• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.21-30
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• 2003

This study was intended to help workplaces set up an occupational health & safety management system by investigating the certification of the system and by conducting a questionnaire to survey the necessity, purpose, effect and promotion of the system. The occupational health & safety management systems generally adopted in Korea are OHSAS 18001 and K-OHSMS 18001, which are the PDCA model, such like the quality and environment management system. Because these standards have a compatibility with other management systems, individual or integral certification is available. A telephone questionnaire was conducted with 30 workplaces in Kyeonggi Province and Incheon Metropolitan City, which have been certified for the occupational health & safety management systems (OHSAS 18001, KOSHA 2000, and/or K -OHSMS 18001). About 92 percent of them were large-sized workplaces with over 500 employees. For the question on the necessity of the system, most of the respondent answered very necessary. The purposes of the certification were to control the risks in safety and health, to have a systematic approach for accident prevention and sustainable improvement, and to comply with a range of regulations voluntarily, in that order. Most of the answers to the question on the effect of the system were prevention of accident. For the question on the promotion of the system, the most prominent answer was reduction in the workers compensation rate.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.158-166
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• 2010

Objectives: This study aimed to find gender distinctions in terms of the sociology of the population; to determine work-related factors; to analyze gender differences in daily living, work, sports, and art performances; and to identify gender-related factors that limited performance of daily living and work activities. Methods: A questionnaire was designed that included disabilities of the arm, shoulder, and hand (DASH), accident history, disease history, work duration at current workplace, marital status, job satisfaction, job autonomy, and physical demands of the job. Out of 1,853 workers surveyed, 1,173 questionnaires (63.3%; 987 males, 186 females) included responses to DASH disability and DASH optional work and were judged acceptable for analysis. Results: Upper extremity functional limitation during work and daily living was higher for females than males. The limitations for males increased according to their household work time, accident history, work duration, job satisfaction, physical demand, and job autonomy. Meanwhile, female workers' upper extremity discomfort was influenced by their disease history, job satisfaction, and physical demands. In addition, the size of the company affected male workers' upper extremity function, while marriage and hobbies influenced that of female workers. Conclusion: This study addressed sociodemographic factors and work-related factors that affect each gender's upper extremity function during daily living and working activities. Each factor had a different influence. Further studies are needed to identify the effect that role changes, not being influenced by risks at work, have on musculoskeletal disorders.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.30-41
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• 2018

Background: The purpose of the work is to develop a system that allows processing of information for analysis and industrial risk management, to monitor the level of industrial safety and to perform necessary measures aimed at the prevention of accidents, casualties, and development of professional diseases for effective management of industrial safety at hazardous industrial sites. Methods: Risk assessment of accidents and incidents is based on expert evaluations. Based on the lists of criteria parameters and their possible values, provided by the experts, a unified information and analytical database is compiled, which is included in the final interrogation questionnaires. Risk assessment of industrial injuries and occupational diseases is based on statistical methods. Results: The result of the research is the creation of Guidelines for risk management on hazardous industrial sites of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The Guidelines determine the directions and methods of complex assessment of the state of industrial safety and labor protection and they could be applied as methodological basis at the development of preventive measures for emergencies, casualties, and incidents at hazardous industrial sites. Conclusion: Implementation of the information-analytical system of risk level assessment allows to analyze the state of risk of a possible accident at industrial sites, make valid management decisions aimed at the prevention of emergencies, and monitor the effectiveness of accident prevention measures.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.314-321
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• 2020

Background: Occupational accidents occur for a variety of reasons, such as unsafe behaviors of workers and insufficient safety equipment at the workplace, but there are also various economic and social factors that can impact working conditions and working environment. This study analyzed the relationship between changes in economic factors and the occurrence of occupational accidents in Korea. Methods: Multilinear regression analysis was used as the analysis model. The general to specific method was also used, which consecutively removes statistically insignificant variables from a general model that includes dependent variables and lagged variables of dependent variables. Results: The frequency of occupational accidents was found to have a statistically significant relationship to economic indicators. The monthly number of cases of occupational injury and disease and fatal occupational injuries were found to be closely related to manufacturing capacity utilization, differences in the production index in the services sector, and commencements of building construction. The increase in equipment investment indicators was found to reduce fatal occupational injuries. Conclusion: The results of this study may be used to develop occupational accident trends or leading indicators, which in turn can be used by organizations that manage and monitor occupational accidents toward taking administrative action designed to reduce occupational accidents. The results also imply that short-term and mid- to long-term economic and social changes that can impact workers, workplaces and working conditions, and workplace organizations must be taken into account if more effective government policies are to be established and implemented toward further prevention of occupational accidents.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.19-27
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• 2016

Safety accident rate of small-medium construction site is high. because of lack of safety management system, lack of safety management capacity, lack of investment for safety, Owner's insufficient awareness about safety. In order to improve this, Currently in Occupational Safety and Health Act, Construction site of amounts more than 300 million won less than 120 billion (architectural),150 billion won(civil) mandatory subject to the technical guidance on construction accident prevention. Context of construction accident causes with construction accident rate relationship analysis and case analysis of technical guidance, through a survey of stakeholders in the technical guidance drawn the problems of the construction accident prevention technical guidance system and ways to improve on this.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.308-313
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• 2018

Background: A behavior-based safety initiative card-issuing system was introduced at a cement-manufacturing company in Zimbabwe in 2008 to try and curb accident occurrence. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Behaviour Based Safety Initiative card system as a tool used for reducing accident frequencies. Methods: A mixed-method approach that involving administering piloted questionnaires to 40 out of 244 randomly selected employees, making observations, and reviewing secondary data were done to collect data from different sources in the organization in 2013. A paired t-test was conducted to test whether there was significant difference in accident occurrence before and after the implementation of the BBSI. Scatterplots were also used to establish the correlation between the issuance of cards and the accident and injury occurrence. Results: The findings suggest that the introduction of the card system brought a significant decrease in accident and injury occurrence. A negative correlation between card issuance and accident occurrence was observed, i.e., the greater the number of cards issued, the fewer the number of accidents. It was also noted that the card system positively influenced the mindset of workers towards safe work practices. Conclusion: The card system had an influence on the reduction of accidents and injuries. The organization should leverage on issuing more cards to further reduce the number of accidents and injuries to zero.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.393-401
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• 2022

Objectives: OHSMS, which was introduced by Serious Accident Punishment Act as a means for safety and health management at work place, but it is not effective according to recent statistical data. Therefore, I intend to compare the OHSMS regulations of SAPA based on ISO 45001, the international standard of OHSMS, and examine the differences and problems. Methods: The OHSMS regulation of Serious Accident Punishment Act was compared and analyzed using the content standard of ISO 45001, the international standard of OHSMS. The construction and operation aspects and differences in key concept definitions of OHSMS were analyzed in depth. Results: ISO 45001 aims to provide OHSMS with an autonomous framework to manage risks and opportunities in safety and health management, whereas Serious Accident Punishment Act aims for safety and health management through an interest and effort in safety and health management on the premise of legal responsibilities of corporations and CEO. As a result, comparing to ISO 45001 in construction and operation aspects and differences in key concept definitions of OHSMS, the OHSMS of Serious Accident Punishment Act do not cover the entire business in concept definition and construction. Conclusions: In order for Serious Accident Punishment Act to achieve its original purpose of preventing serious accidents through systemic safety and health management, it is necessary to correctly understand the contents of ISO 45001 and to revise the OHSMS regulations in a direction that can ensure predictability and feasibility.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.356-363
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• 2006

To investigate the exposure effect of benzene, we measured airborne benzene as external doses, uninary tt-muconic acid as an internal dose of benzene exposure and analyzed the relationship between tt-muconic acid concentration and benzene exposure. The study population of eight businesses included 157 workers(87 workers in field; exposure group, 70 workers in board; control group) who produce or use benzene in petrochemical industry. The concentrations of airborne benzene were evaluated by personal samples and urine was sampled at the pre and end shift. Urinary t,t-muconic acid as internal dose was to analyze the relationship with airborne benzene. The geometric means(GM) of airborne benzene was 0.0231 ppm(range ND-1.0471 ppm) in exposure group and 0.0147 ppm(range ND-0.3162 ppm) in control group. The geometric means(GM) of urinary t,t-muconic acid at end-shift was $196.8{\pm}2.23{\mu}g/g$ creatinine in exposure group and $149.2{\pm}2.08{\mu}g/g$ creatinine in control group. There was significant correlation between the airborne concentration of benzene and the urinary concentration of t,t-muconic acid( r=0.711, p<0.01). From the results of stepwise multiple regression analysis about t,t-muconic acid at end-shift, significant independents was airborne benzene. In this study, there were significant correlation between the urinary concentration of t,t-muconic acid and the airborne concentration of benzene. More extensive studies ruling out healthy worker effect is needed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.47-54
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to determine whether the variables of the agency factors affected the number of occupational fatalities in the construction industry in order to determine whether there is a relationship between the number of occupational fatalities occurring at the construction sites and the agency. The considered agencies are KOSHA (Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency) and MOEL (Ministry of Employment and Labor). The variables of two agency factors are classified as follows: the variables of two agency factors are the number of employees, budget amounts, technical support and guidance for construction sites of KOSHA, and the number of labor inspectors, the number of inspection and oversight workplace, the number of criminally punished construction sites and fines levied on them in the industrial accident prevention departments of Regional Employment and Labor Office. The multiple regression analysis was conducted to determine the effect of two agency factors on the total number of occupational fatalities in the construction industry. The policy implications derived from this study are that, in order to reduce the fatalities of construction sites by KOSHA, the appropriate level of increased budget for KOSHA must be secured every year. In addition, the amount of fines levied on construction sites by the labor inspector in the industrial accident prevention departments of Regional Employment and Labor Office reduces the occupational fatalities at the construction sites.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.83-88
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• 2019

The 7,993 cases of Survey Report of Fatal Industrial Accidents conducted jointly by the MEOL and the KOSHA for the recent seven years(2007-2013) were categorized according to personal and occupational characteristics, industry types, business sizes, job types, activities at the time accident, types of accidents, material agents(assailing materials), unsafe conditions, and unsafe acts. And it is found that among the 72.2 percent of fatal occupational accidents in the construction and manufacturing industries are caused by falling, sticking, bumping and being caught under objects & overturning. For this study, through the empirical analysis on causes of fatal industrial accidents, was used to identity high risk groups based on total data of 7,993 victims of occupational accidents. An annual fatal occupational injury (FOI) rate per 10,000 workers was about 0.47‱. The middle-aged group and the elderly group showed the highest FOI rates per 10,000 workers (0.73‱, 0.80‱), and the daily workers showed the highest FOI rate (1.46‱), and the craft and related trades workers showed the highest FOI rate (2.17‱). In case of industry type the mining industry (7.26‱) showed the highest FOI rate, followed by the sewerage, waste management, materials recovery and remediation activity industry (3.91‱) and the construction industry (2.71‱). The primary high risk target group that requires a strategy designed to reduce fatal occupation injuries caused by falling and bumping & contact(collision) is the construction industry, and the secondary high risk target group in the construction industry is classified as the equipment, machine operating and assembling workers in the construction industry, those aged 50 years old and above need the prevention measures against bumping & contact(collision) and being caught under an object & falling(objects), while those aged less than 50 years old need prevention measures against falling(persons).