Occupational health hazards as a result to exposure to mineral dust containing silica has been established long time ago in occupational health history. Its effects on lung function and symptom was evaluated in a cross sectional studied among 49 small enterprise pottery workers in the county of Sayong clustered in 3 villages. Respiratory symptoms and lung function was evaluated using MRC respiratory questionnaire 86 and standard spirometry performed. The prevalence of chronic cough, phlegm and chest tightness was 24.5%, 16% and16% respectively. There was no significant decrement in lung function parameters from the predicted normal value with the mean predicted FVC; FEV1 and FEV1/FVC ratio was 85.32%, 83.87% and 99.22 respectively. The relationship between lung symptoms and lung function parameters was evaluated and the result was not significant.
This invention is more on ergonomics scope. This ergonomics rostrum fulfills the ergonomics criteria especially
when used while standing. The important parts in this invention are rostrum head and platform. The rostrum head is
adjustable so the users can set the height of rostrum head for their suitability and comfort. Another important part in
this invention is platform. The purpose of the platform is to help users reach the rostrum head. The platform can flip
into the rostrum body. This invention can be used by anyone especially for Malaysian people because its designed was
based on the Malaysian height.
The frequency of occupational accident in small medium industries decreased from 2008 in general, but fluctuated each year,
which shows that improvement is needed in handling safety and health of the employees. It is believed that safety climate perception
and occupational safety health management system (OSHMS) influence occupational accident in an organization. A safety audit
checklist and self-administered questionnaire was distributed to the involved small medium industries. The findings show that safety
climate perception was high in small medium industries while OSHMS show low compliance. Findings also showed that there were
significant relationships between safety climate perception and OSHMS with occupational accident in the organizations (p
Radon exists naturally in the air. It can accumulate inside the buildings which may affect the indoor air quality. Radon is a radioactive gas that produces alpha particles during decay time. The alpha particles might cause harm to the human lungs and stomach. Inhalation of radon is one of the causes of lung cancer disease. Samples of inhaled radon in different rooms at the workplace were taken hourly through a passive diffusion chamber. The detection method was done using Alpha Spectrometry. The short term measurement was applied in the study to monitor the average weekly radon reading in different rooms in the Medical Imaging Laboratory of the University of Selangor (UNISEL). All tested rooms showed the existence of radon gas with different concentrations. Some of them showed the maximum reading of radon concentration which was higher than the radon action level of 148Bq/m3 or 4pCi/l. Their weekly average of radon concentration is contributing almost 50% of the accumulated radon concentration in the laboratory. It is highly recommended that monitoring the concentration of radon in indoor air is performed to ensure it is at a safe and healthy level.
The effects of propylene stored in pressurized spherical vessel were investigated using radiation & explosion modeling using PHAST 6.7 software in one of the refinery in Malaysia. The simulations were performed for various weather conditions with different leak scenarios in deterministic approach. Modeling approach was standard with current industry practice. Resulting events such as jet fire, vapor cloud explosion, boiling liquid evaporating vapor explosion effects shown in thermal radiation and overpressure towards targeted technical buildings. The effects of resulting jet fire flame length increase with release rate and explosion overpressure effects increase with degree of confinement and volume fraction respectively. The results were reviewed, interpreted against industry standard. The sensitivity cases show that, using lower inventory with moderate operating conditions will keep the consequence in acceptable region. This consequence analysis will form a basis for layout development, safety distance and fire zone segregation during conceptual design stage. Propylene storage conditions, layout arrangements and blast protections were recommended as part of preventive and mitigative measures.
In Malaysia, the number of Musculoskeletal Disorder (MSD) cases is increasing . Rapid Upper Limb Assessment
(RULA) is carried out in a physical paper form which is cumbersome and based on the complex nature and it should
consider human error. This project aims to create the RULA application for mobile devices featuring the android system
for this move will cut down the process time by more than half, create a more structured system and eliminate human
error wholly. The application will be designed on the App Inventor website which features a lot of handy tutorials
and takes the initiative to create a RULA mobile app for Android phones. The RULA mobile app for Android phones
is intended to make it easier and much more efficient to conduct a RULA analysis. Additionally, the analyses can be
conducted by minimally trained users, eliminating the need for highly trained technicians. RULA test is performed to
achieve accurate results and the mathematical processes will be programmed into the app so that the user will have a
friendly interface and will only be asked to tick boxes.
There is a need to develop an Occupational Safety and Health Management System (OSHMS) Critical Success Factors (CSF) Monitoring among gas contractor in Malaysia. Critical Success Factors (CSF) can be used for future implementation, adaptation and practice for gas contractor work for both by clients and contractors in Malaysia. The main purpose of CSF implementation is to reduce the number of accident related with Occupational Safety and Health (OSH). The need for CSF is due to the requirement by law and standard that require companies to establish an arrangement related to the identified OSH risks. The objective of this study is to assess the established of OSHMS among gas contractor in Peninsular Malaysia and to identify the CSF imposed by these industries. A cross sectional study for eighty gas contractor companies using established questionnaire has been done. All data consolidated in order to determine the OSHMS and it CSF among gas contractor in Peninsular Malaysia that has registered with Department of Occupational Safety and Health. Established questionnaire are based on OSHMS MS 1722:2011 elements requirement No 1: Policy, No 2: Organizing, No 3: Planning and Implementation, No 4: Evaluation and No 5: Action for Improvement as parameters to come out with organization means and Z-scores. Descriptive statistic showed that element mean (standard deviation) score for policy is 75(6.6), for Organizing is 63(5.2), for Planning and Implementation is 59(9.4), for Evaluation is 66(5.1) and Action for Improvement is 63(1.3). Percentage of company that complies with the main element for Policy is 15%, for Organizing is 8.8%, for Planning and Implementation is 11.3%, for evaluation is 11.3% and for Action for improvement is 13.8%. Percentage of companies that partially comply with Policy element is distributed between 61.0% to 85.0% which is 76.3 %, for Organizing score is mainly distributed between 46.0% to 60.0% which is 62.5%, for planning and Implementation score for 80 companies distributed mainly in group score between 46.0 to 60.0% which is 56.3 %, for Evaluation the partially comply score is distributed in group score between 61.0% to 85.5% which is 41 % and for Action for Improvement partially comply score, the distribution is mainly distribute in range of 61.0% to 85.0% which is 62.5 %. Z-score for element policy is five points from policy mean, for organizing Z-score is three points from Organizing mean, for Planning and Implementation the Z-score is three points from Planning and Implementation mean, for Evaluation the Z-score is three points from evaluation mean and for Action for improvement Z-score is two to three points from Action for Improvement mean. Percentage of compliance with OSHMS MS 1722:2011 elements by gas contractors in almost main element and sub element are still low and can be further improved by focusing on all company element score for continual improvement of OSH elements compliances.
Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) nowadays is an established risk assessment method used worldwide for the evaluation of risks on onshore plant and offshore facilities which associated with the major hazard installations. However, there are still many issues on QRA used. These include lack of consistency, complexity of the overall model structure, incorporation of new data, methodology and model analysis. Common problem observed for the onshore QRA methodology is conservatism of fire and explosion consequence results using DNV PhastRisk 6.7 software which is mainly contributed from the high release rate due to loss of containment. This paper presents an alternative way to predict the actual release rate for fire and explosion modelling which called limiting flowrate technique. This method has been applied for calculating risk in Onshore Gas Terminal (OGT) Plant. Adopting the limiting flowrate technique has provide more precise model towards real scenarios. Challenges facing during this research such as using the unmodified United Kingdom (UK) HSE hydrocarbon release database without integrate with the actual failure frequencies from the plant, the risk results tend to be much higher than actual experience. It should be noted that the development of improved onshore risk model has been used as an example for this research but many of the issues are equally applicable to offshore studies as well.
Various types of Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems (OSH-MS) exist in the market. Basically, these systems have similar basic principles and even elements. However, the importance of these elements in terms of successful management of OSH differs according to the end-user. OSH Practitioners with different roles and responsibilities have different views on which element or elements contribute significantly to the overall success of OSH management. There are no standardization in terms quantifying the elements that qualifies an OSH-MS. A study was carried out to quantify the implementation of an OSH-MS through the determination of weighing factors for the different elements in an OSH-MS. Respondents for this study comprised of top safety and health management, safety and health officers (SHO) / radiation protection officers (RPO), DOSH officers, auditors and consultants who are very familiar with OSH-MS. Sample of this study was based on purposive sampling due to strict criteria and prerequisites to be met. Questionnaires were distributed to the identified organizations and personnel. Results from this study established that, auditor has the highest level of understanding of OSH-MS compared with top safety and health management, SHO / RPO, DOSH officers and OSH consultants. Among all the elements in the OSH-MS studied for their levels of importance in terms of the overall success of implementing an OSH-MS, OSH policy is the most critical element, followed by hazard identification, risk assessment and control, employee participation, responsibility and accountability and competence and training. The weighing factor for these top 5 elements are OSH policy (0.36); hazard identification, risk assessment and risk control (0.25); employee participation (0.15); responsibility and accountability (0.14); and competence and training (0.10). Application of the weighing factors of these elements allows the quantification of audit status (Audit Score) based on the equation: audit score = 0.36 [OSH Policy] + 0.25 [Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment and Risk Control] + 0.15 [Employee Participation] + 0.14 [Responsibility and Accountability] + 0.10 [Competence and Training]. Minimum tolerable target for each element of an OSH-MS was also determined. The minimum tolerable frequency of OSH policy is reviewed by top management is yearly; the minimum tolerable frequency of risk management is reviewed is yearly; the minimum tolerable percentage of employees who should be made known on relevant legal and other requirements is ≥90%; the minimum tolerable percentage of OSH objectives and programme(s) achieved / implemented is between 80 – 89%; the minimum tolerable percentage of money budgeted for OSH in a year compared to organization revenue is between 1 – 5%; the minimum tolerable number of hours for each employee needed to be trained on OSH per year is between 30 – 39 hours; the minimum tolerable percentage of employees who should be communicated on matters related to OSH is ≥90%; the minimum tolerable percentage of employees participation and involvement in hazard identification, risk assessment and determining controls is ≥90%; the minimum tolerable percentage of employees who should be involved in establishing OSH documents is
The objective of this study is to identify the type of occupational related musculoskeletal disorder among Malaysian Shipping Industry workers and to determine the relationship between workers sosio demographic factors with occupational related musculoskeletal disorder and injuries. This is a cross sectional, retrospective study using secondary data that is available at the physiotherapy centre of Malaysia Shipping in Selangor. The study population is the shipping port workers received physiotherapy treatment from 2011 and 2012. A total of 90 samples comprise of 85 male workers and the remaining is female. The mean age is 34.1 (±7.36). Crane operator is the largest number of workers seeks for physiotherapy treatment (68), office (15) and 7 from maintenance. The mean of employment duration is 8.02 (±4.47) years with the maintenance group of workers have longest working duration of 9 years. Muscle and ligament sprain strain known to be the commonest condition (80%) refer for physiotherapy rehabilitation, tendinitis (14%) and fracture (6%). Young age group of workers were significantly 9 times higher (95% CI 1.83 – 40.35) of getting back injuries. The prevalence of musculoskeletal disorder based on work categories vary with office type workers has 4.5 times higher (95% CI 1.06 – 19.7) on hand injuries. This study has revealed that workers age, different type of work categories, working experience, and body mass composition were associates with the occupational related injuries. The training programme emphasise on preventive measures should be tailored to empower the employee on safety measures at work.
There is a high prevalence of chronic diseases in the community. Promoting health at the workplace is an effective measure to manage such diseases. This study shares the findings of country-wide company health screening program. The prevalence of high cholesterol among participants was 29 %, high blood pressure was 8% and high blood sugar was 3%. The prevalence of high cholesterol from workplace screening was higher than the community prevalence but the prevalence of high blood pressure and high blood sugar was lower than the community prevalence. The various factors influencing these findings are discussed.
Fishing industry in Malaysia is dominated by small scale fishing, scattered along the coast of the country. The risk associated with fishing industry is well known but few studies have been done among those in the small scale fishing community. Fishermen not only have to cope with the uncertainty of nature but also the physical demands of the occupation. The objective of the study was to determine the injuries and its associated factors related to the small scale fishing industry. The study was conducted in a fishing village in northern Malaysia, which was hit by tsunami. Most of the boats and fishing gear were donated by many relief agencies. A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted using a standardized questionnaire. 50 (83.3%) of the 60 fishermen had consented for the study. All the fishermen were Malays males. 46% (n=23) of the fishermen reported to having sustained injuries. Most of the injuries occurred offshore (p
A cross sectional study was conducted among tea plantation workers in Cameron Highlands from July to December 2006 to study the prevalence of low back pain and factors associated with it. One hundred and six tea plantation field workers participated in the study. Data was collected using self-administered questionnaire. Time motion studies were also conducted for 3 different job categories. The prevalence of back pain experienced throughout their work in the plantation was 81.1% and the prevalence of low
back pain experienced in the past 12 months was 64.2%. Feeling the need to work as fast as possible was a significant predictor of low back pain and increased the risk by 3.5 times, therefore it is suggested that both the management and workers give serious attention to this particular aspect to reduce the incidence of low back pain.
Sound is one of the source of energy generated by vibration and is carried through the air in a form of pressure waves (Frederick, 1975). This pressure waves consist of pulsation or vibration of molecules of an elastic medium such as gas, liquid and even solid (Gerber, 1974). Due to its nature, sound can be irritating when it is excessive. The excessive amount of sound is called noise. Exposure to noise is common to the workers working at the industry. This can lead to hearing loss. Hearing loss is one of the most common health problems in the industrialized world. Working activities have been related to noise exposure due to increase use of machine that generates sounds. Many workers throughout the world experience hazardous noise exposure which is ≥ 85 decibels (dB) (Seter, 1998). Based on the previous study in the European region, most of the employers had difficulties to compensate workers diagnosed with hearing loss or hearing impairment cause by the working nature. (Rachiotis et al., 2006). According to European Survey on Working Conditions, about 7% of the workers considered that their work affects their health in the form of hearing disorders. Occupational risk factors for hearing loss include occupational noise, whole body vibration, work-related diseases and exposure to chemical. In this report, we specified in the noise exposure level of the workers.
A preliminary study has been conducted in a new constructed 8 stories building (2 level of Hostels facility, 3 level of Training Room, 2 Level of Offices and 1 level of Exhibition Halls and Rooms) in Bandar Baru Bangi, Selangor. The Hostels facility is a floor tile and furnished with build in locker and use split air conditioning system while the Training Room and Exhibition Rooms used floor tile. The Offices and Exhibition Hall are carpeted furnished. All these spaces were using centralized air conditioning systems. A pre-commissioning assessment on 5 chemical parameters of indoor air pollutants such Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOC), Formaldehyde, Respirable Particulates (PM!
This is a conceptual paper to study the factors that affect the
safety practitioner’s perception towards safety and health risk assessment,
namely HIRARC at oil palm plantation. Retrospective safety and health data
were obtained and analysed. Factors identified were both confusions on
hazard description and interpretation of risk assessment matrix. This paper
will examine those factors and make recommendations for future research in
Malaysia.
Recent fire accidents in schools have given rise to the safety
issues. Training on fire safety is very important to help improve the safety aspect
in schools while perceptions of fire safety training among school teachers are
crucial in order to identify methods to prevent accidents from recurring. This
study was conducted in order to analyze the perceptions of school teachers
towards fire safety training in schools. Survey questionnaires were distributed
among 400 school teachers from 111 schools randomly selected from ten District
Education Offices (DEO) in Kelantan. The results were analyzed using
Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). They were based on 32% and
68% male and female respondents respectively. Descriptive analysis shows that
most of the school teachers agreed with the need for fire safety training to be
conducted in schools. This study suggests that school teachers require fire safety
training in order for them to help improve fire safety in schools. Thus, teachers
will be able to teach their students on the importance of fire safety, how to
prevent fire and actions to be taken if an emergency happens in schools. It is
hoped that the number of fire accidents in schools can be reduced with the school
communities’ commitment towards safety.
Ergonomics can be viewed as an approach to reduce injury and illness rates to improve the overall working
conditions for employees by addressing risk factor exposure that may occur during manual tasks. The objective
of this research was to analyze ergonomics risk factors by associating the perception of employer and employees
towards their workplace condition in quarry and mining industry. A Questionnaire on Ergonomics Risk Assessment
was used to determine the comparison level awareness and perception analysis among quarry and mining industry in
Malaysia. The findings of this research prove that the exposure of ergonomics risk factors towards the workers is in
a moderate level with a mean of 3.59 for the overall respondent review about the ergonomics risk among workers at
their workplace. Besides, the most concern in ergonomics is about the awkward posture at work. Some 8.8% of them
agreed and 6.6% of them totally agreed that they were in awkward posture while doing their work. As a conclusion,
assessment of ergonomics in quarry and mining industry will be a platform to provide a safe and healthy working
environment.
This study focused on noise exposure in quarrying industry. Quarry is one of the industries that have an exposure
of noise in particular processes. The quarries machinery noise is produced when the machines are running, but the
noise generated by the machines in the production environment includes both process-generated and machinerygenerated
noise. Survey method was used by distributing questionnaires comprising five parts which are, demography,
safety and health awareness, safety and health knowledge, safety and health compliances and compliances toward
noise exposure. However, the study emphasized only on the compliances toward noise exposure in quarrying
industry. Cronbach alpha (α) was used for the reliability of questionnaires. The study found that the mean value for
the perception of workers to noise control method compliances is 3.09 which indicates moderate compliances. It was
shown that, the total number of NIHL cases reported is related to the compliances of noise exposure control measures.
Compliance is one of the main factors to reduce NIHL among workers. For further development of methods for
controlling noise exposure, other studies can be done to find other information or methods on how to ensure that the
related organizations in quarrying industry give their commitment in compliance to noise control methods.
Pemprosesan padi adalah salah satu daripada sektor pertanian yang terbesar di Malaysia. Kekerapan kemalangan
di tempat kerja yang berlaku dalam sektor ini berpunca daripada pelbagai faktor. Antara faktor utama ialah tahap
pengetahuan dan kemahiran tentang keselamatan dan kesihatan pekerjaan (KKP) yang rendah. Objektif kajian
ini adalah untuk menilai tahap pengetahuan KKP dan hubung kait antara tahap pengetahuan dan amalan pekerja
berkaitan KKP dalam sektor ini. Seramai 300 orang responden yang terdiri daripada petani dan pemilik sawah padi
di Sungai Besar, Selangor dipilih untuk menyertai kajian ini. Penyelidik menggunakan pendekatan soal selidik dalam
mengumpulkan data kajian. Nilai Cronbach Alpha didapati daripada ujian kebolehpercayaan menggunakan perisian
SPSS 20.0. Hasil kajian nenunjukkan bahawa jumlah responden tertinggi adalah seramai 138 orang yang bertugas
membaja dan meracun. Selain itu, seramai 254 responden mengetahui cara bekerja dengan betul dan selamat. Manakala,
seramai 242 responden mengetahui bahawa bahan kimia boleh meresap ke dalam kulit, mulut, sistem pernafasan dan
seterusnya mata. Hasil kajian mendapati responden yang terlibat mempunyai tahap pengetahuan memuaskan tentang
pendedahan risiko fizikal dan pendedahan risiko kimia terhadap tubuh badan mereka serta peralatan perlindungan
diri yang diperlukan. Walau bagaimanapun, terdapat segelintir responden yang tidak peka untuk meletakkan amaran
semasa proses menyembur racun dan membaja.