CONTENTS:

Articles:

Towards an International Standard on Occupational Health and Safety Management Jesús Abad, Pedro R. Mondelo, Josep Llimona, 309-319       A Job Safety Program for Construction Workers Designed to Reduce the Potential for Occupational Injury Using Tool Box Training Sessions and Computer-Assisted Biofeedback Stress Management Techniques Kenneth A. Johnson, Joan Ruppe, 321-329       Intranet-Based Safety Documentation in Management of Major Hazards and Occupational Health and Safety Antti Leino, 331-338     Human Performance Cognitive-Behavioral Modeling: A Benefit for Occupational Safety Brian F. Gore, 339-351       Computer-Intensive Methods in Traffic Safety Research Harold Stanislaw, 353-363       Factor Analysis of Safety for Visitors to a Mega-Event Young Guk Kwon, Hyun Jee Park, 365-375       Prevention of Falls on the Level in Occupational Situations: A Major Issue, a Risk to Be Managed Sylvie Leclercq, 377-385       A Systematic Procedure for Modeling Usability Based on Product Design Variables: A Case Study in Audiovisual Consumer Electronic Products Kwang-Jae Kim, Sung H. Han, Myung Hwan Yun, Jiyoung Kwahk, 387-406       Report on an International Event

Towards an International Standard on Occupational Health and Safety Management
Jesús Abad, Pedro R. Mondelo, Josep Llimona, 309-319

As a result of the need for companies to manage occupational health and safety, as well as the absence of a globally accepted international standard, numerous organisations have developed their own models in the shape of guides, standards, or guidelines. However, the resultant dispersion is creating confusion among companies, rather than making life easier for them.
  In this article, we look at the current situation as far as available European management systems are concerned, and the emergent trends in the development of an international standard. Moreover, we present the special case of Spain, whose broad legislation on occupational health and safety might hinder the adoption of an international model by Spanish companies.

A Job Safety Program for Construction Workers Designed to Reduce the Potential for Occupational Injury Using Tool Box Training Sessions and Computer-Assisted Biofeedback Stress Management Techniques
Kenneth A. Johnson, Joan Ruppe, 321-329

This project was conducted with a multicultural construction company in Hawaii, USA. The job duties performed included drywall and carpentry work. The following objectives were selected for this project: (a) fire prevention training and inspection of first aid equipment; (b) blood-borne pathogen training and risk evaluation; (c) ergonomic and risk evaluation intervention program; (d) electrical safety training and inspection program; (e) slips, trips, and falls safety training; (f) stress assessment and Personal Profile System; (g) safety and health program survey; (h) improving employee relations and morale by emphasizing spirituality; and (i) computer-assisted biofeedback stress management training. Results of the project indicated that observed safety hazards, reported injuries, and levels of perceived stress were reduced for the majority of the population.

Intranet-Based Safety Documentation in Management of Major Hazards and Occupational Health and Safety
Antti Leino, 331-338

In the European Union, Council Directive 96/82/EC requires operators producing, using, or handling significant amounts of dangerous substances to improve their safety management systems in order to better manage the major accident potentials deriving from human error.
  A new safety management system for the Viikinmäki wastewater treatment plant in Helsinki, Finland, was implemented in this study. The system was designed to comply with both the new safety liabilities and the requirements of OHSAS 18001 (British Standards Institute, 1999). During the implementation phase experiences were gathered from the development processes in this small organisation.
  The complete documentation was placed in the intranet of the plant. Hyperlinks between documents were created to ensure convenience of use. Documentation was made accessible for all workers from every workstation.

Human Performance Cognitive-Behavioral Modeling: A Benefit for Occupational Safety
Brian F. Gore, 339-351

Human Performance Modeling (HPM) is a computer-aided job analysis software methodology used to generate predictions of complex human-automation integration and system flow patterns with the goal of improving operator and system safety.  The use of HPM tools has recently been increasing due to reductions in computational cost, augmentations in the tools’ fidelity, and usefulness in the generated output. An examination of an Air Man-machine Integration Design and Analysis System (Air MIDAS) model evaluating complex human-automation integration currently underway at NASA Ames Research Center will highlight the importance to occupational safety of considering both cognitive and physical aspects of performance when researching human error.

Computer-Intensive Methods in Traffic Safety Research
Harold Stanislaw, 353-363

The analysis of traffic safety data archives has improved markedly with the development of procedures that are heavily dependent upon computers. Three such procedures are described here. The first procedure involves using computers to assist in the identification and correction of invalid data. The second procedure makes greater computational demands, and involves using computerized algorithms to fill in the “gaps” that typically occur in archival data when information regarding key variables is not available. The third and most computer?intensive procedure involves using data mining techniques to search archives for interesting and important relationships between variables. These procedures are illustrated using examples from data archives that describe the characteristics of traffic accidents in the USA and Australia.

Factor Analysis of Safety for Visitors to a Mega-Event
Young Guk Kwon, Hyun Jee Park, 365-375

This paper investigated the safety factors considered by visitors to the Kwangju Biennale 2000 and analyzed the correlation between the safety factors and the demographic characteristics of the visitors. Global tourism increased throughout the 1990s, with the biggest surge occurring in the Asia-Pacific region. Long-distance travel is also increasing, and at a rate faster than the global average. The opportunities for event tourism appear to be strong almost everywhere, even though recessions may have an impact on these destinations. Along with this upward trend, competition for more desirable tourists is also surging (Getz, 1997). Therefore event tourism is appearing as a powerful method in the fierce competition around the tourism industry.

Prevention of Falls on the Level in Occupational Situations: A Major Issue, a Risk to Be Managed
Sylvie Leclercq, 377-385

The terminology used to designate falls on the level is broadly based and the accidents concerned are only very rarely defined explicitly. A definition of falls on the level in occupational situations is therefore proposed. We attempt to define the issue represented by the prevention of such accidents on the basis of statistical data, prior to explaining the twin objectives focused on in the field of their prevention. We then propose a summary of unbalance risk factors in occupational situations. These factors are associated with different components of the occupational situation they concern: individuals, their tasks, the equipment used, or the working environment. The diversity of accident contexts and different in-company prevention possibilities are thereby highlighted. Finally, we discuss a number of consequences in prevention terms.

A Systematic Procedure for Modeling Usability Based on Product Design Variables: A Case Study in Audiovisual Consumer Electronic Products
Kwang-Jae Kim, Sung H. Han, Myung Hwan Yun, Jiyoung Kwahk, 387-406

A systematic modeling approach to describing, prescribing, and predicting usability of a product has been presented. Given the evaluation results of the usability dimension (UD) and the measurement of the product’s design variables, referred to as the human interface elements (HIEs), the approach enables one to systematically assess the relationship between the UD and HIEs. The assessed relationship is called a usability model. Once built, such a usability model can relate, in a quantitative manner, the HIEs directly to the UDs, and thus can serve as an effective aid to designers by evaluating and predicting the usability of an existing or hypothetical product. A usability model for elegance of audiovisual consumer electronic products has been demonstrated.