• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.91-99
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• 2012

Airborne chlorpyrifos concentrations in formulation workplaces have not been determined in Korea. The aim of the study was to evaluate chlorpyrifos concentrations of air in a formulation workplace and recognize the RBC cholinesterase activities for the formulation workers. 30 air samples (personal or area sampling) were collected and bood samples from 10 workers were collected for RBC chlorinesterase (RBC AChE) activity in a factory on May 2008. Air samples were collected by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) method and were analyzed by GC-MS. Airborne chlorpyrifos concentrations ranged from 0.003 to $12.90mg/m^3$ and geometric mean (GM) was $0.15\;mg/m^3.$ Compared to Korean Occupational Exposure Limit (KOEL) of 0.1 (2011) or $0.2\;mg/m^3$ (2008), at 95% confidence, airborne concentrations exceeded the KOEL 69.7% or 56.1% of the time or less, indicating that this concentration level was unacceptable according to exposure assessment using a LogNorm2$^{(R)}$. Since the workers were continually at work on the organophosphate or carbamate pesticides formulation, individual baseline for RBC AChE activity was not determined. As the results of comparison with reference average value of RBC AChE activity, it was found that a worker was below 70% RBC AChE activity and five workers were abnormal.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.734-740
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• 2023

Hydrogen emphasis on safety management due to its high potential for accidents from wide explosive limits and low ignition energy. To prevent accidents, appropriate explosion-proof electrical equipment with installed to safe management of ignition sources. However, designing all facilities with explosion-proof structures can significantly increase costs and impose limitations. In this study, we optimize the barrier to effectively control the initial momentum in case of hydrogen release and form the control room as a non-hazardous area. We employed response surface method (RSM), the barrier distance, width and height of the barrier were set as variables. The Box-Behnken design method the selection of 15 cases, and FLACS assessed the presence of hazardous area. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) analysis resulting in an optimized barrier area. Through this methodology, the workplace can optimize the barrier according to the actual workplace conditions and classify reasonable hazardous area, which is believed to secure safety in hydrogen facilities and minimize economic burden.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.290-295
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• 2017

Background: Safety climate and occupational stress are related with occupational accident. The present study tried to identify the differences in safety climate and occupational stress according to occupational accidents experience and employment type (e.g., direct workers and subcontract workers). Methods: In this study, we conducted a survey using safety climate scale and Korean Occupational Stress Scale and classified the participants into four groups: direct workers working for accident-free departments, direct workers working for accident departments, subcontract workers working for accident-free departments, and subcontract workers working for accident departments for 2 years within the same workplace in the shipbuilding industry. Results: The direct workers and subcontract workers showed diverse results in subscales of safety climate and occupational stress. This result is supported by existing studies; however, further study is necessary for more supporting evidence and elaborative methodological approach. Conclusion: The necessity of management for safety climate and psychosocial factor such as occupational stress for both direct workers and subcontract workers as a whole is suggested by this study.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.134-141
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• 2021

As the domestic aviation industry grows, the aviation maintenance field is also growing rapidly. This change calls for more aircraft maintenance technicians, and interest in safety accidents is also increasing. Individual safety climate indicates the importance of safety in the organization. We expect that three individual factors (training effectiveness, procedure effectiveness, and work pressure) relate to safety behavior in the workplace via individual safety climate. The purpose of this research is investigating the relationship between individual factors and aircraft maintenance technician's safety behavior. Previous studies related to individual factors were examined for literature review. Based on the previous studies, research model was constructed. Hypothesis was verified by effected data from 305 samples were employed for final survey. The results show that individual factors were meaningful factors to effect perceived safety behavior, and safety knowledge & safety motivation were related to safety compliance & safety participation.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.373-378
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• 2024

Introduction: Following the Republic of Korea electric power industry site-specific safety management system, this paper proposes a novel safety autonomous platform (SAP) architecture that can automatically and precisely manage on-site safety through ensemble artificial intelligence (AI) models. The ensemble AI model was generated from video information and worker's biometric information as learning data and the estimation results of this model are based on standard operating procedures of the workplace and safety rules. Methods: The ensemble AI model is designed and implemented by the Hadoop ecosystem with Kafka/NiFi, Spark/Hive, HUE, and ELK (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana). Results: The functional evaluation shows that the main function of this SAP architecture was operated successfully. Discussion: The proposed model is confirmed to work well with safety mobility gateways to provide some safety applications.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.72-79
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• 2019

Through this study, we developed a model for predicting chemical accidents lead to casualties. The model was derived from the logistic regression analysis model and applied to the variables affecting the accident. The accident data used in the model was analyzed by studying the statistics of past chemical accidents, and applying independent variables that were statistically significant through data analysis, such as the type of accident, cause, place of occurrence, status of casualties, and type of chemical accident that caused the casualties. A significance of p < 0.05 was applied. The model developed in this study is meaningful for the prevention of casualties caused by chemical accidents and the establishment of safety systems in the workplace. The analysis using the model found that the most influential factor in the occurrence of casualty in accidents was chemical explosions. Therefore, there is an urgent need to prepare countermeasures to prevent chemical accidents, specifically explosions, from occurring in the workplace.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.31
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• pp.11.1-11.6
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• 2016

Objectives A hazard assessment of di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), a commonly used workplace chemical, was conducted in order to protect the occupational health of workers. A literature review, consisting of both domestic and international references, examined the chemical management system, working environment, level of exposure, and possible associated risks. This information may be utilized in the future to determine appropriate exposure levels in working environments. Methods Hazard assessment was performed using chemical hazard information obtained from international agencies, such as Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development-generated Screening Information Data Set and International Program on Chemical Safety. Information was obtained from surveys conducted by the Minister of Employment and Labor ("Survey on the work environment") and by the Ministry of Environment ("Survey on the circulation amount of chemicals"). Risk was determined according to exposure in workplaces and chemical hazard. Results In 229 workplaces over the country, 831 tons of DEHP have been used as plasticizers, insecticides, and ink solvent. Calculated 50% lethal dose values ranged from 14.2 to 50 g/kg, as determined via acute toxicity testing in rodents. Chronic carcinogenicity tests revealed cases of lung and liver degeneration, shrinkage of the testes, and liver cancer. The no-observed-adverse-effect level and the lowest-observed-adverse-effect level were determined to be 28.9 g/kg and 146.6 g/kg, respectively. The working environment assessment revealed the maximum exposure level to be $0.990mg/m^3$, as compared to the threshold exposure level of $5mg/m^3$. The relative risk of chronic toxicity and reproductive toxicity were 0.264 and 0.330, respectively, while the risk of carcinogenicity was 1.3, which is higher than the accepted safety value of one. Conclusions DEHP was identified as a carcinogen, and may be dangerous even at concentrations lower than the occupational exposure limit. Therefore, we suggest management of working environments, with exposure levels below $5mg/m^3$ and all workers utilizing local exhaust ventilation and respiratory protection when handling DEHP.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.206-210
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• 2015

Background: Fatigue has a strong impact on workers' performance and safety, but expedient methods for assessing fatigue on the job are not yet available. Studies discuss posturography as an indicator of fatigue, but further evidence for its use in the workplace is needed. The purpose of the study is to examine whether posturography is a suitable indicator of fatigue in clerical workers. Methods: Thirty-six employees (${\emptyset}$ 34.8 years, standard deviation = 12.5) participated in postural tasks (eyes open, eyes closed, arm swinging, and dual task) in the morning and afternoon. Position of their center of pressure (COP) was registered using a Nintendo Wii Balance Board and commercial software. From registered COP time series, we calculated the following parameters: path length (mm), velocity (mm/s), anterior-posterior variance (mm), mediolateral variance (mm), and confidence area ($mm^2$). These parameters were reduced to two orthogonal factors in a factor analysis with varimax rotation. Results: Statistical analysis of the first factor (path length and velocity) showed a significant effect of time of day: COP moved along a shorter path at a lower velocity in the afternoon compared with that in the morning. There also was a significant effect of task, but no significant interaction. Conclusion: Data suggest that postural stability of clerical workers was comparable in the morning and afternoon, but COP movement was greater in the morning. Within the framework of dynamic systems theory, this could indicate that the postural system explored the state space in more detail, and thus was more ready to respond to unexpected perturbations in the morning.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.12-19
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• 2014

Workplaces handling hazardous chemicals are scattered, because of old-aging facilities are have been operating for more than 20 years, there is still has the risk of an accident. Advanced countries including the UN and strengthen regulation of chemicals, but the frequent leak accidents have become a big issue socially. In the case of subsequent domestic accidental chemical accident, the government and related departments for the overall prevention, preparedness, response system has been checked and improved. In this study, improvements of the related system and the plan of safety management for on the prevention of accidents and the initial response were suggested throughout the analysis of problems on the actual condition of safety management and such as standard of the related systems for handling, management for occurring the main cause of the leak and chemical accidents from hazardous chemicals handling in the workplace.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.199-206
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• 2020

Background: In a wide range of industries, noise-induced hearing loss remains one of the most prevalent occupational problems. This study aimed to assess the noise exposure level and associated factors of hearing loss among textile workers in Yangon Region, Myanmar. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at a Textile mill (Thamine), Yangon Region, from April to December 2018. In total, 226 workers who were randomly selected from 3 weaving sections participated in face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire. A digital sound level meter and pure-tone audiometer were used for the assessment of noise exposure level and hearing loss, respectively. Logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the associated factors of hearing loss. Results: In total workers, 66.4% were exposed to ≥85 dB(A) of noise exposure, and the prevalence of hearing loss was 25.7%. Age ≥35 years, below high school education, hearing difficulty, tinnitus, hypertension, > 9 years of service duration in a textile mill were positively associated with hearing loss. After adjusting confounding factors, age ≥35 years (adjusted odds ratio = 6.90, 95% confidence interval = 3.45-13.82) and tinnitus (adjusted odds ratio = 2.88, 95% confidence interval = 1.13-7.37) were persistently associated with hearing loss. Conclusion: Providing occupational hazard education and enforcement of occupational safety regulations should be taken to decrease the noise exposure level. The regular audiometry test should be conducted for assessment of hearing threshold shift. The employer needs to implement a hearing conservation program in workplace when noise exposure reaches or exceeds 85 dB(A) for 8 hours.