• Title/Summary/Keyword: Hazardous Chemicals

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Preparatory Monitoring of Trace Chemicals Load into Nakdong River (낙동강 상수원에 부하되는 미량유해화학물질의 사전 모니터링)

  • Kang, Mee-A;Jo, Soo-Hyun;Jeong, Gyo-Cheol;Lee, Seung-Hwan;Kim, Sun-Il
    • The Journal of Engineering Geology
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    • v.16 no.4 s.50
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    • pp.351-357
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    • 2006
  • Recently there is increasing the flow of hazardous chemical substances caused by industrial waste waters into a main river. It is needed to make the high treatment in drinking water treatment plants for reducing a health risk. Therefore, the monitoring of trace hazardous chemical substances by the industrial waste water inflow is available increasing economical efficiency of river management as well as reduction of risk. In this study, the most important substance among numerical and quantitative trace hazardous chemicals is Hexachlorobutadiene in an effluent of industrial wastes. However all items of GroupII which was included with semiconductor, electricity/electron and metal assemble was not detected. It means that we must consider the characteristics and behavior of load pollutants to water resources to select monitoring items. That was called 'preparatory monitoring'. We can reduce an economical consumption as well as risks from these pollutants using the preparatory monitoring.

The Current Status and Recommendation of Work Environment Management in Small Scale Industry with less than 5 Workers (경인지역 일부 5인미만 사업장 근로자의 작업환경실태와 관리대책)

  • Kim, Dea Sic;Roh, Youngman;Kim, Hyun Wook;Jeong, Chun Hwa;You, Ki ho
    • Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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    • v.11 no.3
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    • pp.179-189
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    • 2001
  • This study was performed to identify the current status of work environment management and to provide appropriate recommendations for small scale industry with less than 5 workers from September, 2000 to October, 2000 in Seoul city and Gyoung-gi province. The 211 companies were surveyed by checklist included the elements of management of work environment, hazardous chemicals, MSDS, personal protective equipment, and ventilation system. The proportion of metal products manufacturing and printing industries are 25.6 % and 22.3%, respectively. The daily working hours in printing industry is longer than others. The industries that produce potentially hazardous agents, such as noise, dust, metal, organic solvents, radiation and chemical material are pulp, plating, machinery, and printing, respectively. In above industries, only 2.8 % of those recognised and had MSDS. The proportion of companies providing fire extinguishers, safety showers are found to be 13.3 %, 7.1 %, respectively. Only 24.2 % of companies provided personal protective equipment to the workers. The ventilation system was operated in most of companies. But local exhaust ventilation system is provided to 22.3 % of those, also had not been annually inspected. This study showed that the current status of occupational safety and health was not appropriate for workers in small scale industries. It is suggested that annual physical examination have to be performed, MSDS usage must become widespread, and employer and emplyees in small scale industry should be educated for the treatment and storage of hazardous chemicals to improve the occupational safety and health of the working environment. also, regulatory standard has to be applied to local exhaust ventilation system in small scale industry to improve the working condition.

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Estimation of the Relative Risk of the Elderly with Different Evacuation Velocity in a Toxic Gas Leakage Accident (독성물질 누출 시 대피 속도 차이에 따른 고령자의 상대적 위험도 산정)

  • Lee, H.T.;Kwak, J.;Park, J.;Ryu, J.;Lee, J.;Jung, Seungho
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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    • v.34 no.6
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    • pp.13-21
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    • 2019
  • Leakage accidents in businesses dealing with hazardous chemicals can have a great impact on the workers inside the workplace, as well as residents outside the workplace. In fact, there were cases where hazardous chemicals leaked from many businesses. As a result, the Chemicals Control Act(CCA) was enacted in 2015, the Ministry of Environment introduced an Off-site Risk Assessment(ORA). The purpose of the ORA is to secure safety from the installation of the design of the workplace facilities so that chemical accidents of hazardous chemical handling facilities do not cause human or physical damage outside the workplace. In general, the ORA qualitatively determines where a protected facility is within the scope of the accident scenario. However, elderly who belong to the sensitive group is more sensitive than the general group under the same chemical accident effect, and the extent of the damage is serious. According to data from the Korea National Statistic Office, the number of elderly people is expected to increase steadily. Therefore, a quantitative risk analysis considering the elderly is necessary as a result of a chemical accident. In this study, accident scenarios for 14 locations were set up to perform emergency evacuation due to toxic gas leakage of Cl2(Chlorine) and HF(Hydrogen Fluoride), and the effects of exposure were analyzed based on the evacuation velocity difference of age 20s and 60s. The ALOHA(Areal Locations of Hazardous Atmospheres) program was used to calculate the concentration for assessing the effects. The time of exposure to toxic gas was calculated based on the time it took for the evacuation to run from the start point to the desired point and a methodology was devised that could be applied to the risk calculation. As a result of the study, the relative risk of the elderly, the sensitive group, needs to be determined.

Comparisons of Chemical Ranking and Scoring Methods (화학물질 우선순위 선정 기법에 대한 비교 분석)

  • 김예신;박화성;이동수;신동천
    • Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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    • v.18 no.3
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    • pp.183-191
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    • 2003
  • Although the variety and quantities of chemicals used have been increasing, no management strategies have been developed for these chemicals in our country. Therefore, it is important to identify the hazardous characteristics of chemicals and establish reasonable and effective management plans for them. However, because insufficient resources are available to evaluate all aspects of many varieties of chemicals, studies on suitable chemical ranking and scoring (CRS) system should be performed to ensure effective screening of priority chemicals.. In addition, because most CRS systems have their own goals, it is impossible for only one generic system to be consistent with all the uses that have been developed. Therefore, priority systems should be developed with specific and clearly defined purposes in our nation. In this study, we investigated and discussed exist-ing CRS systems, and proposed several elements and principles when designing CRS systems. First of all, the system should have clearly defined goals, keep neutral, and employ simple methods. In addition, researchers need to perform sensitivity analysis to find the main variables responsible for uncertainties and use the tiered approach to compose the effective management strategies for chemicals.

Task-Specific Hazardous Chemicals Used by Nail Shop Technicians (네일 샵 종사자들의 직무 형태별 취급 유해화학물질)

  • Choi, Sangjun;Park, Sung-Ae;Yoon, Chungsik;Kim, Sunju
    • Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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    • v.25 no.4
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    • pp.446-464
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    • 2015
  • Objectives: This study was conducted to evaluate the task-specific hazards of chemicals used by nail technicians in Daegu Metropolitan City. Materials: A total of 30 nail shops located in Daegu City were surveyed to investigate the major tasks and practices performed by nail technicians and the ingredients listed in nail care products used in shops. We also collected instructions for use and material safety data sheets(MSDSs) of nail care products and compared CAS Nos. of ingredients with the lists of chemicals regulated by the Industrial Safety and Health Act(ISHA) and Chemical Substances Control Act(CSCA). Results: A total of 125 chemical ingredients were found in 468 nail care products used at the 30 nail shops. The most frequently found ingredients were ethyl acetate(72%), followed by n-butyl acetate(71.8%), isopropanol(56%), benzophenone(51.1%), nitrocellulose(46.4%) and ethanol(45.3%). Comparing six tasks, the task of manicuring used the most products at 222 products containing 91 ingredients. Among the 125 ingredients, there are 31 chemicals with occupational exposure limits(OEL) designated by the Ministry of Employment and Labor(MoEL), eight categorized as carcinogens, one mutagen and two reproductive toxic chemicals. In terms of carcinogens, formaldehyde was identified as the only confirmed human carcinogen(1A). We found that there was one chemical with a permissible limit, one special management substance, 18 workplace monitoring substances and ten special health diagnosis substances regulated by ISHA. For CSCA, nine poisonous substances, six substances requiring preparation for accidents and one restricted substance were identified. Conclusions: Based on these findings, formaldehyde was identified as one of the chemicals that should most strictly be controlled for the protection of the health of nail technicians and customers. At the same time, it is necessary to distribute materials with detailed hazardous information of nail care products for nail shop technicians.

A Study on the Characteristics of Production and Using for Acidic Chemicals with High Accident Frequency (화학사고 빈도가 높은 산 계열 물질의 취급 특성 연구)

  • Kim, Ki-Joon;Lee, Jin-Seon;Yoon, Young-Sam;Jung, Mi-Suk;Yoon, Junheon;Seok, Kwang-Seol
    • 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.

An analysis of Volatile Organic Compounds for the Application of Petroleum-based UVCB Substances to the Occupational Safety and Health Act (석유계 UVCB 물질의 산업안전보건법 규제 적용을 위한 일부 휘발성 유기화합물 분석)

  • Jeong-Hee, Han;Na-Young, Park;Na-Roo, Lee
    • Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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    • v.32 no.4
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    • pp.371-380
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    • 2022
  • Objectives: To ensure that employers handling petroleum compounds understand whether petroleum-based UVCB (unknown or variable composition, complex reaction products, or biological materials) substances contain hazardous substances and comply with the Occupational Safety and Health Act, petroleum-based UVCB substances were analyzed and the results from samples were compared with MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) contents. Methods: Twenty-one petroleum samples were analyzed using GC-MS (Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry), targeting ten volatile organic compounds regulated by the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Results: The target chemicals were detected in 13 out of 21 samples. All 13 samples were in the naphtha (low boiling point naphthas (gasolines)) group. There were also naphtha group samples containing 2% benzene. Some naphtha samples used as solvents contained about 1% benzene. Conclusions: This study shows that naphtha group petroleum substances contain hazardous chemicals in many cases. In particular, if benzene, n-hexane, and toluene with low occupational exposure limits are contained above the limit concentration. Such information should be delivered in the article on MSDS legal regulations.

A Brief Review of the Legal Definition of Chemical Accident under the Current Chemical Substances Control Act (화학물질관리법상 화학사고 정의에 관한 소고)

  • Jihoon Park;Seon-Oh Park;Hyojin Park;Hye-Ok Kwon
    • Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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    • v.49 no.4
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    • pp.179-182
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    • 2023
  • The Chemical Substances Control Act has been legislated to counter the risks posed by chemical substances to public health and the environment, but a number of small- and large-scaled incidents related to hazardous chemicals continue to occur every year. The Korean Ministry of Environment takes legal responsibility for prevention, preparedness, and response to nationwide chemical accidents under the Chemical Substances Control Act. The determination of chemical accidents that occur during hazardous chemical handling processes is based on the Article 2 (Definitions) of the law and the administrative criteria for judgement of chemical accidents. However, there are certain ambiguities in the scientific basis for determining chemical accidents under the current regulations. Whether or not a chemical accident has a direct influence on penalties and administrative measures for a workplace where an accident occurred, it is necessary to find reasonable criteria for determining chemical accident based on legal and scientific evidence.