• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.90-98
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• 1998

In order to establish detailed plans for fire protection and reduce the possible fire accidents in the future, collection of domestic and foreign fire accident cases and fundamental analysis are very important. In this study the classification model for fire accidents was developed and the direction to a new model was suggested by comparison ours with the accidents classification model of NFPA of United States of America and Japan. A new developed PC-based database program for fire accidents (FADBS) was used to analyse fire accidents easily and efficiently.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.28-37
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• 2024

The recent surge in the production and handling of hazardous materials in Korea necessitates developing and implementing robust emergency response plans. These plans are crucial in safeguarding the well-being of workers and residents in the event of an incident. The consequence analysis methodology outlined in the KOSHA guidelines provides a foundation for designing emergency response plans in the event of chemical accidents. However, the consequence analysis is evaluated based on assumed accident cases or worst-case scenarios. Consequently, the emergency response plan based on the consequence analysis may overestimate the damage area, complicating rescue efforts and unnecessarily increasing costs. More information and parameters become available after an accident, enabling more accurate consequence analysis. This implies that the results of consequence analysis based on this detailed information provide more realistic results than those based on assumed accidents. This study attempts to optimize the resource allocation and cost-effectiveness of emergency response plans for chemical accidents. Existing procedures and manuals are revised to elucidate the proposed model and conduct real-time consequence analysis. The existing emergency response plan is compared to verify the proposed model's efficacy. The obtained results indicate that the proposed model can exhibit better performance.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.23-34
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• 2003

The emergency response modeling system CARIS has been developed at CCSM (Center for Chemical Safety Management), NIER (National Institute of Environmental Research) to track and predict dispersion of hazardous chemicals for the environmental decision support in case of accidents at chemical or petroleum companies in Korea. The main objective of CARIS is to support making decision by rapidly providing the key information on the efficient emergency response of hazardous chemical accidents for effective approaches to risk management. In particular, the integrated modeling system in CARIS consisting of a real-time numerical weather forecasting model and air pollution dispersion model is supplemented for the diffusion forecasts of hazardous chemicals, covering a wide range of scales and applications for atmospheric information. In this paper, we introduced the overview of components of CARIS and described the operational modeling system and its configurations of coupling/integration in CARIS. Some examples of the operational modeling system is presented and discussed for the real-time risk assessments of hazardous chemicals.

• Korean Journal of Hazardous Materials
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2014

Acidic chemicals like sulfuric acid, nitric acid and hydrogen chloride take up 37% of the total chemical accidents which took place for the past 10 years. When an acidic chemical leak happens, fume is generated, diffusing into the air, which might cause serious damage to health of local residents and the environment. However, we have only little reference data for production and using of acidic chemicals. In this study, we investigated characteristics of production and using for acidic chemicals with high accident frequency. As a results, domestic chemical accidents were categorized according to chemical types and production, using, and handling characteristics of acidic chemicals were identified. Sulfuric acid was handled in the largest amount, followed in the order of hydrogen chloride, nitric acid, acrylic acid, and hydrogen fluoride. Sulfuric acid is used in the industry of manufacturing composite fertilizer and mainly used for manufacturing fertilizer. Hydrogen chloride is used in the industry of manufacturing basic chemicals for petrochemical family and mainly used for pH regulator. It is expected that this results could be used as preliminary data for making decisions on facilities required intensive management in order to prevent chemical accidents and prepare countermeasures against such accidents.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.247-250
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• 2023

This case report aims to introduce the safety campaign activities for preventing chemical accidents that were cooperatively conducted by an environmental office and chemical-handling workplaces located in the Ulsan area. A chemical safety campaign was initiated to examine and manage chemical-handling facilities at high risk for chemical accidents, specifically valves, flanges, and switches (VFS) from October 2020 to December 2022. The VFS safety check campaign was conducted to raise workers' safety consciousness based on a campaign of advertisements in the workplace from October 2020 to December 2021. In addition, a VFS plus [+] campaign was initiated to encourage actual management activities for chemical-handling facilities at high risk of chemical accidents in 2022. A total of 49 corporations participated in the VFS plus [+] campaign. In contrast to the VFS safety check campaign, which simply focused on publicity and resulted in changes in worker awareness, practicable safety management activities focusing on the handling facilities were carried out. Although notable short-term impacts have yet to be discerned from the campaigns, it is expected that they will eventually serve as a starting point for developing a proper safety culture and environment.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.25-31
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• 2022

In this study, the spill and leak system is developed to provide real-time remote monitoring of industrial complexes where chemical accidents have been occurring every year. The spill and leak monitoring system uses IR-RCD equipment mounted on a 70m-high steel tower to detect chemical substances, thereby detecting chemical accidents such as leaks, fires, and explosions in real time. If IR-RCD equipment can actually detect chemical substances at a long distance, accurate and rapid initial response can be expected. Therefore, in order to confirm that IR-RCD equipment can detect chemical leakage accidents occurring at a long distance, acetone was selected as the experimental substance and a detection experiment was designed. The experiment was conducted using the acetone pool evaporation method at the wharf which was located 1.5 km away from IR-RCD equipment, and it was confirmed whether IR-RCD equipment could detect acetone in real time through the control monitor.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.22-30
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• 2022

In order to prevent chemical accidents caused by human error, a chemical accident prevention and response training program using advanced technology was developed. After designing a virtual process based on the previously built pilot plant, chemical accident response contents were developed. A part of the pilot facility was remodeled for content realization and a remote control function was given. In addition, a DCS program that can control facilities in a virtual environment was developed, and chemical process operator training (OTS) that can finally respond to virtual chemical accidents was developed in conjunction with AR. Through this, trainees can build driving skills by directly operating the device, and by responding to virtual chemical accidents, they can develop emergency response capabilities. If the next-generation OTS like this study is widely distributed in the chemical industry, it is expected to greatly contribute to the prevention of chemical accidents caused by human error.

• Proceedings of the Korea Institute of Fire Science and Engineering Conference
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• 1997.11a
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• pp.319-326
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• 1997

The fire accident cases of several countries such as Korea, Japan, United States, etc., were collected and compared statistically. The trends of fire accidents in several countries will help us establish detailed plans for fire protection and reduce the possible fire accidents in the future. For construction of data base system, the program FADS was developed, which is operable in Windows environment.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.155-165
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• 2021

Objectives: Acute exposure to high concentrations of chemicals can occur when a chemical accident takes place. As such exposure can cause ongoing environmental pollution, such as in the soil and groundwater, there is a need for a tool that can assess health effects in the long term. The purpose of this study was assessing the health risks of residents living near a chemical accident site due to long-term exposure while considering the temporal concentration changes of the toxic chemicals leaked during the accident until their extinction in the environment using a multimedia environmental dynamics model. Methods: A health risk assessment was conducted on three cases of formaldehyde chemical accidents. In this study, health risk assessment was performed using a multimedia environmental dynamics model that considers the behavior of the atmosphere, soil, and water. In addition, the extinction period of formaldehyde in the environment was regarded as extinction in the environment when the concentration in the air and soil fell below the background concentration prior to the accident. The subjects of health risk assessment were classified into four groups according to age: 0-9 years old, 10-18 years old, 19-64 years old, and over 65 years old. Carcinogenic risk assessment by respiratory exposure and non-carcinogenic risk assessment by soil intake were conducted as well. Results: In the assessment of carcinogenic risk due to respiratory exposure, the excess carcinogenic risk did not exceed 1.0×10-6 in all three chemical accidents, so there was no health effect due to the formaldehyde chemical accident. As a result of the evaluation of non-carcinogenic risk due to soil intake, none of the three chemical accidents had a risk index of 1, so there was no health effect. For all three chemical accidents, the excess cancer risk and hazard index were the highest in the age group 0-9. Next, 10-18 years old, 65 years old or older, and 19-64 years old showed the highest risk. Conclusion: This study considers environmental changes after a chemical accident occurs and until the substance disappears from the environment. It also conducts a health risk assessment by reflecting the characteristics of the long-term persistence and concentration change over time. It is thought that it is of significance as a health risk assessment study reflecting the exposure characteristics of the accident substance for an actual chemical accident.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.515-519
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• 2015

87 and 104 cases of chemical accidents in 2013 and 2014 respectively have brought enormous damages to people and environment. Also, the industry has significant damages the company reputation and a lot of expense to repair the damage handling. Toxic substance has spread out rapidly in the atmosphere at chemical accidents and that affect to workers as well as neighborhood. In order to analyze the causes of chemical accidents throughly, reliable and systematic investigation procedure should be considered. In this study, the chemical accident investigation system of each government agency in charge of the accident investigation is compared and analysed.