Validation of mobile phone use recall in the multinational MOBI-kids study.

Potential differential and non-differential recall error in mobile phone use (MPU) in the multinational MOBI-Kids case-control study were evaluated. We compared self-reported MPU with network operator billing record data up to 3 months, 1 year, and 2 years before the interview date from 702 subjects aged between 10 and 24 years in eight countries. Spearman rank correlations, Kappa coefficients and geometric mean ratios (GMRs) were used. No material differences in MPU recall estimates between cases and controls were observed. The Spearman rank correlation coefficients between self-reported and recorded MPU in the most recent 3 months were 0.57 and 0.59 for call number and for call duration, respectively. The number of calls was on average underestimated by the participants (GMR = 0.69), while the duration of calls was overestimated (GMR = 1.59). Country, years since start of using a mobile phone, age at time of interview, and sex did not appear to influence recall accuracy for either call number or call duration. A trend in recall error was seen with level of self-reported MPU, with underestimation of use at lower levels and overestimation of use at higher levels for both number and duration of calls. Although both systematic and random errors in self-reported MPU among participants were observed, there was no evidence of differential recall error between cases and controls. Nonetheless, these sources of exposure measurement error warrant consideration in interpretation of the MOBI-Kids case-control study results on the association between children's use of mobile phones and potential brain cancer risk.

Wearable Sensing Devices: Towards the Development of a Personalized System for Construction Safety and Health Risk Mitigation.

Wearable sensing devices (WSDs) are increasingly helping workers stay safe and healthy in several industries. However, workers, especially in the construction industry, have shown some aversion towards the use of WSDs due to their ability to capture specific information that may be considered personal and private. However, this revered information may provide some critical insight needed by management to plan and optimize worksite safety and support technology adoption in decision making. Therefore, there is a need to develop personalized WSD systems that are mutually beneficial to workers and management to ensure successful WSD integration. The present study aims to contribute to knowledge and practice by filling this critical gap using insight from 330 construction workers with experience using WSDs. The results from this study indicate that all 11 WSD functions identified through this study play a vital role in improving worker safety and health and that approximately two out of three workers are open to sharing the physiological and environmental information captured using these WSDs with their management. However, functions for detecting workers' proximity to workplace hazards, specifically energized electrical materials, toxic gas, and fire/smoke, were the most critical functions that had mutual value to workers and management. Finally, the present study proposed and evaluated a phased personalized WSD system that should encourage successful WSD integration.

Incorporating Worker Awareness in the Generation of Hazard Proximity Warnings.

Proximity warning systems for construction sites do not consider whether workers are already aware of the hazard prior to issuing warnings. This can generate redundant and distracting alarms that interfere with worker ability to adopt timely and appropriate avoidance measures; and cause alarm fatigue, which instigates workers to habitually disable the system or ignore the alarms; thereby increasing the risk of injury. Thus, this paper integrates the field-of-view of workers as a proxy for hazard awareness to develop an improved hazard proximity warning system for construction sites. The research first developed a rule-based model for the warning generation, which was followed by a virtual experiment to evaluate the integration of worker field-of-view in alarm generation. Based on these findings, an improved hazard proximity warning system incorporating worker field-of-view was developed for field applications that utilizes wearable inertial measurement units and localization sensors. The system's effectiveness is illustrated through several case studies. This research provides a fresh perspective to the growing adoption of wearable sensors by incorporating the awareness of workers into the generation of hazard alarms. The proposed system is anticipated to reduce unnecessary and distracting alarms which can potentially lead to superior safety performance in construction.

Nonparticipation Selection Bias in the MOBI-Kids Study.

BACKGROUND: MOBI-Kids is a 14-country case-control study designed to investigate the potential effects of electromagnetic field exposure from mobile telecommunications devices on brain tumor risk in children and young adults conducted from 2010 to 2016. This work describes differences in cellular telephone use and personal characteristics among interviewed participants and refusers responding to a brief nonrespondent questionnaire. It also assesses the potential impact of nonparticipation selection bias on study findings. METHODS: We compared nonrespondent questionnaires completed by 77 cases and 498 control refusers with responses from 683 interviewed cases and 1501 controls (suspected appendicitis patients) in six countries (France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, and Spain). We derived selection bias factors and estimated inverse probability of selection weights for use in analysis of MOBI-Kids data. RESULTS: The prevalence of ever-regular use was somewhat higher among interviewed participants than nonrespondent questionnaire respondents 10-14 years of age (68% vs. 62% controls, 63% vs. 48% cases); in those 20-24 years, the prevalence was ≥97%. Interviewed controls and cases in the 15- to 19- and 20- to 24-year-old age groups were more likely to have a time since start of use of 5+ years. Selection bias factors generally indicated a small underestimation in cellular telephone odds ratios (ORs) ranging from 0.96 to 0.97 for ever-regular use and 0.92 to 0.94 for time since start of use (5+ years), but varied in alternative hypothetical scenarios considered. CONCLUSIONS: Although limited by small numbers of nonrespondent questionnaire respondents, findings generally indicated a small underestimation in cellular telephone ORs due to selective nonparticipation.

Early Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the United States Construction Industry.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been the largest global health crisis in decades. Apart from the unprecedented number of deaths and hospitalizations, the pandemic has resulted in economic slowdowns, widespread business disruptions, and significant hardships. This study focused on investigating the early impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the U.S. construction industry since the declaration of the national emergency on 13 March 2020. The study objectives were achieved through 34 telephone interviews with project managers, engineers, designers, and superintendents that represented different states and distinct industry sectors in the United States (U.S.). The interviewees offered information on their experience with the pandemic, including the general and adverse effects experienced, new opportunities created, and risk management efforts being undertaken. The reported adverse effects included significant delays on projects, inability to secure materials on time, reduction in productivity rates, material price escalations, and others. The new opportunities that were created included projects involving the fast-track construction of medical facilities, construction of residential buildings, transportation-related work, and opportunities to recruit skilled workers. The risk management measures that were widely adopted included measures to enhance safety and reduce other project risks. The safety measures adopted included requiring employees to wear cloth face masks, adoption of social distancing protocols, staggering of construction operations, offering COVID-19-related training, administering temperature checks prior to entry into the workplace, and others. Measures to manage other project risks included the formation of a task force team to review the evolving pandemic and offer recommendations, advocating that construction businesses be deemed essential to combat delays and taking advantage of government relief programs. The study findings will be useful to industry stakeholders interested in understanding the early impacts of the pandemic on the construction industry. Industry stakeholders may also build upon the reported findings and establish best practices for continued safe and productive operations.

Does the potential safety risk affect whether particular construction hazards are recognized or not?

INTRODUCTION: Evidence from the global construction industry suggests that an unacceptable number of safety hazards remain unrecognized in construction workplaces. Unfortunately, there isn't a sufficient understanding of why particular safety hazards remain unrecognized. Such an understanding is important to address the issue of poor hazard recognition and develop remedial interventions. A recent exploratory effort provided anecdotal evidence that workers often fail to recognize safety hazards that are expected to impose relatively lower levels of safety risk. In other words, the research demonstrated that the underlying risk imposed by a safety hazard can affect whether a hazard will be recognized or not. METHOD: The presented research focused on empirically testing this preliminary finding. More specifically, the study tested the proposition that Construction workers are more likely to recognize safety hazards that impose higher levels of safety risk than those that impose relatively lower levels of safety risk. The research goals were accomplished through a number of steps. First, a set of 16 construction case images depicting a variety of construction operations that included a number of known safety hazards was presented to a panel of four construction safety experts. The experts were tasked with examining each of the known safety hazards and providing a rating of the relative safety risk that the individual hazards impose. Having obtained an estimate of the underlying safety risk, a hazard recognition activity was administered to 287 workers recruited from 57 construction workplaces in the United States. The hazard recognition activity involved the examination of a random sample of two construction case images that were previously examined by the expert panel and reporting relevant safety hazards. RESULTS: The results of the study provided support for the proposition that workers are more likely to recognize hazards that impose relatively higher levels of safety risk. Practical Applications: The findings of the study can be leveraged to improve existing hazard recognition methods and develop more robust interventions to address the issue of poor hazard recognition levels.

Hazard Recognition Patterns Demonstrated by Construction Workers.

Construction workers fail to recognize a large number of safety hazards. These unrecognized safety hazards can lead to unintended hazard exposure and tragic safety incidents. Unfortunately, traditional hazard recognition interventions (e.g., job hazard analyses and safety training) have been unable to tackle the industry-wide problem of poor hazard recognition levels. In fact, emerging evidence has demonstrated that traditional hazard recognition interventions have been designed without a proper understanding of the challenges workers experience during hazard recognition efforts. Interventions and industry-wide efforts designed based on a more thorough understanding of these challenges can yield substantial benefits-including superior hazard recognition levels and lower injury rates. Towards achieving this goal, the current investigation focused on identifying hazard categories that workers are more proficient in recognizing and others that they are less proficient in recognizing (i.e., hazard recognition patterns). For the purpose of the current study, hazards were classified on the basis of the energy source per Haddon's energy release theory (e.g., gravity, motion, electrical, chemical, etc.). As part of the study, 287 workers representing 57 construction workplaces in the United States were engaged in a hazard recognition activity. Apart from confirming previous research findings that workers fail to recognize a disproportionate number of safety hazards, the results demonstrate that the workers are more proficient in recognizing certain hazard types. More specifically, the workers on average recognized roughly 47% of the safety hazards in the gravity, electrical, motion, and temperature hazard categories while only recognizing less than 10% of the hazards in the pressure, chemical, and radiation hazard categories. These findings can inform the development of more robust interventions and industry-wide initiatives to tackle the issue of poor hazard recognition levels in the construction industry.

Managing active cultural differences in U.S. construction workplaces: Perspectives from non-Hispanic workers.

INTRODUCTION: Current census reports indicate a growing shift toward workforce diversity in the U.S. construction industry, which is largely the result of increasing participation from the Hispanic community. The data also suggest that the Hispanic workforce suffers a higher rate of fatal injuries compared to their non-Hispanic counterparts. Therefore, there is a dire need to develop and utilize new management tools and strategies to accommodate the differences in language and culture of this incoming labor force. METHOD: The absence of these tools and strategies poses several challenges including cost overrun, schedule delay, and more importantly, higher workplace injury rates. This study aims to provide a better understanding of the contribution of cultural diversity as a factor that may influence the overall site safety. RESULTS: As a result, this study provides further evidence that indicate that the current findings regarding the influence of active cultural differences are reliable, valid, and needs attention. Furthermore, the study provides sub-analysis results of cultural values among Hispanic workers, which suggest that workers from Mexico are less likely to speak up on safety issues when compared to other Hispanic workers. Therefore, this study has both practical and theoretical implications for managing workforce diversity and related safety performance in the U.S. construction industry. The results of the study can be used by employers and managers to adopt responsive strategies and tools to reduce the likelihood of fatal and nonfatal injuries among Hispanic workers.

Fostering Safety Communication among Construction Workers: Role of Safety Climate and Crew-Level Cohesion.

Safety communication among construction workers is fundamental to effective safety management. However, evidence suggests that poor safety communication is a common problem in construction workplaces. In fact, previous research has unveiled a number of systemic barriers to effective safety communication in the construction industry. When workers do not sufficiently communicate relevant safety hazards and appropriate injury prevention measures, unexpected injuries can follow. Therefore, research examining factors that promote or impede effective safety communication is necessary. Towards achieving this goal, the purpose of the current research was to evaluate the effect of safety climate and crew cohesion on the demonstrated safety communication levels. The goal was achieved by gathering empirical data from 57 construction workplaces in the United States. More specifically, the participating construction workplaces were visited, and data pertaining to the safety climate and crew-level cohesion were first collected using questionnaire surveys. Next, a safety communication survey instrument was administered, and the data necessary to compute network density-a social network metric that is indicative of safety communication levels was gathered. The analysis of the data suggested that a positive relationship exists between safety climate and safety communication levels. Likewise, construction crews that demonstrated higher levels of cohesion exhibited superior safety communication levels. Finally, evidence also suggested that a synergetic effect exists between safety climate and crew cohesion in improving safety communication levels.