Standardization of work environment measurement information for constructing exposure surveillance system

Objectives: The goal of this study is to standardize industry, process, and job within work environment measurement information. Methods: We selected 180 work environment measurement reports on 30 industries from a database monitored from 2014 to 2016 by the Korea Industrial Health Association. Ten industrial hygienists, each with over five years of experience in measurement, conducted a primary standardization of 180 reports. Two professional industrial hygienists with more than 20 years of experience each reviewed and revised the results of the primary standardization. We also examined the validity on the usefulness of the standardized database by the two industrial hygienists. Results: The final standardization results were classified into eight major categories, 23 sub-major categories, 39 minor categories, 53 unit categories and 70 sub-unit categories in the Korean Standard Industrial Classification (KSIC) 10th revision. A total of 161 processes were standardized, and there were 148 processes with K2B codes. Standard job was coded into 13 job groups including operator, automobile maintenance, nurse, maintenance, manager, excavating machine operator, forklift driver, radiologist, clinical pathologist, signer, researcher, kitchen assistant, and concrete reinforcement ironworker. Conclusions: Although the standardized information in this study may be only a part of the total information, it can be useful for improvement of the K2B system. Additional research is needed for an ongoing clean-up of data in the K2B and re-calibration and reclassification of standard processes until the future national exposure monitoring system is fully established.

노출감시체계 구축을 위한 작업환경측정 정보 표준화