• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2015

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to propose an indirect exposure assessment method using a questionnaire survey at a time when direct exposure assessment would be impossible after a chemical accident. Methods: About two weeks after an accident, a questionnaire survey was performed with 1,264 persons from the local community. Variables related to exposure were extracted from the survey contents, weighted and then graded for comparison with subjective symptoms in order to evaluate the extent of exposure. Survey items suitable for reflecting the previous exposure level during the accident were extracted, weighted and divided into quartile ranges. Subjective symptoms showed an increasing tendency with higher exposure level when compared with final exposure level (p<0.01). Results: For the relationship between the final exposure grade and subjective symptoms, as the exposure grade was increasing the rates complaining of symptom also showed an increasing tendency. However, when adjusted for demographic characteristics, there was a tendency for the eye irritation symptom to appear higher in women, and respiratory organ irritation appeared higher in smokers. Conclusions: When the problem of recall bias is considered, this study may not have completely unraveled exposure and the characteristics of the participants can affect subjective symptoms. Nevertheless, the exposure rating method of using a questionnaire showed a significant relationship with symptom level. It can be deemed that assessment of past exposure may be successfully evaluated by questionnaire in cases such as chemical accidents.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.595-610
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• 2003

The statistical indexes such as RMSE (Root Mean Square Error), Mean Bias error, and IOA (Index of agreement) are used to evaluate 3 Dimensional wind and temperature fields predicted by operational meteorological model RAMS (Regional Atmospheric Meteorological System) implemented in CARIS (Chemical Accident Response Information System) for the dispersion forecast of hazardous chemicals in case of the chemical accidents in Korea. The operational atmospheric model, RAMS in CARIS are designed to use GDAPS, GTS, and AWS meteorological data obtained from KMA (Korean Meteorological Administration) for the generation of 3-dimensional initial meteorological fields. The predicted meteorological variables such as wind speed, wind direction, temperature, and precipitation amount, during 19 ∼ 23, August 2002, are extracted at the nearest grid point to the meteorological monitoring sites, and validated against the observations located over the Korean peninsula. The results show that Mean bias and Root Mean Square Error are 0.9 (m/s), 1.85 (m/s) for wind speed at 10 m above the ground, respectively, and 1.45 ($^{\circ}C$), 2.82 ($^{\circ}C$) for surface temperature. Of particular interest is the distribution of forecasting error predicted by RAMS with respect to the altitude; relatively smaller error is found in the near-surface atmosphere for wind and temperature fields, while it grows larger as the altitude increases. Overall, some of the overpredictions in comparisons with the observations are detected for wind and temperature fields, whereas relatively small errors are found in the near-surface atmosphere. This discrepancies are partly attributed to the oversimplified spacing of soil, soil contents and initial temperature fields, suggesting some improvement could probably be gained if the sub-grid scale nature of moisture and temperature fields was taken into account. However, IOA values for the wind field (0.62) as well as temperature field (0.78) is greater than the 'good' value criteria (> 0.5) implied by other studies. The good value of IOA along with relatively small wind field error in the near surface atmosphere implies that, on the basis of current meteorological data for initial fields, RAMS has good potentials to be used as a operational meteorological model in predicting the urban or local scale 3-dimensional wind fields for the dispersion forecast in association with hazardous chemical releases in Korea.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.16-22
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• 2017

This study examined the status of resident evacuation sites notified to nearby communities, centered on business sites subject to the risk management plan of Incheon, Siheung, and Ansan. Through an analysis of the meteorological data, the direction of improvement of the site selection process for the safe evacuation of chemical accidents was studied. Among a total of 111 evacuation sites, 30 schools were selected the most, and 2-3 sites were usually selected for evacuation. As a result of an analysis of the Incheon meteorological data of 2016, the frequency of occurrences was 18.8525% in the NNE wind direction, 18.0328% in the NNW wind direction, 12.2951% in the WSW wind direction, 9.0164% in the SSE direction, 8.4700% in the SW direction, 6.5574% in the W direction, and 5.7376% in the S direction. The NNE wind direction showed the highest frequency, but the other winds showed a relatively high frequency, indicating that the annual wind direction was not biased toward one side.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.63-73
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• 2019

This study examined the activity of the simulated training scenarios and special rescue crew assuming a chemical accident inside the building. To improve the response ability and safety of rescue personnel in the event of a chemical accident, a total of eight stages of simulated training scenarios were conducted and the activity was measured. As a result of the activity measurement according to the simulation training scenario, the average maximum heart rate of the rescuers was the highest at 177.50 ppm in the 4^th stage, and then 176.67 ppm for the 5^th step, 171.17 ppm for the 2^nd step, 169.33 ppm for the 3^rd step, 162.17 ppm for the 6^th step, 159.58 ppm for the 7^th step, 148.75 ppm for the 8^th step, and 139.33 ppm for the 1^st step. The mean maximum respiratory rate was the highest at 38.17 rpm in the 4^th stage, followed by 37.58 rpm in the 5^th stage, 32.00 rpm in the 6^th stage, 31.58 ppm in the 7^th stage, 31.33 rpm in the 3^rd stage, 31.08 rpm in the 2^nd stage, and 28.00 rpm in the 8^th stage. The 1^st stage was 22.67 rpm. In addition, body water reduction measurements were reduced by up to 0.7 g due to the training intensity.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.10
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• pp.308-316
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• 2020

This study attempted to derive an equation for calculating the damage impact distance using CARIS so that local governments can quickly determine evacuation and notification of residents in the event of an ammonia-release accident. Ammonia is an accident-causing substance and one of 16 substances to prepare for resident evacuation. It is the most frequently occurring chemical with 58 chemical accidents from 2014~2019. The study derives an equation for calculating the damage impact distance according to the exposure time of ammonia based on AEGL, an acute exposure standard applicable to the general population, which is includes vulnerable groups such as infants, children and the elderly and designated by the EPA. The calculation formulas for each concentration and exposure time to classify the hazardous area according to AEGL-3 and the semi-dangerous area according to AEGL-2 were derived. A comparison of the relative standard deviation between the damage impact distance values of CARIS revealed that is was in the range of 0~2%. Local governments should consider the actual accident situation and apply the appropriate damage-affected distance calculation formula derived from the study to evacuate residents near the origin of the accident or use for protective measures such as indoor evacuation notification.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.67-77
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• 2010

Growth of oil and chemical industries has been remarkable during recent years. Hazardous materials (Hazmat) make frequent use in the wide range of industries. It increases the frequency of Hazmat transport and it leads to increase the number of accidents. Optimal Hazmat routes can reduce damage. Thus, the objective of this study is to minimize the areas impacted by Hazmat accidents by adopting experts' opinion in planning the route. We calculated weights using AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) and deduced the best route by applying this weights. Results showed that in the case of shortest route versus weighted route, the percentage of population damage has been decreased by 33.4% in the comparison between shortest route and optimally weighted route. And the percentage of environmental damage also has been decreased by 21.8%. Social damage has been decreased by 1521.7%. In the case of none weighted route versus weighted route, the percentage of population damage has been decreased by 2.6% when we adopted weighted route. Consequently, the recommended route with weighted risk assessment avoids densely populated area comparing with none weighted route. Further research needs to be carried out in order to figure out the specific cost-effectiveness analysis applying the equal cost unit for each factor.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.18-31
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• 2018

Since accidents of hazardous material transport vehicle on roadways cause severe damage in the form of disaster, foreign countries have long been engaged in systematic management and establishment of relevant laws and policies for the road safety. Recently, over 10-kilometer long tunnel, such as Inje-Yangyang Tunnel and Geumjeongsan Tunnel, has been opened on the expressway and the production of various hazardous materials is increasing with the development of chemical technology. However, road laws related to the safe operation of hazardous materials transport vehicles are still lacking, and policy measures for managing them have not been specified. It is an important task to recognize the risk of accidents of hazardous material transport vehicles and to secure road safety by establishing a management plan for road managers. Therefore, this study analyzed the feasibility of the traffic regulation of expressway tunnel in South Korea and suggested a direction for management. The results of this study can be utilized as the primary data for the revision of law related to hazardous materials transport vehicles on roadways and the derivation of optimal route of hazardous materials transport vehicles.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.112-120
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• 2019

Benzene is a class 4 hazardous material according to the Act on the Safety Control of Hazardous Substances. This study qualitatively evaluated the damage size of a "toxic" accident and "pool fire" accidents based on benzene in a virtual scenario of a fire and leakage accident during unloading at a port facility. The KORA program was used as an evaluation method, which is supported as a universal program by the National Institute of Chemical Safety. The range of damage effects of a benzene-induced fire and leakage accident was predicted. In the case of toxic damage range, the accident's damage effect range for the "worst case scenario" was reduced by up to 5.11% with a decrease in the size of the leakage hole. In the case of the leakage time, the damage effect range increased to 145.12% with a 10 min leakage time compared to that of a 5 min leakage time and went up to 20 min (212.29%) with a 20 min leakage time. In the case of pool-fire-induced damage, the damage effect range by radiant heat in the "worst case scenario" was 228.8 m in radius from the center of the handling facility. In the "alternative scenario," the damage effect range by radiant heat was reduced by up to 8.26% compared to that in the "worst case scenario" since the size of the leakage hole was decreased by reducing the cross-sectional area of the pipe.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.168-176
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• 2017

HNS accidents involve large-scale fires and explosions, causing numerous human casualties and extreme environmental pollution in the surrounding area. The widespread diffusion of effects should be prevented through rapid decision making. In this study, a high-quality, standardized, and digitized HNS accident databases has been generated based on the HNS standard code proposed. Furthermore, the HNS Accident Tracking System (HATS) was applied and implemented to allow for systematic integration management and sharing. In addition, statistical analysis was performed on 76 cases of domestic HNS accident data collected over 23 years using HATS. In Korea, an average of 3.3 HNS accidents occurred each year and major HNS accident factors were Springs (41 %), Aprons (51 %), Chemical Carriers (49 %), Crew's Fault (45 %) and Xylenes (12 %). (The number in parentheses is the percentage of HNS accident factors for each HNS accident classification)

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.1-8
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• 2016

Gu-mi hydrogen fluoride leak accident in 2012 was amplified social anxiety for chemical accidents. To relieve these anxieties Off-site Risk Assessment was introduced in 2015. Off-site Risk Assessment is targeted at most chemicals, and most of the high-pressure-toxic gases which are mainly used in high-tech industries such as semi conductor, display, Photovoltaic panels industry are included in the substance of the Off-site Risk Assessment. Since Korean companies occupy a high market share in high-tech industries, high pressure-toxic domestic gas consumption is constantly increasing. Accordingly, it is expected to increase the possibility of accidents. In accordance with the circumstances, this study was to conducted Consequence Analysis(CA) about high pressure-toxic gases those are high demand in domestic. CA was used for ALOHA developed by US EPA & US NOAA and the CA result of Arsine was the largest at 4,700 m. CA results are expected to be utilized for determining the effective Safety distances when high pressure-toxic gas leak.