• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.167-174
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• 2010

Objectives: Intimate partner violence (IPV), commonly known as domestic violence is a problem throughout the world. An estimated 36% to 75% of employed abused woman are monitored, harassed and physically assaulted by their partners or ex-partners while trying to get to work and while at work. The objective of this research is to evaluate the effectiveness of interactive training to increase knowledge, change perceptions and develop an intention to address domestic violence that spills over into the workplace. Methods: Community-based participatory research approaches were employed to develop and evaluate an interactive computer-based training (CBT) intervention, aimed to teach supervisors how to create supportive and safe workplaces for victims of IPV. Results: The CBT intervention was administered to 53 supervisors. All participants reacted positively to the training, and there was a significant improvement in knowledge between pre- and post-training test performance (72% versus 96% correct), effect size (d) = 3.56. Feedback from focus groups was more productive than written feedback solicited from the same participants at the end of the training. Conclusion: Effective training on the impacts of IPV can improve knowledge, achieving a large effect size, and produce changes in perspective about domestic violence and motivation to address domestic violence in the workplace, based on questionnaire responses.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.325-331
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• 2012

Food allergy refers to an immunologically mediated adverse reaction to food, mainly to proteinaceous constituents. Health implications vary between those individuals who experience mild physical discomforts to those with fast-acting, life-threatening anaphylactic reactions. The prevalence of food allergy is higher in children than in adults, estimated around 4-8% and 1-2% respectively in developed countries. Food allergy has no effective cure at the present time and total avoidance of causative foods is the most reliable prophylactic method currently recommended by the medical community. To help food allergic patients to make informed choices of their foods, mandatory labeling of selected food allergens has been introduced in several countries. All food allergen labelling provisions specify a set of allergens common to the regulated countries. Policy divergence, however, exists between countries by inclusion of additional allergens unique to specific countries and enforcement of specific labelling requirements. Such variations in food allergen labelling regulations make it difficult to manage allergen labeling in imported pre-packaged food products. This paper addresses two current issues in food allergen regulation: 1) an urgent need to determine true prevalence of food allergy in the Asia-Pacific region. This will enable refinement to the food allergen regulation to be more country-specific rather than simply adopting CODEX recommendations. 2) There is an urgent need for harmonization of food allergen regulation in order to prevent food allergen regulation becoming a trade barrier.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.289-295
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• 2021

Workplace violence (WPV) is an increasing cause of concern around the globe, and healthcare organizations are no exception. Nurses may be subject to all kinds of workplace violence due to their frontline position in healthcare settings. The purpose of this systematic review is to identify and consider different interventions that aim to decrease the magnitude/prevalence of workplace violence against nurses. The standard method by Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA, 2009) has been used to collect data and assess methodological quality. Altogether, twenty-six studies are included in the review. The intervention procedures they report on can be grouped into three categories: stand-alone trainings designed to educate nurses; more structured education programs, which are broader in scope and often include opportunities to practice skills learned during the program; multicomponent interventions, which often include organizational changes, such as the introduction of workplace violence reporting systems, in addition to workplace violence training for nurses. By comparing the findings, a clear picture emerges; while standalone training and structured education programs can have a positive impact, the impact is unfortunately limited. In order to effectively combat workplace violence against nurses, healthcare organizations must implement multicomponent interventions, ideally involving all stakeholders.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.166-171
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• 2019

Objective: This study explored personal protective equipment (PPE) availability and PPE utilization among interventionalists in the catheterization laboratory, which is a highly contextualized workplace. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study using mixed methods. Participants (108) completed a survey. A hyperlink was sent to the participants, or they were asked to complete a paper-based survey. Purposively selected participants (54) were selected for individual (30) or group (six) interviews. The interviews were conducted at conferences, or appointments were made to see the participants. Logistic regression analysis was performed. The qualitative data were analyzed thematically. Results: Lead glasses were consistently used 10.2% and never used 61.1% of the time. All forms of PPE were inconsistently used by 92.6% of participants. Women were 4.3 times more likely to report that PPE was not available. PPE compliance was related to fit and availability. Conclusions: PPE use was inconsistent and not always available. Improving the culture of radiation protection in catheterization laboratories is essential to improve PPE compliance with the aim of protecting patients and operators. This culture of radiation protection must include all those involved including the users of PPE and the administrators and managers who are responsible for supplying sufficient, appropriate, fitting PPE for all workers requiring such protection.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.1297-1306
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• 2019

Probabilistic safety assessments (PSA) have been used for several decades to visualize the risk level of commercial nuclear power plants (NPPs). Since the role of a human reliability analysis (HRA) is to provide human error probabilities for safety critical tasks to support PSA, PSA quality is strongly affected by HRA quality. Therefore, it is important to understand the underlying limitations or problems of HRA techniques. For this reason, this study conducted a survey among 14 subject matter experts who represent the HRA community of domestic Korean NPPs. As a result, five significant HRA issues were identified: (1) providing a technical basis for the K-HRA (Korean HRA) method, and developing dedicated HRA methods applicable to (2) diverse external events to support Level 1 PSA, (3) digital environments, (4) mobile equipment, and (5) severe accident management guideline tasks to support Level 2 PSA. In addition, an HRA method to support multi-unit PSA was emphasized because it plays an important role in the evaluation of site risk, which is one of the hottest current issues. It is believed that creating such a catalog of prioritized issues will be a good indication of research direction to improve HRA and therefore PSA quality.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.8
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• pp.1199-1209
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• 2018

After the Fukushima-Daiichi accident in 2011, the multi-unit risk, i.e., the risk due to several nuclear power plants (NPPs) in a site has become an important issue in several countries such as Korea, Canada, and China. However, the multi-unit risk has been discussed for a long time in the nuclear community before the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear accident occurred. The regulatory authorities around the world and the international organizations had proposed requirements or guidelines to reduce the multi-unit risk. The concerns regarding the multi-unit risk can be summarized in the following three questions: How much the accident of an NPP in a site affects the safety of other NPPs in the same site? What is the total risk of a site with many NPPs? Will the risk of the simultaneous accidents at several NPPs in a site such as the Fukushima Daiichi accident be low enough? The multi-unit risk assessment (MURA) in an integrated framework is a practical approach to obtain the answers for the above questions. Even though there were few studies to assess the multi-unit risk before the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear accident, there are still several issues to be resolved to perform the complete MURA. This article aims to provide an overview of the multi-unit risk issues and its assessment. We discuss the several critical issues in the current MURA to get useful insights regarding the multi-unit risk with the current state art of probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) technologies. Also, the qualitative answers for the above questions are addressed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.82 no.5
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• pp.557-569
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• 2022

The retrofit of existing structures in high seismic zones is a crucial issue in the earthquake engineering field. The interest of the research community is particularly high for the structures that do not respect current seismic codes and present structural deficiencies such as poor detailing and lack of capacity design provisions. A reinforced concrete (RC) school building is used as case study to show the influence of different knowledge levels on the seismic retrofitting cost assessment. The safety assessment of the case study building highlights deficiencies under both vertical and seismic loads. By considering all the possible knowledge levels defined by the Italian such as by the European codes in order to derive the mechanical properties of the school building constitutive materials, the retrofit operations are designed to achieve different seismic safety thresholds. The retrofit structural costs are calculated and summed up to the costs for in-situ in tests. The paper shows how for the case study building the major costs spent for a large number of in-situ tests allows to save a consistent amount of money for retrofit operations. The hypothesis of demolition and reconstruction of the building is also compared in terms of costs with all the analyzed retrofit options.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.469-474
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• 2022

Background: Nowadays, counter-productive work behaviors (CWBs) have turned into a common and costly position for many organizations and especially health centers. Therefore, the study was carried out to examine and compare the demand-control-support (DCS) and effort-reward imbalance (ERI) models as predictors of CWBs. Methods: The study was cross-sectional. The population was all nurses working in public hospitals in Hamadan, Iran of whom 320 were selected as the sample based on simple random sampling method. The instruments used were Job Content Questionnaire, Effort-Reward Imbalance Questionnaire, and Counterproductivity Work Behavior Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using correlation and regression analysis in SPSS18. Results: The findings indicated that both ERI and DCS models could predict CWB (p ≤ 0.05); however, the DCS model variables can explain the variance of CWB-I and CWB-O approximately 8% more than the ERI model variables and have more power in predicting these behaviors in the nursing community. Conclusion: According to the results, job stress is a key factor in the incidence of CWBs among nurses. Considering the importance and impact of each component of ERI and DCS models in the occurrence of CWBs, corrective actions can be taken to reduce their incidence in nurses.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.94-100
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• 2024

Recently, as interest in personal hygiene has increased due to the community spread of COVID-19 and variant viruses, fixed and potable UV germicidal equipment to sterilize indoor spaces and hand-held UV germicidal equipment to sterilize household items such as masks and mobile phones are continuously being developed and sold. However, the development and sales of the product are difficult because appropriate testing methods have not yet been established. In this situation, if an uncertified product is distributed in the market, it can cause serious harm to consumers. In this study, we investigate the photobiological risks and safety devices against UV exposure of UV germicidal equipment distributed domestically, and propose appropriate test methods for portable UV germicidal equipment based on the research results.

• The Journal of Sustainable Design and Educational Environment Research
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.22-34
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was two-fold. Firstly, it investigated the current state of the 34 specific policies of school safety-accident prevention that were implemented at K-12 public schools in accordance with the $1^{st}$ School Safety-Accident Prevention Plan established in December 2015. Secondly, it prioritized the policies based on the outcomes from the investigation to make policy recommendations for future improvement. For this purpose, we surveyed 614 school teachers and staff from 24 school-safety research schools across the nation on their perception of the current policies for preventing school safety accidents. Specifically, they were asked about the degree of realization and the necessity of expansion of the policies. Based on the survey results, the Borich index as a needs measure was computed for each policy and a list of policies prioritized in descending order of the index was presented. The results of the study showed that school teachers and staff's perception of the improvement of school safety since the policies took effect was highly positive in general. It was also shown that the policies perceived as best-implemented were, in descending order, "first-aid education for teachers and staff", "safety management of school meals", "prevention activity of student traffic safety-accident", and so on. The majority of survey respondents said that the policies were being implemented well and that they should be expanded and enhanced. As a result of the Borich's needs analysis, it was found that "more collegial collaboration between the Office of Education and other relevant organizations in the community for school safety", "prevention education activity for water safety", and so forth should be more actively implemented.