AbstractIndia possesses a diverse and rich cultural heritage and is renowned as a 'land of festivals'. These festivals attract massive community involvement paving way to new materials such as 'Plaster of Paris' being used for 'modernizing' the representation of idols with very little thought given to the issues of toxicity and environmental impacts. Another dimension to the whole issue is the plight of the artisans and the workers involved in the trade. Owing to the unorganized nature of the in...
Autori: Nanda B. S. Kumar, Raghunath Babu Are, Santosh M. Avvannavar, Shrihari Surathal
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=25349

AbstractThe paper presents an original method, as well as a calculus mode of the main hydraulic parameters, for the transfer of the aeolian power from the nacelle of the tower to its base. The system proposes the existence in the nacelle of a two-, three- or poly- phased sonic generator, from which the obtained energy is transferred by some pipes to the base of the tower, where this can be easily  transformed in electric energy. The paper treats the two-phase variant. An important consequen...
Autori: Ioan I. Pop, Ioana Denes-Pop
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=25356

AbstractMaintenance activities are among activities at work that can affect the safety and health of workers, both operators and thoseinvolved in maintenance operations of work equipment in use. Lack of maintenance can lead to a temporary or total stop of theproduction process, which means loss of production, as well as a high risk for the workers involved. Employers who do notmaintain or use, at a high safety level, the work equipment may produce major accidents at work.Taking into account the ...
Autori: Anca Elena Antonov
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=26394

AbstractThirty two per cent of all injury risks identified at work are risks arising from work equipment. In this sense, the use of protectiveequipment, respectively earthing devices during interventions / works in electrical installations are the main protective measureagainst these risks. Short-circuit current calculation is necessary to determine the stress on both switching devices and protectionequipment in substations, and for choosing protective equipment for workers. This paper aims to m...
Autori: Constantin Beiu
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=26393

AbstractIn the developed countries, excessive exposure to noise represents at least half of the reasons for which workers lose hearing.Noise inducing hearing loss is among the most common causes of occupational illness. In this paper, the noise is considered themost expensive risk factor in terms of the occupational diseases costs. Noise maps are treated essentially as a tool for both urbanor industrial noise monitoring and control. The maps we analyzed enable the real-time monitoring of the cur...
Autori: Silviu Nicolae Platon
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=26392

AbstractEmployers notified about working places under special conditions are required to develop Preventive and Protective RevisedPlan, in order to ensure the improvement of workers safety and health protection, including specific measures and actions, so thatthose working places comply with the norms and operate under normal conditions by the late 31 December 2013.This paper considers some outcomes of the Nucleu Program PN 07450226 funded by Romanian National Authority for Research(ANCS) and de...
Autori: Marius Kovacs
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=26404

AbstractThis paper describes the model for forecasting the exposure risk of workers to global occupational vibrations. The research hasbeen achieved within the PN 07 45 01 18 Project in the framework of the NUCLEU/2012-2013 Program. This project has anational and European interest, entailing the increase of occupational health and safety level and ensuring sustainableenvironmental quality and comfort at workplaces.The scientific novelty is given by the complex and interdisciplinary aspect of the...
Autori: Gabriel Dragoş Vasilescu
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=26409

AbstractThe objective of this work was to analyse safety and health at work regarding the exposure of workers to styrene, and to establishthe basis for an exposure control system over the entire Republic of Slovenia. The main goals were to determine the number ofexposed workers, the levels of exposure at workplaces, and the effects to workers health. The measurements of the airbornestyrene concentrations and the biological monitoring of the exposed workers were performed. One thousand four hundr...
Autori: Lidija Korat
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=26415

AbstractThe paper concentrates on the risks of modern technologies (in wood processing and metal industry, spray-painting processes andcar washing technologies) in the industrial and office environments on human health. The problems discussed are the following:fine dust (PM2.5and PM1.0) penetrating deeply into the lungs; high concentration of carbon dioxide in the air of cities and officeareas that are situated close to the transport junctions. The health damages can be described as follows: all...
Autori: Ada Traumann
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=26501

Abstract The current industrial trend is toward the development of sustainable technologies, and environmentally-friendly chemicals that might be used to enhance the drilling activities. This is due to the fact that petroleum industry is regarded as one of the hazardous and risky industries. Unfortunately, the majority of the toxic materials that are used in the formulation of drilling mud are employed to improve the quality and functions of drilling fluid. Oil based muds (OBMs) from hydroca...
Autori: M. Enamul Hossain
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=26907

To explore the main sources and pathways of heavy metals entering fruits and the corresponding countermeasures, a field survey was conducted in Pujiang County, Zhejiang Province, China. The results showed that heavy metals in fruits came mainly from the use of foliar fertilizers, ripening agents, fungicides, pesticides, and other sprayed materials during the flowering and ripening stages. Therefore, a government program should be established to improve monitoring of agricultural products ente...
Autori: Bin Fang
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=26955

This study analyzed the determinants of eco-innovation in a sample of companies drawn from several sectors of economic activity in Spain and studied similarities and differences in their activity. The analysis used information obtained from the Technological Innovation Panel (PITEC) database created by the Spanish Institute of Statistics. The methodology used showed that although all the variables used in the model were significant for all sectors of activity, their effects were specific to e...
Autori: Alejandro García-Pozo
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27072

Although the main reason for the extraction of methane from coal beds continues to address ensuring the safety of workers, an important driver is the need to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. In order to identify potential technical problems specific for available technologies implementation, we performed a comparative critical analysis, based on which the technically feasible systems resulted, their further selection being based on detailed analysis in financial and investment terms. The re...
Autori: Lucian-Ionel Cioca
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27350

Areas within which could arise explosive atmospheres having high concentrations, therefore requiring special precautions so as to guard the health and safety of concerned employees, are considered to be dangerous. If the electrical equipment used in these hazardous locations is not properly selected and installed for operating in explosive atmospheres, they are likely to generate an ignition and to result in explosion type events with significant environmental and material damages and, moreover...
Autori: Vlad Mihai Păsculescu
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27360

Noise causes masking effect of the safety signals and alarms, covers the warning acoustic messages of danger and reduces attention and concentration capacity. To these may be added the degradation of communication between workers equipped with hearing protective equipment and it creates difficulties to locate the direction of danger signals. This article presents two researches regarding noise exposure level of the workers on a marine platform and a gas compressing station and establishes techn...
Autori: Silviu-Nicolae Platon
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27362

Discomfort caused by noise is ever-present, having numerous physiological, psychological and social implications. One of the most important discomfort factors for personnel working in the processes of surface coal extraction is represented by noise. This paper examines how noise generated by the process of lignite extraction influences the working capacity of employees. The covering effect of voice or different sound and verbal signals, during work, leads to tiring efforts of attention, thus de...
Autori: Sorin Simion
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27366

The paper is focused on a research project aiming to provide conditions for market competitiveness of producers and to guarantee the free movement of Romanian products on the EU. This is done by guaranteeing essential health and safety requirements applicable to work equipment in order to implement policies set out in the strategy EUROPE 2020. This strategy takes into account the priority of: favourable growth of inclusion-promoting an economy with a high rate of employment, ensuring social and ...
Autori: Anca Elena Antonov
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27371

In the process of underground coal mining a complex network of vertical, horizontal and inclined mine workings with the purpose of extraction, transportation and evacuation to the surface are utilized. The mining workings are also being utilized for ventilation network system, which is also used for ensuring the oxygen supply necessary for workers, as well for diluting explosive gases and/or toxic substances and, ultimately, for exhausting the heat resulted from underground workings. For air flo...
Autori: Marius Simion Morar
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27372

Hierarchical distance-based fuzzy multi-criteria group decision making (DBF–MCDM) was applied to evaluate the health-care waste (HCW) treatment alternatives for Qom hospitals. A list of aspects consisting of 6 criteria and 21 sub-criteria were evaluated based on a linguistic term set by five decision-makers. Also, four HCW treatment alternatives including “incineration”, “steam sterilization”, “chemical disinfection” and “controlled landfill”...
Autori: Ramin Nabizadeh
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27865

Occupational health and safety (OHS) is one of the most important problem of a company because each manager should consider the workers as the most valuable resource of the enterprise. This issue is all the more important as in the last decades, the types of OHS risks have changed due to technological, social and economic advances, and companies should use new approaches and instruments to control and manage these risks. The paper focuses on the application of OHS management system as an import...
Autori: Doru Costin Darabont
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27856

This study was planned to identify factors which affect workers health and their safe working in unregistered and partially registered small iron units preparing 90- 95 % iron furniture under sheds. Focused group discussions (FGD) were conducted among workers of iron furniture manufacturing units (IFMU) employing a cross sectional, descriptive, analytic and time limited study. Personal interviews methodology was adopted to assess workers for their exposure to occupational risks, protective eq...
Autori: Saima Aslam Bharwana
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27925

Databases on the exposure of workers to dangerous chemical agents are an important tool for assessing and managing chemical risk but also for recognizing occupational diseases caused by exposure to hazardous chemicals. Both the European Union (EU) authorities and European trade unions have recognized the need for some databases containing as much information as possible on the type and timing of exposure of workers to dangerous chemical agents. In Europe there are only a few databases for che...
Autori:
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27954

The objective of this research was to analyze the factors present in occupational accidents occurred at work among Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) workers. Garbage, and rubbish from household waste were considered as MSW. The study was based on a total of 11,935 accidents occurring and reported in the MSW sector during the period 2009-2012 in Andalusia (Spain), as well as a survey of 572 workers in the above mentioned sector conducted in 2009. All the variables included in the accident reports we...
Autori: Antonio López-Arquillos
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27993

This paper presents an interdisciplinary methodology for handling the exposure of workers to lead and its compounds in a systematic way by connecting different disciplines, and thus enabling the comprehensive supervision of the workplace exposure. The exposure of workers to lead and its compounds was studied in the Republic of Slovenia. The research comprised 1079 employers being exposed to the lead concentrations between 0.01 and 0.9 mg/m3, which exceeded the limit value by 9 times. Workers ...
Autori: Lidija Korat
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=28032

In mitigating occupational hazards, there is often a need to use administrative controls such as job rotation over a prolonged period until the hazards can be eliminated or mitigated to safe levels. This research develops a noise-safe job-rotation optimization model that accounts for learning, forgetting, and boredom effects. Our analysis focuses on the case of human-paced and labor-intensive operations, considering the trade-off between safety and productivity. A case of multi-skilled workers ...
Autori: Pavinee Rerkjirattikal
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=28256

Optimal evacuation routes are crucial to protect workers’ safety when accidental leakage of toxic gas occurs in chemical plants. However, the majority of route optimization focuses on the transport field and few on the evacuation routing optimization in chemical plants. This paper proposes a dynamic evacuation routing optimization method for chemical plants under toxic gas release scenarios. From the complete accident scenario set (CASS) built with wind fields and leakage sources, the leak...
Autori: Ying Liu
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=28336