• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.36-49
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• 2024

Article 79 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act mandates franchise headquarters with over 200 franchises to implement industrial accident prevention measures. Notably, the franchise business information provision system designates restaurants and wholesale/retail as the primary categories for information disclosure, with convenience stores classified as secondary. This study aims to identify law-regulated franchise headquarters and franchises and analyze industrial accidents within these sectors. Furthermore, it seeks to investigate adverse risk factors for individual processes across major industries. Pertinent franchise headquarters and franchises were discerned using the Fair Trade Commission's business information system. Data regarding the status of industrial accidents, as published by the Ministry of Employment and Labor, was leveraged in the analysis of industrial accidents. Additionally, a survey was conducted to derive detrimental factors for each process in major industries. The inquiry revealed a total of 7 wholesale and retail franchise headquarters subject to the law, along with 126 within the restaurant industry. Overall, there were 50,488 franchises in the wholesale and retail sector, and 71,283 in the restaurant business. Risk factors and improvement measures for industrial processes were determined for five industries: convenience stores, Korean food restaurants, coffee places, pizza eateries, and chicken vendors. Locating the currently developed safety and health program establishment guide proves to be challenging. Moreover, utilizing it can be difficult due to the industry-specific content, further complicated by the prevalence of franchise stores featuring numerous small businesses. Therefore, this study highlights the imperative need to develop guidelines that incorporate preventive measures tailored to each industry.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.383-384
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• 2020

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.316-328
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• 2012

Objectives: This study was designed to provide the information regarding chemicals classification and health hazard by evaluating the toxicological effect through repeated inhalation exposure of methyl acrylate(MA) in Sprague-Dawley(SD) rat for 13 weeks. Methods: According to the notification with Ministry of Labor(No. 2009-68) and OECD Test Guideline 413, the rats were exposed to MA at concentration of 0, 56, 168, 280 ppm via whole body inhalation for 6 hours per day, 5 days per week, for 13 weeks. All animals were observed for mortality, morbidity and the change of body weight and food consumption were determined during the exposure period. Necropsy finding, organ weight, hematology, clinical biochemistry and histopathological examination following exposure were also performed. Results: There were no death and abnormal clinical signs relate to exposure MA. However, At 160 ppm and 280 ppm exposure groups, body weight and food consumption showed statistically significant decrease and histopathological changes in lung, trachea, nasal cavity, larynx were observed. Conclusions: MA was mainly affected respiratory tract. It is consequently provided to be classified as category 2(0.2 mg/L/6h < category 2 ${\leq}$ 1.0 mg/L/6h) for specific target organ toxicity following repeated exposure according to Standard for Classification and Labeling of Chemical Substance and Material Safety Data Sheet. The NOAEL(no observable adverse effect level) of MA was also determined to be lower than 56 ppm.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.371-380
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• 2022

Objectives: To ensure that employers handling petroleum compounds understand whether petroleum-based UVCB (unknown or variable composition, complex reaction products, or biological materials) substances contain hazardous substances and comply with the Occupational Safety and Health Act, petroleum-based UVCB substances were analyzed and the results from samples were compared with MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) contents. Methods: Twenty-one petroleum samples were analyzed using GC-MS (Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry), targeting ten volatile organic compounds regulated by the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Results: The target chemicals were detected in 13 out of 21 samples. All 13 samples were in the naphtha (low boiling point naphthas (gasolines)) group. There were also naphtha group samples containing 2% benzene. Some naphtha samples used as solvents contained about 1% benzene. Conclusions: This study shows that naphtha group petroleum substances contain hazardous chemicals in many cases. In particular, if benzene, n-hexane, and toluene with low occupational exposure limits are contained above the limit concentration. Such information should be delivered in the article on MSDS legal regulations.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.83-93
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• 2016

Objectives: This study aimed (1) to share findings from the U.S. on customer use of social media for information seeking and sharing about food recall risks, and (2) to discuss the implications of the findings for the context of food safety and risk communication in Korea. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 1,026 social media users aged 18 years or older in the U.S., recruited from the Knowledge Network's nationally representative panel. Results: About 26 percent of respondents used social media either to seek or share food recall information in the past year, with social networking sites being the most popular tool. With respect to social media use for information seeking, being married, perceived risk of getting foodborne diseases, and trust in Internet were significant, positive predictors; being Whites and trust in health professionals were negative predictors. Social media use for information sharing was positively associated with education, being married, foodborne disease history, and perceived risk of foodborne diseases; Whites, income, and trust in health professionals were negative predictors. Conclusions: The study gives theoretical, methodological, and practical implications for the context of food safety and risks in Korea.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.85-89
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• 2015

Background: The study was designed to assess the changes in working conditions through a comparative analysis of the characteristics of working conditions in 2006 and 2010. Methods: We performed a comparative analysis of the data related to the first Korean Working Conditions Survey (KWCS) and the second KWCS in the categories of demographic characteristics, quality of labor, exposure to hazards, and health problems. Results: From our analysis of the demographic characteristics, we saw an increase in labor force participation rate of women and elderly people. As a result of the investigation with regards to working hours, the ratio of employees who worked for ${\geq}49$ hours per week was decreased and the ratio of employees who worked for ${\geq}40h/wk$ increased. As for exposure to hazards, exposure to tobacco smoke notably decreased in 2010 compared with 2006. With regards to health problems, there was a sharp increase in the number of people who complained of muscle pain in their arms and legs. Conclusion: KWCS data included many aspects of working conditions as a nationwide sample. In addition, because this is a periodic nationwide survey, the labor force, working hours, harmful factor exposure, and the change in health problems characteristics according to the flow of time could be investigated. The information comparing the main results of the first survey conducted in 2006 and the second survey conducted in 2010 obtained through this study can be used as an important base material for the establishment of the national policy.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.175-182
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• 2017

Background: With the recent rapid industrialization, occupational safety and health (OSH) has become an important issue in all industrial and human activities. However, incidents of injuries and fatality rates in the Ghanaian industry sector continue to increase. Despite this increase, there is no evidence regarding the element of OSH management in transport activities in Ghanaian industries. Thus, this study aims to examine the perceptions regarding the importance of safety and health in work-related transport activities in Ghanaian industries. Methods: A survey data collection technique was used to gather information on best safety practices over a 5-month period. We randomly selected 298 respondents from industries to answer structured questionnaires. The respondents included drivers, transport managers, and safety engineers. Standard multiple regression model and Pearson product-movement correlation were used to performed the analysis. Results: The result shows that for interventions to improve safety and health, concentration has been on drivers' safety practice with less attention to safe driving environments and vehicle usage. Additionally, the respondents are aware of the importance of OSH in transport activities, but the level of integration does not measure up to the standard to reduce operational accidents and injuries. Finally, strong commitment to changing unsafe practices at all levels of operations appears to be the effective way to improve safety situations. Conclusion: OSH culture is not fully complied in industries transport activities. This study, therefore, supports the use of safety seminars and training sessions for industry workers responsible for transport operations for better integration of safety standards.

• Proceedings of the Safety Management and Science Conference
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• 2009.04a
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• pp.439-444
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• 2009

Recently ubiquitous sensor network(USN) technique has been applied into various industrial fields such as construction of u-city, civil and architectural engineering, medical areas. The main objective of this paper is to design a u-health system based on USN. Compared to the previous researches, the proposed system in this paper was designed to activate with collected information about health in outdoor environment.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.43-73
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• 2016

Purpose: The aims of this study were to assess the presence of core patient safety practices in Korean hospitals and assess the differences in reporting and learning systems of patient safety, infrastructure, and safe practices by hospital characteristics. Methods: The authors developed a questionnaire including 39 items of patient safety staffing, health information system, reporting system, and event-specific prevention practices. The survey was conducted online or e-mail with 407 tertiary, general and specialty hospitals. Results: About 90% of hospitals answered the self-reporting system of patient safety related events is established. More than 90% of hospitals applied incidence monitoring or root cause analysis on healthcare-associated infection, in-facility pressure ulcers and falls, but only 60% did on surgery/procedure related events. More than 50% of the hospitals did not adopted present on admission (POA) indicators. One hundred (80.0%) hospitals had a department of patient safety and/or quality and only 52.8% of hospitals had a patient safety officer (PSO). While 82.4% of hospitals used electronic medical records (EMRs), only 53% of these hospitals adopted clinical decision support function. Infrastructure for patient safety except EMRs was well established in training, high-level and large hospitals. Most hospitals implemented prevention practices of adverse drug events, in-facility pressure ulcers and falls (94.4-100.0%). But prevention practices of surgery/procedure related events had relatively low adoption rate (59.2-92.8%). Majority of prevention practices for patient safety events were also implemented with a relatively modest increase in resources allocated. Conclusion: The hospital-based reporting and learning system, EMRs, and core evidence-based prevention practices were implemented well in high-level and large hospitals. But POA indicator and PSO were not adopted in more than half of surveyed hospitals and implementation of prevention practices for specific event had low. To support and monitor progress in hospital's patient safety effort, national-level safety practices set is needed.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.254-260
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• 2007

Trichloroethylene(TCE) is widely used as a degreasing solvent in workplaces. TCE is primarily toxic to the nervous system, however, systemic disorder like Stevens-Johnson syndrome has been recently reported in small-scale factories, where the government has had limited information of chemical use. A survey was performed to investigate the actual condition of using TCE and to provide practical information to occupational health service agencies and professionals. This survey was carried out on 103 factories out of 430 factories which were conducted periodic work environment measurement for TCE. Degreasing was the most popular reason for using TCE in Korea, which reached to 94%. TCE was also used as a solvent for rubber in the coating or molding process, and adhesives in the bonding process. Metal fabrication was the most common as 23%, followed by assembling automobile parts (17%), and machinery (12%). Workers exposed to TCE during full-shift were 52% while 48% were exposed during short period of the shift or intermittently. Manual or semi-automatic work occupied 87% while automatic work was just 13%. Though automatic work by a closed system was generally lower exposed to TCE, compared to manual work, it can cause a high exposure when the maintenance system is improper. Semi-automatic work especially like open-top degreasing process can cause a high exposure when local exhaust system with condensing and refrigerating coils in the degreaser does not work well. In conclusion, the survey showed nationwide status of TCE exposure in various aspects. It can be used to monitor workplaces and workers exposed to TCE to prevent occupational diseases.