• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.26-32
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• 2020

Background: Hong Kong's construction industry currently faces a manpower crisis. Blue-collar workers are a disadvantaged group and suffer higher levels of chronic diseases, for example, cancer, than the wider population. Cancer risk factors are likely to cluster together. We documented prevalence of cancer-associated lifestyle risk behaviors and their correlates among Hong Kong construction workers. Methods: Data were collected from workers at 37 railway-related construction worksites throughout Hong Kong during May 2014. Tobacco use, alcohol consumption, unbalanced nutrition intake, and physical inactivity were included in the analysis. Latent class analysis and multivariable logistic regression were performed to identify the patterns of risk behaviors related to cancer, as well as their impact factors among construction workers in Hong Kong. Results: Overall, 1,443 workers participated. Latent class analysis identified four different behavioral classes in the sample. Fully adjusted multiple logistic regression identified age, gender, years of Hong Kong residency, ethnicity, educational level, and living status differentiated behavioral classes. Conclusion: High levels of lifestyle-related cancer-risk behaviors were found in most of the Hong Kong construction workers studied. The present study contributes to understanding how cancer-related lifestyle risk behaviors cluster among construction workers and relative impact factors of risk behaviors. It is essential to tailor health behavior interventions focused on multiple risk behaviors among different groups for further enlarging the effects on cancer prevention.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2023.05a
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• pp.381-382
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• 2023

Frequent accidents occur when workers at construction sites leave the safety zone, and particularly in the past 5 years, 9 fatal accidents occurred at the Korea Railroad Corporation due to train accidents on other tracks during track work. With the Severe Accident Punishment Act taking effect in January 2022, it is a priority to secure a safe work environment for workers at industrial (construction) sites. Therefore, there is a need to manage workers' departure from the safety zone (construction zone) and to facilitate communication within the construction zone. In this study, a mobile edge computing CCTV system is proposed that uses geofencing to determine whether workers are working in the danger zone, which can judge and respond in real-time to the ever-changing field environment. The proposed system is mobile and flexible, rather than server-based fixed CCTV. However, since it is designed mainly based on images, it has limitations in recognition rate depending on the environment such as distance, viewing angle, and illumination. As a way to compensate for this, it is required to develop more reliable equipment by combining technologies such as LiDAR and Radar.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.139-146
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• 1998

In current domestic construction field, several factors influencing the safety for field workers are various due to the size and complexity of construction works involved. Among the factors, the age is the important one, because the average age of workers is getting older due to the 3D phenomena in construction fields. The safety for workers of all ages is important, but especially safety for the old, is more important. Thus, the fundamental techniques for placement of field workers with adequate safety corresponding to complexity and hard works are investigated through analyzing fatigue and heart rate of individual worker, especially for the old.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.279-288
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• 2011

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between occupational stress and depression of construction workers. Methods: The subjects were 168 construction workers selected from I city and K city in Korea by convenient sampling. The data were collected by self-report questionnaires from August 1 to 31, 2011. The data were analyzed by frequencies, t-test, ANOVA, Tukey test, Pearson correlation coefficient, stepwise multiple linear regression with the SPSS/WIN 15.0 program. Results: The total mean scores of occupational stress on the subjects were 46.65 and lower (below 50%) than those of the Korean male workers, standard. According to the CES-D cut-off point, the prevalence of depression was 25%. The study showed that occupational stress is positively correlated with depression. Conclusion: This study concludes that it is necessary to develop stress management program to reduce occupational stress and depression.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2024.07a
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• pp.463-470
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• 2024

Recent wearable devices can measure workers' physical and mental stress levels in the workplace, enabling timely interventions or adjustments to improve safety, well-being, and productivity. However, stress is a subjective metric, response and recovery from stress varies depending on the individual's physical condition. This study is a preliminary study to test whether there are relationships between stress and physical conditions (i.e., body compositions) of individual workers. To find the relationship between various body compositions of the participants and their stress levels, Spearman correlation coefficients and linear regression analysis were conducted. The results showed a significant relationship between workers' stress level and their body composition. This suggests that by utilizing easily measurable body composition, customized stress monitoring for individual workers can be achieved, contributing to the prevention of construction accidents and the creation of a safer construction site.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.477-484
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• 2023

Human error, a leading cause of construction accidents, emphasizes the need for minimization to reduce such incidents. However, due to the nature of the construction industry, workers operate within the collective environment of a construction site. Therefore, this study investigates the influence of safety awareness levels within construction sites on the human errors committed by construction workers, from an organizational perspective. The analysis revealed that human errors directly impact construction accidents and that safety awareness levels within construction sites influence the human errors committed by construction workers. Specifically, a strong correlation was observed between slip errors(unintentional actions or oversights) and safety awareness levels in nearly all domains of construction site safety. This study highlights that by elevating safety awareness levels within construction sites, the likelihood of construction worker slips - and by extension, construction accidents - can be significantly reduced.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.175-184
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• 2008

As defined by the experts, safety education is the basic method through which people can protect themselves from the dangers in workplace. Therefore, safety education is an important safety measure that can be effectively utilized in disaster prevention without any certain limit. The current practice of safety education in construction sites, however, is all formal and has no substance. Safety education became a mere boring time to workers since the material is not related to them, and does not reflect the individual personalities, which cannot induce voluntary participation of workers. Thus, it is vital to develop various safety education models suitable for individual personalities of construction workers. This study aims to provide the basic data necessary to establish safety education models according to individual personalities of construction workers. Based on the analysis of the preliminary stuff and interviews, the typical individual personalities of construction workers and safety education factors were examined, and the frameworks for each were established. Based on results of applying them to actual cases, directions to improve safety education in construction sites are presented.

• Journal of Wellbeing Management and Applied Psychology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.49-56
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• 2024

Purpose: Construction sites are currently facing a socialization problem as the incidence of thermal disease-related disasters increases due to summer heat waves, exacerbated by factors like the concentration of middle-aged and older workers and global warming. The reason why construction sites are particularly vulnerable to heat waves is that there are many outdoor work, which is the peculiarity of the construction industry, and most of the construction workers are elderly. This study analyzes disaster statistics of workers at construction sites for five years to investigate the occurrence of thermal diseases and analyze factors through disaster cases to provide basic data for future disasters to be reduced. Research design, data, and methodology: According to the Construction Workers' Mutual Aid Association, as of June, more than 60% of the construction workers working in the field were in their 50s and 60s. More than 24% are in their 60s and older. Thermal diseases caused by heat waves occur when exposed to high heat or strong sunlight for a long time, accompanied by headaches and dizziness. The problem is that many elderly people have underlying diseases, so if they lose consciousness, they cannot easily recover and are likely to die. Results: According to industrial accident statistics, 182 people were injured by heat-related diseases in the summer from 2016 to 2021, of which 29 died. In particular, in the construction industry, which has a lot of outdoor work, 87 people were injured and 20 people died. Conclusions: In order to prevent heat diseases caused by outdoor work, it is emphasized that exposure time is controlled, and sufficient rest and hydration are essential. Rest, water, and shade are in line with the three principles.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.75-89
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• 2024

The objective of this study was to conduct research and analysis using Group Focus Interview to survey the between construction site workers and managers implementing for the Severe Accident Punishment Act. Focused on measures to improve safety management effectiveness for the effectiveness of establishing a safety management system. A plan to improve the efficient safety management system was presented to 50 construction industrial managers and workers. In order to ensure the industrial accident prevention policies appropriately, it is necessary to be aware of safety obligations for workers as well as business operators. In addition, despite the existence of a commentary on the Serious Accident Punishment Act, confusion in the field still persists, so in the event of a major accidents, the obligation to take safety and health education is strengthened, and effective case education is proposed by teaching actual accident cases suitable for actual working sites. It is necessary to make all training mandatory, and it is necessary to reconsider awareness through writing a daily safety log, awareness of risk factors, etc., and writing down risk information. Above all, at the construction ordering stage, it is necessary to keep the construction safety, request corrections and supplements for problems issues that arise, and consult between the orderer and the construction company about the problems issues. Rather than having only the construction company correct or supplement the safety management plan, the contents should be shared with supervisors and workers to establish a more practical solution. Results of this study will contribute to improving the effectiveness of the serious accident and construction safety management system.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.343-349
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• 2014

The construction projects are larger and more complex, and so the construction accidents are bigger. Recently, the studies for reducing the human errors are researched to decrease the construction accidents. The purpose of this study is to analysis a correlation between the safety education and human errors by construction workers. The results showed that the frequencies of safety education in large sized construction projects are more than these in small sized construction projects. However, all of construction projects conduct lower times of safety education than the regulated times. In addition, it is revealed that the human errors of construction workers in large sized construction projects are being lower in accordance with increasing the safety education times. In small sized construction projects, however, the human errors of construction workers are increasing according to more times of safety education, reversely. This study should help to reduce the accidents in construction projects.