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As a theme for my Master's Thesis I chose the theme of problems which are connected with application of Occupational Safety and Health Protection principles in practice. The aim of the Master's Thesis is to outline possible problems which we could come across while implementing the Occupational Safety and Health Protection policy and to map a major part of important legal enactments covering sphere of Occupational Safety and Health Protection. The Master's Thesis is divided into two parts, theoretical and practical one. In the theoretical part I at first briefly outline historical development of legal regulation in the Czech Republic then I proceed to a summary and characteristics of the most important contemporary legal enactments whereas I don' t omit an European legal regulation and legal regulation within the framework of International Labour Organisation. Another important part of the theoretical part is devoted to national policy of occupational safety and health protection at work. In the practical part I present the Occupational Safety and Health Protection problematic in practice and I focus on training, analysis and risk classification and formation of risk register in company Hella Autotechnik, s.r.o.

Doctor of Philosophy / Civil Engineering / Sunanda Dissanayake / Safe and efficient flow of traffic through work zones must be established by improving work zone conditions. Therefore, identifying the factors associated with the severity and the frequency of work zone crashes is important. According to current statistics from the Federal Highway Administration, 2,372 fatalities were associated with motor vehicle traffic crashes in work zones in the United States during the four years from 2010 to 2013. From 2002 to 2014, an average of 1,612 work zone crashes occurred in Kansas each year, making it a serious concern in Kansas. Objectives of this study were to analyze work zone crash characteristics, identify the factors associated with crash severity and frequency, and to identify recommendations to improve work zone safety. Work zone crashes in Kansas from 2010 to 2013 were used to develop crash severity models. Ordered probit regression was used to model the crash severities for daytime, nighttime, multi-vehicle and single-vehicle work zone crashes and for work zones crashes in general. Based on severity models, drivers from 26 to 65 years of age were associated with high crash severities during daytime work zone crashes and driver age was not found significant in nighttime work zone crashes. Use of safety equipment was related to reduced crash severities regardless of the time of the crash. Negative binomial regression was used to model the work zone crash frequency using work zones functioned in Kansas in 2013 and 2014. According to results, increased average daily traffic (AADT) was related to higher number of work zone crashes and work zones in operation at nighttime were related to reduced number of work zone crashes. Findings of this study were used to provide general countermeasure ideas for improving safety of work zones.

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Technology Occupational Health Nursing in the Faculty of Health and Wellness Sciences at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology 2015 / Purpose of study: The purpose of this study was to explore the injury on duty prevention and management strategies that are currently used in different higher education settings. The study intended to shed light on specific areas of policy and practice discrepancies related to the disjuncture between employee interactions, regulated directives and organizational goals. Aims and objectives: One of the aims was to determine the types of work-related injuries that occur in HEI’s by verifying the injuries reported on Employers Reports of an Accident. A second aim was to examine strategies that have been put in place to prevent injuries in the workplace by reviewing policies and procedures related to injury prevention. The final aim was to examine systems in-place to manage occupational injuries by looking at staff health or employee wellness service flow charts or models used at the HEIs. Population and sample: Permanently employed personnel at two HEI’s in the Western Cape were participants in a multiple case study. The sample units consisted of health and safety representatives, human resources, maintenance personnel, estates and custodial, traffic services and departmental managers. Methodology: This study applied a mixed-method using a multiple case study design as an approach to the enquiry. Methods of data collection: Documents, questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews were be used to obtain data to answer the research questions. Process of analysis: Qualitative and quantitative themes will be analysed in a matrix. The three data sources were triangulated to validate the findings. Benefits of the study: Injury prevention benefits the employer and employee in many ways, including increased employee performance leading to increased productivity as well as cost savings. Main findings: Injuries that were reported are mostly musculoskeletal injuries; however other types of injuries may not be reported due to under reporting of injuries being common in this setting. Health and safety training and knowledge sharing was not well supported and injury prevention strategies were not optimized. The application of health and safety policies and procedures were not adequately communicated, enforced or monitored. Staff health and employee wellness strategies operate independently and do not facilitate a coordinated response to manage occupational injuries in this setting. Lack of monitoring, organizational support, training and knowledge sharing and communication were the four main challenges to injury prevention management systems. Conclusions: The implementation of an effective injury prevention and management programme could benefit the organization and translate into increased operational value (organizational quality). Key words: Higher Education Institutions, Occupational Injury prevention, Management of occupational injury.

The objective of this master thesis is to design a robotic work cell for automated insertion of thermostatic heads. The proposed design was based on the comprehensive analysis of the current workplace. By taking the demands of the company and customer into consideration, several possibilities of the robotic work cell design were proposed, from which the most suitable one was chosen and carefully elaborated. During the process of designing, several safety standards had to be taken into consideration in order to mitigate risks. For that purpose, a risk analysis was conducted as well. Using the Siemens Process Simulate software, the proposed robotic work cell concept was verified, including cycle time analysis. The last part of the thesis is an assessment of the initial expenditures of the robotic work cell equipment, as well as the return of the investment calculation. Drawing of the robotic work cell layout is attached to the thesis.

In recent years, there has been a considerable increase in the amount of construction work on the U.S. national highways. Most of the work undertaken is the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the existing transportation networks. Work zones in the United States are likely to increase in number, duration and length due to emphasis on repair and highway reconstruction as a significant portion of all federal-aid highway funds are now geared toward highway rehabilitation. The challenge of mobility is particularly acute in work zone areas as road repair and construction intensifies traffic issues and concentrates them in specific locations and at specific times. Due to the capacity drop, which is the result of lane closure in work zone area, congestion will occur with a high traffic demand. The congestion increases number and severity of traffic conflicts which raise the potential for accidents; furthermore traffic operational properties of roadway in work zone area become worse. Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) technologies have been developed and are being deployed to improve the safety and mobility of traffic in and around work zones. In several states in the US, the use of Dynamic Merge Controls also known as Dynamic Lane Merge (DLM) system has been initiated to enhance traffic safety and to improve traffic flow in work zone areas. The DLM usually takes two forms; dynamic iii early merge and dynamic late merge. The use of variable speed limit (VSL) systems at work zones is also one of those measures. VSL systems improve safety by helping the driver in determining the maximum speed that drivers should travel. Besides adding improvement to safety, they are also expected to improve mobility at the work zones. The main goal of this study is to evaluate the safety and operational effectiveness of the dynamic merge systems i.e. the dynamic early lane merge and dynamic late lane merge, in the presence of VSL system. More specifically, the VISSIM model is utilized to simulate a twoto-one lane configuration when one out of the two lanes in the work zone is closed for traffic. Six different scenarios were adopted to assess the effectiveness of these scenarios under different traffic demand volumes and different drivers‟ compliance rates to the messages displayed by the systems. These scenarios are;  Work Zone without VSL and without SDLMS or the current Motorist Awareness System (MAS)  Work Zone with VSL and without SDLMS  Work Zone with VSL and Early SDLMS  Work Zone with VSL and Late SDLMS  Work Zone with early SDLMS and without VSL  Work Zone with late SDLMS and without VSL iv An already calibrated and validated VISSIM model for Simplified Dynamic Lane Merge System (SDLMS) in accordance with the real life work zone was modified with a VSL through Vehicle Actuated Programming (VAP) code. Three different logics were coded each for VSL alone, early SDLMS+VSL and late SDLMS+VSL. All these logics were fine tuned with several test runs before finalizing it for the final simulation. It is found through the simulation of above mentioned scenarios that for low and medium volume levels (V0500, V1000 and V1500), there is no significant difference between the Maintenance of Traffic (MOT) plans for mean throughputs. However, for higher volume levels (V2000 and V2500), late SDLMS with and without VSL produced higher mean throughputs for all compliance rates and truck percentages except when the demand volume was 2,500 vph and compliance of 60%, where it produces the significantly lower mean throughputs. In terms of travel time through the work zone, results indicated that there is no significant difference between MOT types for demand levels of V0500 and V1000 when compliance is 40% or less but for compliance of 60% and more, only demand volume level that is not significantly different from other MOT types is V0500. This study revealed that VSL increases travel time through the work zone. This might be due to non-compliant vehicles that follow the compliant vehicle v ahead unless they find a sufficient gap in adjacent lane to pass the compliant vehicle. It is also found out that VSL makes the system safer at higher volumes (2,000 vph and 2,500 vph). This was observed through safety surrogate measures selected for this study. Another outcome of this study is that the addition of VSL to the dynamic merge systems helps in improving the overall safety of the system by lowering speed variances and deceleration means of the vehicles travelling through the work zone. The passage of traffic through the work zone is made safer when a speed control is integrated to a dynamic merge system. It can be inferred from the simulation results that integrated SDLMS and VSL systems have better performance in terms of traffic mobility and safety than existing individual controls and also show that the integrated SDLMS and VSL system has more potential than each individual systems.

Proefskrif ten opsigte van die voldoening aan die vereistes vir die graad: Doctor Technologiae: Omgewingsgesondheid in die Fakulteit Toegepaste Wetenskappe aan die Cape Peninsula University of Technology 2013 / The economical impact of occupation-related diseases and injuries places an immense financial burden on the inhabitants of a country and its industry. There is little doubt that the human factor is the single most important contributing factor to critical work-related accidents. Safety measures in the field of occupational health and safety are normally implemented according to a specific hierarchy, whereby the use of personal protective equipment is seen as the last outcome to protect workers against accidents and disease. However, there is little doubt that the correct use of personal protective equipment can protect a worker against injury and even death. The purpose of this research was to address a limitation through the development of a risk model that is specifically aimed at the application of personal protective equipment in the field of occupational health and safety. This model informed the factors influencing the use of personal protective equipment, and is instrumental in the prevention of unsafe behaviour at work. This documented method of research analysed various risk models from previous research studies in order to develop a new model, the Factor Integration Model (FIM). This model consists of five components each with its own specific elements that are interrelated. Each element has a specific value that was determined by 20 local and international experts in the field of occupational health and safety. The 54 elements of the model were used to create an electronic Excel®-based questionnaire, namely the Electronic Risk Categorising Package (ERK). The ERK can be utilised to categorise the worker`s use of personal protective equipment into a low, low medium, high medium and high risk scale. The utilisation and efficiency of ERK were tested at six different industries by comparing the categorisation of ERK with that of the supervisors. In order to prevent research bias, neither the researcher nor the supervisors were familiar with each other’s categorisations. The results were compared and the ERK showed a correct categorisation of the use of personal protective equipment in 75% of the cases. It was further found that in the cases where the prediction was not 100% correct, the ERK noted the borderline cases and the human factor of wrong prediction by the supervisor had to be considered. The research concluded that the use of personal protective equipment is influenced by various factors and should not be seen in isolation. The role of both management of a company and human behavioural change should never be underestimated. The ERK is a useful aid to predict risk behaviour as well as the use of personal protective equipment in the occupational health and safety field.

The subjekt of my bachelor thesis is the construction technological project of the new complex of three buildings Campus residential area II located in Brno - Bohunice. The diploma thesis includes technological regulations of piles and cast-in-place reinforced concrete floor. Technological regulations are supplemented by draft of the suitable machinery, equipment of construction site and inspectional and trial plans for these processes. The author also deals with work safety, time and financial plan, budget of substructure and plan for securing material resources. The thesis also addressed work contract and detailsof the roof structure.

<p>  </p> <p>Highway workers are required to work close to moving traffic during road construction and maintenance activities, which exposes them to the risk of being struck by a distracted driver or intruding vehicle. In addition, work zones disturb the usual traffic flow and patterns due to changes in the existing geometric layout of a roadway, and this is also problematic for the drivers as they must navigate a layout of signs, barrels, and lane changes while keeping the vehicle in control. Moreover, late-night tasks, reckless driving, inconsistent work zones, drunk driving, and increased vehicle miles traveled are some of the additional causes of work zone incidents in the United States. Nationwide, around 40,000 accidents occur each year in highway work zones due to vehicle intrusion into the work zone and have steadily increased during the past ten years. Most often, the driver and passenger of the vehicle are the victims of such accidents. The resulting fatalities, injuries, and property damage due to such incidents lead to significant expenses, prolonged travel delays, and potential damage to expensive products in transit.</p> <p>While traditional safety precautions (e.g., truck-mounted attenuators, rumble strips, speed monitoring displays) can help enhance work zone safety, the number of work zone intrusions calls for designing and implementing emerging intrusion alert technologies to warn drivers and workers when errant vehicles intrude into the work zone. Several state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) have begun examining the use of intrusion alert technologies to mitigate work zone intrusions. While previous studies examined the general effectiveness (e.g., sound levels, work zone coverage, deployment characteristics, etc.) of these technologies in both controlled and active construction and maintenance work zones, there are still significant research gaps in investigating how well these intrusion technologies alert the driver and workers, and no documented best practices are available for transportation agencies and DOTs interested in implementing them. In addition, these technologies have been through many improvements and modifications, and further research is imperative to ascertain their chances of acceptance by workers and contractors.</p> <p>To address these gaps, this thesis focuses on (a) empirically examining the effectiveness, implications, and practices of four commercially available intrusion technologies in enhancing work zone safety through various field tests and surveys, and (b) empirically investigating the effectiveness of these technologies considering drivers’ cognitive processing (perception -reaction time) and responses in case of work zone intrusion. The findings of this research study provide detailed information on the identification and testing procedures of technologies and offer guidelines and recommendations for adopting these technologies for practitioners and professionals in the highway construction sector. The proposed decision-making matrix and multi-criteria decision-making framework are based on the empirical data obtained from the various field experiments, literature review, and evaluation survey. This study also provides valuable insights into the overall effectiveness (i.e., by considering functional characteristics, associated drivers’ responses and reactions, and current implementation) of commercially available intrusion technologies to incorporate required modifications in designing and implementing these technologies to enhance work zone safety. The long-term outcome of this study is to significantly reduce the injuries and fatalities in highway maintenance work zones in Indiana and across the country.</p>

The construction industry is a large industry with approximately 320,000 employees according to the Swedish construction industry. As the work environment at construction sites affects a large number of individuals, it is important that there is good security at the construction sites, in order to reduce and prevent workers in the construction industry from being injured. The work thesis has been carried out in collaboration with Tuna Förvaltning &amp; Entreprenad AB with the aim of creating better conditions for work environment and strategic safety work at Tuna Förvaltning &amp; Entreprenad AB's construction sites, as well as highlighting risks and safety aspects. This qualitative study has been carried out at Tuna Förvaltning &amp; Entreprenad AB, where semi-structured interviews and observations were conducted to then use the information as the foundation of the study. The work has also been based on reviewed literature studies in the form of pre-review. In order to have a good working environment and safety at the construction sites, a number of factors are involved. The study shows that time, cleaning, communication, education and experience are the factors that have the greatest impact on the work environment and safety. According to some of Tuna Förvaltning &amp; Entreprenad AB's workforce, there will always be deficiencies in safety, while some claim that a "zero vision" is possible to reach, so far no occupational accidents has occurred at Tuna Förvaltning &amp; Entreprenad AB's construction sites, however, it seems that the subject does not get enough time, resources and like to prevent future accidents with "safety-first". The Work Environment Authority requires employers to systematically work with environment and safety issues with a vision of "zero tolerance", in which is strengthened by the work environment act. The interviews show that the viewpoint of the working environment differs depending on what perspective is being analyzed, for example, the supervisor has a wider perspective and greater responsibility whilst the professional worker has more narrow perspective and less responsibility. The survey shows that planning and preventive work can prevent workplace accidents with a systematic follow-up. In order for professionals and supervisors to understand the risks and preventive work they should be educated and thus gain an awareness of the problem. Improvement needs to create more awareness and prevention for work environment and safety with "safety deadline" have always been a goal to reach. One hope is that the working environment and security policy will contribute to improved security at the company's construction sites. systematic environmental work simplified by existing routines in environmental work for construction workers, leads to increased workplace safety and fewer occupational accidents. / Byggbranschen är en stor bransch med ca 320 000 sysselsatta personer enligt Sveriges byggindustrier. Då arbetsmiljön på byggarbetsplatserna påverkar ett stort antal individer är det viktigt att det råder en god säkerhet på byggarbetsplatserna, för att minska och förhindra att de anställda inom byggbranschen inte kommer till skada.Examensarbetet har utförts i samarbete med Tuna Förvaltning &amp; Entreprenad AB i syfte att skapa bättre förutsättningar för arbetsmiljö och säkerhetsarbete ute på Tuna Förvaltning &amp; Entreprenad AB:s byggarbetsplatser samt att belysa risker och säkerhetsaspekter. Kvalitativa studie har utförts på Tuna Förvaltning &amp; Entreprenad AB:s byggarbetsplatser där semi-strukturerade intervjuer och observationer utförts för att sedan använda informationen som grundpelare i studien.För att det ska råda god arbetsmiljö och säkerhet på byggarbetsplatserna spelar ett flertal faktorer in. Studiens resultat visar att tid, städning, kommunikation, utbildning och erfarenhet är de faktorer som har störst inverkan på arbetsmiljön och säkerheten. Enligt en del av yrkesarbetarna på Tuna Förvaltning &amp; Entreprenad AB kommer det alltid att finnas brister inom säkerheten medan en del påstår att en ”noll-vision” är möjlig att nå. Tuna Förvaltning &amp; Entreprenad AB:s ett ungt företag och hittills har inga större arbetsolyckor inträffat på deras byggarbetsplatser. Emellertid tycker en del att ämnet inte får tillräckligt med tid, resurser och dylikt för att förhindra framtida olyckor med ”safety first”. Arbetsmiljöverket ställer krav på att arbetsgivaren skall arbeta systematiskt med arbetsmiljö och säkerhetsfrågor med en vision om ”noll-tolerans” vilket styrks av arbetsmiljölagen.Intervjuerna visar att synen på arbetsmiljön skiljer sig åt beroende på vilket perspektiv som analyseras, exempelvis har arbetsledare ett bredare perspektiv och större ansvar medan yrkesarbetaren har ett smalare perspektiv och mindre ansvar.Undersökningen visar att planering och förebyggande arbete kan förhindra arbetsplatsolyckor med ett systematiskt uppföljningsarbete. För att yrkesarbetare och arbetsledare skall ha förståelse för risker och förebyggande arbete bör de utbildas och därmed erhålla en medvetenhet kring problemet.Förbättringsbehov föreligger när det gället att skapa mer medvetenhet och ha ett förebyggande syfte för arbetsmiljö och säkerhet med ”safety first”. En förhoppning är att en bättre arbetsmiljö och en ny upprättad säkerhetspolicy kommer att bidra till en förbättrad säkerhet på företagets byggarbetsplatser. Det systematiska arbetsmiljöarbetet med förbättrad befintliga rutiner i arbetsmiljöarbetet för byggnadsarbetare bör leda till ökad säkerhet på arbetsplatsen samt undvika arbetsolyckor.