• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.172-179
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• 2019

Background: Workers exposed to hazards without adequate protections are at greater risk of injury and illness. Supervisor activities have also been associated with injury risk. We examined the interplay between supervisor safety support and occupational health and safety (OHS) vulnerability on workplace injury and illness. Methods: A survey was administered to 2,390 workers employed for more than 15 hrs/week in workplaces with at least five employees who had a direct supervisor. We examined the combined effects of hazard exposure with inadequate protection (OHS vulnerability) and supervisor support on workplace injury and illness, using additive interactions in log-binomial regression models. Results: OHS vulnerability and lack of supervisor support independently increased the likelihood of physical injuries at work. Crude and adjusted models showed that the risk of physical injury was at least 3.5 times higher among those experiencing both OHS vulnerability and a lack of supervisor support than individuals without OHS vulnerability and with a supportive direct supervisor. Workers who experienced vulnerability were at less risk if they had a supervisor who was supportive. Conclusion: In workplaces where workers experience one or more types of OHS vulnerability, having a supportive supervisor may play an important role in reducing the risk of injury and protecting workers.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.507-511
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• 2022

Law enforcement officers (LEOs) often encounter rapidly changing and uncontrolled situations that expose them to various hazards. A law enforcement agency requested an evaluation by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) when multiple LEOs reported illness after executing a search warrant and taking a suspect into custody. NIOSH investigators interviewed LEOs and reviewed medical records, forensic laboratory results for collected evidence, and environmental testing results of samples taken after the operation. Two-thirds (25 of 38) of LEOs who participated in the operation reported ≥1 symptom. Eleven LEOs met a case definition for influenza-like illness (ILI). Members of one unit were more likely to have ILI than non-members (prevalence ratio (PR), 4.1; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.3-13.0; p = 0.01). Influenza vaccination was associated with a lower prevalence of ILI (PR, 0.2; 95% CI, 0.1-0.9; p = 0.02). Preventing employees from working while ill and annual influenza vaccination might prevent similar occurrences.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2012

The aim of this review was to assess current knowledge related to the occupational exposure limit (OEL) for fluid aerosols including either mineral or chemical oil that are generated in metalworking operations, and to discuss whether their OEL can be appropriately used to prevent several health risks that may vary among metalworking fluid (MWF) types. The OEL (time-weighted average; 5 mg/$m^3$, short-term exposure limit ; 15 mg/$m^3$) has been applied to MWF aerosols without consideration of different fluid aerosol-size fractions. The OEL, is also based on the assumption that there are no significant differences in risk among fluid types, which may be contentious. Particularly, the health risks from exposure to water-soluble fluids may not have been sufficiently considered. Although adoption of The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's recommended exposure limit for MWF aerosol (0.5 mg/$m^3$ ) would be an effective step towards minimizing and evaluating the upper respiratory irritation that may be caused by neat or diluted MWF, this would fail to address the hazards (e.g., asthma and hypersensitivity pneumonitis) caused by microbial contaminants generated only by the use of water-soluble fluids. The absence of an OEL for the water-soluble fluids used in approximately 80-90 % of all applicants may result in limitations of the protection from health risks caused by exposure to those fluids.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.16-21
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• 2010

It has been well known that organic industrial solvents such as toluene, xylene and styrene are environmental health hazards causing occupational diseases to workers. The detection of biological metabolites of toluene, xylene and styrene in blood, urine, breast milk, saliva, and hair of workers exposed to these organic industrial solvents is a useful tool for assessing the amount of organic industrial solvents. Therefor, the external analytical quality assurance program is extremely important work for increasing reliability of the data analyzed in the special health examination laboratory. We evaluated the results of analysis by Korean analytical quality assurance program from the second half 2007 to the first half 2009. The number of participants for analytical quality assurance program for both mandatory item and one of optional items, hippuric acid and methylhippuric acid were 116-122, 116-122 and 105-115 laboratories, respectively. The proficient rate of the special health examination laboratories analyzed both mandatory item and optional item, hippuric acid and methylhippuric acid were 92-98%, 92-98% and 96-98%, respectively. We can conclude from our data that the analytical quality assurance program is a essential tool for improvement of reliability on the data analyzed in the special health examination laboratories.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.40-46
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• 2009

The early identification of thermal hazards associated with a process such as the heats of reaction, exothermic decompositions, and the understanding of thermodynamics before any large scale operations are undertaken. The evaluation of reaction factors and thermal behavior on esterification process in manufacture of concrete mixture agents are described in the present paper. The experiments were performed in the differential scanning calorimetry(DSC), C 80 calorimeter, and thermal screening unit($TS^u$). The aim of the study was to evaluate the thermal stability of single material and mixture in esterification process. We provided the thermal data of chemical materials to present safe operating conditions through this study.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.44-51
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• 2015

As the domestic communication industry has been made rapid progresses, the construction of base stations are also expanded yearly from more than 86,000 ones in the year 2005 to over 300,000 ones in 2013. While the new construction and rebuilt works have been rapidly increased, there has been not tried about the analysis as well as the control of hazards for the construction works. This study is conducted to do not only the focus interview for 27 expert groups who are engaged in the construction works and safety, but also the questionnaires for AHP analysis which is suggested by the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency for 92 persons who are engaged in the construction works in order to analyze the hazards of construction works for base stations. The high ranked risk works which are acquired from the two methods are fall under installation of antennae, struck by the hand tools and construction materials under installation of antennae, fall during going up and down the steel tower and telegraph poles and the fall by electric shock during the underground cable works. The control for the above hazards are the installation of fall protection equipments, the installation of safety nets for falling objects and the installation of protection equipment of electric shock.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.11 no.2 s.35
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• pp.10-14
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• 2007

Flash point is one of the major physical properties used to evaluate fire hazards of the combustible liquids. Properties showing relative fire hazards of the combustible liquids are heat release rate(HRR), peak heat release rate(PHRR), time to ignition(TTI), mass loss rate, and yield of $CO/CO_2$. The relationships between flash points and fire properties of the combustible liquids were examined in this study. For this study, mass loss rate and time to ignition were measured to calculate fire properties of the combustible liquids. The results showed that good correlations could be found between flash point and time to ignition, time to peak heat release rate, and the propensity to flashover. From a presented results, the parameters can be used to evaluate relative hazards of the combustible liquids on fire.

• Proceedings of the Korean Operations and Management Science Society Conference
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• 1996.04a
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• pp.647-650
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• 1996

Manual materials handling and improper working postures are known to be a major cause fo low back injuries, which are one of the major problems in the economic and public health aspects. In this study, two machine repair shops of a manufacturing company in Pohang are selected to investigate the potential hazards of low back injuries. Questionnaire study and worker's strength evaluation are conducted and the results are analyzed. Field workers performing the relatively low stressful jobs were also studied as a control group for comparison with the workers performing the tasks under study.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.18 no.36
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• pp.1-11
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• 1995

Manual lifting, as a part of manual materials handling activities, is recognized by authorities in the fields of occupational health and safety as a major hazards to industrial workers. In order to minimize the injuries caused by manual material handling activities as well as maximize job productivity, it is important to determine the maximum weights. This paper presents the optimal combination of membership functions according to the high lifting frequency and determines the safe maximum acceptable weights in manual lifting activities through the actual experiment.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.1725-1731
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• 2015

The study surveyed the health risk factors and risk assessments status preventing accidents and incidents in beauty workplaces. In addition, the health safety awareness technicality was categorized. The research results were as follows. Beauty workers (about 60%) were exposed to health hazards regarding the skin, respiratory, muscle system during more than half of their working hours. On the other hand, they recognized the need for risk assessments in the workplace. The health safety awareness in the workplace differed according to the status of the risk assessment and the category of business. This provides the basic data that can be activated to manage health safety standards for workers and an unspecified number of people.