• Title/Summary/Keyword: Disaster and Public Safety

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Managing Technological Risk and Risk Conflict : Public Debates on Health Risks of Mobile Phones EMF (기술위험 관리와 위험갈등 : 휴대전화 전자파의 인체유해성 논란)

  • Jung, Byung-Kul
    • Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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    • v.8 no.1
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    • pp.97-129
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    • 2008
  • We are living in the time of high probability of technological risk due to increased rate of technology development and diffusion of new technologies. Resolving uncertainties, the basic attribution of risk, by accumulating knowledge over the risk factors of certain technology is critical to management of technological risk. In many cases of technological risks, high uncertainty of knowledge is commonly mentioned reason for public controversies on risk management. However, the type of technological risk with low social agreement and low uncertainty of knowledge, the main reason for public controversy is absence of social agreement. Public debates on the risks of mobile phones electromagnetic fields(EMF) to human health comes under this category. The knowledge uncertainty on human health effect of mobile phones EMF has been lowered increasingly by accumulating enormous volume of knowledge though scientists have not reached a final conclusion whether it pose a risk to the physical and mental health of the general population or not. In contrast with civil organizations calling for precautionary approach based regulation, the mobile phone industry is cling to the position of no-regulation-needed by arguing no clear evidence to prove health risks of mobile phone EMF has found. In Korea, government set exposure standards based on a measurement called the 'specific absorption rate'(SAR) and require the mobile phone industry to open SAR information to the public by their own decision. From the view of pro-regulation side based on precautionary approach, technology risk managament of mobile phones EMF in Korea is highly limited and formalized one with limited measuring of SAR on head part only and problematic self-regulated opening of information about SAR to the public. As far as the government keeps having priority on protecting interest of mobile phone industry over precautionary regulation of mobile phones EMF, the disagreement between civil organizations and the government will not resolved. The risk of mobile phones EMF to human health have high probability of being underestimated in the rate and damage of risk than objectively estimated ones due to familiarity of mobile phone technology. And this can be the cause of destructive social dispute or devastating disaster. To prevent such disastrous results, technology risk management, which integrating the goals of safety with economic growth in public policy and designing and promoting risk communication, is required.

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Conical Slope Stability of Tertiary Basalt Based on the Geological Cross-Sections (지질횡단면을 활용한 원추형 현무암 비탈면 안정성)

  • Myeong-Hyeok Ihm;Sung-Pil Hwang;Byung-Suk Park;Jun-Sang An;Woo-Seok Kim
    • The Journal of Engineering Geology
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    • v.34 no.3
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    • pp.447-457
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    • 2024
  • This study investigated a cut-slope surface containing Tertiary faults, representing a conical-shaped slope with strike varying from N44°E to NS, N50°W, and finally N70°E. The slope consists mainly of basalt, with discontinuities in the slope including faults, fault zones, fracture zones, shear joints, and extension joints. The type and scale of failure vary with the strike of the slope and the strikes of discontinuities, with plane and wedge failure predominating. Based on face-mapping data, SMR (slope mass rating), rock physical and mechanical properties, analysis of stereonet projections and geological cross-sections, and critical equilibrium analysis, optimal slope stability determination was found to involve the countermeasure method, the slope gradient relief method, the green soil surface treatment method, and a fall prevention measure. After application of the countermeasure method, both dry and wet slope conditions exceeded allowable safety factors. It is expected that the preparation of geological cross-sections of various representative sections perpendicular to the surface of the slope, and the application of corresponding countermeasure methods, will be reasonable tools for three-dimensional analysis of slope stability. If the strike of the slope varies widely, it is necessary to prepare geological cross-sections, and the section used for critical equilibrium analysis must be established as the basic section.

Study on Fire Hazard Analysis along with Heater Use in the Public Use Facility Traditional Market in Winter (겨울철 다중이용시설인 전통재래시장 난방기구 사용에 따른 화재 위험성 분석에 관한 연구)

  • Ko, Jaesun
    • Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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    • v.10 no.4
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    • pp.583-597
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    • 2014
  • Fire caused by heater has various causes as many as the types of heater. also, lots of damage of human life and property loss are caused, since annually continuous fire accident by heater in traditional market is frequently occurring. There are not many cases of fire due to heater in most of residential facilities such as general house, apartments, etc., because they are supplied with heating boiler, however the restaurant, store and office of the market, sports center, factory, workplace, etc. still use heater, e.g. oilstove, electric heater, etc., so that they are exposed to fire hazard. Also, when investigating the number of fire due to heater, it was analyzed to occur in order of home boiler, charcoal stove, oilstove, gas heater/stove, electric stove/heater, the number of fire per human life damage was analyzed in order of gas heater/stove, oil heater/stove, electric heater/stove, briquette/coal heater. Also, gas and oil related heater were analyzed to have low frequency, however, with high fire intensity. Therefore, this research aimed at considering more scientific fire inspection and identification approach by reenacting and reviewing fire outbreak possibility caused by combustibles' contact and conductivity under the normal condition and abnormal condition in respect of ignition hazard, i.e. minimum ignition temperature, carbonization degree and heat flux along with it, due to oilstove and electric stove, which are still frequently used in public use facility, traditional market, and, of which actual fire occurrence is the most frequent. As the result of reenact test, ignition hazard appeared very small, as long as enough heat storage condition is not made in both test objects(oilstove/electric stove), however carbonization condition was analyzed to be proceeded per each part respectively. Eventually, transition to fire is the ignition due to heat storage, so that it was analyzed to ignite when minimum heat storage temperature condition of fire place is over $500^{\circ}C$. Particularly, in case of quartz pipe, the heating element of electric stove, it is rapidly heated over the temperature of $600^{\circ}C$ within the shortest time(10sec), so that the heat flux of this appears 6.26kW/m2, which was analyzed to result in damage of thermal PVC cable and second-degree burn in human body. Also, the researcher recognized that the temperature change along with Geometric View Factor and Fire Load, which display decrease of heat, are also important variables to be considered, along with distance change besides temperature condition. Therefore, the researcher considers that a manual of careful fire inspection and identification on this is necessary, also, expects that scientific and rational efforts of this research can contribute to establish manual composition and theoretical basis on henceforth fire inspection and identification.

Special Issue for the 30th Anniversary of the Korean Academy of Health Policy and Management (한국보건행정학회 30주년 기념 특별호)

  • Park, Eun-Cheol
    • Health Policy and Management
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    • v.28 no.3
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    • pp.195-196
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    • 2018
  • The Korean Academy of Health Policy and Management (KAHPM) has shown remarkable achievements in the field of health policy and management in Korea for the last 30 years. The KAHPM consists of experts in various fields of health policy and management, and has been the leading academic discussion forum for health policy agendas of interest to the public. Health Policy and Management (HPM), the official journal of the KAHPM, published the first issue of volume 1 in October, 1991 and is publishing the second issue of volume 28 as of 2018. Currently, it is one of Korea' main journals in the field of health policy and management. HPM has published a special issue in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the KAHPM. The HPM invited authors, including former presidents of the KAHPM and current board members, to write about main issues in health policy and management. Although the HPM tried to set up an invited author on all subjects in the health policy and management field, 19 papers are published, that completed the peer review process by August, 2018. The authors of the special issue of the 30th anniversary of the KAHPM include six former presidents, a senior professor, and 12 board members. The subjects of this issue are reform of the healthcare delivery system, health insurance and medical policy, reform of health system governance, the role of National Health Insurance Service (NHIS), the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA) and the National Evidence-based healthcare Collaborating Agency (NECA), ethical aspects of health policy change, regional disparities of healthcare, healthcare accreditation, new healthcare technology evaluation system, globalization of the healthcare industry, the epidemiological investigator system, the quarantine system, safety and disaster, and official development assistance. There are some remaining topics to deal with for the KAHPM: aged society, anti-smoking, non-infectious disease, suicide, healthcare resources, emergency medical care, out-of-pocket money, medical fee payment system, medical aid system, long-term care insurance, industrial accident compensation insurance, community-centered health welfare system, and central government and local government of health. The HPM will continue to publish review articles on the main topics in health policy and management. This is because the KAHPM, which has been the leading academic society of Korea's health policy and management for the last 30 years, feels responsible for continuing its mission for the next 30 years.

Review of No Net Loss(NLL) of Wetland and Suggestion of Appropriate NLL in Korea (내륙습지 총량관리제도의 고찰 및 도입 방안 제안)

  • Yujin Kang;Junhyeong Lee;Taewoo Lee;Duckgil Kim;Jaeseung Seo;Soojun Kim;Hung Soo Kim
    • Journal of Wetlands Research
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    • v.26 no.3
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    • pp.227-235
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    • 2024
  • Inland wetlands provide important ecosystem services or functions, including biodiversity conservation, water purification, flood control, and carbon sequestration. However, many inland wetlands are being degraded by urbanization and industrialization, raising the need for conservation and restoration. This study proposes the adoption of No Net Loss(NLL) of Wetland for wetland conservation and restoration in Korea by the review of the literatures. To this end,, we analyzed the wetland conservation and management systems of the United States, Canada, Germany, Japan, and Australia, and identified institutional features and success factors of each country, and sought ways to adapt them to domestic conditions of Korea. The case of the United States highlights the importance of legal frameworks and public-private collaboration, Canada demonstrates systematic management approaches, Germany maintains a balance between development and conservation, Japan underscores the need for cooperative conservation efforts, and Australia emphasizes the efficiency of offset markets. The introduction and operation of these schemes are expected to contribute to climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation, and water quality improvement, but ongoing research and policy efforts are needed to ensure that the schemes are well established.

Performance Evaluation of Balance Ability Equipment Using VR (VR을 이용한 균형능력 측정장비의 성능평가)

  • Yoon, Sangcheol;An, Howon;Ahn, Taekwon;Choi, Haesung;Lee, Byoungkwon;Seo, Dongkwon;Lee, Kyuhwan;Jung, Sangwoo;Yi, Jaehoon
    • Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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    • v.8 no.3
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    • pp.33-41
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    • 2020
  • Purpose : Conventional Balance Measurement can only measure the center of gravity and the shaking movement of the body. As a result, it has the disadvantages of not responding to visual changes and blocking functions of variables. This study was carried out to evaluate the performance of new equipment that measures the balance of the body using changes in body segment and pressure using the acceleration sensor to compensate for the disadvantages of the existing equipment. Methods : To this end, balance ability was measured in 43 healthy male/female adults without orthopedic injuries and nervous system damage in the last 6 months. in a situation where the visual information was restricted by Virtual Reality (VR) gear, all subjects measured and evaluated the balance ability utilizing the new equipment. Balance measurement (Prime Medilab, Korea) and Wii fit (Nintendo, Japan) were used to measure the balance ability of the subjects, and the balance ability test was performed in 4 postures using each device for data acquisition. The test duration for each posture was 30 seconds. For data acquisition, the average value of three experiments measured using each equipment was analyzed, and the statistical test was performed using the independent sample and the corresponding sample t-test, and the significance level was set to α=.05. Results : As a result of measuring the balance ability using individual equipment, blocking visual information using VR gear, the average speed, maximum speed, and moving area of the COP increased equally. It was found that the obtained absolute size of the result in Wii was somewhat larger than that of BM. Conclusion : It is considered that in the future research, it is necessary to measure changes in the body's center of gravity through image analysis, etc., to make clear comparison and evaluation of the usability.

A 2-D Location Determination Model of Buried Persons in Collapsed Shape using Optimal Wireless Communication Technology (최적 무선통신 기술을 활용한 붕괴지형 매몰자의 2차원 매몰위치 결정 모델)

  • Moon, Hyoun-Seok;Lee, Woo-Sik;Lee, Gun-Woo;Han, Dong-Soo
    • Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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    • v.16 no.12
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    • pp.8879-8888
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    • 2015
  • When the disaster like earthquake in urban area occur, due to the collapse accidents for subway, tunnel space with buildings or underground area, enormous property and human damage are happened. Specially, since it is difficult to identify survived status of humans within collapsed debris and accurately buried locations of the humans, inputs of considerable time and manpower for rescuing them are required. Besides, secondary damage can be occurred by additional collapses. The aim of this study is to propose a stochastic location positioning method that enables to provide aid information by determining locations of mobile devices for buried persons in 2-D plane using wireless communication technologies. This study selected a detection method for buried persons based on Wi-Fi signal, and identified characteristics of signal strengths by distance unit. Using these methods, a stochastic location detection model in 2-D plane was built. It is expected that this technology will be utilized as a core technology that can protects safety and human life of the public by providing data for rescuing quickly buried persons in cases of national disasters for future.

Regional Characteristics Model to Explain Fire Damage Elements : Hypotheses and Verification (지역 유형별 화재 피해 특성변수 모델: 가설과 검증)

  • Kang, Byungki;Chang, Eunmi;Choi, Kapyong
    • Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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    • v.21 no.2
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    • pp.379-393
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    • 2015
  • The fire damage has been increased as the frequency of fire incidence decreases with increasing in death and economic loss. Local governments are dependent on the activities of fire-fighters with crude preparedness and prevention for fire incidence. Most of researches on fire safety have focused on descriptive statistics which show general trends in fire incidence and condition. Here we tried to make a mutual causal model for fire damage, to make three big hypotheses with laying three small hypotheses under each big hypothesis. Five years statistics from public domains in the form of hardcopy or softcopy were collected and fifteen independent variables were selected to explain the number of death, the number of fire incidence and the amount of economic loss from fire incidence. The significances of statistics are different among the regional characteristics. The hypotheses were partially rejected and the meanings of rejected factors will refresh the tentative prejudice. It is necessary to revise the principle that the number of population and size of area are regarded as the most important criteria to allocate resources for fire control and to have the criteria flexible with results of our research such as the number of the weak to fire disaster.

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Structural Behavior Evaluation of a Cable-Stayed Bridge Subjected to Aircraft Impact: A Numerical Study (항공기 충돌에 대한 사장교의 구조거동 평가: 수치해석적 접근)

  • Choi, Keunki;Lee, Jungwhee;Chung, Chul-Hun;An, Dongwoo;Yoon, Jaeyong
    • Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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    • v.34 no.3
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    • pp.137-149
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    • 2021
  • Cable-stayed bridges are infrastructure facilities of a highly public nature; therefore, it is essential to ensure operational safety and prompt response in the event of a collapse or damage caused by natural and social disasters. Among social disasters, impact accidents can occur in bridges when a vehicle collides with a pier or when crashes occur due to aircraft defects. In the case of offshore bridges, ship collisions will occur at the bottom of the pylon. In this research, a procedure to evaluate the structural behavior of a cable-stayed bridge for aircraft impact is suggested based on a numerical analysis approach, and the feasibility of the procedure is demonstrated by performing an example assessment. The suggested procedure includes 1) setting up suitable aircraft impact hazard scenarios, 2) structural modeling considering the complex behavior mechanisms of cable-stayed bridges, and 3) structural behavior evaluation of cable-stayed bridges using numerical impact simulation. It was observed that the scenario set in this study did not significantly affect the target bridge. However, if impact analysis is performed through various scenarios in the future, the load position and critical load level to cause serious damage to the bridge could be identified. The scenario-based assessment process employed in this study is expected to facilitate the evaluation of bridge structures under aircraft impact in both existing bridges and future designs.

Effectiveness of the Trauma Team-Staffed Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (헬리콥터 응급의료서비스의 외상팀 탑승 여부와 외상환자의 생존율)

  • Kim, Tea-youn;Lee, Sang Ah;Park, Eun-Cheol;Huh, Yo;Jung, Kyoungwon;Kwon, Junsik;Moon, Jonghwan;Kim, Jiyoung;Kim, Juryang;Hwang, Kyungjin;Yun, Seong Keun;Lee, John Cook-Jong
    • Health Policy and Management
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    • v.28 no.4
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    • pp.411-422
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    • 2018
  • Background: Whether there is a difference in outcomes for trauma patients transferring to the helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) according to their previous team composition is controversial. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of trauma team-staffed-HEMS (TTS-HEMS) when transferring to a trauma center. Methods: A retrospective comparison was conducted on patients transported to a trauma center over a 6-year period by the TTS-HEMS and paramedic-staffed-HEMS (119-HEMS). Inclusion criteria were blunt trauma with age ${\geq}15years$. Patient outcomes were compared with the Trauma and Injury Severity Score (TRISS) (30-day mortality) and the Cox proportional hazard ratio of mortality (in hospital). Results: There were 321 patients of TTS-HEMS and 92 patients of 119-HEMS. The TTS-HEMS group had a higher Injury Severity Score and longer transport time but a significantly shorter time to emergency surgery. The prehospital data showed that the trauma team performed more aggressive interventions during transport. An additional 7.6 lives were saved per 100 TTS-HEMS deployments. However, the TRISS results in the 119-HEMS group were not significant. In addition, after adjusting for confounders, the hazard ratio of mortality in the 119-HEMS group was 2.83 times higher than that in the TTS-HEMS group. Conclusion: HEMS was likely to improve the survival rate of injured patients when physicians were involved in TTS-HEMS. Survival benefits in the TTS-HEMS group appeared to be related to the fact that the trauma team performed both more aggressive prehospital resuscitation and clinical decision making during transportation.