• Title/Summary/Keyword: Hazardous cases

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The "Warm Zone" Cases: Environmental Monitoring Immediately Outside the Fire Incident Response Arena by Firefighters

  • Caban-Martinez, Alberto J.;Kropa, Bob;Niemczyk, Neal;Moore, Kevin J.;Baum, Jeramy;Solle, Natasha Schaefer;Sterling, David A.;Kobetz, Erin N.
    • Safety and Health at Work
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    • v.9 no.3
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    • pp.352-355
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    • 2018
  • Hazardous work zones (i.e., hot, warm, and cold) are typically established by emergency response teams during hazardous materials (HAZMAT) calls but less consistently for fire responses to segment personnel and response activities in the immediate geographic area around the fire. Despite national guidelines, studies have documented the inconsistent use of respiratory protective equipment by firefighters at the fire scene. In this case-series report, we describe warm zone gas levels using multigas detectors across five independent fire incident responses all occurring in a large South Florida fire department. Multigas detector data collected at each fire response indicate the presence of sustained levels of volatile organic compounds in the "warm zone" of each fire event. These cases suggest that firefighters should not only implement strategies for multigas detector use within the warm zone but also include respiratory protection to provide adequate safety from toxic exposures in the warm zone.

A Developmental Study on Preventing Occupational Disease Programme in Small- Medium Sized Industries (보건관리대행사업장 직업병예방관리 사업 프로그램 개발에 관한 연구)

  • Lee Myung-Sook
    • Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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    • v.9 no.2
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    • pp.104-114
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    • 1995
  • This study was designed to develop preventing occupational disease programme in small-medium scale industries. The intervention was done in 354 enterprises from July to December in 1993 by health personnels in mobile occupational health centers. The summarized results of the above achievements were as follows. 1. Total number of enterprises were 354. Among them $66.9\%$ was under 100 workers, $26.6\%$ was u!1der 200 workers, and $6.5\%$ was belong to over 200 workers. The majority manufactures were non-metallic mineral product industries $(11.3\)$ fabricated metal product industries $(11.0\%)$. and textile industries $(10.7\%)$. 2. In 1993, for 350 enterprises were carried out evaluation of workplace environment. A total of $76.3\%$ industries were found to improper showing higher level of hazardous agent than the TLV. Noise and dust are the typical agent of which levels in workplace were high in most of industries. 3. A total 60 cases $(0.8\%)$ of occupational diseases were detected through physical check-up from 7,394 industrial workers in 1993. Detection rate by hazardous agent was highest among workers in relation to dust, and secondly highest to noise. 4. Through the systematic approach by hazardous agent was increased to the monitoring of work condition and follow up care of occupational disease. In future, there should be development in the scaled check list of preventing occupational disease management.

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Application Cases of Risk Assessment for British Railtrack System (영국철도시스템에 적용된 리스크평가 사례)

  • Lee, Dong-Ha;Jeong, Gwang-Tae
    • Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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    • v.22 no.1
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    • pp.81-94
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    • 2003
  • The British railway safety research group has developed a risk assessment model for the railway infrastructure and major railway accidents. The major hazardous factors of the railway infrastructure were identified and classified in the model. The frequency rates of critical top events were predicted by the fault tree analysis method using failure data of the railway system components and ratings of railway maintenance experts, The consequences of critical top events were predicted by the event tree analysis method. They classified the Joss of accident due to railway system into personal. commercial and environmental damages. They also classified 110 hazardous event due to railway system into three categories. train accident. movement accident and non-movement accident. The risk assessment model of the British railway system has been designed to take full account of both the high frequency low consequence type events (events occurring routinely for which there is significant quantity of recorded data) and the low frequency high consequence events (events occurring rarely for which there is little recorded data). The results for each hazardous event were presented in terms of the frequency of occurrence (number of events/year) and the risk (number of equivalent fatalities per year).

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.

Study fo the Characteristics Analysis of Laboratory Chemical Accidents (실험실 화학사고 특성 분석에 관한 연구)

  • Lee, Tae-Hyung;Lee, Deok-Jae;Park, Joong-Don;Shin, Chang-Hyun
    • Fire Science and Engineering
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    • v.30 no.3
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    • pp.110-116
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    • 2016
  • The major aim of this study was to provide information on the chemical accidents that occurred in laboratories over the last 3 years. The total incidence of laboratory chemical accidents was 30 cases; 25 cases occurred at educational institutions. Most accidents (19 cases) occurred due to spills and leaks. The main cause of the accidents analyzed was worker carelessness (21 cases). Twenty-two accidents were related to hazardous chemical substances. In addition, general chemical substances as well as waste liquid contributed 26% to the incidents related to the laboratory. Among the 22 hazardous chemical substances involved in laboratory chemical accident, 67% of accident substances were accident preparedness substances.

Analysis of Overviews of Working Environment Measurement and its Results in Korean Industry (우리나라 사업장의 작업환경측정 및 노출기준 초과실태 분석)

  • 김정호;원정일
    • Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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    • v.11 no.3
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    • pp.53-61
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    • 1996
  • The subject of this study was to analyse overviews of companies which exceed TLV by industry, hazardous factors, and to estimate the numbers of companies measured in 1993 and the implementation rate of working environment measurement by the act of industrial safety and health The result of this study was as follow. 1. The number of cases which exceed TLV was 5,937 companies. In distribution of excess companies by the scale of workers, small scale cases under the 49 workers were 3,150 companies(53.0%) of total cases, medium scale cases between 50 - 299 workers were 2,248 companies(37.9%), and large scale cases over 300 workers were 539 companies(9.1%). By the industry of excess companies, it was marked high rate in manufacture of fabricared metal products(except machinary and equipment), manufacture of textiles of each 1,048 companies(17.7%), and 1,018 companies(17.1%). By the area of excess companies, it was shown high rate in Kyeongki area marked 1,679 companies(28.3%) and Daegu-Kyeongbuk area were marked 1,417 companies (23.9%). By the hazardous factors of excess companies, noise was recorded high rate in 5,160 companies (86.9%), dust was shown in 1,245 companies(21.0%), organic solvent was marked 130 companies(7.9%). The number of excess factors by the company was 1.2. In this result, the more it was bigger scale companies, the more excess factors were much more and the more it was recorded higher rate in noise organic solvent heavy metals, etc. 2. The measured cases in institutes during 1994 were 1,596 companies, and excess cases were 157 companies(9.8%) among them. By the scale of workers, small scale cases under the 49 workers were 190 companies (17.9%) among 1,064 companies, cases of medium scale cases between 50-299 workers were 127 companies (27.9%) among 463 companies, and large scale cases over 300 workers were 31 companies(44.9%) among 69 companies. In this result industry of the highest rate shown was manufacture of basic metals in 20 companies exceeded among 53 companies (37.7%), and was manufacture of pulp, paper production in 14 companies exceeded among 40 companies(35.0%), and the excess rate were high in bigger scale. 3. Companies estimated by the data of excess cases and excess rate in 1993 were 30,474 implementation rate estimated for measurement of working environment was 34.3% of companies in korean industry. In this result, it was comparatively shown of measurement rate for the working environment in manufacture of pulp, paper product, manufacture of machinary and equipment n.e.c., and of high measurement rate and excess rate in manufacture of electrial machinary and apparatus, and manufacture of basic metals.

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An Evaluation of the Quantitative Risk of Plastic Process Manufacturing Industries by Means of the 4M Method

  • Lee, Dong-Ho;Kim, Jong-In
    • International Journal of Safety
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    • v.6 no.2
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    • pp.8-12
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    • 2007
  • This study includes a case study among plastic process manufacturing companies, based on which, the currently used 4M method is applied in terms of machine, media, man, and management, to conduct quantitative risk evaluation, and thus to contribute to reducing human and material loss as well as preventing accidents in industrial fields. The result of this study is analyzed based on the 4M-risk assessment to find out the hazardous risk elements, and the quantitative evaluation made it predictable the value of risk(frequency $\times$ intensity) in such classified levels as serious risk, critical risk, and intolerable risk. Further, Among the businesses with hazardous risk elements and high frequency of industrial disaster, risk analysis was conducted for each process, and as a result, 38 cases among 76, including those of serious risk, critical risk, and intolerable risk, were improved, and the risk was reduced. Besides, it is thought that with the engineering approach with 4M-Risk Assessment, the attempt to improve safety level contributes to prevention of accidents.

A Study on the Hazard Elements and Reduction for the Armored Wheeled Vehicle River Crossing Operation (기능분석을 활용한 차륜형 전투차량의 수상운행 위해 요소 분석 및 경감 방안 연구)

  • Na, Jae Hyun;Lee, Cheol Woo;Lee, Seung Jong;Kim, Jong Hyun;Kim, Eui Whan
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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    • v.10 no.2
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    • pp.15-20
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    • 2014
  • The river crossing is a very challenging operational function for the ground wheeled vehicle. In this study, the typical hazardous elements were identified by analysing the functional flow of river crossing operation and the survey on the similar operational experiences in real fields. The identified hazardous elements were reviewed on the basis of ALARP concept and reduction approaches were recommended for limited cases.

Design of Rescue Robot in Hazardous and Disastrous Environment

  • Kwak, Sung-Hun;Choi, Gi-Sang;Choi, Gi-Heung
    • International Journal of Safety
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    • v.6 no.1
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    • pp.11-15
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    • 2007
  • In many cases, rescue robots work under harsh conditions such as the presence of various obstacles, high temperature, and limited visibility, etc. These robots are required to have tough mechanical structure, good sensing and control capability, and reliable communication capability for receiving operator's command and sending information on the state of the robot and environment. In this study, a rescue robot that can investigate hazardous or disastrous sites with these capabilities is designed and implemented. The performance of the proposed rescue robot is tested under simulated disastrous environment.

A study on the establishment of the criteria for selection of Hazardous substances requiring management in Occupational Safety and Health Act (산업안전보건법상 관리대상 유해물질 선정기준 마련에 관한 연구)

  • Park, Eun Woo;Park, Jun Ho;Lee, Kwon Seob;Hong, Mun Ki;Ahn, Byung Jun;Lee, Eun Jung
    • Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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    • v.24 no.4
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    • pp.425-435
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    • 2014
  • Objectives: This study was performed in order to establish reliable and relative selection criteria for hazardous substances requiring management(HSRM) in the Occupational Safety and Health Act in Korea. Methods: To determine the relative criteria and weight of evidence for HSRM, we analyzed the difference between the selection method of priority substances in studies by KOSHA(Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency) and the European Union Risk Ranking Method(EURAM). In addition, 597 hazardous substances with exposure limit valueswereanalyzed and the posted health hazards classification by MOEL(Ministry of Employee and Labor), MOE(Ministry of Environment), and EU CLP(Classification, Labelling and Packaging regulation) were compared based on GHS(Globally Harmonized System of classification and labelling of chemicals) criteria. The existing HSRM(167 substances) were evaluated for suitability by the proposed criteria in this study. Results: As a result of this study, the criteria and procedures for selecting HSRM in the Occupational Safety and Health Act were arranged utilizing GHS health hazard classification results, occupational disease cases and domestic use situations. Conclusions: The applicability of the proposed criteria was proved via the evaluation of existing HSRM(167 substances). Most HSRM (161 substances) were found to correspond to a significant health effect or substantial health effect. The question of whether to include the six substances that have been found to have general health effects as HSRM would be require further research.