• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.280-283
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• 2023

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the change in exposure concentration in the cleaning process after installing a local exhaust system. Methods: Dichloromethane measurement was conducted according to the KOSHA Guide (A-19-2019). Results: After the local exhaust device was installed, a total of three measurements were conducted, including temporary work environment measurements, and all of the measurements did not exceed the DCM exposure standard, but were more than 50% of the DCM Time Weighted Average((8-TWA) Conclusions: It is thought that the local ventilation system of a small business needs not only support for the initial installation cost, but also educational support for maintaining the performance of the local ventilation system and support for consumables (adsorbents, filters, etc.) that incur periodic costs.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.315-322
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• 2013

Objectives: This study was conducted in order to prepare fundamental data and assess the short-term effects of applying cerebrovascular disease prevention programs by the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (KOSHA) in Korea. Methods: The number of study subjects was 2,676 workers (58.5%) who were able to evaluate the level of incidence risk at pre- and post-applications of the program, among the 4,576 total workers who were enrolled in the cerebrovascular disease prevention program during 2011. The guidelines for this prevention program were adopted from KOSHA GUIDE H-1-2010. To determine the program' effectiveness, the workers'risks for cerebrovascular disease were assessed pre- and post-application of the program. Results: The blood pressure level was significantly reduced by 4.09 mmHg for the mean systolic blood pressures and 5.47 mmHg for diastolic blood pressures, respectively. The mean level of total cholesterol and BMI were also reduced significantly by 2.07 g/dl and 0.1 $0.1kg/m^2$. The rate of smoking was decreased by 4.0% and the percentage of workers engaging in regular exercise was increased by 29.8%. The level of overall cerebrovascular disease risk was reduced among 1,451 (70.7%) of 2,052 workers at low risk and above. The level of cerebrovascular disease risk was lower in the improved group for health behavior than the unimproved group (odds ratio =1.7, p < 0.001). Conclusions: The author considers that the application of the cerebrovascular disease prevention program by the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency reduced cerebrovascular diseases risks among workers who were enrolled in the cerebrovascular disease prevention program and it must be accompanied by an improvement in health behavior for prevention of cerebrovascular disease.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.99-108
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• 2020

Objectives: This study aimed to compare the regulatory systems for laboratory safety and health management between Korea and Germany and discuss the implications. Methods: Laboratory safety and health regulations for legal enforcement and relevant technical guidelines in Korea and Germany were reviewed. Results: Lab safety and health management is enforced by the Act on the Establishment of Safe Laboratory Environment in Korea. Most provisions focus on supervisory control, that is, the principal's liability is emphasized. In addition, there is a lack of laboratory-specific procedures for safety and health management in the act since it is stipulated that other relevant regulations apply to some technical contents. Non-compulsory technical guidelines for lab safety and health management are also provided by the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (KOSHA) in order to enable researchers to follow safe procedures. There is no independent regulation for lab safety and health in Germany, and it is also governed by several regulations. The German Social Accident Insurance Institute provides technical guidelines on lab safety and health, and these contain more specific content to allow them to be followed more easily compared to the KOSHA guidelines. The most remarkable differences between the regulation of each country were contents of the risk assessment and specific protect measures from hazardous agents. Conclusions: Regulatory control is an essential way to prevent accidents, but it is more important to create an environment in which all stakeholders, including individual lab members, are allowed to participate actively in safety and health management activities.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.66-73
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• 2019

Thanks to various efforts to reduce disasters by the government and the Health and Safety Authority, disasters across industries and the construction industry show their reduction trend. However, the falling disasters in the construction industry have not decreased and increased on the contrary. Especially falling disaster caused by Hanging Scaffolding is the most critical disaster which shows low occurrence frequency but is directly connected to death of worker. The working environment for Hanging Scaffolding is poor in domestic construction site. In particular, the Hanging Scaffolding workers in small construction sites are not on the safety control and management by anyone for their works. They are driven to unsafe working condition with mostly uncertified facilities which are made by themselves. Therefore, this study is focused on searching falling disaster factors from the 242 disaster cases caused by Hanging Scaffolding Work in 15 years presented by KOSHA, and trying to provide suggestions for improvement. The improvement of the method of work requires facility improvement and work due to high accident rate caused by unsafe behavior. Analysis of the case of a disaster occurring over the past 15 years shows that no disaster occurred due to problems in the order of operations presented by KOSHA. However, it was found that many accidents resulted from death caused by safety belts not being installed or attached to ropes using safety belts without following the order of work. The most important aspect of improving the work method was the installation and wearing of lifeboats and safety belts.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.40-45
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• 2017

Chemical accidents generated during maintenance, repair, and normal operation, such as dispersion, fire, and explosions, can cause massive losses like a 2012 hydro fluorine leak in Gumi, South Korea. Since this accident, many researches have studied physical mitigation systems. However, due to many difficulties including potential costs and lack time, it is really hard for many companies to install mitigation systems without prior knowledge. Thus, the efficacy of mitigation system should be evaluated. This study assesses a dike design considering the fluid velocity at an open hole when a leakage accident occurs. It is assumed that leakage materials follow a free fall motion. Throughout case studies, a current KOSHA guide for a dike design was evaluated and new guidelines handling various conditions were proposed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.35-41
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• 2018

Chemical accidents generated during maintenance, repair, and normal operation, such as dispersion, fire, and explosions, can cause massive losses like a 2012 hydro fluorine leak in Gumi, South Korea. Since this accident, many researches have studied physical mitigation systems. However, due to the lack of potential costs and time, it is really hard for many companies to install mitigation systems without prior knowledge. Thus, the efficacy of mitigation system should be evaluated. This study assesses a dike design considering the fluid velocity at an open hole when a leakage accident occurs. It is assumed that leakage materials follow a free fall motion. Throughout case studies, a current KOSHA guide for a dike design was evaluated and new guidelines handling various conditions were proposed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.19 no.3 s.67
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• pp.70-77
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• 2004

A Reasonable lighting should be provided for doing night work. All works far construction site can be exposed to potential hazard at night work The purpose of this study is to provide a standard of the lighting against accidents due to insufficient lighting at site. one pilot tea one at building work site, one at mad work site of it have been conducted for figuring out illumination change depending worker's activity direction, using lux checker to show it as numerical indication. The direction are changed with a range of 30, 60, 90, and 135 degree to be checked at site. Tests results show that $10\%\;and\;15\%$ of lighting could be decreased by changing the working direction of works at site. Therefore, steep slope place, cave work and backside of structural elements such as a column, deep beam should be considered for keeping sufficient and reasonable lighting. It is found that $50\%more$ illumination Lux needs f3r civil work than for building work.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.74-79
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• 2023

As the demand for hydrogen increases, the facilities for storing hydrogen has been important, and a few laws for hydrogen facilities should be complied. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Act in Korea, in case liquid hydrogen with a storage capacity of 5 tons or more is handled, a Process Safety Management (PSM) system should be complied. However, there are some standards which are not proper for flammable low-temperature liquefied substances on the current Occupational Safety and Health Act. In this study, 7 key points in process safey information and safety operation procedures among PSM components are suggested and how these key points should be improved is derived based on scientific analysis.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.14-17
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• 2024

Objectives: This is a case of air exposure assessment conducted after researchers complained of headaches and odor due to residual substances from fire extinguishing agents spread throughout the laboratory due to a malfunction of the fire extinguishing facility. Methods: A component analysis was conducted on the residual substances of a fire extinguishing agent spread in a laboratory using Py-GC-MS (pyrolysis gas chromatography mass spectrometry) at the research institute's own central equipment research center. As a result of the component analysis, several types of substances were detected. Among these, five types of substances subject to work environment measurement in the aromatic hydrocarbon series, which can affect headaches and odor, were selected as substances subject to exposure assessment in the air, and the measurement and analysis methods of the target substances were conducted in accordance with the KOSHA Guide for each substance. Conclusions: The measurement results showed that all 5 types of substances were not detected at locations A, B, and C. This is believed to be the result of the residual substances in the fire extinguishing agent being measured when approximately two months had elapsed after being exposed to the test bench, and the substances already exposed had volatilized and disappeared. In this survey, it is believed that the measurement process is more important than the measurement results.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.35-42
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• 2019

Risk assessment and analysis for a medium-to-small sized chemical plant that manufactures a polyester resin by the process of batch-type condensation reaction was conducted using K-PSR technique which is one of the risk assessment methods used to implement the Process Safety Management System (PSM). K-PSR is a risk assessment technique developed by KOSHA to compensate for difficulties caused by the lack of infrastructure of medium-to-small sized chemical plants in the re-evaluation. To apply the K-PSR technique, the entire process of a selected chemical palnt was classified in two review sections, i.e., the condensation reaction process and the dilution/filtration process, and the potential risks of the process about these review sections were identified and classified based on the four guide-words (release, fire.explosion, process trouble, and injury). As the results of the research, refer to recommend of risk rating has been confirmed that non-destructive testing of old facilities and the preparation of LOTO procedures for the electrical equipments are necessary as specific measures to prevent the risk of release and fire.explosion. It was also shown that pressure gauges and thermometers should be installed on the hot-oil supply piping to minimize the process trouble, and exhausting hood should be installed to prevent potential injury.