• Title/Summary/Keyword: Preventing Safety Hazards

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A Cluster of Health Symptoms After a Law Enforcement Operation: A Case Study

  • Sophia K. Chiu;Jennifer Hornsby-Myers;Christopher Iverson;Douglas Trout
    • Safety and Health at Work
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    • v.13 no.4
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    • pp.507-511
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    • 2022
  • Law enforcement officers (LEOs) often encounter rapidly changing and uncontrolled situations that expose them to various hazards. A law enforcement agency requested an evaluation by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) when multiple LEOs reported illness after executing a search warrant and taking a suspect into custody. NIOSH investigators interviewed LEOs and reviewed medical records, forensic laboratory results for collected evidence, and environmental testing results of samples taken after the operation. Two-thirds (25 of 38) of LEOs who participated in the operation reported ≥1 symptom. Eleven LEOs met a case definition for influenza-like illness (ILI). Members of one unit were more likely to have ILI than non-members (prevalence ratio (PR), 4.1; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.3-13.0; p = 0.01). Influenza vaccination was associated with a lower prevalence of ILI (PR, 0.2; 95% CI, 0.1-0.9; p = 0.02). Preventing employees from working while ill and annual influenza vaccination might prevent similar occurrences.

Effectiveness of Fatal Fall Accident Prevention through Design for Safety in Construction Industry (건설공사의 추락재해예방을 위한 설계안전기법의 효과성 분석)

  • Kyunghwan Kim;Kihyo Jung
    • Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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    • v.25 no.2
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    • pp.121-128
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    • 2023
  • Construction industry is considered as one of the most high-risk industries for work-related injuries and fatalities, accounting for more than half of fatalities in Korea. Advanced countries have recognized the critical role of designers in preventing construction accidents and have established regulations on design for safety. In line with this, the Korean government have also implemented regulations that require owners and designers to review the safety of design outcomes. However, it has been observed that designers face challenges in identifying hazards and integrating design solutions at the design stage mainly due to their shortage of required knowledge and skills. This study aimed to examine design solutions that can be applied to prevent fall accidents in the construction industry, and to establish a relationship between these solutions and fatal fall accidents occurred over the past three years in Korea. This study also analyzed the relationships of four variables (construction type, cost, work type, and fall location) with design solutions. The results indicated that all four variables have significant relationships with design solutions, with fall location showing the strongest relationship. The design solutions and their relationships with fatal fall accidents identified in this study can be utilized in identifying hazard and integrating design solutions to ensure design for safety.

Aanalysis on the working environment and health·safety awareness of beauty workers (미용업 종사자의 작업환경과 보건·안전 의식 분석)

  • Joo, Myung-Won;Kim, Sung-Nam
    • Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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    • v.16 no.3
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    • pp.1725-1731
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    • 2015
  • The study surveyed the health risk factors and risk assessments status preventing accidents and incidents in beauty workplaces. In addition, the health safety awareness technicality was categorized. The research results were as follows. Beauty workers (about 60%) were exposed to health hazards regarding the skin, respiratory, muscle system during more than half of their working hours. On the other hand, they recognized the need for risk assessments in the workplace. The health safety awareness in the workplace differed according to the status of the risk assessment and the category of business. This provides the basic data that can be activated to manage health safety standards for workers and an unspecified number of people.

Construction Workers' Sensation-Seeking and Inattentiveness to Warning Alarms from Construction Vehicles

  • Kim, Namgyun;Gregoire, Laurent;Anderson, Brian A.;Ahn, Changbum R.
    • International conference on construction engineering and project management
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    • 2022.06a
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    • pp.261-268
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    • 2022
  • In road work zones, pedestrian workers' habituated inattention to warning alarms from construction vehicles can lead to fatal accidents. Previous studies have theorized that human factors such as personality traits may affect workers' inattentiveness to workplace hazards. However, there has been no study that directly examined how road construction workers' personality traits affect their attention to warning alarms within a work zone and the likelihood of engagement in a struck-by accident. This study examines how workers' sensation-seeking (especially boredom susceptibility) is related to inattention to warning alarms while performing a task in road work zones. An experiment with actual road construction workers was conducted using a virtual road construction environment. Workers' attention to repeatedly presented warning alarms was measured using eye-tracking sensors. In response to workers' frequent inattentive behaviors, a virtual accident was simulated. Results revealed a significant association between boredom susceptibility and workers' engagement in the virtual accident, a consequence of inattentiveness to warning alarms. The findings suggest that workers' personality traits predispose them to tune out warning alarms and become vulnerable to accidents in road work zones. The findings of this study can be used to develop targeted interventions aimed at preventing workers' inattention to repeatedly exposed workplace hazards, thereby contributing to reducing fatal accidents in road work zones.

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Analysis of Construction Safety Planning Tasks for Performance Improvement Using Importance Performance Analysis (IPA) Method (안전관리자 계획단계 업무 도출을 통한 난이도 및 예방효과 분석)

  • Kang, Sang Hun;Huh, Young-Ki;Kim, Dae Young
    • Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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    • v.20 no.6
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    • pp.545-554
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    • 2020
  • As recent safety accidents at construction sites can lead to serious accidents that threaten the lives of workers, the role of safety managers in charge of safety management has emerged. However, the current construction safety management system requires the improvement and simplification of the work contents due to the excessive workload and inefficient safety tasks of each person. In this respect, the main purpose of this study is to reduce the occurrence of construction safety accidents by deriving correlations using 2×2 Matrix analysis techniques through expert opinion, simplifying unnecessary tasks and identifying areas requiring improvement. Therefore, if this research reduces inefficient safety manager work and reduces job stress caused by excessive simple document work, thereby efficiently reorganizing safety manager's work to prevent blind spots of hazards and risks, it will ultimately have a great effect on preventing safety accidents at construction sites.

A Survey on Safety Analysis Techniques for Safety-Critical Systems (안전 필수 시스템을 위한 안전성 분석 기법)

  • Kim, Eui-Sub;Yoon, Sanghyun;Yoo, Junbeom
    • Journal of Convergence Society for SMB
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    • v.2 no.1
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    • pp.11-18
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    • 2012
  • As scale of software has been expanded and complicated, it is difficult to detect hazards which induce functional failure of software. Functional failure of safety-critical system (nuclear power plant, air traffic control systems, railway operating system) could result in a disaster (personal injury, environmental pollution). Therefore, it is necessary to conduct a safety analysis for preventing functional failure and increasing safety of the software. However, there are some reasons (time and effort problem, low knowledge of various safety analysis techniques, selecting conventional technique in company, organization) which disturb selecting an apposite one. This paper presents some traditional safety analysis techniques, recently presented techniques and combined models. We expect that it helps stakeholders to choice adequate one for target system.

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Applicability of CO2 Extinguishing System for Ships (질식사고 방지용 CO2 소화설비의 선박 적용성)

  • Ha, Yeon Chul;Seo, Jung Kwan
    • Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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    • v.54 no.4
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    • pp.294-300
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    • 2017
  • The offshore installations and ships are the structures most likely to be exposed to hazards such as hydrocarbon fire and/or explosion. Developing proactive measures to prevent the escalation of such events thus requires detailed knowledge of the related phenomena and their consequences. $CO_2$ extinguishing systems are extensively used for fire accidents of on-and offshore installations because of outstanding performance and low cost. There is, however, the risk of carbon dioxide system which enumerates many of the fatalities by suffocation associated with industrial fire protection requirements. Therefore, the aim of this study is to perform the prediction of fire suppression characteristics of the carbon dioxide system in realistic enclosed compartment area of ships and propose $CO_2$ extinguish fire fighting system for preventing suffocation accidents during fire fighting. According to CFD calculations, it can be observed and assessed that various fire profiles with $CO_2$ and $O_2$ mole fraction in the target enclosed compartment area are applicable within the proposed system. Additionally, the design of fire safety system of ships and offshore installations can utilize ventilation system and/or layout arrangement through the proposed system.

Development of RCA Incident Investigation Method as Easily Adopted Industry Field (산업현장에서 쉽게 적용할 수 있는 근본원인 사고조사기법 개발에 관한 연구)

  • Kwon, Jae Beom;Kwon, Young Guk
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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    • v.36 no.5
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    • pp.43-51
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    • 2021
  • Incident investigation is one of the most important processes among various other safety management methods to prevent industrial accidents. Finding the root causes of accidents, eliminating hazards, and improving safety are the most important purposes of investigating accidents. During the investigation process, root cause analysis (RCA) techniques are used to effectively identify RCA. Over the past few decades, over 30 RCA methods have been developed. These techniques are being widely used in some industries, such as the nuclear and aircraft industries; however, most of the RCA techniques require professional knowledge and special training, making it difficult for safety managers in their respective fields to understand and apply them. Therefore, managers of general industrial sites are rarely present at the scene of actual accident investigations, and they cannot contribute much to the purpose and effectiveness of these investigations. In this study, to address these issues, we developed an RCA technique to facilitate root cause investigation of accidents in real-world industrial sites. To develop new techniques, Systematic Cause Analysis Technique (SCAT), one of the RCA techniques, was used to investigate incidents in the enterprise over three years. We also utilized feature analysis and other papers from existing RCA techniques. To verify its effectiveness, the technique proposed was also applied to the accident case. The technique developed can easily identify and analyze the root cause of an accident and help industrial managers. It can also identify the root cause category where accidents are concentrated and use this data to establish guidelines for preventing future accidents and, thus, focus on prioritizing improvement initiatives.

The Relationship between Climate and Food Incidents in Korea (식품안전 사건 사고와 기후요소와의 관련성)

  • Lee, Jong-Hwa;Kim, Young-Soo;Baek, Hee-Jung;Chung, Myung-Sub
    • Journal of Climate Change Research
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    • v.2 no.4
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    • pp.297-307
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    • 2011
  • This study investigates relation of food safety incidents with climate. Therefore food safety incidents and climate data during 1999 to 2009 have been analyzed. In situ observations of monthly mean temperature, maximum temperature, minimum temperature, precipitation, and relative humidity in 60 observation stations of Korean Meteorological Administration (KMA) have been used in this study. Food safety incidents data have been constructed by searching media reports following Park's method (2009) during the same period. According to the Park's method, 729 events were collected. To analyze its relations, food safety incidents data have been classified into chemical, biological, and physical hazards. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients have been applied to analyze the relations. The correlation of food safety incidents has negative one with precipitation (-0.48), and positive one with minimum temperature(0.45). Precipitation has been correlated with biological and physical hazards more than chemical hazard. Temperatures (mean temperature, maximum temperature, and minimum temperature) have been correlated closely with chemical hazard than others. Food safety incidents data has been interblended with human behavior factor through decision-making processes in food manufacturing, processing, and consumption phases of "farm-totable" food processing. Act in the preventing damage will be obvious if the hazard were apparent. Therefore abnormal condition could be more dangerous than that of apparent extreme events because apparent events or extreme events become one of alarm over hazards. Therefore, human behavior should be considered as one of the important factors for analysis of food safety incidents. The result of this study can be used as a better case study for food safety researches related to climate change.

Analysis of risk factors of the fisherman's in coastal purse seine fishery using the accident compensation insurance proceeds payment data of NFFC (수협 어선원 재해보상보험 자료를 이용한 연안선망어업 위험요인 분석)

  • CHOI, Kyu-Suk;LEE, Chun-Woo;PARK, Su-bong;JANG, Yong-Suk;LEE, Yoo-Won
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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    • v.56 no.4
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    • pp.340-346
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    • 2020
  • In this study, the risk factors of coastal purse seine fisherman were analyzed through a survey of fishery workers of coastal purse seine fishery and the accident compensation insurance data of the fisheries workers of the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives (NFFC). The classified fishing operation accident data was analyzed through 4M (Man, Machine, Media, Management) model of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the accident prevention measures were presented using Harvey's 3E (Engineering, Education, Enforcement) model. The rate of accidents on coastal purse seinens each year was 75.8‰, 36.7‰ and 74.8‰ from 2015 to 2017. The accident frequency resulting from slipping was the highest, and the risk of a contact with gear was low. When comparing each insurance data, the average value of the contact with gear accident was the highest. This research result is expected to be important data in identifying and preventing safety hazards of coastal purse seiner fisherman in the future.