• Korean Journal of Hazardous Materials
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.59-64
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• 2015

Semiconductor industry has large number of chemical inventory and is easily exposed to chemical release incidents. Toxic release is one of the most interested area in evaluating consequence to the vicinity of industry facilities handling hazardous materials. Hydrofluoric acid is one of the typical chemical used in semiconductor facility and is selected and toxic release is evaluated to assess the risk impacted to its off-site. Accident scenarios were listed using process safety information. The scenarios having effect to the off-site were selected and assessed further according to guideline provided by Korea government. Worst case and alternative scenarios including other interested scenarios were evaluated using ALOHA. Each evaluated scenario was assessed further considering countermeasures. The results showed that the facility handling hydroflooric acid is safe enough and needed no further protections at the moment.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.111-117
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• 2016

Natural disasters can cause major accidents in chemical facilities where they can lead to the release of hazardous materials which in turn can result in fires, explosions or toxic dispersion. Technological disasters triggered by natural disasters are referred to as NaTech(Natural Disaster Triggered Technological Disaster). These trends increase the probability of catastrophic future disasters and the potential for mass human exposure to hazardous materials released during disasters. In the present study, we proposed some methods for effective disaster management by conducting case study of major NaTech. First, establishing information sharing system of chemical accident for stakeholders and improving disaster manuals and standards of central and local government and co-operation support system. Second, activating information service of emergency planning and community right to know. Third, improving the integrated chemical accident database including NaTech accidents.

• Korean Journal of Hazardous Materials
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.28-36
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• 2015

In early 2011, the Fukushima nuclear power plant had greater damage due to earthquake in Japan, and the awareness of safety has increased. In particular, special response systems should be required to handle disaster situations in plant sites which are likely to occur for large disasters. In this study, a program is designed to set up optimum escape routes, by a smart phone application, when a disaster situation occurs. This program could get information of the cumulative damage from sensors and display the escape route of the smallest damage in real-time on the screen. Utilizing our application in real-time evacuation has advantage in reducing cumulative damage. The optimal evacuation route, focusing on horizontal path, is calculated based on getting the data of fire, detected radioactivity and hazardous gas. Thus, using our application provides information of optimal evacuation to people who even can not hear sensor alarms or do not know geography, without requiring additional costs except fixed sensors or server network deployment cost. As a result, being informed of real-time escape route, the user could behave rapidly with suitable response to individual situation resulting in improved evacuation than simply reacting to existing warning alarms.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.276-283
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• 2008

To provide the research strategy for protection of children's health from hazardous chemical, we reviewed the hazardous chemicals can be exposed through maternity, children's life style and living environment. Recently, diseases related with children's living condition were focused as asthma, atopy, childhood developmental disability, congenital malformations and obesity. Children can be exposed to hazardous chemicals through an ambient air, water, soil, food, toys and other factors such as floor dust. Also children's health was deeply related with a wrong life style and neglectful caring by a lack of knowledge and information of harmful ones at parents and child care center's nursers. According to the previous study, the chemical risk factor of children's health were identified as inorganic arsenic, bisphenol A, 2,4-D, dichlorvos, methylmercury, PCBs, pesticide, phthalates, PFOA/PFOS, vinyl chloride, et al. Domestic studies for identification of causality between children exposure to chemicals and resulted hazardous effects were not implemented. The confirmation of chemical risk factors through simultaneously performing toxicological analysis, human effect study, environmental/human monitoring, and risk assessment is needed for good risk management. And also, inter-agency collaboration and sharing information can support confirming scientific evidence and good decision making.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.803-816
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• 2014

Defense-in-depth is a fundamental safety principle for the design and operation of nuclear power plants. Despite its general appeal, defense-in-depth is not without its drawbacks, which include its potential for concealing the occurrence of hazardous states in a system, and more generally rendering the latter more opaque for its operators and managers, thus resulting in safety blind spots. This in turn translates into a shrinking of the time window available for operators to identify an unfolding hazardous condition or situation and intervene to abate it. To prevent this drawback from materializing, we propose in this work a novel safety principle termed "observability-in-depth". We characterize it as the set of provisions technical, operational, and organizational designed to enable the monitoring and identification of emerging hazardous conditions and accident pathogens in real-time and over different time-scales. Observability-in-depth also requires the monitoring of conditions of all safety barriers that implement defense-in-depth; and in so doing it supports sensemaking of identified hazardous conditions, and the understanding of potential accident sequences that might follow (how they can propagate). Observability-in-depth is thus an information-centric principle, and its importance in accident prevention is in the value of the information it provides and actions or safety interventions it spurs. We examine several "event reports" from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission database, which illustrate specific instances of violation of the observability-in-depth safety principle and the consequences that followed (e.g., unmonitored releases and loss of containments). We also revisit the Three Mile Island accident in light of the proposed principle, and identify causes and consequences of the lack of observability-in-depth related to this accident sequence. We illustrate both the benefits of adopting the observability-in-depth safety principle and the adverse consequences when this principle is violated or not implemented. This work constitutes a first step in the development of the observability-in-depth safety principle, and we hope this effort invites other researchers and safety professionals to further explore and develop this principle and its implementation.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.234-242
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• 2020

In this study, we monitored the raw materials in home-meal replacement (HMR) products, which have shown more than 63% growth in market size for two years. A total of 89 HMR products were purchased and the DNA barcodes of 112 raw materials in the product samples were analyzed. In order to identify the raw material species, a primer set specific for the 16S ribosomal RNA region of each raw material species was amplified. The amplicon was purified and sequenced, and then used to perform a BLAST search provided by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The species of the raw material was determined by comparing the nucleotide sequences of the species registered in GenBank with identity and match score. Twenty-four species and three genera were identified from 112 raw materials. Three genera were identified at the genus level because a large number of species belonging to the same genus exist within 98% of the identity criteria. The results of the determination were compared with the available raw materials suggested in the Korea Food Code to determine the Korean name and availability of the foods. Six non-listed species were determined to be edible according to information provided by influential domestic and foreign organizations.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Groundwater Environment
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.122-129
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• 1997

Spills or leaks of hazardous organic. compounds from underground storage tanks (USTs) are common contaminant sources of soil and groundwater. It would aid in managing USTs to assess and rank the potential environmental hazard posed by the USTs. Therefore, a preliminary hazard ranking system of USTs is developed in this study. The system is combined with GIS and consists of five steps: 1) selection of significant factors, 2) determination of the hierarchy of the factors. 3) determination of the weights, 4) calculation of the potential hazard, and 5) hazard assessment. The system is applied to the gas stations in Kwanak-gu, Seoul. The results indicate that the gas stations can be categorized in three groups as highly hazardous, less highly hazardous, and weakly hazardous. Seven gas stations belong to the highly hazardous group. Through the sensitivity analysis, four stations appear to possess high hazard potentials regardless of weights assigned to the factors. It appears that a user can make flexible application of the hazard ranking system with the user's experience and particular purposes. However, the system still needs validations against field survey data.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.23 no.3 s.31
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• pp.275-284
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• 1990

To obtain the useful information for the status of working environment and health management of workers in manufacturing industries, comparision of results on the status of working environmental and health management of workers for 32 manufacturing industries in Chunan area from 1988 to 1989 was carried out. The results were as follows : 1. The rate of over-PEL (Permissible Exposure Limit) to for hazardous factors decreased significantly 23.5% in 1988, 18.3% in 1989 (p<0.05) and, the highest rate of over-PEL was the stone and sand handling industry, the highest rate of over-PEL was the dusty workplace as 38.5% in 1988, 35.2% in 1989. 2. The rate of workers exposed to hazardous factors in 1988 and in 1989 was 22.4% respectively, the rate of workers checked up special health examination was 40.1% in 1988, 75.3% in 1989. In stone and sand handling and medicochemical industries, none of workers exposed to hazardous factors was subjected to special health examination in 1988, but 75% of workers exposed to hazardous factors had checked up in 1989. 3. The 6 industries appointed as part-time factory physician among 17 industries which were supposed to have factory physician according to the Safety and Healthy Act of Korea, 6 out of 24 industries only appointed industrial hygienist, furthermore 4 out of 6 hygienists had another duty in addition to occupational hygiene itself.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.160-168
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• 2018

Objectives: The purposes of the study were to investigate hazardous pollutant emissions changes among group 1 carcinogens. The emissions characteristics were compared with national cancer registration statistics. Methods: A survey of group 1 carcinogen hazardous pollutant emissions (trichloroethylene, benzene, vinyl chloride, formaldehyde, 1,3-butadiene, ethylene oxide, chromium and its compounds, 3,3'-dichloro-4,4-diaminodiphenylmethane, chloromethyl methyl ether, arsenic and its compounds, cadmium and its compounds, o-toluidine) was conducted through a homepage for 2001-2015. The emission of hazardous chemicals and the cancer trend analysis for 2001-2015 were performed using the Korean statistical information service through its homepage as a reference. Results: Emissions of more than 95% of the substances listed as group 1 carcinogens over the last five years were made up of trichloroethylene, benzene, vinyl chloride, formaldehyde, 1,3-butadiene, and ethylene oxide. As a result of the comparison of emission results and cancer incidence rates, carcinogen pollutant emissions showed a tendency to decrease continuously. In addition, the incidence of cancer tended to increase, but showed a tendency to decrease from 2012. Conclusion: The results indicate hazardous pollutant emissions have continued to increase. However, no association between emissions and health effects was shown and more research is needed.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.159-169
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• 2020

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate changes among the nine kinds of reduction chemical substances in Korea over the period of 2008-2017. We will define basic data for improving the management methods for reducing chemical substances. Methods: A survey of hazardous pollutant emissions for 2008-2017 was conducted through the pollutant Release and Transfer Register homepage. Nine kinds of designated reduction chemical substances (Benzene, Vinyl chloride, Trichloro ethylene, 1,3-butadiene, Dichloro methane, Tetrachloro ethylene, N,N-dimethylformamide, Acrylo nitrile, and Chloroform) provided the study subjects. The emission of hazardous chemicals and health effects used the National Health Statistics and Integrated Chemicals Information System (ICIS) as a reference. Results: Hazardous pollutant emissions increased by 1.2 times over the past decade, and nine types of reduction chemical substances increased by 1.6 times. By region, the emissions of reduction chemical substances over the last 10 years were in the order of Chungbuk, Gyeonggi, and Gyeongbuk. Emissions of Dichloro methane was the highest in Chungbuk and Gyeongbuk. N,N-dimethylformamide was the highest in Gyeonggi. Carcinogen pollutant emissions showed a tendency to increase continuously. In addition, group 1 carcinogen emissions showed a tendency to decrease. Conclusion: In the last decade, the amount of hazardous chemical emissions has been continuously increasing. Hazardous chemical emissions require facility improvement for continuous emissions reduction. More research on reduction of emissions is needed.