• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.63-70
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• 2013

Objectives: This study is planned to assess the trend of occupational injuries in Korea from 2001 to 2010. Methods: Ten years of occupational injuries, from 2001 to 2010, were analyzed in order to investigate the changing profiles according to the various characteristics of injuries; economic sectors, age of the injured, and type of injuries. The changing profile of occupational injuries was investigated by comparison with an index-created relative value based on the number of cases of reference category. Results: The fatalities of construction, forest, agriculture, and service show the increasing trend. The nonfatal occupational injuries of the manufacturing sector were higher than those of other sectors in every year but the fatal occupational injuries of construction workers were higher than those of the manufacturing sector. Occupational injuries occurring due to amputation and those of slip and trip increased. The number of occupational injuries for the worker groups of 24 years old and below decreased and 45 years old and above increased. In comparison to the figure of fall from height, the figures of slip and trip or caught in equipment are higher in every calendar year. Conclusion: This study find out construction, forest, agriculture, and service sectors, aged worker with 45 years old and over can be target population for the strategies of occupational safety.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.259-266
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• 2023

Background: Recent research on occupational injuries in companies has faced difficulties in obtaining representative data, leading to studies relying on surveys or case studies. Moreover, it is difficult to find studies on how a company's industry characteristics affect occupational injuries. This study aims to address these limitations. Methods: We collected 11 years of disclosure data from 1,247 listed companies in the Korean stock market and combined it with their occupational injury histories collected by the Republic of Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (KOSHA) to build a dataset. We attempted to analyze a linear panel model by dividing the dataset into manufacturing, construction, and other industries. Results: The higher proportion of full-time employees and better job skills correlate with lower occupational injuries in other industries. The wage increase reduces occupational injuries in manufacturing and other industries, but the substitution effect produces the opposite outcome in construction. Also, foreign ownership and credit ratings increase effectively reduce occupational injuries mainly in the manufacturing industry. Conclusion: Our results suggest that in explaining the relationship between corporate characteristics and occupational injuries, it is necessary to consider the nature of the industry more closely, and in particular, employment and labor policies for preventing occupational injuries need to be selectively applied according to industry. In addition, to improve the limitations and increase the usability of the research results, further detailed studies are needed in the future.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.275-284
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• 2013

Purpose: This study analyzed the characteristics of occupational injuries and illnesses of the nursing staff to reveal the prevalence of the major diseases and the predominant causes of the injuries in the nursing environment. Methods: Total 3,455 work-related compensation cases of nursing staff from January 1 2000 to December 31 2012, were selected. The specific types of the diseases, injuries, causes and the time of the incidence were analyzed. Results: Majority of the compensated cases were young women under 30 years old. The composition of the occupational injuries and illness was 74.5% and 25.5%, respectively. Occupational infection was the major part of the occupational illnesses (47.3%), and 74% of them were tuberculosis. Musculoskeletal disorder (12.6%) was followed the infectious disease, and 36.4% of them occurred while moving the patients. Slipping was the most frequent injury; most of them resulted in the lower extremities injury. Most of the injuries increased during shift change, except workplace violence, which increased later than 19:00. Conclusion: Occupational injuries and illnesses of nursing staff need the specific prevention strategy, and the prevention strategy should be suitable for the nursing workplace.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.110-117
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• 2011

The paper tries to understand the other side of characteristics on occupational injuries and diseases in forestry. Occupational injuries and diseases in forestry seems to be greatly influenced by the environmental characteristics of the mountain district and individual's ability of workers. A traditional method on the analysis of occupational injuries and diseases data may show that the main cause of occupational injuries and diseases is the material factors significantly. To identify the other side of occupational injuries and diseases in forestry, the occupational injuries and diseases data of 3,091 workers in forestry was analyzed. The data in forestry, 2009 shows certain characteristics among the recent occupational injuries and diseases data. The first step is to classify the data according to standard of classification of original cause materials. Material factors are 72.3% and human factors (included managerial factors) and environmental factors are 27.0%. The next step is to reclassify the first step data by using the concept of influence factors which caused and influenced occupational injuries and diseases. The result is that material factors are 2.4%, human factors(included managerial factors) and environmental factors are 97.0%. Also, an aging degree of workers in forestry is higher than other categories of business. It is true that an aging degree of injured or diseased workers in forestry is higher than that of other categories of business. However, relevance with increase of occupational injuries and diseases could not be explained. An injury and disease rate in forestry is remarkably increased recently than other categories of business. One of the reason why an injury and disease rate increased remarkably in 2009 could be considered as the increase of the number of workers and related budget. Therefore, this study proposes important measures or means to prevent occupational injuries and diseases in forestry.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2015

Time-loss injuries are still a major occurrence in Canada, injuring thousands of Canadian workers each year. With obesity rates on the rise across the country, as well as around the world, it is important that the possible effects of obesity in the workplace be fully understood, especially those effects linked to lost-time injuries. The aim of this paper was to evaluate predictors of workplace lost-time injuries and how they may be related to obesity or high body mass index by examining factors associated with lost-time injuries in the health care sector, a well-studied industry with the highest number of reported time loss injuries in Canada. A literature review focusing on lost-time injuries in Registered Nurses (RNs) was conducted using the keywords and terms: lost time injury, workers' compensation, occupational injury, workplace injury, injury, injuries, work, workplace, occupational, nurse, registered nurse, RN, health care, predictors, risk factors, risk, risks, cause, causes, obese, obesity, and body mass index. Data on predictors or factors associated with lost-time injuries in RNs were gathered and organized using Loisel's Work Disability Prevention Management Model and extrapolated upon using existing literature surrounding obesity in the Canadian workplace.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.52-56
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• 2011

Objectives: The occupational accident rate was officially reported to be 0.77 per 100 workers in 2001 and 0.70 in 2009. The stagnant decrease in accident rate raises a question about the effectiveness of prevention activity because there have been active prevention efforts in the past 10 years. It is also necessary to know the exact status of occupational injuries to direct a prevention strategy. Methods: The author re-analyzed occupational injury statistics to find the reason for stagnant decreases in occupational injuries. Compensated occupational injuries cases were used to calculate fatal and non-fatal injury rates. Injuries from commuting accidents and sports activities were excluded as well as occupational diseases. The number of workers was adjusted to that of full time equivalent employees. Results: The fatal injury rate excluding injuries associated with commuting accidents, sports activities, and occupational diseases decreased from 12.59 in 2001 to 8.20 in 2009. In 2007, 67.5% of accidents that involved being caught in objects, which are mostly caused by machines and equipment, occurred in the manufacturing industry; this type of incident has decreased since 2001. The fatal and non-fatal injury rates in the manufacturing industry have continuously decreased while the rates in the service industry have not changed from 2001 to 2009. Non-fatal injuries might not be reported in many cases. The number of insured workers was underestimated as long working hours were not adjusted for in the reporting system. Conclusion: The occupational fatal injury rate has decreased and the non-fatal injury rate might have decreased during the last 10 years, although the statistics show stagnancy. The decrease of the injury rate was countervailed by various factors. Hence, the current accident rate does not reflect the actual situation of accidents in Korea. Korea needs to develop an improved system to more accurately calculate occupational fatal and non-fatal injury rates.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.184-191
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• 2018

Background: Due to an increasing number of workers aged 50 years and above, the number of those employed is also on the rise, and those workers aged 50 and over has exceeded 50% of the total fatal occupational injuries. Therefore, it is necessary to implement the selection and concentration by identifying the characteristics of high-risk groups necessary for an effective prevention against and reduction of fatal occupational injuries. Methods: This study analyzed the characteristics of high-risk groups and the occupational injury fatality rate per 10,000 workers among the workers aged 50 and over through a multi-dimensional analysis by sex, employment status of workers, industry and occupation by targeting 4,079 persons who died in fatal occupational injuries from January 2007 to December 12. Results: The share of the workers aged 50 years and above is increasing every year in the total fatal occupational injuries occurrence, and the high-risk groups include 'male workers' by sex, 'daily workers' by worker's status, 'craft and related-trades workers' by occupation, and 'mining' by industry. Conclusion: The most frequent causal objects of fatal occupational injuries of the workers aged 50 years and above are found out to be 'installment and dismantlement of temporary equipment and material on work platforms including scaffold' in the construction industry and 'mobile crane, conveyor belt and fork lifts' in the manufacturing industry.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.158-165
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• 2014

The statistics of occupational injuries and illnesses is one of the most important indicators of worker's safety and health in the field of occupational safety and health. The conventional statistics was produced without consideration of gender difference. This study was planned to investigate the difference of occupational injuries and illnesses by gender because that recently female workers was increased through the change of industrial structure such as from manufacturing dominated to service dominated structure. Statistics of occupational injuries and illnesses collected by workmen's compensation insurance system that have no information about gender composition of population. Economically active population survey was used to calculated the rate of occupational injuries and illnesses by gender. The distribution of estimated rate of occupational injuries and illnesses by industry, occupation and the type of accident were different between male and female employees, but those by the size of enterprise, age of the injured, the duration of the first recuperation, and job tenure were similar between male and female employees. This study has shown that gender sensitive approach may be applied to policy of occupational safety and health because that gender neutral perspective may not discover the fact of gender specific problems.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.519-529
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• 2015

Objective: This study aims to analyze the characteristics of occupational accidents and injuries of telecommunications line and cable workers by type of workplace and operational process of cabling service and to provide baseline data in establishing the preventive policies for occupational accidents and injuries. Background: In order to set up the preventive policies for occupational injuries and illness systematically, the accident analysis by industry should be preceded. To establish more effective policies, it should be done by occupation for persons who work in various kinds of occupation rather than by industry for persons who do in the same occupation. Method: In this study, the 176 occupational accidents and injuries were classified by type of workplace - indoor (inside building) and outdoor (at the top of utility pole, in a manhole, or in the fields) - and also done by operational process involved at the time of the accident. By analyzing the characteristics of occupational injuries and illness by type of workplace and operational process, respectively, this study can be helpful in establishing the preventative policies for occupational accidents and injuries. Results: The characteristics of occupational accidents and injuries by type of workplace showed that there were differences in terms of accident rate between indoor and outdoor on age of the injured, while not on employment-size and work experience of the injured. In addition, the characteristics on accident type, agency of accident, parts of body affected, and operational process between indoor and outdoor workplaces were statistically different each other. Conclusion and Application: The findings of occupational accidents' characteristics can be applied to the establishment of systematic preventative policies for occupational accidents of telecommunications line/equipment workers.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.83-85
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• 2016

Effective interventions to reduce work-related exposures are available for many types of work-related diseases or injuries. However, knowledge of the impact of these interventions on injury or disease outcomes is scarce due to practical and methodological reasons. Study designs are considered for the evaluation of occupational health interventions on occupational disease or injury. Latency and frequency of occurrence of the health outcomes are two important features when designing an evaluation study with occupational disease or occupational injury as an outcome measure. Controlled evaluation studies-giving strong indications for an intervention effect-seem more suitable for more frequently occurring injuries or diseases. Uncontrolled evaluation time or case series studies are an option for evaluating less frequently occurring injuries or diseases. Interrupted time series offer alternatives to experimental randomized controlled trials to give an insight into the effectiveness of preventive actions in the work setting to decision and policy makers.