• 한국산업보건학회지
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• 제31권2호
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• pp.111-118
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• 2021

Objectives: The necessity of samples for analysis requested by working environment monitoring institutes (WMIs) has grown recently. The collection of samples of a few chemical substances requested by WMIs is allowed under the current occupational safety and health act in Korea, leading to an expansion of samples for analysis requested by institutes (SRIs). The objective of this study was to identify the number of institutes for analyzing requested samples (IARS), SRIs, and their participation in a non-mandatory proficiency test. Methods: Questionnaires were completed by all WMIs. The collected information was quantity of analysis equipment, sorting of chemicals from SRIs, and the number of SRIs. This was compared in terms of the participation in the non-mandatory proficiency test. Results: All WMIs in Korea responded to the survey, establishing a 100% response rate. There were 52 (29%) IARS among the 179 WMIs in Korea. The total number of samples of acid for ion chromatograph (IC) analysis requested by WMIs was 21,165, which is the most. Even the number of IARS for crystalline silicon oxide was less than other top-five IARS. The total amount of samples was 13,863, which was the second most. The calculated participation score for IARS was significantly higher than other WMIs (p<0.001). According to participation in the non-mandatory proficiency test by type of substance, such as crystalline silicon oxide and formaldehyde among IARS, the number of SRIs from those IARS was significantly higher than IARS that did not participate in the proficiency test (p<0.05). Conclusions: IARS had a high frequency of participation in the non-mandatory proficiency test and the number of SRIs at IARS participating in the proficiency test was higher among IARS. With the revision of the occupational health and safety act in Korea, the number of IARS participating in the non-mandatory proficiency test might increase.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제9권2호
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• pp.140-143
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• 2018

Background: The Occupational Safety and Health Monitoring and Assessment Tool (OSH-MAT) is a practical instrument that is currently used in the German woodworking and metalworking industries to monitor safety conditions at workplaces. The 12-item scoring system has three subscales rating technical, organizational, and personnel-related conditions in a company. Each item has a rating value ranging from 1 to 9, with higher values indicating higher standard of safety conditions. Methods: The reliability of this instrument was evaluated in a cross-sectional survey among 128 companies and its validity among 30,514 companies. The inter-rater reliability of the instrument was examined independently and simultaneously by two well-trained safety engineers. Agreement between the double ratings was quantified by the intraclass correlation coefficient and absolute agreement of the rating values. The content validity of the OSH-MAT was evaluated by quantifying the association between OSH-MAT values and 5-year average injury rates by Poisson regression analysis adjusted for the size of the companies and industrial sectors. The construct validity of OSH-MAT was examined by principle component factor analysis. Results: Our analysis indicated good to very good inter-rater reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.64-0.74) of OSH-MAT values with an absolute agreement of between 72% and 81%. Factor analysis identified three component subscales that met exactly the structure theory of this instrument. The Poisson regression analysis demonstrated a statistically significant exposure-response relationship between OSH-MAT values and the 5-year average injury rates. Conclusion: These analyses indicate that OSH-MAT is a valid and reliable instrument that can be used effectively to monitor safety conditions at workplaces.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제9권2호
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• pp.184-191
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• 2018

Background: Due to an increasing number of workers aged 50 years and above, the number of those employed is also on the rise, and those workers aged 50 and over has exceeded 50% of the total fatal occupational injuries. Therefore, it is necessary to implement the selection and concentration by identifying the characteristics of high-risk groups necessary for an effective prevention against and reduction of fatal occupational injuries. Methods: This study analyzed the characteristics of high-risk groups and the occupational injury fatality rate per 10,000 workers among the workers aged 50 and over through a multi-dimensional analysis by sex, employment status of workers, industry and occupation by targeting 4,079 persons who died in fatal occupational injuries from January 2007 to December 12. Results: The share of the workers aged 50 years and above is increasing every year in the total fatal occupational injuries occurrence, and the high-risk groups include 'male workers' by sex, 'daily workers' by worker's status, 'craft and related-trades workers' by occupation, and 'mining' by industry. Conclusion: The most frequent causal objects of fatal occupational injuries of the workers aged 50 years and above are found out to be 'installment and dismantlement of temporary equipment and material on work platforms including scaffold' in the construction industry and 'mobile crane, conveyor belt and fork lifts' in the manufacturing industry.

• 한국직업건강간호학회지
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• 제30권3호
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• pp.90-100
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• 2021

Purpose: The study aimed to identify plans to revitalize occupational health nursing at industrial worksites. Methods: First, a literature review was conducted to derive the questions. Next, we used the Delphi method with two rounds to obtain experts' opinions. The 15 expert participants were seven occupational health nurses and eight professors from nursing colleges. Results: The analysis of opinions indicated that occupational health nurses should be competent in clinical nursing care to perform health management and health promotion activities of workers. It is necessary to develop high-quality occupational nursing services that can prevent and manage occupational diseases and work-related illnesses. Moreover, an improved system for stable employment of these nurses should be implemented. Conclusion: This study confirmed that occupational health nursing is an independent and important area for improving workers' disease prevention and health promotion. It will provide basic data for initiating occupational health nursing and expanding the role of the occupational health nurses.

• 한국산업보건학회지
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• 제25권2호
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• pp.134-145
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• 2015

Objectives: An objective of this study was to perform a risk assessment and social cost-benefit analysis for revising permissible exposure limits for seven substances: Nickel(Insoluble inorganic compounds), benzene, carbon disulfide, formaldehyde, cadmium(as compounds), trichloroethylene, touluene-2,4-diisocyanate. Materials and Methods: The research methods were divided into risk and hazard assessment and cost-benefit analysis. The risk and hazard assessment for the seven substances consists of four steps: An overview of GHS MSDS(1st), review of document of ACGIH's TLVs (2nd), comparison between international occupational exposure limits and domestic permissible exposure limits(3rd), and analysis of excess workplace and excess rate for occupational exposure limits based on previous work environment measurement data(4th). Total cost was estimated using cost of local exhaust ventilation, number of excess workplace and penalties for exceeding a permissible exposure limit. On the other hand, total benefit was calculated using the reduction rate of occupational disease, number of workplaces treating each substance and industrial accident compensation. Finally, the net benefit was calculated by subtracting total cost from total benefit. Results: All the substances investigated in this study were classified by CMR(Carcinogens, Mutagens or Reproductive toxicants) and their international occupational exposure limits were stricter than the domestic permissible exposure limits. As a result of excess rate analysis, trichloroethylene was the highest at 11%, whereas nickel was the lowest at 0.5%. The excess rates of all substances except for trichloroethylene were observed at less than 10%. Among the seven substances, the total cost was highest for trichloroethylene and lowest for carbon disulfide. The benefits for the seven substances were higher than costs estimated based on strengthening current permissible exposure limits. Thus, revising the permissible exposure limits of the seven substances was determined to be acceptable from a social perspective. Conclusions: The final revised permissible exposure limits suggested for the seven substances are as follows: $0.2mg/m^3$ for nickel, 0.5 ppm(TWA) and 2.5 ppm(STEL) for benzene, 1 ppm(TWA) for carbon disulfide, $0.01mg/m^3$(TWA) for cadmium, 10 ppm(TWA) and 25 ppm(STEL) for trichloroethylene, 0.3 ppm(TWA) for formaldehyde, and 0.005 ppm(TWA) and 0.02 ppm(STEL) for toluene diisocynate(isomers).

• 한국직업건강간호학회지
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• 제20권2호
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• pp.195-203
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• 2011

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the trends of occupational health nursing research by analyzing the Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing for the last 20 years. Methods: A total of 268 published papers during the 20 year period were analyzed with structured analysis forms. Results: Most of the articles were descriptive, but the number of experimental studies increased. Fifty-five percents of the subjects were healthy workers. Most common selection of subjects appeared to be based on convenience. Sixty-eight percent of research instruments were questionnaires and the reliability and the validity of instruments were described in approximately half of the studies. Parametric statistics were the main methods of data analysis, but some advanced statistics were often used rather than simple descriptive statistics. Mainly "health" has been studied (47.9%) among four meta-paradigms of nursing science. Conclusion: It is necessary to develop more rigorous and various research methodology such as longitudinal design, experimental study, or randomized controlled trial. Also, special attention must be paid to studying the environment of workers.

• 한국산업보건학회지
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• 제24권3호
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• pp.383-392
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• 2014

Purpose: In this study, we sought to understand the risk factor for chronic disease of workers by studying the association between occupational standing time and metabolic syndrome(MetS) in full-time 300 male workers. Materials: Data on age, life habit, work related information of the subjects were surveyed using self-reported questionnaire and interview. MetS was identified based on the report of Alberti et al.(2009). As for the data analysis, SPSS 19.0 was used to conduct the descriptive statistic, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple logistic regression analysis. Results: Daily working hour affects on the lifting heavy objects, running and strenuous exercise(r=-0.137, p<0.01), and total physical function decreased with the increase in age(r=-0.145, p<0.01). Also, obese was significantly associated with genuflection and bend over(r=-0.110, p<0.05). On multiple logistic regression analysis for the diagnostic indices of MetS, occupational standing time were significantly associated with waist circumference(odds ratio=0.885, ${\beta}$ value=-0.122, 95% CI=0.797-0.983, p<0.05) and triglyceride (odds ratio=0.873, ${\beta}$ value=-0.136, 95% CI=0.800-0.953, p<0.01). Conclusions: These results suggest that the working posture may be important risk factor in pathogenesis and growing of MetS and cardiovascular disease.

• 한국직업건강간호학회지
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.89-96
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• 2014

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to discover the influence of the working conditions on women workers' occupational stress. Methods: Descriptive method is used to identify women's stress depending on their general working features and conditions by conducting a survey of them in women-dominated service industries. SPSS 18.0 program is used for data analysis and descriptive statistics is presented with standard deviation, frequency and percentage. ${\chi}^2$-test is used as an analysis tool. To figure out factors that influence their stress, logistic regression analysis is used for general features and working conditions as independent variables, and occupational stress as a dependent variable. Results: As a result, among the independent variables, employment status, weekly working hours, career, shiftwork, and work-family-balance are meaningful factors that influence their stress. Temporary workers' stress is 3.65 times higher (p<.001), and workers working over 48 hours a week have 1.97 times higher stress (p<.003). Workers with over 5 years' career are under 1.73 times higher stress (p<.046) and shift workers are under 3.51 times higher stress (p<.001). Work family balance results in 1.93 times higher stress (p<.009). Conclusion: It is necessary to seek how to prevent and manage women workers' stress considering features.

• 대한안전경영과학회지
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• 제16권2호
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• pp.71-80
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• 2014

The occupational injury and illness(OII) was influenced by the various factors. This study was planned to investigate the pathway of the activities of OSHM on the rate of OII via worker's participation. The survey on the trend of the activities of OSHM was used. The sample size of manufacturing industry was 3,000 enterprises and that of construction was 1,000 enterprises. The survey was done by interview method with structure questionnaire. Questions about the activities of OHSM were integrated into one category using factor analysis. The enterprises with OII has more activities of OSHM than that without OII. Among enterprises with OII, the level of the activities of OSHM was positively correlated with the rate of OII. The activities of OSHM has influenced on the rate of OII directly and indirectly via worker's participation and the activities of prevention of accident. Worker's participation also has the direct effect and indirect effect on the rate of OII. Worker's participation in construction sector has more effect on OII than that in manufacturing sector.

• 한국안전학회지
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• 제37권6호
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• pp.128-135
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• 2022

The comparative evaluation of occupational accident fatality rates (OAFRs) of different countries is complicated owing to the differences in their level of socio-economic development. However, such evaluation is necessary to assess the national occupational safety and health system of a country. This study proposes a statistical method to compare the OAFRs of countries taking into consideration the difference in their level of socio-economic development. We first collected data on the socio-economic indicators and OAFRs of 11 countries over a 30-year period. Next, based on literature survey and statistical correlation analysis, we selected the significant independent variables and built multiple linear regression models to predict OAFR. We also determined the groups of countries having heterogeneous relationships between the independent variables and OAFRs, which are represented by the regression models. The proposed method is demonstrated by comparing the OAFR of Korea with the OAFRs of 10 other developed countries.