• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• v.42 no.6
• /
• pp.430-437
• /
• 2016

Objectives: The new Chemical Control Act from the Korean Ministry of Environment (2014-259) simply states only in basic phrases that every worker handling the listed chemicals should wear personal protective equipment (PPE) and does not consider the different hazard characteristics of particular chemicals or work types. The purpose of this study was to produce an exposure risk matrix and assign PPE to the categories of this matrix, which would be useful for revising the act to suggest PPE to suit work types or situations. Methods: An exposure risk matrix was made using hazard ranks of chemicals and workplace exposure risks in the previous study. For the 20 categories of exposure risk matrix PPE, levels A, B, C, D as classified by OSHA/EPA were assigned. After 69 hazardous chemicals were divided into 11 groups according to their physiochemical characteristics, respirators, chemical protective clothing (CPC), gloves and footwear were suggested on the basis of the assigned PPE levels. Results: PPE table sheets for the 11 groups were made on the basis of work types or situations. Full facepiece or half-mask for level C was recommended in accordance with the exposure risk matrix. Level A was, in particular, recommended for loading or unloading work. Level A PPE should be worn in an emergency involving hydrogen fluoride because of the number of recent related accidents in Korea. Conclusion: PPE assignment according to the exposure risk matrix made by chemical hazards and work type or situation was suggested for the first time. Each type of PPE was recommended for the grouped chemicals. The research will be usefully used for the revision of the Chemical Control Act in Korea.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.4 no.3
• /
• pp.166-176
• /
• 2013

Background: Effective policy implementation is essential for a healthy workplace. The Ryan-Kossek 2008 model for work-life policy adoption suggests that supervisors as gatekeepers between employer and employee need to know how to support and communicate benefit regulations. This article describes a workplace intervention on a national employee benefit, Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and evaluates the effectiveness of the intervention on supervisor knowledge, awareness, and experience with FMLA. Methods: The intervention consisted of computer-based training (CBT) and a survey measuring awareness and experience with FMLA. The training was administered to 793 county government supervisors in the state of Oregon, USA. Results: More than 35% of supervisors reported no previous training on FMLA and the training pre-test revealed a lack of knowledge regarding benefit coverage and employer responsibilities. The CBT achieved: (1) a significant learning effect and large effect size of d = 2.0, (2) a positive reaction to the training and its design, and (3) evidence of increased knowledge and awareness regarding FMLA. Conclusion: CBT is an effective strategy to increase supervisors' knowledge and awareness to support policy implementation. The lack of supervisor training and knowledge of an important but complex employee benefit exposes a serious impediment to effective policy implementation and may lead to negative outcomes for the organization and the employee, supporting the Ryan-Kossek model. The results further demonstrate that long-time employees need supplementary training on complex workplace policies such as FMLA.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.1-13
• /
• 2014

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to review the debate on the Article 28(Prohibition of Inhouse-Contract for Harmful Work) of the Industrial Safety and Health Law. Methods: Literatures and recent debate for prohibition and permission of inhouse-contract for harmful work were reviewed. Proposals of revision for the Article 28 of the Industrial Safety and Health Law were also reviewed. Results: It was not found reasonable to revise the Article 28 based on increased fatal accidents or diseases in the electroplating work and heavy metals handling works that are currently listed in the Presidential Decree under the law as the harmful works. Regulation types of prohibition or authorization for any harmful work shall have inherently poor coverage since the scope of application is extremely limited. Contractors for maintenance and repair of chemical facilities may not be included in the scope of application if the harmful works are defined as chemical handling works. If harmful works are prohibited, the contractor workers may loose their jobs. Therefore, it is necessary to consider balancing job security and occupational safety and health safety. Conclusions: Various limitations were found in the Article 28 and the proposals to revise it. Currently in-house subcontracting is widely spread in the workplace. Therefore, it may be inappropriate to set one or two Article such as the Article 28 and 29 to protect in-house subcontract workers from injury and illness. It is believed that it needs fundamental redirection and new approach with new paradigm to impose occupational safety and health duty to prime contractors.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• /
• v.35
• /
• pp.10.1-10.10
• /
• 2023

The purpose of this paper was to review the problems relating to Korea's occupational health services and suggest ways to improve them. Korea can be classified as a welfare state type of conservative corporatism partially interwoven with liberalism. While experiencing compressed economic growth, the economic sectors of developed (excess areas) and developing (deficient areas) countries are interwoven. Therefore, it is necessary to perfect conservative corporatism along with a complementary reinforcement of liberal contents and to apply a multilayered approach focusing on complementing the deficient areas. It is essential to form a national representative indicator related to occupational health, and a strategy for selection and concentration is needed. The proposed central indicator is the occupational health coverage rate (OHCR), which is the number of workers who have applied for mandatory occupational health services under the Occupational Safety and Health Act in the numerator with the total working population in the denominator. This paper proposes ways to raise the OHCR, which is currently at the level of 25%-40%, to 70%-80%, which is the level of Japan, Germany, and France. To achieve this target, it is necessary to focus on small businesses and vulnerable workers. This is an area of market failure and requires the active input of community-oriented public resources. For access to larger workplaces, the marketability of services should be strengthened and personal intervention using digital health resources should be actively attempted. Taking a national perspective, work environment improvement committees with tripartite (labor, management, and government) participation for improvement of the working environment need to be established at the center and in the regions. Through this, prevention funds linked to industrial accident compensation and prevention could be used efficiently. A national chemical substance management system must be established to monitor the health of workers and the general public.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.314-323
• /
• 2022

Purpose: To study the effect of the amended Occupational Safety and Health Act on the expansion of the employer's responsibility and obligations and the evaluation of the employer on the improvement of the safety management system. Method: An academic discussion was conducted by comparing the contents of previous studies with the analysis results. A questionnaire was prepared using the measurement tools collected from previous studies, and statistical multiple regression analysis was performed with the collected data. Result: Research hypothesis It was found that the expansion of responsibility and obligations of the business owner and the reinforcement of the employer's evaluation of the ordering party had a positive (+) effect on the improvement of the safety management system. Conclusion: The expansion of the responsibility and obligations of the employer and the strengthening of the evaluation of the owner of the orderer are having a positive effect on the improvement of the construction safety management system for the prevention of construction accidents.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
• /
• v.21 no.5
• /
• pp.409-420
• /
• 2021

The safety and health ledger system, which gives the responsibility of safety and health management for construction site workers to the construction project owner, was introduced as part of the overall revision of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. There is a need to explain the system's effectiveness in terms of economic feasibility to solve the execution problem of the system caused by low awareness and implementation rate. In this study, the economic effect of implementing the safety and health ledger system was analyzed using cost-benefit analysis based on the data discussed at the time of the introduction of the system. Results show that creating and managing the design safety and health ledger caused additional costs in implementing the system. As a result of comparing the cost of preparation and the direct and indirect benefits caused by the reduction of industrial accidents, the benefits were evaluated higher than the costs. Thus, it is thought that the safety and health ledger system reduces construction work accidents and generates economic effects.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
• /
• v.20 no.5
• /
• pp.471-480
• /
• 2020

Although the domestic industrial accidents have been decreased gradually, deaths in the construction sites have been occupied 49.9 percent of the total industry and deaths from fall accident have been accounted for 59.7 percent of the construction industry. In order to prevent fall accident, various safety activities and policy have been carried out. However, the impact on the domestic construction industry was inadequate. On the other hand, in advanced countries, such as the United States, Japan, EU, and Singapore Industrial accidents have been lower than domestic industry due to safety activities, the regulations and policies appropriate for each country's situation. In this study, we compare the major points of the Industrial Safety and Health Act in developed countries with those in South Korea to reduce the number of falls, and propose a revision. As a result of conducting research, three revisions have been proposed as 1) Enhance standards for fall height, 2) Improvement of upper safety rail height on guardrail, 3) Revision and research on Horizontal Sarety bar attachment system. This study will be utilized as a basic study for the analysis of cases in advanced countries.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.806-814
• /
• 2023

Purpose: According to the Occupational Safety and Health Act of the Ministry of Employment and Labor, in order to prevent industrial accidents, the right to stop work must be exercised in the event of an imminent danger. This study conducted a fact-finding survey on whether employers fulfilled the right to suspend work in the workplace when an imminent danger, such as a typhoon, was encountered. Method: For two days from August 9 to October, when the impact of Typhoon Khanun No. 6 was significant, it was confirmed by wire whether or not the work suspension was carried out at the workplace, and the subjects of the survey were 1,649 construction sites, 830 manufacturing sites, and 278 other industries, for a total of 2,757 sites. Result: As a result of the fact-finding survey, 56% (1,555 locations) on August 9th and 77% (2,142 locations) on August 10th carried out full or partial work suspension. In particular, on August 10, when the typhoon landed, 40% of all workplaces completely stopped work. Conclusion: Through this study, it was confirmed that the right to suspend work by employers is being used in actual workplaces. In the future, when there is an imminent danger, in addition to the right to suspend work, flexible and telecommuting, working hour adjustments, etc. must be actively used to ensure the safety of workers and protect their lives.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• /
• v.32 no.2
• /
• pp.89-101
• /
• 2022

Objectives: By comparing and examining how important issues concerning industrial health information for workers are viewed in other advanced countries, it is intended to ascertain problems in the approach found in Korean legislation and obtain legal and policy implications. Methods: The results of a survey were introduced and analyzed through a comparative method for each case after investigating in detail what and how important issues surrounding workers' right to know industrial health information are reflected in the legislation of Germany, the U.S., the U.K., and Japan. Based on the results of this comparative analysis, theoretical and policy implications and legal policy improvement tasks were drawn to strengthen workers' right to industrial health information for each case in Korea. Results: For access to industrial health information, most of the other advanced countries clearly stipulate a right to access for current and past workers and/or their representatives. As a result, workers or their representatives do not need to use the Information Disclosure Act to access exposure records, and there is no debate over the Information Disclosure Act. In other words, industrial health information is focused on ensuring free access to workers or their representatives and is not interested in reporting it to the government. Conclusions: In order to strengthen workers' right to know about industrial health, it is most important to address the legal issues related to this right, which is considered insufficient by comparative law. This should start with a concrete and effective definition of what and how to guarantee workers' rights to industrial health, such as the right to freely access industrial health information, including for retired workers and bereaved families of deceased workers.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.114-123
• /
• 2005

We analyzed the demographic and job features of 197 shipyard workers with work-related musculoskeletal disorders(WMSDs) compensated by the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act, and the features of the disorders, the causes of operation and the induced behaviors. The three shipbuilding companies surveyed were located in Busan Metropolitan city and Gyungsangnam-do. The results were as follows. 1. The ages of WMSDs patients in shipyard were $43.6{\pm}8.6$ and the job tenure was $14.3{\pm}5.6$. The 40's of them was 40.1%, and the 30's was 29.4%. Patients less than 5 year-work duration were 85.3%, and ones more than 16 year-work duration 6.6%. In occupations, welders were 32.5%, pre-welders 17.3%, and setting engineers 6.6%. 2. The causes of WMSDs in shipyard were works(95.4%) and outer crash or accident shock (3.6%). Based on the standard of the NIOSH induced behaviors, the causes were awkward posture (62.9%), excessive movement(19.3%) and repetitive movement(13.7%). 3. The compensated WMSDs by body part was the highest, 36%, in the spines, 32.0% in both the upper limbs and the spines, and 14% in the upper limbs. The number of cases of WMSDs in body were 96 in the cervical, 79 in the lumbar and 72 in the shoulders. 4. As a result of chi-square test(${\chi}^2$) between diagnosis and operation in body, welding and spot welding had the most diagnoses in all parts of the body among other occupations. Chi-square test(${\chi}^2$) between diagnosis and induced behavior in body showed that awkward postures recorded the highest rate and repetitive movements was the second. 5. The most hazardous occupation was the welding(incidence rate=9.7) and the most hazardous behavior was the awkward posture.