Reducing seafarers’ workplace injuries is of great importance to shipping and ship management companies. A new study investigating the causes of these injuries found that injury reduction campaigns focused on personal protective equipment (PPE) would be most effective at reducing risks to workers.
The study, published in ‘Risk Analysis: An International Journal’, seeks to identify the important influencing factors and to build a quantitative model for the injury risk analysis aboard ships, so as to provide a decision support framework for effective injury prevention.
The study, “Quantitative risk assessment of seafarers’ nonfatal injuries due to occupational accidents based on Bayesian Network modeling,” was conducted by a team of researchers in Singapore.
The researchers collected 354 responses from seafarers in Singapore, China, South Korea and Vietnam, which account for the highest representation in international seafaring market.
Using the survey data, a BN model was developed consisting of nine major variables, including “PPE availability,” “Age,” and “sea experience” of the seafarers, which were identified to be the most influential risk factors.
The survey results indicated that 14% of seafarers suffered at least one injury during their latest tour of duty, while 4% reported not having received proper PPE training, yet the injury rate among those respondents was as much as 33% higher.
The ‘risk awareness’ factor could be improved through training and ‘accident feedback loop,’ but 18% of respondents reported that their company did not always share accident lessons with the crew.
Meanwhile, PPE availability was shown to have the greatest potential to decrease injury probability.
In this regard, the study suggested that management could focus on improving the supply and stock of proper, nondefective PPEs aboard their vessels.
For companies looking to implement a new safety campaign, periodic review of the need for PPE for each task and subsequent updates of the PPE type, size and quality could be introduced.
The risk awareness of employees could be improved by frequent sharing of common injuries, communicating risk assessment results and posting warning signs at the sites of potential hazards.
