• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.372-377
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• 2020

Infection risks of handling specimens associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by public health laboratory services teams were assessed to scrutinize the potential hazards arising from the work procedures. Through risk assessments of all work sequences, laboratory equipment, and workplace environments, no aerosol-generating procedures could be identified except the procedures (mixing and transfer steps) inside biological safety cabinets. Appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) such as surgical masks, protective gowns, face shields/safety goggles, and disposable gloves, together with pertinent safety training, was provided for laboratory work. Proper disinfection and good hand hygiene practices could minimize the probability of SARS-CoV-2 infection at work. All residual risk levels of the potential hazards identified were within the acceptable level. Contamination by gloved hands was considered as a major exposure route for SARS-CoV-2 when compared with eye protection equipment. Competence in proper donning and doffing of PPE accompanied by hand washing techniques was of utmost importance for infection control.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.425-429
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• 1998

Three pork fabrication processing were examined for isolation and serotyping of Listeria monocytogenes. Three hundred thirty samples were collected from gloves, knife sharpeners, knives, cutting boards, conveyer belts, skinning machines, working room air, pig carcasses, and cut meat. Among the 234 samples taken from processing environment, the isolation rates of Listeria monocytogenes and other Listeria spp. were 17.5%, 34.2% respectively. Isolation rates of Listeria monocytogenes from different specimens during processing were 20.8% in gloves, 21.3% in knife sharpeners, 14.6% in knives, 20.8% in cutting boards, 28.6% in conveyer belts, 16.7% in skinnig machines. Listeria monocytogenes and other Listeria spp. were not detected in working room air. Isolation rate of Listeria monocytogenes 14.6% in pork was increased compared to that of 8.5% in pig carcasses (p<0.05). The serovars of 41 isolates from processing environment were 4b 36.6%, 1/2a 24.4%, 4ab 17.0%, 4a 4.9%, 1/2c 2.4%, and 4c 2.4%. The serovars of 4b, 1/2a, 4ab were detected from carcassess and cut meats.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.61-70
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• 2010

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine knowledge, perception, safety climate and compliance with hospital infection standard precautions and to identify the factors influencing nurse's compliance with standard precautions. Methods: Using the structured survey, data were collected from 292 nurses working at 4 general hospitals in the metropolitan city Seoul in October, 2008. Data were entered and analyzed with SPSS 12.0. Results: The majority of nurses were female with a mean age of 27.8. The mean score for knowledge of standard precautions was 21.2 out of 25. The nurses lacked knowledge on reusable gloves or gowns. Nurses perceived use of protective devices may not only increase time strain but also hinder development of therapeutic relationships with patients. Of safety climate factors, lack of time was the most frequently reported barrier to compliance with standard precautions. Knowledge, perception, and safety climate explained 16.1% variance of compliance with standard precautions. Conclusion: To improve nurses' compliance with standard precautions, provision of education and support for safety climate are necessary.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.51-59
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• 1986

This study was conducted to analyse the exact causes of occupational accidents in Korean construction industry and to contribute to the accident prevention programs. The results and conclusions of the field survey are as follows ： 1) The accidents caused by hazardous conditions are 96 percent, and those by unsafe acts are 97.3 percent. The accidents caused simultaneously by two categories are nore than 96 percent. 2) The injured workers who were employed less than 3 months are 71.1 percent. Safety training for newly recruited workers should be required. 3) More than 40 percent of all accidents were occurred in the morning and more than 30 percent were in summer. Required caution should be paid for the time and season. 4) Fracture, cut/laceration/puncture and multiple injuries in the lower extremeties, upper entremeties and head as well as many kinds of injuries by the fall from elevation mainly occurred. Safety. shoes, safety gloves, safety helmets, safety glasses, face shields and safity belts should be used 5) As the sources of injuries, each of building/structure and materials is one third of all sources, and machinery is a quarter. 6) The use of hazardous methods/procedures, defects of agencies and inadequate guarding of builing/structure, materials' and machinery mainly caused the accident types, such as s truck by, struck against, fall from elevation, and fall on same level. Such a hazardous conditiion should not be used and be correctet 7) The unsafe acts, such as improper use of hands or body parts, the operation or working at unsafe speed and improper use of equipment mainly caused accidents. Safety training for the control of such a unsafe acts should be strengthened.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.sup3
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• pp.205-211
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• 2016

Excessive exposure to chemicals in the workplace can cause poisoning and various diseases. Thus, for the protection of labor, it is necessary to examine the exposure of people to chemicals and risks from these materials. The purpose of this study is to evaluate semi-quantitative health risks of exposure to harmful chemical agents in the context of carcinogenesis in a latex glove manufacturing industry. In this cross-sectional study, semi-quantitative risk assessment methods provided by the Department of Occupational Health of Singapore were used and index of LD50, carcinogenesis (ACGIH and IARC) and corrosion capacity were applied to calculate the hazard rate and the biggest index was placed as the basis of risk. To calculate the exposure rate, two exposure index methods and the actual level of exposure were employed. After identifying risks, group H (high) and E (very high) classified as high-risk were considered. Of the total of 271 only 39 (15%) were at a high risk level and 3% were very high (E). These risks only was relevant to 7 materials with only sulfuric acid placed in group E and 6 other materials in group H, including nitric acid (48.3%), chromic acid (6.9%), hydrochloric acid (10.3%), ammonia (3.4%), potassium hydroxide (20.7%) and chlorine (10.3%). Overall, the average hazard rate level was estimated to be 4 and average exposure rate to be 3.5. Health risks identified in this study showed that the manufacturing industry for latex gloves has a high level of risk because of carcinogens, acids and strong alkalisand dangerous drugs. Also according to the average level of risk impact, it is better that the safety design strategy for latex gloves production industry be placed on the agenda.

• 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.21 no.2
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• pp.110-115
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• 2011

Objectives: The aim of this study is to survey for finding asbestos containing equipment at the laboratories using picture based questionnaire and polarized light microscopic analysis. Methods: This study was conducted from 2009 to 2010 at a university in Seoul. In 2009, picture based questionnaire was distributed to 100 laboratories during the regular laboratory air quality monitoring. In 2010, we emailed all professors of the same university who have laboratories to participate voluntarily this survey. For the laboratories consented to participate survey, picture based questionnaire was distributed and collected. Suspected asbestos containing material and apparatus were collected at the laboratories which replied they have suspected material and equipment. Collected samples were analyzed with polarized light microscope at the laboratory accredited by ministry of employment and labor in Korea. Results: Total of 18 out of 100 laboratories reported that they had suspected asbestos containing equipment in 2009. Twenty-three samples were collected and three samples (13%), one heating mantle and two pairs of insulation gloves, contained asbestos. Thirty four laboratories reported they had suspected asbestos containing material or equipment in 2010. Sixty samples were collected and four of them (6%), two pairs of insulation gloves, one packing rope in dry oven and, one pair of tongs, contained asbestos. All founded asbestos was chrysotile and the content of chrysotile was more than 90% for all equipment except heating mantle which has less than 1%. Conclusions: We confirmed that asbestos was still used at the laboratories though strict regulations on asbestos use in Korea. The method of picture based questionnaire invented in this study could be applied for asbestos survey to other research institute or university where there are many laboratories because of its simplicity and accessibility without huge man power, cost and time.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.435-441
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• 2014

Objectives: Bisphenol A, or BPA, is a chemical component in polycarbonate plastic with which many people come into contact every day. A great deal of controversy has arisen over its safety since this material, which is known to disrupt the human endocrine system and cause neurological difficulties and cancer, is commonplace in beverage containers, food can liners, and receipt paper rolls. In this study, we determined the levels of exposure to BPA of workers in the service industry depending on the number of receipts contacted. Methods: The participants were 16 male and 18 female workers employed in the service industry. Using a questionnaire, we investigated general and job characteristics. Urine samples were collected and analyzed by the LC-MS/MS technique after enzymatic hydrolysis and solid phase extraction (SPE). Results: The geometric mean (GM) concentration of urinary BPA from all subjects was 1.02 ng/ml. Workers were exposed significantly to more BPA according to the number of receipts they contacted, their work experience, and working hours per day. The BPA concentration of those who touched more than 100 receipts per day was 3.09 ng/ml, while that of the other participants was 0.61 ng/ml. It was shown that wearing gloves can protect from BPA exposure. Conclusion: We determined the urinary BPA concentrations of workers in service industry and found that the contact with receipts could increase the BPA exposure of service workers.

• Journal of the FoodService Safety
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.8-18
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• 2022

Dry-aging is one of the traditional aging processes, especially for beef. This aging process is being popular, because it produces unique brown/roasted flavor and texture that consumers prefer. However, as it is exposed to outside without packaging food safety concerns have been raised. The objective of this study was to investigate the presence of total aerobic bacteria (TAB) and pathogenic bacteria in manufacturing environment and suggest the safety management plan for the production of dry-aged meat. Surface samples from 66 environmental and 6 beef carcass samples were collected. According to the monitoring results, the contamination levels of TAB were in the order of shelves (5.4±1.1 Log CFU/cm²), cotton gloves (2.9±0.2 Log CFU/cm²), and door knobs (2.8±0.4 Log CFU/cm²) in the dry-aging room. In the door knobs, the level of mold was higher than that of yeast. These results indicate that the mold spores may be cross-contaminated with environmental factors inside the aging room. The risk factors that may occur during the manufacturing process were presented and possibility of risk was determined. From the aspect of microbiology, aging and trimming steps were determined as the critical control points. The temperature of the aging room should be maintained below 10℃ and the humidity below 75-85%. Based on the monitoring and the risk assessment of the dry-aging process, we prepared the safety management plan for the production of dry-aged meat, and it should be useful in improving the food safety of dry-aged meat.

• KEPCO Journal on Electric Power and Energy
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.49-53
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• 2022

The distribution live-line work method is an operation method of working in a state in which electricity flows through overhead distribution lines to minimize inconvenience to electric customers due to power failure. In June 2016, to strengthen the safety of electrical workers, Korea Electric Power Corporation announced that it would in principle abolish the rubber glove method, in which workers wore protective equipment such as rubber gloves and performed their maintenance work. In addition, KEPCO announced that it would develop a short-range live working method using smart sticks and an advanced live-line maintenance robot system where workers work without touching wires directly. This paper is a preliminary study for the development of the live-line maintenance robot system, and deals with the results of analyzing the technical feasibility of whether the live works performed by workers can be replaced by robots or not.