About 1/4 fatal labor accidents in Japan have been due to falling. Therefore, it is extremely important to reduce fatal accidents caused by falling to success the number of labor fatal accidents to be decrease. At first, this paper arranged the statistics data to realize the relationship between the vicissitude of the policy on falling accident prevention and generation status of fatal falling accidents. In this review, the date on the U.S.A were also compared with the Japanese. Secondly, this paper introduces the fundamental safety method by using personal protective equipment such as harness in the EU region. Considering above facts, present and future subjects on this topics were investigated based on theoretical and experimental study.

Workers who engage in cleaning smoking rooms or in restaurants where smoking is admitted are exposed to passive tobacco smoking. Because work environment control is difficult in such workplaces, personal protective equipments, that is, dust and gas respirators may be available for preventing exposure to tobacco smoke. However, there is no data available to assess whether dust filters or cartridges of respirators are effective for environmental tobacco smoke or not. In this study, collection characteristics of tobacco smoke by filters and cartridges for air purifying respirators and newly developed amphipathic adsorbents were investigated. Greater than 98% of particulate matters in tobacco smoke could be removed by filters with RL2 and DS2, or higher protection. Cartridges for organic vapors could collect organic gases and vapors considerably. An amphipathic adsorbent consists of 70% of activated carbon and 30% of sepiolite and a cartridge for formaldehyde could collect aldehydes and acetone almost perfectly. Particulate removing filters with activated carbon fibers (ACF) could not remove volatile organic compounds with low boiling point but it could remove greater than 98% of benzo[a]pyrene and nicotine. However, odor could not be removed by such particulate removing filters, and only 50% or less of odor was removed by the cartridges for organic vapors. Gases and vapors could not be removed by the particulate removing filters, ACF could remove a part of gases and vapors.

During 2001-2013, several health and safety at work acts were established or changed. For example, risk assessment was added to Industrial Safety and Health Law as making an effort mandatory,“Guideline about a mechanical comprehensive safety standard”was newly established, and Labor regulations regarding safety and hygiene about press machine and machine for food processing have been established and/or revised. For clarification how industrial accidents have been changed, we analyzed and compared the lethal industrial accidents in these periods. Results were as follows; 1) Employees of industries were 13,820,000 in 1989 and 9,880,000 in 2014. The decrease rate in 2014 was 71.5% as compared to that in 1989. Likewise, the occurrence number of fatal industrial accident caused by a machine was also decreased. 2) The fatal industrial accidents caused by machine was decreased 37.2% during 1898-2014. The subtracted number of 1)- 2), 34.3% might be affected by technical safetyplan and human safety control plan. 3) Industrial accidents at hazardous point, in where technical safety measures are difficult during 2014-2018 were significantly increased in those during 1989-2002. Prevention measures of industrial accident in future should carry out eradicate of machines and hazardous works which are difficult to take technical safety such as works nearby hazardous points and/or at large production line design and manufacture stages. 4) A new occupational accident prevention strategy for work near dangerous points and work in a vast area were proposed in this paper. These results above are effective not only in preventing occupational accidents that are occurring frequently at present, but also as a proposal for a new occupational accident prevention strategy that can complement ISO12100.

The number of workers affected by heat stroke in the workplace is greatly affected by weather conditions. Additionally, the proportion of older workers, which has increased in recent years, can also affect the number of heat stroke incidents in the workplace. In order to provide data to support heat stroke prevention efforts in the workplace, we analyzed emergency transport data regarding heat stroke that occurred in seven government-ordinance-designated cities in Japan. We compared heat stroke that occurred at work and other places by sex, age, season of occurrence (season), time of occurrence, severity, and WBGT at the time of notification. The rate of heat stroke at work for persons in their 20s and 50s was 32.3% for men and 10.8% for women. Both men and women had the highest number in early August (male: 22.4%, female: 22.1%), followed by late July (male: 19.5%, female: 20.5%). There were two peaks in heat stroke incidents for men at noon and 15:00. In addition, the number of heat stroke incidents in an outdoor workplace was significantly greater than indoors under hot weather conditions. The rate of heat stroke incidents on a Saturday compared to weekdays was 74.1% for men and 84.2% for women. The number of mild heat stroke incidents at work was significantly larger than other places for both men and women. Heat stroke at work increased exponentially at a rate of 1.6 times for each increment rise of 1° C of WBGT. The number of heat stroke emergency transports was the same for persons in their 20s to the 50s, but increased for those older than sixty. For older workers, additional heat stroke measures may be required.

We investigated the associations between the attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine and the motivation to receive the COVID-19 vaccine among Japanese workers using an anonymous questionnaire. This study was conducted dur

ing the period of September through December 2020. The analyzed subjects were 2,061 workers. Regarding “motivation to get vaccinated against COVID-19,” the subjects selected responses from a 9-point scale from “definitely agree” to “definitely disagree.” A total of 67.2% (“definitely agree” to “somewhat agree”) workers had the motivation to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Factor analyses revealed four factors regarding their attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine: “protecting the lives and health of oneself and others,” “agreement to pay for the vaccine,” “leading a relaxed live,” and “perceived safety.” As a result of multiple regression analysis, “protecting the lives and health of oneself and others,” “agreement to pay for the vaccine,” and “perceived safety” were significantly associated with “motivation to get vaccinated against COVID-19.” Males were more motivated to receive the vaccine than females. By considering these three factors and gender differences, workers’ motivation to get vaccinated against COVID-19 will be improved.

In this study, we developed a real-time volatile organic compounds (VOC) gas monitor using an ion mobility spectrometer (IMS). It was designed for real-time monitoring in work environments, which is difficult to be performed by the gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The performance of the real- time monitoring device was evaluated by conducting experiments using toluene widely used in many factories. Toluene has a ceiling value of 300ppm set by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). We could determine the quantity of toluene with high accuracy in range of concentration from 40 ppm to 256 ppm. Also the results of the experiment found that toluene can be analyzed in about 50 s interval using this device. The coexisting substance of ethyl alcohol did not affect the qualitativeness and quantitativeness of identification capacity this device, which suggests that a coexisting substance with a lower proton affinity than toluene does not affect the measurement accuracy of toluene concentration. Therefore, we concluded that the device can be used for on-site monitoring toluene concentration in a work environment.

Long working hours are considered to be associated with increases in cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases such as stroke and coronary heart disease, and are also important factors for karoshi. To maintain the health of workers and reduce karoshi, it is necessary to clarify the cardiovascular burden caused by long working hours. In recent years, older workers are increasing and the number of claims for karoshi is also increasing in the 60s and above. Aging is a risk factor for many diseases, but the actual cardiovascular burden caused by long working hours in older workers is unclear. We have reported the results from 30s to 50s, and this article reports the reanalysis results including the 60s (under 65 years old). The experiments were conducted from 9:00 to 22:00, the cardiovascular responses were measured at baseline and all task sessions for 13 times. As results, systolic blood pressure were significantly higher in the 50s and 60s than in the 30s, stroke volume was lower in the 60s than in the 30s. In conclusion, older workers suffer more cardiovascular burden due to long working hours than younger workers and require special attention when long working hours are unavoidable.

There is an incentive in the market to design and develop electronic devices and components, especially safety controllers, which are resistant to malfunctioning when exposed to unexpected electromagnetic noises. This paper describes the experimental results of EMS (electromagnetic susceptibility) of an electrostatic controller that supplies electrical power to an electrostatic spray gun (equipment under test: EUT). The high voltage applied to the needle electrode of the spray gun was approximately -46 kV and was monitored during the entire testing. In this study, EMS tests were carried out in the 3 m method anechoic chamber. The values of electromagnetic noise (electric field strength, V/m) applied to the EUT were 2 to 4 times stronger than those mentioned in the IEC standard test (frequency range: 80 MHz to 1000 MHz, emission time; 2 s). As for the results, no malfunctioning was observed under the experimental conditions. To be precise, the applied voltage on the needle electrode was slightly dropped to -40 kV when applying 90 MHz and 170 MHz; however, such a drop cannot be representative of a malfunction. This implies that the EUT used in this experiment is made to withstand field strengths that exceed the IEC standard in terms of noise immunity.

To enable faster and more efficient rescue operation or transportation of goods in disaster relief missions, our research group has been developing a powered exoskeleton system for carrying heavy loads with quick and agile motion even on rough terrain. It is important to ensure the wearer’s safety when evaluating the exoskeleton’s performance on disaster relief missions. Therefore, in our research, we carried out safety design of the powered exoskeleton through risk communication across a diverse team of researchers, robot developers and operators and assessed risk in accordance with stationery risk assessment sheets used for designing safety care robots. Additionally, we conducted performance tests on indoor simulated rough terrain and outdoor simulated disaster environments, applying the standard performance test method (STM) to ensure reproducibility of tests and the wearer’s safety. Through this process, we aim to establish more effective and safe test and evaluation methods for using powered exoskeletons in disaster relief missions.

There have been reports of accidents due to human errors in the industrial sector that handles chemicals. Although risk assessment of chemicals has become mandatory by law, the perspective of human errors has not been reflected in the implementation of risk assessment. Furthermore, although several kinds of risk assessment methods that take human errors into account have been proposed at industrial sites, there is room for further study in terms of identification of human errors, validity of risk assessment methods, and methods of application to risk assessment in order to apply it to risk assessment for chemicals. Therefore, this study examines a method of incorporating the perspective of human errors into the risk assessment method for chemical process industries, which was proposed in 2016 by JNIOSH. This study also proposes the concept of human errors in risk assessment for chemicals and the procedure for evaluating human errors by dividing them into careless mistakes and intentional violations. The applicability of this tool to the work site needs to be studied empirically in the future.

Current analysis of electric shock fatal occupational accidents classified by industry, size of workplace (number of employees), and voltage and facility involved in the electric shock fatal occupational accidents based on the fatal occupational accident data base published by Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare through the web site was conducted. As a result, it was confirmed that the electric shock fatal occupational accidents occurred mostly in construction industry, the size of workplace employing less than 30 employees, low voltage, and transmission and distribution lines. This result is similar to the electric shock fatal occupational accidents occurred between 1992-1996. Risk assessment was also conducted on the electric shock occupational accidents. After applying risk assessment to those cases, it was confirmed that almost no preventive measure was employed in those cases and it is possible to decrease the risk level if additional preventive measures against those cases are employed.