This article analyses contractual governance practices within the value chains of large companies based in the USA and Europe between 2012 and 2017 with focus on human and labour rights. In line with the existing scholarship, we find that the use of contractual governance for safeguarding human and labour rights is best practice among large American and European businesses. The results show that value chain contractual governance should be studied in an interdisciplinary environment taking both legal and non-legal aspects into consideration. Moreover, we detect a general positive impact of the business and human rights regulatory wave of 2010–2011 on sustainable contractual governance practices.
Background: Limited access to medical care can be considered as an occupational risk of seafaring and it may predispose to developing community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) requiring hospital care. We sought to investigate the risk for CAP and other lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) requiring hospital care among seafarers. We examined the length of hospital stay (LOS) as a proxy for severity of illness. Methods: The study population in this panel data analysis were all seafarers and a 20% random sample of economically active individuals aged 18–65 years who were residing in Denmark in 1997–2016, constituting more than 11 million person-years of follow-up. Annually-registered socio-demographic and work characteristics were linked to data on cause of hospital admissions. We used fixed-effects and zero-truncated Poisson regression to estimate the rate ratios of hospitalization for CAP and other LRTI, and compared LOS across the two populations. Results: The adjusted incident rate ratio (IRR) for CAP in seafarers compared to the economically active population was 1.42 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.15–1.77), whereas the IRR was 0.73 (95% CI: 0.38–1.42) for other LRTI. For LOS, the IRRs for CAP and other LRTI in seafarers were 1.08 (95% CI: 1.04–1.12) and 0.92 (95% CI: 0.83–1.01), respectively. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that seafaring was associated with an increased risk for CAP requiring hospital care. Limited access to health care may be an important contributing factor.
Objectives Characterisation of worker injuries on board merchant ships is modest. Using telemedical service contacts in Denmark, we describe the worker injuries patterns and factors related to injury incidence. Methods The data for this study were based on contacts (n=1401) from ships to Telemedical Assistance Service (TMAS) in Denmark in 2004–2014, which were supplemented with data on the annual estimation of all seafarers from the Danish Maritime Authority (n=73 336). The final data included information on broad age groups, occupation and nationality. The outcomes were injuries from any cause and six broad categories of injuries characterised by anatomic location or type of injury. Results During the observation period of 11 years, there were 1401 contacts to TMAS due to injuries, of which 36% were in upper limb, 18% in lower limb and 13% in the head. Age-adjusted incidence rates for all injuries varied between 13.6 and 26.8 incidences per 1000 person-years in 2004–2014. In most types of injuries, younger and older seafarers had higher risk for injuries than seafarers aged 30–49 years. Depending on the type of injury, non-officers had threefold to fivefold increased odds of injuries compared with officers, the risk being highest for head injuries with an OR of 5.00 (95% CI 3.19 to 7.83). Non-officers from the European Union (EU) had higher risk in most types of injuries than non-officers from outside the EU, whereas the pattern of this risk was inverse among officers. Conclusions These findings suggest that non-officers and European seafarers have an increased risk for several types of injuries on board Danish-flagged merchant ships. Additionally, age affected risk with the younger (<30 years) and older (>50 years) seafarers having increased risk.
Autonomous marine surface vehicles rely on computer systems with computer intelligence making decisions to assist or replace the navigating officer. A fundamental requirement for the design and implementation of such a cyber-physical system is seamless, predictable, and secure interoperability between vendor-specific hardware and software subsystems. The article describes a system design that includes mechanisms to mitigate the risks and consequences of software defects, individual component malfunction, and harmful cyber interference. It addresses international regulations in the field and demonstrates a system design that can meet the requirements for safe behaviour in foreseeable events while also having the ability to call for human assistance if the autonomous system is unable to handle a situation. The paper presents a design for highly automated vessels with several inherent risk-reducing features, including the ability to isolate and encapsulate abnormal behaviours, built-in features to support resilience to unexpected events, and mechanisms for internal defence against cyber-attacks. The article shows how this is provided by a novel middleware that supports risk mitigation, dependability, and resilience.
BACKGROUND: Fishery is a hazardous occupation and fatigue may contribute to the observed risks. This study aims to investigate the association between workload and fatigue among Danish fishermen.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: The cross-sectional survey of demographic characteristics and self-reported exposure and health data was performed on a random sample of 270 active fishermen. We applied the validated Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI-20) to assess the degrees of the different dimensions of perceived fatigue. We estimated physical workload using questions regarding the frequency of seven physical work activities and analysed the association between fatigue and workload using multiple linear regressions.
RESULTS: The mean fatigue scores were 9.18 (SD 3.58) for general fatigue, 9.05 (SD 3.36) for physical fatigue, 7.57 (SD 3.03) for reduced activity and 7.16 (SD 3.07) for mental fatigue. Highest levels of fatigue were observed among fishermen at Danish seiners (mean 10.21), and fatigue scores decreased with more days at sea. However, none of these results were significant. Adjusted analyses showed that physical workload was significantly related to general fatigue (b = 0.20, 95% CI: 0.12-0.28), physical fatigue (b = 0.10, 95% CI: 0.04-0.16) and mental fatigue (b = 0.09, 95% CI: 0.01-0.16). Reduced activity was unrelated to work exposures.
CONCLUSIONS: General fatigue was the dominant fatigue dimension among Danish fishermen and it is mostly associated with physical workload. Physical workload was additionally significantly associated to the levels of physical and mental fatigue. Fishermen had a lower average score for all fatigue dimensions compared to those seen in general Danish working population. Prospective studies are required to assess whether the identified associations are causal.
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.
Background:
The third edition of the International Medical Guide for Ships (IMGS) was published in 2007 and supported a main principle of the newly adopted International Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) 2006: to ensure that seafarers are given health protection and medical care as comparable as possible to that which is available to workers ashore. In 2021, the revisions and drafting of the fourth edition of the IMGS began. Taking the COVID-19 pandemic into consideration, it was decided that a stakeholder study was necessary to ascertain the usefulness and practicality of the guide as well as provide input for which new topics to include.
Materials and methods:
The study applied data triangulation, with respondents from a geographically
broad sample of the International Maritime Organization‘s five regional areas of the world. The data was analysed using thematic analysis.
Results:
The results show that the IMGS is widely known and used among persons involved in medical care on board ships, but the IMGS is not as practical as stakeholders would wish it to be. For the guide to be useful, it must be ensured that telemedical advice information is included and if possible, ensure there is one single and global medical guide. Also, there is a need for new medical information, and respondents pointed to pandemic information, medicines list, medical chest, mental health issues, a women’s section, updated cardiopulmonary resuscitation instructions, human immune defect virus information (human immune defect-virus) and information on how seafarers may self-monitor and be monitored on board in relation to chronic diseases.
Conclusions:
Respondents understand a medicine chest on board is mandatory according to the MLC 2006, 98% are familiar with its content, and 86% use the IMGS.
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.
The sea ice in the Arctic has shrunk significantly in the last decades. Partly as a result, the transport pattern has changed with more traffic in remote areas. This change may increase the risk of accidents. The critical factors are harsh weather, ice conditions, remoteness and vulnerability. In this paper we look into the risks of accidents in the Atlantic Arctic based on previous ship accidents and the changes in maritime activity. The risk has to be assessed to ensure a proper level of response in emergency situations. As accidents are rare, there are limited statistics available for Arctic marine accidents. Therefore, in this study a mostly qualitative analysis and expert judgement is the basis for the risk assessments. Implications for the emergency preparedness system of the region are discussed. The consequences of incidents depend on the incident type, scale and location,
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.