• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제6권3호
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• pp.227-232
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• 2015

Background: In comparison with other industries, the construction industry still has a higher rate of fatal injuries, and thus, there is a need to apply new and innovative approaches for preventing accidents and promoting safe conditions at construction sites. Methods: In this study, the effectiveness of a new incentive system-the surprising incentive system-was assessed. One year after the implementation of this new incentive system, behavioral changes of employees with respect to seven types of activities were observed. Results: The results of this study showed that there is a significant relationship between the new incentive system and the safety performance of frontline employees. The new incentive system had a greater positive impact in the first 6 months since its implementation. In the long term, however, safety performance experienced a gradual reduction. Based on previous studies, all activities selected in this study are important indicators of the safety conditions at workplaces. However, there is a need for a comprehensive and simple-to-apply tool for assessing frontline employees' safety performance. Shortening the intervals between incentives is more effective in promoting safety performance. Conclusion: The results of this study proved that the surprising incentive would improve the employees' safety performance just in the short term because the surprising value of the incentives dwindle over time. For this reason and to maintain the surprising value of the incentive system, the amount and types of incentives need to be evaluated and modified annually or biannually.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제1권1호
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• pp.51-60
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• 2010

Objectives: The level of benzene exposure in the petrochemical industry during regular operation has been well established, but not in turnaround (TA), where high exposure may occur. In this study, the characteristics of occupational exposure to benzene during TA in the petrochemical companies were investigated in order to determine the best management strategies and improve the working environment. This was accomplished by evaluating the exposure level for the workers working in environments where benzene was being produced or used as an ingredient during the unit process. Methods: From 2003 to 2008, a total of 705 workers in three petrochemical companies in Korea were studied. Long- and short-term (< 1 hr) samples were taken during TAs. TA was classified into three stages: shut-down, maintenance and start-up. All works were classified into 12 occupation categories. Results: The long-term geometric mean (GM) benzene exposure level was 0.025 (5.82) ppm (0.005-42.120 ppm) and the short-term exposure concentration during TA was 0.020 (17.42) ppm (0.005-61.855 ppm). The proportions of TA samples exceeding the time-weighted average, occupational exposure level (TWA-OEL in Korea, 1 ppm) and the short-term exposure limit (STEL-OEL, 5 ppm) were 4.1% (20 samples of 488) and 6.0% (13 samples of 217), respectively. The results for the benzene exposure levels and the rates of exceeding the OEL were both statistically significant (p < 0.05). Among the 12 job categories of petrochemical workers, mechanical engineers, plumbers, welders, fieldman and scaffolding workers exhibited long-term samples that exceeded the OEL of benzene, and the rate of exceeding the OEL was statistically significant for the first two occupations (p < 0.05). Conclusion: These findings suggest that the periodic work environment must be assessed during non-routine works such as TA.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제7권3호
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• pp.225-230
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• 2016

Background: This study seeks to examine the relationship and impact of occupational health and safety on employees' organizational commitment in Ghana's mining industry. The study explores occupational health and safety and the different dimensions of organizational commitment. Methods: A cross-sectional survey design was used for this study. The respondents were selected based on simple random sampling. Out of 400 questionnaires administered, 370 were returned (77.3% male and 22.7% female) and used for the study. Correlation and multiple regression analysis were used to determine the relationship and impact between the variables. Results: The findings of this study revealed positive and significant relationship between occupational health and safety management, and affective, normative, and continuance commitment. Additionally, the results revealed the significant impact of occupational health and safety on affective, normative, and continuance commitment. Conclusion: Management within the mining sector of Ghana must recognize the fact that workers who feel healthy and safe in the performance of their duties, develop emotional attachment and have a sense of obligation to their organization and are most likely committed to the organization. Employees do not just become committed to the organization; rather, they expect management to first think about their health and safety needs by instituting good and sound policy measures. Thus, management should invest in the protection of employees' health and safety in organizations.

• 한국안전학회지
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• 제34권3호
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• pp.65-74
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• 2019

The safety and health signs as an important communication tool can help employees recognize the harm and risk information and take proper actions easily and fast. This study investigated the management of safety and health signs in 75 workplaces and also conducted a survey for the level of subjective comprehension of safety and health signs with 150 employees in Korea. In total, 69 safety and health signs containing alternative signs by KS S ISO 7010 were used for the survey for the ease of comprehension. At the results, the frequency of education on the signs was relatively high, but it was difficult to systematically manage those in the small-sized workplaces. In addition, the results of the ease of comprehension survey showed that proportion of alternative signs was high in the upper rank, and also several alternative signs showed significantly high mean compared with safety and health signs. And the means of alternative signs tended to have higher at the categories of prohibition, instruction, and guidance. Although there are some methodological limitations, it is important that the recent management and the level of comprehension for safety and health signs were empirically identified.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제12권2호
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• pp.282-283
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• 2021

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제14권2호
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• pp.174-184
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• 2023

Background: The reoccurrence of occupational accidents in Sudan is evidence of a lack of effective Occupational Health and Safety (OSH) governance in Sudan. Methods: This scope review research articles on OSH governance in Sudan from different sources, including international websites, official government websites, original research articles in journals, and various reports. The five stages of the scoping review followed in this study are: identifying the research question; identifying relevant studies; study selection; charting the data; collating, summarizing, and reporting the results. Results: There is numerous legislation in place; however, there is no evidence of their enforcement, and no formal bodies at the national level are identified as being responsible for their enforcement. Conclusion: Having multiple authorities with overlapping responsibilities hinders OSH governance. An integrated governance model is proposed to eliminate overlapping duties and to facilitate the participation of all stakeholders in the governance process.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제7권4호
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• pp.340-346
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• 2016

Background: safety and healthy working environment has received numerous research attention over the years. Majority of these researches seem to have been conducted in the construction industry, with little attention in the health sector. Nonetheless, there are couple of studies conducted in Africa that suggest pressure in hospitals. Therefore the aim of the study was to examine how pressure influence safety behavior in the hospitals. With reference to the relevance of safety behavior in primary health care delivery, there was the need for the study. Method: Data was obtained from 422 public hospital employees. Respondents were assured that all information would be kept confidential to increase the response rate and acquire more accurate information. Collection of questionnaires from participants took four weeks (20 working days), after which the data was analyzed. Results: The result of the study showed that work pressure correlated negatively with safety behavior. General safety climate significantly correlated positively with safety behavior and negatively with work pressure, although the effect size for the latter was smaller. Hierarchical regression analysis showed management commitment to safety to moderate the relationship between work pressure and safety behavior. Conclusion: When employees perceive safety communication, safety systems and training to be positive, they seem to comply with safety rules and procedures than voluntarily participate in safety activities.

• 대한설비관리학회지
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• 제23권4호
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• pp.85-92
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• 2018

With the increasing use of chemicals in domestic businesses, the possibility of fire explosion and poisonous material leakage accidents is also increasing. Accordingly, the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency(KOSHA) has implemented the process safety management (PSM) system for a long time. However, process safety report submission has been providing and operating e-PSM since 2016 to address these problems as it is difficult to increase budget spending due to the need for professional capabilities and commissioning the report to consulting institutions. Therefore, this study conducts questionnaires on whether e-PSM system that is well utilized in the field, focusing on existing PSM business sites. In order to find out the activation method that can solve the deficiency factors by analyzing various inconveniences and problems accurately, we propose three improvement methods as educational aspect, promotional direction of e-PSM system, and institutional aspect.

• 한국안전학회지
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• 제35권5호
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• pp.66-73
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• 2020

The change in labor consciousness began to draw social attention to work-life balance (WLB). The WLB is one of the major factors affecting the health and safety problems of workers. Although shiftwork adversely affects WLB, safety, and health problems of workers, WLB of shift workers has received little empirical attention. The purpose of this study was to examine whether WLB mediates the relationship between shiftwork and shift worker's safety and health problems, participation in leisure activities moderates WLB, and finally, whether WLB moderated by participation in leisure activities mediates the relationship between shift work and shift worker's safety and health problems. For the study, the data of the 5^th wave of Korean Working Condition Survey(KWCS) conducted by Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency(KOSHA) of South Korea was used. Conditional process analysis revealed that the relationship between shift work and worker's safety and health problems is mediated by WLB; however, participation in leisure activity showed no moderation effect on WLB. Therefore, the moderated mediation effect has failed to achieve statistical significance. The results indicate that working environment improvement in consideration of the WLB is needed to gain shift worker's long-term safety and health. The implications of this study and suggestions for future research were discussed.

• 한국산업보건학회지
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• 제31권4호
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• pp.503-509
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• 2021

Objectives: The utility of the system was analyzed by applying the smart safety technology system to the aging pipe rehabilitation facility construction classified as a confined space. Methods: Smart safety management system was applied to a site where the aging pipe rehabilitation work was in progress. The working environment was measured for 25 days, and the toxic gas saturation was analyzed according to the working time and working place. Results: Based on the measured results, two characteristic environmental changes in the confined space were confirmed. First, when working inside an aging pipe, the tendency of carbon dioxide saturation increases with working time and the number of workers. Second, oxygen decreases when working in a space away from the entrance. Conclusions: Various applications of smart safety technology have been confirmed based on the measured data, and this is expected to be useful for environmental characteristic analysis and safety management when applied to a confined space composed with various conditions in the future.