• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.19-27
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• 2022

The industrial development and socioeconomic structures of a society are inextricably linked to occupational accidents and diseases. Since the 1970s, a series of major occupational diseases have occurred in South Korea, such as mercury poisoning in Munsong-myeon, carbon disulfide poisoning at Wonjin Rayon, and leukemia at Samsung Electronics. These incidents have caused us to take a critical look at the level of worker safety and health management within companies and the government. These serve as symbolic and representational events. Doctors, lawyers, and labor activists concerned about employee safety and lives came together for years to struggle with the government and industry in order to determine what caused the diseases and to obtain compensation for victims. They finally achieved recognition for occupational diseases and recompense for losses. It is difficult to find similar cases to the baby powder asbestos talc cases and the radon bed case internationally, or there is no case where such a large number of consumers have been potentially harmed. It is also difficult to prove that the damage took place due to the victims' diverse geographic locations and ages, as well as the disease's long incubation period. Based on this premise, businesses and the government have been apathetic in acknowledging these diseases and compensating for damages, with few practical outcomes. Furthermore, unlike the large-scale occupational disease cases, only a few people including expert groups were organized and actively participated in the settlement of these issues, so it remains unfinished business for our society to address.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.21-27
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• 2012

The loss of life and property due to accidents in the research facilities or the laboratories of the university occurs steadily and the necessity of laboratory accident prevention is proposed. Above all, the main work to laboratory accident prevention is a systematic analysis of laboratories accidents. Analyzing reports or researches on industrial accidents in Korea had been carried out but these researches or reports did not based on laboratory accidents analysis. To the establishment of the accident prevention countermeasure in laboratory, a questionnaire sheet has been developed in this study. The questionnaires to survey the accident cases were gathered by electronic mail and visit survey from the laboratories and universities. The data of accident cases from the questionnaires was analyzed and discussed on accident distribution by season, the type of accident classification, the type of occurrence, the objects that caused the accident and laboratory accident by the damage incurred etc.. These results of this study can be used as basic data to the safety security and laboratory accident prevention of the laboratory worker.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.67-75
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• 2020

Due to various industrial accident that occur to the staff in the broadcasting production sites, the issue of safety at the broadcast production site is becoming a social issue. Nevertheless, not many researches have been carried out on the actual conditions of the staff's production environment and its safety issues. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to prepare a countermeasure based on engineering knowledge by analyzing working environment to improve the poor working environment of staff. First, this study analyzed statistical data of industrial accidents over the past five years to find out the current status of disasters at broadcasting production sites. As a result, the intensity of the accident was not weak in that the loss days was more than one month in 85% of accident. In addition, the type of accident was high in the fall/trip accidents. Second, this study visited 10 broadcasting production sites for risk assessment. By analyzing the characteristics of the working environment and 104 questionnaires, we predicted the types of accidents that can occur in the broadcasting production site. As a result, accident types such as fall, collision, and trip were relatively high, similar to the characteristics of construction site. Third, it was possible to quantify the scale of the risk in the broadcasting production, and as a result, the quantity of temporary structure and accident risk were proportional. In other words, this study analyzes broadcasting work environment and defines risk factors based on safety engineering knowledge. Finally, this study suggested a guideline to improve the safety of the broadcasting production site.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.68-74
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• 2007

It has been recognized that safety management is activated during the construction phase to prevent accidents and fatalities of workers. However, It is revealed that about 15% of fatal death accidents is caused by the lack of management of planning and design phases. There is a crucial need of assessing safety risk during building design phase. This paper is aimed to develop a safety risk assessment checklist that can be used during building design phase, utilizing the concept of Design for Safety. In doing so, a broad literature survey on safety management of building Process, various safety risk assessment toolboxes being utilized in the HSE and the BAA of UK. The proposed checklist contains the followings: 1) classification structure for safety design on space, element, and trade work 2) hazard risk factor, probability and degree of intensity of accident occurrence, and 3) safety assessment criteria. It is expected that the checklist would be an effective tool of preventing and minimizing fatal accidents of building construction projects.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.496-504
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• 2021

Background: With the increasing demand for industrial robots and the "noncontact" trend, it is an appropriate point in time to examine whether risk assessments conducted for robot operations are performed effectively to identify and eliminate the risks of injury or harm to operators. This study discusses why robot accidents resulting in harm to operators occur repetitively despite implementing control measures and proposes corrective actions for risk assessments. Methods: This study collected 369 operator-injured robot accidents in Korea over the last decade and reconstructed them into the mechanism of injury, work being undertaken, and bodily location of the injury. Then, through the techniques of Systematic Cause Analysis Technique (SCAT) and Root Cause Analysis (RCA), this study analyzed the root and direct causes of robot accidents that had occurred. Causes identified included physical hazards and complex combinations of hazards, such as psychological, organizational, and systematic errors. The requirements of risk assessments regarding robot operations were examined, and three case studies of robot-involved tasks were investigated. The three assessments presented were: camera module processing, electrical discharge machining, and a panel-flipping robot installation. Results: After conducting RCA and comparing the three assessments, it was found that two-thirds of injury-occurring from robot accidents, causative factors included psychological and personal traits of robot operators. However, there were no evaluations of the identifications of personal aspects in the three assessment cases. Conclusion: Therefore, it was concluded that personal factors of operators, which had been overlooked in risk assessments so far, need to be included in future risk assessments on robot operations.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.84-90
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• 2023

Oxygen, which is always present in the atmosphere among the three elements of combustion, can cause fires and explosions with only a very small amount of combustibles under high-pressure oxygen conditions. The burning rate is also significant, and can rise to temperatures that can have a direct impact, such as melting process equipment and piping in an instant. Therefore, accidents that occur under high pressure oxygen often cause more damage than other accidents. Recently, while operating a valve installed in an oxygen supply pipe, rapid combustion and rupture occurred inside, resulting in human casualties due to an explosion. In the case of an old carbon steel pipe, particles generated during operation become combustible and can cause accidents. . In particular, since oxygen facilities are facilities licensed under the High Pressure Gas Safety Management Actand there are no restrictions under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, accumulating these standards is of utmost importance. Therefore, in this study, based on accident cases and overseas standards, methods for improving safety when handling hyperbaric oxygen are reviewed.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.99-109
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• 2003

Although occupational accidents caused by presses are found to be the highest in manufacturing industrial groups, there are no study regarding to annulment for periodical inspection of press. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the economic benefit of periodical inspection of press for preventing accidents. The cost-benefit analysis in this study was conducted to evaluate the relative magnitude of benefit to cost. Study samples were 26 and years analysed were 1995, 1996, 1998 and 1999. Personal interviews with safety managers were held from October 7 to November 2, 2002. Costs of the periodical inspection program were compared with the benefit of accident that caused by presses. Costs and benefits were calculated at an discount rate of 5%. The benefit-cost ratio was 5.7. The sensitivity analysis for the discount rate, the number of press, and size of industry showed that every benefit-cost ratios were upper than one(1.0). The results of this study suggested that periodical inspection for press is important program for preventing accident and the regulation for periodical inspection program should be reenforced by government.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.16-23
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• 2005

Purpose: The Purpose of the study was to suggest how the health manager use to be easy return-to-work of injured workers. Method: The data were collected by the health managers working at the 103 companies over medium size in Incheon, Gyoung-gi and Seoul through interview and report by themselves and analyzed by SAS V8 through t-test. Result: 1. The health managers are consisted of 2 kinds, one is health manager such as physician(10%) or nurse(81%) and the other is safety manager. The former works at the manufacturing company(62.9%), the latter at the service one(42.4%). 2. Management and counseling of occupational and non-occupational diseases, and high risk workers, health education, emergency care, worksite rounding, guidance of personal protector use, and health promotion services were highly performed by health managers. Comparing to these, safety managers performed guidance of job safety, safety management. The difference of two kinds of manager was significant statistically not only the aspect of general job but also related job to the workers of return-to-work after accident. Conclusion: This result shows that health manager can function as a care manager to the workers after return-to-work for adaptation to their job and rehabilitation bio-psycho-socially. But health managers don't have any regulations of encouraging injured workers to get their job again officially.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.20 no.3 s.71
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• pp.188-196
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• 2005

Accident reports from 1991 to 2000 of a steel company were used to analyze which factors induce industrial accidents. The subjects were 8,311 blue-collar workers, who sustained 114 occupational injuries and work on a continuous full-day 3-team 3-shift system of backward rotation(mornings to afternoons to nights). With respect to marital status, the occupational injury rate(OIR) on the married workers was significantly higher compared to unmarried workers. With respect to no, the OIR of those in their early 20s was significantly higher when compared to other age groups. The OIR of highly educated workers showed a reduction when compared with lower educated workers. The OIR of shift workers were significantly higher compared with the daytime workers. The OIR of type of work decreased across the steel manufacturing process, rolling process, machine maintenance section forwarding products section to the field management section. With respect to the block of shift work(morning, afternoon, and night shifts) by the type of work, the OIR of the night shift was higher than those of the morning shift in the steel manufacturing process or forwarding products section. The OIR of the machine maintenance section was slightly higher in the morning shift than those of the night shift. The OIR of the time of day of the shift workers reached a peak between 09:00 and 11:00. The OIR of a slight injury to shift workers decreased across the night, afternoon, to morning shifts whereas the OIR of a serious injury tended to decrease across the night, morning, to afternoon shift. The body parts most commonly injured were the arm and the crus.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.33-39
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• 2014

Heat transfer oils are used in applications such as chemical plant heating systems, refinery heat exchange systems, certain gas processes, injection molding systems, and pulp and paper processing. These oils are extremely stable and resistant to thermal and oxidative degradation. In the event of a spill or accidental release of heat transfer oils, it can be ignited easily when there is an ignition source. This study discusses the status of safety management through the actual status of the heat transfer oils to prevent fire and explosion accidents in industries for process safety management. The actual status of the heat transfer oils in process system of industries surveyed by a questionnaire developed. The results of this study can be used to help establishment of safety management to prevent fire and explosion accidents, such as the management of heat transfer oils, safe operation and maintenance in heat transfer oil processes.