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Open Access
Article
Publication date: 9 November 2015

Mark Piney, Diane Llewellyn, Rachel O'Hara, John Saunders, John Cocker, Kate Jones and David Fishwick

Exposure to isocyanates was the leading cause of occupational asthma in the UK. Motor vehicle repair (MVR) bodyshop paint sprayers were at greatest risk, despite widespread use of…

2472

Abstract

Purpose

Exposure to isocyanates was the leading cause of occupational asthma in the UK. Motor vehicle repair (MVR) bodyshop paint sprayers were at greatest risk, despite widespread use of air-fed breathing apparatus and ventilated booths. Most paint sprayers work in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The purpose of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) project, described in this paper, is to improve exposure control measures in at least 20 per cent of MVR bodyshops, and reduce the risk of occupational asthma. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

A three-stranded plan consisted of: Safety and Health Awareness Days (SHADs); workplace inspections; and third-party stakeholder communications. The impact of various parts of the project were evaluated.

Findings

Approximately 18 per cent of bodyshops in the UK attended one of 32 SHADs, following which over 90 per cent of delegates expressed an “intention to act” to improve exposure control measures. A local assessment showed that at least 50 per cent of bodyshops improved exposure control measures. An evaluation of 109 inspections found that enforcement action was taken at 40 per cent of visits. Third-party engagement produced a joint HSE-industry designed poster, new agreed guidance on spray booths and dissemination of SHAD material. Knowledge of booth clearance time has become widespread, and 85 per cent of booths now have pressure gauges. Biological monitoring data show that, post-SHAD, exposures were lower.

Originality/value

A sustained national project using clear, relevant, tested messages delivered via different routes, had a sector-wide impact in bodyshops. It is probable that the project has improved isocyanate exposure control in at least 20 per cent of bodyshops. The generic lessons could be applied to other widespread SME businesses.

Article
Publication date: 4 March 2014

Cath Jackson, Kiara Lewis, Mark Conner, Rebecca Lawton and Rosemary R.C. McEachan

The workplace offers an ideal setting for facilitating physical activity and reducing sedentary behaviours. Understanding employees’ current health behaviours is required to…

Abstract

Purpose

The workplace offers an ideal setting for facilitating physical activity and reducing sedentary behaviours. Understanding employees’ current health behaviours is required to inform appropriate, tailored, health promotion interventions. The purpose of this paper is to compare the physical activity and sedentary behaviours over 12 months of employees within and across five UK organisations. The paper also explores the association of these health behaviours with objective and self-reported health outcomes; and investigates the association between physical activity and sedentary behaviours.

Design/methodology/approach

Self-reported physical activity and sedentary behaviours were recorded at four time points (baseline, three, six, 12 months). BMI, per cent body fat, waist circumference, blood pressure and resting heart rate were collected in health checks (baseline, 12 months). Well-being and health were collected via questionnaire.

Findings

Low physical activity and high sedentariness were evident. Sitting levels varied by occupational role and organisation. More activity was associated with improved health outcomes; no association was evident for sedentary behaviour. No direct effects of occupational role or organisation on health outcomes emerged after accounting for physical activity/sedentary behaviours. Physical activity and sedentary levels were weakly associated.

Practical implications

The low activity levels are of particular concern as linked to health outcomes for this sample. The weak association between behaviours suggests worksite interventions should target both behaviours.

Originality/value

This study provides insight into both the physical activity and sedentary behaviours of employees of large UK employers across different occupational sectors over 12 months; importantly it is informed by the most recent guidance for these health behaviours.

Details

International Journal of Workplace Health Management, vol. 7 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8351

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 March 2017

Elizabeth Shaw, Anushtayini Sivananthan, David Phillip Wood, James Partington, Alison Pearl Reavy and Helen Jane Fishwick

The purpose of this paper is to improve the quality of care of patients presenting with challenging behaviour.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to improve the quality of care of patients presenting with challenging behaviour.

Design/methodology/approach

Current guidelines are described, and adherence to the standards is audited, with a particular emphasis on physical restraint.

Findings

The results of the clinical audit revealed that in the substantial majority of episodes of challenging behaviour, non-physical techniques were used prior to the need to intervene with physical restraint; however, when physical restraint was used, there was limited use of staff debriefs to facilitate reflection- and work-based learning. A potential diagnostic link to the likelihood of use of prone position restraint was also a finding. The results of a quality improvement project undertaken in response to the findings of the clinical audit demonstrated significant and sustained improvements in adherence to most standards.

Practical implications

Continuous improvements to the safety of both patients and staff when managing acute challenging behaviour requires ongoing quality improvement interventions underpinned by the application of human factors principles.

Originality/value

The completion of this audit cycle suggests that it is useful to measure specific points of care processes, however, continuous improvement interventions are indicated to lead to sustained improvement – in this paper this is demonstrated by the safer management of challenging behaviour.

Details

International Journal of Health Governance, vol. 22 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2059-4631

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1983

In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of…

16417

Abstract

In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 21 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 January 2019

Erika A. Parn, David Edwards, Zainab Riaz, Fahad Mehmood and Joseph Lai

This paper aims to report upon the further development of a hybrid application programming interface (API) plug-in to building information modelling (BIM) entitled confined spaces…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to report upon the further development of a hybrid application programming interface (API) plug-in to building information modelling (BIM) entitled confined spaces safety monitoring system “CoSMoS”. Originally designed to engineer-out environmental hazards associated with working in a building’s confined spaces (during the construction phase of a building’s life-cycle), this second generation version is expanded upon to use archival records to proactively learn from data generated within a sensor network during the building’s operations and maintenance (O&M) phase of asset management (AM).

Design/methodology/approach

An applied research methodological approach adopted used a two-phase process. In phase one, a conceptual model was created to provide a “blueprint map” to integrate BIM, sensor-based networks and data analytics (DA) into one integral system. A literature review provided the basis for the conceptual model’s further development. In phase two, the conceptual model was transposed into the prototype’s development environment as a proof of concept using primary data accrued from a large educational building.

Findings

An amalgamation of BIM, historical sensor data accrued and the application of DA demonstrate that CoSMoS provides an opportunity for the facilities management (FM) team to monitor pertinent environmental conditions and human behaviour within buildings that may impact upon occupant/worker safety. Although working in confined spaces is used to demonstrate the inherent potential of CoSMoS, the system could readily be expanded to analyse sensor-based network’s historical data of other areas of building performance, maintenance and safety.

Originality/value

This novel prototype has automated safety applications for FM during the asset lifecycle and maintenance phase of a building’s O&M phase of AM. Future work is proposed in several key areas, namely, develop instantaneous indicators of current safety performance within a building; and develop lead indicators of future safety performance of buildings.

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 17 October 2017

Abstract

Details

Reflections on Sociology of Sport
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-643-3

Article
Publication date: 1 June 1934

In the last number certain general statements were made concerning the history, nature and production of lager beer as distinguished from the top fermentation ale which is the…

Abstract

In the last number certain general statements were made concerning the history, nature and production of lager beer as distinguished from the top fermentation ale which is the chief brew of this country. It may be useful to refer to the trade in Germany and some other countries. In Germany the export of beer is, as might be anticipated, considerable. The German export figures refer to (i) beer which has been exported in vessels of 15 litre capacity and over and (ii) beer exported in vessels of a smaller capacity. In the latter category we may include bottled beer though it is not specifically referred to as such. It is also safe to assume that all the beer exported is of lager type. There has been a steady decline in exports of both kinds of beer (i) and (ii). Thus in 1931 the exports of the first kind of beer which is obviously barrelled beer amounted to 189 thousand hectolitres in round figures or over four million gallons. The corresponding figures for 1932 and 1933 being three million and two‐and‐a‐half million gallons. The market for this beer is almost entirely the European market—Belgium, Holland and Switzerland are the chief buyers followed by France and Great Britain. Belgium, Holland and Switzerland take between them from 55 to 60 per cent. of this beer at the present time. The markets of Egypt, Palestine and Tunis about three per cent., British India and the Dutch East Indies a still smaller proportion. The beer that is exported in containers having a smaller capacity than 15 litres shows a heavy and continuous fall from about 8½ million gallons in 1930 to about 2½ million gallons in 1932. With regard to the chief markets for this kind of beer the African and Asiatic markets are by far the most important. The former include the Belgian Congo, British West Africa and Egypt in order of importance. They still retain their relative importance, but the falling off has been very great during the last three or four years. Thus in 1931 the imports into Egypt were about 315 thousand gallons. In 1932, 132 thousand, in 1933, 52 thousand. The corresponding figures for the Belgian Congo are in round figures 790 thousand, 423 thousand and 332 thousand. For British West Africa 649 thousand, 292 thousand and 190 thousand. The figures for these three markets form about 25 per cent. of the total exports. Nor are the figures for the Asiatic markets more encouraging. We need only consider the figures for the two chief markets, the Dutch East Indies and British India. The exports to the Dutch possessions in 1931 amounted to 1,540 thousand gallons, in 1932 they were 799 thousand, and in 1933, 439 thousand gallons. The corresponding figures for British India were 656 thousand, 486 thousand, and 357 thousand gallons. During these three years the Dutch East Indies and British India have between them absorbed 35 per cent. of the total exports.—It may also be remarked that the declared value of the beer exported in 15 litres vessels and those of more than 15 litres capacity appears to be somewhat less than half that of the beer exported in the smaller containers. This might have been expected, but the decline in the exports of the more costly item, which is much greater in proportion than is the case with the cheaper kind, makes the matter more serious for the German export trade. The chief reasons for this would seem to be the adverse rate of exchange and in the Far Eastern markets the competition of Japan. Much of the beer intended for the markets in tropical or semi‐tropical lands is specially brewed for the purpose. This naturally adds to the prime cost and we understand that some at least of the great German brewing firms have actually been working at a loss in their efforts to retain the Eastern markets that up to recent times have taken a large proportion of the German bottled “lager” exports. It may be of significance in this connection that the imports of this kind of beer into Japan would seem to have ceased. The trade in cask “lager,” a cheaper beer—inasmuch as it does not require the special preparation demanded by the other—sent for the most part to nearby markets has not suffered so severely. The brewing of lager beer would seem to have been started in Japan in about the year 1870 by an American named Copeland. The industry once started made fairly rapid progress and at the present time the value of the output is about 8 million pounds sterling. The average for the years 1927 to 1930 inclusive being about 8½ million pounds. This is only about one‐fifth of the value of all alcoholic liquors manufactured in Japan. The chief liquor is sake and this accounts for 70 per cent. of the total, the third item being distilled spirits. A considerable proportion of the beer, about 48 per cent., is exported from “Japan proper” to the Far Eastern markets, namely China, Kwantung, Hong Kong, Siam, the Straits Settlements and the Dutch Indies. Of these markets Kwantung and China in the order named are the most important, Kwantung taking 820 thousand gallons in 1932, and China about 670 thousand gallons. Hong Kong takes about 64 thousand gallons. The market is extending. During the war a favourable opportunity occurred to send this beer to British India. The amount sent to British India declined after the war, but a market for Japanese lager would appear to have been established and to be steadily increasing in importance. In 1932 rather over 400 thousand gallons were sent to British India. It is hardly to be expected that Japanese enterprise has ended with the establishing of Indian and Far Eastern markets for their beer. As everyone knows they are very able salesmen. Their methods of manufacture are efficient; and they have an admirable and subsidised merchant marine. We have not the least wish to be in any way “alarmists,” but we desire to point out both to British, German and Dutch brewers the serious import of the figures we have quoted. Germany, the original centre of the lager beer industry, Holland, which has, with Germany, gained a reputation second to none for the excellence of their “lager,” our own brewers of “lager” in this country are all equally menaced by the rapid growth of the industry in Japan and its steady and persistent entry into markets which have long been exclusively and satisfactorily served by the brewers of these three countries. How this threat of the possible decline of the old established markets in Asia and in Africa is to be met is, in detail at least, a matter for the English and European firms, who are affected, to decide. We should however, like to point out that while it may be that no one with a knowledge of the facts of the case would question the excellence of the English and European lager beers the “man in the street”—that is to say the ordinary consumer—has no authentic knowledge to rely upon, and he is the ultimate court of appeal. Price counts with him a great deal and he accepts what he is told as to quality. If he finds that a lager beer is not up to his expectations the fact will damage the whole trade “from China to Peru.” If on the other hand he is supplied with unquestionable and authoritative evidence that the lager beer he drinks is all that it should be and claims to be then the case is put on an altogether different footing. The present would seem to be a not altogether unfavourable time to endeavour to develop the English and European trade by methods of sound scientific salesmanship which must necessarily embrace something stronger, as evidence of quality, than the mere asseverations of the producer. The return of the world to more normal economic conditions can only be a matter of time and in spite of the somewhat gloomy trade prospects at present prevailing the beginning of better times should see producers ready and prepared to take full advantage of them.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 36 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1973

The pattern of prosecutions forfood offences has changed very little in the past decade. Compositional offences have rarely exceeded 5 per cent and, since the 1967 batch of…

Abstract

The pattern of prosecutions forfood offences has changed very little in the past decade. Compositional offences have rarely exceeded 5 per cent and, since the 1967 batch of regulations for meat products, are mostly in respect of deficient meat content. Food hygiene offences have also remained steady, with no improvement to show for all the effort to change the monotony of repulsive detail. The two major causes of all legal proceedings, constituting about 90 per cent of all cases—the presence of foreign matter and sale of mouldy food—continue unchanged; and at about the same levels, viz. an average of 55 per cent of the total for foreign matter and 35 per cent for mouldy food. What is highly significant about this changed concept of food and drugs administration is that almost all prosecutions now arise from consumer complaint. The number for adulteration as revealed by official sampling and analysis and from direct inspectorial action is small in relation to the whole. A few mouldy food offences are included in prosecutions for infringements of the food hygiene regulations, but for most of the years for which statistics have been gathered by the BFJ and published annually, all prosecutions for the presence of foreign matter have come from consumer complaint. The extent to which food law administration is dependent upon this source is shown by the fact that 97 per cent of all prosecutions in 1971 for foreign bodies and mouldy food—579 and 340 respectively—resulted from complaints; and in 1972, 98 per cent of prosecutions resulted from the same source in respect of 597 for foreign matter and 341 for mouldy food. Dirty milk bottle cases in both years all arose from consumer complaint; 41 and 37 respectively.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 75 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 June 1979

After great Wars, the years that follow are always times of disquiet and uncertainty; the country is shabby and exhausted, but beneath it, there is hope, expectancy, nay…

174

Abstract

After great Wars, the years that follow are always times of disquiet and uncertainty; the country is shabby and exhausted, but beneath it, there is hope, expectancy, nay! certainty, that better times are coming. Perhaps the golden promise of the fifties and sixties failed to mature, but we entered the seventies with most people confident that the country would turn the corner; it did but unfortunately not the right one! Not inappropriate they have been dubbed the “striking seventies”. The process was not one of recovery but of slow, relentless deterioration. One way of knowing how your country is going is to visit others. At first, prices were cheaper that at home; the £ went farther and was readily acceptabble, but year by year, it seemed that prices were rising, but it was in truth the £ falling in value; no longer so easily changed. Most thinking Continentals had only a sneer for “decadent England”. Kinsmen from overseas wanted to think well of us but simply could not understand what was happening.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 81 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Book part
Publication date: 28 March 2023

Zhang Jiale and Farzana Quoquab

The adverse effect of plastic pollution on the tourism industry is one of the emerging research areas in the field of sustainable tourism over the past years. However, there is a…

Abstract

The adverse effect of plastic pollution on the tourism industry is one of the emerging research areas in the field of sustainable tourism over the past years. However, there is a lack of discussion on this issue in the academic platforms. Considering this, in this chapter, a scientometric analysis of 110 academic publications from the Web of Science (WoS) between 1999 and 2021 related to plastic pollution and tourism is presented. A bibliometric analysis using CiteSpace was utilised to analyse the data to present the keyword timezone, collaboration network and co-citation network. The analysis shows that the publications in this field have increased rapidly, and it has become an emerging and interdisciplinary research topic. Scholars from Australia, Spain, Brazil and China have published most on the topic. The Chinese Academy of Science with four articles is the largest contributor in this field among other institutions. Moreover, citizen science is found to be a new keyword coming up in recent years, and human health is one of the major concerns. The findings from this study provide valuable insights for the academicians and policy makers in understanding the issue.

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