• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.12-18
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• 2023

Objectives: Personal protective equipment (PPE) is an essential means for protecting workers against hazardous agents or risks that threaten their safety and health. Governmental organizations related to safety and health in the workplace regulate the PPE rules to protect workers and to minimize damage from hazardous agents. This study discussed current PPE rules overseen by the Korea Ministry of Environment and explores future perspectives on the matter. Methods: This study was based on a review of PPE regulations with which every stakeholder should comply in the workplace. Both South Korean regulations enforced by the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Ministry of Environment and cases from other countries were reviewed. Results: Regulations related to the PPE required for handling chemical substances in the workplace are enforced by the Occupational Safety and Health Act, Enforcement Decree, Enforcement Rules, and Notification of Protective Equipment Certification under the Ministry of Employment and Labor. The Ministry of Environment also regulates the PPE standards for 97 substances requiring preparation for accidents and adjustment of work conditions, but a recent amendment (partially amended on September 30, 2022) loosened some unreasonable or excessive provisions. It requires workers simply to carry or otherwise keep PPE handy instead of wearing it for some tasks in which hazardous chemicals are not handled directly. Conclusions: It is important to regularly review provisions that need to be improved or supplemented to help all stakeholders. Considerations should be also made to build a reasonable regulatory system that can induce more mature safety management in each workplace.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers D
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• v.51 no.7
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• pp.279-285
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• 2002

This Paper deals with the economical equipment control which is used by internet network system at the industrial workplace. If the control devices can be accessed by internet, we can have the developed possibility of work conditions. in this paper, we presented the advanced digital timer which has a communication function to control and observe panel to realize control solution based on internet to be easily applicable at workplace with low cost, and we used RS-485 serial communication module to have parallel expansibility and safety. And, this system was experimented and designed for easy system management and status check from remote station through internet. As the result for experiment, the circuit configuration would be more simplified than the existing, and it is expected that multi connection control and monitoring can be simply implemented with low cost equipment at industrial workplace.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.259-266
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• 2013

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the workloads of industrial and automobile storage battery industries and their association to biological exposure indices. Background: Occupational lead exposure at battery manufacturing workplace is the most serious problem in safety and health management. Method: We surveyed 145 workers in 3 storage battery industries. Environmental factors(lead in air, temperature, humidity and vibration)), biological exposure indices(lead in blood and zinc protoporphyrin in blood) and individual workload factors(process type, work time, task type, weight handling and restrictive clothing) were measured in each unit workplace. Results/Conclusion: Air lead concentration is statistically significant in associations with workload factors(process type, work time, task type, and restrictive clothing) and environmental factors (humidity and vibration), whereas zinc protoporphyrin in blood are significantly associated with work time and weight handling. And lead in blood is significantly associated with work time, weight handling and temperature. Application: The results of this study are expected to be a fundamental data to job design.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.73-83
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• 2005

The goal of this study is to propose the improved scheme that prevents the workers against musculoskeletal disorders at a fishcake manufacturing company, A questionnaire and an ergonomic assessment method were adopted to analyze the symptoms of workers' musculoskeletal disorders, and an analysis of working postures and a quantitative assessment on various processes were performed to find out harmful factors of workplace. Based on the result of the evaluation, to enhance the working environment, improvement of worktable, working space, tools, and outfit was suggested, and induction of mechanical system was also suggested. Suggested improvement plan was applied to the workplace step by step and it is confirmed that improvement plan can removes the injurious factors of musculoskeletal diseases effectively.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.383-384
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• 2020

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.1069-1076
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• 2012

This study is aimed to provide the basic data for improve plan of industrial safety and health education for industrial disaster prevention. The self-administered questionnaire were given to 167 manufacturing industry workers of 5 manufactural workplace in Kangwon province during the period from March 15th to April 15th, 2010. As a results, The rate of 76.6% in manufacturing industry workers have educational place for industrial safety and health education, but their industrial safety and health education was established in the workplace office, about 44.3%. Industrial safety and health education almost was done by means of lecture. Industrial safety and health education for manufacturing industry worker was done without thinking about general characteristics and kinds of work of manufacturing industry workers. The results of this study indicate that industrial safety and health education are needed to improve the problems. To improve the industrial safety and health education, it is necessary to be established industrial safety and health education thinking about general characteristics and kinds of work of workers.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.182-194
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• 2009

This study was conducted to evaluate health status and to propose health protection measures of irregular plant construction workers in Yoesu National Industrial Complex (YNIC). The status of safety and health management was examined in five areas including safety and health education, work environment monitoring, health examination, health management record, and personal protective equipment (PPE) for plant construction workers. The safety training rate for plant construction workers was reached high at 91%, The training was mostly consisted of safety accident related things, but training on hazardous materials was found to be insufficient. Workplace monitoring results showed that the compliance rate for work environment for irregular construction workers was 54% and workplace monitoring during turnaround (TA) period with high risk of exposure to hazardous agents has not been implemented. While 61.4% of irregular workers received the general health examination but only 36.8% received the special health examination. The special health examination was found to be conducted only upon welders from 2-3 years ago. The issue of health management record upon irregular construction workers was not being implemented. In case of PPE, basic safety protective equipments such as safety shoes, safety belt, safety helmet were being supplied well while the supply rate of respirator for organic vapor was relatively low at 40%. Based on this study, two suggestions to maximize the utilization of the current safety and health program were made while boosting its effectiveness in protecting workers' health. First, the role of owners (petrochemical plant) related to safety and health should be strengthened. Second, in consideration of the characteristics of construction workers who usually engage in short term employment and frequent movement, community based health management organization is suggested that can overcome such structural problem and carry out the implementation of health examination and sustained health management.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.403-409
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• 2024

In this paper, the guidelines for the design of an Artificial Intelligence(AI) based Integrated Process Safety Management(PSM) system to enhance workplace safety using data from process safety reports submitted by hazardous and risky facility operators in accordance with the Occupational Safety and Health Act is proposed. The system composed of the proposed guidelines is to be implemented separately by individual facility operators and specialized process safety management agencies for single or multiple workplaces. It is structured with key components and stages, including data collection and preprocessing, expansion and segmentation, labeling, and the construction of training datasets. It enables the collection of process operation data and change approval data from various processes, allowing potential fault prediction and maintenance planning through the analysis of all data generated in workplace operations, thereby supporting decision-making during process operation. Moreover, it offers utility and effectiveness in time and cost savings, detection and prediction of various risk factors, including human errors, and continuous model improvement through the use of accurate and reliable training data and specialized datasets. Through this approach, it becomes possible to enhance workplace safety and prevent accidents.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.49-58
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• 2019

There was a difference in recognition of chemical substances according to cognitive level of GHS, knowledge level of organic solvents and each department of workers. they were showed higher recognition of chemical substances by research group, partially group and good group. To identify the relationship between types of job classification(group of department, group of GHS cognitive level and group of organic solvents knowledge level) and the levels of recognition of chemical substances, a total of 153 workers in a small and medium business workplace. Descriptive statistics(SAS ver 9.2)was performed. the results of recognition of chemical substances were analyzed the mean and standard deviation by t-test, and anova, (P=0.05). These results In general, small- and medium-sized workplaces have low levels of GHS awareness and organic solvents knowledge. The perception of chemical substances according to the departments. In general, the demand for chemical substances education was highly suggested regardless of the job type. There was a significant difference in the perception of health, safety and practice according to the level of GHS cognitive, and a high perception in the incomplete group. There was not much difference in average awareness of health, safety and practice according to organic solvents knowledge level, but there was a high perception in good group. It is very important to regularly check the worker's perception of the workplace and identify problems with the work environment and improve the work environment. In addition, each department presents appropriate safety and health education such as chemical process safety, toxicity of chemical substances and human exposure. We also propose a chemical substances assessment and management plan that integrates safety and health.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.537-542
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• 2020

Background: Personal protective equipment (PPE) has been designed in such a way to reduce accident rates. Unfortunately, existing PPE is rather ineffective as it is not able to provide warning signals when hazard is around. The integration of intelligent systems is envisaged to increase the efficiency of existing PPE. Methods: This project designed a safety vest incorporated with metal detectors which can provide immediate warning to the field workers when there is metal hazard around. This product has greater freedom of design via smart manufacturing as it involves the assembly of few commercially available parts into a single entity. Briefly, the metal detector is a do it yourself (DIY) kit, and the safety vest is purchasable from any local market. The DIY kit was connected to a copper coil and being sewed into the safety vest. Results: The metal detector induces beeping sound when there is metal hazard around. A total of 121 engineering students were introduced to the prototype before being requested to answer a survey associated with the design. Respondents have rated >3.00/5.00 for the design simplicity, ease of usage, and light weight. Meanwhile, respondents suggested that the design should be further improved by increasing the metal detection range. Conclusion: It is envisaged that the introduction of this smart safety vest will allow the workers to carry out their duties securely by reducing the accident rates. Particularly, such design is expected to reduce workplace accident especially during night time at construction sites where the visibility is low.