• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.64-69
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to suggest new safety technical standards to improve the safety in the incineration process. Firstly, we analyzed the major accidents occurred in the incineration process since 1996 and proposed 4 articles which is required to be added newly to the existing KOSHA GUIDE. Secondly, we also performed the HAZOP study for each study node and also suggested 3 articles. Finally, we analyzed recommendations commented for PSM reports which have been submitted from the enterprise located in Honam province since 2005 and proposed 2 articles as well. We understand that all 9 articles proposed above, should be added to the KOSHA GUIDE in order to improve the safety in the incineration process and to prevent the major fire and explosion accidents in the design stage.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.44-51
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• 2023

With the recent increase in gas energy use, risk management for explosion accidents has been emphasized. Protective walls can be used to reduce damage from explosions. The KOSHA GUIDE D-65-2018 suggests the minimum thickness and height of protective walls, minimum reinforcement diameter, and maximum spacing of reinforcements for the structural safety of the protective walls. However, no related evidence has been presented. In this study, the blast load carrying capacity of the protective wall was analyzed by the pressure-impulse diagrams while changing the yield strength of the reinforcement, concrete compressive strength, reinforcement ratio, protective wall height, and thickness, to check the adequacy of the KOSHA GUIDE. Results show that failure may occur even with design based on the criteria presented by KOSHA GUIDE. In order to achieve structural safety of protective walls, additional criteria for minimum reinforcement yield strength and maximum height of protective wall are suggested for inclusion in KOSHA GUIDE. Moreover, the existing value for minimum reinforcement ratio and the thickness of the protective wall should be increased.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.393-403
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• 2014

Objectives: Korean Occupational Safety and Health Agency(KOSHA) intended to provide guidance to respirator program administrators on respirator selection. The purpose of this project is to suggest a preliminary respirator selection guide(PRSG) for the final guidance certified by KOSHA for the correct selection of respirators in the workplace. Materials: This PRSG was made on the based of current status of respirator usage including respirators available in Korea, foreign documents search and so on. PRSG was partially modified NIOSH pocket guide to chemical hazards, 3M Respirator Protection Resource Guide(RPRG) and OSHA Assigned Protection Factor(APF) rulemaking. Results: Respirators for chemicals having Korean Occupational Exposure Limits(KOELs) can be recommended in PRSG. For the others chemicals that have no KOELs, PRSG tells you what respirators you can select, using a simple step-by-step approach after health hazard assessment like HSE procedure. Conclusions: PRSG helps you to decide the right level of protection for a given hazardous substance and how to select the right respirators. PRSG is thus expected to reduce significant misuses of respirators for the work environment.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.43-46
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• 2011

The work plate in a construction sites is a frequent cause of falling. But the bulk of the work plates lent to the construction site are handled carelessly by workers. There is general concern about performance declining by repetitive use. However, there is not a accurate guide, research and study on reuse work plate. This study was conducted in order to judge the classification guide to reuse work plate and measure the performance of classified reuse work plates. It is the result that even the A-grade plates classified to be in good shape by workers are below the performance standard. This means that the guide and classification are ineffective.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.289-297
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• 2014

Objective: The purpose of this study is to identify the incidence risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the workplace, and to suggest the prediction models for level of CVD incidence risk. Background: CVD can be caused by various factors related to personal habits such as diet and exercise, or genetics. However it can also be caused and aggravated by work, making the elimination of such risk factors at work crucial disease (KOSHA, 2013). Method: The distribution of CVD risk assessment levels of 162 workers was compared with the acquired medical examination data to discuss the necessity of assigning additional risk factors. Two alternative risk assessment models were given to enhance the accuracy of the evaluation; adjusting risk scores given in the KOSHA GUIDE H-1-2013 (alternative 1) and building a matrix of KOSHA GUIDE H-1-2013 and risk assessment results based on work condition levels (alternative 2). To verify the suggested models, medical examination results of 12 workers approved of convalescence were referred to. Results: The second alternative showed more relevance between the results and workers approved of convalescence in predicting the risk group when applied to actual heath examination data from the approved workers. The power of description of the new method for determining the risk of CVD incidence, 83.3%, is higher than that of KOSHA GUIDE H-1-2013, 25%. Conclusion: Results of this study imply that more approved workers had been from unmanaged normal groups than managed risk groups, raising the importance of CVD management. Application: The new prediction model considering working time and shift work developed in this study is expected to be a fundamental data for risk analysis and management of CVD in the workplace.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.35
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• pp.35.1-35.11
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• 2023

Background: Cardio-cerebrovascular diseases (CVDs) are the most common cause of death worldwide. Various CVD risk assessment tools have been developed. In South Korea, the Korea Occupational Safety & Health Agency (KOSHA) and the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) have provided CVD risk assessments with health checkups. Since 2018, the KOSHA guide has stated that NHIS CVD risk assessment tool could be used as an alternative of KOSHA assessment tool for evaluating CVD risk of workers. The objective of this study was to determine the correlation and agreement between the KOSHA and the NHIS CVD risk assessment tools. Methods: Subjects of this study were 17,485 examinees aged 20 to 64 years who had undergone medical examinations from January 2021 to December 2021 at a general hospital. We classified subjects into low-risk, moderate-risk, high-risk, and highest-risk groups according to KOSHA and NHIS's CVD risk assessment tools. We then compared them with cross-analysis, Spearman correlation analysis, and linearly weighted kappa coefficient. Results: The correlation between KOSHA and NHIS tools was statistically significant (p-value < 0.001), with a correlation coefficient of 0.403 and a kappa coefficient of 0.203. When we compared risk group distribution using KOSHA and NHIS tools, CVD risk of 6,498 (37.1%) participants showed a concordance. Compared to the NHIS tool, the KOSHA tool classified 9,908 (56.7%) participants into a lower risk category and 1,079 (6.2%) participants into a higher risk category. Conclusions: In this study, KOSHA and NHIS tools showed a moderate correlation with a fair agreement. The NHIS tool showed a tendency to classify participants to higher CVD risk group than the KOSHA tool. To prevent CVD more effectively, a higher estimation tool among verified CVD risk assessment methods should be selected and managements such as early intervention and treatment of risk factors should be performed targeting the high-risk group.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.410-412
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• 2017

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a serious problem not only among workers who experience industrial accidents but also among workers who witness such accidents. Early intervention is needed to prevent prolonged psychological problems. There has been no study conducted regarding the psychological problems of and interventions for bystander workers in Korea. This study introduces the experience of intervention on psychological problems at the Busan Workers' Health Center workers who witnessed their colleagues' death. An investigation and an intervention were conducted according to the Korean Occupational Safety and Health Agency (KOSHA) Guide. In total, 21 individuals including indirect observers showed statistical differences on scores of the Impact Event Scale Revised and the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 after the intervention. Future interventions and research involving a larger sample size over a longer period are needed. The KOSHA Guide could be a useful tool for urgent psychological intervention in the event of major workplace disasters.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.15-24
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• 2016

In the semiconductor industry, the risk of chemical accidents due to miscibility between the many types of chemicals and leakage of toxic chemicals has increased. In order to evaluate the reactivity with miscibility of chemicals, experimental method is the most reliable, but there is a time and cost limitations to be evaluated through experiment all the chemicals. In the study, the reactivity of process gases in the semiconductor industry was considered by the CRW (Chemical Reactivity Worksheets) 3.0 program developed by US NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and EPA. The reactivity informations with the miscibility of process gases for semiconductor industry provided, and also a KOSHA guide for the storage/separation of gas cylinders in dispensing cabinets in the semiconductor industry was proposed.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.21 no.11
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• pp.5-10
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• 2020

Although pile driver overturning accidents at construction site are not frequent, most leads to serious disasters. The main cause of accidents is uneven settlement of the ground. To prevent this, related guidelines such as KOSHA-C-101-2014, KOSH-A-GUIDE-71-2012, Occupational Safety and Health Standards, and NCS stipulate the installation of steel plates over ground. However, since the required steel plate thickness considering the self-weight of pile drivers and the underlying ground condition is not quantitatively presented, it is randomly applied in the field. In this study, the required minimum steel plate thickness was analyzed based on a numerical analysis (Plaxis 2D). Settlements and soil failure were calculated according to the different type of soils (sand, clay), load distribution and steel plate thickness (10mm, 20mm, 30mm, 40mm). Under all conditions, 10mm steel plate causes soil collapse. From thickness 20mm, the ground uneven subsidence is within 2° of the allowable leader angle.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.3-5
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• 2023

Objective: This study introduces exposure concentrations of time-weighted average standard (TWA) evaluation and short-time exposure standard (STEL) evaluation for trichloroethylene in the cleaning process. Methods: Trichloroethylene measurement was conducted according to the KOSHA Guide (A-24-2019) method. It was carried out twice. Results: As a result of the first measurement, TWA concentration exceeded 4 times the exposure standard and STEL concentration exceeded 16 times, but the inaccuracy and breakthrough of the collection time could not be considered, so the second measurement was conducted. The second measurement result was lower than the first measurement result, but exceeded the exposure standards (TWA, STEL). Conclusions: We were able to confirm that the exposure level of workers in the cleaning process using trichloroethylene exceeded the exposure standard. And it is also considered necessary to grasp the approximate concentration using a detector tube in the preliminary survey.