• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.42-48
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• 2017

Background: As one of the most frequently occurring accidents in a chemical plant, a fire accident may occur at any place where transfer or handling of combustible materials is routinely performed. Methods: In particular, a jet fire incident in a chemical plant operated under high pressure may bring severe damage. To review this event numerically, Computational Fluid Dynamics methodology was used to simulate a jet fire at a pipe of a compressor under high pressure. Results: For jet fire simulation, the Kemeleon FireEx Code was used, and results of this simulation showed that a structure and installations located within the shelter of a compressor received serious damage. Conclusion: The results confirmed that a jet fire may create a domino effect that could cause an accident aside from the secondary chemical accident.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.29-38
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• 2021

Governments and companies are trying to reduce occupational accidents in the construction industry; however, the number of disasters are not decreasing significantly. This study aims to identify the correlation between factors affecting construction disasters quantitatively. To this end, 1,197 cases of serious disasters provided by Korea Occupational Safety and Health Administration (KOSHA) were analyzed using affinity analysis, one of the data mining techniques. The data from KOSHA were preprocessed and analyzed with variables of accident type, project type, activity type, original cause materials, sensory temperature, time of the accident, and fall height, and the association rules were derived for fall accidents and the others. For fall accidents, 64 association rules with lift ratios of 1.38 or greater were derived, and for the other accidents, 59 association rules with lift ratios of 1.54 or greater were derived. After analyzing the derived association rules focusing on the relationship among accident factors, this study presented the significance of applying the affinity analysis to address the study's limitations. The significance of this study can be found in that the correlation among factors affecting construction accidents is presented quantitatively.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.443-450
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• 2014

The industrial accident rate has been steadily decreased by making all efforts for the prevention of accidents after enacting Occupational Health and Safety Act in 1981. However, ordinary typed industrial accidents still occur in small and medium sized enterprises(SME). Timely Technical Guidance(TTG) project of Korea Occupational Safety & Heath Agency(KOSHA) for SME's was initiated to visit and provide the analysis and control of industrial accidents by the staffs of KOSHA as soon as possible after accidents occurred. This study is conducted to analyze the questionnaire survey for employers, workers and TTG personnel of KOSHA with being evaluated positively whether the demonstration project of TTG has been executed consistently. However, it is suggested that the understanding of TTG project and legal support are necessary for the establishments, and the development of a variety data and lots of available contents is necessary to increase satisfaction of the TTG project. The accident rate of SME's which are employed less than 50 workers is expected to be largely decreased with applying the control and improvement over this study with maintaining and developing TTG technology.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.68-75
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• 2014

The study examined the relationship between six broad personality traits(i.e., HEXACO; Honesty-humility, Emotionality, eXtraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Openness to experience), safety job performance, and traffic accidents of Korean occupational bus drivers. Based on the job performance model, we included safety participation as well as safety compliance as safety job performance. Analyses on the data from a total of 492 bus drivers showed that all HEXACO personality traits except Honesty-humility, were valid predictors for both safety compliance and safety participation. Honesty-humility was only related to safety compliance. Among the six personality traits, high conscientiousness and low emotionality were best predictors of safety job performance. As for traffic accidents, conscientiousness was a sole significant predictor. Furthermore, the mediation analysis showed that the effect of conscientiousness on traffic accidents was completely explained by safety compliance and safety participation. The implications of the current findings for practice and future research as well as the limitations of the current study were discussed.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.105-112
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• 2015

Sawmilling industry remained a high risk with the average 4.73% of industrial accidents in 2010-2012 that was eight times that of general manufacturing. Sawmilling industry had 200 industrial accidents victim in average. Manufacturing process in sawmill industry contained dangerous machinery such as conveyors, roller, saw ( band saw, circular saw) etc. It may be effective to figure out the type of industrial accidents occurred in the past and extend risk assessment which can predict hazard such as near miss when implementing exposure or potential dangers in sawmill industry. This study conducted research on the actual condition on the place of industrial accident occurrence, detailed work and contact object when injured, and injured part targeting 643 businesses which had industrial accidents in 2010-2012. As the results, RPN of general sawmill industry was the highest 'ganglip saw' with 36,157. RPN of the following order were 'moving truck' with 25,454, 'special machining operations' with 22,283. Also, probability of general sawmill industry was a lots within 1 year, while risk appeared a lots within 5 years. So, risk assessment shall be needed to emphasis on accident prevention of sawmill industry. And additional work will be needed on the risk assessment in hazard prevention work of supervisors.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.26-32
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• 2013

The best way to prevent major occupational accidents is prohibiting use of hazardous substances such as flammable gas, toxic gas whereas using alternative substances that ensured safety. but if there are no economic efficiency and substituting technologies of alternative substances, the best way is preparing to prevent accidents thoroughly. Therefore, this study has developed and selected release scenarios to use and apply for consequence analysis and emergency action plan for HF charging process of chemical plants that have HF release accidents and high probability of release accidents.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.153-158
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• 2019

It is estimated that about 2,515 persons have been injured by conveyor for the past five years(2013 ~ 2017). Conveyors used in various industrial sites for transporting iron ore, coal, courier goods, etc., have various incidents such as a worker putting on or pulling a part of the body or work clothes on the driving part during maintenance. It is necessary for preventing similar accidents to conduct various researches. In order to propose the basis for revising laws and standards for the safety standards of the full cord switch to prevent conveyor accidents, this study compares Korea's Industrial Safety and Health Law (KISHL) with those of IEC, EN, Canada, and Australia. In addition, surveys of conveyor use plant and full cord switch domestic and foreign manufacturers was conducted. In this study, domestic and overseas related laws and technical standards compare and analyze to prevent conveyor accidents. In addition, we propose extension of safety certification for full code switch, establishment of safety inspection standard, and improvement of working method regulation through actual working condition investigation. It can be used as a basis for revising the occupational safety and health regulation and related notices, and thus contributing to enhancing the safe atmosphere of the conveyor business and improving the safety consciousness of the concerned persons.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.286-293
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• 2022

Background: The death rate of workers due to industrial accidents in South Korea (3.61 persons in 2017) is higher than the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average (2.43) and the fifth highest among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member countries. Although the pandemic of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has changed, the socioeconomic aspects of Korean society, the number of Koreans suffering accidents and the number of deaths in 2020 have increased. It is necessary to take measures to prevent accidents and make comprehensive efforts to return to work. This study proposes research questions about the effect of workers' positive perception on whether to work after accidents and the impact of the experience of rehabilitation services on the return to work. Methods: This research performed a panel logistic regression analysis using data on workers' compensation insurance in Korea for two years (2018-2019). Results: This research finds that workers' positive perceptions of workability and life satisfaction contributed affirmatively to their re-employment. Several factors related to employment (e.g., work period, the number of job qualifications) also positively affect their return to work. However, the experience of rehabilitation services did not have a significant effect on re-employment. The variables of their health conditions (e.g., disability grade, feelings of health problems, age) negatively influenced their return to jobs. Conclusion: These results suggest the importance of workers' mental recovery and the need to innovate rehabilitation services for their employment. Positive thinking and self-rehabilitation could be critical for workers, parallel with social welfare policies.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.124-130
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• 2023

The increase in the number of fatal electric accidents over the years has escalated the demand for specialized forensic engineers to determine their relevant technical causes. Likewise, the complexities associated with identifying the causes of electrocution accidents have prompted the General Department of Forensic Science and Criminology at Dubai Police to adopt a new methodology to diagnose electrocution accidents, consisting of an approach that involves medico-legal examination, electrical diagnosis of the evidence, and trace evidence analysis. This paper will discuss the application of the adopted method in further detail by unfolding two case reports. The first report outlines a case in which a worker got electrocuted at a construction site while attempting to turn on a lamp. The second case report involves the death of a technician in a workshop after trying to disconnect a washing machine from its plug. The methodology was utilized during the investigation of both cases, which were attended by the appointed forensic engineers and showed promising results.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.46-51
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• 2013

Objectives: Load carrying tasks are recognized as one of the primary occupational factors leading to slip and fall injuries. Nevertheless, the mechanisms associated with load carrying and walking stability remain illusive. The objective of the current study was to apply local dynamic stability measure in walking while carrying a load, and to investigate the possible adaptive gait stability changes. Methods: Current study involved 25 young adults in a biomechanics research laboratory. One tri-axial accelerometer was used to measure three-dimensional low back acceleration during continuous treadmill walking. Local dynamic stability was quantified by the maximum Lyapunov exponent (maxLE) from a nonlinear dynamics approach. Results: Long term maxLE was found to be significant higher under load condition than no-load condition in all three reference axes, indicating the declined local dynamic stability associated with load carrying. Conclusion: Current study confirmed the sensitivity of local dynamic stability measure in load carrying situation. It was concluded that load carrying tasks were associated with declined local dynamic stability, which may result in increased risk of fall accident. This finding has implications in preventing fall accidents associated with occupational load carrying.