• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.90-95
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to investigate industrial safety and health experts' opinions on the examination system of WMSDs(work related musculoskeletal disorders) risk factors. For doing this, a questionnaire study and two FGIs(focused group interview) were conducted. A questionnaire with open questions about the examination system was developed, and sent to 42 experts consented bye-mail. Of the experts, 24 experts responded, whose data were used in the analysis. The FGIs were performed for the persons in charge of industrial safety and health in industries and ergonomists. The questionnaire study revealed that most experts(91.3%) agreed with legalization of employers' duty for preventing WMSDs, necessity of the 11 tasks designated by Ministry of Labor, the examination system and ergonomics program, and pertinency for the examination system classification of periodic and occasional one. However, more than half experts disagreed with timeliness and appropriateness of the legal system. This was validated by the low approval rates for appropriateness of the 11 tasks, methods of the examination, charge person in the examination and ergonomics program. FGIs showed that it was desirable for the examination system to be legalized, and that the system was generally properly performed. It was suggested that the system be partially revised with reflecting problems disclosed during its enforcement rather than whole revision. It is expected that when revising relevant legal system, the results of this study would be used as valuable data.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.1135-1147
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• 2013

This study is on the empirical results of correlation between start up education and experience before start up of a self employer entrepreneur with store and performance of the entrepreneur's store. Many latent self employers are lacking in education and experiences for start up. According to the result, first, practical education on start up influenced on entrepreneur's start up skill, and theoretical education influenced on entrepreneur's entrepreneurship. Second, entrepreneur's experience before start up influenced on both start up skill and entrepreneurship. Third, start up skill influenced on both financial and non financial performance of the entrepreneur's store. Finally, entrepreneurship influenced on both financial and non financial performance of the store.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.87-96
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• 2011

In 1967, the problem of occupational lead exposure came to public attention in Korea. Since then, regular progress has been made in lowering workplace lead exposures, instituting new workplace controls, and implementing health examinations of exposed workers. Past serious lead poisoning episodes made it possible to introduce biological monitoring programs on a voluntary basis in high-lead-exposure facilities in Korea. Industry-specific occupational health services for lead workers in Korea during the last 22 years can be categorized into three phases. During the first phase (1988-1993), efforts were directed at increasing awareness among workers about the hazards of lead exposure, biological monitoring of blood zinc protoporphyrin began, and a respiratory protection program was introduced. During the second phase (1994-1997), a computerized health management system for lead workers was developed, blood-lead measurement was added to biologic monitoring, and engineering controls were introduced in the workplace to lower air-lead levels to comply with air-lead regulations. Finally, during the third phase (1998-present), a new biomarker, bone-lead measurement by X-ray fluorescence, was introduced. Bone-lead measurement proved to be useful for assessing body burden and to demonstrate past lead exposure in retired workers. Occupational health service practice for lead workers, including the industry-specific group occupational health system, has brought considerable success in the prevention of lead poisoning and in reducing the lead burden in Korean lead workers during the last several decades. The successful achievement of prevention of lead poisoning in Korea was a result of the combined efforts of lead workers, employers, relevant government agencies, and academic institutes.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.95-100
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• 2018

Background: Respiratory protection equipment (RPE) is the last resort to control exposure to workplace air pollutants. A comprehensive respiratory protection program (RPP) ensures that RPE is selected, used, and cared properly. Therefore, RPP must be well integrated into the occupational health and safety requirements. In this study, we evaluated the implementation of RPP in Iranian petrochemical industries to identify the required solutions to improve the current status of respiratory protection. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 24 petrochemical industries in Iran. The survey instrument was a checklist extracted from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration respiratory protection standard. An index, Respiratory Protection Program Index (RPPI), was developed and weighted by analytic hierarchy process to determine the compliance rate (CR) of provided respiratory protection measures with the RPP standard. Data analysis was performed using Excel 2010. Results: The most important element of RPP, according to experts, was respiratory hazard evaluation. The average value of RPPI in the petrochemical plants was $49{\pm}15%$. The highest and lowest of CR among RPP elements were RPE selection and medical evaluation, respectively. Conclusion: None of studied petrochemical industries implemented RPP completely. This can lead to employees' overexposure to hazardous workplace air contaminants. Increasing awareness of employees and employers through training is suggested by this study to improve such conditions.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.9 no.9
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• pp.268-277
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• 2009

This study seeks to promote the mental and physical efficiencies of the foreign workers working in our country through the promotion of their health, and provide help in their effective use of medical treatments and granting appropriate medical benefits, and provide the basic information helpful in managing the health of the foreign workers who are playing a role in the advancement of the industry in Korea for the companies and employers that are employing them by researching the health condition and management status centering on the foreign workers from a part of Asia and South America who are working in our country. I made a regression analysis toward 231 foreign workers who have employed in industrial workplace from Mar. 1 to Jun. 30, 2008. The result said the factors that affect significant impact on common health disorder of foreign workers in their daily circumstances were staying period in Korea($\beta$=.270),difficulty to access hospital($\beta$=.268), inferior sanitation of work place($\beta$=.218), smoking or not($\beta$=.170), actual condition of health maintenance($\beta$=-.251).($R^2$=0.501)

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.271-277
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• 2019

Objectives: A 46-year-old woman who had worked on cleaning stainless steel containers with Initially unknown powders died from acute silicosis. To determine whether the acute silicosis was related to his work environment, we conducted exposure assessment the level of exposure to respirable crystalline silica(RCS) during cleaning stainless steel containers with unknown powders. Methods: The exposure assessment of RCS were undertaken according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health(NIOSH) method 7500. The components of the unknown powder were analyzed using X-ray Diffraction. Results: The unknown powder was found to be natural diatomaceous earth, which contained 12% and 9% quartz and cristobalite, respectively, crystalline silica. In the case of cleaning stainless steel containers with diatomaceous earth powder, the primary measurement resulted in 1.3 times higher occupational exposure limit of MOEL(in sum of quartz and cristobalite concentration) and 3.9 times higher in secondary measurement. The workbench was equipped with a local exhaust system, but because there was no hood at the end of the duct, the wind speed at the opening of the duct was 12 m/sec, whereas the controlled wind speed at the working position was only 0.3 m/sec below the legal standard. Conclusions: There is an urgent need to install the hood, conduct safety and health education for employers and workers, and periodically monitoring and manage the working environment.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.175-183
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• 2015

In this paper, we propose a analyses the big data of students who are willing to find employment and thus presents strategy for their higher success rate of employment. The experiment covered in this paper is based on female two-year community college students who are yet unsure about their future employment. The primary flaw of pervious employment strategy was job opportunity was only based on simple factors such as student's grade, appearance, and personality due to employers and firms's demand. Therefore, students were less satisfied and often resign. In order to prevent these failures, this paper plans a strategy by analyzing the big data. Furthermore, this is proven by the comparison between 2014 employment statistics and those of previous years, and employment request has been 21.3 percent increased along with 81.4 percent increase in match rate between firms and graduating students. Most importantly, the final success rate of employment presented 63.1 percent increase compared to the previous year.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.211-218
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• 2008

This paper studies the quality of the major domestic job information sites and compares the strong and weak points of them. The study was conducted with respect to the user satisfaction by asking job seekers and employers. Questionnaires consist of three factors: quality of information, quality of delivery, quality of environment, each factor of which contains several sub-questions. The results showed that the quality of information was the most important factor to both job seekers and job Provider. The lower job providers' satisfaction than job seekers' indicated more various services should be developed fer job providers. Specially, Personal information is not protected well enough to satisfy job seekers, so improvement plan is required. Public job information site requires as much service level as private job information sites.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.161-165
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• 2016

Background: Despite the declining trend of workplace accidents in Republic of Korea, its level is still quite high compared with that in other developed countries. Factors that are responsible for high workplace accidents have not been well documented in Republic of Korea. The main purpose of this paper is to estimate the effects of unions and health and safety committees on workplace accidents in Korean manufacturing firms. We also allow for the interactions between unions and health and safety committees in the analysis. The results obtained in this paper will not only contribute to the literature in this field, but might also be useful for employers and worker representatives who are trying to find an effective way to reduce workplace accidents. Methods: This paper utilizes the 2012 Occupational Safety and Health Trend Survey data, which is a unique data set providing information on workplace injuries and illness as well as other characteristics of participatory firms, representative of the manufacturing industry in Republic of Korea. Results: In estimating the effects of unions and health and safety committees, we build a negative binomial regression model in which the interactions between unions and health and safety committees are permissible in reducing workplace accidents. Conclusion: Health and safety committees were found to reduce the incidence of accidents whereas unionized establishments have higher incidence of accidents than nonunionized establishments. We also found that health and safety committees can more effectively reduce accidents in nonunionized establishments. By contrast, nonexclusive joint committees can more effectively reduce accidents in unionized establishments.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.321-327
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• 2011

Objectives: To find out from an analysis of empirical data the levels of influence, which a labor union (LU) and Occupational Safety and Health Committee (OSHC) have in reducing the occupational injury and illness rate (OIIR) through their accident prevention activities in manufacturing industries with five or more employees. Methods: The empirical data used in this study are the Occupational Safety and Health Tendency survey data, Occupational Accident Compensation data and labor productivity and sales data for the years 2003 to 2007. By matching these three sources of data, a final data set (n = 280) was developed and analyzed using SPSS version 18 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Results: It was found that a workplace with a LU has a lower OIIR than one without a LU. In manufacturing industries with five or more employees in 2007, the OIIR of the workplaces without a LU was 0.87%, while that of workplaces with a LU was much lower at 0.45%. In addition, workplaces with an established OSHC had a lower OIIR than those without an OSHC. Conclusion: It was found that the OIIR of workplaces with a LU is lower than those without a LU. Moreover, those with the OSHC usually had a lower OIIR than those without. The workplace OIIR may have an impact on management performance because the rate is negatively correlated with labor productivity and sales. In the long run, the OIIR of workplaces will be reduced when workers and employers join forces and recognize that the safety and health activities of the workplace are necessary, not only for securing the health rights of the workers, but also for raising labor productivity.