• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.78-88
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• 2023

Background: Exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can have acute and chronic health effects on human beings in general and in working environments. In particular, VOCs are often emitted in large quantities in industrial settings. In such circumstances, there is a need to improve the indoor air quality at workplaces. Objectives: The purposes of this study were to verify the effectiveness of air cleaning devices in workplaces and provide alternative solutions for improving working environments. Methods: Personal exposure and area level of VOCs for workers were evaluated in a car-part adhesive process before and after installing an air cleaning device with a TiO₂-coated filter. Passive samplers and direct reading instruments were used to collect and analyze the VOCs, and the removal efficiency and improvement of air quality were evaluated. We also calculated the exposure index (EI) to assess the risk level in the workplace. Results: The removal efficiency for VOCs through the installation of the air cleaning device was approximately 26.9~69.0% as determined by the concentration levels before and after installation. The measured substances did not exceed the exposure limits for the work environment and the EI was less than 1. However, carcinogenic substances such as benzene, formaldehyde, carbon tetrachloride, and trichloroethylene were detected. Conclusions: The application of an air cleaning device can be a solution for controlling the indoor air quality in a workplace, particularly in cases where ventilation systems cannot be installed due to process limitations.

• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.1-11
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• 2024

The purpose of this study is to suggest amendments for the effective operation of safety and health regulations that stipulate safety standards for the prevention of industrial accidents in blasting and tunneling works. Because the regulations on Occupational Safety and Health Standards have not been revised for a long time, the regulations do not meet the requirements in site, and it is reported that it is difficult to implement the regulations at workplaces due to various deficiencies. Therefore, this study aims to abolish or improve unreasonable regulations that do not fit reality due to changes in the technology environment, or to modify low-operability regulations considering domestic conditions in blasting and tunneling workplaces. By comparing domestic laws and standards related to blasting and tunneling works with foreign ones, the improvement measures were suggested.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.35
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• pp.7.1-7.14
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• 2023

Background: At present, no short standard questionnaire exists for assessing and comparing major work organization hazards in the workplaces of the United States. Methods: We conducted a series of psychometric tests (content validity, factor analysis, differential-item functioning analysis, reliability, and concurrent validity) to validate and identify core items and scales for major work organization hazards using the data from the 2002-2014 General Social Surveys (GSSs), including the Quality of Worklife (QWL) questionnaire. In addition, an extensive literature review was undertaken to find other major work organization hazards which were not addressed in the GSS. Results: Although the overall validity of the GSS-QWL questionnaire was satisfactory in the psychometric tests, some GSS-QWL items of work-family conflict, psychological job demands, job insecurity, use of skills on the job, and safety climate scales appeared to be weak. In the end, 33 questions (31 GSS-QWL and 2 GSS) were chosen as the least, but best validated core questions and included in a new short standard questionnaire (called the Healthy Work Survey [HWS]). And their national norms were established for comparisons. Furthermore, based on the literature review, fifteen more questions for assessing other significant work organization hazards (e.g., lack of scheduling control, emotional demands, electronic surveillance, wage theft) were included in the new questionnaire. Thus, the HWS includes 48 questions in total for assessing traditional and emerging work organization hazards, which covers seven theoretical domains: work schedule/arrangement, control, support, reward, demands, safety, and justice. Conclusions: The HWS is a short standard questionnaire for assessing work organization hazards which can be used as a first step toward the risk management of major work organization hazards in the workplaces of the US.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.60-68
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• 2024

Purpose: When designing plants and workplaces such as handling and using chemicals, a system that can automatically determine whether the design has been made in compliance with domestic safety management laws is established to shorten the review time and increase accuracy. Method: Safety design standards for chemical handling and use workplaces were investigated, and types and systems were derived that could automatically judge design errors by dividing the articles into semantic units. Result: An automatic design review method performed when designing a building was proposed, and a system that can review the safety design requirements required when designing a chemical handling business site through the development of a rule checker was proposed. After confirming whether the law is subject to application, the safety design rules are classified into semantic units through preprocessing. The classified results can be classified into four types, and the specifications, space, conditions, situations, and specific devices and facilities to reinforce safety were analyzed as representative types. It proposes a system that prepares a diagram for the safety design rule and allows it to be reviewed through the rule checker program.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.14 no.5 s.52
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• pp.3-9
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• 2005

Territoriality and privacy are known to be basic human instincts that have made today's cultural evolution possible. However there are also cultural differences in the expressions and meanings of territorial and privacy behaviors. Currently with the emerge of non-territorial workplaces office workers are deprived from what used to be their territory and force to share with co-workers leading confusion and stress. Therefore many research has be conducted on territorial issues but unfortunately little is known on Korean cultural concept of territoriality and privacy. Eyen though Korean society has been rapidly westernized during the 20th century, traditional culture still is a major influence on Korean's concept and use of space. This study explores and investigates the concept of territoriality and privacy and how they are expressed in traditional Korean housing focused on high level society between 17th and 19th century. Thus hope make a small contribution in designing unique and culture based interior spaces.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.112-120
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• 2000

We have compared the regulations of hot environment workpaces between Korea and ACGIH, then pointed out some insufficiences of Korean regulations for occupational hygiene and safety. And investigated the heat stress characteristics of laboratory, lathe and foundry working. The metabolic heat loads of those workplaces were obtained as 120, 300 및 660 kcal/hr based on WBGT index. WBGT index could be depended on weather condition, therefore useful for controlling working and rest times etc, but Belding-hatch index was represented by strength of working, definitely this would be convinient result for arranging countermeasures of workers in hot environments by estimating metabolic heat and signs of fatigue.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.471-484
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• 2023

Objectives: This study aimed to confirm the relationship between occupational safety and health information and self-rated health among precarious workers. Methods: A cross-sectional explanatory study design was conducted using data from the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency's 6th Korean Working Conditions Survey. The participants were 1,569 precarious workers living in South Korea. Descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation analysis, and hierarchical regression were used for data analyses by SPSS (version 25.0). Results: As a result of the study, occupational safety and health information had a significant positive effect on the self-rated health of precarious workers. The results suggest that occupational safety and health information contributes to the self-rated health of precarious workers. Conclusions: Therefore, it is suggested that policies should be developed to improve occupational safety and health information in workplaces. In addition, strategies should be developed to promote the usefulness of occupational safety and health information to precarious workers.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.429-434
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• 2016

Here, we introduce a means of utilizing waste oyster shells which were obtained from temporary storage near coastal workplaces as $CO_2$ adsorbents. The calcined CaO can be easily dissociated to $Ca^{2+}$ cation and $CO_3{^{2-}}$ anion by hydrolysis and gas-liquid carbonation reaction and converted to precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) in algae-containing water. The calcium hydroxide and carbonation combination in algae-containing water significantly contributed to improving water quality which is very dependent on the addition amount of calcined powders.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Industrial Safety Conference
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• 1997.11a
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• pp.135-142
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• 1997

For lighting of dark and hazardous workplaces such as compartments of ships under construction, workers should use hand lamps of explosion-proof type. However, the heavy weight of such lamps has prevented most impatient workers from using such types of lamps extensively. In this paper, ire developed a light weight hand lamp of intrinsic safety type which reduced the weight a lot while maintaining or improving the lighting and explosion-proof function. We made a Prototype which consisted of lamp fixture and low/high frequency power supply. Testing results show that the hand lamp meets well all the explosion-proof testing requirements of the Korea Industrial Safety Corporation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Interior Design Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.259-263
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to assess the characteristics of self-reported symptoms of workers in office building with HVAC system, and also to provide better workplaces in terms of comfort and health. The methods employed in this study include literature review, field observations, and survey. The self-reported symptoms of workers such as headache, fatigue, itching and dryness regarded as SBS symptoms commonly occur after around 3:00 pm and are relieved after leaving their office buildings. according to results in previous studies, above are possibly related to CO2 concentrations. It is also found work environment factors and the satisfaction on indoor environment are all associated with worker's health. Hopefully, this overview of current work environments concerning the level of satisfaction and health problems of workers would help create healthier indoor environment.