• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.34-43
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• 2005

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop the curriculum model for occupational health nurse specialist in Korea. Method: Internet searching was conducted to analyze the type of master program for occupational health nurses in the U. S. To identify the importance of occupational health nurse specialist (OHNS)'s role, self-administrative questionnaire survey was done to335 occupational health nurses through postal mail and continuing education in 2003. SPSSWIN 10.0 was used for data analysis. Results: In the U. S., two main types of nurse practitioner program and nurse manager program are separately operated for occupational health nurses as master level. Under the governmental support, geographical and financial barrier can be decreased through the distance learning and the appointment of regional ERC. Most occupational health nurses recognized importantly the role of OHNS as direct care provider, educator, consultant, and manager. Conclusion: It is recommended that the job standard for OHNS needs to be developed, and regulation has to be changed for the diverse curriculum based on the need of occupational health nurses, and governmental support must be strengthened for occupational health nurses to apply more easily to the program.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.109-113
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• 2019

Background: In both developed and developing countries, noise is regarded as the most common occupational hazard in various industries. The present study aimed to examine the effect of sound pressure level (SPL) on serum cortisol concentration in three different times during the night shift. Methods: This case-control study was conducted among 75 workers of an industrial and mining firm in 2017. The participants were assigned to one of the three groups (one control and two case groups), with an equal number of workers (25 participants) in each group. Following the ISO 9612 standard, dosimetry was adopted to evaluate equivalent SPL using a TES-1345 dosimeter. The influence of SPL on serum cortisol concentration was measured during the night shift. The serum cortisol concentration was measured using a radioimmunoassay (RIA) test in the laboratory. Repeated measure analysis of variance and linear mixed models were used with ${\alpha}=0.05$. Results: The results indicated a downward trend in the serum cortisol concentration of the three groups during the night shift. Both SPL and exposure time significantly affected cortisol concentration (p < 0.0001, p < 0.0001). Conversely, age and body mass index had no significant influence on cortisol concentration (p = 0.360, p = 0.62). Conclusion: Based on the obtained results, increasing SPL will lead to enhancement of serum cortisol concentration. Given that cortisol concentration varies while workers are exposed to different SPLs, this hormone can be used as a biomarker to study the effect of noise-induced stress.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.37-45
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• 2019

The characteristic of fire and explosion related to electrostatic discharge is that it is difficult to reproduce the electrostatic charge and discharge phenomenon in addition to the large human and material damage. Therefore, in order to prevent accidents and disasters related to electrostatic in fire and explosion hazard areas, it is important to manage the level of electrostatic in a safe manner from the perspective of system between industrial facilities and human bodies. Rule 325 of the Occupational Safety and Health Regulations, "Prevention of Fire / Explosion due to Electrostatic", requires the use of grounding, conductive materials, humidification and electrification in order to prevent the risk of disaster caused by static explosion and electrostatic in the production process. In order to comply with these measures, related technologies, standards and systems are needed from the viewpoint of preventive measures related to electrostatic in fire and explosion hazard areas, but in Korea, it is still insufficient. Therefore, technical, institutional and managerial measures are needed as a precautionary measure to improve the level of ESD safety in fire and explosion hazard areas and prevent electrostatic related injury. In Korea, we analyzed the current status and characteristics of electrostatic related disaster by using the statistics of industrial accident and fire statistics of the Ministry of Employment and Labor. We also analyzed the current status and characteristics of electrostatic related disasters in Japan using JNIOSH accidents and disasters investigation cases and JNIOSH fire accident data of Japan Fire Bureau. The purpose of this study is to compare and analyze the current status of electrostatic related accidents and disasters in Korea and Japan in order to improve the safety management of electrostatic in fire and explosion hazard areas. In order to prevent accidents and disasters in the industrial field, The technical, institutional, and managerial measures to manage the level of electrostatic in a safe state were derived from the system point of view.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.156-163
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• 2012

Objectives: The aim of the present study was undertaken to investigate the association between communication for chemical hazard information and characteristics of occupational safety and health managers. Subjects and Methods: We surveyed 78 occupational safety and health managers(64 male and 14 female) in 78 chemical manufacturing plants. Data were obtained using a self-reported questionnaire about size and type of company, products, communication system for chemicals and work-related characteristics of occupational safety and health managers. All analyses in this study were performed using SPSS program 12.0. Results: 64.1% of the study participants were occupational health managers aged 39.3 years on average and were graduated from college and university around 90%. 30.0% and of them were majoring in chemistry (engineering chemistry), 18.0% occupational health, 16% nursing and 30.0% others. Occupational safety managers were aged 39.4 years on average, 42.9% of them were majoring in chemistry (engineering chemistry), 21.4% environmental engineering, 10.7% occupational safety and 25% others. 86% of occupational health managers and 71.4% of occupational safety managers were classified as office job. Over 94% of the hazards information for chemicals were delivered by occupational safety and health managers, but about 28.2% workers preferred outside experts who have a profound knowledge about occupational safety and health and understandable. Occupational safety and health managers and workers had difficulties in understanding toxicological information, hazards identification, stability/reactivity, composition/information on ingredients, physical/chemical properties and ecological information. On multiple logistic regression analysis for the 16 heading of material safety data sheet, content of material safety data sheet was significantly associated with education level (odds ratio=0.286, 95% confidence interval=0.105-0.780). The hazard identification (odds ratio=3.947, 95% confidence interval=1.092-14.271) and toxicological information (odds ratio=0.841, 95% confidence interval=0.705-0.998) were significantly associated with type of occupation. Conclusions: This finding implies that the education level, type of occupation and speciality of occupational safety and health managers may affects hazards information delivery.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.35-38
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• 2015

Background: Organizational changes that involve healthcare hospital departments and care services of health districts, and ongoing technological innovations and developments in society increasingly expose healthcare workers (HCWs) to work-related stress (WRS). Minimizing occupational exposure to stress requires effective risk stress assessment and management programs. Methods: The authors conducted an integrated analysis of stress sentinel indicators, an integrated analysis of objective stress factors of occupational context and content areas, and an integrated analysis between nurses and physicians of hospital departments and care services of health districts in accordance with a multidimensional validated tool developed in Italy by the National Network for the Prevention of Work-Related Psychosocial Disorders. The purpose of this retrospective observational study was to detect and analyze in different work settings the level of WRS resulting from organizational changes implemented by hospital healthcare departments and care services of health districts in a sample of their employees. Results: The findings of the study showed that hospital HCWs seemed to incur a medium level risk of WRS that was principally the result of work context factors. The implementation of improvement interventions focused on team development, safety training programs, and adopting an ethics code for HCWs, and it effectively and significantly reduced the level of WRS risk in the workplace. Conclusion: In this study HCW resulted to be exposed to occupational stress factors susceptible to reduction. Stress management programs aimed to improve work context factors associated with occupational stress are required to minimize the impact of WRS on workers.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.245-253
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• 2014

Purpose: School foodservice employees (SFEs) could be exposed to the risk of musculoskeletal disease and of job stress due to their job characteristics. This study was to evaluate the level of job stress and the prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal symptoms (WRMS) in Seoul city's SFEs, and to determine associations between job stress and WRMS. Methods: The study design was cross-sectional, and 975 SFEs were recruited. Self-administered questionnaire included the 'Korean occupational stress scale-short form' and the 'KOSHA GUIDE H-9-2012' instrument to evaluate the job stress and WRMS, respectively. SFEs' medians of job stress were compared to the reference values of published study in Korean workers. Results: The participants reported greater levels of job demand and physical environment than the general Korean population. WRMS were reported in 89.0% of participants at any body part, and 41.1% were presumed to need for medical intervention. High levels of job demand and of physical environment were significantly associated with WRMS. Conclusion: Subscales of job demand and physical environment were relatively high in SFEs and those were related to the occurrence of WRMS. To reduce the WRMS prevalence, a job stress management program focused on job demand and physical environment may be required.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.136-138
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• 2021

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is a newly emerging infectious disease worldwide, can be categorized as an occupational disease, because employees, particularly in the healthcare system, can be infected at the workplace. As of December 15, 2020, we summarized the occupational safety and health practices in selected countries on the recognition of COVID-19 as one of the occupational risks. The situation has differed among countries, including the recognition status and whether a specific regulation existed. International organizations, namely the International Labour Organization, World Health Organization, and European Union, should plan and conduct studies on the work-relatedness of COVID-19, propose criteria for recognition, and add the infection to the occupational disease list to provide a basis for specific country regulations. Stakeholders should also act to adjust country-level legislation.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.43-46
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• 2002

A 61 Year-old female patient was hospitalized for lung cancer. Her Occupational history indicated that she had worked for an asbestos company for 9 years from 1976. The histopathology of the lung revealed malignant bronchioalveolar adenocarcima (stage III) in the lower-left lobe, and a lung sample was found to cantion an unusually high level of asbestos, 218.9$\times$$10^6$ asbestos fibers/g of dry lung tissue. The majority of asbestos fibers found was chrusotile. yet no asbestos body was detected. When compared with Korean male (0.3$\times$$10^6$ fibers/g of dry lung tissue) and female subjects (0.15$\times$$10^6$ fibers/g of dry lung tissue) with no known history of occupational asbestos exposure, the apparent cause of the lung cancer in the current patient was occupational exposure to asbestos.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.125-130
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• 2014

Background: Construction industry is among the most hazardous industries, and needs a comprehensive and simple-to-administer tool to continuously assess and promote its health and safety performance. Methods: Through the study of various standard systems (mainly Health, Safety, and Environment Management System; Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series 180001; and British Standard, occupational health and safety management systems-Guide 8800), seven main elements were determined for the desired framework, and then, by reviewing literature, factors affecting these main elements were determined. The relative importance of each element and its related factors was calculated at organizational and project levels. The provided framework was then implemented in three construction companies, and results were compared together. Results: The results of the study show that the relative importance of the main elements and their related factors differ between organizational and project levels: leadership and commitment are the most important elements at the organization level, whereas risk assessment and management are most important at the project level. Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that the framework is easy to administer, and by interpreting the results, the main factors leading to the present condition of companies can be determined.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.198-205
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• 2001

Many reactive dyes have been used in occupational settings without knowing their toxicity and health hazard information. To investigate the toxicity of reactive dye, C.I.No. Reactive Red 195 was exposed to male and female Sprague Dawley rats by inhalation for 28 days. The rats were exposed C.I.No. Reactive Red 195 for 6 hrs per day and 5days per week. The concentrations for the inhalation exposure were 0, 10, 40 and $160mg/m^3$. After 4 weeks of exposure, rats were examined for exposure related changes through pathology, blood biochemistry and hematology. There were no dose related changes including clinical signs, body weight and relative organ weight changes, hematological and biochemical and histopathological findings. The results indicate that no observed adverse effect level (NOAEL) of 28 days inhalatrion toxicity test for C.I.No. Reactive Red 195 was $160mg/m^3$.