Objective: To promote the physical and mental health of employees in a maritime setting and provide knowledge and tools to assist seafarers in managing daily challenges.
Materials and methods: The intervention drew on a goal-based approach, including workshops, coaching,health checks, interviews, and questionnaires.
Results: A process evaluation was used to explore intervention challenges and barriers. Results show that an intervention at sea is complex and needs flexibility. Findings varied, and the main challenges were low participation in one group and lack of continuity due to Covid-19. Data showed a significant positive shift in how the crew rated perceived stress and a statistically significant increase in intake of salad, fish, and vegetarian food.
Conclusions: Workplace interventions in poor health status settings are complex, necessary, and possible, and management’s participation is crucial. Increased awareness was achieved. Learning outcomes: The results showed some positive changes, such as lower stress levels and more intake of salad, fish, and vegetarian food. Flexibility is important for workplace interventions. Work place interventions contribute to health and wellbeing with appropriate management support.
This is an informational document that communicates the account of SDU participants of the MISSION project on how to prove whether the system being developed by the consortium improves the safety of ships in the port areas.
The methods suggested in this document are based on an overview of the state-of-practice guidelines and state-of-the-art methods in safety risk analysis. They are compliant with the Guidelines for Formal Safety Assessment (FSA) and The Ship Inspection Report Programme (SIRE).
Other accounts on the same issues may exist that are either complementary or preferred over the methods described in this paper. This document is intended to make discussions constructive by possibly benchmarking other views with those described here and by working out a clear methodology and guidelines for conducting a safety risk analysis of the system being developed; and for informing decisions on the system’s acceptability or improvements needed to achieve the acceptability.
Until now, wave-energy developers have focused on designing large machines for utility-scale electricity generation. While many concepts with good capture performance have been devised, significant commercial success has yet to be achieved in this market. Smaller wave energy converters (WECs) for specialist uses have received less attention. Emerging applications for these machines include powering sensors for ocean monitoring and providing energy for recharging maritime autonomous vehicles. Small reliable floating WECs can provide both the low levels of power required for these applications, and a surface platform for satellite
communications. Here, the key idea is to reduce costs and increase human safety by deploying small WECs to perform tasks that would otherwise require a ship. Developing small WECs for specialist uses provides a fast route to market, thereby creating a viable financial and technical base for the development of larger devices for applications where more power is required. This paper reports early results of time- and frequency-domain simulations of a compact WEC designed for monitoring the ocean environment.
OBJECTIVES: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death globally and the second most frequent cause of death in Denmark. Due to their unique occupational environment, seafarers are exposed to numerous risk factors for CVD including lifestyle and work-related factors. This study aims to investigate CVD mortality among Danish seafarers by comparing them to the economically active reference population.
METHODS: This register-based cohort study included data on all Danish seafarers from 1993 to 2016 and compared them with the economically active Danish population not working as seafarers. The seafarers' mortality was calculated using piecewise stratified Cox regression adjusting for potential confounders. Mortality was further analyzed by diagnosis groups, vessel type and employment duration.
RESULTS: Among 52 861 seafarers, 4226 deaths were observed, with 866 (20.5%) of these attributed to CVD. Male seafarers had higher all-cause mortality in age groups 18-44 years (HR 1.46, 95% CI 1.33 to 1.62), 45-64 years (HR 1.43, 95% CI 1.37 to 1.50) and 65+ years (HR 1.32, 95% CI 1.26 to 1.39) compared with the reference population. CVD mortality was increased for male seafarers aged 45-64 years (HR 1.27, 95% CI 1.13 to 1.42) and 65+ years (HR 1.34, 95% CI 1.21 to 1.48). The mortality was higher for male seafarers for ischemic heart diseases, other forms of heart diseases, cerebrovascular diseases and diseases of arteries, arterioles and capillaries. CVD mortality was also observed based on vessel type.
CONCLUSIONS: The study provides evidence of elevated CVD mortality among Danish seafarers. Future research should focus on identifying effective strategies to improve the cardiovascular health of seafarers.
Background: Medical evacuations (MEDEVACs) from offshore installations are both costly and disruptive. Enhancing worker well-being may help reduce evacuations due to illness or injury, thereby maintaining the smooth operation of offshore activities and lowering financial burdens.
Objectives: This scoping review aims to identify whether illness or injury is the predominant cause of MEDEVACs from offshore oil and gas installations and to determine the most common types of illnesses or injuries involved. Additionally, the review outlines a future research agenda focusing on offshore worker health and well-being.
Materials and methods: A comprehensive structured search was conducted across the Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science databases, as well as through reference lists and grey
literature. Studies were included if they addressed MEDEVACs from offshore oil and gas installations. Eleven articles met the inclusion criteria.
Results: Articles indicate that non-occupational illnesses are more frequent causes of MEDEVACs than injuries. Among these, chest pain, cardiovascular issues, and dental problems were disproportionately represented. Contractor personnel were more likely to require evacuation than company employees. Additionally, younger workers were more likely to be evacuated due to injuries. Chronic health conditions were more common reasons for MEDEVACs among older workers. The review highlights the significant role of non-communicable diseases in contributing to MEDEVACs, as opposed to occupational exposures.
Conclusions: Investing in preventive health management, targeted research, and workforce education may substantially reduce the prevalence of non-communicable diseases in the offshore environment, lowering MEDEVAC rates, associated costs, and operational disruptions. Further investigation into the underlying causes of ill health among offshore workers is needed to enhance overall workforce well-being.
The report focuses on analysing on-deck accidents in offshore environments using data from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) which covers the period 1980-2005. It applies the Accident Anatomy (AA) method, which maps accident causes and consequences using fault trees and cause-consequence diagrams (CCDs). Unlike previous analyses, this report aims to extract deeper insights into accident patterns beyond general statistics.
For this report, on-deck operations involve material handling, tool use, and equipment operation in offshore environments.
The study analysed 10,846 records that cover accident events on both fixed and floating offshore units. The report focuses on cases where injuries or fatalities occurred. The analysis described in the report mapped 77 accident-prone operations and provides a detailed causal understanding of offshore accidents.
Despite the exhaustiveness of the analysis, there are limitations related to the used data. The HSE records primarily document physical and operational aspects of the accidents, leaving out design-related or organisational factors. Next, probabilities for the accident events considered in the analysis are not provided. This is due to the incomplete nature of the sources and the lack of information on the number of opportunities for accidents. The computation of probabilities will be feasible if data on the frequency of use of relevant components, machines, personnel, and workplaces has been also collected.
Background: Seafarers are at an increased risk of developing cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), potentially due to a stressful working environment and behavioral risk factors. To develop better prevention strategies, it is important to elucidate the extent of this risk. Therefore, we conducted a systematic literature review on CVD in seafarers. Method: We conducted systematic searches in five databases. All studies investigating CVDs among occupational seafarers, published in articles or conference papers, were eligible for inclusion. The identified records were screened and reviewed by two independent researchers, who also evaluated the methodological quality of the included studies. Results: Three thousand nine hundred and seventeen records qualified for screening, and 55 were eligible for inclusion. Most of the studies were observational, including cohort, frequency, incidence or prevalence studies, and review of case records. Around half were assessed at risk of biased findings. Participants in the studies were primarily from North America or the European continent and work onboard transportation vessels. Many studies investigated CVDs as a cause of death, focusing on conditions such as CVD, ischemic heart disease, and myocardial infarction. Frequency of CVD conditions varied but indicate that seafarers face a greater risk compared to the reference populations or control groups. Environmental factors were mainly investigated as risk factors. Conclusion: Our results indicate a higher risk of CVDs among seafarers compared to reference or control groups. However, due to the variable quality of the evidence, well-designed studies are needed to establish the causes of cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in seafarers and to investigate behavioral aspects of cardiovascular risk.
Objective: To study enablers of bullying and harassment in the work environment on board ships.
Method: A qualitative sub-study embedded within a large population-based cross-sectional survey of the prevalence of bullying and harassment on ships in the Danish merchant fleet. The sub-study is based on in-depth semi-structured interviews and responses to open-ended questions in the survey questionnaire. In total, 32 participants were interviewed face-to-face or online. The data was imported into NVivo and coded thematically.
Results: Four themes emerged as enablers specific to the work environment on a ship: The first theme, Isolation, covers how the crew -as a group, is physically isolated from the world outside the vessel, but also that new crew members can be challenged when trying to become established inside the groups on board. The second theme, Hierarchy, encompasses how challenging the existing hierarchy based on rank is not tolerated and that the hierarchy is often maintained through bullying and harassment. The third theme, Crewing, includes how diversity related to e.g., culture, language, gender, or age/experience may create another form of hierarchy with the same negative consequences as the hierarchy based on formal rank. The fourth theme, Leadership, covers how leadership can enable both a good and an unacceptable work environment related to bullying and harassment. Conclusion: Bullying and harassment pose serious challenges to the work environment on ships. Four themes were identified as enablers of bullying and harassment. Some are a premise, but others may be improved through continued awareness and focused educational initiatives.
This report presents both the quantitative and qualitative results of a study on bullying and harassment in the Danish merchant fleet. The Minister for Industry, Business and Financial Affairs asked the
Danish Maritime Authority to conduct an external study of the extent of bullying and harassment among seafarers on Danish vessels. This task was assigned to the Centre of Maritime Health and Society at the University of Southern Denmark. The Commission for the study (in Danish) may be found on the Ministry of Industry, Business and Financial Affairs website. The report consists of seven chapters, and only the results are presented, by request from the Danish Maritime Authority. An English “Literature review” is made in a separate annex, with an analysis of other international research studies within the area of bullying and harassment. This has been requested by the Danish Maritime Authority. It is permitted to quote the results in the report on the condition that the University of Southern Denmark and the Centre of Maritime Health and Society is credited as the source.
Studies have indicated that transportation noise is associated with higher cardiovascular mortality, whereas evidence of noise as a risk factor for respiratory and cancer mortality is scarce and inconclusive. Also, knowledge on effects of low-level noise on mortality is very limited. We aimed to investigate associations between road and railway noise and natural-cause and cause-specific mortality in the Danish population. We estimated address-specific road and railway noise at the most (LdenMax) and least (LdenMin) exposed façades for all residential addresses in Denmark from 1990 to 2017 using high-quality exposure models. Using these data, we calculated 10-year time-weighted mean noise exposure for 2.6 million Danes aged >50 years, of whom 600,492 died from natural causes during a mean follow-up of 11.7 years. We analyzed data using Cox proportional hazards models with adjustment for individual and area-level sociodemographic variables and air pollution (PM2.5 and NO2). We found that a 10-year mean exposure to road LdenMax and road LdenMin per 10 dB were associated with hazard ratios (95% confidence intervals) of, respectively, 1.09 (1.09; 1.10) and 1.10 (1.10; 1.11) for natural-cause mortality, 1.09 (1.08; 1.10) and 1.09 (1.08; 1.10) for cardiovascular mortality, 1.13 (1.12; 1.14) and 1.17 (1.16; 1.19) for respiratory mortality and 1.03 (1.02; 1.03) and 1.06 (1.05; 1.07) for cancer mortality. For LdenMax, the associations followed linear exposure-response relationships from 35 dB to 60–<65 dB, after which the function levelled off. For LdenMin, exposure-response relationships were linear from 35 dB and up, with some levelling off at high noise levels for natural-cause and cardiovascular mortality. Railway noise did not seem associated with higher mortality in an exposure-response dependent manner. In conclusion, road traffic noise was associated with higher mortality and the increase in risk started well below the current World Health Organization guideline limit for road traffic noise of 53 dB.