating. Overall, an integrated model for both human and facility factors is constructed for industry use. This new proposed model has been tested on Beihai LNG Terminal in Guangxi China.