• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• 제6권2호
• /
• pp.146-150
• /
• 2015

Occupational health and safety (OHS) is a broad field of professional practice, which involves specialists from different disciplines including but not limited to engineers, occupational health physicians, physical and biological scientists, economists, and statisticians. The preventive systems required to ensure workers are protected from injuries and illnesses dwell heavily on engineers; however, the extent to which the engineer can go regarding planning and implementing preventive measures is dependent on specific legal requirements, leadership commitment from the company, organization, and nation. The objective of this paper is to identify the areas of opportunities for improvements in OHS management in Ghana with regard to the nation's legal requirements, commitment of the Ghana government, and Ghanaian leadership as well as appropriate structuring of Ghanaian institutions responsible for monitoring and managing OHS in Ghana. This paper identified Ghana's fragmented legal requirements concerning OHS, which are under different jurisdictions with unclear responsibilities and accountabilities. The paper also highlights the training needs of Ghanaian academic institutions regarding OHS. Among other recommendations made including structuring of Ghanaian institutions to manage OHS in line with the ILO-OSH 2001, this paper aligns the recommendations with the articles and elements of International Labour Organization convention number 155 and OHSAS 18001 elements.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• 제13권4호
• /
• pp.408-414
• /
• 2022

Background: This study aimed to determine and define the elements of an Fatigue Risk Management System (FRMS) diagnostic tool to assist an organization in systematically assessing its level of implementation of an FRMS. Methods: A modified Delphi process was used involving 16 participants with expertise in sleep science, chronobiology, and fatigue risk management within occupational settings. The study was undertaken in two stages 1) review of elements and definitions; 2) review of statements for each element. Each stage involved an iterative process, and a consensus rule of ≥ 60% was applied to arrive at a final list of elements, definitions, and statements. Results: Stage 1: a review of elements (n = 12) and definitions resulted in a final list of 14 elements and definitions with a consensus of ≥ 60% achieved after 2 Delphi rounds. Stage 2: a review of statements (n = 131) resulted in a final list of 119 statements with a consensus of ≥ 60% achieved after 2 Delphi rounds. Conclusion: The final FRMS diagnostic tool will enable an organization to systematically assess the level of implementation of their current FRMS and identify gaps and opportunities to reduce risk.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• 제12권1호
• /
• pp.10-19
• /
• 2021

Background: Traditional safety concept, which is called Safety-I, and its relevant methods and models have much contributed toward enhancing the safety of industrial systems. However, they have proved insufficient to be applied to complex socio-technical systems. As an alternative, Safety-II and resilience engineering have emerged and gained much attention for the last two decades. However, it seems that safety professionals have still difficulty understanding their fundamental concepts and methods. Accordingly, it is necessary to offer an introductory guide to them that helps safety professionals grasp them correctly in consideration of their current practices. Methods: This article firstly explains the limitations of Safety-I and how Safety-II can resolve them from the four points of view. Next, the core concepts of resilience engineering and Functional Resonance Analysis Method are described. Results: Workers' performance adjustment and performance variability due to it should be the basis for understanding human-related accidents in socio-technical systems. It should be acknowledged that successful and failed work performance have the same causes. However, they are not well considered in the traditional safety concept; in contrast, Safety-II and resilience engineering have conceptual bases and practical approaches to reflect them systematically. Conclusion: It is necessary to move from a find-and-fix and reactive approach to a proactive approach to safety management. Safety-II and resilience engineering give a set of useful concepts and methods for proactive safety management. However, if necessary, Safety-I methods need to be properly used for situations where they can still be useful as well.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• 제7권4호
• /
• pp.340-346
• /
• 2016

Background: safety and healthy working environment has received numerous research attention over the years. Majority of these researches seem to have been conducted in the construction industry, with little attention in the health sector. Nonetheless, there are couple of studies conducted in Africa that suggest pressure in hospitals. Therefore the aim of the study was to examine how pressure influence safety behavior in the hospitals. With reference to the relevance of safety behavior in primary health care delivery, there was the need for the study. Method: Data was obtained from 422 public hospital employees. Respondents were assured that all information would be kept confidential to increase the response rate and acquire more accurate information. Collection of questionnaires from participants took four weeks (20 working days), after which the data was analyzed. Results: The result of the study showed that work pressure correlated negatively with safety behavior. General safety climate significantly correlated positively with safety behavior and negatively with work pressure, although the effect size for the latter was smaller. Hierarchical regression analysis showed management commitment to safety to moderate the relationship between work pressure and safety behavior. Conclusion: When employees perceive safety communication, safety systems and training to be positive, they seem to comply with safety rules and procedures than voluntarily participate in safety activities.

• 한국안전학회지
• /
• 제20권1호
• /
• pp.143-147
• /
• 2005

Immediate responsibilities for occupational health and safety (OHS) management reside in business proprietors and supervisors whose voluntary participation in OHS educational programs, not legal sanctions, may thus lead to safe and pleasant work environments. This study investigates how to promote the effectiveness of OHS educational programs to draw voluntary participations in such programs in Korea To this end, drawbacks of current practices in OHS education are first analyzed, and then OHS related policies in advanced countries in the area of disaster prevention such as United States and Germany, are also scrutinized. Based on the preliminary investigations, the following propositions are made to lay out the foundation for promoting effective OHS educational programs in Korea: improvement of government regulations, revitalizing job training initiatives, on-site OHS education, compensation and incentive programs for OHS education. These propositions may also facilitate the deployment of disaster prevention activities across the organization and prevent various occupational disorders (for example, musculoskeletal disorders). This study emphasizes that monolithic OHS education systems led by regulatory agencies may not be efficient to ensure healthy and safe work environments. Globally competitive OHS educational systems may be established only when they are based on the health and safety requirements specified by proprietors and workers.

• 대한안전경영과학회지
• /
• 제16권3호
• /
• pp.63-70
• /
• 2014

There has been an increase in fire/explosion accidents caused by chemical substances used in new small/medium sized construction, reconstruction, or extension sites. There is vast room for improvement, especially in safety training, safety inspection, and selection of countermeasures because training, technicality, and management systems regarding fire/explosion risks in small/medium sized construction sites are very immature in most cases. The purpose of this study is to propose a differentiated technical, educational, and management application plan for preventative management of fire/explosion accidents caused by chemical substances used in small/medium sized construction sites.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• 제12권4호
• /
• pp.421-423
• /
• 2021

Providing a "safe system of work" is the essence of the general duties that employers have to their employees under workplace health and safety regulations. Despite this, consistent and appropriate definition of what constitutes a safe system of work is almost non-existent. Available definitions tend to confuse a safe system of work with management practices intended to bring about a safe system, or conflate the broad system suggested in general duties clauses with procedures or work methods that are focused on particular hazards or tasks. This article develops a definition of safe systems of work which recognises the broad scope of the concept and includes psychological health and return to work processes. This definition can be used by a range of stakeholders to better communicate the scope of occupational health and safety duties and more consistently assess whether a safe system has been provided both before and after incidents occur.

• 한국산업보건학회지
• /
• 제11권1호
• /
• pp.70-77
• /
• 2001

This study was conducted to identify the current status of occupational safety and health by checklist and to evaluate the airborne exposure to chemicals and to provide the appropriate recommendation for safety and health of laundries. A total of 20 laundries located in tile Gyungi district area were surveyed from July 20 to September 15, 2000. The prevalence of laundries having a stove and gas range were found to be 25 % and 55 %, respectively. Smoking is not allowed in 60 % of the laundries. Only 10 % of dry-cleaners were isolated. Ventilation systems in laundries had not been annually inspected. Most of the workers didn't put on respirators, MSDS were not available, and storage bottles did not contain warning labels. The bulk samples of dry cleaning agent include many chemicals that are not controlled by the MOL in Korea. The detected airborne organic solvents in the laundries were benzene, toluene, p-xylene, m-xylene, o-xylene, perchloroethylene, and 2-butoxy ethanol. The airborne concentrations of organic solvents were much less than the occupational exposure limits proposed by the Ministry of Labor(MOL) in Korea. But the concentrations of benzene exceeded the TLV of ACGIH. This study showed that the current status of occupational safety and health was not appropriate for workers in laundries. It is recommended that laundry workers should be educated for the treatment and storage of hazardous organic solvents to improve the occupational safety and health of the working environment as well as MSDS usage. Also, extended research and survey for the organic solvents that are not controlled by the MOL has to be conducted.

• 한국안전학회지
• /
• 제30권3호
• /
• pp.20-25
• /
• 2015

It is predicted the mass retirement of the post-war generation and the lack of young people according to reduces the recruitment. Therefore, industry fields are concerned by the low level of occupational safety and health from issued problem in a variety of industries; the charge of expanding business range/multi-functional, black box of technology, difficulty of systematic training, relative decrease in the skill of workers, loss of know-how in the field of information followed restricted site information. In response to these problems, it is necessary to establish the long-termly and actively based on for the adoption of a safety and health management techniques utilizing IT, which is digital assistant(tablet PC, PDA, etc.), RFID/USN/ICT, database systems, and etc. In this study, we developed and evaluated a worker's safety sensing apparatus using smart phone. The apparatus may be useful to prevent accidents in the construction industry as well as confined space work.

• 한국산업보건학회지
• /
• 제29권2호
• /
• pp.217-225
• /
• 2019

Objectives: The aim of this study is to evaluate the quality management systems of domestic asbestos survey and monitoring service providers and the relationships with the number of licenses or designations and sales performances. Methods: Data on quality management systems were collected by assessors who were assigned by the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency(KOSHA) during a pilot evaluation program for designated asbestos survey and monitoring service providers in 2016 using evaluation criteria developed by KOSHA. Basic characteristics, evaluated scores, and sales performance were gathered and statistically analyzed. Results: The median and arithmetic mean of the total scores were 0.64 and 0.66. Evaluation fields that scored highly with the highest percentages were sales performance, installation and availability of equipment, compliance with the mandatory minimum number of airborne samples, laboratory independence, and results of proficiency analytical testing, in that order. Evaluation fields that received low marks with the highest percentages were the training of personnel, blank field samples, calibration of flow rates, preliminary check and visual inspection of the work area prior to the clearance test, and review and approval of final reports, in that order. Comparison of normalized scores between service providers registered for asbestos and other tasks and those designated for only asbestos showed significant differences in their evaluated scores. Sales performance did not show a positive correlation with evaluated scores. Conclusions: The quality management systems of domestic asbestos survey and monitoring service providers were poor. High scores were recorded mostly in evaluation fields related to regulatory requirements. Low scores were recorded mostly in evaluation fields related to documentation and recordkeeping. Considering the low influence of quality on sales performance, the government needs to evaluate the quality management of asbestos survey and monitoring service providers and provide the results to public in order to address their low levels of quality management.