• Resources Recycling
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.63-71
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• 2009

Recyclable wastes coming into material recovery facilities(MRFs) is mostly packed by plastic bag or sack bag. Bag rupturing device is essential to improve capacity and efficiency of MRFs. Bag opening works of MRFs is mostly done by numerous workers and shredder-type bag rupturing device. It often makes a problems; decreased capacity, shredded recyclables, worker safety by explosion and broken glasses, etc. In the present work, bag rupturing device with octagonal rotating blade drums has been developed to solve the existing problems and environment assessment is also performed during operation of the device. Capacity of the device was about 5.6 ton/hr at 8.2 rpm of drum revolution speed and 1.25 m/min of belt conveyor speed. It satisfied initial designed capacity(5.0 ton/hr) and max. capacity 8.8 ton/hr was achieved at 12.5 rpm of drum revolution speed and 1.50m/min of belt conveyor speed. Bag rupturing efficiencies on outer and inner bag were obtained at 100% and about 95.6% as average, respectively and original form of glass bottles in the bag was maintained without broken by about 96.5%. This result shows that the safety in hand sorting by the workers could be improved. As result of environmental assessment on the noise, vibration and particulates, the measured levels on noise, vibration and particulates show the below standard regulatory limits. It could be concluded that the problems of existing devices in MRFs could be solved by adopting the bag rupturing device with octagonal rotating blade drums in on-site operation.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.330-335
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• 2011

This study was performed to determine the transfer rates of each foodborne pathogen from pork meat packaging during the processing. We analyzed the transfer rate of Listeria monocytogenes from contaminated pork meat to worker's hands (wearing polyethylene gloves, PEG; cotton gloves, CG; and bare hands), cutting boards and knives, and vice versa. Transfer rate of CG 100.00% was higher than that of bare hands 2.513% and PEG 1.511%. In particular, when wearing Co, the transfer rate from the CG to bare hands with CG was 0.08%. Also, the range of transfer rates from contaminated pork meat to cutting board and knife was 0.352-3.791%. In contrast, transfer rates from the workers' hands (with PEG/CG and bare hands) to cutting board, knife, and pork meat ranged from 0.001 to 0.141%. There was a lower transfer rate from workers' hands than from pork meat. These findings indicate that use of PEG could effectively reduce or prevent the cross-contamination compared to CG and provide important information concerning the consecutive transfer of L. monocytogenes during food processing.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.35-42
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• 2016

Formamide is a colorless fluid with ammonia odor, and irritable when inhaled. It has $LD_{50}$ value of > 5,577 mg/kg in rats for acute oral toxicity and NOAEL of 113 mg/kg/day for target organ (liver) of whole body toxicity. It is also known as reproductive toxicant (1B) and TWA(Time Weighted Average) for it is 10 ppm. Workplace measurements of work places dealing with formamide showed the ppm of all 25 samples was very lower than WEL. However, the exposure concentration can change, depending on workplace condition such as the intensity of work, operating local ventilation system, and wearing protection equipment (Respirators). Therefore, considering it with the risk of whole body toxicity and reproductive toxicity, exposure quantity of each imaginary scenario was calculated at 5.16, 1.72, and $0.43mg/m^3$. The average value was calculated at 0.02-0.58, 0.02-0.66 at 90 percent of cumulative distribution, 0.02-0.69 at 95 percent of cumulative distribution. Therefore, it was generally evaluated to be safe because all values were below 1. However, caution is required to prevent health hazard because it has hepatotoxicity and reproductive toxicity and risk of a high level momentary exposure, depending on the condition of workplace.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.19-26
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• 2009

This study was undertaken to analyze the hygienic problems of group food services and to predict the outbreak patterns of future food-borne diseases. A delphi survey with 20 experts identified the main causes of food-borne outbreaks in group food services as improper hygienic management of raw food materials, washing of worker's hands, dividing the spaces and unsanitary retail storage. Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Escherichia coli (EPEC), non-typhoid Salmonella serotypes, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli (ETEC), norovirus, and the hepatitis A virus all have potential to cause outbreaks of food-borne disease. We analyzed the daily food use and the possibility of food-borne outbreaks in school food services for fruits, milk, fish, pork, eggs, and meat as raw food materials, and bibimbab, soybean sprouts muchim, spinach namul, cucumber sengchae, jabchae, and pork bulgogi as prepared food items. Frozen (${\leq}\;-20^{\circ}C$) and refrigerated ($0{\sim}10^{\circ}C$) processed foods are popular items in group food services. Their storage, heating, and chemical sanitization methods are potential sources of food disease outbreaks. Our results can be applied to a well-organized hygiene control system and can be used to develop menus for preventing food-borne outbreaks.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.310-320
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• 2014

Backgrounds: Endotoxin, which found in the outer membrane of the gram-negative bacteria cell wall, makes up almost all of the lipopolysaccharide(LPS). When people are exposed to endotoxin,it can result in diverse health effects such as an airway irritation and inflammation, fever, malaise, bronchitis, allergic asthma, toxic pneumonitis, hypersensitivity lung disease. Cases among the elderly, children or pregnant can occur more frequently than a healthy adult if they are repeatedly exposed to the existing endotoxin. Therefore, we investigated and assessed the environmental characteristics associated with the airborne endotoxin concentration level in six hospital lobbies. Method: Endotoxin from indoor air in six hospital lobbies was measured by an area sampling method and analyzed according to American Society for Testing and Materials International(ASTM international) E2144-01. Total suspended particulate(TSP), carbon dioxide($CO_2$), temperature and humidity were also measured by using direct reading measurements or airborne sampling equipment at the same time. Environmental characteristics were appropriately divided into two or three groups for a statistics analysis. One-way analysis variable(one-way ANOVA) was used to examine a difference of the endotoxin concentration, depending on the environmental characteristics. In addition, only variables with p-value(p<0.25) were eventually designed to the best model by using multiple regression analysis. Results: The correlation analysis result indicated that TSP(p=0.003) and $CO_2$(p<0.0001) levels were significantly associated with endotoxin concentration levels. In contrast, temperature(p<0.068) and humidity(p<0.365) were not associated with endotoxin concentration. Levels of endotoxin concentration were statistically different among the environmental characteristics of Service time(p=0.01), Establishment of hospital(p<0.001), Scale of hospital(p=0.01), Day average people using hospital(p=0.03), Cleaning time of lobby(p=0.05), Season(p<0.001), and Cleaning of ventilation system(p<0.001) according to ANOVA. Finally, the best model(Adjusted R-square=72%) that we designed through a multiple regression test included environmental characteristics related to Service time, Area of lobby, Season, Cleaning of ventilation system, and Temperature. Conclusions: According to this study, our result showed a normal level of endotoxin concentration in the hospital lobbies and found environmental management methods to reduce the level of endotoxin concentration to a minimum. Consequently, this study recognized to be requirement for the management of ventilation systems and an indoor temperature in order to reduce the level of endotoxin concentration in the hospital lobbies.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.205-212
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• 2020

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to identify the needs and improvement measures of the risk assessment system through a survey of asbestos abatement companies. Methods: This study prepared a questionnaire that includes improvement measures for the risk assessment system(six questions) and the necessity of a risk assessment system for asbestos abatement(one question). The questionnaire was sent to 2,170 asbestos abatement companies and returned by 83 companies(return rate = 3.8%). We conducted frequency analysis, ANOVA, and Chi-squared testing at the 5% significance level. Results: This study analyzed the survey results and identified six main opinions on the risk assessment system and improvement measures. First, giving an advantage to companies with a high grade(S and A grades) in public bidding and/or qualification screening showed a similar preference(agree: 50.6%, disagree: 49.4%). Second, 57.6% of the respondents wanted to allow air showers along with water showers for low risk asbestos work. However, 23.2% of the respondents asserted that only a water shower should be allowed since there is no scientific evidence supporting the removal of asbestos by air shower. Third, in order to prevent missing the enrollment of workers, simply submitting a change report should be allowed when any worker is changed (40.0%). Fourth, 43% of the respondents answered that they did not know how to calculate the proper number of negative pressure units. The reasons given were a lack of guidelines or standards(38.9%), inconvenience (36.1%), and absence of education(25%). Fifth, the respondents who were favorable toward the necessity of a risk assessment system gave higher scores compared to unfavorable respondents on the necessity of the management of workers' work history(favorable respondent = 3.96 out of 5, unfavorable respondent = 2.68) and the necessity of professional training for workers(favorable respondent = 3.71, unfavorable respondent = 2.56). Finally, the respondents favorable toward a risk assessment system showed higher scores on the awareness of calculating the proper number of negative pressure units(4.79) compared to unfavorable respondents(3.3). Conclusions: The opinions of asbestos abatement companies identified through the survey in this study can be usefully utilized as fundamental information to improve the risk assessment system.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2013

Education and training is an important means of promoting safety culture and enhancing the level of competence of radiation worker in radiation protection. The existing international nuclear education and training of short duration has been carried out on the high-level officials and focussed on the classroom based training. The developing countries has been asking for support to cultivate their own technical experts to Korea which is a donor country exporting nuclear power plants. This paper summarizes the results of developing and operating the international education and training course to froster technical experts in radiation protection that emphasized practical training sessions and technical visits using the excellent domestic radiation facilities and infrastructure of education and training. It mentions the procedures of assessment and feedback as well. In an effort to maximize teaching-learning effects and to maintain consistency of the learning objectives, methods and assessment, SAT methodology has been applied on the processes of developing and operating the course. In the comparative and final assessment which were conducted at the beginning or at the end of training course, participants' average score increased around 2 points. The questionnaire of participants showed a high level of satisfaction of 4.0 points or above for the most of the questions. These imply teaching-learning methods applied to it might be effective. The teaching-learning methodologies may provide the opportunity to develop the customized training course for bringing up international technical experts and to shift educational paradigm from theory-oriented to on-site practice-based education.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.17-25
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• 2005

Since the safety of nuclear power plant has been becoming a big social issue the exposure dose of radiation for workers has been one of the important factors concerning the safety problem. The existing calculation methods of radiation dose used in the planning of radiation work assume that dose rate does not depend on the location within a work space thus the variation of exposure dose by different work path is not considered. In this study, a modified numerical method was presented to estimate the exposure dose during radiation work in radwaste storage considering the effects of the distance between a worker and sources. And a new numerical algorithm was suggested to search the optimal work path minimizing the exposure dose in pre-defined work space with given radiation sources. Finally, a virtual work simulation program was developed to visualize the exposure dose of radiation doting radiation works in radwaste storage and provide the capability of simulation for work planning. As a numerical example, a test radiation work was simulated under given space and two radiation sources, and the suggested optimal work path was compared with three predefined work paths. The optimal work path obtained in the study could reduce the exposure dose for the given test work. Based on the results, tile developed numerical method and simulation program could be useful tools in the planning of radiation work.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.64-73
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• 2015

Recently, the integrated utilization of technology with IT is in demand for the effectiveness of field management together with the prevention and prompt action on safety accident at construction site. In addition, the establishment of construction site support system is necessary to implement the securing of worker's safety, smooth work instruction, efficiency in construction, and others. Data standardization and network architecture were designed regarding data and sound information for data transmission between systems and management. These were to construct USFSS based on integrated VI-GNSS technology in this research. In the stability test of data for each system constructed through it, around 98% stability was secured between workers and for transfer vehicle system within underground structure and field server system in regards to the data transmission stability, around 100% stability was secured between field server system and control system, respectively. Also, in the sound transmission stability test, around 99% reliability could be secured with 1km distance as its standard in case of sound transmission from underground structure construction site to field office near the field through wireless FRS system.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.671-676
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• 2014

Based on the data of PSC information management system of MOF(Ministry of oceans and fisheries) and APCIS(Asia-Pacific Computerized Information System) of Tokyo-MOU information system, the result of the evaluation on the reality of PSC was done, and base on 2009, it showed a trend of decrease in every DFR(Deficiency Rate) and DTR(Detention Rate). But for vessels built for more than 30 years, flags of convenience vessels, RO-RO ferry and general cargo vessel, small size vessels with gross tonnage less than 1,000 ton showed a high DFR and DTR. Each harbours is classified by the total harbours' average DFR which was 82.5 % and the average DTR was 5.1 %, excluding the Jeju harbour, showing a hugh deviation for classification of each harbour. Classification of each harbour has to be inspected by PSC and it showed a great unbalance of the number of vessels for each territory for inspection. the biggest problem with our country's PSC, where it was pointed out by the PSCO was lack of workers and independent inspection by just one worker. To strength the substantiality of the inspection of our country is to have concentrated inspection on the high risk cautious vessels, forming a human network each classified by four different sectors of the area, recalculating the amount of assignment of inspection classified by each harbour and securing workforce the PSCO improvements are necessary.