• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.1-11
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• 2024

The purpose of this study is to suggest amendments for the effective operation of safety and health regulations that stipulate safety standards for the prevention of industrial accidents in blasting and tunneling works. Because the regulations on Occupational Safety and Health Standards have not been revised for a long time, the regulations do not meet the requirements in site, and it is reported that it is difficult to implement the regulations at workplaces due to various deficiencies. Therefore, this study aims to abolish or improve unreasonable regulations that do not fit reality due to changes in the technology environment, or to modify low-operability regulations considering domestic conditions in blasting and tunneling workplaces. By comparing domestic laws and standards related to blasting and tunneling works with foreign ones, the improvement measures were suggested.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.96-101
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• 2022

The Occupational Safety and Health Act holds that industrial safety helmets can be used as protective equipment to prevent the risk of injury in fall accidents. To better understand the importance given to PPE for the head, we analyzed the relevant regulations and guidelines in developed countries and reviewed the guidelines on testing safety helmets. The PPE regulations in Korea were notably different from those in other countries. First, except in Korea and Japan, safety helmets were used for protection against falling objects, flying objects, impact, or electric shock. However, the regulations did not recognize safety helmets as a PPE against fall hazards. Second, the impact energy applied on the helmet was within the range 50-100 J, and the helmet could protect only the upper part of the head against hazards such as the impact of falling objects, flying objects, etc. Third, in Korean regulations, the term "fall" was used in relation to the parts where the safety helmet was specified as a fall hazard PPE, unlike in other countries. We propose that the term "fall" should be revised to "shock" in Korean regulations for the safety helmet.

• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.5-62
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• 2018

Over the last 10 years, the fight against occupational diseases of semiconductor workers led by SHARPS(the Supporters for the Health And Rights of People in the Semiconductor industry, NGO) has accomplished considerable achievements, especially in the legal and institutional aspects. First, the court and the government accepted the claims that 24 injured workers respectively filed, recognizing their 10 types of diseases as occupational illness. The court not only expanded the list of work places and diseases that it recognized, but also presented more progressive logic of recognition. The most remarkable achievement among them is the case ruled by the Supreme court in July, 2017. In terms of 'worker's right to know', which is the most important factor in preventing occupational diseases, there have been significant legislative bills, court rulings and government guidelines. The revised bill of the Industrial Safety and Health Act to strengthen workers' rights to know and to introduce the pre-review system on trade secret is currently under review by the National Assembly. The court recently ruled that the government should disclose its inspection results on safety and health management at semiconductor factories. The ministry of labor has drawn up internal guidelines to more actively open its safety and health data to public. This study looks over recent developments in such rulings, bills and guidelines and then, analyzes their implications, laying the groundwork for future actions for worker health in the electronic industry.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.18-26
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• 2000

Since the regulation of MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) had started from July 1996, employers were required to furnish MSDS for the chemicals in use in their workplace. However, many MSDS did not contain upright information for the chemicals, and they were not updated regularly, and were not written in the standard format required by the Industrial Safety and Health Act (ISHA). The purposes of this study were 1) to examine the reliability of MSDS for mixed solvents, 2) to provide reliable MSDS to employers or employees, 3) to find out any difficulties in implementing MSDS after the initiation, and 4) to promote regular MSDS updating and to ensure the reliability of MSDS for chemical manufacturers. To check the reliability of MSDS of mixed chemicals, 21 samples of mostly degreasing solvents were collected along with their MSDS from the work place. The samples were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass selective detector(GC-MSD). Their components were classified as saturated hydrocarbon, cyclic hydrocarbon, aromatics, and halogen containing hydrocarbon, and the amount of each class were measured. Manufacture's MSDS were compared with the actual composition of the collected samples, and further examined the reliability by checking whether the chemicals analyzed were included in the MSDS correctly. Finally, each item of MSDS was evaluated whether the MSDS correspond to the regulation required by ISHA. The results were following: 1) most of the degreasing solvents in MSDS were incorrect in their composition and contents, 2) the information in the MSDS including hazard classification, exposure level, toxicity, regulatory information were incorrectly provided, and 3) some MSDS did not disclose carcinogens in their MSDS. Continuous monitoring of MSDS was required to ensure reliability of MSDS. The Chemicals containing hydrocarbons from C10-C15 need to be tested to provide toxicity data. In addition, governmental support for providing correct MSDS was recommended to ensure reliability of MSDS. The MSDS regulation relating to the confidential business information may need to be revised to ensure reliability of MSDS.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.39-45
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• 2018

The occupational safety and health act defines how to evaluate the explosion hazardous areas according to KS (Korean Industrial Standards). Current KS have to follow IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) 60079-10-1 1st edition and there has been no change since 2008. And its 2nd edition has been revised in 2015. In this study, IEC 1st Ed. (IEC 60079-10-1 1st edition) is compared with IEC 2nd edition. Total 112 case studies including four materials (methane, propane, benzene, methanol) are selected to test and explosion hazardous ranges evaluated by IEC 1st and 2nd Ed. are analyzed according to various leakage pressures and hole sizes. In order to verify the results calculated by them, PHAST, which is one of the most representative consequence analysis programs, is employed. As a result, it can be concluded that there are many differences between IEC 1st and 2nd Ed. due to the discharge and the ventilation parameters. As comparing with PHAST, it is confirmed that IEC 1st provides more conservative values than PHAST. Even if IEC 2nd Ed. provides more conservative for gases, this fails to provide more conservative values for liquids. Therefore, it is worth to note that a large value between the explosion hazardous ranges value calculated by the IEC 1st Ed. and 2nd Ed. should be selected until further investigation and analysis is made. Morevover, the full consideration for IEC 2nd Ed. have to be needed.