• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.625-632
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• 2023

Due to the recent occupational accidents, the government made efforts such the Severe Accident Punishment Act and roadmap for reducing severe accidents. In particular, more than 80% accidents occur in small businesses, such as those with less than 50 employees and construction sites with a construction cost of less than 100 million, and practical efforts are needed to reduce them. In small businesses, the appointment of a safety managers and safety and health management regulations have been excluded in whole or in part, and technical guidance from an institution specializing in accident prevention is compulsory to supplement them. In this study, the problems of the safety and health technology support project for small workplaces has been identified through a survey and improvement plans were proposed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.845-853
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• 2023

The Ministry of Employment and Labor announced a roadmap for reducing serious accidents to create a "safe and healthy workplace, happy Korea" and ordered a risk assessment for all work processes in all workplaces on November 30, 2022. Accordingly, even workplaces that handle new chemicals must conduct risk assessment when introducing new chemicals, but the risk assessment techniques currently proposed by the government focus on preventing conventional accidents such as falls, getting caught, and bumping. Currently, there is a Chemical Hazard Risk Management (CHARM) technique that is most commonly used for chemical risk assessment, but in small and medium-sized businesses that lack professional manpower related to chemical substances, there are many technical terms in the technique and it is difficult to interpret, so its utilization is very low. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to present a method that can make risk assessment easier and simpler before handling new chemicals so that it can be used well in small and medium-sized businesses that lack professional manpower related to chemical substances. Through actual cases, the method of using CHARM was confirmed step by step, and based on this, risk reduction establishment and execution methods were derived. Based on the results of this study, it is expected that it will be used as the best tool for preventing accidents such as acute poisoning when handling chemicals in small and medium-sized workplaces that lack professional manpower related to chemical substances and make every effort to protect workers' health.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.483-488
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• 2024

Railroad construction requires a lot of budget, manpower, and equipment, and as a result, many accidents occur. Although efforts are being made at the national level to reduce the accidents at railway construction sites, the occupational accident rate is not showing a downward trend. Various efforts are needed to reduce accidents, the application of smart construction safety technology will be effective. However, if smart construction safety technology is introduced indiscriminately without analysis, duplicate investment may occur, which may lead to a waste of budget for railway construction. In this regard, this study analyzes accident cases at railroad construction sites through a survey of stakeholders and proposes smart construction safety technologies to be effective for those accident types.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.419-429
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• 2016

Objectives: According to the new Chemical Control Act from the Korean Ministry of Environment (2014-259), workers handling hazardous chemicals should wear personal protective equipment (PPE). However the act simply states in basic phrases that every worker handling one or more of the 69 listed chemicals should wear PPE and does not consider the unique hazard characteristics of chemicals and work types. The main purpose of this study is to provide basic data to revise the act to suit particular work processes and situations. Methods: The hazard rank of the substances was classified based on hazardous characteristics such as LC50 and vapor pressure using matrix analysis. The workplace exposure risk of the substances was also determined through a matrix analysis based on the previously determined hazard ranks and the demands of manual handling together with the likelihood of accident frequency of the operation combined with the exposure of workers during spill accidents. Results: To meet the demands for developing subsequent guidelines for the risk-based application of PPE in hazardous workplaces, this study sorted the 69 listed chemicals into five hazardous categories based on their LC50 and vapor pressures, and also assigned exposure categories according to exposure vulnerability for various types of work which are frequently performed throughout the life cycle of the chemicals. Conclusion: In the next study, an exposure risk matrix will be produced using the hazard rank of chemicals and workplace exposure risk, and then PPE will be selected to suit the categories of the exposure risk matrix.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.102-111
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• 2013

Purpose: This study was conducted to analyze the characteristics of work-related musculoskeletal diseases (MSD) and the factors for approving MSD by the parts of the body. Methods: The analysis was done using the data which were drawn from the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance that is operated by the Korea Worker's Compensation & Welfare Service. The data were composed of total cases related to the work-related diseases from 2006 to 2009. In addition, MSD data input by an investigator were collected. The factors associated with MSD were analyzed using ${\times}2$ and multiple logistic regression. Results: MSD approved cases have increased since 2006 and the proportion of the approved work-related MSD cases in the workers with work-related diseases in 2009 were 33.4%. Spinal approved cases were the highest percentage and upper and lower extremities cases gradually increased. The factors for approving upper extremity were found to be age, company size, type of industry, working duration, and in the case of spine to be company size and heavy lifting. Conclusion: Work-related MSD have increased and the factors that affected MSD by the parts of the body varied. Management strategy must be established to prevent MSD by the parts of the body.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2014

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to review the debate on the Article 28(Prohibition of Inhouse-Contract for Harmful Work) of the Industrial Safety and Health Law. Methods: Literatures and recent debate for prohibition and permission of inhouse-contract for harmful work were reviewed. Proposals of revision for the Article 28 of the Industrial Safety and Health Law were also reviewed. Results: It was not found reasonable to revise the Article 28 based on increased fatal accidents or diseases in the electroplating work and heavy metals handling works that are currently listed in the Presidential Decree under the law as the harmful works. Regulation types of prohibition or authorization for any harmful work shall have inherently poor coverage since the scope of application is extremely limited. Contractors for maintenance and repair of chemical facilities may not be included in the scope of application if the harmful works are defined as chemical handling works. If harmful works are prohibited, the contractor workers may loose their jobs. Therefore, it is necessary to consider balancing job security and occupational safety and health safety. Conclusions: Various limitations were found in the Article 28 and the proposals to revise it. Currently in-house subcontracting is widely spread in the workplace. Therefore, it may be inappropriate to set one or two Article such as the Article 28 and 29 to protect in-house subcontract workers from injury and illness. It is believed that it needs fundamental redirection and new approach with new paradigm to impose occupational safety and health duty to prime contractors.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.100-104
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• 2013

Background: The aim of this study was to assess public and private medical diagnostic laboratories in Nigeria for the presence of biosafety equipment, devices, and measures. Methods: A total of 80 diagnostic laboratories in biosafety level 3 were assessed for the presence of biosafety equipment, devices, and compliance rate with biosafety practices. A detailed questionnaire and checklist was used to obtain the relevant information from enlisted laboratories. Results: The results showed the presence of an isolated unit for microbiological work, leak-proof working benches, self-closing doors, emergency exits, fire extinguisher(s), autoclaves, and hand washing sinks in 21.3%, 71.3%, 15.0%, 1.3%, 11.3%, 82.5%, and 67.5%, respectively, of all laboratories surveyed. It was observed that public diagnostic laboratories were significantly more likely to have an isolated unit for microbiological work (p = 0.001), hand washing sink (p = 0.003), and an autoclave ($p{\leq}0.001$) than private ones. Routine use of hand gloves, biosafety cabinet, and a first aid box was observed in 35.0%, 20.0%, and 2.5%, respectively, of all laboratories examined. Written standard operating procedures, biosafety manuals, and biohazard signs on door entrances were observed in 6.3%, 1.3%, and 3.8%, respectively, of all audited laboratories. No biosafety officer(s) or records of previous spills, or injuries and accidents, were observed in all diagnostic laboratories studied. Conclusion: In all laboratories (public and private) surveyed, marked deficiencies were observed in the area of administrative control responsible for implementing biosafety. Increased emphasis on provision of biosafety devices and compliance with standard codes of practices issued by relevant authorities is strongly advocated.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.11 no.7
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• pp.84-90
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• 2021

98.8% of accidents occurring in domestic companies are concentrated in small-sized workplaces with fewer than 50 employees. Therefore, this study developed a disaster safety program that can be implemented by small and medium-sized enterprises by comparing and analyzing the safety management system actively used with the laws and regulations related to industrial safety and facilities. The disaster and safety program included the scope of application, organizational structure, risk assessment, emergency response system, education and training, safety equipment provision and program evaluation, and detailed preparation methods and procedures for each item. In addition, items to be aware of when operating a disaster safety program and operational strategies were presented. After that, it was proposed to introduce the research results into the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.80-87
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• 2021

Risk assessment techniques are processes used to evaluate hazardous risk factors in construction sites, facilities, raw materials, machinery, and equipment, and to estimate the size of risk that could lead to injury or disease, and establish countermeasures. The most important thing in assessing risk is calculating the size of the risk. If the size of the risk cannot be calculated objectively and quantitatively, all members who participated in the evaluation would passively engage in establishing and implementing appropriate measures. Therefore, this study focused on predicting accidents that are expected to occur in the future based on past occupational accident statistics, and quantifying the size of the risk in an overview. The technique employed in this study differs from other risk assessment techniques in that the subjective elements of evaluators were excluded as much as possible by utilizing past occupational accident statistics. This study aims to calculate the size of the risk, regardless of evaluators, such as a manager, supervisor, safety manager, or employee. The size of the risk is the combination of the likelihood and severity of an accident. In this study, the likelihood of an accident was evaluated using the theory of Bud Accident Chainability, and the severity of an accident was calculated using the occupational accident statistics over the past five years according to the accident classification by the International Labor Organization.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.631-639
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• 2022

Recently, the government is trying to change the paradigm of occupational safety by enforcing the entire revision of the Industrial Safety and Health Act and the Punishment of Serious Accidents Act with the goal of reducing the occupational accident and death rate by half. In particular, small-scale workplaces with less than 50 employees or less than 100 million won have difficulties in establishing a safety and health management system due to lack of safety and health management competency and lack of will of business owners. Therefore, this study attempted to identify problems and suggest improvement measures through an expert survey on the overall business area of the small business safety and health technology support project, which is one of the government's policies.