• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.543-549
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• 2020

Background: The working conditions of bus drivers are difficult; they lead to occupational diseases and require careful study, particularly in Ukraine. The objective of the article is the description of occupational health risks of passenger bus drivers that lead to deteriorating health. Methods: The risk assessment was performed using a modified Risk Score method, which allowed determining the generalized level of danger to the driver's health. The hygienic hazards level was assessed as based on Stevenson's law, which was generalized later. Results: Based on the modification of the Risk Score method, it was possible to depart from expert assessments method of the risk level and calculate the general indicator based on the degree of dependence of the impact on the human body on its intensity, proposed by V. Minko. This allows objective determining of the impact of hygiene hazards on the health of the driver and to predict the occurrence of occupational diseases associated with the cardiovascular system, musculoskeletal system, and partial or complete disability due to the accumulation of emotional fatigue. The hazard assessment was carried out for three brands of passenger buses common in Ukraine, in which the driver is exposed to the dangers of fever, vibration, noise, harmful impurities in the bus cabin, and emotional load. Conclusion: The health of drivers in the cabins of passenger buses is most affected by hygiene hazards: fever, vibration, and emotional stress. The generalized level of risk is calculated by the modified method of Risk Score is 0.83; -0.99, -0.92 respectively.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.185-192
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• 2023

Background: The turnover rate of nurse aides in Taiwan is high. However, the predictors of turnover behavior in the newly employed are still unclear. Objective: To examine the predictors of turnover behavior in newly employed licensed nurse aides. Methods: A longitudinal study design was used and subjects were newly employed certified nurse aides from a nurse aid training association in Taiwan. A total of five questionnaire surveys were conducted. The questionnaire was mainly used to collect information on turnover behavior, personal socioeconomic background, workplace psychosocial hazards, worker health hazards, and musculoskeletal disorders. Results: A total of 300 participants were recruited in the study. Cox regression analysis results showed that short working experience (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.21, p < 0.01), work as non-home nurse aides (HR = 0.58, p = 0.01), low monthly salary (HR = 0.68, p < 0.01), high work mental load (HR = 1.01, p = 0.01), low workplace justice (HR = 0.97, p < 0.01), high workplace violence (HR = 1.60, p < 0.01), high burnout (HR = 1.01, p = 0.04), poor mental health (HR = 1.06, p = 0.04), and high total number of musculoskeletal disorder sites (HR = 1.08, p = 0.01) contribute to a higher risk of turnover. Conclusion: The results indicated that employment period, work as a home nurse aide, monthly salary, work mental load, workplace justice, workplace violence, work-related burnout, mental health, and total number of musculoskeletal disorder sites are predictors of turnover behavior in newly employed certified nurse aides.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.303-308
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• 2023

Background: Occupational workers at altitudes are more prone to falls, leading to catastrophic outcomes. Acrophobia, height-related anxiety, and affected executive functions lead to postural instabilities, causing falls. This study investigated the effects of repeated virtual height exposure and training on cognitive processing and height-related anxiety. Methods: Twenty-eight healthy volunteers (age 20.48 ± 1.26 years; mass 69.52 ± 13.78 kg) were recruited and tested in seven virtual environments (VE) [ground (G), 2-story altitude (A1), 2-story edge (E1), 4-story altitude (A2), 4-story edge (E2), 6-story altitude (A3), and 6-story edge (E3)] over three days. At each VE, participants identified occupational hazards present in the VE and completed an Attitude Towards Heights Questionnaire (ATHQ) and a modified State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Questionnaire (mSTAIQ). The number of hazards identified and the ATHQ and mSTAIQ scores were analyzed using a 7 (VE; G, A1, A2, A3, E1, E2, E3) x 3 (DAY; DAY 1, DAY 2, DAY 3) factorial repeated measures analysis of variance. Results: The participants identified the lowest number of hazards at A3 and E3 VEs and on DAY 1 compared to other VEs and DAYs. ATHQ scores were lowest at G, A1, and E1 VEs. Conclusion: Cognitive processing is negatively affected by virtual altitudes, while it improves with short-term training. The features of virtual reality, such as higher involvement, engagement, and reliability, make it a better training tool to be considered in ergonomic settings. The findings of this study will provide insights into cognitive dual-tasking at altitude and its challenges, which will aid in minimizing occupational falls.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.279-286
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• 2023

Background: This study aimed to evaluate the association between exposure to occupational hazards and the metabolic syndrome. A secondary objective was to analyze the additive and multiplicative effects of exposure to risk factors. Methods: This retrospective cohort was based on 31,615 health examinees at the Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital in Republic of Korea from 2012-2021. Demographic and behavior-related risk factors were treated as confounding factors, whereas three physical factors, 19 organic solvents and aerosols, and 13 metals and dust were considered occupational risk factors. Time-dependent Cox regression analysis was used to calculate hazard ratios. Results: The risk of metabolic syndrome was significantly higher in night shift workers (hazard ratio = 1.45: 95% confidence interval = 1.36-1.54) and workers who were exposed to noise (1.15:1.07-1.24). Exposure to some other risk factors was also significantly associated with a higher risk of metabolic syndrome. They were dimethylformamide, acetonitrile, trichloroethylene, xylene, styrene, toluene, dichloromethane, copper, antimony, lead, copper, iron, welding fume, and manganese. Among the 28 significant pairs, 19 exhibited both positive additive and multiplicative effects. Conclusions: Exposure to single or combined occupational risk factors may increase the risk of developing metabolic syndrome. Working conditions should be monitored and improved to reduce exposure to occupational hazards and prevent the development of the metabolic syndrome.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.84-92
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• 2001

In today's world, rise in the establishment of social infrastructure resulting from population saturation in large cities has led to more extensive and frequent use of chemical materials on facilities. A result, unexpected and serious accidents, hazards, contingencies and disasters are more prevalent than ever. Such phenomenon calls for more devoted and concerted efforts towards finding ways to reduce the safety hazards that are seen to take place more often than before with the increase in the number of facilities that are prone to bring disaster and hazard coupled with the conventional safety problems that continue to exist even today. In developed countries, such challenge is addressed by various appropriate countermeasures drawn up by local professional committees on industrial facilities, whose members conduct offsite and onsite evaluation un the potential industrial disasters and its seriousness and provide their advice thereof. Against this backdrop, this study aims at identifying a comprehensive safety allowance level (safety acceptable level) when imposing limitation on the development of conventional or new facilities, for the fur pose of establishing a safety allowance level of disastrous and dangerous facilities in Korea. This is done by assessing and applying the level of danger each individual is exposed to in a randomly selected region (disastrous and dangerous areas in Seoul) based on probability of quantitative hazards, as well as simulation and calculation methods which include: i) social disaster evaluation method applying Quantified Risk Assessment of Health & Safety Executive of UK and Matrix of Risk of Evaluated Sources of Hazard; ii) Fault Tree or Event Tree Analysis and etc.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.15-22
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• 1991

After the appearance of apartments in Korea, Apartment Housing has been generally accepted for its high capacity of population and convenience in the management. Nowadays, apartments have become higher, larger and more complex than ever before, showing abrupt changes in structure, form and mechanical systems. Likewise, the hazards of fire and the scale of fire losses have become a serious problem. Therefore. considerations of fire safety have taken a greater portion in the design of Apartment Housing. This study is focused particulary on spatial planning rather than on mechanical systems for fire safety.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.19-24
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• 2010

A large amount of electrostatic charges is often generated on polymer powders in fluidized bed and thereby may lead to electrostatic problems. In this study, to evaluate electrostatic hazards of powder in fluidized bed, the electric field(E[v/m]) and the charge amount(q[c/g]) during fluidizing were monitored. We also investigated the Minimum Ignition Energy(MIE [J]) of sample powder used in fluidized bed with the Hartman vertical-tube apparatus. The batch-type fluidized bed system and 2kg as Polypropylene(PP) resin powders were used in the experiments. The following results were obtained: (1) Even when a safe margin of several times was considered, the values of E obtained with PP powder in this paper did not exceed 3 to 5kV/cm, at which an incendiary electrostatic discharge could occur. (2) the ave. q was -0.26${\mu}$C/g during fluidizing. This value was high enough to cause electrostatic agglomeration and adhesion. (3) the entrained PP powder in upper column due to fluidizing could be ignited by electrostatic discharges of 71mJ.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.1959-1962
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• 2009

In this paper, we derive the hazard which is a criterion of safety assurance by PHA for the ATP equipped in Korea Tilting Train. The ATP onboard equipment in Korea Tilting Train was introduced as ETCS Level l(which is ETCS specification). Also, the ATP trackside equipment was introduced as a ETCS SRS(System Requirement Specification) 2.2.2 and it has a target for commercial operation in 2009 late. In IEC 62278(EN50126), it recommend of PHA to derive a hazard of target system in concept establishment step and estimate if it can control as a tolerable level and then derive safety case to control the hazard by lifecycle. Therefore, we indicate the hazard using criterion of safety assurance by PHA using FRS (Functional Requirement Specification) 5.0. which is a upper criterion than SRS. The hazard of ATP onboard equipment derived in Korea Tilting Train will be able to use as ATP functional hazards of unified onboard equipment in G7 which is a multiple unit and preliminary hazards of ATP onboard equipment in NEL drived by Korail.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.117-124
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• 2012

There have been recently introduced new types of urban metro vehicles called LRT (Light Rail Transit) running on elevated guideway such as Uijeongbu VAL(which stands for V$\acute{e}$hicule Automatique L$\acute{e}$ger: Automatic Light Rail Vehicle) system, Yong-In LIM(Linear Induction Motor) system, Incheon international airport MAGLEV(Magnetic Levitated Vehicle) system and Daegu monorail system. Most of accidents by the vehicles are bound to happen on elevated guideway. Therefore, it is of vital importance to analyze hazards related to vehicles running on elevated guideway and study emergency evacuation scenarios applicable in case of accidents on elevated guideway so as to secure the safety of the new types of urban metro vehicles. In this study, FTA(Fault Tree Analysis) model was developed to identify all possible hazards, and all possible evacuation scenarios were studied. It was also confirmed that each hazard can be corresponded to one or more evacuation scenarios. This result shows that passengers can be evacuated according to one of the scenarios identified in this study in case of an accident of "Train Stranded on Elevated Guideway".

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.32-41
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• 2012

Objectives: Information of chemical in electronics industry has not been known enough, although workers' health hazards by chemicals in this industry have been regarded serious. The who always contribute to reveal and control the health hazards and risks in electronics industry have not been the industry but the occupational or environmental victims and grassroot organizations. The similar phenomena can be observed in Korea. Methods: The experiences of individual workers on the occuapational safety and health in semiconductor factory were heard separately and integrated with related literatures. Results:: The first part of this article is largely based on the memories and experiences of individual workers of semiconductor factories, mainly from S semiconductor. Common features of those experiences can be a good resource for detail understanding of the workplace, especially under the situation without any transparent disclosure of information by the governments or the companies. The second part of this article deals with several factors to be considered for control of exposure in workplace; characteristics of workplace and workforce, types of chemicals used, and the way of using the chemicals. Then the current social issues on work-relatedness of cancers of S semiconductor workers are presented briefly. Conclusions: As a conclusion, current OSH situations and issues in Korean electronics industry raise the need of changes in OSH culture. General adaptation of precautionary principle, internalization of costs, and extended responsibility of producers are needed urgently. The OSH professionals both in public and private sectors should support these agendas under their social obligation to protect workers' health.