Safety climate in Pakistani universities' laboratories: an assessment of individual factors

Objectives. Current research aims to identify factors that affect the occupational safety climate in university laboratories despite their perception as low-risk areas compared to industrial environments. Methods. A safety climate survey was conducted in science laboratories across various engineering universities in Pakistan. The survey questionnaire was administered to 406 personnel, and a quantitative method for analysis was selected to examine the socio-demographic variables. A 5-point Likert scale (1 =  strongly disagree to 5 =  strongly agree) was used to perceive responses from participants. Additionally, a scale reliability test was conducted, and multivariate analysis of variance was performed to determine the relationship between selected dependent and independent variables. Results. The study found an overall safety climate score of 3.16 ± 0.55, indicating a moderate to high perception of safety on a scale of 1-5. Parameters such as role in the laboratory, departments/disciplines, accident experience and safety training significantly affected the safety climate score, while gender, age group, duration in university and accident witnessing did not. Conclusion. Upper management involvement, safety communication and direct supervision are crucial for improving the safety climate of university laboratories. The study recommends the consideration of the identified significant safety climate dimensions in laboratory safety policy-making at academic institutes.

Development of a decision support system for the selection of wastewater treatment technologies

Multiple factors including technical, social, economic, regulatory, governmental, and environmental add complexity in the process of selecting a suitable wastewater treatment technology. To overcome this issue, this paper aims to propose a decision support system (DSS) for the selection of wastewater treatment technologies. The proposed system has been developed using a detailed review of the state-of-the-art in wastewater treatment, implemented using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and validated through real-time case studies. The system is categorized into four treatment levels based on wastewater complexity and the required degree of treatment. These include preliminary, primary, secondary, and tertiary treatment. Based on the identified treatment levels, the proposed system suggests using any physical, biological, chemical, or hybrid treatment process. The developed DSS will aid the selection of suitable wastewater treatment technology from a set of alternatives while keeping user constraints, conflicting requirements, and prevailing conditions under consideration. Moreover, the system is capable to customize the treatment assembly at the planning stage with minimized costs, eliminate mistakes at the planning and design stage, facilitate decision making by narrowing down the alternative solution as per user requirements and prevailing conditions, incorporate customer demand, and promote sustainable development.