Abstract
Laboratory inspection and diagnosis is a means of investigating and assessing various hazards or the state of research equipment in a laboratory, then taking appropriate safety measures to prevent accidents and injury. In many cases, laboratory inspection and diagnosis carried out by agencies are performed in a perfunctory manner that only barely satisfies the legal requirements. The aim of the present study is to provide clearly established pricing criteria for laboratory inspection and diagnosis, so as to prevent recurrence of laboratory accidents and to establish a safe laboratory environment. In order to clarify previously unclear matters, such as the lower limit for bids submitted by laboratory inspection and diagnosis agencies, technical manpower requirements, and number of laboratories inspected and diagnosed per day, a questionnaire survey was administered to agency personnel. First, when asked what the lower limit for bids submitted by agencies should be in order to improve reliability of inspection and diagnosis results and make up for the shortcomings of the lowest-bidder-wins system, 85.5% of respondents answered that the lower limit for bids should stand at no lower than 90% of the estimated price. The level of technical expertise among the technical personnel committed to laboratory inspection and diagnosis was shown to impact the reliability of results, and questionnaire results indicated a need to vary technical expertise levels depending on the degree of hazard, substances handled, and equipment used in a given laboratory. Level of technical expertise(67.1%) and number of personnel(52.6%) were shown to have a greater impact on reliability of diagnosis than on reliability of inspection. According to the results, it is determined that three persons(specialist, advanced and intermediate) should be committed to inspections, while four persons(professional, specialist, advanced and intermediate) should be committed to diagnoses. The respondents indicated a larger number of laboratories could be inspected than diagnosed per day. This can be attributed to differences in the amount of work each task involves, and the time each task takes. Assuming a six-hour work day not counting transportation, paperwork and rest, it is thought that inspection of up to 36 laboratories will be possible if each laboratory is assigned no more than 10 minutes(34.7%), while up to 24 laboratories could be inspected and diagnosed if each laboratory is assigned 15 to 20 minutes(35.1%).