• Journal of Korean Living Environment System
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.549-561
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• 2017

We conducted a nationalwide questionnaire to investigate accidental experiences and injuries at flashover or flame-fire for active firefighters in the line of duty. A total of 794 firefighters participated in this survey (764 males, 27 females, and 3 respondents; $39.2{\pm}8.4yr$ in age, $173.7{\pm}5.1cm$ in height, $73.4{\pm}8.6kg$ in body mass). The results showed that high risk circumstances the most frequently experienced while firefighting in Korea was flashover followed by backdraft, rollover and flameover. At the high risk circumstances the most frequently-experienced injuries were bruise, stabs and burns. Firefighters hoped to reduce the total mass of personal protective equipment (PPE), improve the mobility of the PPE and dexterity of protective gloves, so that they could escape from the high risk circumstances as fast as possible. In particular, requirements for improvement on protective gloves were greater than those on other PPE. The present study suggested that the need for improvements on the current firefighters' PPE to cope with emergency high risk situations in terms of PPE mass reduction and mobility.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.182-194
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• 2022

Objectives: This study evaluates and recommends the priority of policy implementation to improve the fire protection clothing management system used by firefighters and the reduction of cross-contamination from contaminated clothing at the scene of a fire. Methods: It consisted of 7 experts and conducted three interviews and two modified Delphi surveys. Through the results of previous research and interviews with experts, a plan to reduce cross-contamination of fire suits and improve the management system was first derived. An improvement plan was presented in the four areas including resources, management, fire protection related work, and laws and regulations, and the priority of policy implementation was derived by analyzing the importance and practicality of the policy at the same time. Results: As a result of the analysis, the first priority was education on the health effects of pollutants at the disaster scene for firefighters, and the second priority was the addition of SOP for the primary decontamination of on-scene personal protective equipment in preparation for the health effects of the disaster scene, and education for fire suppression and rescue workers. The next step was to improve the management system of personal protective equipment such as fire suits and develop a training course for systematic operation. Conclusions: This findings could be used in the implementation of mid- to long-term firefighting policies for the systematic operation and establishment of a systematic management system for personal protective equipment such as fire protective suits.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.79 no.4
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• pp.234-240
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• 2016

Transmission of tuberculosis (TB) is a recognized risk to patients and healthcare workers in healthcare settings. The literature review suggests that implementation of combination control measures reduces the risk of TB transmission. Guidelines suggest a three-level hierarchy of controls including administrative, environmental, and respiratory protection. Among environmental controls, installation of ventilation systems is a priority because ventilation reduces the number of infectious particles in the air. Natural ventilation is cost-effective but depends on climatic conditions. Supplemented intervention such as air-cleaning methods including high efficiency particulate air filtration and ultraviolet germicidal irradiation should be considered in areas where adequate ventilation is difficult to achieve. Personal protective equipment including particulate respirators provides additional benefit when administrative and environmental controls cannot assure protection.

• Fashion Information and Technology
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• v.11
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• pp.50-55
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• 2014

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.771-781
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• 2017

The helmet is an imperative personal protective equipment. This protective device must be able to guard the human head against potential risks. Helmets are classified according into the purpose of use; therefore, the required performance and specifications depend on the type of products. Military helmets are intended to protect the wearer's head from bullets and shrapnel. Generally, lightweight super fibers and fiber reinforced composite materials are used as helmet shell materials, and NIJ STD of U.S. Department of Justice is most widely used as international standard related to bulletproof helmets. Safety helmets are widely used for industrial application and sports leisure. In general, the performance of shock absorption must be ensured, and various lining systems are applied in material, design, and combination methods. Evaluation standards have also been classified and strictly controlled for each purpose; therefore, it is difficult to certify with the existing standards such as the recently developed convergence helmets. However, it is possible to launch the product through a separate national integrated certification procedure.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.81-92
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• 2023

According to the 2020 industrial accident reports of the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the number of fatal accidents in the construction industry over the past 5 years has been higher than in other industries. Of these more than 50% of fatal accidents are initially caused by fall accidents. The central government is intensively managing falling/jamming protection device and the use of personal protective equipment to eradicate the inappropriate factors disrupting safety at construction sites. In addition, although efforts have been made to prevent safety accidents with the proposal of the Special Act on Construction Safety, fatalities on construction sites are constantly occurring. Therefore, this study developed a model that automatically detects the wearing state of the worker's safety helmet and belt using computer vision technology. In considerations of conditions occurring at construction sites, we suggest an optimization method, which has been verified in terms of the accuracy and operation speed of the proposed model. As a result, it is possible to improve the efficiency of inspection and patrol by construction site managers, which is expected to contribute to reinforcing competency of safety management.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.123-136
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• 2024

This study aimed to assess the mobility and thermal comfort of personal protective equipment (PPE) among female healthcare workers, taking into account wearers' physique and PPE protection levels. A total of 16 participants (age: 26.3 ± 8.3 y, height: 161.5 ± 7.3 cm, body weight: 57.1 ± 11.0 kg, BMI: 21.9 ± 3.6), representing diverse body types, underwent four PPE conditions: L (Low_Plastic gown ensemble), M (Medium_Tyvek 400), H (High_Tyvek 800J with Powered Air Purifying Respirator [PAPR]), and E (Extremely high_Tychem 2000 with PAPR, Bib apron, and Chemical-resistant gloves). The mobility protocol consisted of 10 different tasks in addition to donning and doffing. The 10 tasks were repeated twice at an air temperature of 24.3 ± 0.1℃, 59±4%RH. Findings revealed a disproportionate relationship between PPE protection and wearer discomfort. Significant differences in clothing microclimate and total sweat rate were observed between the lowest (L) and highest (E) protection levels (p < 0.01), while distinctions among medium levels were inconclusive. Subjective evaluations favored conditions H and L over M and E (p < 0.05), indicating reduced heat, and humidity, increased comfort, and lower exertion. Instances of mobility discomfort, specially in the small body type group, underscored the need for a suitable PPE size system for Korean adult female medical workers. Furthermore, enhancements in gloves, shoe cover, and PAPR hood designs are essential for improving ease of movement and preventing hindrance.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2015.10a
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• pp.313-316
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• 2015

Construction is one of the most dangerous job sectors, which reports tens of thousands of time-loss injuries and deaths every year. These disasters incur delays and additional costs to the projects. The safety management needs to be on the top primary tasks throughout the construction to avoid fatal accidents and to foster safe working environments. One of the safety regulations that are frequently violated is the wearing of personal protection equipment (PPE). In order to facilitate monitoring of the compliance of the PPE wearing regulations, this paper proposes a vision based method that automatically identifies whether workers wear hard hats and safety vests. The method involves three modules - human body detection, identification of safety vest wearing, and hard hat detection. First, human bodies are detected in the video frames captured by real-time on-site construction cameras. The detected human bodies are classified into with/without wearing safety vests based on the color features of their upper parts. Finally, hard hats are detected on the nearby regions of the detected human bodies and the locations of the detected hard hats and human bodies are correlated to reveal their corresponding matches. In this way, the proposed method provides any appearance of the workers without wearing hard hats or safety vests. The method has been tested on onsite videos and the results signify its potential to facilitate site safety monitoring.

• International journal of advanced smart convergence
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.253-259
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• 2022

This study aims to investigate the antecedent of consumer personal preventive equipment purchase behaviour by extending the HBM model after the pandemic. Pandemic related studies have focused on the effect of perceived susceptibility and perceived severity on consumer preventive behaviour, little studies have investigated the antecedents of consumer perceived risk. This study filled the gaps in the previous studies. This study tested all proposed hypotheses among users who have purchase the self-preventive behaviour. In final 253 valid data were collected through online survey for statistics analysis. This study found that consumer's health consciousness significantly impacted consumer's perceived severity of COVID-19 and perceived risk. Perceived risk positively impacted consumer self-preventive equipment purchase intention. In contrast, perceived susceptibility did not significantly consumer perceived risk. Based on these results, the theoretical implication will be offered on the study of health-related studies and will be given insight for disease control center to effectively manage consumer self-preventive behaviour.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.419-429
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• 2016

Objectives: According to the new Chemical Control Act from the Korean Ministry of Environment (2014-259), workers handling hazardous chemicals should wear personal protective equipment (PPE). However the act simply states in basic phrases that every worker handling one or more of the 69 listed chemicals should wear PPE and does not consider the unique hazard characteristics of chemicals and work types. The main purpose of this study is to provide basic data to revise the act to suit particular work processes and situations. Methods: The hazard rank of the substances was classified based on hazardous characteristics such as LC50 and vapor pressure using matrix analysis. The workplace exposure risk of the substances was also determined through a matrix analysis based on the previously determined hazard ranks and the demands of manual handling together with the likelihood of accident frequency of the operation combined with the exposure of workers during spill accidents. Results: To meet the demands for developing subsequent guidelines for the risk-based application of PPE in hazardous workplaces, this study sorted the 69 listed chemicals into five hazardous categories based on their LC50 and vapor pressures, and also assigned exposure categories according to exposure vulnerability for various types of work which are frequently performed throughout the life cycle of the chemicals. Conclusion: In the next study, an exposure risk matrix will be produced using the hazard rank of chemicals and workplace exposure risk, and then PPE will be selected to suit the categories of the exposure risk matrix.