• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
• /
• v.32 no.3
• /
• pp.194-198
• /
• 2023

With the recent development of industrial technology, the problem of odor due to leakage of toxic gas discharged from industrial complexes is gradually increasing. Among them, hydrogen sulfide is a colorless representative odorous substance that can cause pain through irritation of the mucous membranes of the eyes and respiratory tract, and is a gas that can cause central nervous system paralysis and suffocation when exposed to high concentrations. Therefore, in order to improve the odor problem, research on a gas sensor capable of quickly and reliably detecting a leak of hydrogen sulfide is being actively conducted. A lot of research has been done on the existing metal oxide-based hydrogen sulfide gas sensor, but it has the disadvantage of requiring low selectivity and high temperature operating conditions. Therefore, in this study, a Pt/CNT-based electrochemical hydrogen sulfide gas sensor capable of detecting at low temperatures with high selectivity for hydrogen sulfide was developed. A working electrode capable of selectively detecting only hydrogen sulfide was fabricated by synthesizing Pt nanoparticles as a catalyst on functionalized CNT and applied to an electrochemical hydrogen sulfide gas sensor. It was confirmed that the manufactured Pt/CNT-based electrochemical hydrogen sulfide gas sensor has a current change of up to 100uA for hydrogen sulfide, and the both response time and recovery time were within 15 seconds.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
• /
• v.31 no.3
• /
• pp.168-174
• /
• 2022

Hydrogen sulfide(H₂S) gas is a high-risk gas that can cause suffocation or death in severe cases, depending on the concentration of exposure. Various studies to detect this gas are still in progress. In this study, we demonstrate a colorimetric sensor that can detect H₂S gas using its direct color change. The proposed nanofiber sensor containing a dye material named Lead(II) acetate, which changes its color according to H₂S gas reaction, is fabricated by electrospinning. The performance of this sensor is evaluated by measuring RGB changes, ΔE value, and gas selectivity. It has a ΔE value of 5.75 × 10^-3 ΔE/s·ppm, showing improved sensitivity up to 1.4 times that of the existing H₂S color change detection sensor, which is a result of the large surface area of the nanofibers. The selectivity for H₂S gas is confirmed to be an excellent value of almost 70 %.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.38 no.6
• /
• pp.26-35
• /
• 2023

Sparks cause most fire and explosion accidents in the manufacturing industry during hot work, which ignites surrounding combustible materials. Such incidents lead to high casualties due to suffocation from toxic gases and lack of evacuation. Therefore, the government recently enacted and revised 'The Occupational Safety and Health Act' to prevent fires and explosions at work sites, incorporating legal standards for fire observers, which are important in preventing accidents and the spread of fire during hot work. However, there are notable shortcomings in conducting professional cause analysis of these accidents and in aligning them with advanced foreign legal standards. Additionally, there is a lack of literature review reflecting the manufacturing industry characteristics. Despite the recent enactment and revision of legal standards, gathering sufficient opinions and professional reviews remains insufficient. To address these gaps, interviews were conducted with safety and health workers, analyzing recent fire and explosion causes in domestic manufacturing industries, and reviewing both domestic and international legal standards. Conclusively, proposed improvement measures were centered on the professionalization of fire observer education, enhancing their roles and authority realistically, and improving fire observer placement and operation standards. Consequently, additional 'Occupational Safety and Health Act' standards are necessary for fire observer education and defining the government's role. Second, precise legal standards outlining the role and authority of fire observers are required. Third tailored fire observer arrangements and management standards appropriate for varying work characteristics and company sizes are required. This study emphasizes the importance of supplementing relevant legal standards to prevent fire accidents in the manufacturing industry.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.6-14
• /
• 1980

One of the physiological disease, sudden wiliting of Yushin variety suggested that low sunlight, excessive nitrogen application, and highly reduced soil condions either singly or combined, might be possible causes of the disorder. Some visual symptom of sudden wilting are discoloration of leaves, development of nodal roots above the soil surface, total root rot, and lodging. Those observations led to the hypothesis that suffocation of root tissues was a direct cause of the wilting. The oxygen transport characteristics of Yushin, IR262 and Tongil were examined by two methods. First, Soil-cultured plants of the three varieties were subjected to paraffin treatment to decrease the oxygen supply from the air to root tissues through the soil-water system, liquid paraffin was applied to the water surface in the pots at panicle formation stage. In this experiment, sudden wilting was observed of Yushin and IR262 at about a week after the treatment, but Tongil remained green and healthy. Wilting-resistant variety Tongil had higher oxygen release, whereas the susceptible Yushin and IR262 had lower oxygen release. Second, the number and size of the air spaces in each internode were investigated in the 5th internode from the top, all three varieties have a similar number of air spaces, although the air spaces of Thongil were larger. In the 4th internode, Tongil had plenty air spaces, Yushin and one of the Yushin's parents IR262 had scanty or none. The observations indicated that the ability of Yushin and IR262 for oxygen transport is very limited compared with that of Tongil. The limited oxygen supply due to poor development of air space in internode of rice plants may cause suffocation of root tissues, weaken metabolic activity of the tissues, and induce root rot, subsequently inducing sudden wilting and lodging under unfavorable weather, soil and cultural conditions.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.547-555
• /
• 2014

Objective: This study was conducted to investigate the association between subjective distress symptoms and argon welding among workers in Gyeongnam Province shipyard. Method: 31 argon and 29 non-argon welding workers were selected as study subjects in order to measure concentrations of personal dust, welding fumes and other hazardous materials such as ZnO, Pb, Cr, FeO, MnO, Cu, Ni, $TiO_2$, MgO, NO, $NO_2$, $O_3$, $O_2$, $CO_2$, CO and Ar. An interviewer-administered questionnaire survey was also performed on the same subjects. The items queried were as follows: age, height, weight, working duration, welding time, welding rod amounts used, drinking, smoking, and rate of subjective distress symptoms including headache and other symptoms such as fever, vomiting and nausea, metal fume fever, dizziness, tingling sensations, difficulty in breathing, memory loss, sleep disorders, emotional disturbance, hearing loss, hand tremors, visual impairment, neural abnormality, allergic reaction, runny nose and stuffiness, rhinitis, and suffocation. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software, version 18. Data are expressed as the mean ${\pm}SD$. An ${\chi}^2$-test and a normality test using a Shapiro wilk test were performed for the above variables. Logistic regression analysis was also conducted to identify the factors that affect the total score for subjective distress symptoms. Result: An association was shown between welding type (argon or non-argon welding) and the total score for subjective distress symptoms. Among the rate of complaining of subjective distress symptoms, vomiting and nausea, difficulty breathing, and allergic reactions were all significantly higher in the argon welding group. Only the concentration of dust and welding fumes was shown to be distributed normally after natural log transformation. According to logistic regression analysis, the correlations of working duration and welding type (argon or non-argon) between the total score of subjective distress symptoms were found to be statistically significant (p=0.041, p=0.049, respectively). Conclusion: Our results suggest that argon welding could cause subjective distress symptoms in shipyard workers.

• Fire Science and Engineering
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.1-7
• /
• 2014

Several complex devices and equipments are installed in the car's engine room, including various kind of oils or other flammable materials. So re-ignition is very likely to take place in it. In addition, it is restrictive for the driver or the occupant to open the bonnet and to spray the fire extinguisher in the engine room due to the high possibility of explosion. Therefore, a fire extinguishing system, which can detect a fire and inject the fire extinguishing agent to extinguish it, and fire extinguishing agents including HFC-227ea, which can stand the high temperature within the engine room and hold the viscosity sufficient to keep it in the kind of foam, were developed and tested. And the suffocation effect and the cooling effect come from the fire extinguishing principle of the foam fire extinguishing agent and the inhibiter catalyst effect come from the one of HFC-227ea was led simultaneously, and fire extinguishing agents without the secondary damage caused by residuals after the fire extinguishment like a case of the powder fire extinguishing agent, were developed. And experiments using a vehicle collision after the discharge is complete, foreign material can be removed without extinguishing the advantage that experimental results obtained.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.402-411
• /
• 2013

Objectives: This study aims to assess the concentrations of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide according to task unit area at swine farms. Methods: A total of six swine farms were selected for this study. Ammonia and hydrogen sulfide were monitored using a real-time multi-gas monitor which could sample the gases simultaneously. The sampling was done in the pig building, manure storage facility and composting facility of each farm. Results: The concentration of ammonia in the pig buildings(GM 22.6 ppm, GSD 2.3) was significantly higher(p<0.0001) than in the manure storage facilities(GM 10.4 ppm, GSD 2.7) and composting facilities(GM 8.6 ppm, GSD 2.8). The concentration of hydrogen sulfide in the manure storage facilities(GM 9.8 ppm, GSD 3.2) was higher(p<0.0001) than in the pig buildings(GM 2.3 ppm, GSD 2.3) and composting facilities(GM 1.9 ppm, GSD 2.5). In particular, the levels of hydrogen sulfide in the confined manure storage facilities were higher than those in open-type facilities and the peak concentration(98 ppm) in the confined facilities was approximate to 100 ppm, at the value of Immediately Dangerous to Life or Health(IDLH). Conclusions: Suffocation accidents caused by hazardous gases at a swine farm have occurred annually. Real-time monitoring of the hazards should be done in order to protect farm workers and livestock from the sudden accidents.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
• /
• v.34 no.2
• /
• pp.264-272
• /
• 2007

The purpose of study was to improve the oral hygiene methods for early childhood. The author investigated the oral hygiene materials for early childhood and the oral hygiene methods used by 672 caregivers in Iksan city. The oral hygiene materials were oral tissue, finger brush, toothbrush sets according to the growth stages, electric toothbrush, child toothbrush, toothpaste sets according to the growth stages including eatable toothpaste, and child toothpaste, The rate of caregivers who used each materials was 62.5% for oral tissue, 70.9% for finger brush, 55.9% for toothbrush sets, and 87.4% for eatable tooth-paste. 79.0% of caregivers began toothbrushing from first eruption and about 1 year of age. The rate of swallowing toothpaste was 22% before 48 months, 9% from 48 to 59 months, and 3% after 60 months. The rate of children brushed by caregivers was 52% before 48 months, 42% from 48 to 59 months, and 26% after 60 months. The basic method of oral hygiene management for early childhood is to remove the dental plaque by toothbrushing, and the toothpaste may be used. Suffocation, accidental swallowing, and injury to the throat must be avoided. Generally, the fluoride toothpaste is not recommended before 3 years of age. The least amount of fluoride toothpaste should be used and caregivers should supervise children to prevent the swallowing of toothpaste.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.38 no.3
• /
• pp.342-348
• /
• 2014

Onshore great fires can normally be extinguished by firefighters using special firefighting equipment and its suitable method. However, offshore fires on the ships are to be extinguished by the crew without any supports from the onshore. Also, crews working on board are exposed to high risk of emergency evacuation due to the complicated structure arrangement of the ships and different accident types such as fire and ship collisions. As most of damage and loss of life in fire are associated with suffocation, shortening of evacuation time is an important factor to improve a survival rate. In this study, visibility in the accommodation area is analyzed by using the temperature and smoke flow which are obtained by the Fire Dynamic Simulator(FDS) as a Three-Dimensional Fire Analysis program to understand the survival rate of the crew upon the fire. The fire doors for most of ships are designed to close automatically when the fire alarm is activated. These automatic closing of the fire doors is a very effective system to delay the spread of flame and smoke flow for the unmanned spaces of the fire protected area. However, if the crew cannot escape within the estimated time, the crew inside the fire protected area will be damaged a lot. In this paper, the comparative analysis between the evacuations by using the fire door from the fire protected area and the suggested fire shielding structure in this study is carried out by the smoke flow rate and the temperature rise rate.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.18-25
• /
• 2013

It may occur health hazards or death by suffocation or acute poisoning in case of oxygen deficiency in ambient or exposure to harmful gas. As a part of accident prevention, we studied the change of activity and lethal dose by changing the concentration of several hazardous gas with inhalation exposure chamber and laboratory animals. We investigated the lethality and motility change during either the 4 hrs whole body exposure to oxygen, nitrogen, toluene, $H_2S$, CO and 48 recovery. As results, it is estimated that 5% oxygen concentration as lethal concentration and 5.5% as $LC_{50}$ (rat, 4 hrs) with statistics for dose-response. The results of lethality in oxygen deficient condition (approximately 6%), the lethalities were 40%, 20% with 20 ppm $H_2S$, 600 ppm CO respectively, and was not increased the lethality with 8% CO. Thus, it was confirmed that the $H_2S$, CO had influence to lethal dose, while toluene had low fluence.