• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.145-157
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• 2017

Purpose: We accessed epidemioloy of 908 acute burns (7 years) in the military, of injuries and propose proper educational programs to suit community. Methods: We surveyed burn demographics, circumstances of injuries, size, result of treatment. Results: The mean age was 20.6 years. The flame burns (FB) (325, 35.8%) were most common, followed scald (SB) (305, 33.6%), contact (CB) (219, 24.1%), electric (EB) (45, 5.0%) and chemical burns (ChB) (14, 1.5%). The more occurred during winter (29.7%). SB had mean 3.9% total body surface area (TBSA). The 251 (82.3%) had superficial burns by spillage of hot water/food on lower limbs (45.6%), feet (33.8%) in summer (34.8%), treated with simple dressing (92.8%). Morbidity rate was 5.6%; post traumatic stress disease (PTSD) (0.7%). FB had large wound (9.3% TBSA). The 209 (64.3%) had superficial burns by ignition to flammable oils (31.7%) and bomb powders (29.2%) on head/neck (60.3%), hands (58.6%) in summer (31.7%), autumn (30.2%). They underwent simple dressing (83.4%) and skin graft (16.0%). Morbidity rate was 18.8%; PTSD (10.5%), inhalation injuries (4.0%), corneal injury (3.7%), amputations (0.9%), and mortality rate (1.2%). CB had small (1.1% TBSA), deep burns (78.5%) by hotpack (80.4%) on lower limbs (80.4%). The more (59.8%) underwent skin graft. EB had 6.8% TBSA. The 29 (64.4%) had superficial burns by touching to high tension cable (71.1%) on hand (71.1%), upper limbs (24.4%) in autumn (46.8%). They underwent simple dressing (71.1%) and skin graft (24.4%). They showed high morbidity rate (40.0%); loss of consciousness (13.3%), nerve injuries (11.1%), neuropathy (8.9%), amputations (2.2%), and mortality rate (2.2%). Conclusions: The cook should wear apron over the boots during work. The lighter or smoking should be strictly prohibited during work with flammable liquids or bomb powders. Don't directly apply hotpack to skin for a long time. Use insulating glove during electric work. Keep to the basic can prevent severe injury and proper education is important.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.61-70
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• 1997

This study is undertaken to investigate the differences of accident characteristics between occupational deaths and nonfatal injuries in overall industry of Korea. The national statistics of industrial accidents in the years 1991-1994 were extracted from the annual publications of Ministry of Labor. To make the statistical comparisons for the accident characteristics, we derived the destributions of occupational deaths and injuries in terms of injured person's age, work experience, tiem of accident, activity at time of accident, accident type, injury type, injured part of body, and agency of accident. The results show that the distributions of the occupational deaths are significantly different from those of the nonfatal injuries in all characteristics investigated in this study. These findings indicate that the accident prevention programs should be developed and implemented by taking into account the characteristics of working environments based on accident analysis.

• Proceedings of the ESK Conference
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• 1996.04a
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• pp.91-97
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• 1996

This study is to analyze trends of back injuries reported for medical expense compensation in a territorial jurisdiction of Pohang regional office of Ministry of Labor. Back unjuries claimed in the Plhang region accounted for approximately 15% of all industrial accident and 0.96 billion won were spent to compensate for medical expenses in 1994. A majority of back injuries occurred in manufacturing, construction, and transportation, and, 98% of all back injuries during 1992-1994 were strain/sprain, herniated inter-vertebral dise(HIVD), and fracture. To achieve and effective back injury prevention, supplenentary reporting form should be provided to include the information about job description (e.g., weight of an object, task duration and working posture), employee's medical and work history, and working conditions.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.158-168
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• 2011

Objectives: The present study aims to determine the causal relationship between self-rated depression and experiences of injury and accidents in municipal firefighters. Methods: A panel survey of 186 municipal firefighters measured with depressive symptoms according to the Beck's depression index (BDI) was conducted. The effects of job-related injuries and accidents were evaluated using self-administered questionnaires that were taken once in a 12-month period from 2005 to 2006. Firefighters were classified into the Depression Group or Control Group based on follow-up BDI results with a cutoff level that was set to having "over mild depression." Results: The depression Group was comprised of 17 (9.1%) workers, including 9 firefighters who met had sufficient BDI scores twice in the 2-year test period and newly sufficient BDI scores in the follow-up test. A significantly higher number of subjects in the Depression Group experienced injuries and accidents in the 2-year test period as compared to the Control Group (15.4% vs. 1.5%, p=0.04). Firefighters who experienced injuries and accidents in the 2-year test period had a 7.4 times higher risk of being in the Depression Group than those who had not. As compared to accidents, near-miss accidents revealed stronger risks related to being classified as in the Depression group (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 4.58, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.15-18.18 vs. Adjusted OR = 4.22, 95% CI = 1.08-16.58). Conclusion: The above results suggest that we should establish an effective program to promote mental health for groups at high risk for self-rated depression, including persons who have experienced consecutive injuries and accidents as well as near-miss injuries.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.411-420
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• 2017

Objective: The purpose of this study is to analyze the accident characteristics according to the gender of the injured workers in building cleaning and to reflect them in the Industrial Accident Prevention Policy. Background: An analysis of industrial accidents is an essential process for establishing systematic industrial accident prevention measures. In order to establish industrial accident prevention measures for workers effectively, it is necessary to analyze accident characteristics by job type for workers who do the same work. Method: In this study, we analyzed the accident characteristics of 1,645 janitors who were approved of work-related injuries in 2015. We also analyzed the characteristics according to gender by dividing them into worker-related factors and accident-related factors. Results: The accidents caused to the janitors showed different characteristics according to gender, age, work experience, agency of accident, and distribution of original cause materials. In other words, 70.2% occurred to workers over 60 years old and 56.2% occurred to unskilled workers with less than a year of work experience. In the case of accident pattern, 79.1% occurred in tripping (slip) hazards, and 68.2% of accidents occurred on the floor (including the ground) and the stairs, indicating that the accident occurred most frequently during cleaning work on the floor or stairs. Conclusion and Application: The results of the study on the accident characteristics of the janitors can be used as basic data for systematic preventive measures against accidents occurring to the elderly female workers in the service industry.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.353-362
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• 2015

Objective: This study aims to analyze occupational accidents of moving helpers by work place type which means the type of residence where moving operation is done. Background: Most efforts have been focused on the industry base comprising various occupational spectrum and provided industry general preventative policies. But occupation specific policies are required for the workers involved and will reduce the occurrences of occupational accidents for the workers subject to similar working environment and process. Method: This study analyzes 208 non-motor vehicle collision related occupational accidents of moving helpers working for used household and office goods moving industry occurring from 2010 to 2012. Accident Type, agencies, event or exposure, parts of body affected are characterized by work places according to the work environment. Results: Accidents characteristics showed the difference between high-rise type and low-rise type on the size of enterprise, age, gender and work experience of the injured. Also the accident type, source of accident and parts of body affected are different between the two work place types. Finally, Accidents occurred on the specific operational processes of moving service also showed different characteristic between the two types. Conclusion and Application: The findings of accident characteristics according to workplace types and operational process of moving service can be used as baseline data for establishing systemized preventative policies for occupational accidents of moving helpers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Physical Medicine
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.21-31
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• 2018

PURPOSE: This study examined the differences between male and female workers by investigating the various factors that affected the workers' abilities to return to work according to the International Classification of Functioning standards. METHODS: We analyzed the personal factor, environmental factor, work performance and participation factor related to ICF according to worker's gender. For this purpose data from the third Worker's Compensation Insurance panel survey conducted by the Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service were analyzed. In order to verify the research model, we used frequency analysis, cross analysis to compare the differences between male and female workers according to personal, environmental, work performance, and participation factors and hierarchical regression analysis to identify significant factors affecting job performance. RESULTS: The results, indicate that the level of education, license status, working period, socioeconomic status and employment type of female workers were lower than those of male workers. Factors that have the greatest influence on job performance are grade of disability, status of disability, economic activity status, and instrumental activities of daily living (p<.05). CONCLUSION: It is necessary to provide socially stable employment support and social policy support without discrimination to allow disabled female workers to return to work and maintain their jobs and to study factors influencing job performance further.

• 월간산업보건
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• s.286
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• pp.49-54
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• 2012

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.168-174
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• 2010

South Korea's industrial injuries are decreasing overall in the last 32 years. Nevertheless, the fatal occupational injury rate is still higher than in developed countries. This study was conducted to help prevention strategies of occupational injuries for the Republic of Korea. Fatal occupational injury rates were obtained from "Industrial Accident Analysis"of the Korean Ministry of Labor. Poisson regression was used to assess time trends. Socioeconomic indicators were obtained from the Korea Labor Institute and the Statistics Korea. Fatal occupational injury rates were adjusted by year, and Pearson correlation analysis was used to assess the relationship between the socio-economic indicators and occupational injuries. In 1975, fatal occupational injury rate was 54.8 per 100,000 workers. With somewhat up and down, it was decreased to 21.0 in 2006. An annual rate of change for the years 1975-2006 was - 1.83%, and for the years 2002-2006 was -5.02%. As economic growth rate, paricipation rate for the age less than 25 and hours of work per week or year increased, fatal occupational injury rate also increased. Conversely, as GDP per capita, paricipation rate or employment rate for female, paricipation rate for the age 25 or more, hourly compensation costs for production workers and services output as percent of GDP increased, fatal occupational injury rate decreased. By the development of safety techniques and the adoption of more legislative constraints, developed economy reduce occupational injuries. Conversely, economic growth may raise occupational injuries. Therefore, prevention strategies are needed to manage both of them. We need to make an effort to prevent occupational injuries due to not only sexual differences, but also job differences between male and female. Preventive strategies are needed to consider the characteristics of younger workers. Addition to wage, other appropriate variables for work condition should be considered together. Extending work hours is need to be regulated with systemic methods.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.343-349
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• 2022

Background: In the United States, the dairy product manufacturing industry has consistently had higher rates of work-related nonfatal injuries and illnesses compared to the national average for industries in all sectors. The selection and implementation of appropriate safety performance indicators are important aspect of reducing risk within safety management systems. This study examined the leading safety indicators implemented in the dairy product-manufacturing sector (NAICS 3115) and their perceived effectiveness in reducing work-related injuries. Methods: Perceptions were collected from individuals with safety responsibilities in the dairy product manufacturing facilities. OSHA Incident Rate (OIR) and Days away, restricted and transferred (DART) rates from 2013 to 2018 were analyzed. Results: The perceived most effective leading were safety observations, stop work authority, near miss reporting, safety audits, preventative maintenance, safety inspections, safety training attendance, and job hazard analysis/safety analysis, respectively. The 6-year trend analysis showed that those implementing all eight top indicators had a slightly lower rates than those that did not implement all eight. Production focused mentality, poor training, and lack of management commitment were perceived as the leading causes of injuries in this industry. Conclusion: Collecting leading indicators with the unique interest to meet the regulatory requirements and to document the management system without the actual goal of using them as input to improve the system most probably will not lead to an effective reduction of negative safety outcomes. For leading indicators to be effective, they should be properly selected, executed, periodically evaluated and actions are taken when necessary.