• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.57-63
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• 2005

Ergonomic intervention techniques were adopted to assess and control potential risk factors of work-related musculoskeletal disorders(WMSDs) in the automated light assembly manufacturing system. Ten different kinds of assembly workstations implemented with a conveyor system and twelve female workers were observed and evaluated with careful video film analysis. Several close examinations using sets of checklists established by qualified safety and health organizations, such as NIOSH, OSHA, and ANSI, were conducted and every workers and staffs in the site participated in the self-report questionnaires and off-line interviews. Typical risk factors and symptoms of the upper extremity musculoskeletal disorders were found and categorized into specific parts of body. To reduce risk factors of WMSDs and improve system productivity new revised workstation standards, physical dimensions, were suggested accordant with anthropometric characteristics of workers and a heuristic decision strategy of rotating shift work schedules according to work contents has proposed to mitigate cumulative physical stress. Finally, ergonomic programs of entire company to prevent WMSDs were structured.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.149-156
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• 2017

In this paper, we propose to enhance a Physical working conditions to decrease absence from work. we demonstrated the correlation of worker's absence with various environmental factors in workplace by surveying 6,962 workers. As result, first, concerning exposure to physical work factors, most of them complained of vibration, and concerning exposure to improper working posture, most of them complained of repetitive arm and hand motions. Second, the absence experience had correlations with age, monthly income, smoking, number of employees, long term working, and shift work, and of the physical factors, hand vibration, noise, high temperature, low temperature and improper working posture had correlations with physical pain posture, movement of people and carrying heavy materials. Third, experience of exposure to hand vibration, noise and low temperature of the physical factors had impact on absence, and of the improper working posture, physical pain posture and carrying heavy stuff had impacts on absence. Through this study, it was found that of the work factors of Korean workers, physical factors and improper working posture had impacts on absence. The results of this study confirmed that physical factors and inappropriate working posture among work factors influenced the absenteeism. Therefore, it is required to improve the work environment regarding physical risk factors and prepare a systematic management plan.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.543-550
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• 2021

The purpose of the study is to investigate the simulated effects of the Philippine tax reform, which is called Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law, on household income and occupational choice. The study utilized the Family Income Expenditure Survey and tax collection as input to Computable General Equilibrium-Top Down Behavioral Microsimulation approach to determine the effect of Philippine tax reform on household income and occupational choice. The results of the study show that the household income in the Philippines will increase due to the implementation of the Philippine tax reform. Also, the study had found that tax reform results drive the household to shift from being farming entrepreneur to salaried workers since the utility derived from being workers is much higher compared to the utility derived from being entrepreneur. The findings of this research suggest that the Philippine Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law is beneficial to the household since their income would increase, which will further result to an increase in their capability to buy goods and services. However, the tax reform would also lead to imbalance between the distribution of numbers of workers across sectors such as entrepreneurial farming, entrepreneurial non-farming, and wage sector.

• 월간산업보건
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• s.290
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• pp.45-52
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• 2012

• 대한예방의학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.57-58
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• 2004

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.400-409
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• 1996

To investigate industrial fatigue and low back pain, the questionaire survey for subjective symptoms of fatigue and low back pain was carried out among 591 male workers aged 20-55 employed in an automobile industry in Korea. Workers participated to this study were divided into low back pain group(LBP) and control group, according to the self-reports by written questionaires. The subjective sysptoms of fatigue comprised three groups of 10 items each, representing dullness and sleepiness(level of cerebral activation), difficulty in concentration(level of motivation) and bodily projection of fatigue. The resultant data were processed for $\chi^2-test$, t-test and a pearson's correlation coefficient to confirm the relationships. The results were as follows: 1. 30 items of fatigue subjective symptoms exeptone item, 'lack in perseverance', were directly associated with low back pain. 2. The percentage of fatigue complaint were sig nificantly higher in LBP group. 3. Of the 30 items of fatigue subjective symptoms, the highest percentage was accounted for 'eye strain'(27.9%), followed by 'whole body feels tired' and 'legs feel heavy'(22.9%), 'feel like lying'(21.4%), 'feel a pain in the low back'(18.7%), 'feel drowsy'(16.4%) and 'feel stiffness in the neck or the shoulders'(16.2%) in the order of sequence. 4. The average weighted score for the first group of fatigue items(dullness and sleepiness) was the largest among three groups and was followed by the second group(difficulty in concentration) and the third group(bodily projection of fatigue) in the order of sequence, suggesting the heavier shift work stress of the workers. 5. In the groups of the aged 30-40, work duration of 5-7yrs, heavy work amount and irregular work speed, significant high fatigue complaints were revealed in terms of eye strain, whole body feels tired, legs feel heavy, feel like lying, feel a pain in the low back and feel stiffness in the neck or the shoulders. 6. A significant negative correlations were shown between age, work duration and eleven subjective symptoms while positive reciprocal correlations were shown between eleven items with one another.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.27-35
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• 2005

This study was carried out to evaluate the characteristics of petroleum refinery workers' exposure to organic solvents. Exposure assessment was conducted by full shift-based long term personal sampling(TWA-P) and task-based short term personal sampling(STEL-P) strategy. Major organic solvents that workers can be exposed are various, varying from C3~C12, and this study focused on 11 kinds including benzene, considering toxicity and concentration level. In comparison with two sampling results, STEL-P shows a significant(p<0.001) excess of exposure level rather than TWA-P. As the potential risk index for benzene is calculated as 16, benzene should be set the highest priority for control in petroleum refinery industry. The tasks with the highest benzene exposure level were de-watering(AM;99.8 ppm), draining(AM;19.6ppm), sampling(AM;16.2ppm), and manual gauging(AM;15.02ppm). Petroleum refinery workers' exposure pattern to organic solvents differs by tasks performed, and some task has a high risk of temporary extreme exposure. Therefore, traditional 8-hour TWA sampling strategy have possibility of underestimation of exposure level of workers in petroleum refinery.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.227-233
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• 2014

Background: The aims of this study were to determine hippuric acid levels in urine samples, airborne toluene levels, acute and chronic neurological symptoms, and to describe any correlation between urinary hippuric acid and airborne toluene. Methods: The hippuric acid concentration in the urine of 87 paint workers exposed to toluene at work (exposed group), and 87 nonexposed people (control group) was studied. Study participants were selected from similar factories in the same region. Urine samples were collected at the end of a shift and analyzed for hippuric acid by high performance liquid chromatography. Air samples for the estimation of toluene exposure were collected with diffusive personal samplers and the toluene quantified using gas-liquid chromatography. The two groups were also interviewed and observed about their work practices and health. Results: The median of the 87 airborne toluene levels was 55 ppm (range, 12-198 ppm). The median urinary hippuric acid level was 800 mg/g creatinine (range, 90-2547 mg/g creatinine). A statistically significant positive correlation was found between airborne toluene exposure and urine hippuric acid levels (r = 0.548, p < 0.01). Workers with acute symptoms had significantly higher hippuric acid levels than those who did not (p < 0.05). It was concluded that there was a significant correlation between toluene exposure, hippuric acid levels, and health (p < 0.001). Conclusion: There appears to be a significant correlation between workers exposure to toluene at work, their urine hippuric acid levels, and resulting symptoms of poor health. Improvements in working conditions and occupational health education are required at these workplaces. There was good correlation between urinary hippuric acid and airborne toluene levels.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.299-317
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• 1989

This study was attempted to find out the distribution of industrial nurses, analyze job performance by function and utilization state of medical dispensary among workers. The subjects for this study were 32 nurses working at industry located in Kyungpook and Taegu area. The data was collected through questionaire during the period of August 5-31, 1986, and analysed by the method of frequency and percentage. The following is the main findings of the study; 1. 72.2% of respondents was engaged in manufacturing industry, 33.3% in workplace whose regular workers was more than 2,000 workers. 67.7% in occupational health physicians was part-time system. 2. 93.1% of respondents was 20-29 years age group, 93.1% was graduates of junior nursing college, 96.6% was unmarried. 448% had 1-4 years of total working experiences. 3. For the motives which made them becomes industrial health nurse, 'good employment condition' was 62.1%. For the job satisfaction, 'moderate' was 586%. For the interest about the industrial health, 'moderate' was most frequent (58.6%). In the inservice education, 86.2% of the subjects was received education. 4. For the attitude of the dispensary and industrial nursing of employer, 'necessary' was most frequent (72.4%, 62.6%). 5. All establishment had dispensary facilities, 65.5% of them had independent dispensary. 6. In duty shift, 93.1% of respondents was working in one shift system. 41.4% of respondents was received from 250,000 won to 290,000 Won and 41.4% was belong to personnel section and 24.1% was direct controlled by general business section chief. 7. In the main health problem of their factories, 48.3% of respondents was work-environmental state, 24.1% was health education. 8. In the Dispensary budget, 60% of respondents was under 3,000 won per worker. 9. In the job performance rate by function, nursing service 73.1%, industrial health and nursing management 63.7%, environmental hygiene and safety management 54.5%, medical insurance 44.9%, welfare 38.4%. 10. Main health complaints among workers utilizing medical dispensary was 35.9% of respiratory system, 21.5% of gastro-intestinal system, 11.0% of skeletomuscular system.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.5-13
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• 1993

The objective of this study was to analyze the status of health examination, and the health care management of industries in Seoul. This will provide effective industrial health care services. 46 industries were selected as a sample, and were given self administered questionnaire developed by the academic affairs of community health nursing. The results of this study are as follows: (1) The general characteristics of industries: The greater part of the industries were manu facturing companies, 300-900 workers, in a one shift system. (2) The general characteristics of health man ager: 96% of the companies had industrial nurses and the larger industries had comprehensive health managers. 90% of the industrial nurses were full-time employees and 77% of the industrial physician were part time employees. 80% of the industrial physician were age 50 or older, while 59% of the industrial nurses were 25-29 years of age. (3) Health examination and follow up care: The proportions of the workers who took general health examination was 94%. Of those, 12% took secondary examinations. In secondary examinations, 36% were evaluated at the C-grade, 20% were evaluated at the D-grade. The proportion of the workers who were required to take special examination were 29% and of that, the proportion of the workers who actually took the examination was 88%. 85% of the workers who were recommended for follow up cares were given follow up care while working. The physical agents among the special examination were done the most frequently to detect the examination effects. (4) Health care services: Industrial nurses performed health examination most frequently and health education was done the least. There were significant differences in health care services according to the size of the industries. Companies with 300 workers or less had higher health care services than other groups. The three primary reasons of health care management and examinations of workers are: First, industrial nurses are requires to accumulate professional knowledge and experience through continuos' activities. Second, systematic and concert examination for industrial workers should be performed periodically. Third, it needs developing health education strategies that are important workers for health promotion in industries.