There are disturbing trends of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, globally and locally thus giving it a real cause of concern. These include diseases by agents hitherto unknown in human such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Ebola; those that were purely zoonoses but had now affected man such as bovine spongioform encephalitis (BSE) in United Kingdom and avian influenza in Vietnam and Thailand; those that were thought to be eliminated but reappeared such as plague in India and those that begun to show reverse trends such as tuberculosis (TB) and malaria. Malaysia is no exception. Viral fever EV71, Chinkugunya, Conjunctivitis C24 variant or Nipah encephalitis were local examples of unknown or exotic infectious diseases occurring in recent years. In this age of globalization with expanding air travel and industrial trade, Malaysia is vulnerable to a wide array of new and resurgent infectious diseases. Apart from the direct health consequences on morbidity, mortality and its staggering cost, these infections also have far reaching implications upon sustainable development, psychosocial, economic, political and global security.
This study analyzes the determinants of workplace injuries across 44 four-digit manufacturing industries in Malaysia from 1993 to 2008 through the business cycle and structural approaches. The results of fixed-effects estimations revealed that workplace injuries in Malaysian manufacturing sector were negatively influenced by firm size and positively influenced by business cycle. Consistent with the findings of previous studies in other countries, the empirical evidence of this study supports the pro-cyclical behavior of injury rates in manufacturing industries towards business cycle. The analysis demonstrates that both structural and cyclical variation effects are important determinants of workplace injuries in Malaysia.
Ergonomics management is a process that will have a significant, positive effect on a company’s profits through cost reduction, quality improvement, performance improvement and productivity enhancement. Also known as human factors of human engineering, it basically describes the interaction between an employee and his/her job functions, with the emphasis being on reducing unnecessary physical stress in the workplace. The goal of ergonomics is to enable workers to be more effective by matching the requirements and demands of the job to the abilities and limitations of the workers rather than trying to force the workers to fit the job. This paper theoretically describes the benefits of understanding the ergonomics to the workplace. The components and activities required to implement ergonomics management also have been discussed. Besides that, the practical approach of ergonomics has been described by giving practical workplace improvement suggested by scholars. By approaching work practices (stretching, reaching, and sitting) from an ergonomically correct point of view, a worker actually becomes stronger, healthier and more productive.
The paper writes on the possible origin of off-limit cases found in a noise project conducted internally in a factory in Malaysia. Out of 691 sampled workers’ that attended audiometric test results (some repeated), it was found that the mode of hearing ability is between 20 to 30 dB depending on individual worker’s age ranging from 20 to 55 years. Out of the total results, approximately 100 workers are above a limit defined here in this paper as the off-limit condition. The chance of a worker originating from a good condition to an unhealthy condition is about 1 percent. The data are tabulated to show that a sway pattern could be an explanation of workers’ origin. Although the data is profound, there is no evidence of a trace due to a short test period. Possibilities are highlight here to outline the severity of a cross over to the unhealthy condition (here defined as the off-limit condition). Some advises are mentioned here with individual susceptibility on the matter though there is no data to substantiate. Further findings are required to show a trace. In conclusion, the severity is highlight. A chart, developed to know the limits of hearing ability, is illustrated ased the findings.
Health promotion, a discipline fast growing, deals with the prevention of illness and injury at the workplace. This article review defines health promotion and suggests the means for planning an effective, organized and well-structured program. A properly executed program will benefit both employer and employee in managing workplace absenteeism, reducing staff turnover, improving morale and productivity and keeping health care costs at an acceptable level.
Currently accident cost calculations involve lengthy process of data collection procedures. Accident cost
calculations can be categorized into direct and indirect costs. Many manufacturing industries are having difficulties
in identifying and quantifying the accident cost category. Besides, it involves manual data collection which is time
consuming and has high tendency to make errors throughout the process. The data collection process also involves
various parties. For example, getting direct cost data from human resource department while indirect cost data need
to be obtained from manufacturing and safety department. The objective of this study is to propose Web-Based
interactive Accident Cost Calculator (WBACC) for manufacturing industries. This WBACC has two options; option
1: calculations based on input data at the time of accident. Option 2: calculations based on historical data such as
previous accident records. Option 1 is much simpler because it only requires accident demographic data while option
2 is much more complex. However, option 2 is more accurate compared to option 1. This proposed WBACC can be
used by safety and health practitioners to convince their top management in making decisions especially on safety
budget allocation.
In general, the industrial accident rate in Malaysia is decreasing. However, statistically it is still relatively high
if compared with that of other developing nations. One of the reasons why accidents keep on happening is poor
learning from accidents. This paper discusses the level of accident learning, based on accident reports submitted to the
Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) Malaysia and the Society Security Organization (SOCSO)
Malaysia involving a total of 1,291 accident cases. Based on the quality and completeness of accident reports, the
levels of learning were classified into five accident causation levels which are no, limited, fair, good and excellent
learning.
Introductions: Call center has been defined as a working environment in which uses telephone and computer for the purpose of marketing and manage communication with prospect clients or existing clients (Rocha, Glina, Morinho and Nakasato, 2005; Sprigg, Smith and Jackson, 2003).
Methodology: The study was conducted via observation of working condition and face to face interview with call center operators. Measurement of anthropometrics was also conducted.
Results: Ergonomics issues found at call center were inappropriate work condition and workstation which lead to awkward sitting posture (sitting with forward leaning posture, raised shoulder, feet not supported on floor). Besides that organizational policy which required high job demand and subsequently lead to prolonged sitting and static posture (very minimal posture changes). Combination all these factors lead to musculoskeletal symptoms and the operators reported of having neck, shoulder, upper back and lower back pain compared to other body parts.
Conclusion: The management should embark on organization wide ergonomics management program and should review the current policy and create safe and healthy working environment by providing suitable workstation for the operators in order to prevent musculoskeletal.
The low back is usually associated with the lumbar spine which supports the entire weight of the upper body and significantly, is vital to the body mobility. Injury to the surrounding soft tissues can cause mild to debilitating symptoms due to muscle strain and ligament sprain. The causes of injury to the lower back are probably due to sudden twisting movement, poor posture position at work and manual handling of heavy objects or with twisting or bending movements while lifting. An Ergonomic Risk Assessment was carried out on a dental laboratory worker who complained of unresolved low back ache after a year on treatment and follow up at the outpatient department of a health clinic. From the various investigative methods used, it was found that the worker in question was placed in a situation that will over time encourage her to develop musculoskeletal disease. Our recommendations for change include immediate awareness and training in ergonomic principles of work and to report all cases so that appropriate action can be taken, reassess the workstation and environment of work, job enrichment, and creating a conducive environment for work. Once the changes have been implemented, a review will be necessary in three months time.
Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is a subset of Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ), where IAQ is about what we
breath. Poor indoor air quality (IAQ) can cause health problems to the residents. Air conditions in the shelter must
be preserved, in order to ensure the safety and health of the residents. Certain indoor plants can filter out toxin found
in the air. Other than that, indoor plants can help clean the air. In this study, seven types of indoor plants that can live
in equatorial climate like Malaysian environment will be selected. At the initial stage, planting of all types of indoor
plants will be done, from sowing seed until all plants grow up. In the next stage, all plants will be tested to determine
their effectiveness to improve indoor air quality. The comparison of data before and after installation of indoor plants
is made. To gain the benefits of indoor plants, detailed study should be done in terms of response and monitoring of
indoor air. The reason of this study is to provide benefits to building occupants. Besides, having the interior plants as
part of decoration items may improve workers’ productivity and reduce stress.
Exposure to organic solvent during work activities has been known to be associated with significant clinical conditions such as peripheral neuropathy and neurobehavioral changes. Three reported cases of peripheral neuropathy most likely due to exposure to chronic organic solvent were reported recently in Bentong Malaysia. These cases showed a compatible clinical history, occupational history, examination and neurological study that link with peripheral neuropathy due to organic solvent poisoning. Proper education and training with review of engineering control measures are among preventive and corrective measures recommended. More comprehensive study in order to establish significant causal-effect relationship as documented evidence is recommended.
The global demand for palm oil is growing, thus prompting an
increase in the global production. Such increasing demand for palm oil is due to
palm oil’s relatively cheap price and versatile advantage both in edible and nonedible
applications. Being world second largest producers, Malaysia’s palm oil
industry is growing in complexity and successively to succeed on the global level by
accounts for about 30% of the world production of palm oil in 2015/16. But,
reliability and safety issues are still problematic areas that need to be addressed by
all parties in this industry e.g. millings, refineries and oleochemicals. Although there
are laws and guidelines that provide protection for reliability, safety and health such
as OSHA 1994, OHSAS 18001 and MS 1722, palm oil industry is relatively lacking
behind in process safety as several catastrophic accidents occurred were believed
caused by process safety failures. Therefore, process safety management in palm oil
industry must be enhanced to standard similar to other industries such as chemical
process and oil and gas industries, so that it can prevent major hazard accidents
which can result in fatality, asset damage and environmental impact. This papers
investigates the needs of process safety management in palm oil industry and
proposes a generic process safety management framework which may be useful for
palm oil industry. From the study, it can be concluded that proactive actions are
certainly required to overcome process safety issue in palm oil industry as several
catastrophic accidents occurred were believed caused by process failures.
Homocysteine could be a mechanism that underlies the effects of lead on cardiovascular system. This study aims to identify the relationship between lead exposure and homocysteine levels among workers. A comparative cross-sectional study was carried out on 80 workers of an automotive components manufacturing factory; that comprised of 40 exposed workers and 40 non-exposed workers. Blood samples of respondents were taken by fingerprick. The blood samples were analyzed for blood lead concentration by using Atomic Absorption Spectrometry Graphite Furnace Model GBC 908AA. Besides that, ELISA Kit was used to show the homocysteine level among the respondents. Questionnaires were used to obtain demography information of respondents. Results from the statistical analysis showed that the mean blood lead concentration for exposed respondents was 5.53±4.74 μg/dL and 3.53±2.81 μg/dL for the comparative respondents. Mann-Whitney U test showed that there was no significance difference between the mean blood lead concentration of the exposed and comparative group (z=-1.178; p=0.075). The blood lead concentration ranged 0.68-17.95 among the exposed group and with a range of 0.084-11.96 for the comparative group. The mean homocysteine level (μmol/L) was 32.48±2.481μmol/L for the exposed group and 16.50±4.0960 μmol/L for the comparative group. There was a significant difference in homocysteine level (μmol/L) between the exposed (32.48±2.481) and comparative (16.50±4.0959) groups (z = -7.699, p
Pineapple plantation workers are exposed to strenuous physical activities. This study aims to determine the prevalence
of musculoskeletal symptoms (MSS), analyse the body postural risks related to work tasks and identify relevant MSS risk factors
among pineapple plantation workers. This was a cross-sectional study performed at a pineapple plantation in Johor in 2016. MSS,
information on socio-demographic background and occupational history were collected via structured questionnaires. Identification
and risk assessment of ergonomic hazard and postural risk analysis were performed for a subset of workers. Data were entered into
statistical software and analyse according to relevant objectives. A total of 108 workers participated in this study. The prevalence
of MSS was 87.0% and was highest for the lower back (64.8%). In terms of ergonomic hazards, Harvesting were categorised as a
task with the highest risk. Harvesting was also the task with the highest postural risk. From the multivariate analysis, lower back
pain is mainly contributed by a working tenure of 10 to 25 years (Odds Ratio, OR: 3.90; 95% Confidence Interval, CI 1.05-14.4) and
more than 25 years (OR: 7.45 (95% CI 1.26 to 44.0). Workers who worked more than 7-hour daily have a higher risk for reporting
lower back pain. Pineapple plantation workers are exposed to excessive bending, twisting and carrying of heavy loads that may be
linked to MSS. Effective preventive strategies are required to address MSS in this population in order to minimize risk for subsequent
musculoskeletal disorders.
Environmental factors such as temperature, lighting and noise have very significant impact to workers’ health, safety, comfort, performance and productivity. In an ergonomically design industrial work environment, these factors need to be control at their optimum levels. The main objective of this study is to find the effect of temperature, illuminance and sound pressure level on workers’ productivity in automotive industry. To perform this study a workstation in an automotive component manufacturing was selected as the location of the study. Results of data analysis showed there were relationships between temperature, illuminance and noise on workers’ productivity. Later, the authors’ developed multiple linear equation models to represent the relationships between temperature, illuminance and noise on the workers’ productivity. These multiple linear equation models could be used to predict the production rate for the workstation by referring to the value of temperature, illuminance and noise level.
Individual factors have been considered to be a key issue to organizations’ performance and survival. Specifically, previous studies provide evidence that individual factors are closely associated with accidents in the workplace. Therefore, this study seeks to investigate the relationship between individual factors and workplace safety. 50 respondents have been randomly chosen from a manufacturing company in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. Data are collected using a survey and are analyzed using SPSS version 16.0. A descriptive statistic, cross tabulation, independent sample t-test and one-way between groups ANOVA are employed to interpret findings of the study. Findings show that employees’ perception on safety performance is at high level (Mean= 115, Standard Deviation= 17.73). Furthermore, the results of cross tabulation demonstrate that individual factors play a key role to determine the organization safety performance level. Another significant finding reveals that there is a significant difference of safety performance mean to two of individual factors namely gender and tenure of service. Individual factors namely gender, age, tenure of service and academic qualification give a significant impact to employees’ perception on safety performance.
In the electronic industry, prolonged standing works are sometimes required continuously for hours. The physical efforts
required lead to physiological and psychological fatigue resulting in reduced muscle performance. In order to recover from the muscle
exertion, one of the solutions is through the administrative control of a suitable work-rest schedule. In this study, two different workrest
conditions with identical total break time were investigated. An experiment was carried out when ten males’ workers were used
in each condition. The perception of the operator regarding to the body part discomfort were carried out by exploratory survey. Then,
Electromyography (EMG) was used to record the muscle fatigue of the participating workers throughout the experiment. Results
indicate infrequent-long rest promotes lesser muscle efforts compared to frequent short. The frequent short rest for 5 minutes (2X5
minutes) at first half of working day was not adequate to promote reduction on muscle fatigue. It was recommended that in order to
ensure adequate muscle recovery, a more frequent rest of more than 2 times at the half of day, and more than 5 minutes for each rest
should be given to workers.
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 paper focused on the examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation (LEV) systems at one of Electrical Company to check the transport velocity whether it meet the recommended American Governmental Industrial Hygienist (ACGIH) Standard. The industrial hygiene approaches, AREC (Anticipating, Recognize, Evaluate and Control) were adopted in this study. This is to ensure that the LEV system installed has the optimum efficiency to extract out the contaminants from the workstation. Objective of this study is to make comparison with previous and current monitoring data. The efficiency and the other parameter measured will be the main source to analyze for the particular applications. The differential of data was discussed and several recommendations are proposed to make sure the LEV system performance is excellent.
Stress is on one of the important hazards faced by nursing staff. Although various intervention methods to reduce stress have been developed, its effectiveness among Malaysian nurses has yet to be established. This study involved 185 health nursing staff working at health districts Kemaman and Dungun in Terengganu. Health nursing staff from Kemaman (n=94) was selected as intervention group whereas those from Dungun (n=91) were chosen as controls. Members of the intervention group were given stress awareness education. They were taught how to reduce stress by relaxation methods. Teaching was conducted through lectures, practical training and providing a stress guidebook. A stress reliever card and letter reminding respondents to practice stress reduction methods were sent every two weeks. The total intervention period was 6 weeks. The control did not receive any education on stress reduction or encouragement to practice any stress reduction techniques throughout this period. The effectiveness of the intervention programme was measured by comparing changes in stress symptoms scores. Stress symptoms were measured using a modified Personal Stress Inventory questionnaire. The study found significant reduction of stress symptoms (42.66 ± 20.36 to 35.51 ± 22.60) in the intervention group after intervention compared to before intervention. However there was no significant difference in change of mean score of stress symptoms between both groups. Further studies need to be conducted to establish an intervention programme, which is suitable and effective in reducing stress among health nursing staff.