• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.490-495
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• 2021

Introduction: The risk of experiencing psychiatric symptoms related to the COVID-19 pandemic is high among healthcare workers whose occupations are in public health, emergency medicine, and intensive or critical care. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study aimed to assess the prevalence of fear of COVID-19 among 411 frontline Egyptian physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic; identify determinants and predictors for fear of COVID-19; determine the impact of fear of COVID-19 on job satisfaction; and detect the impact of fear of COVID-19 on turnover intention. Three standardized scales (fear of COVID-19, job satisfaction, and turnover intention scores) were used for data collection via online Google Form. Results: Regarding fear relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, 16.5% of the study subjects were classified as experiencing a severe fear level, while 78.1% experienced a moderate degree. A significant association between the level of fear relating to COVID-19 and the work department. The highest degree of fear is in a general-educational-university facility. Regarding job satisfaction, 42% of those having a severe level of fear are dissatisfied. Fear of COVID-19 is negatively associated with job satisfaction while positively significant correlated with turnover scores, a positive significant predictor of turnover intention. Job satisfaction is negatively associated with turnover intention; a negative significant predictor of turnover intention. Conclusions: Frontline Egyptian physicians reported higher levels of fear relating to the COVID-19 pandemic (moderate to severe). Increased fear levels relating to COVID-19 have a relationship with lower levels of job satisfaction and higher levels of job turnover.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.35-41
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• 2016

Particulate filtering facepiece respirators (PFFR) is one of the most widely used items of personal protective equipments, and a tight fit of the respirators on the wearers is critical for the protection effectiveness. In order to effectively protect the workers through the respirators, it is important to find and evaluate the ways that can be readily applicable at the workplace to improve the fit of the respirators. This study was designed to evaluate effects of mask style (cup or foldable type) and donning training on fit factors (FF) of the respirators, since these are available at various workplace, especially at small business workplace. A total of 40 study subjects, comprised of 30~50s aged male and female workers in metalworking industries, were enrolled in this study. The FF were quantitatively measured before and after training related to the proper donning and use of cup or foldable-type respirators. The pass/fail criterion of FF was set at 100. After the donning training for the cup-type mask, subjects who passed the fit test were increased from 10 to 33. Moreover, the geometric mean (GM) of FF was increased by 340% in subjects who failed the test. In addition, the training effects for the cup-type mask were significant in female and 50s aged subjects. On the other hand, although the GM of FF for the foldable-type mask was also increased after the donning training, the GM of FF for the foldable-type mask and it's increase rate were smaller as compared to the cup-type mask. Furthermore, the differences of the increase rates of the GM of FF in sex and aged of the subjects were not significantly for the foldable-type mask. The multi-distribution of leak points for the foldable-type mask may be one of causes for the less effect of training on the fit of the foldable-type mask. These results imply that the raining on the donning and use of PFFR can enhance the protection effectiveness of cup or foldable-type mask, and that the training effects for the foldable-type mask is less significant than that for the cup-type mask. Therefore, It is recommended that the donning training and fit tests should be conducted before the use of the PFFR, and that efficient tranining programs for the foldable-type mask are required.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.59-67
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• 2017

Shift workers experience a disruption in the circadian sleep-wake rhythm, which brings upon adverse health effects such as fatigue, insomnia and decreased sleep quality. Moreover, shift work has deleterious effects on both work productivity and safety. In this review, we present a brief overview of the current literature on the consequences of shift work, especially focusing on attention-associated cognitive decline and related behavioral changes. We searched two electronic databases, PubMed and RISS, using key search terms related to cognitive domains, deleterious effects, and shift work. Twenty studies were eligible for the final review. The consequences of shift work can be classified into the following three categories extracted from the literature review : 1) work accidents ; 2) commuting accidents such as car accidents that occur on the way to and from work ; and 3) attendance management at work (i.e., absenteeism, tardiness, and unscheduled early departure). These cognitive and behavioral consequences of shift work were also found to be associated with sleep disorders in shift workers. Thus, improvements in the shift work system are necessary in order to enhance workers' health conditions, work productivity, and safety.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.182-192
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• 2014

Objectives: The aim of this study is to analyze the current status of possession of measurement and analytical instruments at work environment monitoring organizations and their relationships with human resources, including the number of professional engineers and evaluation scores resulting from evaluation programs in 2012. Materials: Data for measurement and analytical instruments were gathered by inspectors who had been assigned by the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency(KOSHA) and the Ministry of Employment and Labor(MoEL) during the evaluation program for 2012. Data for 11 monitoring instruments and nice pieces of analytical equipment were collected from 103 organizations. Additional data such as the type of service provides and the number of professional engineers employed were also recorded by the inspectors. Evaluation scores could be acquired from KOSHA. Results: Comprehensive Occupational Health Service Providers showed good operation quality, while University or Hospital Subsidiary and Work Environment Monitoring Organizations recorded relatively poor results. Evaluation scores correlated well with the possession of measurement instruments and human resources for each organization. High yields provided by professional engineers also showed statistically-associated contributions to evaluation scores and monitoring instrument possession. Compared with monitoring instruments, the amount of analytical equipment had little positive impact on organizations' competence. Conclusions: The evaluation results for domestic monitoring organizations revealed that human resources, possession of instruments, and the quality of employees were critical factors for operating the corporations. Each organization should give considerable effort to improving their ability to strengtheninternal quality, resulting in high-yield production for workers and employers by providing improved workplace monitoring services.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.261-271
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• 2024

The widespread adoption of aluminum slab formwork in modern construction, evident in both domestic and international projects, offers numerous advantages. However, a critical challenge persists regarding the dismantling process for these slabs. The current industry standard involves dropping the slabs to the ground floor upon removal. This practice raises several concerns, notably the generation of significant noise pollution that disrupts nearby communities. More importantly, the risk of worker injuries due to falls from height during the dismantling process is a serious safety hazard. Additionally, the impact from dropping the slabs can damage the aluminum itself, leading to increased replacement costs. These drawbacks necessitate the exploration of alternative dismantling techniques that prioritize worker safety, material sustainability, and overall process efficiency. Accordingly, in this study, when the entire first-generation slab formwork of an apartment house is simultaneously lowered to a reachable position for workers, it is then disassembled and lifted for transport to the next floor. This approach has the potential to demonstrate improvements in safety, quality, economy, and process efficiency.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.50-62
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• 2003

Exposure to metalworking fluids (MWFs) has significantly been associated with cancer developed in multi-organs, respiratory diseases and skin diseases. Several carcinogens to humans or animals are contained in MWFs. They have been reported to be mineral oils, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), formaldehyde and N-nitrosodiethanolamine (NDELA). The great hazards of MWF have forced the advanced country including United States to regulate carcinogens contained in MWF. In 2001, American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIHs) regarded MWF mist as suspected carcinogen to human (A2) and added it to “Notice of Intended Change (NIC)” list of 2001. In spite of the fact that much MWF has widely been used in many industries using machines, Korea has no legal actions for management of MWF. What is worse, even toxicity such as Carcinogenicity has not been reported. KS (Korean Standards) lists 7 advices of MWF but it does net state the hazards to health. It is very hard to control or minimize worker's exposure to MWF containing many carcinogens. Prier to the introduction of MWF to workplace, it is the most effective measure to regulate carcinogens below a certain level. Regulation on the content of PAH seems to be necessary because less amount of PAH in mineral oils improves the quality of MWF. Also, addition of nitrosating groups to MWF should be prohibited to minimize worker's exposure to NDELA. Employers and manufacturers should indicate the Carcinogenicity of all carcinogens in MWFs in Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) in order fer workers to recognize Carcinogenicity. Legal actions have to be taken to protect workers from health hazards due to exposure to MWF by further investigation on MWF.

• Journal of The Korean Digital Architecture Interior Association
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.5-13
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• 2011

This research proposed the space planing methode and diagrams of restaurant kitchens to improve hygiene by analyzing the related contents collected from books and researches in interior design and HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point). HACCP is an effective and scientific hygiene system for food safety in order to prevent cross-contamination from food hazards. Based on the analyses, improvement of food production environments like restaurant kitchens is necessary for food hygiene. The space planing methode of restaurant kitchens to improve hygiene are followings: The circulation planing is that the direction of movement of the food, workers, waste, and dishes should be fractionated and managed for cross-contamination prevention. The space separation planing is that the spaces in the kitchen should be classified and divided into contaminated area and non-contaminated and clean area depending on the degree of cleanliness. The zoning is space arrangement with feed-back process to check the possible points of cross-contamination and correct space arrangement until the possibility of cross-contamination disappear in kitchen. However, if cross-contamination is unavoidable in some points in restaurant kitchens, hygiene facilities such as washing rooms, pass rooms, and double doors with air-shower should be located in order to remove contamination.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.109-118
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• 2005

A concrete shear wall system is commonly adopted in high-rise residential apartment buildings. In the construction stage, a rectangular opening is often made for the convenience of horizontal movement of workers, and construction materials and equipment. In the case of safety or stability assessment of a shear wall, the cutout part can be a critical factor. Finite element method is adopted to investigate the elastic stability behavior of the perforated unit shear wall. The key analysis parameters are the cutout location and its size. The effect of out-of-plane bending and horizontal shear are also examined in the stability analysis.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.66-73
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• 2019

Thanks to various efforts to reduce disasters by the government and the Health and Safety Authority, disasters across industries and the construction industry show their reduction trend. However, the falling disasters in the construction industry have not decreased and increased on the contrary. Especially falling disaster caused by Hanging Scaffolding is the most critical disaster which shows low occurrence frequency but is directly connected to death of worker. The working environment for Hanging Scaffolding is poor in domestic construction site. In particular, the Hanging Scaffolding workers in small construction sites are not on the safety control and management by anyone for their works. They are driven to unsafe working condition with mostly uncertified facilities which are made by themselves. Therefore, this study is focused on searching falling disaster factors from the 242 disaster cases caused by Hanging Scaffolding Work in 15 years presented by KOSHA, and trying to provide suggestions for improvement. The improvement of the method of work requires facility improvement and work due to high accident rate caused by unsafe behavior. Analysis of the case of a disaster occurring over the past 15 years shows that no disaster occurred due to problems in the order of operations presented by KOSHA. However, it was found that many accidents resulted from death caused by safety belts not being installed or attached to ropes using safety belts without following the order of work. The most important aspect of improving the work method was the installation and wearing of lifeboats and safety belts.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.145-154
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to analyze the self-status of fire service personnel to identify their effect on self-efficacy and job satisfaction, and to improve the performance of their tasks in the field and perform their tasks efficiently. A survey of 177 current firefighters in the southern city of Gyeonggi Province conducted a correlation analysis and regression analysis through SPSS 22.0. The first study found that in relation to the self-status factor and the self-efficacy factor of firefighting services, the self-efficacy is rather high and the self-regulating effect is very high. Second, the effects of the self-status factor on the self-efficacy were significant in order of type Adult (A), type Free Child (FC), and type Adapted Child (AC). Third, analysis of correlation between self-status factors and job satisfaction factors showed inadequate correlation in all job satisfaction factors for Critical Parent (CP) types, and static correlation in all job satisfaction for Nurturing Parent (NP) types. Type Adapted Child (AC) was less satisfying to itself, to itself, to pay, to promote, to co-workers. Thus, the current strategic approach based on rationality needs to be strengthened by lowering the authority of the Critical Parent (CP) function in terms of self-status factors and enhancing the Adapted Child (AC) function in the lower satisfaction level of the parent.