• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.24 no.65
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• pp.31-40
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• 2001

We Propose an improved shovel design to minimize physical discomfort and the risk of cumulative trauma disorder at shoveling tasks. The specifications of shovels in Korean standard data were scrutinized to check if they met the anthropometric specification of Korean population in 1997. We also applied "Body Map" pictograph and self-conscious checklist to field survey to analyze the discomfort of shoveling task. Thirty male subjects whose age were ranging from 18 to 65 voluntarily participated in the experiment. The measurement results show that shoveling workers were exposed to hazards of CTD's. Especially, when workers were involved in ditch digging and construction their trunk vend more than 120 degree. In order to compare the new designed shovel and the traditional K.S shovel, an analysis of variance was performed and we obtained very strong evidence that the new designed shovel was better in reducing physical discomfort. According to the results from electromyograrn experiment the new shovel contributed to improving subjective comfort level and reducing low back muscle fatigue. For futher study, the research may be extended to determine the relationship among shovel sharpness, type, digging motion and digging force.ing force.

• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.188.1-188.1
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• 2003

2-Bromopropane (2-BP) is a major component of the mixture of SPG-6AR and Solvent 5200 that is a substitute of chlorofluorocarbon. Many female workers exposed to 2-bromopropane in a Korean electronic company were found to have amenorrhea and male workers were diagnosed with oligospermia. In the present studies, immunotoxic effects of 2-BP and an analog, 1,2-dibromopropane (1 ,2-DBP), were investigated in female BALB/c mice. (omitted)

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.39-46
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• 2022

This study has found the socio-economic factors that affect occupational accidents and measured the influence quantitatively. We built the panel data of 4 countries (Japan, Germany, the U.S., and the U.K.) and the analysis model counted on the fixed effect model to reflect the countries' differences. The fatal occupational injury rates in the analyzed countries had a statistically significant relationship with the level of per capita GDP, the proportion of the construction industry, the rate of male workers, annual average working hours, the rate of workers in manufacturing and construction industries, etc. The annual average working hours have a positive correlation with the fatal occupational injury rate. To reduce occupational accidents effectively, we should be monitoring and researching various factors that can affect the occurrence of occupational accidents such as worker characteristics, changing industrial structure, and changes in working hours.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.301-311
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• 2011

This study was performed to determine the self-perceived fatigue and its association with job stress contents and psychosocial factors among white collar male workers. The self-administered questionnaires were given to 872 workers employed in 42 work places during the period from February 1st to April 30th, 2009. As a results, in terms of levels of self-perceived fatigue according to the job stress contents and psychosocial factors, under significantly higher level of self-perceived fatigue were those with higher level of job demand, lower job autonomy, lower supervisor support and higher locus of control than their respective counterparts. Multiple stepwise analysis revealed that the factors of influence on self-perceived fatigue included age, subjective status of health, job career, experience of sick absence, sense of satisfaction in work, regular exercise, sleeping hours, visiting out-patient department, job demand, supervisor support and self-esteem. The study results indicated that the level of self-perceived fatigue is so complicatedly influenced by variable factors as well as socio-demographic characteristics, job-related characteristics and health-related behaviors, to a greater extent, by JCQ and psychosocial factors.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.6364-6372
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• 2013

This study examined the effects of a non-smoking program according to the stress and emotional condition of male office workers. As research subjects, 106 smokers at C company who participated in the campaign of "No Second-Hand Smoking and No Cigarette Smoke at Work" from April 25, 2011 to December, 2011 for 8 months were enrolled in this study. Apreliminary survey of the general characteristics, motivation to quit smoking, emotional condition, behavior to cope with stress, stress in life, hope, and the emotional variables of job satisfaction in the research subjects was carried out. The study undertook a pre-and-post effect analysis of the non-smoking program only with those who succeeded in quitting smoking. In terms of the general characteristics of the subjects, the success rate of quitting smoking was higher in those in their thirties and above and those who were married. No significant difference in the emotional variables was observed between those who were not successful and those who were. These results suggest that the motives for stopping smoking and effective dealing with stress or anxiety is important for male office workers to succeed in stopping smoking, based on which smoking cessation programs should be developed. In addition, the message of a smoking cessation campaign should be designed specifically for each target audience, effectively emphasizing the emotional aspects of each target group.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.3552-3560
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• 2012

This study was conducted to find out the complaint rate of musculo-skeletal disorder and its related factors from male manufacturing workers at a nonferrous manufacturing industry. As for the research subjects, 302 workers selected from a nonferrous manufacturer located in Daejeon City, and as for the collection of data, a standardized anonymous questionnaire survey were conducted from May 1, 2011 to June 30, 2011. As a results, the complaint rate of musculo-skeletal disorders by each body part, the symptom of shoulders was 42.7%, the highest rate, followed by the waist, 36.8%, the neck and the hand/wrist/finger, 30.5% respectively, the leg and foot, 30.1% and arm/elbow, 20.9%. The complaint rate of musculo-skeletal disorder for the sociodemographic characteristics was significantly high as survey participants' age and BMI were low and in the group having low subjective health condition. The complaint rate of musculo-skeletal disorder for the health-related behavior characteristics was significantly high in the group having been absent from work due for diseases, in the group having received outpatient services, in the group having been hospitalized for treatment, in the group not having a regular exercise and in the group having insufficient sleeping hours. Finally, the complaint rate of musculo-skeletal disorder for the job-related characteristics was significantly high in the group suffering from the physical burden of their work, in the group working while bending at the waist and in the group carrying out repetitive tasks.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.30 no.4 s.59
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• pp.741-751
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• 1997

Measurement of blood lead (PbB) and blood zinc protoporphyrin (ZPP) are most common biological indices to identify the individual at risk for excess or the health sequences by lead exposure. Because PbB is known most important and reliable index of lead exposure, PbB is often regarded as a gold standard to detect lead exposure. But in Korea PbB is a secondary test item of detailed health check-up with positive finding of screening test in most occasion. Our lead standard requires all lead workers to take annual heath-check twice a year for investigation of their health effect due to lead exposure. Blood ZPP is one of most important index to detect high lead absorption in lead workers as a screening test. Measurement of blood ZPP is known ,well to correlate with PbB in steady state of exposure in most lead workers and is often used as a primary screening test to detect high lead absorption of lead workers with the advantage of simplicity, easiness, portability and low cost. The current cut-off criteria of blood ZPP for further detailed health check-up is $100{\mu}g/d\ell$ which is supposed to match the level of $40{\mu}g/d\ell$ of PbB according to our standard. Authors tried to investigate the validity of current criteria of cut-off level $(100{\mu}g/d\ell)$ of blood ZPP and possible another better cut-off level of it to detect the lead workers whose PbB level over $40{\mu}g/d\ell$. The subjects in our study were 212 male workers in three small scale storage battery industries. Blood ZPP, PbB and hemoglobin (Hb) were selected as the indices of lead exposure. The results were as follows. 1. The mean of blood ZPP, PbB and Hb in lead workers were $79.5{\pm}46.7{\mu}g/d\ell,\;38.7{\pm}15.1{\mu}g/d\ell,\;and\;14.8{\pm}1.2g/d\ell$, respectively. There were significant differences in blood ZPP, PbB and Hb by industry (P<0.01). 2. The percents of lead workers whose blood ZPP were above $100{\mu}g/d\ell$ in the group of work duration below 1, 1-4, 5-9 and above 10 years were 8.6%, 17.2%, 47.6%, and 50.0%, respectively. The percents of lead workers whose PbB were above $40{\mu}g/d\ell$ in those were 31.4%, 40.4%, 71.4%, and 86.4%, respectively. 3. The percents of lead workers whose PbB were below $40{\mu}g/d\ell$, $40-59{\mu}g/d\ell$ and above $60{\mu}g/d\ell$ were 54.7%, 34.9% and 10.4%, respectively. Those of lead workers whose blood ZPP were below $100{\mu}g/d\ell$, $100-149{\mu}g/d\ell$ and above $150{\mu}g/d\ell$ were 79.2%, 13.7% and 7.1%, respectively. 4. Simple linear regression of PbB on blood ZPP was statistically significant (P<0.01) and as PbB was $40{\mu}g/d\ell$, blood ZPP was $82.1{\mu}g/d\ell$. 5. While the highest sensitivity and specificity of blood ZPP test to detect lead workers with PbB eve. $40{\mu}g/d\ell$ were observed in the cut-off level of $50{\mu}g/d\ell$ and $100{\mu}g/d\ell$ of blood ZPP, respectively, the highest validity (sensitivity+specificity) of blood ZPP to detect lead workers with PbB over $40{\mu}g/d\ell$ was observed in the cut-off level of around $70{\mu}g/d\ell$ of blood ZPP. But even with optimal cut-off level of around $70{\mu}g/d\ell$ of blood ZPP, still 25.0% of false negative and 20.7% false positive lead workers were found. As the result of this study, it was suggested that reconsideration of current blood ZPP cut-off of our lead standard from $100{\mu}g/d\ell$ to somewhat lower level such as around $70{\mu}g/d\ell$ and the inclusion of PbB measurement as a primary screening test for lead workers was highly recommended for the effective prevention of lead workers.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.26 no.2 s.42
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• pp.251-267
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• 1993

The relationship between lead related subject symptoms and lead exposure indices was studied in 435 male lead workers in thirteen lead using industries. 212 male office workers who were not exposed to lead occupationally were also studied as a control group. Fourteen lead related symptoms were selected. They were further subdivied into 4 sub-symptom groups such as 1) gastrointestinal, 2) neuromuscular and joint 3) constitutional, and 4) psychological symptoms. Symptom questionnaires were provided to the workers and filled up by themselves and reconfirmed by interviewer(doctor). The test used fer the evaluation of lead exposure were blood lead(PbB), zinc protoporphyrin in whole blood(ZPP), hemoglobin(Hb), hematocrit (Hct), delta-aminolevulinic acid in urine(DALA). The results obtained were as follows; 1. The higher prevalence rate in the sub-group of neuromuscular and joint symptoms was observed in occupationally lead exposed subjects than non-exposed subjects. Among the sub-groups, the most frequent symptom was 'numbness of finger, hands or feet', and the prevalence of the symptom of 'arthralgia', 'weakness of fingers, hands or feet' and 'myalgia' were higher in order. 2. While the symptom which showed the biggest difference of prevalence rate among the 14 symptoms between exposed and non-exposed subjects was 'numbness of fingers, hands or feet', the symptom which showed the highest prevalence rate was 'feeling tired generally' in exposed and non-exposed subjects, but no statistical difference of symptom prevalence were observed. 3. In total study population, PbB and ZPP had dose-response relationship with 4 symtoms of neuromuscular and joint symptoms ('numbness of finger, hands or feet', 'arthralgia', 'weakness of fingers, hands or feet' and 'myalgia') and one symptom of gastrointestinal group('intermittent pains in lower abdomen'). 4. In lead exposed workers, only neuromuscular and joint symptoms group showed dose-response relationship with PbB and ZPP, 5. In lead exposed workers, the prevalance rate of overall symptoms of lead workers with age below 39 years was higher than that of lead workers with age above 40. While neuromuscular and joint symptoms group had a dose-response relationship with PbB in former group, it had a dose-response relationship with ZPP in latter group. 6. Age adjusted odds ratios of symptoms of non-exposed with exposed and odds ratios of low exposed with high exposed workers showed the dose-response relationship of lead exposure with neuromuscular and joint symptoms group('numbness of fingers, hands or feet', 'arthralgia', 'weakness of fingers, hands or feet' and 'myalgia') and gastrointestinal symptoms group('intermittent pains in lower abdoman').

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.31 no.4 s.63
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• pp.708-718
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• 1998

To investigate the effect of smoking and drinking habit on the health status in lead using industries, 2,785 male workers in lead using industries (7 storage battery industries, 7 secondary smelting and related industries, and 4 primary metal and other manufacturing industries) were selected for this study. This study was carried out as a part of periodic health examination. Selected study variables were zinc protoporphyrin in whole blood (ZPP), SGOT and SGPT for laboratory test. Questionnaire for lead related symptoms and smoking and drinking habit was provided to all the workers and filled up by themselves and reconfirmed by physician. The results obtained were as follows; 1. The overall smoking and drinking rate of study population were 69.8% and 73.6%, respectively. While the smoking and drinking rate of storage battery workers were 68.8% and 72.3%, those of secondary smelting industries and other industries were 66.0% & 66.4% and 74.6 & 80.3% respectively. 2. While the mean values of blood ZPP of lead exposed workers were significantly higher than other group, those of SGOT of storage battery workers were significant higher than other worker. But there were no differences of mean values of other variables. 3. Smoking habit did not affect on the mean value of blood ZPP of workers in special health examination group, but there were significant differences of blood ZPP and SGOT between drinker and non-drinker. 4. Symptom prevalence of lead exposure were higher in drinking and smoking group than non-drinking and non-smoking group. 5. In multiple regression analysis of the total lead related symptoms, blood ZPP, SGOT, and SGPT as dependent variable, respectively, and age, work duration, blood ZPP, pack year and amount of alcohol drinking as independent variables, work duration, pack year, amount of alcohol drinking, age contributed to total symptoms; and age, work duration, pack year contributed to blood ZPP; and age, amount of alcohol drinking, work duration contributed to SGOT; and pack year contributed to SGPT.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.195-211
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• 2004

Stress is a primary health promotion issue in worksite research because psychological distress is closely related not only to workers' health status but also to their job performance. This study identified the significant health behaviors affecting workers' job-related stress in Korean manufacturing industry with the national survey data conducted by the Korean Occupational Safety and Health Agency in 2003. A total of 7,818 factory workers in 1,562 manufacturing companies participated in the Korean nation-wide occupational health survey and 3,390 workers answered that they had any stressors in their workplace among the 7,818 workers finally participated in the analysis. Participants were selected by the stratified proportional sampling process by manufacturing industry classification, company size, and company locations (8 metropolitan and 8 non-metropolitan regions) in Korea. Trained interviewers visited the target companies and interviewed the factory workers randomly selected in each company. Smoking, drinking, weight control, exercise, sleeping, break time at work, and perceived fatigue were included in the health behavior construct. Stress symptoms was consisted of physical and psychological stress with 8 items. All survey responses were anonymously coded into the SPSS statistical program and testified using stepwise multiple regression analysis. Male workers were 73.5% and the 30s were 40.0% among the age groups. The married and the high school graduate were majority with 52.1% and 61.8% each. Current smokers were 44.7% and More than 50% of the participants drank alcohol sometimes. No exercise group was 59.3% and the participants who dissatisfied with their daily sleeping hours were 43.5%. In t-test and analysis of variance, the significant general characteristics associated with physical and psychological job stress were young age (p<0.001), single marital status (p<0.001), and short working period at the present company (p<0.001). The health behaviors related to physical job stress were current smoking, weight change during the past one year (p<0.001), weight control effort (p<0.001), exercise (p<0.001), daily sleeping dissatisfaction (p<0.001), break time, and perceived fatigue (p<0.001). All 10 health behavior factors were significantly associated with psychological job stress (p<0.05). Weight change, weight control effort, exercise, daily sleeping dissatisfaction, little break at work, and high perceived fatigue were significant factors affecting job stress. Daily sleeping dissatisfaction, little break at work, little exercise, weight change for the past one year and young age were selected as the significant health behavior and general factors affecting physical job stress symptoms in stepwise multiple regression analysis. The five factors explained 18.9% of the physical stress score variance. Six factors were selected as the significant health behaviors affecting psychological job stress: daily sleeping dissatisfaction, little exercise, frequent drinking alcohol, high perceived fatigue, little break at work, and little weight control effort. The six factors explained 10.6% of the psychological stress score variance.