• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.71-83
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• 2023

Since last year, the government has enforced the 'Act on the Punishment of Severe Accidents, Etc.' (hereafter referred to as the 'Serious Accident Punishment Act'), which punishes business owners and business managers who fail to fulfill their duty of safety measures with 'imprisonment of one year or more' and the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Based on this, various occupational safety and health policies were developed, including the operation of a system related to entrusting the work of safety managers. Despite these efforts, the effect of implementing the Severe Accident Punishment Act is a groundbreaking change in the current disaster prevention policy, which has increased by 0.02%P and 0.03‱P, respectively, from the previous year to 0.65% of the total accident rate and 1.10‱ of the death rate per 10,000 people as of 2022. As the need emerged, attention was paid to 'collaboration and governance with safety management institutions' in the 'Severe Disaster Reduction Roadmap' announced by the Ministry of Employment and Labor in November 2022. In this study, a meaningful result was derived by comparing and analyzing the industrial accident status of workplaces entrusted by "A" safety management institutions with the national average based on the industrial accident survey table, and the types of industrial accidents that occurred in consigned workplaces were selected as intensive management targets. The policy direction for industrial accident prevention was established. It is necessary to develop safety management work manuals based on the results of this study, expertise, discover best cases of risk assessment and develop guides, and educate and train consigned workers. In addition, it suggests that the government's guidance and supervision are needed to advance the professionalism of safety management entrusted tasks, and that safety management institutions should strengthen their roles and functions for preventing and reducing industrial accidents. However, due to difficulties in disclosing information of specialized safety management institutions, the limitation of the provision, collection, and viewing of research-related data to "A" specialized safety management institutions remains a limitation of the research. It seems likely that more thorough research will be conducted.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.225-230
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• 2016

Background: This study seeks to examine the relationship and impact of occupational health and safety on employees' organizational commitment in Ghana's mining industry. The study explores occupational health and safety and the different dimensions of organizational commitment. Methods: A cross-sectional survey design was used for this study. The respondents were selected based on simple random sampling. Out of 400 questionnaires administered, 370 were returned (77.3% male and 22.7% female) and used for the study. Correlation and multiple regression analysis were used to determine the relationship and impact between the variables. Results: The findings of this study revealed positive and significant relationship between occupational health and safety management, and affective, normative, and continuance commitment. Additionally, the results revealed the significant impact of occupational health and safety on affective, normative, and continuance commitment. Conclusion: Management within the mining sector of Ghana must recognize the fact that workers who feel healthy and safe in the performance of their duties, develop emotional attachment and have a sense of obligation to their organization and are most likely committed to the organization. Employees do not just become committed to the organization; rather, they expect management to first think about their health and safety needs by instituting good and sound policy measures. Thus, management should invest in the protection of employees' health and safety in organizations.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.7-16
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• 2013

As workplace incidents has been being declining in Korea, there is criticism of the effectiveness of occupational safety policy implementation. It is unknown that which policy target group needs to be targeted to yield effective injuries prevention. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and reveal the policy intervention group with a high priority in terms of industrial incident prevention and the related investment cost. A Policy Priority Model(PPM) is composed of 6 indicators regarding influences of both the incident reduction and the cost reduction. Z-score analyses are used to confirm the high policy priority area or policy target group. Overall, workplace with worker below 50 persons, construction site with the sales of more than a hundred million won, workplace with relatively small percentage of female employees and relatively higher percentage of older worker should be prioritized to reduce workplace injuries. This paper provides an analytic way that can be used to decide the policy priority workplace in order not only to reduce work-related injuries&illnesses and the related investment cost but to further lessen the related societal costs.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.365-369
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• 2021

Background: Law enforcement communications (i.e., 911 dispatch and call takers) is a challenging and stressful occupation. The purpose of this study is to identify the main stressors associated with employment in law enforcement communications, and to identify and provide context to how these stressors affect workers' health and wellbeing. Methods: This research study included focus groups with 23 call takers and 911 dispatchers employed by a large, urban law enforcement agency in 2018. Thematic analyses were conducted to identify trends. Results: Four themes of stressors emerged (i.e., the high stakes nature of some 911 calls for service, understaffing, supervisor-related stress, and recruiting practice). Two health-related themes emerged as being occupation-related: weight gain and poor sleep patterns/insufficient sleep). Specifically, participants reported negative eating habits resulting in weight gain and obesity, lack of sleep and irregular sleep schedules, and development of hypertension and/or diabetes since beginning their jobs. Conclusion: Law enforcement communications professionals experience a number of the same stressors facing law enforcement officers in patrol. These stressors, combined with the sedentary nature of the job, could result in long-term, chronic health problems.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.312-327
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• 2021

Background: Infection prevention and control (IPC) to manage healthcare-associated infection (HCAI) has emerged as one of the most significant public health issues in Korea. The purpose of this study is to draw implications in IPC policies by analyzing the context, process, and major actors in policy development and comparatively analyzing IPC policy contents of Korea with three other countries. Additionally, IPC policies were analyzed in the context of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to provide implications for future pandemics and HCAI events. Methods: This study incorporates a qualitative approach based on document and content analysis, applying codes and thematic categorization. IPC policy contents are comparatively analyzed by adopting the concept model, developed by the World Health Organization, which consists of core components of IPC structure at the national and facility level. Results: National IPC policies were developed within a complex social and political context, through the involvement of various stakeholders. IPC policies in Korea place a high emphasis on establishing IPC programs and built environments in healthcare facilities, whereas there were potentials for improvement in policies involving patients and promoting a safety culture. IPC policies, which currently focus on general hospitals and certain functions of hospitals, should further be expanded to target all healthcare facilities and functions, to ensure more efficient and sustainable IPC responses in the current and future disease outbreaks. Conclusion: IPC is a complex policy arena and lessons learned from the analysis of existing policies in the context of COVID-19 should provide valuable strategic implications for future policies.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.39-48
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• 2021

In the past, measures for the reduction of industrial accidents has led the safety and health policy of construction sites by the guidance, supervision and the regulation according to 「Occupation Safety and Health Act」 handled by Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL). Nowadays companies realize that due to the factors such as diversification of employment types, outsourcing of hazardous work, new construction method and complicated types of construction, etc., there is a limit on safety management for construction sites as far as it is passively led by the governmental safety management policy and regulation. In this study, in order to practice the autonomous safety management escaping from the government-led safety management, improvement plans are proposed and applied by analyzing the basic cause of the all kinds of fall accidents that could possibly occur in the apartment construction sites and by verifying the hazardous factors and risks by fields.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.174-184
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• 2015

This paper reviewed structure and current status of laws related to patient safety using patient safety law matrix to promote systematic approach in legal system of patient safety. Laws related to patient safety can be divided into three areas: laws for preventing; laws for knowing about; and laws for responding. In the case of Korea, gaps are especially prominent in the areas of laws for knowing about and responding. Patient safety law which will be enacted in July 2016 will fill the gap in the area of laws for knowing about. This law will be comprehensive law, covering the full spectrum of laws related to patient safety. However, after reviewing current patient safety law in Korea, the following drawbacks were identified: absence of code for grasping the current patient safety level; absence of code for mandatory reporting in patient safety reporting system; and absence of code for privilege about patient safety work product. Furthermore we need wider discussions about covering issues of open disclosure, apology law, coroners system, and complaint management system in patient safety law.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.529-535
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• 2022

In order to minimize occupational accidents at worksites, the government is proposing and operating various safety and health policies. The safety and health management capabilities of domestic workplaces vary greatly depending on the size of the workplace, and in particular, safety management is difficult in workplaces with fewer than 50 employees, resulting in a relatively high accident rate. Therefore, the government is operating the safety and health technical support project for small business sites to establish safety and health in small business. In this regard, this study provided a plan for substantiating the safety and health technical support project. through the condition survey of the workplace.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.30 no.sup
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• pp.3.1-3.11
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• 2015

Objectives This study presents the indicators and proxy variables for the quantitative assessment of green chemistry technologies and evaluates the relative importance of each assessment element by consulting experts from the fields of ecology, chemistry, safety, and public health. Methods The results collected were subjected to an analytic hierarchy process to obtain the weights of the indicators and the proxy variables. Results These weights may prove useful in avoiding having to resort to qualitative means in absence of weights between indicators when integrating the results of quantitative assessment by indicator. Conclusions This study points to the limitations of current quantitative assessment techniques for green chemistry technologies and seeks to present the future direction for quantitative assessment of green chemistry technologies.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.141-155
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• 2008

Traditional, complementary, and alternative medicine(CAM) constitutes a major source of health care in developing countries. Its therapies, products and practices are increasing used in industrialized countries, typically by around 50% of the population. However, controls on the provider of CAM services and supply and promotion of complementary medicines are weak in these countries. These trends evoke important public health questions relating to benefits and detriments, safety and quality from medical, financial, and social perspectives. In the western counties, investment in research is increasing, and some guideline is now available for ensuring their quality, efficacy, and safety according to the criteria of evidence-based medicine as legally demanded. National policies and legislation are being developed in many countries and often include partnerships between biomedical and traditional health practitioners. The purposes of the study were to review the policies on CAM, to examine the responses of the government to cope with use of CAM in industrialized countries. Lastly, some implications and recommendation are suggested.