• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.185-193
• /
• 2015

There are so many definition of good work but generally job quality can be useful to analyze the good work. Good work may include some factors about health or working environment. This paper was planned to investigate the level of job quality in Korean employees. Especially comparison of health status between low an high job quality can be analyzed. Korean Working Conditions Survey was used. The various job characteristics were categorized into 6 component of job quality using factor analysis. Statistically mean difference test and cross-tabulation analysis were used to identify the difference of health status and distribution of the level of job quality. The result has shown the different distribution of the level of job quality by the economic sectors and occupations statistically significant. The positive cases of all of six components of job quality was 2.1% of Korean employees and the negative cases of all six components of job quality was 1.5%. The subjective general health status was correlated with job quality but work-related stress was negatively correlated with the level of job quality. This study was heuristic one, more depth analysis will be needed to identify the relationship and causation of job quality and health status.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.261-262
• /
• 2022

Globally, it is estimated that the number of people living outside of their country of origin reached 281 million in 2020. The primary drive of those migrants when migrating voluntarily is work to increase their income and provide for their families left behind in their home countries. Those who migrate immediately seek means of income to sustain themselves through a perilous process as currently evidenced in the war in Ukraine and not too long ago in Syria and Venezuela. Unfortunately, migrant workers are globally known to predominantly be working in "4-D jobs"- dirty, dangerous, and difficult and discriminatory; the fourth D was recently added to acknowledge the discriminatory aspect and other social determinants of health migrant workers face in their host country while exposed to precarious work. Consequently, migrant workers are at considerable risk of work-related illnesses and injury but their health needs are critically overlooked in research and policy. Recognizing the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights "Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment", we cannot consider any human life - thus, the life of migrant workers - as dispensable through a structural discriminatory process that undervalues their occupational safety and health, livelihood and the contribution these workers bring to their host countries. This was seen during the preparation for the upcoming world cup in Qatar where migrant workers were exposed to a multiplicity of serious hazards including deadly heat hazards.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
• /
• v.35 no.1
• /
• pp.21-35
• /
• 2010

There are many work-related injuries and diseases of fisheries in Korea. Fishermen have exposed to harmful environment, such as natural disasters, ultraviolet, noise, vibration, organic solvents, ergonomic risk factors, loss of fresh water and food, and psychologic stress. They have suffered from numerous work-related health problems, including musculoskeletal disorders, cardiovascular diseases, infectious diseases, pyschological diseases, decompression sickness, and so on. Sea accidents can cause deaths of fishermen and if sea pollution is occurred, fishermen have a great economic damage. However, the concern of these injuries and diseases has been little because they are small in number and have decreased. Fisheries are important core industries, so the problems of fisheries have to be solved by a government. But work-related injuries and diseases are not investigated properly and accurate diagnoses are not made due to loss of concern. We hope that this article will be a cornerstone to solving the work-related problems of fisheries.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.9-17
• /
• 2015

The human hand is a complex structure that performs various functions for activities of daily living and occupations. This paper presents a literature review on the methodologies used to evaluate hand functions from a biomechanics standpoint, including anthropometry, kinematics, kinetics, and electromyography (EMG). Anthropometry describes the dimensions and measurements of the hand. Kinematics includes hand movements and the range of motion of finger joints. Kinetics includes hand models for tendon and joint force analysis. EMG is used on hand muscles associated with hand functions and with signal-processing technology.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.72-76
• /
• 2017

Background: Workplace victimization is considered a major social stressor with significant implications for the wellbeing of employees and organizations. The aim of this study was to examine the influences of employees' personality traits and organizational politics on workplace victimization among Ghanaian employees. Methods: Using a cross-sectional design, data were collected from 631 employees selected from diverse occupations through convenience sampling. Data collection tools were standardized questionnaires that measured experiences of negative acts at work (victimization), the Big Five personality traits, and organizational politics. Results: The results from hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that among the personality traits neuroticism and conscientiousness had significant, albeit weak relationships with victimization. Organizational politics had a significant positive relationship with workplace victimization beyond employees' personality. Conclusion: The study demonstrates that compared with personal characteristics such as personality traits, work environment factors such as organizational politics have a stronger influence on the occurrence of workplace victimization.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.38-42
• /
• 2016

Background: Truck driving is known as one of the occupations with the highest accident rate. This study investigates the characteristics of traffic collisions according to road types (expressway and rural road). Methods: Classifying 267 accidents into expressway and rural road, we analyzed them based on driver characteristics (age, working experience, size of employment), time characteristics (day of accident, time, weather), and accident characteristics (accident causes, accident locations, accident types, driving conditions). Results: When we compared the accidents by road conditions, no differences were found between the driver characteristics. However, from the accident characteristics, the injured person distributions were different by the road conditions. In particular, driving while drowsy is shown to be highly related with the accident characteristics. Conclusion: This study can be used as a guideline and a base line to develop a plan of action to prevent traffic accidents. It can also help to prepare formal regulations about a truck driver's vehicle maintenance and driving attitude for a precaution on road accidents.

• Toxicological Research
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.43-48
• /
• 1989

The average value of total mercury contents in scalp hair of Korean male was found to be 1.66+1.10 ppm (S.D.) and that of methylmercury was 1.02+0.72 ppm (61.0% of the total mercury). In case of total mercury contents of female was 1.06+0.46 ppm and that of methylmercury was 0.51+0.27 ppm (48.4% of total mercury level). When compared with data reported by Japanese, the levels were about half. The levels of mercury in scalp hair of male subjects were significantly different with their occupations, but in case of female, the variation was not so much.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• /
• v.35
• /
• pp.19.1-19.5
• /
• 2023

There are several types of shift work in Korea: rotating shift, 24-hour shift, day-night shift, fixed night work, and.so on. As a result of analyzing the 8th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and the 6th Korean Working Condition Survey, Korean shift workers accounted for 11.6%-13.9% of wage workers. Weekly working hours of shift workers were 57.69 ± 1.73 (24-hours shift) and 49.97 ± 0.67 (fixed night shift), which were significantly longer than day workers. To prevent health consequences of night work, many countries regulate the working hours of night work not to exceed 7-9 hours a day. However, Korea does not regulate working hours for night work, and some occupations may work more hours than the prescribed overtime hours. To prevent health consequences and reduce working hours for Korean night shift workers, it is necessary to regulate the working hours of night shift workers by law.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.529-536
• /
• 2020

This study aims to provide the basic data for coffee intake and health promotion by examining the conditions in which Korean adults consume the most coffee. The study used raw data from the second year of the 7th National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2017), and 3,325 subjects who were 19 years of age or older and who were not missing the required values. This number used as the average amount of coffee drank per day in the past year is at least one cup. In order to identify factors that affect coffee intake, the model included general characteristics such as gender, age, household income, education level, occupation, health behaviors such as smoking, drinking, high intensity and moderate intensity exercises, walking, physical activity during work and leisure, sleep time, stress and depression. The results showed that coffee intake was lower among women than men, coffee intake was higher for people 40-64 years than people 20-39 years old, physical occupations rather than non-physical occupations, smokers rather than non-smokers, and for high stress rather than low stress in life. Subjects with these factors are considered to be at risk of excessive caffeine intake from coffee. The risk group of this study should be studied for the effect of excessive consumption of coffee on personal health.

• Journal of Technologic Dentistry
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.35-45
• /
• 1989

This study was carried out from June, 20, to October 22, 1988, for the purpose of researching on the complaint ratio of Respiratory symptoms of the dental laboratory technicians in Seoul. In this study, aiming to find out complaint ratio of respiratory symptoms of the dental laboratory, SNU-81-AL were applied, at random, to 193 dental laboratory technicians at 39 dental laboratories, as the research group, and to 178 clinical laboratory technicians at 10 general hospitals, as the control group, and above two groups were compared with each other. The following results were obtained from this research. 1. The quantity of respirable dust under 5$\mu$m measured at the dental laborartories was, on an average as well, 5$mg/m^3$-minimum 1.56$mg/m^3$), and the density of CO was, on an average as well, 5.0ppm(Mx 7.0-Mn 3.0). 2. The complaint ratio of five main respiratory symptoms(cough, phlegm, wheezing, nasal catarrh & cold, breathlessness) was, on an average, 44.3% at the dental laboratory technicians, phlegm was the major symptom complained by the greatest number of the technicians. 22.4% of the clinical laboratory technicians complained above 5 main respiratory symptoms, nassal catarrh & cold was the mostly complained symptoms among them. There showed a consideraly significant difference at the complaint ratio between the above 2 occupations(P<0.005). 3. There showed no paticular significant difference between male and female, at the complaint ratio of the dental laboratory technicians. However, there showed a considerable significant difference according to their sexuality, in case of the clinical laboratory technicians. 4. Considered from th view point of age, the highest age group was 20-29 with its average 48.5%, in case of dental laboratory technicians. The highest age group among the clinical laboratory technicians was over 40 age with its 28.7%. There showed no particular significant differences between to tow occupations. 5. Considered from the view point of work period, the highest work period group was 0-3 years with average 47.8%, in case of dental laboratory The highest work period group among the clinical laboratory technicians was 16 years with its 25.2%. There showed no particuar significant differences between the two occupations. 6. Considered from the view point of smoking, phlegm was complained by much more smokers than non-smokers, in both occupations. In case of non-smokers, many complained about nassal catarrh & cold. There showed no particular significant differences between the smokers and the non-smokers.