• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.124-130
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• 2008

This study investigated the age dependencies in ambient air pollution-associated asthma hospitalization from 2003 to 2005 in Seoul. For all ages and the age groups of 0-14, 15-64, and 65+years, the Generalized Additive Model (GAM) was used to estimate the relative risks of daily asthma hospitalization associated with changes in particulate matter and ozone. The time-trends, seasonal variances, day effects, temperature, humidity, and pressure at sea level were controlled in the models. Significant associations were observed between asthma hospitalization and the levels of $PM_{10}$ and $O_3$. The relative risks (RRs) of asthma hospitalization for every 10 unit increases in $PM_{10}({\mu}g/m^3)$ and $O_3$(ppb) were 1.008 (95% CI 1.005-1.012), and 1.012 (95% CI 1.003-1.020), respectively. Evaluated over $10\;{\mu}g/m^3$ increase in $PM_{10}$, we found the relative risks of asthma hospitalization to be 1.009 (95% CI 1.004-1.014) in 0-14 age group, and 1.015 (95% CI 1.008-1.022) in 65+ age group. Considering 10 ppb increase in $O_3$, those were 1.014 (95% CI 1.003-1.024) in 0-14 age group, and 1.025 (95% CI 1.009-1.041) in 65+ age group. It was concluded that current levels of ambient air pollution in Seoul make a significant contribution to the variation in daily asthma hospitalization. Further reduction in air pollution is necessary to protect the health of the community, especially that of the higher risky groups including children and elderly population.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.256-269
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• 2020

Objectives: Everyone has been affected in some way by the COVID-19 pandemic, while some workers face threats to their health due to their jobs as well as worries about spreading the virus to intimate family members. With these concerns in mind, this study aims to identify occupations more vulnerable to COVID-19 and suggests the necessity of providing proper control measures against the risks in a timely manner in Korea. Methods: Daily briefing reports by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) were compiled (n=120) between January 20 and May 31, 2020. A total of 11,486 confirmed cases were included, which were sorted by occasion, area, and occupation. Among them, 2,411 cases were classified with specific occasions and/or areas of infection, while only 544 cases were determined with identifiable occupations. Guidelines for biological hazard management and COVID-19 guidelines for workplaces from domestic and international bodies were enlisted and compared. Results: It is unsurprising to find that healthcare professionals are experiencing the most immediate threat from COVID-19. In addition, service workers with face-to-face practices or indirect contact are also facing high risks. Religion facilities and eating places (dining, drinking bar, café, etc.,) follow. Guidelines and manuals for biological hazards are still lacking in Korea compared to the US and EU. Workplace manuals for managing COVID-19 are neither as comprehensive as the approaches of NIOSH's hierarchy of controls nor inclusive enough for minimizing secondary or tertiary suffering. Conclusions: The COVID-19 crisis is still ongoing and there is no doubt there will be more such events in the future. This analysis suggests that occupational health professionals, amid a pandemic including COVID-19, are urged to anticipate emerging risks related to all sorts of occupations, identify vulnerable workers and working environments, and plan and take actions to protect workers' health.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.425-430
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• 2023

Background: It is acknowledged that legislation acts as a motivator for organizational action on psychosocial risks. Our study aims to provide evidence on the relationship between key occupational safety and health (OSH) policy principles and organizational action on work-related stress, and, in turn, with reported employee job demands and resources and their experience of work-related stress. We focus on Italy where specific legislation and practices on work-related stress were introduced in 2008 which are underpinned by these key OSH policy principles. Methods: Secondary analysis of the Italian samples from the employer ESENER-2 and employee 6th EWCS surveys was conducted, using path analysis in structural equation modeling (SEM) linking the two datasets. Results: We found a strong statistically significant relationship between OSH policy principles and organizational action on work-related stress (C.I. = .62-.78 p < .001). The existence of an organizational action plan on work-related stress was found to be significantly associated with more reported job resources (C.I. = .02-.24, p < .05) but these were not found to be significantly associated with less work-related stress. No significant association was found between having an organizational action plan for work-related stress and reported job demands. However, job demands were significantly related to reported work-related stress (C.I. = .27-.47, p < .001). Conclusions: Findings add support to the call for specific legislation on work-related psychosocial risks and highlight how an organizational OSH culture underpinned by key OSH principles, and awareness/competence development on psychosocial risk management can have a positive effect on organizational action. However, further support needs to be provided to organizations around developing primary prevention interventions at the organizational level with the aim of reducing job demands.

• Journal of Korean Ophthalmic Optics Society
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.1-5
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• 2007

This is a succeeding article of J. Korean Optalmic Optics Society vol. 11(2) pp. 121-129(2006) [Research about the distribution of refractive errors in distinction of gender and at age of Kyonggi province's partial area]. The former article showed age-specific distribution of myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism which generally appears in refractive errors. This paper aimed to investigate the change of refractive power and prevalence of refractive errors by age. Total 928 subjects were sampled and their refractive errors were determined using auto refractometer. As the results, change of refractive power of subjects appeared at the age about 40, and suddenly reduced over 46 years resulting in (+)refractive power at their fifties. Relative risks of refractive errors of myopia increased in younger subjects but the risks decreased in older subjects (over 46 years). On the other hand, the risks of hyperopia decreased as the age of subjects increase, but could increase to 0.24 (95% CI: 0.07-0.88) after 36 years. This results showed that presbyopia might progress more early when people were before 40 years.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.1-20
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• 2004

This study is to examine relationships of several socioeconomic position indicators with mortality risk in a nationwide longitudinal study of South Korea. The Korea Labor & Income Panel Study, conducted on a probability sample of urban South Korean households by Korea Labor Institute, contains date of death information for the decedents which were used to estimate relative risks of mortality and their $95\%$ confidence intervals (CI) with Cox regression analysis. A total of 125 men and women among 8,415 subjects died between 1998 and 2002. Socioeconomic differentials in mortality were observed after adjustment for sex and age. Those with less than 12-year education had 1.90 times $(95\%\;CI=1.25-2.91)$ greater mortality risk than those with 12-year education or more. Greater mortality risks were also found among those with low occupational class and manual occupation. The magnitude of differentials in mortality risks between occupational class were similar in two different approaches to measuring women's occupational class: (1) approach 1 where women, married or not, retain their own occupational class, and (2) approach 2 where married women are assigned their husbands' occupational class. Relative risks of dying among those with low household Income were 1.62 $(95\%\; CI=1.08-2.42)$ compared with the counterparts. Those who reported economic hardship at the time of survey in 1998 had greater risk of mortality $(RR=1.83,\;95\%\;CI=1.21-2.78)$ than those who did not. In conclusion, increased social discourse and policy discussions about these health inequalities are needed in Korean society. Future studies should explore the causes and mechanisms of socioeconomic mortality inequalities.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.184-190
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• 2001

Industrial structure is more developed, the economical value of human resources and the cases which risks worker's Health & Safety is expended. The Safety & Health issues are focused on elements of control for management activity simultaneously with work environment as well as the risk elements which risks worker's life and body. The activity for combination of basic management System and Safety & Health management is progressing with active discussion in ILO, BS 8800 is specified the guidance of Occupational Safety & Health Management System in UK. 1996. This research refers to BS 8800:1996, specification as a basic model, and introduce of the result of certification development result in Occupational Safety & Health management System with in ISO 14001 Environmental System Standards & ISO 9001 Quality Management System Standards and Systemic Factors. Through this applicability and efficiency evaluation, we make an effort to support and to improve the specification. Also applicability evaluation of Occupational Safety & Health management System and the specification developed for the purpose of the third party certification is applied with expending in industry, and the method is presented through the case which is required to support for method review and activities.

• The Korean Journal of Food & Health Convergence
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.13-21
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• 2021

The goal of this study was to quantify the content of heavy metals (Zn, Cu, Cd, Pb, Hg) in the bivalve Mytilus galloprovincialis, which was obtained from the Black Sea's Sinop peninsula, as well as estimate the health risks. Concentrations of heavy metals in mussels' soft tissues ranged between 16.4-21.8, 0.52-0.93, 0.13-0.45; 0.015-0.019 and 0.006-0.011mg kg^-1 wet weight for Zn, Cu, Pb, Hg and Cd, respectively. In general, metal concentrations in mussels were quite low. In mussels, Zn was the most prevalent element, followed by Cu. Regarding the monthly variation, although relatively higher tissue metal concentrations were observed in August compared to July, no statistical difference was found. The estimated daily intakes did not exceed the tolerable intakes. There was no health risk since the total hazard index was far below critical value 1. This demonstrates that eating mussels from the Sinop coasts in 2019 does not cause any health risks in infants, children, or adult. Mussels have a risk index of less than 10^-6, which is considered insignificant. In conclusion, the results of this study show that there is no heavy metal pollution in the mussels collected from Sinop coasts.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.755-767
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• 2014

Chlorine is one of the most produced and most used non-flammable chemical substances in the world even though its toxicity and high reactivity cause the ozone layer depletion. However, in modern life, it is impossible to live a good life without using Chlorine and its derivatives since they are being used as an typical ingredient in more than 40 percent of the manufactured goods including medicines, detergents, deodorant, fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, and plastic, etc. Even if Chlorine has been handled and distributed in various business (small and medium-sized businesses, water purification plants, distribution company, etc.), there have been few researches about its possible health hazard and transportation risks. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to make a detailed assessment of Chlorine-related risks and to model an index of chemicals transportation risks that is adequate for domestic circumstances. The assessment of possible health hazard and transportation risks was made on 13 kinds of hazardous chemicals, including liquid chlorine. This research may be contributed to standardizing the risk assessment of Chlorine and other hazardous chemicals by using an index of transportation risks.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.4 no.1_2
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• pp.55-65
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• 1989

Nevertheless the serious environmental pollution in Korea has been discussed in concern with health effect, the significant effect are not determined easily. Toxicological method has been used to establish safe levels of exposure for environmental pollutants to have threshold health effect below which significant effects are unlikely to occur. However the conventional method cannot to establish safe levels of exposure for non-threshold pollutants have been used to express comprehensive pollution degree, not in detailed toxic effects. Acceptable exposure or risk levels are decides by policymakers who consider descriptions and estimates of risks together with social and economic benefits. This paper focuses on the concept development of risk assessment and describes some risks of environmental pollution based on the surveyed date in Korea. The current concepts of risk assessment in policy descisions can be explored and areas for possible improvement, given current scientific knowledge are identified. The experience of foreign countries can provide a realistic basis for evaluating the existing data of environmental pollutants. To improve the environmental quality, risk regulation should be managed as soon as possible in Korea.

• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.166-174
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• 2021

A large volume of patient data is generated from various devices used in healthcare applications. With increase in the volume of data generated in the healthcare industry, more wellness monitoring is required. A cloud-enabled analysis of healthcare data that predicts patient risk factors is required. Machine learning techniques have been developed to address these medical care problems. A novel technique called the radix-trie-based Tanimoto kernel regressive infomax boost classification (RT-TKRIBC) technique is introduced to analyze the heterogeneous health data in the cloud to predict the health risks and send alerts. The infomax boost ensemble technique improves the prediction accuracy by finding the maximum mutual information, thereby minimizing the mean square error. The performance evaluation of the proposed RT-TKRIBC technique is realized through extensive simulations in the cloud environment, which provides better prediction accuracy and less prediction time than those provided by the state-of-the-art methods.