• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.104-109
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• 2012

Singapore, an island republic of over 5 million inhabitants, has 3.1 million workers. Most are employed in the service, finance and tourist/transport industry. Significant numbers work in manufacturing, construction and heavy industry. Following a series of construction and shipyard accidents with multiple deaths in 2004, the government announced its intention to reduce workplace fatalities from 4.9 to 2.5 per 100,000 by 2015. There was strong political will to achieve this target. The strategic approaches were to build workplace safety and health (WSH) capabilities; implement legislative changes with enforcement; promote benefits of WSH and recognize best practices, and enhance partnership with stakeholders. The anticipated outcomes were to reduce workplace fatality and injury rates; have WSH as an integral part of business; and establish a progressive and pervasive WSH culture. With these measures, the workplace fatality rate declined from 4.9/100,000 in 2004, to 2.2/100,000 in 2010. However, other confounding factors could also account for this decline, and have to be considered. The next target, announced by Singapore's Prime Minister in 2008, is to further reduce the workplace fatality rate to 1.8/100,000 by 2018, and to have "one of the best workplace safety records in the world".

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.7-16
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• 2013

As workplace incidents has been being declining in Korea, there is criticism of the effectiveness of occupational safety policy implementation. It is unknown that which policy target group needs to be targeted to yield effective injuries prevention. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and reveal the policy intervention group with a high priority in terms of industrial incident prevention and the related investment cost. A Policy Priority Model(PPM) is composed of 6 indicators regarding influences of both the incident reduction and the cost reduction. Z-score analyses are used to confirm the high policy priority area or policy target group. Overall, workplace with worker below 50 persons, construction site with the sales of more than a hundred million won, workplace with relatively small percentage of female employees and relatively higher percentage of older worker should be prioritized to reduce workplace injuries. This paper provides an analytic way that can be used to decide the policy priority workplace in order not only to reduce work-related injuries&illnesses and the related investment cost but to further lessen the related societal costs.

• The Journal of Korean Society for School & Community Health Education
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.1-10
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• 2018

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to expand of workplace by analyzing the duty and workplace of health education specialist and by presenting professional duty for health education specialist. Methods: 22 papers related to health education experts were finally selected from 1993 to 2017(25 years). The selected literature analyzed the title, researchers, the publishing agency, the publication year, the main contents, and duty and workplace of the health education specialist. Results: The studies on health education specialists comprised 5 cases (22.7%) between 1993 and 1999, 3 cases (13.6%) between 2000 and 2009, 14 cases (63.6%) between 2010 and 2017. Health education specialists core duty were diagnosing health education needs, planning health education programs, developing health education methods and materials, performing and managing health education programs, evaluating and conducting research on health education programs, and health communication. The workplace were 11 for medical institutions (55.0%), 9 for healthcare organizations (45.0%) and 8 for schools (40.0%). Conclusions: In addition to the basic core duty, professional and differentiated duty capabilities such as managing the target, generating health information, encouraging involvement of the target, and mobile health care should be developed.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.26-33
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• 2002

Ultimate objective of industrial hygiene is the prevention of health impairment that may result from exposure to chemicals at workplace. Workers in solvent thinner-using occupation environment may be highly exposed to VOCs (volatile organic compounds) because solvent thinner has been used extensively such as painting, spraying, degreasing, coating and so on in Korea. The purpose of this study was to recognize, evaluate, and propose the control methods of VOCs from solvent thinner-using workplace. Five target volatile organic compounds (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, o-xylene, and m-xylene) were monitored in H company of Shiwa Industrial Complex and analyzed in perosnal, occupational indoor and outdoor during working hours simultaneously. Engineering control such as local ventilation should be made in considering the long-term exposure, though measured VOCs concentration did not exceed the workplace exposure standards. In addition, air cleaning device should be installed in local ventilation because Shiwa Industrial Complex has had the serious ambient air pollution. Currently, environmental purification using $TiO_2$ photocatalyst have attracted a great deal of attention with increasing number of recent environmental problems. In this study, $TiO_2$ sol coated on the ceramic bead was prepared by sol-gel method and the photodegradation of target compounds was investigated in gas phase by the exposure to UV-A lamp(365nm) in a batch system.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.558-563
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• 2014

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Most Koreans consume nearly 70-80% of the total sodium through their dishes. The use of a salinometer to measure salinity is recommended to help individuals control their sodium intake. The purpose of this study was to compare sodium content through chemical analysis and salinity measurement in foods served by industry foodservice operations and homemade meals. MATERIALS/METHODS: Workplace and homemade meals consumed by employees in 15 cafeterias located in 8 districts in Daegu were collected and the sodium content was measured through chemical analysis and salinity measurements and then compared. The foods were categorized into 9 types of menus with 103 workplace meals and 337 homemade meals. RESULTS: Workplace meals did not differ significantly in terms of sodium content per 100 g of food but had higher sodium content via chemical analysis in roasted foods per portion. Homemade meals had higher broth salt content and higher salt content by chemical analysis per 100 g of roasted foods and hard-boiled foods. One-dish workplace meals had higher salinity (P < 0.05), while homemade broths and stews had higher sodium content (P < 0.05 and P < 0.01, respectively). The sodium content per 100 g of foods was higher in one-dish workplace meals (P < 0.05) and in homemade broths and stews (P < 0.01 and P < 0.05, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The use of a salinometer may be recommended to estimate the sodium content in foods and control one's sodium intake within the daily intake target as a way to promote cooking bland foods at home. However, estimated and actual measured values may differ.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.359-364
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• 2007

The aim of this study were to assess the personal exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and to estimate the personal exposure using time-weighted average model. Three target VOCs (benzene, toluene, xylene) were analyzed in personal exposure samples and residential indoor, residential outdoor and workplace indoor microenvironments samples in the iron mill 30 workers during working 5 days. Personal exposure to VOCs significantly correlated with workplace concentration p<0.05), suggesting workplace had strong source and major contribution to personal exposure. Personal exposure could be estimated with time activity pattern and time weighted average (TWA) model of residential indoor and workplace concentrations measured. Time weighted mean microenvironments concentrations were close approximately of personal exposure concentrations. Total exposure for participants can be estimated by TWA with microenvironments measurements and time activity pattern.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.488-496
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• 2002

SPME techniques have proven to be very useful tools in the analysis of wide VOCs in the air. In this study, we estimated VOCs in ambient and workplace air using a Tedlar ba /SPME/GC/MS system. The calibration curve was set to be linear over the range of 1-30 ppbv. The detection limits ranged from 10 pptv to 0.93 ppbv for all VOCs. Reproducibility of TO-14 target gas mixtures by SPME/GC/MS averaged at 8.8 R.S.D (%). Air toxic VOCs (hazardous air pollutants, HAPs) containing a total of forty halohydrocarbons, aromatics, and haloaro-matic carbons could be analyzed with significant accuracy, detection limit and linearity at low ppbv level. Only reactive VOCs with low molecular weight, such as chloromethane, vinylchloride, ethylchloride and 1,2-dichloro-ethane, yielded relatively poor results using this technique. In ambient air samples, ten VOCs were identified and quantified after external calibration. VOC concentration in ambient and workplace air ranged from 0.04 to 1.85 ppbv. The overall process was successfully applied to identify and quantify VOCs in ambient/workplace air.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.89-93
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• 2017

Background: Rates of overweight and obese Australians are high and continue to rise, putting a large proportion of the population at risk of chronic illness. Examining characteristics associated with preference for a work-based weight-loss program will enable employers to better target programs to increase enrolment and benefit employees' health and fitness for work. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was undertaken at two Australian mining sites. The survey collected information on employee demographics, health characteristics, work characteristics, stages of behavior change, and preference for workplace assistance with reaching a healthy weight. Results: A total of 897 employees participated; 73.7% were male, and 68% had a body mass index in the overweight or obese range. Employees at risk of developing obesity-related chronic illnesses (based on high body mass index) were more likely to report preference for weight management assistance than lower risk employees. This indicates that, even in the absence of workplace promotion for weight management, some at risk employees want workplace assistance. Employees who were not aware of a need to change their current nutrition or physical activity behaviors were less likely to seek assistance. This indicates that practitioners need to communicate the negative effects of excess weight and promote the benefits of a healthy lifestyle to increase the likelihood of weight management. Conclusion: Weight management programs should provide information, motivation. and trouble-shooting assistance to meet the needs of at-risk mining employees, including those who are attempting to change and maintain behaviors to achieve a healthy weight and be suitably fit for work.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.5-29
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• 1994

In recent years, interests in health promotion have been stimulated by the epidemiological transition from infectious to chronic diseases as lead ing causes of death, the aging of the population, rapidly escalating health care costs, and epidemiologic findings linking individual risk to morbidity and mortality. It is not surprising that the workplace has been targeted as a promising setting for health promotion. In Korea, national attention to the opportunities for workplace health promotion began in the first 1990s. But there is no in depth study to identify the relating factors to the health promotion program in the workplace. The objective of this study is behavioral and physical characteristics to find that in crease the person's risk for a range of health problems and to analysis other characteristics to influence the degree of his/her intention to change health behavior. In addition, this study is purposed to present the process of planning health promotion program in the workplace. To accomplish these objectives, one workplaces was selected. And 363 employees in those workplaces were served as subjects for the study. Major findings in this study are as follows. (1) They have many risk factors such as smoking, drinking, lack of sleep, law rate of regular exercise, irregular eating, stress. (2) Some of the health risk factors such as smoking, drinking, and stress have the negative correlation to the intention to change. (3) Among cognitive and socio-environmental factors, significant predictors to the intention are attitude and social support. (4) In the cluster analysis to segment the target population in to homogeneous unit, three clusters of lifestyle are specified. (5) Smoking cessation and exercise program are planned for the risk group to change their behavior.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.485-501
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• 2023

Objectives: The Ministry of Employment and Labor has revised the articles regarding management of the thermal environment in the workplace. Currently, two types of regulations exist together with indoor workplaces as the scope of application. It appears that the time has come to discuss regulations. In this study, we aim to identify the feasibility of and problems with the current system through a comparative legal review of workplace thermal environment management laws from around the world. We suggest directions for improving South Korea's workplace thermal environment management laws. Methods: For the several selected countries, we analyzed the classification and content of obligations stipulated for the thermal environment, the presence or absence of specific measures for thermal environment management, legal status and content, and the scope of application of thermal environment provisions and measures. The investigated content was classified according to Zweigelt-Kotz's legal theory. Results: In some countries, employers' obligations for regulating the thermal environment are broadly divided into two types: results and actions. The scope of application of provisions and measures on the thermal environment was extensive, with most of the selected countries targeting general workplaces. Conclusions: In the case of South Korea, restricting and classifying target workplaces and imposing separate obligations to manage a workplace thermal environment goes against global practices, and stipulating legal orders and separate action obligations in guidelines does not conform to the characteristics of South Korea's legal system, meaning that improvement is needed.