Evaluation of the effectiveness of a safety intervention: a case study in a gas industry

• Autor(a) principal: Monteiro, Raquel Armada da Silva
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.22/15527
• topic: LPG industry; Occupational accidents; Risk perception; Safety behaviour; Acidentes ocupacionais; Clima de segurança; Comportamento de segurança; Indústria GPL

The oil and gas sector are one of the high-risk sectors. However, it is not only associated with catastrophic accidents but also leads to occupational accidents and injuries that are equally important. Studies on occupational accidents in this sector is limited. In order to reduce occupational acidentes in a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) industry, a safety intervention was designed and the effect on some variables were evaluated. In a first stage the translation and validation of the Portuguese language the English version of the 11-item Brief Norwegian Safety Climate Inventory (Brief NORSCI) was introduced and after tested the validity and reliability in a Portuguese LPG plant. The Brief NORSCI was translated into Portuguese using a forward-backward translation design. The Portuguese version was then applied to 80 workers. After analysing the intraclass correlation coeficiente (0.70), Cronbach’s Alpha ( α=0.80), and the exploratory factorial analysis, it was concluded that the Portuguese version of Brief NORSCI is a valid and reliable instrument for assess safety climate. In a second stage intervention was designed, and their effectiveness assessed. The safety intervention involved 78 workers from one LPG plant were the intervention was applied (experimental group) and 56 workers from another LPG plant were the intervention was not applied (control group). The intervention included diferente learning methods, such as psychoeducational sessions, group discussions, case studies, and accidents scenarios vídeos. To evaluate the effectiveness of the safety intervention, a questionnaire wich diferente dimensions was applied, namely, safety behaviour, adequacy of safety procedures/rules, risk acceptance and risk perception and safety climate. The questionnaire was completed prior, immediately after and wo months after the safety intervention. In general, the principal findgings showed a positive effect of the safety intervention on the vaiables under study. Significant diferences were also observed between the variables and correlations between variables were also observed. The results of the safety intervention showed that by designing a safety intervention adapted to the reality of the LPG industry, i tis possible to improve safety outcomes. Future research should extend the safety intervention period to understand if there was a decrease in occupational acidentes.