• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.356-363
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• 2006

To investigate the exposure effect of benzene, we measured airborne benzene as external doses, uninary tt-muconic acid as an internal dose of benzene exposure and analyzed the relationship between tt-muconic acid concentration and benzene exposure. The study population of eight businesses included 157 workers(87 workers in field; exposure group, 70 workers in board; control group) who produce or use benzene in petrochemical industry. The concentrations of airborne benzene were evaluated by personal samples and urine was sampled at the pre and end shift. Urinary t,t-muconic acid as internal dose was to analyze the relationship with airborne benzene. The geometric means(GM) of airborne benzene was 0.0231 ppm(range ND-1.0471 ppm) in exposure group and 0.0147 ppm(range ND-0.3162 ppm) in control group. The geometric means(GM) of urinary t,t-muconic acid at end-shift was $196.8{\pm}2.23{\mu}g/g$ creatinine in exposure group and $149.2{\pm}2.08{\mu}g/g$ creatinine in control group. There was significant correlation between the airborne concentration of benzene and the urinary concentration of t,t-muconic acid( r=0.711, p<0.01). From the results of stepwise multiple regression analysis about t,t-muconic acid at end-shift, significant independents was airborne benzene. In this study, there were significant correlation between the urinary concentration of t,t-muconic acid and the airborne concentration of benzene. More extensive studies ruling out healthy worker effect is needed.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.211-217
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• 2012

To identify health behavior of Peptic ulcer patients among all employees in Korea and examine relevant factors to present basic data for improving Korean adult employees' health conditions and quality of living, 3,515 employees aged 20 to 69 were sampled from the group that responded to the question concerning the presence of Peptic ulcer in the fourth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for the third year (2009). After logistic regression analysis was carried out to see the effects of working conditions, harmful factors, shift work, stress perception, and experience of depression on the presence of Peptic ulcer, it was found that unsafe or unpleasant working conditions led to higher risk of getting Peptic ulcer, that flexible workers were more likely to get Peptic ulcer, and that depression or stress perception exerted almost no effect on Peptic ulcer. With the increase in the number of flexible workers, increasingly more interest is taken in the effects of shift work on health; occupational Peptic ulcer tends to become chronic as compared with the condition in the general population and reappear even after recovery in many cases; therefore, it is necessary to take special management measures by estimating the number of those at a risk of getting Peptic ulcer and by finding out its risk factors.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.1846-1851
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• 2007

According to the Railroad Safety Act and section 42 of the Enforcement Ordinance, railway operators should conduct railway safety training regularly(6 or 3 hours per three months). But Overall Railroad Safety Audit conducted 2006 pointed out nonfulfillment of a regulations on railway worker's safety training to each of every 4 railway operators, which proved that the training management had not carried out properly. E-learning is used in various fields with development of Internet and IT technologies. It might be a good alternative tool for railway workers who is in shift working of the company 24 hours a day. Because it is difficult to collect those employees for training, e-learning could overcome obstacles of time and distance. In order to find out suitable e-learning model to railway sector, e-learning system for railway safety training has been researched through investigating e-learning technology and present railway safety training condition.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.540-548
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• 2021

Introduction: Preplacement health examination (PHE) is performed when a worker starts a certain work task which is designated as having occupational risks by the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL). All data related to health examination except PHE are reported to the MOEL by the law. This study has been performed to understand the status of PHE at certain workplaces. Methods: PHE data gathered in a university hospital were analyzed and they were followed with results of the special health examination (SHE) in 2019 and 2020. Those who were evaluated as unfit to work as it was, were interviewed directly or indirectly through an occupational health manager to follow up the management status of their recognized health problems. Results: The unfit to work (unFTW) rate of PHE was 2.8%, and was not different according to the size of workplace or having occupational health service. The major cause of unfit to work was the uncontrolled life-style diseases such as hypertension and diabetes. The rate of SHE followed by PHE was 31.1%. It was not different by the unFTW rates, however, they were different according to having a full time in-house occupational health manager. Thirty-one among 71 examinees who were evaluated as unFTW underwent SHE after controlling their health condition and were finally evaluated as fit to work. Nineteen among 31 started to take medicine and eight have been placed in the work without designated risks. Conclusion: PHE can be used for new workers, who may have unknown or uncontrolled life-style diseases, to be asked to manage life-style diseases as well as work-related risks such as shift work. In order to have a better tracking system for work-related risks, the information of PHE should be analyzed together with other data from health examination.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.27-35
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• 2024

There are ongoing debates on the effectiveness of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act (SAPA) on ensuring safety management and accident prevention, as the annual number of fatal injuries did not decrease even after its enforcement. However, for right appraisal of the effectiveness of SAPA, it must not only be rated based on direct outcomes such as the number of fatal injuries, but also on the indirect effects related to the improvement of the safety management of firms or organizations. A construction superintendent is one of crucial persons who ensure worker safety in construction sites. They must have a high safety consciousness for effective and appropriate safety management in construction sites. In this, the impact of the enforcement of SAPA on the safety consciousness of the construction superintendents is investigated to add a new dimension in the appraisal of the effectiveness of SAPA. DAGMAR-based safety consciousness assessment model is used to measure four safety consciousness components, i.e. awareness, comprehension, conviction, and action. Three hundred and five responses obtained from a survey conducted among construction superintendents are used to analyze the shift of the safety consciousness of the construction superintendents due to the enforcement of SAPA. The results reveal that awareness and comprehension components significantly improved after the SAPA enforcement. Conversely, conviction and action components slightly improved. They also reveal that the changes are more significant for construction superintendents affiliated to principal contractors, compared to those affiliated to subcontractors.

• 대한공업교육학회지
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.82-111
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• 2010

The goal of this paper was to understand the skill-up experiences of ex-participants of the customized training program in Technical High Schools for Small and Medium Business during first 2 years in Company through qualitative interviews with 3 purposefully selected ex-participants. Their core skill-up experience in this period was assumed as the shift from' dependent worker' to 'independent worker' on the base of literature review. The results of this study were following : 1. The small and medium companies offered a few formal training for newcomers, production-site orientation through short job rotation, linking them with skilled workers and job manuals or job standards. 2. Authentic skill-up experiences were combined with a structured reprimand, peer learning, deep learning through reflection on one's own experiences. 3. There were a few handicap conditions that disturbed their skill-up activities: the skilled worker don't open their skill toward new corner; the ex-participants in company had no time to learn anything meaningful to up-grade their competency.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.138-152
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• 2005

Purposes: The purposes of this study are to investigate the definition, components, prevalence, and associated factors of metabolic syndrome and suggest the management strategies for workers. Method: This study was conducted by literature review. Results: Metabolic syndrome by the NCEP-ATP III is the clustering of three or more of five conditions: abdominal obesity, high triglycerides, low levels of HDL cholesterol, high blood pressure, and high glucose(blood sugar). The prevalence of the metabolic syndrome by modified NCEP-ATP III in South Korean workers was about 20 to 25%. Metabolic syndrome is caused by many associated factors, namely, age, family history, socioeconomic status, job strain, shift work, psychosocial distress, bad health behaviprs and so on. Conclusions: To prevent metabolic syndrome at worksites, multifactorial risk factor assessments and preventive approaches are required. Socioeconomic factors such as education, working status should be nationally importantly considered for the health inequality of workers. Occupational health nurse, at first, can start weight control, smoking cessation program. stress management, the improvement of work environment. Next stage, early diagnosis and treatment for metabolic risk group can be performed.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.42 no.7
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• pp.1095-1104
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• 2012

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the contribution of actual cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, as well as, individual, psychosocial, and work-related factors as predictors of CVD risk perception among Korean blue-collar workers. Methods: The participants were 238 Korean blue-collar workers who worked in small companies. Data were collected through a survey; anthropometric and blood pressure measures; and blood sampling for lipid levels. Results: Blue-collar workers had high actual CVD risk and low CVD risk perception. The significant predictors of risk perception included perceived health status, alcohol consumption, knowledge of CVD risk, actual CVD risk, decision latitude, and shift work. The model explained 26% of the variance in CVD risk perception. Conclusion: The result suggests when occupational health nurses are giving routine health examination in small companies, they can enhance CVD risk perception in blue-collar workers by providing essential information about CVD risk factors and personal counseling on the individual worker's CVD risk status.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.149-156
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• 2017

In this paper, we propose to enhance a Physical working conditions to decrease absence from work. we demonstrated the correlation of worker's absence with various environmental factors in workplace by surveying 6,962 workers. As result, first, concerning exposure to physical work factors, most of them complained of vibration, and concerning exposure to improper working posture, most of them complained of repetitive arm and hand motions. Second, the absence experience had correlations with age, monthly income, smoking, number of employees, long term working, and shift work, and of the physical factors, hand vibration, noise, high temperature, low temperature and improper working posture had correlations with physical pain posture, movement of people and carrying heavy materials. Third, experience of exposure to hand vibration, noise and low temperature of the physical factors had impact on absence, and of the improper working posture, physical pain posture and carrying heavy stuff had impacts on absence. Through this study, it was found that of the work factors of Korean workers, physical factors and improper working posture had impacts on absence. The results of this study confirmed that physical factors and inappropriate working posture among work factors influenced the absenteeism. Therefore, it is required to improve the work environment regarding physical risk factors and prepare a systematic management plan.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.8
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• pp.117-126
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• 2021

The increasing number of retrenchments because of the current global pandemic, Covid-19, has led many to shift to the digital economy, especially among the low-income group (B40) in Malaysia. Crowdsourcing is the collection of information, opinions, or work from a group of people, usually sourced via the Internet. Fueled by the development of Internet-based platforms that provided its technological foundation, and the need for an agile and uniquely skilled workforce, crowdsourcing has grown from the grassroots, with a burgeoning body of research investigating its many aspects. However, very few studies examined crowd workers' motivation for continuous participation on online crowdsourcing platforms. Thus, this paper aims to explore the technological factors that facilitate B40's group motivation in Malaysia to continue to participate in online crowdsourcing platforms. This paper employed a qualitative approach, using a semi-structured interview. The thematic analysis method was used to decode the data extracted from the interview transcript. The finding of this study identified four main themes and seven sub-themes: (1) Technology efficacy, (2) Platform Management: client-worker management, safety net, payment mechanism, (3) Platform Design: UI design, rating feature and (4) Infrastructure: Internet connection, technology infrastructure. This study can provide a guideline for managing crowdsourcing practices in Malaysia, especially for the crowdsourcing platform developer.