What occupational risk factors significantly affect miners' health: Findings from meta-analysis and association rule mining.

INTRODUCTION: The workplace's health hazard remains a significant concern to workers in the mining industry, where miners are continually exposed to various kinds of exposure sources. METHOD: First, the determinants of miners' health were systematically extracted from 259 publications, comprising chemical, physical, ergonomic, and psychosocial stressors, vulnerability factors, and common health outcomes. Then, 16 meta-analyses were performed to ascertain the epidemiological evidence for associations between four stressors and three health outcomes. The seven top contributing factors affecting miners' health were identified through 166 available prospective studies. Finally, based on the classic and domestic measurement scales, a cross-sectional survey of 559 Chinese miners was conducted to determine the core psychosocial predictors. In addition to the traditional mechanisms, complex interactive networks among the antecedents and consequences and the reversed effects of consequences were also obtained, where 379 strong association rules were yielded via the Apriori algorithm. RESULTS: The results showed that occupational dust, NO2, heavy metals, heat, vibration, awkward posture, and job stress are significant risk factors associated with individuals' health conditions. Psychological capital, coping style, job demand, social support, organizational support, justice, and culture are core psychosocial predictors of miners. CONCLUSIONS: This study presents a case for identifying the most significant occupational risk factors related to individuals' health, which could be extended and applied to other industries, as working populations around the world are suffering from various chemical, physical, ergonomic, and psychosocial stressors. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Identifying the significant occupational risk factors affecting workers' health conditions is essential for comprehensive occupational health risk assessment and management. Therefore, this study could be important for health management in mines and other industries.

Identification of critical causes of construction accidents in China using a hybrid HFACS-CN model.

Construction safety is of significance since construction accidents can result in loss of property and large numbers of casualties. This research aims to identify the critical causes of construction accidents by introducing a hybrid approach. The hybrid approach is developed to identify the critical causes of construction accidents by combining the human factors analysis and classification system (HFACS) model with complex network (CN) theory. A total of 863 construction accident cases were collected, and 46 causal factors were identified. Subsequently, the accident causal network was established, and six critical causal factors were extracted. The hybrid analysis approach is demonstrated with a real construction accident case, and the results demonstrate that the hybrid approach could better identify the critical causal factors. Consequently, this research enables the enhancement of understanding the HFACS framework and CN theory, as well as a contribution to safety management in the construction industry at different levels.

Prioritizing decision-making of health and well-being response tactics: Incorporating organizational and individual shared demands.

As a major energy source in China, the occupational health and well-being (OHW) of miners is a priority. Various statistical techniques have been used to identify factors or assess OHW to provide valuable information for the implementation of health promotion activities. The main bottleneck is the limited focus on solutions that address the demands of both organizations and individuals, and scientific and effective decision-making is pending. Therefore, this study describes the OHW mechanism covering both antecedents and consequences through the driving force-pressure-state-impact-response model. A probabilistic model of management tradeoff analysis was established by using a Bayesian decision network. Causal relationships and dependencies between multiple factors are captured visually. The model was verified and applied with samples of miners (N = 816). The results showed that the comprehensive strategy (R5) was the best tactic, and the management effect of stress (R2) and vulnerability (R3) was prominent. This study provides a valuable tool for managers to identify priority management factors. Prioritizing tactics formulated from dual demands of organizational and individual can ensure project feasibility, operability, and effectiveness. This study is a novel attempt to combine theory with practice, which is timely and necessary for management.

Cumulative risk assessment for combinations of environmental and psychosocial stressors: A systematic review.

With the growing awareness of stressors, cumulative risk assessment (CRA) has been proposed as a potential method to evaluate possible additive and synergistic effects of multiple stressors on human health, thus informing environmental regulation and protecting public health. However, CRA is still in its exploratory stage due to the lack of generally accepted quantitative approaches. It is an ideal time to summarize the existing progress to guide future research. To this end, a systematic review of the literature on CRA issues dealing with combinations of environmental and psychosocial stressors was conducted in this study. Using typology and bibliometric analysis, the body of knowledge, hot topics, and research gaps in this field were characterized. It was found that research topics and objectives mainly focus on qualitative analysis and community settings; more attention should be paid to the development of quantitative approaches and the inclusion of occupational settings. Further, the roles of air pollution and vulnerability factors in CRA have attracted the most attention. This study concludes with views on future prospects to promote theoretical and practical development in this field; specifically, CRA is a multifaceted topic that requires substantial collaborations with various stakeholders and substantial knowledge from multidisciplinary fields. This study presents an overall review as well as research directions worth investigating in this field, which provides a historical reference for future study. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2024;20:602-615. © 2023 SETAC.

Exploring the determinants of health-promoting behaviors among miners: A text mining and meta-analysis.

The health-promoting behaviors of miners are of great significance to their physical and mental well-being. With a focus on enhancing their overall health, this study aimed to explore the determinants and influencing mechanisms of health-promoting behaviors in miners. Initially, the latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) model was utilized to extract topical keywords from literature over the last 23 years and to categorize the determinants based on integrating the health promotion model and the health belief model. Subsequently, a meta-analysis was performed based on 51 related empirical research to explore the mechanisms between determinants and health-promoting behaviors. The results indicated that (1) the factors influencing miners' health-promoting behaviors can be divided into four dimensions: physical environment, psychosocial environment, individual characteristics, and health beliefs. (2) Noise was negatively related to health-promoting behaviors, while protective equipment, health culture, interpersonal relationships, health literacy, health attitudes, and income were positively related to health-promoting behaviors. (3) Protective equipment and health literacy were positively related to perceived threat, whereas interpersonal relationships were positively related to perceived benefits. This study sheds light on the mechanisms influencing miners' health-promoting behaviors and could inform behavioral interventions in occupational health.

Capturing and quantifying the aggregate effects of multi-source factors affecting miners' health and well-being: Construction of Bayesian belief networks.

Factors originating at the organizational, work, and individual levels are closely interrelated and intricately intertwined, affecting health rates. There was limited research on the interdependence and aggregate effects between multi-source factors and occupational health and well-being (OHW). It is challenging to achieve management goals. Therefore, considering cross-level factors and across the "work environment-stress-exposure-OHW" chain, individual vulnerability was considered. A Fuzzy Bayesian Belief Network (FBBN) driven by both domain knowledge and data was constructed to carve out the logic between multi-source factors and OHW. Workers from four coal mines were surveyed twice in 6 months. 714 valid samples were included in the analysis. The interdependencies among multi-source factors were identified by the Interpretive Structure Modeling method and the visual probability estimation was achieved based on FBBN. It revealed that the work and the organizational level were the root factors. Eight factors involved in work stress were mainly mediating, and actual exposure and individual vulnerability were direct factors. Pathway interventions and joint interventions were proposed. The prediction ability and scheme feasibility of FBBN were verified. The approach developed allows robust assessments of aggregate effects and obtains multi-source factor importance. This study provides vital insights and evaluation tools for understanding workplace stress and OHW management.

Risk coupling analysis under accident scenario evolution: A methodological construct and application.

Dynamic processes in various fields exhibit risk coupling phenomena, but existing risk analysis studies tend to ignore the risk coupling effects of dynamic scenarios. Considering the principles of digitization, objective quantification, and the full process that should be adopted in the risk coupling analysis, an integrated risk coupling analysis framework is proposed. Specifically, the weighted Eclat algorithm is used to mine the risk association rules, then the key risk factors are extracted by social network analysis, and the stochastic Petri net is used to complete the construction, simulation, and evolution of accident scenarios. This universal framework can analyze the risk phenomena of accident scenario evolution in a process-oriented manner and decouple risks based on key risk factors and disconnect the chain of the accident scenario evolution process. Finally, the proposed framework is applied to the coupled analysis of fire risk in Chinese urban communities to verify its feasibility and scientific validity.

Measuring the Health Related Quality of Life and Economic Burden of Illness Among Migrant Workers With Pneumoconiosis.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study is to evaluate the living status of migrant workers with pneumoconiosis (MWP) in China with regard to health-related quality of life (QOL) and economic burden of illness. METHODS: An on-site investigation of 685 respondents in 7 provinces is conducted. Quality of life scores are derived using the self-made scale, and human capital method and disability-adjusted life year are applied to value the economic loss. Multiple linear regression and K-means clustering analysis are performed for further investigation. RESULTS: Respondents have an overall lower QOL of 64.85 ± 7.04 and significant average loss of Ò°344.5 thousand per capita, where age and provincial heterogeneity generally exist. Pneumoconiosis stage and assistance condition are 2 significant predictors affecting MWP's living conditions. CONCLUSIONS: The evaluation of QOL and economic loss would contribute to the formulation of targeted countermeasures for MWP to enhance their well-being.

Establishing an index for monitoring occupational health and well-being of coal mines: Consideration of individual characteristics.

It is crucial to enhance employee occupational health and well-being (OHW) for the well-run and prosperity of the industry, but there is very limited knowledge on the assessment of miners' well-being that differs from person to person. Within this study, a new more direct method, as well as an instrument was constructed to measure the OHW through data analysis based on a representative sample of coal miners (N = 1037). Initially, the causal pathway of job stress and health consequences was characterized by the driving force-pressure-state-impact-response (DPSIR) model. The OHW index was represented by hazards, vulnerability, and severity through the data envelopment analysis and stochastic frontier approach method. The result was that the severity of the consequences of inadequate organizational response was the dominant factor. 75% of employees with poor OHW work in mining, and digging areas, including various drivers and support workers. This study provides an innovative and complete description of the interaction mechanisms among job stress, job burnout, and health outcomes. It demonstrates that a three-level assessment method, namely hazards-vulnerability-severity, can effectively identify hierarchical management points. We provide metrics, objective data, and evidence-based recommendations on stress and health management for miners.

Revealing the practical strategies for promoting Chinese migrant workers' health and well-being: Organizational empowerment perspective.

The health and well-being of migrant workers struggling to make ends meet are being compromised, especially with the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim is to analyze how organizational empowerment promotes health and well-being from an applied psychological perspective, taking into account the shaping role of individual vulnerability. Links between theory and practice will be established to achieve equitable health and well-being. The underlying mechanism by which organizational empowerment mitigated workplace-induced adverse outcomes was validated in the analysis of construction workers (n = 966). In addition, individual characteristics, namely, excitability, low perceptual threshold, control, and knowledge, attitude, and practice, were identified as critical factors, as well-being consequences vary from person to person. Moderating effect analysis showed that high excitability enhanced the association between work environment exposure and health and well-being. Control and knowledge, attitude, and practice have opposite effects. Moreover, the dual effects of the low perception threshold are verified, that is, facing the work environment produces more negative consequences, whereas perceiving more resources stimulates more positive consequences. Overall, the research provides a clearer dialectical view of vulnerability, contributing wisdom toward accurate management based on empowerment theory, which lays a solid foundation for bridging gaps in health and well-being.

Representation, mining and analysis of unsafe behaviour based on pan-scene data.

To describe the safety rules of various industrial process data and explore the characteristics of unsafe behaviour, the association rules of unsafe behaviour based on pan-scene were proposed in this study. First, based on the scene data theory, unsafe behaviour was described by eight dimensions (time, location, behavioural individual, unsafe action, behavioural attribute, behavioural trace, professional category and risk level) to achieve scene data description and structural transformation. Second, the Apriori algorithm was used to explore the distribution rules of unsafe behaviour dimensions and the interaction between different dimensions from two perspectives: single-dimensional statistical analysis and multidimensional association rule mining. Finally, through SPSS Modeler software, an empirical analysis of pan-scene data for subway construction was conducted, and the association rules between type of work, construction stage, working time and unsafe action were identified. Some strong association rules were produced by the association analysis. For example, during the 13:00-17:00 of the excavation floor stage, the most frequent unsafe action of machine operators is the irregular binding of lifting objects. This result could explain why some unsafe actions are prone to occur in different construction stages and working times for workers of different types, which can be controlled and managed in a targeted manner, thus reducing the possibility of accidents.

Proportions distribution of pneumoconiosis stages in China: a study based on a meta-analysis and field investigation.

Occupational pneumoconiosis is the most serious work-related disease in China. In this paper, pneumoconiosis stages distribution was obtained to study the stages severity of occupational pneumoconiosis patients in China. A meta-analysis was conducted among screening the published literature on the pneumoconiosis epidemiology in China by Stata 15.0. Moreover, a field survey was conducted on 510 migrant workers suffering from pneumoconiosis in four provinces of China, and the results were analyzed by simple linear analysis and ordinal logistic regression analysis. The stage I, II and III pneumoconiosis accounted for 0.71, 0.21, 0.08, respectively, by the results of meta-analysis. The publication bias of these articles is not obvious based on the Egger's test and funnel plots. There was no significant linear correlation between the distribution of pneumoconiosis stages and the economic status and medical conditions in this study. Migrant workers pneumoconiosis stage I, II and III accounted for 0.14, 0.2, 0.66 respectively, which was significantly correlated with length of work and provinces. In China, migrant workers lack effective occupational health protection so that they have higher occupational health risks than urban workers. Therefore, occupational health protection for migrant workers in the occupational health management system needs to be strengthened.

Development of occupational health culture scale: A study based on miners and construction workers.

Culture is an essential influence on effectiveness of workplace health promotion, which can promote occupational health protection behavior. The aim of this research was to develop and validate an occupational health culture scale available to Chinese workers. Occupational health culture scale (OHCS) was developed based on elements of health culture and safety culture in workplace. Nine techniques steps of scale development were used, including a 15-member expert group, 10 workers for cognitive interview, and 1,119 questionnaires (from 710 miners and 409 construction workers) for formal investigation. Welch's variance analysis, independent samples t-test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Spearman correlation analysis was employed, respectively, to verified nine hypotheses about impact relationship on OHCS score. After the analysis reliability and validity, the final scale consisted of 21 items in five domains: leadership support, co-workers support, values, policy and norms, employee involvement, physical environment. Moreover, respirable dust concentration from individual sampler had the largest negative correlation coefficient on OHCS score, -0.469 (p < 0.01). The development of an occupational health culture among Chinese workers is necessary for the sustainability of human resources and the implementation of corporate responsibility.

Risk assessment of unsafe behavior in university laboratories using the HFACS-UL and a fuzzy Bayesian network.

INTRODUCTION: Risk assessment for unsafe behavior is an important task in the management of university laboratories. Yet related research activities are still in the early stages. This paper attempts to deepen the insight and provide a basis for further research. METHOD: As traditional methods are inadequate in terms of quantitative assessment and uncertainty handling, this paper proposes a method to assess the risk of unsafe behavior in university laboratories using the human factor analysis and classification system for university laboratories (HFACS-UL)-fuzzy Bayesian network (BN) approach. A BN structure was established using the HFACS-UL model for the identification of factors influencing unsafe behavior. Using a fuzzy BN approach, parameters are learned based on prior knowledge and expert experience. The model is then applied for inference analysis to identify the main risk factors. The key agents were also analyzed along with meta-networks to determine further preventive and control measures. RESULTS: Taking chemistry laboratories of a university as an example, the results show that the probability of unacceptable unsafe behavior in chemical laboratories is 86%, indicating that commitment and cooperation from different agents are required. Of the 24 risk factors, poor organizational climate, with a sensitivity value of 24.1%, has the greatest impact on unsafe behavior. The most fundamental factor contributing to the occurrence of unsafe behavior is inadequate legislation, which in turn results in unacceptable external factors and inadequate supervision, thus forming the most likely causal chain. The functional department, lab center director, and secondary faculty leadership team are the most critical agents. CONCLUSIONS: Results from the chemistry laboratories demonstrate the credibility of the model. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: This study may help provide technical support for risk management in university laboratories.

Health impacts of air pollution in Chinese coal-based clean energy industry: LCA-based and WTP-oriented modeling.

The evolution of energy system occupies an important position in economic development and quality of life. Influenced by the energy endowment in China, developing the coal-based clean energy industry has been regarded as a guaranteed path to realizing the clean and efficient use of coal resources. However, an evaluation paradigm that could systematically assess the health impacts of airborne pollution in this industry is still lacking, which is our concern. Combining with life cycle analysis, probabilistic risk models, and health impact models, this study proposes a series of models which are consistent enough to unite pollutant concentration, health risk, and health impact, and equip assessment results with more intuitive significance of life and economic loss. Further, case studies for three typical clean coal technologies, namely, coal mining, coal-fired power generation, and coal liquefaction, are presented to verify the reliability of these models. Results show that the most severe health impact occurred at the worksite of driving face, the substage of coal combustion, and coal mining and processing, respectively, for the three technologies. Further, coal dust brought about the greatest pollution to coal mining and coal liquefaction, and for coal-fired power generation, SO2, NO2, and PM10 were the commonest and toughest pollutants. In conclusion, the proposed evaluation paradigm can help to find out the worksite, substage, and airborne pollutant with the most severe impact and is more intuitive to provide references for minimizing or eliminating environmental pollution. Additionally, three aspects of implications are confirmed in this study, namely, social mobilization promoting, government policy making, and environmental pollution prejudging.

Modeling health impacts of air pollutant emissions from the coal-fired power industry based on LCA and oriented by WTP: a case study.

Coal-fired power plants are one of the major sources of coal consumption in China; they discharge various air pollutants and cause serious human health damage. There is an urgent need to focus on the associated health effects. Thus, this study aims to advance an integrated life cycle assessment (LCA)-based health damage model to quantify the health burden of air pollutant emissions from coal-fired power generation (CFPG) and to achieve an economic interpretation of health damage. A case study of the Zaozhuang coal-fired power project was conducted to better visualize and mitigate the impacts. The results reveal that willingness to pay (WTP) for health damage caused by the CFPG project in 1 year amounted to USD 15.71 million, and the total amount of life lost was 155.81 years. During the CFPG process, coal combustion caused the most health damage, respiratory disease was the type of damage with the greatest influence on health, and SO2 was the air pollutant that causes the most serious health damage. The model developed in this study can be broadly applied to assess the potential life loss due to air pollutant emissions from CFPG systems. The identified key points for health damage prevention can also be used as practical solutions for decision-making regarding the prioritization of control sources for environmental management.

An experimental approach for exploring the impacts of work stress on unsafe behaviors.

Previous studies have indicated that work stress has a significant impact on unsafe behaviors. This study explored the impacts of work stress on unsafe behaviors quantitatively using experimental methodology by developing a representative operation task to simulate the actual work in coal mines. The participants' work stress and unsafe behaviors were measured by the salivary cortisol concentrations and error rates, respectively. The results indicated that the experimental scenarios could effectively induce work stress, and there was a critical point from where unsafe behaviors were considerably minimized. When the stress level was below the critical point, there was a linear relationship between unsafe behaviors and the stress level. When the stress level was above the critical point, there was a quadratic relationship between them. The stress level below and above the critical point indicated challenge stress and hindrance stress, respectively. The results illustrated the feasibility of the experimental design, providing new ideas to eliminate unsafe behaviors induced by work stress among miners.

Health damage to housewives by contaminants emitted from coal combustion in the Chinese countryside: focusing on day-to-day cooking.

PURPOSE: The study aimed to estimate the health damage and find out the main exposure pathways of housewives posed by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heavy metals (HMs) from coal combustion in rural areas of China. METHODS: We obtained the concentrations of 16 PAHs and 8 HMs from published literatures and the Monte Carlo simulation was used to process and analysis the data. Sensitivity analysis was also applied to clear parameter uncertainty and the health damage of housewives was quantitatively evaluated by loss of life expectancy. RESULTS: Housewives' carcinogenic risks from PAHs exposure were in descending order of inhalation > ingestion > dermal contact, while exposed to HMs were ingestion > dermal contact > inhalation. The carcinogenic risks from PAHs primarily originated from benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), dibenz[ah]anthracene (DahA) and benzo[b]fluorathene (BbF). For HMs, arsenic posed the highest carcinogenic risk to housewives, with a contribution of 92.98%. In addition, the life expectancy loss of housewives exposed to PAHs was 469.04 min from inhalation and 51.82 min for HMs from ingestion. CONCLUSION: Through a comprehensive assessment of the health risks in housewives exposed to emissions from coal combustion, we can gain insight into the hazards from PAHs and HMs in housewives, and take measures to reduce their exposure risks.

Exploring the Relationships between Safety Compliance, Safety Participation and Safety Outcomes: Considering the Moderating Role of Job Burnout.

Safety compliance (SC) and safety participation (SP), which are key factors predicting safety outcomes (e.g., accidents, injuries and near misses), are related but distinct. However, which component is more significant remains controversial. Job burnout is a typical occupational psychological syndrome of employees that impacts safety outcomes, but the role that it plays in the relationship between SC, SP and safety outcomes is ambiguous. To clarify these relationships, Chinese coal mine workers were sampled. Then, hypotheses on the influencing mechanisms were initially proposed and later tested empirically. To conduct this testing, SC and SP scales were revised, and a job burnout scale was developed. The results showed that there were significant relationships between workers' SC and SP and safety outcomes; meanwhile, exhaustion, cynicism and low professional efficacy had significant effects on these relationships. Job burnout acted as a significant and indispensable moderator. Moreover, workers' occupational psychological health condition should be considered when improving safety outcomes.

Effectiveness of road dust suppressants: insights from particulate matter-related health damage.

Although dust suppressants are widely applied to control road dust pollution, a consensus on their effectiveness has not been reached. To evaluate the effectiveness of dust suppressants (a calcium-magnesium complex) from health risks and health damage, spraying and sampling activities were conducted at four sites in Beijing. Using inhalation risk model and health damage assessment, health risks of PMx for three sensitive occupational groups were calculated and converted to life and economic loss. Results revealed that dust suppressants can indeed mitigate PM pollution and its accompanying health risks and health damage in road dust, but at a limited efficiency. By spraying dust suppressants, the total PM-related life loss reduced by 1.60E-02 years and 2.50E-04 years in urban and suburban areas on average, and the total willingness to pay (WTP) values decreased by 120 and 50 US$ for PM2.5 and PM10, indicating a more considerable environmental gain if dust suppressants were sprayed in additional regions when necessary. Overall, our study demonstrated that the effectiveness of dust suppressants cannot be pictured only by the variations of pollutant concentrations, and indicators with practice and economic value should be more useful for traffic-related pollution management.