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- Cross-cultural adaptation, reliability and validity of the Portuguese version of the Brief Norwegian Safety Climate Inventory (Brief NORSCI)Publication . Monteiro, Raquel; Vieira Da Silva, Manuela; Arezes, Pedro; Rodrigues, MatildeThe aim of this study was to translate and validate the Portuguese version of the 11-item Brief Norwegian Safety Climate Inventory (Brief NORSCI) to Portuguese language and test its validity and reliability in a Portuguese LPG plant. The validity was assessed by an Exploratory Factorial Analysis (EFA). The test-retest reliability and internal consistency were determined by using the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) and Cronbach’s Alpha, respectively. The Brief NORSCI was translated into the Portuguese language using a forward-backward translation design. The Portuguese version was then applied to a sample of 80 workers. After a 2-week period, workers were asked to fill out a second questionnaire to assess the psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of Brief NORSCI. In the test-retest, the ICC for the Brief NORSCI total score was moderate (0.70) and the Cronbach’s Alpha showed an acceptable internal consistency (=0.80). In addition, from the EFA resulted three dimensions according to the theoretical assumptions. The Portuguese version of Brief NORSCI was found to be a valid and a reliable tool to assess safety climate.
- Avaliação da implementação de Medidas de Preservação Auditiva numa indústria têxtil – modelo a seguirPublication . Tomé, David; Veríssimo, Vânia; Rodrigues, Matilde; Santos, Joana; Carmo, Paulo Cardoso doO ruído é um tipo de som que provoca efeitos nocivos no ser humano, sendo uma sensação auditiva desagradável que interfere na percepção do som desejado. Define-se, do ponto de vista físico, como toda a vibração mecânica estatisticamente aleatória de um meio elástico e, do ponto de vista fisiológico, como todo o fenómeno acústico que produz uma sensação auditiva desagradável ou incomodativa (Reis, 2002; Boger, 2008).
- Effect of a safety intervention in a gas industry on safety climate levelPublication . Monteiro, Raquel; Balazeiro, Márcia; Vieira Da Silva, Manuela; Rodrigues, MatildeThe oil and gas sector is one of the high-risk sectors. In this sector, catastrophic accidents are not the only problem, since occupational accidents and injuries are equally important. Safety climate has been pointed as an important factor related to the companies’ safety performance. However, interventions to improve it are still limited. The present study aims to design and implement an intervention and assess its effect on the enterprise’ safety climate. Were defined for this study two groups: intervention group, where the intervention was implemented, (n=78) and control group, without intervention, (n=55). The study was carried out in different plants from a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) industry. Workers from the experimental group operated in plant A. Workers from the control group operated in plants B and C. The intervention included psychoeducational sessions, cases studies, accidents scenarios, videos and group discussion. To assess the safety climate, the 11-item Brief Norwegian Safety Climate Inventory (Brief NORSCI) was applied to the workers. The questionnaire was applied prior, immediately afterward and two months later the intervention. The obtained results demonstrated a positive effect of the safety intervention in safety climate. Significant differences were observed in almost all the dimensions of this scale in the experimental group. This study showed that it is possible to improve safety climate by designing an intervention program adapted to the reality of the LPG industry.
- Development and validation of a tool to evaluate resilience performance in metalworking industryPublication . Fernandes, J.; Ferreira, C.; Rubio-Romero, J.C.; Rodrigues, MatildeFor several organizations, occupational risk management is focused on risk assessment, accident investigation and analysis, and implementation of control measures. Investigation and analysis of accidents is often carried out taking into account causation models, with the objective of identifying the causes and determining effective corrective measures to improve both current practices and risk control systems. This behavior of the organizations fits in the traditional perspective of safety, realized as the absence of unwanted events
- The influence of noise on the perceptions of discomfort, stress, and anoyancePublication . Monteiro, R.; Rodrigues, Matilde; Tomé, DavidThe aim of this study was to investigate the effect of different noise conditions on subjects' perceptions of discomfort, stress and annoyance: standard condition (C1), environmental noise without alert sounds (C2) and environmental noise with alert sounds (C3).
- Perceptions of rock band musicians about the effects of loud music and protective practicesPublication . Rodrigues, Matilde; Almeida, J.Rock band musicians are an important group in what regards to the exposure to high sound pressure levels. They can be exposed to loud music, which can result in hearing damages. However, there are very few studies focused on this issue. In view of this, this study attempts to analyze the perceptions about musicians in relation to the loud music risks, as well as to characterize their preventive behaviors and health effects. To analyze this issue, a questionnaire was applied to 14 musicians belonging to three garage rock bands. The results showed that group rehearsals and concerts are considered the noisiest activities and the sound pressure levels at individual practices are seen as low. Guitar and drums were identified as the noisiest instruments and the piano was seen as the instrument that produce lower sound levels. The results also showed that only a part of the musicians were concerned with the health effects related to the exposure to high sound levels and the majority of them reported do not use hearing protection. The findings of this study emphasize the need to give more attention to these groups, informing them about the risks and on the need of risk reduction measures.
- Real-time blink detection as an indicator of computer vision syndrome in real-life settings: an exploratory studyPublication . Lapa, Inês; Ferreira, Simão; Mateus, Catarina; Rocha, Nuno; Rodrigues, MatildeWith the increase in the number of people using digital devices, complaints about eye and vision problems have been increasing, making the problem of computer vision syndrome (CVS) more serious. Accompanying the increase in CVS in occupational settings, new and unobstructive solutions to assess the risk of this syndrome are of paramount importance. This study aims, through an exploratory approach, to determine if blinking data, collected using a computer webcam, can be used as a reliable indicator for predicting CVS on a real-time basis, considering real-life settings. A total of 13 students participated in the data collection. A software that collected and recorded users’ physiological data through the computer’s camera was installed on the participants’ computers. The CVS-Q was applied to determine the subjects with CVS and its severity. The results showed a decrease in the blinking rate to about 9 to 17 per minute, and for each additional blink the CVS score lowered by 1.26. These data suggest that the decrease in blinking rate was directly associated with CVS. These results are important for allowing the development of a CVS real-time detection algorithm and a related recommendation system that provides interventions to promote health, well-being, and improved performance.
- Nível de aceitação de risco em empresas de mobiliário: As visões dos técnicos de STPublication . Rodrigues, Matilde; Arezes, Pedro; Leão, Celina P.The understanding of the level of occupational risk that stakeholders’ are able to accept is an important key to the entire risk management process, particularly in the definition of the acceptance criteria. However, researches about this issue relating to occupational risks are scarce. Therefore, this study aims to analyse the level of risk that Occupational, Safety & Health (OSH) professionals are willing to accept in the furniture sector. The accidents distribution of the sector was analysed. A questionnaire called Analysis of Risk Acceptance in the Furniture sector (ARAF) was developed and applied. The ARAF included two main parts. The first part referred to the professional characterization and second part included 15 questions, where each one was constituted by a set of risk scenarios, created with basis on the accidents distribution. Groups of OSH professionals with similar judgments were identified by means of a two-step cluster analysis. Three distinct groups were found: unacceptable, tolerant and realistic groups. The realistic group has identified the limit of tolerable risk close to the Cumulative Distribution Function curve of the furniture sector accident and the acceptable limit lower than this curve. This study shows that there are differences in the judgments of OSH professionals about the level of risk acceptance.
- Measurement of resilience potential: Development and validation a toolPublication . Fernandes, Joana; Barbosa, Judite; Arezes, Pedro; Pardo-Ferreira, María del Carmen; Rubio-Romero, Juan Carlos; Rodrigues, MatildeCrises that occur without warning test the abilities and resilience of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) systems. Resilience engineering seeks ways to enhance the ability of systems to thrive under diverse conditions across various domains. However, developing metrics to measure and analyze the resilience potential of the OSH management systems remains a significant challenge. Therefore, it is of the crucial to build up a robust and resilient OSH system, capable to handling unforeseen events and emergent risks in order to ensure workers’ safety and health. Resilience engineering has proposed the following four potentials for resilient performance (Hollnagel, 2017): potential to respond (knowing what to do); potential to monitor (knowing what to look for); potential to learn (knowing what has happened); and potential to anticipate (knowing what to expect). In view of the above, it is necessary to develop a new tool to measure the resilience potential of the OSH management system in this context according to the concepts introduced by resilience engineering.
- The COVID-19 pandemic and environmental health: Lessons learnedPublication . Dyjack, David T.; Choonara, Adam; Davis, Gayle; Dawson, Henry; Hannelly, Toni; Lynch, Zena; Mitchell, Graeme; Rodrigues, Matilde A.; Shaw, Lindsay; Ross, Kirstin E.Environmental health is historically an overlooked and underrated discipline. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the value of environmental health and environmental health professionals (EHPs). EHPs have a unique set of skills and knowledge that were, or could have been, signifi cant in controlling the pandemic. This skill set includes a thorough understanding of legislation and regulations; the ability to conduct human health risk assessment and implement effective risk-control measures; enforcement, communication, and education skills; and a signifi cant understanding of their own local communities. The opportunities for applying the skills of EHPs vary across the world depending on several factors, including legislative and regulatory frameworks in each jurisdiction. Here we present our early evaluation of the unique skills and knowledge base of EHPs and lessons that can be learned from EHP engagement in public health protection. We also argue that local knowledge and engagement need to be recognized as valuable tools in emergency preparedness. In our increasingly globalized world, mechanisms to maintain and value local knowledge are needed, which could be achieved by embedding the “value of local” into policy to ensure that the importance and value of local knowledge are captured. We also advocate for raising awareness of the value of public health, and specifi cally, environmental health.