• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• 제72권2호
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• pp.223-227
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• 2012

Pulmonary siderosis, or Welder's lung disease is an occupational lung disease caused by iron-inhalation. Diagnosis of pulmonary siderosis is based on occupational history of the patient, radiologic findings, and pathologic findings of iron-laden macrophages within lung tissue or broncho-alveolar lavage fluid. We observed a case of a 43 years-old welder diagnosed with pulmonary siderosis via thoracoscopic lung biopsy. Sputum culture along with pathology also identified a non-tuberculotic mycobacterial infection with a sputum culture and the pathologic findings. The patient was treated with anti-tubercular medication and cessation of iron-exposure. And his condition improved within a few months.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• 제78권4호
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• pp.445-449
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• 2015

Occupational lung diseases are caused by several toxic substances including heavy metals; however, the exact pathologic mechanisms remain unknown. In the workplace, dental technicians are often exposed to heavy metals such as cobalt, nickel, or beryllium and occasionally develop occupational lung diseases. We described a case of occupational lung disease in a patient who was employed as a dental technician for over a decade. A 31-year-old, non-smoking woman presented with productive cough and shortness of breath of several weeks duration. Chest computed tomography revealed a large number of scattered, bilateral small pulmonary nodules throughout the lung field, and multiple mediastinal lymph nodes enlargement. Percutaneous needle biopsy showed multifocal small granulomas with foreign body type giant cells suggestive of heavy metals inhalation. The patient's condition improved on simple avoidance strategy for several months. This case highlighted the importance of proper workplace safety.

• 한국보건간호학회지
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• 제9권2호
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• pp.104-114
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• 1995

This study was designed to develop preventing occupational disease programme in small-medium scale industries. The intervention was done in 354 enterprises from July to December in 1993 by health personnels in mobile occupational health centers. The summarized results of the above achievements were as follows. 1. Total number of enterprises were 354. Among them $66.9\%$ was under 100 workers, $26.6\%$ was u!1der 200 workers, and $6.5\%$ was belong to over 200 workers. The majority manufactures were non-metallic mineral product industries $(11.3\)$ fabricated metal product industries $(11.0\%)$. and textile industries $(10.7\%)$. 2. In 1993, for 350 enterprises were carried out evaluation of workplace environment. A total of $76.3\%$ industries were found to improper showing higher level of hazardous agent than the TLV. Noise and dust are the typical agent of which levels in workplace were high in most of industries. 3. A total 60 cases $(0.8\%)$ of occupational diseases were detected through physical check-up from 7,394 industrial workers in 1993. Detection rate by hazardous agent was highest among workers in relation to dust, and secondly highest to noise. 4. Through the systematic approach by hazardous agent was increased to the monitoring of work condition and follow up care of occupational disease. In future, there should be development in the scaled check list of preventing occupational disease management.

• 한국산업보건학회지
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• 제29권3호
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• pp.278-288
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• 2019

Objectives: The objectives of this study are to summary controversy over health risks among semiconductor workers, to review major cancer risk results conducted in semiconductor operation and to evaluate occupational health activities in Korea for controlling hazardous agents generated in semiconductor operations Methods: Major occupational health issues that has been social controversies among semiconductor workers since 2007 were reviewed through an extensive literature, report and article review. Results: Since a female semiconductor worker aged 22 died from leukemia in 2007, job-association of a number of former semiconductor workers with various types of cancer and rare diseases have been denied by the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service (KWCWS), but some of them were later awarded compensation as an occupational disease by the administrative court. Two epidemiologic cancer risk studies conducted in Korea found increased risks in leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma among semiconductor workers. Various legal occupational health activities taken in semiconductor industry were found to fail to assess a complex characteristics of semiconductor operations, such as drastic changes in chemical use, processes, and technology, multiple exposure. National compensation regulation also showed the limitation to evaluate job-association of semiconductor workers who had worked in semiconductor operation. Conclusions: National legal measures should be taken to improve several occupational health activities and duties for protecting workers. In addition, the KWCWS program should be revised so that all workers who meet minimal job or environment associations can be compensated.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제9권4호
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• pp.398-407
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• 2018

Background: Occupational skin diseases (OSDs) are frequent in professions with exposure to skin hazards. Thus, a health educational intervention for apprentices of high-risk professions was conducted. It was the aim of this study to gain insight into possible effects of this intervention. Methods: A one-time skin protection seminar was conducted in 140 apprentices of health-related and non-health-related professions [trained cohort (TC)]. In addition, 134 apprentices of the same occupations were monitored [untrained cohort (UTC)]. The OSD-specific knowledge and the skin condition of the hands were assessed at baseline (T0), after the seminar (T1), and after 6 (T2) and 12 months (T3). Results: The OSD-specific knowledge increased in all cohorts from T0 to T3, but we found a significantly higher knowledge in the TC at T2 (p < 0.001, t = 3.6, df = 196, 95% confidence interval = 0.9, 3.3) and T3 (p < 0.001, t = 3.8, df = 196, 95% confidence interval = 1.0, 3.2) compared to the UTC. Our results indicated a better skin condition of the hands in the TC of the health-related professions but not in the non-health-related professions. Conclusion: The study indicates that an educational intervention may positively influence the disease-specific knowledge and the prevalence of OSD in apprentices. However, definite conclusions cannot be drawn because of the heterogeneous study cohorts and the study design. Future research should aim at tailoring primary prevention to specific target groups, e.g., in view of the duration and frequency of skin protection education, different professions, and gender-specific prevention approaches.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제3권1호
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• pp.52-57
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• 2012

Objectives: Lifting heavy weights involves the Valsalva manoeuvre, which leads to intraocular pressure spikes. We used data from a case-control study to further investigate the hypothesis that occupational lifting is a risk factor for retinal detachment. Methods: The study population included 48 cases (patients operated for retinal detachment) and 84 controls (outpatients attending an eye clinic). The odds ratios (OR) of idiopathic retinal detachment were estimated with a logistic regression model (adjusted for age, sex and body mass index). Three indexes were used to examine exposure to lifting; 1) maximum load lifted, 2) average weekly lifting, 3) lifelong cumulative lifting. Results: For all indexes, the most exposed subjects showed an increased risk of retinal detachment compared with the unexposed (index 1: OR 3.57, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.21-10.48; index 2: OR 3.24, 95% CI 1.32-7.97; index 3: OR 2.23, 95% CI 1.27-8.74) and dose-response relationships were apparent. Conclusion: These results reinforce the hypothesis that heavy occupational lifting may be a relevant risk factor for retinal detachment.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제13권3호
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• pp.302-307
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• 2022

Background: In Brazil, asbestos was intensively used from the 1960s until its ban in 2017. Mesothelioma, asbestosis, and pleural plaques are typical asbestos-related diseases (ARD-T). To create an ARD-T national database, death records from 1996-2017 were retrieved from several health information systems (HIS). Methods: All national HIS containing coded diagnoses (ICD-10) and death information were obtained. Linkage was performed to create a single database of ARD-T death records, either as underlying or contributory causes, in adults aged 30 years and older. Results: A total of 3,057 ARD-T death records were found, 2,405 (76.4%) of which being malignant mesotheliomas (MM). Pleural MM (n = 1,006; 41.8%) and unspecified MM (n = 792; 32.9%) prevailed. Male to female MM ratio (M:F) was 1.4:1, and higher ratios were found for non-malignant ARD-T: 3.5:1 for asbestosis and 2.4:1 for pleural plaques. Male crude annual mesothelioma mortality (CM_mm ×1,000,000) was 0.98 in 1996 and 2.26 in 2017, a 131.1% increment, while for females it was 1.04 and 1.25, a 20.2% increase, correspondingly. The small number of deaths with asbestosis and pleural plaques records precluded conclusive interpretations. Conclusions: Even with the linkage of several HIS, ARD-T in death records remained in low numbers. MM mortality in men was higher and showed a rapid increase and, along with non-malignant ARD-T, higher M:F ratios suggested a predominant pattern of work-related exposure. The monitoring of workplace and environmental asbestos exposure needs to be improved, as well as the workers surveillance, following the recent Brazilian ban.

• 한국직업건강간호학회지
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• 제32권4호
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• pp.215-224
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• 2023

Purpose: This study uses data from the 12th~17th Korea Welfare Panel (2017~2022) to analyze changes in depression scores due to the COVID-19 outbreak and the factors that influenced depression scores according to employment type. Methods: The difference in depression scores according to employment types before COVID-19 (12th~14th) and after COVID-19 (15th~17th) was analyzed. A fixed-effect model analysis was conducted before and after the occurrence of COVID-19. Results: After the outbreak of COVID-19, job satisfaction and family life satisfaction influenced the depression scores of regular wage workers. After the outbreak of COVID-19, annual income, health status, and satisfaction with family life affected the depression scores of non-regular wage workers. After the outbreak of COVID-19, leisure life satisfaction and family relationship satisfaction influenced the depression scores of self-employed. Self-esteem played a role as a control variable in lowering the depression scores of regular and non-regular workers, but did not play a role as a control variable for self-employed. Conclusion: Rather than the direct impact of infectious diseases such as COVID-19, social and economic changes resulting from policies implemented to prevent the spread affect workers' depression, and the impact varies depending on the type of employment. When implementing policies to prevent the spread of infectious diseases in the future, policies that take employment type into consideration rather than uniform policies should be prepared, and measures for mental health also need to be prepared.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• 제38권3호
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• pp.280-286
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• 1991

Dark-blue pigmentation has been thought to be related to smoking or occupational exposure and has been regarded as anthracotic pigmentation. It is also frequently observed in non-smokers without occupational exposure, but there is no proven mechanism of pigmetation. To investigate clinical features and to find other causes of dark-blue pigmentaion, retrospective analysis was done in 59 patients who showed anthracotic pigmentation on bronchoscopy during recent 5 years in Seoul National University Hospital. The results were as follows; 1) Forty cases were non-smokers, while smokers were 19 cases. 2) Fifteen cases had history of tuberculosis, but there was no history of environmental exposure. 3) Mediastinal calcification was observed in 89.7%. 4) There was significant bleeding without exception when biopsy was done at the pigmentation site. 5) In patients with pigmentation only, hemoptysis and productive cough were main chief complaints, and chest X-ray showed atelectasis, infiltration, mass, or pleural change. 6) The number of patients whose lesion of X-ray corresponds to pigmentation site were 19/30 in tuberculosis, 4/30 in DILD and 7/30 in other diseases.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제2권2호
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• pp.135-147
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• 2011

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate cancer risks in the Korean semiconductor industry. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was performed in eight semiconductor factories between 1998 and 2008. The number of subjects was 113,443 for mortality and 108,443 for incidence. Standardized mortality ratios (SMR) and standardized incidence ratios (SIR) were calculated. Results: The SMR of leukemia was 0.39 (95% Confidence Interval 0.08-1.14) in males (2 cases) and 1.37 (0.55-2.81) in females (7 cases). The SMR of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) was 1.33 (0.43-3.09, 5 cases) in males and 2.5 (0.68-6.40, 4 cases) in females. The SIR of leukemia was 0.69 (0.30-1.37, 8 cases) in males and 1.28 (0.61-2.36, 10 cases) in females. The SIR of NHL in females was 2.31 (1.23-3.95, 13 cases) and that of thyroid cancer in males was 2.11 (1.49-2.89, 38 cases). The excess incidence of NHL was significant in female assembly operators [SIR=3.15 (1.02-7.36, 5 cases)], but not significant in fabrication workers. The SIR of NHL in the group working for 1-5 years was higher than the SIR of NHL for those working for more than five years. The excess incidence of male thyroid cancer was observed in both office and manufacturing workers. Conclusion: There was no significant increase of leukemia in the Korean semiconductor industry. However, the incidence of NHL in females and thyroid cancer in males were significantly increased even though there was no definite association between work and those diseases in subgroup analysis according to work duration. This result should be interpreted cautiously, because the majority of the cohort was young and the number of cases was small.