• International Journal of Railway
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.48-54
• /
• 2012

The main purpose of this study is to highlight the importance and validity of introduction of stress-concerned aptitude items for the safety critical workers, corresponding to the radical environmental change in railway industry. To attain this purpose, the author performed a brief literature survey, and scrutinized the western practice in detail. Then, the necessity of introduction of stress-related aptitude items was suggested, based on the statistics resulted from a survey which has been once performed for experts and drivers. The final conclusion is that the present selection system through which the safety critical workers are being staffed, without any rigorous screening mechanisms cannot but have some limitations. So, an overall restructuring for aptitude management system needs to be done in order for us to advance to the position of upper-class railway country.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
• /
• v.12 no.5
• /
• pp.605-612
• /
• 2009

The purpose of this article is to empirically suggest the necessity of reconsidering the new aptitude factors such as the ability to withstand work stress, to handle unusual events, and to work independently, in the respect that the environmental change in railway safety-critical worker's job should be flexibly reflected in the current aptitude management system. Besides, several ways of reducing the stress level for the railway safety-critical workers were suggested as well.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
• /
• 2015.10a
• /
• pp.138-141
• /
• 2015

The South Korean construction industry has shown a high proportion of industrial accidents (approximately 28% of whole injuries) and the continuously increasing accident rate. Although many safety research emphasized that the 3E (Enforcement, Education, and Engineering) approach is a potential solution to enhance workplace safety, there should be benefits to consider psychological (i.e., Emotional) effects on the safety performance since most construction works are human-oriented. Thus, understanding construction workers' psychological conditions can be a priority. This research studied the relationships between psychological conditions-which cover stress, personal temperament, emotional disturbance, and drinking habit-and specific safety-related factors including safety motivation and knowledge, and safety performance of individual workers at a construction site. This study conducted a survey of 430 respondents and analyzed the data with the multiple linear regressions. The results imply persistence, trait anxiety, and problem-focused coping style are the critical factors that should be controlled for enhancing jobsite safety. Finally, the research outcomes could be applied to build a strategic safety management plan for a construction manager.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
• /
• 2015.10a
• /
• pp.142-146
• /
• 2015

Human resources development is considered a critical issue for improving productivity of workers in construction industry. The aim of this study is to identify and rank the key motivating factors that impact skilled workers productivity according to their relative importance. A total of 27 factors were identified through a literature review, which were categorized into 2 group financial and un-financial motivators. A questionnaire instrument was adopted in this study. The study revealed that the most significant group which affected skilled workers' productivity in construction projects was financial group with the recognition of the un-financial group importance. The results emphasized that the financial group has an edge over the un-financial group which reflect the priority of need for the respondents. The results indicated that the un-financial group represents a backbone in its importance after the financial group which reflects that un-financial factors can improve productivity. The findings showed that the provision of companies to safety conditions factor such as protective safety clothing and protective equipment was ranked very low by the respondents. This is due to the dominant culture of the workers as well as the lack of their awareness regarding their own safety and lack of companies' interest in safety and health for workers. Construction companies are advised to take the key motivating factors obtained from the results of this study into serious consideration in order to improve the satisfaction of their workers and improve their productivity.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.133-135
• /
• 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in movement restrictions being instituted globally and the cessation of work at many workplaces. However, during this period, essential services such as healthcare, law enforcement, and critical production and supply chain operations have been required to continue to function. In Singapore, measures were put in place to protect the workers from infection at the workplace, as well as to preserve the operational capability of the essential service in a COVID-19 pandemic environment. This paper critically analyses the measures that were implemented and discusses the extension to broader general industry.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.286-293
• /
• 2022

Background: The death rate of workers due to industrial accidents in South Korea (3.61 persons in 2017) is higher than the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average (2.43) and the fifth highest among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member countries. Although the pandemic of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has changed, the socioeconomic aspects of Korean society, the number of Koreans suffering accidents and the number of deaths in 2020 have increased. It is necessary to take measures to prevent accidents and make comprehensive efforts to return to work. This study proposes research questions about the effect of workers' positive perception on whether to work after accidents and the impact of the experience of rehabilitation services on the return to work. Methods: This research performed a panel logistic regression analysis using data on workers' compensation insurance in Korea for two years (2018-2019). Results: This research finds that workers' positive perceptions of workability and life satisfaction contributed affirmatively to their re-employment. Several factors related to employment (e.g., work period, the number of job qualifications) also positively affect their return to work. However, the experience of rehabilitation services did not have a significant effect on re-employment. The variables of their health conditions (e.g., disability grade, feelings of health problems, age) negatively influenced their return to jobs. Conclusion: These results suggest the importance of workers' mental recovery and the need to innovate rehabilitation services for their employment. Positive thinking and self-rehabilitation could be critical for workers, parallel with social welfare policies.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.8 no.4
• /
• pp.327-328
• /
• 2017

Despite provision of drinking water as the most common method of occupational heat stress prevention, there remains confusion in hydration messaging to workers. During work site interactions in a hot and humid climate, workers commonly report being informed to consume tepid fluids to accelerate rehydration. When questioned on the evidence supporting such advice, workers typically cite that fluid absorption is delayed by ingestion of chilled beverages. Presumably, delayed absorption would be a product of fluid delivery from the gut to the intestines, otherwise known as gastric emptying. Regulation of gastric emptying is multifactorial, with gastric volume and beverage energy density the primary factors. If gastric emptying is temperature dependent, the impact of cooling is modest in both magnitude and duration (${\leq}5$ minutes) due to the warming of fluids upon ingestion, particularly where workers have elevated core temperature. Given that chilled beverages are most preferred by workers, and result in greater consumption than warm fluids during and following physical activity, the resultant increased consumption of chilled fluids would promote gastric emptying through superior gastric volume. Hence, advising workers to avoid cool/cold fluids during rehydration appears to be a misinterpretation of the research. More appropriate messaging to workers would include the thermal benefits of cool/cold fluid consumption in hot and humid conditions, thereby promoting autonomy to trial chilled beverages and determine personal preference. In doing so, temperature-based palatability would be maximized and increase the likelihood of workers maintaining or restoring hydration status during and after their work shift.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.25 no.5
• /
• pp.62-68
• /
• 2010

The main purpose of this study was to examine relative effects on safety behaviors between global feedback and specific feedback at a construction site. Participants were 30 full-time workers at a construction site. Five safety related behaviors were identified as critical behaviors. An ABCB within-group design was adopted. After baseline (A), participants received global feedback on their average percentage of all five target safety behaviors (B). In the next phase, participants received specific feedback on the percentages of individual target behaviors (C). In the final phase, the global feedback condition was reintroduced (B). Results showed that both global feedback and specific feedback were effective in increasing the frequencies of safety behaviors and there were no differences in the effectiveness between the two types of feedbacks.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.11 no.3
• /
• pp.367-371
• /
• 2020

We evaluated the eating pattern, physical activity, and daytime sleepiness level in Chilean shift workers. Fifty, middle-aged adult health workers from a public hospital in Santiago, Chile, were included: a group undergoing shift work (shift workers, including at least one "night shift" and one "long day", n = 33), and day workers under traditional schedule (from 8:00 to 17:00h, n = 17). Body composition, physical activity, and daytime sleepiness levels, and diet characteristics (diet composition, meals' timing, and diet quality) were assessed. Despite similar total energy intake, shift worker showed lower carbohydrate (% of energy) and higher protein intake (both P < 0.01), decreased diet quality, an irregular eating pattern, and delayed meal timing (all P < 0.05). Physical activity and daytime sleepiness levels did not differ between groups. Findings from this first Chilean study in healthcare shift workers support the fact that meal timing and diet quality appear as critical factors for upcoming intervention studies in this group.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.53 no.11
• /
• pp.3505-3516
• /
• 2021

During nuclear facility decommissioning, workers are continuously exposed to high-level radiation. Hence, adequate path planning is critical to protect workers from unnecessary radiation exposure. This work discusses recent development in radioactive path planning and the algorithms recommended for the task. Specifically, we review the conventional methods for nuclear decommissioning path planning, analyze the techniques utilized in developing algorithms, and enumerate the decision factors that should be considered to optimize path planning algorithms. As a major contribution, we present the quantitative performance comparison of different algorithms utilized in solving path planning problems in nuclear decommissioning and highlight their merits and drawbacks. Also, we discuss techniques and critical consideration necessary for efficient application of robots and robotic path planning algorithms in nuclear facility decommissioning. Moreover, we analyze the influence of obstacles and the environmental/radioactive source dynamics on algorithms' efficiency. Finally, we recommend future research focus and highlight critical improvements required for the existing approaches towards a safer and cost-effective nuclear-decommissioning project.