The main objective of this study is to determine the association between respirable hexavalent chromium compounds with urinary β2-microglobulin levels among welders in an automotive components manufacturing plant. 49 welders and 39 workers involved in stamping process were selected as the exposed and the comparative group. β2-microglobulin is a protein renal tubular dysfunction marker that can indicate renal dysfunction caused by heavy metal. Air samples of worker’s breathing zone were collected using personal air sampling pump and filter papers. Filter papers were then diluted and analysed with Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (AAS). Workers’ urine samples were collected at the end of 8-hour work shift and analysed with β2-microglobulin ELISA Kit (IBL-Hamburg) and a microtiter reader. Meanwhile, creatinine levels were analysed with creatinine test strips and Reflotron®. A mean concentration of respirable hexavalent chromium compounds in air for the exposed group was 0.135 ± 0.043μg/m3 while for the non-exposed group was 0.124 ± 0.029μg/m3. The mean level of urinary β2-microglobulin per creatinine for the exposed group was 84.996 ± 39.246μg/g while that of the comparative group was 61.365 ± 21.609μg/g. The concentrations of respirable hexavalent chromium compounds were higher in the exposed group compared to the comparative group (Z=-2.444, p=0.015). β2-microglobulin level was also higher in the exposed group compared to the non-exposed group (t=3.821, p=
Studies have identified working postures as a major risk factors associated with Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSD) in industries. This study investigated the prevalence of WMSD among assembly workers in Malaysia and how psychosocial factors such as personal values and workers relationship with family and superior are associated with discomfort and pain. A survey was conducted among 127 workers at assembly process in the manufacturing industry. The workers were aged 28.74±6.74 years and 64.6% of them were males. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to determine the effect of workplace factors on WMSD at different body regions. Spearman’s rank correlation was used to investigate association between psychosocial factors and occurrence of discomfort and pain. Only occupation and job activities revealed any significant different with WMSD in the major body regions while there was no significant difference in gender, age and work duration classifications. Shoulder painis the most prevalent in terms of frequency and intensity of occurrence. Psychosocial issues that have to do with person values, effect of job on family relationship and workers rapport with superiors are all found to be associated with the discomfort and pain among the occupational group. Employers and concerned government agencies need to take more proactive steps in tackling the problem as the occurrence of WMSD will have a significant effect on the overall wellbeing of the working population.
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.
Manual work is associated with increased lung cancer risk possibly because of increased exposure to occupational and other carcinogens, reduced use of health care services and/or a less healthy lifestyle. The aim of this study was to examine whether the association between manual work and lung cancer risk has changed over time. Three separate retrospective studies were carried out over a 10-year period (1996-1997, 1998-2000 and 2003-2005) in patients attending a bronchoscopy clinic to investigate lung cancer risk in an area of Manchester characterised by high deprivation and unemployment. Cases (n=321) were patients newly diagnosed with a tumour of the lung, trachea or bronchus and controls (n=542) were patients free of tumours at the time of, and prior to, examination. Patients were interviewed using the same structured questionnaire for associations between risk factors and lung cancer examined. The study population in all three studies was similar with little difference in smoking history. In each study smoking was associated with lung cancer risk. Lung cancer risk was higher in manual workers (compared to managers and other professionals) in the first (OR 2.50, 95% CI 1.20 – 5.05) and second study (OR 2.73, 95% CI 0.97 – 7.70) but not the third (OR 0.97, 95% CI 0.58 – 1.61). However, the summary odds ratio (meta-OR) for lung cancer in manual worker was 1.81 (95% 1.75 – 1.87) after controlling for sex, age and smoking. This study suggested that even after taking into account known occupational and environmental causes of cancer, there was a residual cancer risk associated with manual work, high risk working populations of lung cancer. However this appears to have attenuated recently for as yet unknown reasons.
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
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.
Recent development in industrialization and global economy has contributed to the increased number of workplace
injuries and accidents. Safety culture has been seen as a central medium to curb the worrying trend of workplace
accidents. The term of safety culture has emerged from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 and the concept has
been widely used until today. However, the conceptualization of safety culture suffers from several major drawbacks
such as no definite understanding of how safety culture is being defined and measured. This paper hypothesized that
higher levels of safety culture in the workplace will display lower numbers of accidents. Due to this concern, this
paper seeks to provide a clear conceptualization of safety culture, dimensions used to measure it and common research
methodology used in the previous safety research.
The light train (LRT) is one of the important public transportation modes in the congested city of Kuala Lumpur. Train drivers drive the trains within their shift time on similar routes every day. This job activity may lead to stress. Physical fatigue is one of the health problems commonly experienced by the train drivers. There were three methods applied in this study, namely, Nordic Questionnaire, NASA-TLX and observations. There were a total of 52 respondents, consisting of the train drivers from Rapid Rail Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary company of Prasarana Malaysia Berhad. The questionnaires were analyzed using Statistical Software for the Social Science (SPSS) with a suitable statistical analysis. It was found that, the train drivers experienced pain on their necks, shoulders and lower backs. The main causes of physical fatigue that affect the performance of a train driver are sleep disorder and uncomfortable seating. Moreover, other effects of physical fatigue also prevent the drivers from carrying out activities at home. The industry has improved the drivers’ workstations such as their seats to reduce the rate of physical fatigue. However, more improvements are expected to be done.
Purpose - The aims of this concept paper are to critically review and identify gaps in current literature on personality
and safety performance, provide a definition of personality and safety performance, explore the role of personality on
safety performance, come out with recommendation for future research. Design/methodology/approach - Review and
synthesis of literature. Findings - All dimensions of Big Five Personality (Openness to Experiences, Conscientiousness,
Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism) have contributed to the safety performance. Research limitations/
implications - Personality for this concept paper refers to the Model of Big Five. Future studies should explore other
personality types such as Myers Briggs Personality and Holland Personality. Practical implications - The authors
recommended that organizations need to design test of personality specially for safety and health and use it during the
interview session in order to select the right candidate to serve them for enhancing safety performance. Originality/
value - This concept paper offers a set of interesting lessons for organizations by providing the positive personality
that must be apply by employees based on Big Five Personality model that will assist to improve safety performance.
In the recent years, an extensive number of scientific researches on occupational diseases have been done to
identify occupations at high risk of inducing diseases. There are many categories of occupational diseases, and unitary
of them are occupational respiratory diseases. This study was conducted in a tea factory located in Cameron Highlands,
Malaysia, with an output of 600,000.00 kg per annum. Its objective was to evaluate respiratory diseases among the
workers, conducted via questionnaires, interviews and lung functional tests. A total of 38 workers participated in this
study, 19 in the exposed group and 19 in the control group. The most common chronic symptoms for the exposed
group are wheezing, dyspnea (short of breath) and phlegm. The result shows that, among the tea processing workers,
the exposed group suffer from respiratory diseases.
In this research, the biodiesel from WCO is used in order to reduce the exhaust emission and to investigate the
community perception regarding to the human health. Biodiesel production is conducted using trans-esterification
process with holding time of 2 hours, temperature of 60 oC and conventional frequency of 20 kHz and then followed
by washing process with holding time of 1 hours, temperature of 50 oC and the frequency of 5 kHz. Biodiesel can
reduce exhaust emission of NOx up to 55%, NO gas up to 57%, increase CO gas up to 25% and increase CO2 gas up
to 43.18% as compared to diesel fuel. In addition, biodiesel is achieve good responds from 35 respondents about the
biodiesel importance.
The energy price increased significantly since the early 1970’s and it shows the pattern of all over the world.
According to the estimation of International Energy Agency (IEA), 53% global energy consumption will be increased
by 2030, with 70% of the growth in demand coming from developing countries. Malaysia is one of the most developing
countries among ASEAN countries next to Singapore, with GDP of US$15,400 per capita (PPP basis), and steady
GDP growth of 4.6% in 2009. Malaysia as a developing country focuses on the energy efficiency approach. At this
moment a lot of number of fire and electrical incident more towards overload current and the issues has been faced
trough out the year. This paper highlight the issue on how to avoid the overload current by introducing the method
establish by Energy Commission. The star (*) rating will help us to estimate the current use and the energy efficiency
approach by calculate the current load. The data collected from home appliances are the very basic information rather
than predict in a large scale as industrial and commercial building since the tariff also different in the category. The
equipment such as amp meter, volt meter and the current load data logger will help the current consumption in every
home appliances and it will show the direct reading as well. The issue on electrical safety should be response by
consumer to prevent safety and health risk.
The objective of this research is to analyze and evaluate the hand arm vibration exposure of hand held grass
cutter machines during their normal operation time. On-site field measurement for five different types of hand held
grass cutter machines. In this research, the hand arm vibration exposure levels of different machines were measured
at practical cutting condition in accordance to guidelines on occupational vibration which are presented in the
occupational safety and health standard manual. The hand arm vibration level on the worker’s both right and left
handles of the grass cutter machine were measured and analyzed, respectively. The vibration frequency weighting
acceleration was calculated by using h-weighting. The hand arm vibration acceleration value was expressed in the
root-mean-square (rms) combination of all three major axis (ahwx, ahwy & ahwz). The estimated daily vibration exposure,
A(8) were differ between 2.1 to 20.7 ms-2 for right hand while 2.7 to 29.1 ms -2 for left hand. In short, worker will
induce fingers blanching in 10% of the exposed person after less than 3.7 years exposed to hand arm vibration.
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.
Indoor air pollution is rapidly becoming a major health issue worldwide. The quality of indoor air inside building
is important not only for occupants’ comfort but also for their health. Although researches are still under way to
better define the nature and extent of the health implications for the general population, recent studies have shown
significant amounts of harmful pollutants in the indoor environment. Poor indoor air quality (IAQ) has been tied to
symptoms like headaches, fatigue, trouble concentrating and irritation of the eyes, nose, throat and lungs. In this study,
occupants’ comfort satisfaction on IAQ of a museum building environment in a tropical climate will be studied. IAQ
aspects which will be considered as parameters are chemical contaminants, gaseous pollutant and comfort factors
(temperature, humidity and air movement). Museum, archives, library, heritage building and gallery are the types of
buildings that can be considered as heritage building environment. At the initial stage, a pilot study will be conducted
to identify the current IAQ conditions inside those selected buildings.
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.
Peningkatan masalah muskulosketal di kalangan pemandu bas henti-henti akibat beban kerja fizikal semakin
menjadi perhatian. Oleh itu, tujuan kajian ini adalah untuk mengenalpasti jenis beban kerja fizikal yang dihadapi oleh
pemandu bas henti-henti di Kuala Lumpur dan kesannya terhadap prestasi fizikal mereka. Dalam kajian ini, kaedah
rakaman video digunakan untuk melihat dan merakamkan setiap beban kerja fizikal yang dihadapi oleh mereka
semasa memandu dan satu simulasi dibuat untuk melihat kesan beban kerja tersebut terhadap prestasi kerja mereka.
Keseluruhan hasil kajian menunjukkan beberapa jenis beban kerja fizikal yang telah dikenalpasti iaitu seperti menekan
butang suis pada panel kawalan, memberi tiket kepada penumpang, memandang cermin sisi sambil memasukkan
wang ke dalam tabung, menoleh untuk menjawab pertanyaan penumpang dan membelok sambil menarik tombol
isyarat. Demi kesinambungan kajian ini, satu kajian terhadap beban kerja mental perlu dibuat untuk mengetahui secara
menyeluruh beban kerja yang dihadapi oleh pemandu bas.
Indoor air quality has been a major public concern recently. Several health effects are related to this problem.
Findings from several studies have shown MVAC system as the main contributor for IAQ problem. Good practice of
maintenance and servicing is important to maintain MVAC system, especially the filter. Good air filtration for MVAC
system is needed to make sure adequate air is received by the occupants. This paper illustrated a recent study of air
filtration for MVAC system especially for several industries that used MVAC system in their premises. This paper also
proposed an air filtration study for a better air quality. Several Acts and Regulations related to Safety and Health were
identified to create the framework for the proposed study. Air filtration technique was used in this preliminary study
to set up guidelines to create safe and clean indoor spaces for workers and occupants.
Evacuation profile systems in high rise building are important to determine the safety level during any fire
emergency. In relation to this, the study was conducted with its objective to develop the evacuation profile for
NIOSH Tower. Evacnet-4 software was used to develop models for building evacuations using the building network
descriptions and the initial content of the occupant at the beginning of the evacuation. The results show that it
requires 390 seconds to evacuate NIOSH tower, with the highest number of bottlenecks recorded for the Third Floor.
Identification of bottleneck is important to determine the evacuation periods. The information gained from the model
may be used for the emergency response planning and for support material. The model should be tested in real time
to have its reliability verified.
This paper is focusing on developing theoretical model on the effects of psychosocial and physical safety climate
towards workers task performance. Psychosocial and physical safety climate can be defined as workers’ perception
on organizational policies, process, and procedures outline, specifically on psychosocial issues and physical safety
aspect. This paper is based on sociotechnical philosophy by highlighting the integration of both psychosocial and
physical safety climate in predicting task performance. According to the philosophy, workers working performance is
dependent on both social and technical context in environment to accomplish the task and will influence both physical
products and psychosocial outcomes. Thus, it is essential to investigate the integration of psychosocial and physical
safety climate in predicting performance outcome.