• Title/Summary/Keyword: Occupational safety and health act

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Experimental study on the applicability of liquid air as the refrigerant in artificial ground freezing for subsea tunnels (해저터널을 위한 동결공법 냉매로서의 액화공기 적용성에 대한 실험적 연구)

  • Son, Young-Jin;Choi, Hyeungchul;Moon, Hung-Man;Choi, Hangseok;Ko, Tae Young
    • Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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    • v.18 no.2
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    • pp.175-181
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    • 2016
  • In this paper, the liquid air was selected as the refrigerant in artificial ground freezing to be used for rapid ground freezing and to reduce the risk of suffocation and the applicability of liquid air was verified. In order to evaluate the stability of the liquid air, the oxygen concentration of mixtures with liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen was experimentally examined to meet the oxygen concentration criteria in the Occupational Safety and Health Act. In addition, the effects of the mixture ratio of liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen, pressure and flow rate change in the storage vessel on the oxygen concentration in the liquid air were investigated. As a result, the ratio of liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen 8: 2 was shown to meet the oxygen concentration standards. Pressure and flow rate change in the storage vessel did not have significant effects on the oxygen concentration in the liquid air.

Comparison of Three Ergonomic Risk Assessment Methods (OWAS, RULA, and REB A) in Felling and Delimbing Operations (벌도 및 가지제거작업에서 세 가지 인간공학적 위험 평가기법의 비교분석)

  • Cho, Min-Jae;Jeong, Eung-Jin;Oh, Jae-Heun;Han, Sang-Kyun
    • Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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    • v.110 no.2
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    • pp.210-216
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    • 2021
  • Musculoskeletal disorders affect workers' safety in most industries, and forest operations are classified as a musculoskeletal burden according to the Occupational Safety and Health Act in South Korea. In particular, felling and delimbing operations are mainly conducted by manpower, and then, it is necessary to evaluate ergonomic risk assessment for safety of felling and delimbing workers. Three ergonomic risk assessment methods, such as Ovako Working posture Analysis System (OWAS), Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA), and Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA), are available for assessing exposure to risk factors associated with timber harvesting operations. Here, three ergonomic risk assessment methods were applied to examine ergonomic risk assessments in chainsaw felling and delimbing operations. Additionally, exposure to risk factors in each method was analyzed to propose an optimal working posture in felling and delimbing operations. The risk levels of these operations were evaluated to be highest in the RULA method, followed by the OWAS and REBA methods, and most of the exposed working postures were examined with a low-risk level of two and three without requiring any immediate working posture changes. However, two significant working postures, including the bending posture of the waist and leg in felling operation and standing posture on the fallen trees in delimbing operation, were assessed as the high-risk level and needed immediate working posture changes. Low-risk work levels were examined in the squatting posture for felling operation and the straightened posture of the waist and leg for delimbing operation. Moreover, the slope in felling operation and the tree height in delimbing operation significantly affected risk level assessment of working posture. Therefore, our study supports that felling and delimbing workers must operate with low-risk working postures for safety.

A Basic Study on the Performance Improvement of Safety Certification Standards (안전인증기준 성능화에 대한 기반 연구)

  • Byeon, Jung-Hwan;Kim, Jung-Gon
    • Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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    • v.17 no.3
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    • pp.487-499
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    • 2021
  • Purpose:The purpose of the paper is to review the problems of performance enhancement of safety certification standards and to suggest directions for improvement in order to rationalize safety certification standards for future industrial development and environmental changes. Method: The problems and limitations of the safety certification system are summarized through literature review and interview with manager, and the status of safety certification standards is classified into design standards, performance standards, and detailed standards, and the status analysis is performed. In addition, by synthesizing the results of the investigation and analysis, improvements are suggested to improve the performance of the safety certification standards. Result: Through the survey, the problems and limitations of safety certification could be grouped into six categories: government-led certification system operation, standardized certification standards, long time required to improve certification, poor certification standards preparation system, and lack of reflection of industry opinions. And, as a result of analyzing the certification standards by dividing them into performance and design standards, in the case of machinery, equipment, and protection devices, the design standards were high at 69.7% and 64.9%, whereas in the case of protective equipment, the performance standards were high at 61.1%. In order to improve the performance of safety certification standards centered on design standards, it is necessary to determine the possibility of performance enhancement of the certification standards and determine the feasibility of the inspection test method. In order to improve performance, it was reviewed that it was necessary to establish a systemic foundation and infrastructure, such as strengthening the Product Liability Act, systematizing market monitoring, etc., distributing certification test tasks, and participating in the preparation of certification standards by the private sector. Conclusion: Through this study, the problems and limitations of Korea's safety certification system were summarized and the necessity for performance improvement was reviewed. Performance improvement of safety certification standards is a matter that requires preparatory work, such as legislative revision and infrastructure construction, and requires mid-to-long-term promotion. In addition, rather than improving the overall safety certification standards, the performance requirements for each item subject to certification should be reviewed and promoted, and details should be specified through additional research.

Calculation of Derived Investigation Levels for Uranium Intake (우라늄 섭취의 유도조사준위 산출)

  • Lee, Na-Rae;Han, Seung-Jae;Cho, Kun-Woo;Jeong, Kyu-Hwan;Lee, Dong-Myung
    • Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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    • v.38 no.2
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    • pp.68-77
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    • 2013
  • Derived Investigation levels(DILs) were calculated to protect the workers from the effects of both radiological hazard and chemical toxicity by uranium intake. Investigation Levels(ILs) of committed effective dose of 2 mSv $y^{-1}-6$ mSv $y^{-1}$ and uranium concentration of 0.3 ${\mu}g$ $g^{-1}$ in kidney, based on Korean Nuclaer Safety Act, Korean Occupational Safety and Health Act and current scientific studies of uranium intake were assumed. DILs of radiological hazard and chemical toxicity were then calculated based on the concentration of uranium in air of workplace, the lung monitoring and urine analysis, respectively. As a result, in case of the nuclear fuel fabrication plant where 3.5% enriched uranium is handled, derived investigation level(DIL) for the control of the concentration of uranium in the air of workplace assumed with 15-min acute inhalation was 0.6 mg $m^{-3}$ for all types of uranium. DILs for the control of the average concentration of uranium in air of workplace, assuming an 8-hour workday, were 15.21 ${\mu}g$ $m^{-3}$ of Type F uranium, 0.41-1.23 Bq $m^{-3}$ and 0.13-0.39 Bq $m^{-3}$ for Type M and Type S uranium, respectively. DILs for the lung monitoring assumed with a period of 6-month interval were 0.37-1.11 Bq and 0.39-1.17 Bq in acute and chronic inhalation for Type M, respectively and 0.30- 0.91 Bq and 0.19-0.57 Bq in acute and chronic inhalation for Type S, respectively. Since a detection limit of typical germanium detector for the measurement of 235U activity is 4 Bq, DILs calculated for the lung monitoring were not appropriate. DILs for urine analysis, for which an interval was assumed to be 1 month, were 14.57 ${\mu}g$ $L^{-1}$ based on chemical toxicity after acute inhalation. In addition, acute and chronic inhalation of Type M were calculated 2.85-8.58 ${\mu}g$ $L^{-1}$ and 1.09-3.27 ${\mu}g$ $L^{-1}$ based on the radiological hazard, respectively.