• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제15권1호
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• pp.66-72
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• 2024

Background: This study examines the relationship between functional disability and work ability in workers affected by low back pain (LBP) through an analysis of correlations between the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and Work Ability Index (WAI). The role of personal and work factors on functional disability/work ability levels has also been studied. LBP is the most common musculoskeletal problem and a major disabling health problem worldwide. Its etiology is multifactorial. Multidisciplinary approaches may help reduce the burden of pain and disability and improve job continuity and reintegration at work. Methods: A cohort of 264 patients affected by LBP from an Italian outpatient clinic were included in a clinical diagnostic/therapeutic trial aiming at rehabilitation and return to work through an integrated investigation protocol. Data were collected during the first medical examination using anamnestic and clinical tools. The final sample is composed of 252 patients, 57.1% man, 44.0 % blue collars, 46.4% with the high school degree, 45.6% married. Results: WAI and ODI reported a negative and fair correlation (r = -0.454; p = .000). Workers with acute LBP symptoms have a higher probability of severe disability than those with chronic LBP symptoms. White collars without depressive symptoms reported higher work ability - even in chronic disability conditions-than those with depressive symptoms. Conclusion: The study found that ODI and WAI have a convergent validity and this suggests that the two tools measure capture distinctive aspects of disability related to personal, environmental, and occupational characteristics. The most important and modifiable prognostic factors found for ODI and WAI were depressive symptoms, workday absence, and intensity of back pain. The study also found a mild association between age and ODI. The study's findings highlight the importance of using a multidisciplinary approach to manage and prevent disability due to LBP.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• 제24권3호
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• pp.345-352
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• 2014

Objectives: This study is aimed to describe the current situation about urinary biomarker N-methylformamide(NMF) for workers exposed to N,N-dimethylformamide(DMF) according to industrial classification. Materials: Special health examination records of the workers who had undergone urinary biological monitoring in 2013 were collected. The numbers and percentage of workers, whose urinary NMF values were above the limit of detection(LOD) and above the biological exposure index(BEI) were calculated. Health relatedness with DMF as judged by their doctors was also described. All description was classified according to the $9^{th}$ Korean Standard Industrial Classification(KSIC). Results: It appeared that most workers exposed to DMF belong to manufacturing section(80.7%). The geometric mean(GM) values of urinary NMF were 6.25 mg/L, 3.54, and 3.86 for the manufacturing section, professional, scientific and technical activities section, and for the construction section respectively. In detail, it seemed that division of textiles(except apparel) (GM 7.51 mg/L), division of leather, luggage and footwear(11.59 mg/L), and division of rubber and plastic products(6.89 mg/L) were highly exposed to DMF with a high percentage of workers with urinary NMF values above BEI. This was probably due to the effect of skin absorption that the division of leather, luggage and footwear showed the highest urine NMF GM. Conclusions: It seemed that workers in manufacture industries such as textile, leather, luggage, footwear, rubber and plastic products were highly exposed to DMF. So, efforts should be focused on those industries in order to effectively diminish worker's exposure. Further studies to compare DMF air-monitoring with bio-monitoring according to industrial classification should be considered.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제13권2호
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• pp.148-154
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• 2022

Background: Bus driving is a mentally demanding activity that requires prolonged attention to ensure safety. The aim of the study was to assess mental fatigue caused by driving a public bus and to find a profile of workers at higher risk. Methods: We evaluated changes of critical flicker fusion (CFF) (index of central arousal) and heart rate variability (HRV) (index of autonomic balance) in a 6-hour driving shift on a real route, in 31 professional bus drivers, and we tested the influence of personal factors such as sleep quality, BMI, and age. Paired t-test was used to test differences of CFF and HRV between both initial and final phase of driving, while multiple linear regression tested the influence of personal variables on the indexes of mental fatigue. Results: Results showed that CFF significantly decreased after 6 hours of bus driving (41.91 Hz, sd 3.31 vs. 41.15 Hz, sd 3.15; p = 0.041), and heart rate significantly decreased in the final phase of driving, with respect to the initial phase (85 vs. 78 bpm, p = 0.027). Increasing age (beta = -0.729, p = 0.022), risk of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (beta = -0.530, p = 0.04), and diurnal sleepiness (beta = -0.406, p = 0.017) showed a significant effect on influencing mental fatigue. Conclusion: Elderly drivers at higher risk of sleep disorders are more prone to mental fatigue, when exposed to driving activity. Monitoring indexes of central arousal and autonomic balance, coupled with the use of structured questionnaires can represent a useful strategy to detect profile of workers at higher risk of mental fatigue in such duty.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제13권1호
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• pp.104-111
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• 2022

Background: The IMPPAC cohort (Implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychosocial aspects and work ability among Brazilian workers) seeks to understand the impact of the pandemic on Brazilian workers. This article describes the occupational profile, psychosocial aspects, and work ability determined during the baseline and follow-up measurements of the cohort. Methods: Workers were invited to participate through media advertisements, social networks, and emails. From June to September 2020, 1211 workers were included in the cohort. Follow-up measurements finished on October 2021 with 633 workers. Data were collected through standardized questionnaires using Google Forms. Psychosocial aspects were assessed using the COPSOQ II-Br. Work ability was assessed using the Work Ability Index (WAI). Results: At baseline and follow-up, high proportion of workers were in the risk zone with regard to work pace, emotional work demands, influence on work, work-family conflict, burnout, and stress. Approximately 75% of the workers reported good to excellent work ability at baseline and follow-up. Conclusion: The occupational profile, psychosocial aspects, and work ability of Brazilian workers from the IMPPAC cohort were described. Psychosocial aspects and WAI were similar at baseline and follow-up.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제15권1호
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• pp.9-16
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• 2024

Background: E-waste workers in Hong Kong are handling an unprecedented amount of e-waste, which contains various neurotoxic chemicals. However, no study has been conducted to evaluate the neurological health status of e-waste workers in Hong Kong. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of neurobehavioral alterations and to identify the vulnerable groups among Hong Kong e-waste workers. Methods: We recruited 109 Hong Kong e-waste workers from June 2021 to September 2022. Participants completed standard questionnaires and wore a GENEActiv accelerometer for seven days. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Questionnaire 16/18 (Q16/18) were used to assess subjective neurobehavioral alterations. The GENEActiv data generated objective sleep and circadian rhythm variables. Workers were grouped based on job designation and entity type according to the presumed hazardous level. Unconditional logistic regression models measured the associations of occupational characteristics with neurobehavioral alterations after adjusting for confounders. Results: While dismantlers/repairers and the workers in entities not funded by the government were more likely to suffer from neurotoxic symptoms in Q18 (adjusted odds ratio: 3.18 [1.18-9.39] and 2.77 [1.10-7.46], respectively), the workers from self-sustained recycling facilities also have poor performances in circadian rhythm. Results also showed that the dismantlers/repairers working in entities not funded by the government had the highest risk of neurotoxic symptoms compared to the lowest-risk group (i.e., workers in government-funded companies with other job designations). Conclusion: This timely and valuable study emphasizes the importance of improving the working conditions for high-risk e-waste workers, especially the dismantlers or repairers working in facilities not funded by the government.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• 제17권4호
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• pp.160-167
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• 2002

In order to prepare effective safety management program, the evaluation of safety management level must be implemented. But research efforts on the safety management in Korea are limited to evaluate large construction companies. This study is initiated with the purpose of understanding safety management system in medium- and small-sized construction companies. The study performed questionnaire survey with 54 large companies, 46 medium- and small-sized ones. Employing 'Management Safety Health Index' of Maekyung Economic Institute, 34 questionnaire items were chosen by 9 associated experts. Based on the questionnaire survey, analyses were performed to compare safety management level between large companies as well as medium- and small-sized ones.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• 제16권1호
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• pp.129-138
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• 2014

As S. Korea is becoming an "aged society", workers in the country would be exposed to higher risk of workplace injuries due to their reducing work abilities as they are getting old. To identify the relationship between the work ability and the incident rate of workplace injuries, the work ability index (WAI) scores were surveyed from 409 workers occupied in different manufacturing industries reside on north GyoengBuk area. The workplace injury statistics in the year of 2010 for the corresponding industries were analyzed and summarized with the WAI scores by age groups, years of service, and sizes of business. The results showed the WAI scores of the workers occupied in the higher risk of workplace injury was lower than that of the workers of the lower risk. It means the lower the WAI score, the higher the chance of being injured during the task. It is concluded that appropriate correlation exists between the WAI scores of workers and the incident rate of workplace injury. It is recommended to administrate individual work abilities of aged workers in order to keep low rate of workplace injuries in upcoming aged and highly aged society.

• Water Engineering Research
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• 제6권4호
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• pp.169-178
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• 2005

Comprehensive assessment of ecological riparian zone is to analyze and evaluate the status of riparian zone ecosystem. The existing problem of the ecosystem can be found through the assessment. The AHP-FUZZY method used in the assessment is based on the hierarchy model of index, grade model of object, and attribution degree of index. Accordingly, the four models have been discussed and presented from the aspect of the stability, landscape, eco-health and eco-safety of riparian zone.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• 제30권3호
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• pp.217-226
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• 2015

This study was conducted to establish a standardized process for developing food safety health indicators. With this aim, we proposed a standardized process, accessed the validity of the suggested process by performing simulations, and provided a method to utilize the indicators. Developing process for domestic environmental health indicators was benchmarked to propose a standardized process for developing food safety health indicators, and DPSEEA framework was applied to the development of indicators. The suggested standardized process consists of an exploitation stage and a management stage. In the exploitation stage, a total of 6 procedures (initial indicators suggestion, candidate indicators selection, data availability assessment, feasibility assessment, pilot study, and final indicator selection) are conducted, and the indicators are routinely calculated and officially announced in the management stage. The exploitation stage is operated by an interaction between a task force team who manages the overall process, and an advisory committee (minimum of 4 in academia, 2 in research, 4 in specialists of Ministry of Food and Drug Safety) who reviews and performs evaluations on the indicators. The standardized process was simulated with 45 initial indicators, and total of 4 indicators (17 detailed indicators) were selected: 'Proportion of domestic fruit/vegetable receiving 'acceptable' in the evaluation of pesticide/herbicide residues', 'Food-borne disease outbreaks', 'Food-borne legal infectious disease incidence', 'Salmonellosis incidence'. Synthetic food safety health index was derived by calculating percent difference with the data from 2010 to 2012. Results showed that when comparing the year 2010 to 2011, and 2011 to 2012, the overall food safety status improved by 10.37% and 9.87%, respectively. In addition, the contribution of indicators to the overall food safety status can be determined by looking into the individual indicators, and the synthetic index may be illustrated to enhance the ease of interpretation to the public and policy makers. In overall, food health safety indicators can be useful in many ways and therefore, attention should be drawn to conduct further studies and establish related legislations.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제9권2호
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• pp.232-235
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• 2018

Background: This study was conducted to investigate the heat stress and semen quality among male workers in a steel industry in Iran and investigate the relationship between heat stress indices and semen parameters. Methods: The study was conducted on workers exposed (n = 30) and unexposed (n = 14) to heat in a steel industry. After obtaining a brief biography of the selected employees, scrotal temperature, oral temperature, and environmental parameters were measured, and their semen samples were analyzed according to the procedure recommended by the World Health Organization. The heat stress indices, including wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) and predicted heat strain (PHS), in their workplace were calculated according to environmental parameters (ISO 7243:1989 and 7933:2004, respectively). Results: Time-weighted averages of WBGT and PHS ($35.76^{\circ}C$ and 491.56 $w/m^2{\frac{w}{m^2}}$, respectively) for the exposed group were higher than threshold limit values. The mean difference of environmental, physiological, and semen parameters (exception: pH of semen), and also WBGT and PHS indices were statistically significant (p < 0.05) between the two groups. Mean semen parameters were in the normozoospermic range. WBGT and PHS indices showed significantly "negative" correlation with physiological parameters (scrotal and oral temperature) and most semen parameters (semen volume, sperm morphology, sperm motility, sperm count; p < 0.05); moreover, the correlation of WBGT with these parameters was stronger than PHS. Conclusion: Semen parameters of the studied workers exposed to heat were in the borderline level of normozoospermic range, and their semen parameters were significantly lower than controls. For better assessment of occupational environment concerning physiological and semen parameters in steel industries, WBGT can be a more useful index.