Background: Nowadays, most medical laboratories in Malaysia practice occupational safety and health based on standard operating procedure and sometimes ad-hoc characteristic limited to only internal use. The level of compliance of the national occupational safety and health management system (OSHMS) guidelines among medical laboratories in Malaysia is still largely unexplored.
Methods: This study was carried out on 34 medical laboratories consisting of 17 public medical laboratories and 17 private medical laboratories in Klang Valley using self-administered questionnaire based on guideline of OSHMS6. This study covered 112 medical laboratories units including pathology chemistry (18), microbiology (20), virology (7), histopathology (16), cytopathology (17), hematology (19) and 15 multi discipline medical laboratories.
Results: This study showed the level of compliance to the national OSHMS guideline among medical laboratories who are MS ISO 15189:2004 accredited & have a higher scores (p
Background: The occupationally acquired accident and injuries in Malaysian medical laboratories are still largely unexplored prior to this survey. Some of these questions are attempted in this survey and act as source of reference for the number and accident injuries in medical laboratories in the area of Klang Valley and also in Malaysia.
Methods : This survey was carried out based on recordable cases throughout the calendar year of 2001 to 2005 from 3 main medical laboratories of Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL), Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (HUKM) and Pusat Perubatan Universiti Malaya (PPUM).
Results : The average annual incident rate for this three medical laboratories is 2.05/100 full time equivalent (FTE) employees. The annual incident rate in individual medical laboratory is 2.04/100 FTE (HKL), 2.07/100 FTE (HUKM) and 2.04/100 FTE (PPUM) employees, respectively. The most common injury that is 25.3% of the total cases reported was due to cuts by sharp objects and the second most common injury was exposure to biohazard and chemical substances which constitutes 19.9% of the total cases. . Needle prick injury (16.8%), fire (8.4%), fall/slip (6.3%) and gases leak and locked in cold room were reported as one case each.
Conclusion : The average incident rate from this study is remarkably similar compared with the incident injury rate reported by BLS (2006) which is 2.1/100 FTE in the average size of medical laboratory and diagnostic. Besides this incident rate of injury and illness as a comparison, it also can be used as a benchmark to evaluate the safety performance among medical laboratories in Malaysia.
Background : A safety culture practice through prevention needs skillful, knowledgeable and competencies workers. The effectiveness of occupational safety and health programme implementation needs the knowledge related to Occupational Safety and Health Acts, 1994 (OSHA 1994) and its regulations.
Objective : This study was to determine the level of knowledge and awareness towards Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) aspects among workers in medical laboratory.
Methodology : A cross-sectional study was carried out on 34 medical laboratories in which 17 were from private and another 17 laboratories were from public sectors. It consists of 112 medical laboratory disciplines. Data were obtained using self-administered questionnaire consisting of 33 questions related to Occupational Safety and Health (OSH). Each question was coded “know” and “do not know” and respondents were needed to state their understanding towards each OSH issue tendered.
Results : Respondent’s level of knowledge was analyzed according to socio-demography and socioeconomic factors. OSH level of knowledge among medical laboratory workers showed that there are significant differences (p0.05) in OSH knowledge according to between sex, marital status, income and services sectors among workers in medical laboratories. Only about 60.5% of respondents knew the existence of OSHA 1994, whereas those who knew about OSHA 1994 regulations were below than 50.0% from overall respondents.
Conclusion : Promotion and practices of dynamic safety culture through prevention needs high knowledge of OSH.
Background : Risk management strategy at the workplace needs two way interactions between employee and employer. Therefore, study on risk perception among workers based on scientific analysis is needed to gain knowledge and understanding on how workers perceived risk at the workplace in order to design risk management strategies more effectively.
Methodology : A cross sectional study was carried out among 628 respondents from 36 medical laboratories in the public and private sector in Klang Valley. Using a self administered questionnaire, respondents were required to perceive risk on 30 hazards which have been identified in the medical laboratory. Each hazard was encoded by using Likert scale 1= not risky, 2= risky but low, 3= moderate risk, 4= high risk and 5= very high risk.
Result : Overall, the study showed that working in the medical laboratory was perceived to of moderate risk. When comparing among ethic groups, the Malays had the highest perception of risk (3.07±0.88) as compared with Indians (3.03±0.88) and the Chinese (2.78±0.90). Employee with higher education and position level perceived low level of risk compared to those with lower education and position level. For those working in different types of laboratories, there are significant difference on risk perception, (p=0.001). Employees who work in government sector perceived higher (3.12±0.93) risk compared to workers in private sector (2.85±0.88). In terms of OSH based knowledge, those with higher level of education and position have a high score knowledge on OSH compared to those have lower education and position level.
Conclusion : This study showed that risk perception among workers in medical laboratory is influenced by socio-demography factor such race, education level, job position and the laboratory where the respondents are working.
Background : The implementation of Occupational Safety and Health Management System (OSHMS) requires a level of measurement. The effectiveness of OSHMS implementation was influenced by inhibiting and supporting factors. The objective of this study was to determine the inhibiting and supporting factors towards the implementation of OSHMS in medical laboratories.
Methodology : The implementation of Occupational Safety and Health Management System (OSHMS) requires a level of measurement. The effectiveness of OSHMS implementation was influenced by inhibiting and supporting factors. The objective of this study was to determine the inhibiting and supporting factors towards the implementation of OSHMS in medical laboratories.
Result : This study showed the level of compliance to the OSHMS MS1722 guideline among medical laboratories who are MS ISO 15189 accredited & have a higher scores in overall measurement indicators OSHMS compared to those do not have SAMM accreditation. Private medical laboratories services have higher scores in overall measurement indicators OSHMS, compared to government medical laboratories. However, there was no significant difference (p>0.05) between medical laboratories which have ISO 9000 quality management system certification, compared to level of compliance to the OSHMS MS 1722 guideline among medical laboratories. There was also no significant difference (p>0.05) between the laboratories who had been operating for more than 10 years compared to those with less than 10 years, towards implementing the OSHMS. Results showed that majority of medical laboratories management perceived that difficulty and complexities of OSH legislation are the most important factor that prevent them from implementing OSHMS in their organization. The most important supporting factor, that medical laboratories management perceived as the most important to comply to the OSHMS were their moral responsibilities towards the community.
Conclusion : In conclusion, the study shows there were many inhibiting and supporting factors that contribute towards effective implementation of OSHMS elements in workplace.
Background: Level of comfort in working environment can contribute to increase level of health, emotion during working, level of safety, quality and productivity of work. A study of physical factors (heat, noise and lighting) is important to determine the level of comfort during working. This study was carried out to study those physical factors upon comfort level during working among Casting Shop workers in a car manufacturing factory.
Methods: Instruments for the physical monitoring including Questemp°36 Thermal Environment Monitor, Sound Level Meter and Lux Meter were used at seven measured areas. The information about the level of comfort during working was collected using questionnaires among 65 respondents by random sampling method.
Results: Measured data showed there were four measured areas which Wet Bulb Globe Temperature indoor (WBGTi) value are above the standard limit recommended by ACGIH, three measured areas recorded noise level above the standard limit recommended by Factories and Machineries (Noise Exposure) 1989, while there was no measured area recorded lighting reading below the standard limit recommended by MS ISO 8995:2005. Result from questionnaire found that the majority of the workers did not feel comfortable towards the heat and noise level in their workplace while most of the respondents felt comfortable towards lighting level in their workplace. Mean of WBGTi reading and lighting reading have a significant difference (p
Background: Safety and health audit study is a part of occupational safety and health risk assesment. Thus, student’s residential audit is important in order tu ensure the safety rules which implemented by the management is appropriate and follow the standard set forth. Furthermore, it also important to determine places, area or situation that might lead to hazard risk so that prevention step could be plan and implement.
Objective: This study was to determine the safety level of students residential in physical aspects.
Methods: Safety inspection or audit conducted is in accordance with criteria and indicators listed in the checklists that have been formed based on the audit forms from the Department of Safety and Health (DOSH), National Institute of Safety and health (NIOSH) and the Occupational Safety and Health Committee of UKMs (JKKP). Several indicators are also included in the audit form as to ensure it covers all the technical aspect and suited with the college conditions. The safety level for each of the blocks in KDO is categorized using points and percentage score obtained.
Results: Based on the overall score, the average safety score in percentage for areas in KDO are preceded by general office with score 85.5% followed by residential blocks with 71.5%, facilities with score 71.2% and administration block with 70.9%. The results of the study show that most of the areas are at least in a safe level.
Conclusion: Roles of employer and college administration, significant OSH programme and safety audit are important factors as to ensure the safety of student's residential college.
Early detection of a dengue outbreak is an important first step towards implementing effective dengue interventions resulting in reduced mortality and morbidity. A dengue mathematical model would be useful for the prediction of an outbreak and evaluation of control measures. However, such a model must be carefully parameterized and validated with epidemiological, ecological and entomological data. A field study was conducted to collect and analyse various parameters to model dengue transmission and outbreak. Dengue prone areas in Kuala Lumpur, Pahang, Kedah and Johor were chosen for this study. Ovitraps were placed outdoor and used to determine the effects of meteorological parameters on vector breeding. Vector population in each area was monitored weekly for 87 weeks. Weather stations, consisting of a temperature and relative humidity data logger and an automated rain gauge, were installed at key locations in each study site. Correlation and Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ADL) model were used to study the relationship among the variables. Previous week rainfall plays a significant role in increasing the mosquito population, followed by maximum humidity and temperature. The secondary data of rainfall, temperature and humidity provided by the meteorological department showed an insignificant relationship with the mosquito population compared to the primary data recorded by the researchers. A well fit model was obtained for each locality to be used as a predictive model to foretell possible outbreak.