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An Analysis of Reported Dangerous Incidents, Exposures, and Near Misses amongst Army Soldiers

Occupational health and safety incidents occurring in the military context are of great concern to personnel and commanders. Incidents such as “dangerous incidents”, “exposures”, and “near misses” (as distinct from injuries, illnesses, and fatalities) indicate serious health and safety risks faced b...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Schram, Ben, Orr, Robin, Rigby, Timothy, Pope, Rodney
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6121289/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30060595
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15081605
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author Schram, Ben
Orr, Robin
Rigby, Timothy
Pope, Rodney
author_facet Schram, Ben
Orr, Robin
Rigby, Timothy
Pope, Rodney
author_sort Schram, Ben
collection PubMed
description Occupational health and safety incidents occurring in the military context are of great concern to personnel and commanders. Incidents such as “dangerous incidents”, “exposures”, and “near misses” (as distinct from injuries, illnesses, and fatalities) indicate serious health and safety risks faced by military personnel, even if they do not cause immediate harm. These risks may give rise to harm in the future, if not adequately addressed, and in some cases the incidents may cause latent harm. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the rates and patterns of incidents of these types reported by full time (ARA) and part time (ARES) Australian Army personnel. A retrospective cohort study was performed using self-reported incident data from the Workplace Health, Safety, Compensation and Reporting (WHSCAR) database over a two-year period. Data were analysed descriptively. Of 3791 such incidents, 3636 (96 percent) occurred in ARA and 155 (4 percent) in ARES personnel, somewhat consistent with the proportions of total army person-years served in each (ARA 93 percent; ARES 7 percent). In ARA, 84 percent of these incident types were exposures, 14 percent near misses, and 2 percent dangerous incidents. In ARES, 55 percent of incidents were exposures, 38 percent near misses, and 7 percent dangerous incidents. Soldiers at the rank of ‘private’ experienced the highest rates of these incident types, in both ARA and ARES. Driving gave rise to more near misses than any other activity, in both populations. Exposures to chemicals and sounds were more common in the ARA than ARES. The ARES reported higher proportions of vehicle near misses and multiple mechanism dangerous incidents than the ARA. The findings of this study can usefully inform development of risk mitigation strategies for dangerous incidents, exposures, and near misses in army personnel.
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spelling pubmed-61212892018-09-07 An Analysis of Reported Dangerous Incidents, Exposures, and Near Misses amongst Army Soldiers Schram, Ben Orr, Robin Rigby, Timothy Pope, Rodney Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Occupational health and safety incidents occurring in the military context are of great concern to personnel and commanders. Incidents such as “dangerous incidents”, “exposures”, and “near misses” (as distinct from injuries, illnesses, and fatalities) indicate serious health and safety risks faced by military personnel, even if they do not cause immediate harm. These risks may give rise to harm in the future, if not adequately addressed, and in some cases the incidents may cause latent harm. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the rates and patterns of incidents of these types reported by full time (ARA) and part time (ARES) Australian Army personnel. A retrospective cohort study was performed using self-reported incident data from the Workplace Health, Safety, Compensation and Reporting (WHSCAR) database over a two-year period. Data were analysed descriptively. Of 3791 such incidents, 3636 (96 percent) occurred in ARA and 155 (4 percent) in ARES personnel, somewhat consistent with the proportions of total army person-years served in each (ARA 93 percent; ARES 7 percent). In ARA, 84 percent of these incident types were exposures, 14 percent near misses, and 2 percent dangerous incidents. In ARES, 55 percent of incidents were exposures, 38 percent near misses, and 7 percent dangerous incidents. Soldiers at the rank of ‘private’ experienced the highest rates of these incident types, in both ARA and ARES. Driving gave rise to more near misses than any other activity, in both populations. Exposures to chemicals and sounds were more common in the ARA than ARES. The ARES reported higher proportions of vehicle near misses and multiple mechanism dangerous incidents than the ARA. The findings of this study can usefully inform development of risk mitigation strategies for dangerous incidents, exposures, and near misses in army personnel. MDPI 2018-07-28 2018-08 /pmc/articles/PMC6121289/ /pubmed/30060595 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15081605 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Schram, Ben
Orr, Robin
Rigby, Timothy
Pope, Rodney
An Analysis of Reported Dangerous Incidents, Exposures, and Near Misses amongst Army Soldiers
title An Analysis of Reported Dangerous Incidents, Exposures, and Near Misses amongst Army Soldiers
title_full An Analysis of Reported Dangerous Incidents, Exposures, and Near Misses amongst Army Soldiers
title_fullStr An Analysis of Reported Dangerous Incidents, Exposures, and Near Misses amongst Army Soldiers
title_full_unstemmed An Analysis of Reported Dangerous Incidents, Exposures, and Near Misses amongst Army Soldiers
title_short An Analysis of Reported Dangerous Incidents, Exposures, and Near Misses amongst Army Soldiers
title_sort analysis of reported dangerous incidents, exposures, and near misses amongst army soldiers
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6121289/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30060595
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15081605
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