186
L. Picu et al.
1 Introduction
There is a continuing concern that onboard ships and crew work and live in the best
conditions in order to have good professional results. Unfortunately, these studies
refer only to seagoing vessels and not to river ones [1, 2]. There are also a number
of regulations regarding habilitation conditions onboard of seagoing vessels; as far
as river vessels are concerned, these rules are fewer and less restrictive.
Apart from the complexity of imposed rules, apart from the new ship technology
(or rather because of their age), the human factor is a very important part in navigation.
Under the current conditions, when technology tends to take most of the ship’s
activity, the number of crew members decreases; also, on the river ships, the crew
is aging. The interaction between man and technology depends on many factors:
experience, age, health condition, fatigue, etc.; it also depends on the workspace,
vibrations, noise, temperature, resting time and sleeping schedule, and other stressors.
Another very important factor is that all operations are performed on a platform in
motion; this continuous movement can cause adverse effects. For all these reasons,
it is necessary to pay more attention to the human factor in order to ensure the
health, safety and work efficiency. In critical situations, when all crew members are
required to be present at their posts, emerges the great problem of seafarer personnel
reduction. Also, working on a moving platform, exposure to vibrations and under
very high noise conditions reduces the people’s movement ability (both gross and
fine movements). These physical limitations cause the interruption of any task when
local movements cause slipping or loss of balance and are called motion-induced
interruptions [3].
In 2000, ISO 6954, a standard which refers to habitability on ships, has been
issued. In 2002, the European Commission issued Directive 2002/44/EC, on the
minimum health and safety requirements regarding the exposure of workers to the
risks arising from physical agents (vibration) [4].
Since these two regulations were not in agreement to properly assess the habitability conditions, ISO has replaced the standard with ISO 20283-5:2016—Mechanical vibration—Measurement of vibration on ships—Part 5: Guidelines for measurement, evaluation and reporting of vibration with regard to habitability on passenger
and merchant ships [5].
Also, different classification societies have found it necessary to reduce vibration
and noise on ships: DNV GL, LR, ABS [6–8].
In recent years, due to growth freedom of movement and globalization, transport
activities have radically increased.
Thus, pollution has increased (especially noise pollution), even around cities. For
this reason, new regulations are needed to ensure noise reduction, not only for the
comfort and performance of crew members.
In order to achieve this, but also because of the high costs, the stationing time for
loading/unloading of a ship was reduced to the minimum [9].
Lately, there is a trend to reduce the number of crew members on ships. At the
same time, the operational requirements are increasing. These produce stress and
L. Picu et al.
1 Introduction
There is a continuing concern that onboard ships and crew work and live in the best
conditions in order to have good professional results. Unfortunately, these studies
refer only to seagoing vessels and not to river ones [1, 2]. There are also a number
of regulations regarding habilitation conditions onboard of seagoing vessels; as far
as river vessels are concerned, these rules are fewer and less restrictive.
Apart from the complexity of imposed rules, apart from the new ship technology
(or rather because of their age), the human factor is a very important part in navigation.
Under the current conditions, when technology tends to take most of the ship’s
activity, the number of crew members decreases; also, on the river ships, the crew
is aging. The interaction between man and technology depends on many factors:
experience, age, health condition, fatigue, etc.; it also depends on the workspace,
vibrations, noise, temperature, resting time and sleeping schedule, and other stressors.
Another very important factor is that all operations are performed on a platform in
motion; this continuous movement can cause adverse effects. For all these reasons,
it is necessary to pay more attention to the human factor in order to ensure the
health, safety and work efficiency. In critical situations, when all crew members are
required to be present at their posts, emerges the great problem of seafarer personnel
reduction. Also, working on a moving platform, exposure to vibrations and under
very high noise conditions reduces the people’s movement ability (both gross and
fine movements). These physical limitations cause the interruption of any task when
local movements cause slipping or loss of balance and are called motion-induced
interruptions [3].
In 2000, ISO 6954, a standard which refers to habitability on ships, has been
issued. In 2002, the European Commission issued Directive 2002/44/EC, on the
minimum health and safety requirements regarding the exposure of workers to the
risks arising from physical agents (vibration) [4].
Since these two regulations were not in agreement to properly assess the habitability conditions, ISO has replaced the standard with ISO 20283-5:2016—Mechanical vibration—Measurement of vibration on ships—Part 5: Guidelines for measurement, evaluation and reporting of vibration with regard to habitability on passenger
and merchant ships [5].
Also, different classification societies have found it necessary to reduce vibration
and noise on ships: DNV GL, LR, ABS [6–8].
In recent years, due to growth freedom of movement and globalization, transport
activities have radically increased.
Thus, pollution has increased (especially noise pollution), even around cities. For
this reason, new regulations are needed to ensure noise reduction, not only for the
comfort and performance of crew members.
In order to achieve this, but also because of the high costs, the stationing time for
loading/unloading of a ship was reduced to the minimum [9].
Lately, there is a trend to reduce the number of crew members on ships. At the
same time, the operational requirements are increasing. These produce stress and