• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.19-34
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• 2023

The purpose of this study was to analyze the three-dimensional hand-related dimensions of elderly women aged 70 to 84 years and to characterize them to develop safety gloves for dementia patients. The 3D data from the 8th Human Size Survey of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Size Korea, were analyzed using the SPSS 26.0 program. The straight thumb length was longer in elderly women aged 70-74 than in those aged 80-84. To analyze the hand type of elderly women, four factors were categorized: hand and finger horizontal factor, hand vertical factor, finger digit V thickness factor, and finger length factor. Elderly women's hand types were categorized as 'long hands and thin fingers', 'thick hands with long fingers', and 'short hands and thick little fingers'. Elderly women aged 70-74 years and 80-84 years were analyzed as having the most 'long hands and thin fingers' type, while older women aged 75-79 years were analyzed as having the most 'thick hands and long fingers' type. It is known that the fingers get thicker and the size of hands increase as age advances, but by the age 80, there is a change in the size of hands again. In future research, it would be worth expanding to other age groups to explore differences between age groups and to develop safety gloves for real-world dementia patients based on the hand types analyzed.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.262-267
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• 2001

Insulating rubber gloves with antibacterial and withstand voltage properties were prepared by blending the natural rubber latex(NRL), waterborne polyurethane(PU) and 4N-chitosan. Tensile strength of rubber glove increased with increasing amount of PU, and elongation decreased. The property of withstand voltage of rubber gloves improved with increasing leaching time, and the rubber gloves showed insulating capability of 10000V at leaching time of 3 hours. Little bacteria existed after 4N-chitosan was added to rubber gloves.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.21 no.3 s.75
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• pp.53-58
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• 2006

Following a Mediterranean fruit fly outbreak in South Australia, a bait spray program involving the pesticides like malathion(MAL) was carried out. During the application, dermal exposure was considered for the pest controllers wearing PVC gloves. However there is a lack of information about PVC glove performance like break through times and permeation rates with MAL, therefore, a new analytical method for HPLC-UV was developed. A standard permeation test cell was used in this study. From the results of this study, more than 96% solubility of MAL was provided at 30% isopropyl alcohol in distilled water as a collecting media. However, there was significant decomposition of MAL when the solutions were kept at over $50^{\circ}C$ for 2-3 hours. As a mobile phase, 50% acetonitrile water solution (pH 6.0) gave the greater sensitivity compared with other compositions of acetonitrile solution. The arm section of the gloves had shorter breakthrough times and higher permeation rates compared with the palm. There was no malathion solution breakthrough up to 24 hours using the 1% MAL working strength solution. When the temperature was changed from $22{\pm}1^{\circ}C\;to\;37{\pm}1^{\circ}C$, the breakthrough times were decreased by 14.5% on palm and 37.5% on arm, and permeation rates were increased significantly. The findings of this study indicate that further investigations on used gloves, periods of use and varying working conditions like tasks and seasons should be carried out to assess potential worst case scenarios.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.921-935
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• 2016

This research analyzed the manual performance of firefighting protective gloves on global markets in order to suggest an evaluation method for firefighting protective gloves wearing comfort. We collected 13 types of firefighting gloves from domestic and international markets (7 types from Korea, 3 types form Europe, 2 types from the U.S and 1 type from Japan). We set the Don-Doff test as a basal requirement for moving toward to further manual performance tests that consist of: ASTM dexterity test, Minnesota dexterity test, Bennett hand tool test and ASTM torque test. All gloves were evaluated in dry and wet conditions, we included eight current male firefighters ($43.4{\pm}7.0yr$ in age, $173.1{\pm}4.4cm$ in height, $79.9{\pm}9.2kg$ in body mass) for the tests. Four gloves (1 Korea, 1 U.S, 1 Germany, and 1 Japan) out of thirteen firefighting gloves passed the Don-Doff test and had great subject preferences. There was no significant difference between dry and wet conditions on the ASTM dexterity test, Minnesota dexterity test, Bennett hand tool test and ASTM torque test. However, Japanese gloves had the greatest score and showed 3-4 times faster completion time on the ASTM dexterity test (p<.05), 1.2-1.5 times faster on the Minnesota dexterity test (p<.05), as fast as the bare hand on Bennett hand tool test (p<.05), and greater performance on the ASTM torque test compared to bare hand. In conclusion, Don-Doff test in wet conditions should be the first step for a mobility evaluation of domestic firefighting protective gloves; subsequently, a comprehensive test assorting ASTM, Minnesota, and Bennett test should be developed as a second step. The current ASTM torque test can be adopted as a third step. This three-step-method for evaluating firefighting protective glove mobility can be expected to expand into surveys of other safety gloves in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.241-248
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• 2015

This study was aimed to investigate factors that affected the status of wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) for handling poultry carcasses with potential exposure to virulent avian infectious agents. A large outbreak of high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) occurred in South Korea in 2014. Many public officers participated for euthanizing and handling livestock carcass. However, several safety issues with using PPE were revealed. Therefore, a questionnaire survey was conducted for 340 people who participated euthanasia and carcass disposal in the place where HPAI mainly occurred in 2014. It was found that 31.8% of the respondents had ever taken off their protective equipment during operations because of its inconvenience. The most inconvenient PPE was goggles (54.6%), followed by mask (20.2%), latex gloves (11.6%), shoe covers (5.9%) and protective clothing (5.3%). The main complaints about this individual PPE was unclear sight, damp emitted toward eye, sweating, tearing easily and sweating, respectively. Considering such problems of PPE, new possible directions for improvement of gloves and goggles were suggested. With newly developed rubber coating fabric gloves and conventionally using latex and fabric gloves, H3N2 influenza virus transmission experiment was conducted. Rubber coating fabric gloves showed similar efficiency for blocking virus transmission with latex laboratory gloves and were not easily torn by sharp claws of chicken. In addition, air flow control safety eyewear was suggested to minimize moisture formation. The air flow control system efficiently suppressed moisture formation inside the goggles. Therefore our study will provide more specific directions about new PPE development for safety protection of actual wearers.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.60-67
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• 2020

This study determined the microbial contamination levels of hot pepper at harvest, sorting, and distribution stages to suggest a way of reducing the microbial contamination of hot peppers by changing work gloves used throughout these processes. According to the monitoring results, the contamination levels of total aerobic bacteria (TAB) were found in the following order: soil (5.3±0.9 log CFU/g), hot pepper (4.2±0.9 log CFU/g), gloves (4.2±0.6 log CFU/g), baskets (4.1±0.7 log CFU/ g), clippers (3.9±0.6 log CFU/ g) and water (3.2±1.1 log CFU/g) at harvest stage. The contamination level of coliforms were found in the following order: soil (2.2±0.9 log CFU/g), hot pepper (2.2±0.3 log CFU/g), gloves (2.1±0.6 log CFU/g), clippers (2.0±0.21 log CFU/ g) and baskets (1.9±1.1 log CFU/ g) at harvest stage. TAB on hot pepper at the harvest stage was reduced from 4.2±0.9 log CFU/g to cold storage 3.8±0.2 log CFU/g and room temperature storage 2.6±0.3 log CFU/g, respectively. By the replacement of work gloves and lower distribution temperature, TAB levels of the peppers were significantly reduced compared to those without replacement and distributed at room temperature. In addition, the utilization of plasma was effective on reducing microbial contamination of hot pepper. These results demonstrated that appropriate replacement of gloves at the harvest stages, using plasma in the distribution stage, and refrigerated distribution conditions, which are simple and easy to practice in the field, are effective to reduce microbial contamination on hot peppers.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.17-22
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• 2014

Background: Health care professionals (HCPs) are at high risk of contracting blood-borne infections due to their occupational exposure to blood and body fluids (BBFs). The incidence of these infections among HCPs are higher in low income countries such as Ethiopia. The aim of the study was to investigate the extent of occupational exposure to BBFs and its associated factors among HCPs in Bahir Dar town, Ethiopia. Methods: A cross-sectional study was used from October 1, 2012 to October 30, 2012. Three hundred and seventeen HCPs were included in the study using a simple random sampling technique. The data were collected using a structured questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 16. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to identify the factors related to exposure to BBFs. Results: Two hundred and nine (65.9%) HCPs were exposed to BBFs in the past year, of which 29.0% were needlestick injuries. Work experience [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 4.13, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.56-10.91], inconsistent use of gloves (AOR 1.98, 95% CI 1.04-3.43), and not complying with standard precautions (AOR 1.80, 95% CI 1.00-3.22) were the factors associated with occupational exposure to BBFs. Conclusion: A high proportion of HCPs was exposed to BBFs in this study. Occupational exposure to BBFs was determined by the use of gloves and not complying with standard precautions. Ensuring the availability of gloves, training about standard precautions, and motivation of HCPs to implement standard precautions should be emphasized to avoid such exposures.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.769-780
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• 2017

Purpose: The aim of this study is to conduct a survey of dimethylformamide(DMF) content in polyurethane(PU)-based consumer products and provide the information for the PU manufacturer and company to prepare a countermeasure for improving the quality competitiveness. Methods: This study selected PU-based consumer products(toddler shoes, children's bag, children's play mat, safety gloves), which is closely used in everyday life, and analyzed the residual DMF content in the consumer products. Results: In this study, it was confirmed that the average DMF content of toddler shoes, children's bag, children's play mat and safety gloves are 38 ppm, 119 ppm, 396 ppm and 826 ppm, respectively. In addition, most of the samples were found to meet the internationally accepted standard of 1,000 ppm and the DMF contents were reduced from at least 63 % to 85 % with a single washing process. Conclusion: The domestic PU manufacturers should seek ways to reduce the DMF through their production facility applications and introducing new materials such as water-soluble PU, and preparing the process development for their quality competitiveness.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.63-71
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• 2010

Purpose: This study was conducted to evaluate the incidence and risk factors for surgical glove perforation during operation. Methods: During the month of december 2008, a total of 1,400 pairs of surgical gloves used in major operations was collected in a tertiary hospital. All gloves were examined immediately after operation using the standardized water-leak method to detect any perforation. Incidence of the glove perforation was counted according to the type of operation, operation time, the number of involved personnel, perforation sites, and the manufacturing companies. Results: Out of 2,800 gloves examined, 312 perforations were detected comprising 11.1% of samples. In terms of the type of operation, the perforation incidence varied from 5% to 20%, and the perforation rates in CS (20%) and NS (18%) (p<.001) were significantly higher than those in other departments. The 1st assistant or scrub nurse got glove perforation more frequently than the 2nd assistant or operator (p<.001). Longer operation time was associated with higher incidence of perforation evidently (p<.001). In terms of the sites, the thumb and index finger were more frequently perforated than other sites (4.1% and 3.4% respectively) without any differences between left and right side. Conclusion: Risk factors for glove perforation including the department of operation, operation time, participating personnel, and location of perforation should be taken into account to improve surgical safety.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.136-147
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to analyze four cases of firefighter burns in various fire scenes and to find prevention measures to decrease firefighter injuries. Among the analysis reports prepared by the National Fire Research Institute of Korea from 2016 to 2020, four burn-related accidents are summarized and the main causes are conveyed. The four accidents include second-degree burns from using extinguishers during containment of fires; nine firefighters burned due to re-ignition in the LPG car repair shop; two firefighters injured with third-degree burns from using fire extinguishers during life-saving events in residential housing; and injuries from the radiant heat of the tank BLEVE near the factory fire. These cases are comprehensively investigated in their respective scenes and analyzed based on the fire site investigation reports from the fire department and related theoretical explanations of risk for each accident scene. In the third case study, some experimental research is conducted to evaluate the risk involved with the use of safety gloves. This is evaluated by reviewing Fire Tactics and Standard Operational Procedures (SOP) to determine improvements and recommendations for an efficient firefighting response. Results show that the main causes of burn accidents are the insufficient use of personal protective equipment (PPE), such as safety gloves, and the failure to follow firefighting tactics or SOPs. Through the accident investigation and assessment, it is concluded that to reduce the frequency of burn accidents, the performance of firefighting equipment, SOPs, protection tactics, and safety policy systems require improvement.