Decompression Sickness in Compressed Air Workers

The assignment details the concept of decompression sickness in compressed air workers who were exposed to pressure below 1 bar in the Mass Rapid Transit Project in Singapore. It highlights various health-related issues such as cardiovascular problems, contamination of harmful gases and particles with the blood, and respiratory problems faced by individuals involved with the project. The research idea considers maintaining right health and safety standards to keep them safe and healthy so that they can perform to their potential at work while at the same time, maintain a proper working environment that creates lesser pollution and maintains a healthy environment.

Running head: BSC (HONS) IN OSH MANAGEMENT
BSC (Hons) in OSH Management
Name Of student
Name of University
Author note

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BSC (HONS) IN OSH MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Review.............................................................................................................................................3
Initial Literature Review..................................................................................................................4
Analysis of qualitative and quantitative data...................................................................................5
Discussion of alternative research strategies...................................................................................5
Initial research ideas........................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................8

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Review
According to How, Vijayan and Wong (1990), during the management of Singapore
Mass Rapid Transit or MRT project in 1984, underground tunnels were built. The working
pressure dipped below 1 bar gauge and caused decompression sickness among the people
working in the project. The theories of bubble nuclei formation, loading the gas and managing
the decompression rate are related to the physical factors including heavy exertion, which
affected the nitrogen absorption in body and resulted in health related issues like decompression
sickness. It is a major hazard that can cause risk to the health of individuals and even result in
caisson’s disease that is responsible for respiratory problems, pain in hands and legs and
cardiovascular diseases (How, Vijayan and Wong 1990). When the pressure is below 1 bar
during the Singapore Mass Rapid Transit project, the individuals working there face
decompression sickness, as stated by How, Vijayan and Wong (1990).
There were health and environmental research issues, because the project caused constant
decrease in ambient pressure, which not only enabled the dissolved nitrogen to create nitrogen
bubbles in the tissues, but also identified the factors associated with the theories of bubble
formation such as super saturation, novo nucleation, tribonucleation, in-vivo cavitation. Based on
the statements provided by How, Vijayan and Wong (1990), while undertaking the Mass Rapid
Transit project in Singapore, the bubbles of nitrogen formed reduce in size when the tension is
higher than the tension of alveolar nitrogen. After working at the project site, the people are
exposed to the nitrogen bubbles that get inside the blood vessels of the spinal cord and make
them subjected to harm or risk related to the decompression sickness (Ni et al. 2013). To develop
the entire 11 km of tunnel, compressed air was used and the maximum was 2.35 and when it

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dipped below 1 bar, the workers experienced health issues related to the respiratory system,
cardiovascular system, etc.
According to Li, dysbaric osteonecrosis is another health hazard that affects the bones
and a joint leading to severe pain and one of the major causes found is the presence of air
bubbles triggered coagulation abnormality. It is believed that the oxygen decompression has
reduced the load of bubbles and the health issues caused due to decompression. It is beneficial
for overcoming the illness of dysbaric osteonecrosis, furthermore creates lesser pollution and
maintains ecological balance in nature (Papadopoulou et al. 2013). Based on the response of Li,
it is true that the oxygen decompression prevents disabling dysbaric osteonecrosis in the future
when the compressed air tunneling uses Tunnel Boring Machine with the use of shorter exposure
of compressed air and swallow depth of working. This not only maintained the safety and health
of the individuals working during the project, but also facilitated the management of maximum
working hours and working time to 3 bar and 6 hours respectively (How, Vijayan and Wong
1990). This reduced the chances of decompression sickness as well as detected early chances of
bone necrosis along with other changes in morphology.
Initial Literature Review
A literature review enables providing relevant information and knowledge related to the
substantial findings gathered by reviewing a scholarly paper or article. The theoretical findings
along with the methodological aspects are considered by reviewing the article and journals that
have been considered as secondary sources of data (Hart 2018). The literature review is done by
assessing and reviewing the secondary sources of data that are not new or have been derived
from actual experimental work. It allows us to prioritize on the research topic properly as well as

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organize the selected papers and secondary sources and materials by looking at patterns and
through the development of subtopics (Thom et al. 2015). This has helped in developing a
working thesis, which assists in preparing a conceptual framework too. The current topic
revolves around the aspects of decompression sickness in compressed air workers and two major
articles are presented by How, Vijayan and Wong (1990) and Li, which have been reviewed to
carry out the literature review. The literature review helped in evaluating the health, safety and
environmental research issues and even provided a critique based on another research article
presented by Li, which proved that the oxygen decompression prevented disabling dysbaric
osteonecrosis.
Analysis of qualitative and quantitative data
In research studies, the qualitative data includes the recent trends, individual thoughts,
ideas and opinions to gain in-depth information about the research problem. The collection of
qualitative data includes various methods such as structured and semi-structured (Neuman 2013).
The information cannot be measured for qualitative data in research while the quantitative data in
research is measurable and written down in numbers. Statistical data is considered as quantitative
data and it can also help in understanding the responses of individuals through survey process for
evaluating the success of the research through accomplishment of research objectives (Brannen
2017). The qualitative data analysis is non-statistical while the quantitative data analysis is
statistical and is represented in tabular form.

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Discussion of alternative research strategies
Alternative research strategies include the approaches and philosophies followed while
conducting the research in an appropriate way. The deductive research can be considered as
beneficial while the positivism research philosophy is also beneficial for deriving positive
research outcomes. The data collection and data analysis are also considered as major strategies
and approaches followed while conducting the research appropriately and ensure that the
research goals and objectives are achieved with ease and effectiveness (Bühlmann 2013). The
descriptive method of research is another useful research strategy considered as useful and
noteworthy for describing the entire situation and manage the research conduction through
assessment of various descriptive methods including the observational study, case study based
methods and survey methods. The survey process can also be effective for collecting relevant
data and information relevant to the research data and later carry out analysis of data to draw
good conclusion in the end (Rowlinson, Hassard and Decker 2014).
Initial research ideas
There are various ideas that are included in the management of the research considering
the case study revolving around the concept of decompression sickness in compressed air
workers who were exposed to pressure below 1 bar in the Mass Rapid Transit Project in
Singapore. During this project, there were various health related issues such as the
cardiovascular issues, contamination of harmful gases and particles with the blood and
respiratory problems too faced by the individuals involved with the project (Madden et al. 2015).
It is important to maintain the right health and safety standards t keep them safe and healthy so
that they can perform to their potential at work while at the same time, maintain a proper

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working environment that creates lesser pollution and maintain a healthy environment. A healthy
environment with lesser pollution and harmful particles spreading all around can make it easy for
the workers to manage the project as well as become aware of abiding by the environmental
laws, legislations, rules and regulations to keep the environment safe and healthy for people to
live in. It will not only maintain a good ecological balance in nature, but can also prevent
decompression sickness and other health issues associated with the compressed air working
during the Mass rapid transit projects that shall be undertaken in the future (How, Vijayan and
Wong 1990). The research idea considering the research proposal on which the researcher shall
work in the future will ensure that the safety standards are maintained to manage proper health of
the research respondents and maintain ecological balance in nature.

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References
Brannen, J., 2017. Combining qualitative and quantitative approaches: an overview. In Mixing
methods: Qualitative and quantitative research (pp. 3-37). Routledge.
Bühlmann, A.A., 2013. Decompression—Decompression Sickness. Springer Science & Business
Media.
Hart, C., 2018. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Research Imagination. Sage.
How, J., Vijayan, A. and Wong, T.M., 1990. Acute decompression sickness in compressed air
workers exposed to pressures below 1 bar in the Singapore Mass Rapid Transit Project.
Singapore Med J, 31, pp.104-110.
Li, R.C., Oxygen decompression may prevent dysbaric osteonecrosis in compressed air
tunneling. In This symposium.
Neuman, W.L., 2013. Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Pearson
education.
Ni, X.X., Ni, M., Fan, D.F., Sun, Q., Kang, Z.M., Cai, Z.Y., Liu, Y., Liu, K., Li, R.P. and Xu,
W.G., 2013. Heat-shock protein 70 is involved in hyperbaric oxygen preconditioning on
decompression sickness in rats. Experimental Biology and Medicine, 238(1), pp.12-22.
Papadopoulou, V., Eckersley, R.J., Balestra, C., Karapantsios, T.D. and Tang, M.X., 2013. A
critical review of physiological bubble formation in hyperbaric decompression. Advances in
colloid and interface science, 191, pp.22-30.

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Rowlinson, M., Hassard, J. and Decker, S., 2014. Research strategies for organizational history:
A dialogue between historical theory and organization theory. Academy of Management Review,
39(3), pp.250-274.
Thom, S.R., Bennett, M., Banham, N.D., Chin, W., Blake, D.F., Rosen, A., Pollock, N.W.,
Madden, D., Barak, O., Marroni, A. and Balestra, C., 2015. Association of microparticles and
neutrophil activation with decompression sickness. Journal of Applied Physiology, 119(5),
pp.427-434.