• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.119-126
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• 2015

The primary purpose of the general duty clause is to offer an extra measure of protection to employees in the workplace. Most standards implemented under OSHA are targeted at a specific hazard. The general duty clause, however allows inspectors to cite employers for exposing its employees to a recognized hazard that has not been specifically addressed in the regulations. Congress intended the general duty clause to be a limited means of advancing the purposes of the OSHAct. But OSHA has not always regarded the general duty clause as the limited means for protecting the safety and health of employees that Congress intented. OSHA attempted to expand the scope of the general duty clause, at times improperly, to make it a more flexible enforcement tool. OSHA's interpretation of each of the restrictions on the scope of the clause has changed over the years. In recent years the general duty clause has been utilized as a sometimes controversial mechanism for enforcement of safety guidelines that have not yet been specifically addressed by statute or regulation. The most notable example of this was application of the general duty clause to ergonomic hazards.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.96-101
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• 2022

The Occupational Safety and Health Act holds that industrial safety helmets can be used as protective equipment to prevent the risk of injury in fall accidents. To better understand the importance given to PPE for the head, we analyzed the relevant regulations and guidelines in developed countries and reviewed the guidelines on testing safety helmets. The PPE regulations in Korea were notably different from those in other countries. First, except in Korea and Japan, safety helmets were used for protection against falling objects, flying objects, impact, or electric shock. However, the regulations did not recognize safety helmets as a PPE against fall hazards. Second, the impact energy applied on the helmet was within the range 50-100 J, and the helmet could protect only the upper part of the head against hazards such as the impact of falling objects, flying objects, etc. Third, in Korean regulations, the term "fall" was used in relation to the parts where the safety helmet was specified as a fall hazard PPE, unlike in other countries. We propose that the term "fall" should be revised to "shock" in Korean regulations for the safety helmet.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.37-48
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• 2023

Recently, the increase of international trade volume is leading to risk exposure and safety accidents in the port terminal industry. In addition, as Serious Disaster Punishment Act came into effect on January, 2021, various guidelines and laws to protect safety and life in port terminals are being enacted. However, despite these efforts, medium-to-large safety accidents in the port terminal industry have occurred. According to the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency, from 2016 to 2019, the number of casualties in the port handling industry increased by 4.2%. To build some effective follow-up management of port accidents and preparation of related safety laws/systems, a risk analysis in consideration of causes and damage of accidents should be conducted. Therefore, in this study, major risk factors and preventive measures were derived by conducting risk assessment based on 1,039 cases of port terminal accidents collected by the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency for five years. Priorities for preventive measures were then determined through IPA analysis, Borich needs analysis, and The Locus For Focus analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.24 no.6_2
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• pp.781-786
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• 2021

Korean domestic workers are trend to avoid harmful and dangerous jobs calls 3D work due to the poor working conditions. Therefore, the incoming population of foreign workers is increasing to fulfill the required labor force. Mostly these foreign workers are placed in small and medium-size industries. As work that induces musculoskeletal disorders(WMSD) is equally exposed to domestic workers as well as foreign workers, this study attempted to investigate the work burdened by musculoskeletal disorders and derive improvement measures by understanding the actual conditions of the worksites of foreign workers. The result of this investigation defines that the possibility of developing musculoskeletal disorders is very high in the environment in which more than 40% of the respondents work with heavy objects and repetitive work of wrists and elbows. To prevent the symptoms of musculoskeletal disorders among foreign workers, three measures were proposed. To reduce the mandatory check-up period of WMSD under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, to revise the employment permit system, and to enhance the practical help of EPS education. Safety and health management of foreign workers is becoming an essential task not only for securing a workforce but also for the national image. Personal and economic losses at the national level should be minimized through policy support such as financial support for small and medium-sized businesses in Korea and supplementation of legal systems for the protection of foreign workers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.137-143
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• 2015

Fire fighter are exposed to the situations which are hard to predict due to continuous and accidental changes which hinder their fire fighting activity. As these threats of safety accident act as fear factors, they are doing insecure fire fighting activities. Therefore, as unclear and abnormal risks of working environment such as the riskiness of expansion of disaster, instability, obstacles of activities, abnormality, urgency, etc. increase, safety accidents are caused. This study analyzes the actual condition of safety and health and awareness of fire fighter who are exposed safety accidents during their fire fighting activities and utilize such result as the basis data to secure safety of fire fighter, keep efficient safety control and prevent accidents. The results of analysis are as follows. As rescue works among all fire-fighting works shows the highest emotional stabilization and the highest post-traumatic stress disorder is shown in fire sergeant level positions, and fire fighters whose working period is 10-15 years, reinforcing safety training to long-term workers is necessary. As the result of survey regarding safety awareness, the highest awareness level was shown in fire sergeant level positions, and fire fighters whose working period is over 20 years, and when it comes to operation of fire fighting equipments, fire-fighting workers and workers having 1-4 years of working period showed high safety awareness. The more serious injury in a fire fighter experienced as the first injury after working as a fire-fighter, the more cause-and-effect relationship was shown between personal physical condition and work, and it is shown as obstacles of fire fighting activities and affects to post-traumatic stress disorder. Moreover, as after-work off duty activities also affect to official disaster, systematic improvement of working environment is required. Occupational medical work compatibility evaluation considering the distinct characteristics of works to secure fire-fighter' health care together with fire-fighting capability is shown to be necessary.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.98-104
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• 1998

Recently, industrial accidents have occurred in various patterns due to the diversity of industries and the integration of facilities. Especially, the major accidents affect broad area and result in huge loss of lives and properties. Domestic researches on techniques for keeping away from such hazardous danger have been actively performed but their activities are limited in some institutes and universities. In advanced countries, integrated management systems like Seveso Directive of EU and OSHA(Occupational Safety and Health Act) of U.S.A. have been legislated along with the systematic research activities. In Korea, the integrated safety management systems called SMS(Safety Management System) and PSM(Process Safety Management) have been applied to major industries. These systems made chemical industries manage the process safety information by collecting and arranging safety data by themselves. In order to implement the system successfully, it is urgently required to prepare a tool for searching and accumulating process safety data systematically. In this study, a computerized prototype of Risk Assessment System which is essential to SMS and PSM was developed as a main system and data base as subsystem to handle safety information.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.579-588
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• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze how the participating companies related to asbestos dismantling affect the safety of residents near asbestos dismantling worksites, and to present important criteria for selecting asbestos dismantling related companies based on the analysis results. Method: In this study, based on the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Asbestos Safety Management Act, important items about participating companies related to asbestos dismantling and the safety of residents near the asbestos dismantling workshop were derived, and then questionnaire items were determined through FGI. Multiple regression analysis was performed to analyze the influence relationship. Result: In order to secure the safety around the asbestos dismantling site, it was confirmed that the ability of asbestos dismantling supervisors among the participating companies (dismantling companies, investigation agencies, and supervisors) had the greatest influence. Conclusion: It showed that it is essential to select an excellent asbestos dismantling supervisor and an excellent asbestos dismantling and removal company in order to ensure the safety of residents near the asbestos dismantling site.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.84-90
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• 2023

Oxygen, which is always present in the atmosphere among the three elements of combustion, can cause fires and explosions with only a very small amount of combustibles under high-pressure oxygen conditions. The burning rate is also significant, and can rise to temperatures that can have a direct impact, such as melting process equipment and piping in an instant. Therefore, accidents that occur under high pressure oxygen often cause more damage than other accidents. Recently, while operating a valve installed in an oxygen supply pipe, rapid combustion and rupture occurred inside, resulting in human casualties due to an explosion. In the case of an old carbon steel pipe, particles generated during operation become combustible and can cause accidents. . In particular, since oxygen facilities are facilities licensed under the High Pressure Gas Safety Management Actand there are no restrictions under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, accumulating these standards is of utmost importance. Therefore, in this study, based on accident cases and overseas standards, methods for improving safety when handling hyperbaric oxygen are reviewed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.23-31
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• 2023

Revising the Occupational Safety and Health Act led to enacting and revising related laws and systems, such as placing fire observers in hot workplaces. However, the operating standards in such cases are still ambiguous. Although fire accidents occur through multiple and multi-step factors, the hazards of fire accidents have been identified in this study as individual rather than interrelated factors. The aim has been to identify multiple factors of accidents, outlining fire and explosion accidents that recently occurred in the domestic manufacturing industry. First, major keywords were extracted through text mining. Then representative accident types were derived by combining the main keywords through the co-word network analysis to identify the hazards and their relationships. The representative fire accidents were identified as six types, and their major hazards were then addressed for improving safety measures using the identification of hazards in the "Risk Assessment" tool. It is found that various safety measures, such as professional fire observers' training and clear placement standards, are needed. This study will provide useful basic data for revising practical laws and guidelines for fire accident prevention, system supplementation, safety policy establishment, and future related research.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.21-26
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• 2019

Objective: The aim of this study is to analyze an excess trend for domestic permissible exposure limit of trichloroethylene based on previous literature review. Materials and Methods: The research object is a trichloroethylene among 13 chemical substances regulated with PEL(Permissible Exposure Limit) in Occupational Safety and Health Act. The information utilized from this study is the work environment measurement data from 2004 to 2013. The highest level among concentration data measured at various workplaces was selected as a representative value through data process. N.D. (Not Detected) data was considered as 1/2 of LOD(Limit Of Detection). Results: Among work environment measurement data between 2004 and 2013, the highest number of excess workplace and excess rate(24 sites & 1.15%) was observed in 2008's data when applying the PEL(50 ppm) of trichloroethylene. When they are compared with the ACGIH's TLV-TWA(10 ppm), 2008's data showed the highest number of excess workplace and excess rate(175 sites & 8.37%). The number of excess workplace and excess rate related to PEL of trichloroethylene showed increase trend in 2005 but tended to decrease after 2008. Conclusions: Based on the results obtained from this study, the exposure level of trichloroethylene in case of domestic workers is not considered as a safe phase regardless of the year of work environment measurement year. Thus, a strictly preventive management in workplace should be provided for reducing exposure level of trichloroethylene.