M. El‐Fadel, M. Zein, I. Nuwayhid, D. Jamali and S. Sadek
Urban tropospheric ozone (O3) concentrations can reach 40 folds its background level due to traffic‐induced emissions and extensive industrial activities. As such, O3 has become a…
Abstract
Urban tropospheric ozone (O3) concentrations can reach 40 folds its background level due to traffic‐induced emissions and extensive industrial activities. As such, O3 has become a pervasive air pollution problem in urban areas despite major efforts to control its precursors. In this paper, O3 formation mechanisms are briefly described, countrywide emissions with emphasis on O3 precursors are summarized, and field measurements of O3 background levels and its precursors in an urban area are presented. Simulation results using a photochemical air quality model including a sensitivity analysis with respect to design ratios and mixing heights are then presented. Mitigation alternatives and policies to control O3 formation are examined in the context of country‐specific characteristics.
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Miriam Kuttikat, Anita Vaillancourt and Michael Massey
The civil war prompted many Tamils to flee Sri Lanka as refugees. Several researchers have documented psychological distress and trauma among Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, but the…
Abstract
Purpose
The civil war prompted many Tamils to flee Sri Lanka as refugees. Several researchers have documented psychological distress and trauma among Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, but the literature lacks sufficient discussion of resilience among this population. Although Sri Lankan Tamil refugees have experienced conflict and loss, they have also demonstrated positive adaptation following these challenges. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The present study used an ecological approach, in which the effect of the environment on a person is regarded as significant, to explore resilience among Sri Lankan Tamils living in refugee camps in India.
Findings
Through a qualitative investigation of refugee experiences of war and camp life, the authors developed a conceptual framework for understanding individual and collective resilience among refugees.
Research limitations/implications
Additionally, the results of this study need to be interpreted with caution because participants were camp refugees, which may limit the applicability of these results with refugees who live in different settings.
Practical implications
The current research results show that intervention programs should have multiple components, including trauma intervention to address the individual and community psychological and psychiatric effects of war and migration experiences and psychosocial interventions to address individual, family, community dynamics and daily stressors.
Social implications
The study participants stated that Sri Lankan Tamil refugees are using their resilience traits including will power, positive talk, practical solutions, social support, religion and social networks to remake their broken souls.
Originality/value
Future studies need to be conducted with other refugee group to validate the findings of the paper.
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Michael J. Burke and Sloane M. Signal
While research on workplace safety spans across disciplines in medicine, public health, engineering, psychology, and business, research to date has not adopted a multilevel…
Abstract
While research on workplace safety spans across disciplines in medicine, public health, engineering, psychology, and business, research to date has not adopted a multilevel theoretical perspective that integrates theoretical issues and findings from various disciplines. In this chapter, we integrate research on workplace safety from a variety of disciplines and fields to develop a multilevel model of the processes that affect individual safety performance and safety and health outcomes. In doing so, we focus on cross-level linkages among national, organizational, and individual-level variables in relation to the exhibition of safe work behavior and occurrence of individual-level accidents, injuries, illnesses, and diseases. Our modeling of workplace safety is intended to fill a theoretical gap in our understanding of how the multitude of individual differences and situational factors interrelate across time to influence individual level safety behaviors and the consequences of these actions, and to encourage research to expand the limits of our knowledge.
Nicolas de Guzman Chorny, Amy Raub, Alison Earle and Jody Heymann
Nearly every country has committed to protect children from work that could be harmful or interfere with their education by ratifying the International Labour Organization Minimum…
Abstract
Purpose
Nearly every country has committed to protect children from work that could be harmful or interfere with their education by ratifying the International Labour Organization Minimum Age Convention (C138). Yet there is little transparency and accountability around whether countries have followed through on these commitments by passing legislation to protect children from work. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper reports on analyses conducted of child labor legislation from all 193 United Nations member states to determine whether countries that have committed to ending child labor have taken the first step by passing legislation to protect children and youth from: work that is likely to be hazardous, work that is likely to interfere with their education and work that is harmful to their healthy development.
Findings
Findings show one in five ratifiers legally allow children to do hazardous work, and a similar number permit admission to employment at a young age. Moreover, legislative loopholes significantly undermine the protections that do exist in many countries.
Originality/value
Existing reporting mechanisms sometimes obscure whether central legal protections are in place, make cross-country comparisons difficult and impede the analysis of possible relationships between policies and outcomes across countries. This paper illustrates a novel approach to provide transparency and accountability on whether countries are meeting child labor commitments by using quantitative, globally comparable policy indicators.
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Padma Tripathi, Pushpendra Priyadarshi, Pankaj Kumar and Sushil Kumar
The purpose of this paper is to study the role of psychosocial safety climate (PSC) on job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion among employees and to examine the mediating role…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study the role of psychosocial safety climate (PSC) on job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion among employees and to examine the mediating role of effort–reward imbalance (ERI) in this relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
This study investigated a mediation model with ERI explaining the relationship between PSC and the outcome variables using a sample of 441 employees of information technology (IT) organizations in India. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques with LISREL (linear structural relations) 8.72 software.
Findings
The results suggest that PSC significantly influences the employees' experiences of job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion. Also, ERI was demonstrated as a significant intervening construct with full mediation of the PSC–emotional exhaustion relationship and partial mediation of the PSC–job satisfaction relationship.
Research limitations/implications
The study provides substantial results and arguments to encourage organizational-level commitment for psychosocial risk management through distributive fairness and reciprocity in the form of ERI to foster positive attitudes and prevent negative health and psychological outcomes. The cross-sectional nature of the study limits generalizability but contributes to the literature on work stress in a developing country's context.
Originality/value
The study demonstrates how employee outcomes like job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion often result from their perceptions of inequity and imbalance at the workplace. Further, the study builds a strong case for helping organizations contribute to the United Nations (UN) 2030 sustainability goals by empirically establishing the crucial role of top management's commitment and prioritization of employee psychosocial health and safety for designing primary stress-management initiatives for sustainable psychosocial risk prevention and management.
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Lead emissions from vehicles using leaded gasoline is a serious environmental problem in urban areas. While leaded gasoline has been completely phased out in many developed…
Abstract
Lead emissions from vehicles using leaded gasoline is a serious environmental problem in urban areas. While leaded gasoline has been completely phased out in many developed countries, it is still the predominant fuel grade in most developing countries. This paper presents an estimation of the health and economic benefits and costs of the transition from leaded to unleaded gasoline in Lebanon based on relevant dose‐response functions and available country‐specific data. Comparing the potential costs of the phase‐out and the predicted benefits, it was concluded that such action is economically highly justified.
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Shashwati Banerjee and Kishor Goswami
Securing a job in an industry is a boon for most of the slum dwellers. When the primary earner of a slum household suffers from occupational illness and injuries, without…
Abstract
Purpose
Securing a job in an industry is a boon for most of the slum dwellers. When the primary earner of a slum household suffers from occupational illness and injuries, without insurance coverage or partial coverage of insurance, this boon may become a curse in the long run. The occupational security and safety along with the fact that whether such workers are insured is an important aspect and has a close link with the expenditure on illness. Thus, the accessibility to employees’ insurance in the risky industrial occupation, particularly for slum dwellers, is crucial to protect them from falling into poverty. Studies on occupational health of the poor workers are either limited to informal sectors or remain industry specific and the analysis of their accessibility to job insurance is rarely done. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The research questions are framed to analyze the types of insurance accessible to workers across various industries; the accessibility to insurance, however, varying across risk intensities of various industries; and the determinants of insurance accessibility of the industrial workers living in slums. The determinants of accessibility of job insurance are analyzed with a binary Logit model. A multi-stage random sampling technique is used to collect the primary data from 320 industrial workers living in the slums of the Indian state of West Bengal.
Findings
The industrial workers, irrespective of the types of industries, are exposed to a high-risk category without proper job insurance. The higher industrial income is not adequate to prevent financial hardships. Access to insurance is more likely for the respondents with job tenure of more than two years and less likely for the workers who are working for more than eight hours per day.
Social implications
This study provides a significant insight to the policymakers concerning health dynamics of the slum dwellers, which can improve their livelihood.
Originality/value
The analysis of the industry-specific risk intensities with accessibility to insurance contributes to understanding the coverage of the insurance scheme for the workers in slums.
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Elizabeth Dodge, Fatmah Almoayad, Miral Mansour, Amrita Sidhu, Anusha Sajja, Nada Benajiba and Basil H. Aboul-Enein
Burdened by undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and overweight and obesity as a consequence of both internal conflict and the global nutrition transition, Iraq is in need…
Abstract
Purpose
Burdened by undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and overweight and obesity as a consequence of both internal conflict and the global nutrition transition, Iraq is in need of adequate public health nutrition education to mitigate nutrition-related outcomes and risks. To address nutrition-related health outcomes, trained nutrition professionals are warranted. This paper examines current nutrition-affiliated programs offered across post-secondary institutions in Iraq.
Design/methodology/approach
An electronic review of universities and colleges’ websites, department webpages and academic programs’ homepages and resources of all the private and public universities in Iraq was conducted to find programs related to nutrition, nutrition sciences and dietetics.
Findings
All identified programs belonged to the governmental sector, were administered and financed by the Iraqi Government and were under the purview of the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education. The review highlighted a predominant focus on food sciences in agricultural departments rather than public health or clinical nutrition. Advanced education in topics such as human metabolism, medical nutrition therapy and public health nutrition are required to adequately address over- and undernutrition in Iraq.
Originality/value
The current state of public health and nutrition-related postsecondary education in Iraq warrants an increased emphasis on clinical and public health nutrition education. Despite a commendable focus on food science studies, the country’s ongoing challenges with obesity, nutrition-related noncommunicable diseases and conflict-associated food insecurity signal an urgent need for balancing this focus with grounding in postsecondary training in public health nutrition.