• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.317-331
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• 2023

Objectives: Construction workers are exposed to various hazardous substances simultaneously. However, little is known about the exposure hazards in construction industry. This study was aimed at identifying the risk of exposure hazards among construction workers. Methods: The expert survey (n=29) was conducted, including construction industry health managers (n=11) and work environment monitoring experts (n=18), on exposure probability, intensity and risk of hazardous substances by construction occupations Results: The exposure hazards of 30 construction occupations were identified and summarized through a literature review and expert survey. The most prevalent hazards were in order of noise, awkward posture, heat/cold, crystalline silica, cement/concrete dust, metal fumes, and volatile organic compounds. The hazards with highest risk score(over seven points) at construction occupations were noise(formwork carpenter, concrete finisher, rebar worker, demolition worker, driller/rock blaster), hazardous rays(welder), heat/cold (earthworks, formwork carpenter, rebar worker, concrete placer, scaffolder), awkward posture(bricklayer, caulker/tile setter, rebar worker) and heavy lifting(bricklayer, rebar worker). Among construction workers, the job types with the highest risk of exposure to carcinogens, and in which occupational cancer has been reported, were in order of stonemason, concrete finisher, rock blaster, welder, insulation installer, painter, scaffolder, plant worker and earthworks in order Conclusions: Systematic research and discussion on occupational disease among construction workers and its various hazardous factors are needed to establish job exposure matrix for facilitating standard for promptly processing the workers' compensation.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.279-286
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• 2023

Background: This study aimed to evaluate the association between exposure to occupational hazards and the metabolic syndrome. A secondary objective was to analyze the additive and multiplicative effects of exposure to risk factors. Methods: This retrospective cohort was based on 31,615 health examinees at the Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital in Republic of Korea from 2012-2021. Demographic and behavior-related risk factors were treated as confounding factors, whereas three physical factors, 19 organic solvents and aerosols, and 13 metals and dust were considered occupational risk factors. Time-dependent Cox regression analysis was used to calculate hazard ratios. Results: The risk of metabolic syndrome was significantly higher in night shift workers (hazard ratio = 1.45: 95% confidence interval = 1.36-1.54) and workers who were exposed to noise (1.15:1.07-1.24). Exposure to some other risk factors was also significantly associated with a higher risk of metabolic syndrome. They were dimethylformamide, acetonitrile, trichloroethylene, xylene, styrene, toluene, dichloromethane, copper, antimony, lead, copper, iron, welding fume, and manganese. Among the 28 significant pairs, 19 exhibited both positive additive and multiplicative effects. Conclusions: Exposure to single or combined occupational risk factors may increase the risk of developing metabolic syndrome. Working conditions should be monitored and improved to reduce exposure to occupational hazards and prevent the development of the metabolic syndrome.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.26 no.6_spc
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• pp.729-735
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• 2016

According to the survey for working environment of the cashiers in highway tollbooths, workers replied that noise was the most harmful substances next to air pollutant in the tollbooth. Researches on the noise levels exposed to cashiers in the highway tollbooth scarcely have been performed. Therefore, the aim of this study was to acquire baseline data to prevent health impairments of the cashiers by evaluating noise level exposed to them. Noise dosimeters were used for monitoring workers' noise exposure level in the tollbooths at 8 different highway tollgates. The noise levels of tollbooths did not exceed noise exposure limit of the ministry of labor, 90 dB(A). The average TWA inside of the tollbooths was 55.4 dB(A) and the average TWA outside of tollbooths was 58.3 dB(A). The average TWA outside of tollbooths was slightly higher than that of inside of tollbooths. However, the significance probability(p-value) was 0.255 which means statistically not significant. The noise levels inside and outside of tollbooth were statistically significant to both mean traffic volume per day and traffic volume of passenger car.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.22 no.10
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• pp.940-948
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• 2012

In Korea, researches on the exposure assessment of the hand-transmitted vibration started from the mid-90, however, they were performed in the limited industries such as auto-assembly plants and the evaluation of the vibration was mostly conducted by ISO 5349(1986). Therefore, it was necessary to assess hand-transmitted vibration levels of workplace such as ship building/repairing industry or mining industry where occupational injuries are largely occurred and to evaluate the vibration levels using revised ISO 5349(2001). The SVAN 948 Four Channels Sound & Vibration Analyser was used for the measurement. The workers using a chain saw were exposed to 1.7~2.8 $m/s^2$ of daily vibration level. Workers using a rock drill in a coal mining were exposed to the highest vibration acceleration among workers and the levels were 7.1~10.8 $m/s^2$. Vibration levels of grinders were different according to the types of grinders. The hand-transmitted vibration of 3 types of grinders were measured and the levels were 3.3~11.1 $m/s^2$. Workers using a impact wrench were exposed to 1.5~1.6 $m/s^2$ of vibration. Out of 20 kinds of machines, only 4 tools provided the information of vibration acceleration on the instructions. In addition, the current condition of workplace to control vibration was not much different from the past because there are no vibration exposure limit.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.354-359
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• 2013

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate exposure levels to K2 rifle noise at a military rifle range among soldiers in training, the left and right ears of shooters, and control managers in the day and night times. Methods: For this study, we visited military rifle ranges and measured the noise of a K2 rifle with a sound level meter (3M Quest SoundPro$^{TM}$) at four different locations with values of Peak (dB(A)) and Max (dB(A)). Results: The highest peak value of impulse noise level averaged 150.4 dB(A), ranging from 149.7 to 150.5 dB(A) at the left-ear side. Impulse noise levels in the daytime were also recorded as higher than during the night. This result was significantly different between daytime and nighttime locations, such as soldier training, right ear of shooter, and control manager (P < 0.001). Conclusion: This study confirmed that there is a need for proper management of impulse noise at military rifle ranges.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.387-393
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• 2020

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the differences in temporary threshold shift (TTS) and recovery patterns according to different types of sound and volume. Methods: TTS and recovery patterns were assessed for eight students after 30-minute exposure to both 70.0 dB and 90.0 dB of factory noise (noise) as well as music. TTS was measured before exposure and two minutes post exposure, and recovery patterns were evaluated every 10 minutes for one hour. The subjects performed activities of daily life and sleeping times as usual but taking drugs or drinking alcohol were prohibited. The experiment was repeated three times with an interval of at least 16 hours. ANOVA and T-test were carried out using SPSS 19.0 for Windows. Results: The hearing threshold of all subjects before exposure was less than 30 dB at all frequencies. Mean TTSs of 70 dB noise and 90 dB noise exposure were 0.14 and 4.48 dB (p<0.001). Meanwhile, the difference in music was insignificant (-0.63 dB and 0.55 dB, p=0.063). A significance in the difference was also found between the mean TTS of music and noise exposure, more obviously at 90.0 dB (p<0.001) than at 70 dB (p=0.232). The TTS differences were found frequency-wise in terms of sound type. Mean TTS by frequency was higher at 4,000 and 6,000 Hz than at other frequencies, and higher in noise than music at the same sound pressure. The TTS difference in each frequency between both sound types was significant at 90 dB (p<0.001). Subjects mostly recovered from TTS in one hour after exposure, but not with 90 dB-noise exposure. Conclusion: TTS and recovery patterns were different depending on the sound type. When exposed to factory noise, TTS was greater and recovery time was longer compared to music at the same sound pressure. These results suggested that the difference in cognitive processes and psychological factors according to the type of sound causes a change in TTS and recovery.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.109-113
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• 2019

Background: In both developed and developing countries, noise is regarded as the most common occupational hazard in various industries. The present study aimed to examine the effect of sound pressure level (SPL) on serum cortisol concentration in three different times during the night shift. Methods: This case-control study was conducted among 75 workers of an industrial and mining firm in 2017. The participants were assigned to one of the three groups (one control and two case groups), with an equal number of workers (25 participants) in each group. Following the ISO 9612 standard, dosimetry was adopted to evaluate equivalent SPL using a TES-1345 dosimeter. The influence of SPL on serum cortisol concentration was measured during the night shift. The serum cortisol concentration was measured using a radioimmunoassay (RIA) test in the laboratory. Repeated measure analysis of variance and linear mixed models were used with ${\alpha}=0.05$. Results: The results indicated a downward trend in the serum cortisol concentration of the three groups during the night shift. Both SPL and exposure time significantly affected cortisol concentration (p < 0.0001, p < 0.0001). Conversely, age and body mass index had no significant influence on cortisol concentration (p = 0.360, p = 0.62). Conclusion: Based on the obtained results, increasing SPL will lead to enhancement of serum cortisol concentration. Given that cortisol concentration varies while workers are exposed to different SPLs, this hormone can be used as a biomarker to study the effect of noise-induced stress.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.190-197
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• 2001

Noise-induced hearing loss(NIHL) was the highest rate (43.5%~58.5% from 1996 to 1998) of positive findings through specific medical program in Korea. There were much more NIHL at workers of automobile manufacturing factories than other manufacturing factories. The specific aim of the present study was to determine the noise exposure of automobile press lines, according to their job titles, press line types(auto, semiauto), dosimeter parameters setting. There were a total 11 press lines sampled at a automobile manufacturing company. Among those press lines, 10 press lines were autolines with acoustic enclosure, one semiauto press line was no aucostic enclosure Noise exposure data were sampled for an work shift using noise dosimeter, which recorded both time-weighted average(TWA) and 1-min average. The mean OSHA TWA(Korea TWA with threshold 90) was $80.7dB(A){\pm}4.7dB(A)$ for leader, $82.8dB(A{\pm}4.5dB(A)$ for pallette man, $76.7dB(A){\pm}4.3dB(A)$ for press operators, $76.6dB(A){\pm}5.6dB(A)$ for crane operators, $77.1dB(A){\pm}2.8dB(A)$ for forklift drivers, whereas the mean NIOSH TWA was $88.9dB(A){\pm}1.7dB(A)$ for leader, $89.6dB(A){\pm}2.1dB(A)$ for pallette man, $86.7dB(A){\pm}1.8dB(A)$ for press operators, $88.5dB(A){\pm}2.0dB(A)$ for crane operators, $87.7dB(A){\pm}1.0dB(A)$ for forklift drivers. While L10 for NIOSH TWA samples was 84.8 dB(A) ~ 87.3 dB(A), L10 for OSHA TWA samples was 69.5 dB(A) ~ 77.4 dB(A). L10 means that the TWA for 90% of the samples exceeded L10. Among OSHA TWA(Korea TWA with threshold 90) samples for pallette man, 7.7 % exceeded 90 dB(A), the OSHA permissible exposure level, but OSHA TWA samples for the other job titles didn't. Among NIOSH TWA samples, the samples over 85 dB(A), the NIOSH recommended exposure limit, was 100% (leaders), 83.3 %(operators), 97.4%(palletteman), 100%(forklift drivers), 91.7 %(crane operator). The results of One-way random effects analysis of variance models shows that the difference between job titles was significant by OSHA TWA(p<0.05), but not significant by NIOSH TWA(p>0.05). NIOSH TWA samples were significantly higher than OSHA TWA samples(P<0.05). Regression analysis was used to obtain relationships between OSHA TWA samples and NIOSH TWA samples. In this case the coefficient of determination = 0.90, which shows the high degree association between two methods. Regression equation, NIOSH TWA = 0.552 * OSHA TWA + 42.13 dB(A), shows that if OSHA TWA is known, NIOSH TWA can be predicted by the equation. The mean TWA difference between threshold 80 dBA and 90 dBA was significant(p<0.01). While the TWA noise exposures were 7.7% above the Korea(OSHA) PEL, they were more than 83.3% over NIOSH REL. Automobile workers were exposed to noise level that could be potentially damaging to their hearing. It found that there is approximately 25% excess risk of hearing loss even if a worker is protected to the PEL in according to NIOSH study.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.220-227
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• 2024

Background: Though the artificial neural network (ANN) technique has been used to predict noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL), the established prediction models have primarily relied on cross-sectional datasets, and hence, they may not comprehensively capture the chronic nature of NIHL as a disease linked to long-term noise exposure among workers. Methods: A comprehensive dataset was utilized, encompassing eight-year longitudinal personal hearing threshold levels (HTLs) as well as information on seven personal variables and two environmental variables to establish NIHL predicting models through the ANN technique. Three subdatasets were extracted from the afirementioned comprehensive dataset to assess the advantages of the present study in NIHL predictions. Results: The dataset was gathered from 170 workers employed in a steel-making industry, with a median cumulative noise exposure and HTL of 88.40 dBA-year and 19.58 dB, respectively. Utilizing the longitudinal dataset demonstrated superior prediction capabilities compared to cross-sectional datasets. Incorporating the more comprehensive dataset led to improved NIHL predictions, particularly when considering variables such as noise pattern and use of personal protective equipment. Despite fluctuations observed in the measured HTLs, the ANN predicting models consistently revealed a discernible trend. Conclusions: A consistent correlation was observed between the measured HTLs and the results obtained from the predicting models. However, it is essential to exercise caution when utilizing the model-predicted NIHLs for individual workers due to inherent personal fluctuations in HTLs. Nonetheless, these ANN models can serve as a valuable reference for the industry in effectively managing its hearing conservation program.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.27-35
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• 2015

Objectives: To investigate safety and health management, conditions in factories or facilities handling radiation-generating devices and radioactive isotopes were reviewed in terms of regulations of radiation safety control in Korea. Radiation exposure levels generated at those facilities were directly measured and evaluated for establishing an effective safety and health management plan. Methods: Government organizations with laws and systems of radiation safety and health were investigated and compared. There are three laws governing radiation-related employment such as occupational safety and health acts, nuclear safety acts, and medical service acts. We inspected 12 workplaces as research objects:four workplaces that manufacture and assemble semiconductor devices, three non-destructive inspection workplaces that perform inspections on radiation penetration, and five workplaces in textile and tire manufacturing. Monitoring of radiation exposure was performed through two methods. Spatial and surface monitoring using real-time radiation instruments was performed on each site handling radiation generating devices and radioactive isotopes in order to identify radiation leakage. Results: According to the occupational safety and health act, there is no legal obligation to measure ionizing radiation and set dose limits. This can cause confusion in the application of the laws, because the scopes and contents are different from each other. Surface dose rates in radiation generating devices such as implanters, thickness gages and accelerators, which were registered according to nuclear safety acts, using surveymeters, and seven of 36 facilities(19.4%) exceeded the international standards for surface radiation dose of $10{\mu}Sv/hr$. Conclusions: The results showed that occupational health and safety acts require a separate provision for measuring and assessing the radiation exposure of workers performing radiation work. Like noise, ionizing radiation will also periodically be controlled by including it in the object factors of work-environment measurement.