CONTENTS:

Articles:

PROTECTION OF HUMAN IN THE WORKING ENVIRONMENT

Occupational Safety Communication for Hazardous Goods: The Development of a Policy in Israel Lewis H. Glinert, 3-22       Safety Attitudes and Their Relationship to Safety Training and Generalised Self-Efficacy Rosa Grau, Isabel M. Martínez, Sonia Agut, Marisa Salanova, 23-35       Cultural Ergonomics in Ghana, West Africa: A Descriptive Survey of Industry and Trade Workers' Interpretations of Safety Symbols Tonya L. Smith-Jackson, Abeeku Essuman-Johnson, 37-50       The Damping of Off-Central Impact for Selected Industrial Safety Helmets Used in Poland Ryszard Korycki, 51-70

PROTECTION OF HUMAN AT THE WORKSTATION

Physical Effects of New Devices for Bricklayers Peter Vink, Mathilde Miedema, Ernst Koningsveld, Henk van der Molen, 71-82     Ergonomics in Practice: Physical Workload and Heat Stress in Thailand Pongjan Yoopat, Pornkamon Toicharoen, Thirayudh Glinsukon, Kamiel Vanwonterghem, Veikko Louhevaara, 83-93       Dust Emission and Efficiency of Local Exhaust Ventilation During Cast Iron Grinding Maciej Gliński, 95-105

NOTES

Integration of Ergonomics Into Hand Tool Design: Principle and Presentation of an Example Michel Aptel, Laurent Claudon, Jacques Marsot, 107-115     Methods of Assessing Efficiency of UV-Protecting Products Joanna Kurpiewska, Krzysztof M. Benczek, 117-120     The Cytotoxicity of Some Organic Solvents on Isolated Hepatocytes in Monolayer Culture Lidia Zapór, Jolanta Skowroń, Małgorzata Gołofit-Szymczak, 121-129

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Occupational Safety Communication for Hazardous Goods: The Development of a Policy in Israel
Lewis H. Glinert

Israeli policy governing written occupational safety information for carriage and supply of hazardous goods, and procedures for implementation, are described and evaluated for their potential communicative effectiveness, in view of users' linguistic abilities and the language employed. We also consider whether the addressee should include the end-user and the reading-impaired. The evaluation is set in the context of broader Israeli language policy, and comparison is made with communication policies for hazardous goods adopted by the European Union, the UK, and the USA.

Safety Attitudes and Their Relationship to Safety Training and Generalised Self-Efficacy
Rosa Grau, Isabel M. Martínez, Sonia Agut, Marisa Salanova

This paper studies safety attitudes, their relationship with safety training behaviour, and generalised self-efficacy. From a sociotechnical perspective, training programs might be used as a mechanism for enhancing attitudes, especially to improve safety and occupational health. Also, self-efficacy allows to enhance training effectiveness. The aim of this paper is to validate a safety attitude scale and to examine its relationship to safety training behaviour and self-efficacy in organisational settings. With data from 140 employees, results show a conceptually meaningful 3-factor solution. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis shows a main effect of safety training behaviour and levels of self-efficacy on safety attitude. Study limitations and its implications on safety training design are also discussed.

Cultural Ergonomics in Ghana, West Africa: A Descriptive Survey of Industry and Trade Workers' Interpretations of Safety Symbols
Tonya L. Smith-Jackson, Abeeku Essuman-Johnson

Globalization and technology transfer have led to the diffusion of risk communications to users from cultures that were not initially viewed as the target users. This study examined industry and trade workers' overall impressions of symbols used to convey varying degrees of hazardousness. Six symbols, including symbols from the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Z535 Standard (ANSI, 1998) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 3864:1984 Standard (ISO, 1984) were selected. With the exception of the SKULL symbol, results showed wide discrepancies between users' perceptions of the symbols and their intended meanings. Implications for cross-cultural research on warning components and risk communications are discussed.

The Damping of Off-Central Impact for Selected Industrial Safety Helmets Used in Poland
Ryszard Korycki

The paper presents a review of head injury criteria and determines an assessment criterion for test results. Parameters characterizing the protection properties of off-central impacted industrial helmets are chosen and the test stands used in the Central Institute for Labour Protection to test those parameters are presented. The idea of damping 2 selected industrial helmets used in Poland is discussed. The test results of the parameters characterizing the protection properties are compared for damped and not damped helmets.

Physical Effects of New Devices for Bricklayers
Peter Vink, Mathilde Miedema, Ernst Koningsveld, Henk van der Molen

Bricklaying is a physically demanding job. Bricklayers frequently flex their trunk to pick up bricks and mortar and position these in a wall. The experienced workload is highest working with bricks at 0 to 50 cm from the floor. In this study the effects of 2 devices that have proven to be feasible in practice are evaluated.
The 50 cm raise due to the 2 devices is experienced as comfortable, the estimated lumbar compression force was reduced, and observations indicate likewise. It is discussed that the field experiments have many drawbacks. Nevertheless, based on this study in combination with other literature the improvements could be recommended.

Ergonomics in Practice: Physical Workload and Heat Stress in Thailand
Pongjan Yoopat, Pornkamon Toicharoen, Thirayudh Glinsukon, Kamiel Vanwonterghem, Veikko Louhevaara

This study consists of assessments of the thermal environment and physiological strain in tasks associated with airport, construction, and metal jobs. The number of male and female participants was 108. Environmental heat stress was evaluated with the WBGT index. Physiological strain was evaluated by the relative cardiovascular load (%CVL) based on the measurements of heart rate. Also the increase of body temperature, weight loss, and perceived discomfort were determinated. At work sites the assessments lasted for 2 to 4 hrs for each participant. The mean physiological strain exceeded the level of 30%CVL. Severe peaks (over 60% CVL) were observed in specific tasks being in agreement with perceived discomfort ratings. The increase of body temperature and weight loss in most cases remained within acceptable limits. For the most strenuous tasks, various ergonomic improvements were developed in consultation with workers and managers.

Dust Emission and Efficiency of Local Exhaust Ventilation During Cast Iron Grinding
Maciej Gliński

A method of determining dust emission and efficiency of its removal by means of local exhaust ventilation from machinery has been described. It complies with Standard No. EN 1093-3:1996 (European Committee for Standardization, 1996) and consists in determining air pollution concentrations in the measurement duct used for air removal from the chamber incorporating devices to be tested. The air volume stream that is pumped is measured at the same time.
Test results are presented for dust emission and the efficiency of local exhaust ventilation for cast iron grinding by means of manual power tools and a bench-sander. It has been found that application of local exhaust ventilation contributes to a significant reduction of dust emission with efficiency greater than 90%.

Integration of Ergonomics Into Hand Tool Design: Principle and Presentation of an Example
Michel Aptel, Laurent Claudon, Jacques Marsot

The development of ergonomic tools responds to health protection needs on the part of workers, especially the work related musculoskeletal disorders of the upper limbs and to the development of ergonomic tools to take into account the needs of the factories. Only an ergonomic design process can enable tool manufacturers to meet these requirements. Three factors are involved: integration of ergonomics into the design process, definition of the different ergonomic stages involved, and finally knowledge of the different factors involved in hand tool design. This document examines these 3 elements in more detail and presents briefly a project of research whose main purpose is to integrate ergonomic criteria into a design process.

Methods of Assessing Efficiency of UV-Protecting Products
Joanna Kurpiewska, Krzysztof M. Benczek, 117-120

A few aspects of skin protection against ultraviolet (UV) light and methods of assessing efficacy of UV-protecting cream or gels have been discussed. UV-protection in cream and gels is not only a strategy of the cosmetic industry but a necessity because of human occupational activity and daily habits.

The Cytotoxicity of Some Organic Solvents on Isolated Hepatocytes in Monolayer Culture
Lidia Zapór, Jolanta Skowroń, Małgorzata Gołofit-Szymczak, 121-129

The cytotoxic effects of volatile and water-insoluble organic solvents (ethylbenzene, tetrachloroethylene, n-hexane) were tested on isolated hepatocytes in monolayer culture by using the 3-(4,5 dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5 diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) reduction assay. All of the tested compounds inhibited metabolic activity of hepatocytes and this effect depended on the concentration of solvents in the incubatory medium. The presence of fetal calf serum in the medium did not change the cytotoxicity of xenobiotics. IC50 values calculated on the basis of the MTT assay indicated that ethylbenzene was more cytotoxic than tetrachloroethylene and n-hexane. Using hepatocyte monolayer culture and the MTT assay to assess cytotoxicity of organic solvents causes many technical problems. It seems that it cannot be used as a rapid, cheap, and credible method.