• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.429-439
• /
• 2022

Background: The risk observatory (RO) of the German Social Accident Insurance (DGUV) provides strategic support to the German Social Accident Insurance Institutions (GSAII) in proactive prevention. It does so by identifying future challenges and opportunities for occupational safety and health (OSH) resulting from new trends and developments that affect employees as well as children in elementary education, pupils, and students. Methods: The core of the RO is an online survey that relies on a pool of new trends and developments identified via internet and literature research. 865 prevention experts of the GSAII and the DGUV participated in the survey. They rated trends and developments regarding their sector-specific risks and opportunities for OSH in the 5 years to come. Results: Sector-specific and over-all results show that besides well-known OSH risks such as musculoskeletal stress and noise, developments relevant for OSH come to the fore that do not have their origin in work itself, but are strongly influenced by political, social, economic, environmental, or technical developments that accident insurance can only peripherally influence. Shortage of skilled staff was identified as a threat to OSH in almost all sectors. Conclusions: Prevention must find ways to address repercussions of such OSH risks. Cooperation and political awareness are therefore gaining in importance. Also, implementing a prevention culture in society and strengthening individuals' health and safety literacy, e.g., by target-group-specific communication and sensitization, as well as early safety and health education, help to counteract those OSH risks.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.258-266
• /
• 2017

Background: Welders are exposed to many known and suspected carcinogens. An excess lung cancer risk among welders is well established, but whether this is attributable to welding fumes is unclear. Excess risks of other cancers have been suggested, but not established. We investigated welding cancer risks in the population-based Canadian Census Health and Environmental Cohort. Methods: Among 1.1 million male workers, 12,845 welders were identified using Standard Occupational Classification codes and followed through retrospective linkage of 1991 Canadian Long Form Census and Canadian Cancer Registry (1992-2010) records. Hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated using Cox proportional hazards models based on estimated risks of lung cancer, mesothelioma, and nasal, brain, stomach, kidney, and bladder cancers, and ocular melanoma. Lung cancer histological subtypes and risks by industry group and for occasional welders were examined. Some analyses restricted comparisons to blue-collar workers to minimize effects of potential confounders. Results: Among welders, elevated risks were observed for lung cancer [HR: 1.16, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.03-1.31], mesothelioma (HR: 1.78, 95% CI: 1.01-3.18), bladder cancer (HR: 1.40, 95% CI: 1.15-1.70), and kidney cancer (HR: 1.30, 95% CI: 1.01-1.67). When restricted to blue-collar workers, lung cancer and mesothelioma risks were attenuated, while bladder and kidney cancer risks increased. Conclusion: Excess risks of lung cancer and mesothelioma may be partly attributable to factors including smoking and asbestos. Welding-specific exposures may increase bladder and kidney cancer risks, and particular sources of exposure should be investigated. Studies that are able to disentangle welding effects from smoking and asbestos exposure are needed.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.357-371
• /
• 2007

For the time-to-failure data with competing risks, cumulative incidence functions (CIFs) are commonly estimated using nonparametric methods. If the cases of events due to the cause of primary interest are infrequent relative to other cause of failure, nonparametric methods may result in rather imprecise estimates for CIF. In such cases, Bryant et al. (2004) suggested to model the cause-specific hazard of primary interest parametrically, while accounting for the other modes of failure using nonparametric estimator. We represented the semiparametric cumulative incidence estimator and extended to the model of Weibull and log-normal distribution. We also conducted simulations to access the performance of the semiparametric cumulative incidence estimators and to investigate the impact of model misspecification in log-normal cause-specific hazard model.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
• /
• v.21
• /
• pp.41-54
• /
• 2003

The MIA 1906 is a very important rule for the practitioner in Korea since it is often selected as the governing law under the contract of cargo insurance. And we are using both the S.G policy and the new MAR policy. The new MAR policy has the basically different form of cover compared with the S.G policy. So we are a little confused whether some risks are covered or not under the selected clauses. The author considers which risks are covered or not under the specific clauses and compares the Institute cargo clauses with the MIA 1906.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
• /
• 2014.11a
• /
• pp.90-91
• /
• 2014

Previous research related to the construction schedule management has focused on construction schedule categorization, construction schedule management, and system development to manage construction schedule risks. Therefore this research present quantitively deducing method for managing construction schedule risk. Based on the investigation, this study suggested the probable risk factors and a practical management method, through interviews and discussions with experts. The quantified risks should be adapted for an individually specific projects and managed until the project is complete. To maintain the continuity of schedule risks, the schedule risk management procedures should be controlled during the performance of the construction project.

• Annals of dermatology
• /
• v.30 no.6
• /
• pp.662-667
• /
• 2018

Background: Recently, the number of domestic pets has increased. As a consequence, sensitization to animal allergens, such as cat or dog allergens, has become a problem. Objective: We studied the annual trends of sensitization to cats or dogs, and the characteristics of the patients. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of 7,469 patients who visited a dermatology clinic and underwent an allergic profile test, from January 2011 to December 2015. Specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels to cat or dog antibody greater than 3.50 IU/ml were regarded as positive results. Results: In all, 274 patients showed significant increase in levels of specific IgE antibody to dog, and 307 revealed increase in levels of of specific IgE antibody to cat. The prevalence of these specific IgEs increased from 2011 to 2015. Independent risks for sensitization to cat allergens were sensitization to dog, but not to house dust, Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, and D. farinae. Independent risks for sensitization to dog allergens were sensitization to cat, but not to house dust, D. pteronyssinus, and D. farinae. Total IgE level was not related to specific IgE level against either cats or dogs. Conclusion: In conclusion, the prevalence of sensitization to cat or dog has increased. Sensitization to cat or dog is related to each other, but is irrelevant to the total IgE level.

• Architectural research
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.49-57
• /
• 2019

Risk assessment during pre-construction phase is important due to the uncertainty of the risks that may exist in projects. Risk checklist is a method to systematically classify and organize the risks that have been experienced in the past, and to identify the risk factors that may be present in the future projects. In addition, risk value assessment based on checklists plays a key role in risk management, and various risk assessment researches have been conducted to carry out this systematically. However, previous approaches have limitations in common, this is because risk values are evaluated individually in risk checklists, which ignore interdependencies among risk factors and neglect the emergence of co-occurrence of risks. Hence, when multiple risk factors cooccur, they cannot be far off from the conventional method of summing the total risk value to establish the risk response strategy. Most of risk factors are interdependent and may have multiple effects if occurred than expected. In particular, specific cause can be overlapped if multiple risks co-occur, and this may result in overestimation of the risk response for the future project. Thus, the objective of this research is to propose a model to help decision makers to quantify the risk value reflecting the interdependency during the identification phase using existing risk checklist that is currently being practiced in actual construction projects. The proposed model will provide the guideline to support the prediction and identification of the interdependency of risks in practice. In addition, the better understanding and prediction of the exceeding risk response by co-occurring risks during the risk identification phase for decision makers.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.15-23
• /
• 2015

In the construction industry, risk management has gained constant attention as the factor not only to evaluate global competitiveness of the country but also to secure competitiveness of public institutions and private companies. For effective construction risk management, the specific work process improvement that can be employed in the field in terms of risk management of the entire corporation such as financial, insurance and safety management is necessary. To manage construction risks, what is important is the step to identifying inherent risks in the construction project. The identification of risks will be followed by the step to seeking ways to establish and manage strategies responding to the risks. This study suggests ways and processes to make a checkslit to identify risks through case studies. To that end, the focus will be placed on working process improvement of risk identification among stages to manage construction risks such as risk identification and analyses, planning to respond to risks, risk monitoring and management. The case study checklists show that setting up the system to classify risks by stage is helpful to figure out causes of risks to reduce or eliminate risk factors. The checklist making process that considers features of the project is expected to contribute to successful completion of the project by enabling effective risk identification and systematic risk management.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.425-430
• /
• 2023

Background: It is acknowledged that legislation acts as a motivator for organizational action on psychosocial risks. Our study aims to provide evidence on the relationship between key occupational safety and health (OSH) policy principles and organizational action on work-related stress, and, in turn, with reported employee job demands and resources and their experience of work-related stress. We focus on Italy where specific legislation and practices on work-related stress were introduced in 2008 which are underpinned by these key OSH policy principles. Methods: Secondary analysis of the Italian samples from the employer ESENER-2 and employee 6th EWCS surveys was conducted, using path analysis in structural equation modeling (SEM) linking the two datasets. Results: We found a strong statistically significant relationship between OSH policy principles and organizational action on work-related stress (C.I. = .62-.78 p < .001). The existence of an organizational action plan on work-related stress was found to be significantly associated with more reported job resources (C.I. = .02-.24, p < .05) but these were not found to be significantly associated with less work-related stress. No significant association was found between having an organizational action plan for work-related stress and reported job demands. However, job demands were significantly related to reported work-related stress (C.I. = .27-.47, p < .001). Conclusions: Findings add support to the call for specific legislation on work-related psychosocial risks and highlight how an organizational OSH culture underpinned by key OSH principles, and awareness/competence development on psychosocial risk management can have a positive effect on organizational action. However, further support needs to be provided to organizations around developing primary prevention interventions at the organizational level with the aim of reducing job demands.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.117-128
• /
• 2019

The remarkable achievements of the artificial intelligence in recent years are also raising awareness about its potential risks. Several governments and public organizations have been proposing the artificial intelligence ethics for sustainable development of artificial intelligence by minimizing potential risks. However, most existing proposals are focused on the developer-centered ethics, which is not sufficient for the comprehensive ethics required for ongoing intelligent information society. In addition, they have chosen a number of principles as the starting point of artificial intelligence ethics, so it is not easy to derive the guideline flexibly for a specific member reflecting its own situation. In this paper, we classify primitive members who need artificial intelligence ethics in intelligent information society into three : Developer, Supplier and User. We suggest a new artificial intelligence ethics, Seoul PACT, with minimal principles through publicness (P), accountability (A), controllability (C), and transparency (T). In addition, we provide 38 canonical guidelines based on these four principles, which are applicable to each primitive members. It is possible for a specific member to duplicate the roles of primitive members, so that the flexible derivation of the artificial intelligence ethics guidelines can be made according to the characteristics of the member reflecting its own situation. As an application example, in preparation for applying artificial intelligence to e-government service, we derive a full set of artificial intelligence ethics guideline from Seoul PACT, which can be adopted by the special member named Korean Government.