• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.261-267
• /
• 2021

Background: The series of serious industrial accidents in recent years at contractors to large companies has highlighted risk outsourcing as a real and urgent problem. This study aims to review the difference in the degree of risk exposure and the occurrence of industrial accidents depending on the type of company relations. Among in-house contractors, the focus will be on those handling hazardous chemicals that include companies for which outsourcing requires approval. Methods: This study uses the 9th wave of the Industrial Safety and Health Survey (2018). For determining the degree of risk exposure, the occurrence of industrial accidents, and industrial accident rate, multivariate, logistic, and fractional logit, regression analyses were used, respectively. Results: First, In-house contractors' degree of risk exposure is higher than that of the client companies. In particular, this gap is even greater for companies dealing with chemicals. Second, among only those that handle hazardous chemicals, in-house contractors do show a significantly higher rate of industrial accident occurrence. Third, In-house contractors have a significantly higher rate of industrial accidents from diseases than client companies. Conclusion: The analysis supports the intent of the legal amendment that strengthens the protection of in-house contracted workers who handle hazardous chemicals. Second, the results of this study suggest that safety and health management must go beyond legal compliance and ensure that it has substance and effectiveness. Last, there should be policy consideration is necessary to reduce attempts to hide industrial accidents.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• v.47 no.2
• /
• pp.155-165
• /
• 2021

Objectives: Acute exposure to high concentrations of chemicals can occur when a chemical accident takes place. As such exposure can cause ongoing environmental pollution, such as in the soil and groundwater, there is a need for a tool that can assess health effects in the long term. The purpose of this study was assessing the health risks of residents living near a chemical accident site due to long-term exposure while considering the temporal concentration changes of the toxic chemicals leaked during the accident until their extinction in the environment using a multimedia environmental dynamics model. Methods: A health risk assessment was conducted on three cases of formaldehyde chemical accidents. In this study, health risk assessment was performed using a multimedia environmental dynamics model that considers the behavior of the atmosphere, soil, and water. In addition, the extinction period of formaldehyde in the environment was regarded as extinction in the environment when the concentration in the air and soil fell below the background concentration prior to the accident. The subjects of health risk assessment were classified into four groups according to age: 0-9 years old, 10-18 years old, 19-64 years old, and over 65 years old. Carcinogenic risk assessment by respiratory exposure and non-carcinogenic risk assessment by soil intake were conducted as well. Results: In the assessment of carcinogenic risk due to respiratory exposure, the excess carcinogenic risk did not exceed 1.0×10-6 in all three chemical accidents, so there was no health effect due to the formaldehyde chemical accident. As a result of the evaluation of non-carcinogenic risk due to soil intake, none of the three chemical accidents had a risk index of 1, so there was no health effect. For all three chemical accidents, the excess cancer risk and hazard index were the highest in the age group 0-9. Next, 10-18 years old, 65 years old or older, and 19-64 years old showed the highest risk. Conclusion: This study considers environmental changes after a chemical accident occurs and until the substance disappears from the environment. It also conducts a health risk assessment by reflecting the characteristics of the long-term persistence and concentration change over time. It is thought that it is of significance as a health risk assessment study reflecting the exposure characteristics of the accident substance for an actual chemical accident.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• v.45 no.3
• /
• pp.231-237
• /
• 2019

Objective: The objective of this study was to propose a method using population risk to assess the local background exposure effect of harmful pollutants from chemical accidents in Ulsan. Methods: The benzene was selected as representative harmful pollutant. The concentrations of benzene were measured and analyzed at 40 sites in Ulsan city in September, 2018. The data from National Statistics office in Korea were used for population density, and the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) data from US EPA were used for unit risk. Results: The risk assessment can be carried out by considering the background population risk. The background population risk was calculated as 5.01 persons per million for exposure to benzene in Ulsan, and therefore may be used as a adjusted background method in case of chemical accident caused by benzene. Conclusions: This study may provide the evidence that background exposure effect and risk to harmful pollutants from chemical accidents would be useful.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• v.36 no.6
• /
• pp.441-455
• /
• 2010

Researchers who work in science and engineering R&D laboratories are commonly exposed to a wide range of chemical, biological and physical hazards. They also may adopt ergonomically poor postures for long periods of time. These factors may increase the risk of adverse health outcomes in laboratory workers. Recently, there were several fatal accidents in the laboratories in universities and research institutes in Korea. Consequently, the 'Laboratory Safety Act' was enacted in 2006. However, there are concerns about the health risk associated with chronic exposures to hazards, as the management measures provided in this Act are very limited, focusing primarily on accident prevention and compensation for lab work-related accidents. In this article, the methods for assessing exposure to chemicals in laboratory environments are discussed. Also, epidemiological studies examining the association between laboratory exposure and health effects, including cancer and reproductive toxicity are extensively reviewed. Finally, the possible roles of environmental health professionals in this area are suggested, along with a list of critical research needs for properly assessing laboratory workers' exposure and risk.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.1-17
• /
• 2018

Objectives: This research is part of a study to be conducted over five years starting from 2017 by the Ministry of Environment on the development of technologies to evaluate the impact of chemical accidents on the human body. Methods: For this research, a five-stage specific study method was developed. Results: In brief, the developed health risk assessment method can be summarized as follows. First, a health risk assessment system was built based on the guidelines set forth by the USA NRC/NAS. Second, based on the disease manifestation theory, the health risk assessment method was divided into 1) a carcinogenic health risk assessment method focused on all carcinogens except non-genotoxic carcinogens and 2) a non-carcinogenic health risk assessment method focused on noncarcinogens including non-genotoxic carcinogens. Third, the detailed contents of the health risk assessment method were developed in four stages(hazard identification, dose-response assessment, exposure assessment, and risk determination) through theoretical consideration of the assessment of the level of health risk related to chemical exposure. Finally, a health risk assessment methodology, classified into stages to address acute, subacute/subchronic, and chronic conditions was developed after considering the physicochemical behavior of hazardous chemicals upon implementation of countermeasures after a chemical accident. Conclusions: A method to evaluate the health risks related to toxic chemicals generated by chemical accidents was developed. This study was performed with the purpose of developing a mathematical health risk assessment method to evaluate the health effects of exposure to hazardous chemicals upon implementation of emergency countermeasures after chemical accidents.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.105-112
• /
• 2015

Sawmilling industry remained a high risk with the average 4.73% of industrial accidents in 2010-2012 that was eight times that of general manufacturing. Sawmilling industry had 200 industrial accidents victim in average. Manufacturing process in sawmill industry contained dangerous machinery such as conveyors, roller, saw ( band saw, circular saw) etc. It may be effective to figure out the type of industrial accidents occurred in the past and extend risk assessment which can predict hazard such as near miss when implementing exposure or potential dangers in sawmill industry. This study conducted research on the actual condition on the place of industrial accident occurrence, detailed work and contact object when injured, and injured part targeting 643 businesses which had industrial accidents in 2010-2012. As the results, RPN of general sawmill industry was the highest 'ganglip saw' with 36,157. RPN of the following order were 'moving truck' with 25,454, 'special machining operations' with 22,283. Also, probability of general sawmill industry was a lots within 1 year, while risk appeared a lots within 5 years. So, risk assessment shall be needed to emphasis on accident prevention of sawmill industry. And additional work will be needed on the risk assessment in hazard prevention work of supervisors.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• v.42 no.6
• /
• pp.419-429
• /
• 2016

Objectives: According to the new Chemical Control Act from the Korean Ministry of Environment (2014-259), workers handling hazardous chemicals should wear personal protective equipment (PPE). However the act simply states in basic phrases that every worker handling one or more of the 69 listed chemicals should wear PPE and does not consider the unique hazard characteristics of chemicals and work types. The main purpose of this study is to provide basic data to revise the act to suit particular work processes and situations. Methods: The hazard rank of the substances was classified based on hazardous characteristics such as LC50 and vapor pressure using matrix analysis. The workplace exposure risk of the substances was also determined through a matrix analysis based on the previously determined hazard ranks and the demands of manual handling together with the likelihood of accident frequency of the operation combined with the exposure of workers during spill accidents. Results: To meet the demands for developing subsequent guidelines for the risk-based application of PPE in hazardous workplaces, this study sorted the 69 listed chemicals into five hazardous categories based on their LC50 and vapor pressures, and also assigned exposure categories according to exposure vulnerability for various types of work which are frequently performed throughout the life cycle of the chemicals. Conclusion: In the next study, an exposure risk matrix will be produced using the hazard rank of chemicals and workplace exposure risk, and then PPE will be selected to suit the categories of the exposure risk matrix.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.655-666
• /
• 2021

Purpose: This study is to develop a method for measuring dynamic speeding risks using vehicle trajectory big data and to demonstrate the feasibility of the devised speeding index. Method: The speed behaviors of vehicles were analysed in microscopic space and time using individual vehicle trajectories, and then the boundary condition of speeding (i.e., boundary speed) was determined from the standpoint of crash risk. A novel index for measuring the risk exposure of speeding was developed in microscopic space and time with the boundary speed. Result: A validation study was conducted with vehicle-GPS trajectory big data and ground-truth vehicle crash data. As a result of the analysis, it turned out that the index of speeding-risk exposure has a strong explanatory power (R²=0.7) for motorway traffic accidents. This directly indicates that speeding behaviors should be analysed at a microscopic spatiotemporal dimension. Conclusion: The spatial and temporal evolution of vehicle velocity is very variable. It is, hence, expected that the method presented in this study could be efficaciously employed to analyse the causal factors of traffic accidents and the crash risk exposure in microscopic space using mobility trajectory data.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.99-106
• /
• 2023

This study would analyze a survey conducted with 609 workers to use the results as materials for the settlement of safety culture for the characteristics of the establishment by assessing the status of the workers' exposure to harmful risks and the impact on safety culture to present the following conclusions. This study has significance in that it found that exposure to harmful/dangerous factors in the establishment and the workers' experiences of occupational accidents affect their perception of safety culture and that in particular, 'worker safety priority' of the safety cultural factors was an important factor, and it is judged that continuous studies are necessary so that the perceptions of safety culture will spread in the establishment.

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
• /
• v.16 no.4
• /
• pp.318-331
• /
• 2010

The objectives of this study were to investigate the status of accidents and to assess hazards in institutional foodservices in the Changwon and Masan areas. A survey was conducted from February 1 to March 31, 2009 using questionnaires, and 142 dietitians participated. The dietitians' perception of accident risks in workplace averaged 3.11 points. Forty-five percent of the respondents responded that accidents had occurred more than once between 2006 and 2008. In addition, 28.2% of the respondents experienced employee absences or turnover due to accidents during Year 2008. 'Musculoskelectal injuries or disorders (65.5%)', 'slips or falls (64.8%)', 'burns (57.7%)', and 'cuts and punctures (48.6%)' were the predominant accidents in foodservice. 'Knives (76 points)', 'steam kettles (41 points)', 'vegetable cutters (34 points)' and 'turn kettles (26 points)' were the equipment with severe accidents, such as burns or cut injuries. Among foodservice processes, 'carpal tunnel syndrome while washing (2.83 points)', 'burned by frying oil (2.64 points)', 'cut by sharp tools (2.55 points)', 'musculoskelectal injury by moving heavy weight food materials (2.41 points)', and 'injury by slipping on wet workplace floors and trenches (2.19 points)' were the most frequently occurring accidents at foodservice sites. To prevent safety accidents, dietitians' perceptions of safety supervision should be improved, and therefore, it is necessary they receive safety education.