• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.318-331
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• 2010

The objectives of this study were to investigate the status of accidents and to assess hazards in institutional foodservices in the Changwon and Masan areas. A survey was conducted from February 1 to March 31, 2009 using questionnaires, and 142 dietitians participated. The dietitians' perception of accident risks in workplace averaged 3.11 points. Forty-five percent of the respondents responded that accidents had occurred more than once between 2006 and 2008. In addition, 28.2% of the respondents experienced employee absences or turnover due to accidents during Year 2008. 'Musculoskelectal injuries or disorders (65.5%)', 'slips or falls (64.8%)', 'burns (57.7%)', and 'cuts and punctures (48.6%)' were the predominant accidents in foodservice. 'Knives (76 points)', 'steam kettles (41 points)', 'vegetable cutters (34 points)' and 'turn kettles (26 points)' were the equipment with severe accidents, such as burns or cut injuries. Among foodservice processes, 'carpal tunnel syndrome while washing (2.83 points)', 'burned by frying oil (2.64 points)', 'cut by sharp tools (2.55 points)', 'musculoskelectal injury by moving heavy weight food materials (2.41 points)', and 'injury by slipping on wet workplace floors and trenches (2.19 points)' were the most frequently occurring accidents at foodservice sites. To prevent safety accidents, dietitians' perceptions of safety supervision should be improved, and therefore, it is necessary they receive safety education.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.314-321
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• 2020

Background: Occupational accidents occur for a variety of reasons, such as unsafe behaviors of workers and insufficient safety equipment at the workplace, but there are also various economic and social factors that can impact working conditions and working environment. This study analyzed the relationship between changes in economic factors and the occurrence of occupational accidents in Korea. Methods: Multilinear regression analysis was used as the analysis model. The general to specific method was also used, which consecutively removes statistically insignificant variables from a general model that includes dependent variables and lagged variables of dependent variables. Results: The frequency of occupational accidents was found to have a statistically significant relationship to economic indicators. The monthly number of cases of occupational injury and disease and fatal occupational injuries were found to be closely related to manufacturing capacity utilization, differences in the production index in the services sector, and commencements of building construction. The increase in equipment investment indicators was found to reduce fatal occupational injuries. Conclusion: The results of this study may be used to develop occupational accident trends or leading indicators, which in turn can be used by organizations that manage and monitor occupational accidents toward taking administrative action designed to reduce occupational accidents. The results also imply that short-term and mid- to long-term economic and social changes that can impact workers, workplaces and working conditions, and workplace organizations must be taken into account if more effective government policies are to be established and implemented toward further prevention of occupational accidents.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.95-102
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to investigate the correlation between aluminum form work and noise-induced deafness by conducting special health examination on construction aluminum worker and noise measurement at the workplace. All the 11 aluminum form workers were diagnosed with noise-induced deafness after holding a special health examination. The workers have not had any previous history of noise-induced deafness which indicates that aluminum form work is related to noise-induced deafness disease. The impact noise of 120 dB(A)~125 dB(A), which exceeds the regulations of industrial safety and health act, was found during the dismantling rather than installation when noise measurement was made at the aluminum workplace. The aluminum form workers could permanently lose the hearing sense if they are exposed to this impact noise. This study is to suggest the method to prevent noise-induced deafness for aluminum form workers by firstly giving out hearing protection equipment at the construction site and secondly installing rubber mat, soundproof panel as well as changing the noise-lowering technique.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.375-379
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• 2011

Control Banding (CB) strategies to prevent work-related illness and injury for 2.5 billion workers without access to health and safety professionals has grown exponentially this last decade. CB originates from the pharmaceutical industry to control active pharmaceutical ingredients without a complete toxicological basis and therefore no occupational exposure limits. CB applications have broadened into chemicals in general - including new emerging risks like nanomaterials and recently into ergonomics and injury prevention. CB is an action-oriented qualitative risk assessment strategy offering solutions and control measures to users through "toolkits". Chemical CB toolkits are user-friendly approaches used to achieve workplace controls in the absence of firm toxicological and quantitative exposure information. The model (technical) validation of these toolkits is well described, however firm operational analyses (implementation aspects) are lacking. Consequentially, it is often not known if toolkit use leads to successful interventions at individual workplaces. This might lead to virtual safe workplaces without knowing if workers are truly protected. Upcoming international strategies from the World Health Organization Collaborating Centers request assistance in developing and evaluating action-oriented procedures for workplace risk assessment and control. It is expected that to fulfill this strategy's goals, CB approaches will continue its important growth in protecting workers.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.77-86
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• 2006

After conducting an investigation of a specific workplace, 372 labor workers, who are employed at a certain domestic petrochemical company valve operating and maintenance processing section, were personally questioned about specific work-related ailments. According to the results, 57% of workers who were working in the petrochemical industry have suffered from pain-related musculoskeletal disorders in, at least, more than 1 body part. Specifically, there are more than 28% of workers suffering from pain in more than two body parts. Among the total work population, 18.8 % of workers are assumed to have a high probability of being diagnosed with musculoskeletal disorder. Also, according to the RULA checklist which evaluates environmental improvement conditions of the workplace, 76.7% of workplaces among the inspected areas have high hazardous work factors that are related to musculoskeletal disorder and needs to be improved upon and observed right away or in the foreseeable future. The prior factor has a high correlation and pain rate which is due to an improper work posture. Originally, this improper work posture is caused mostly by ergonomically incorrect facility design. Furthermore, the structure of the workplace does not consider the worker's individual build.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.35
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• pp.42.1-42.4
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• 2023

ChatGPT has the potential to revolutionize occupational medicine by providing a powerful tool for analyzing data, improving communication, and increasing efficiency. It can help identify patterns and trends in workplace health and safety, act as a virtual assistant for workers, employers, and occupational health professionals, and automate certain tasks. However, caution is required due to ethical concerns, the need to maintain confidentiality, and the risk of inconsistent or inaccurate results. ChatGPT cannot replace the crucial role of the occupational health professional in the medical surveillance of workers and the analysis of data on workers' health.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.224-231
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• 2018

Background: Organizations are pursing complex and diverse aims to generate higher profits. Many workers experience high work intensity such as workload and work pressure in this organizational environment. Especially, psychological burden is a commonly used term in workplace of Republic of Korea. This study focused on defining the psychological burden from the perspective of occupational safety and health and tried to develop a scale for psychological burden. Methods: The 48 preliminary questionnaire items for psychological burden were prepared by a focus group interview with 16 workers through the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire II and Mindful Awareness Attention Scale. The preliminary items were surveyed with 572 workers, and exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and correlation analysis were conducted for a new scale. Results: As a result of the exploratory factor analysis, five factors were extracted: organizational activity, human error, safety and health workload, work attitude, and negative self-management. These factors had significant correlations and reliability, and the stability of the model for validity was confirmed using confirmatory factor analysis. Conclusion: The developed scale for psychological burden can measure workers' psychological burden in relation to safety and health. Despite some limitations, this study has applicability in the workplace, given the relatively small-sized questionnaire.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.247-250
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• 2023

This case report aims to introduce the safety campaign activities for preventing chemical accidents that were cooperatively conducted by an environmental office and chemical-handling workplaces located in the Ulsan area. A chemical safety campaign was initiated to examine and manage chemical-handling facilities at high risk for chemical accidents, specifically valves, flanges, and switches (VFS) from October 2020 to December 2022. The VFS safety check campaign was conducted to raise workers' safety consciousness based on a campaign of advertisements in the workplace from October 2020 to December 2021. In addition, a VFS plus [+] campaign was initiated to encourage actual management activities for chemical-handling facilities at high risk of chemical accidents in 2022. A total of 49 corporations participated in the VFS plus [+] campaign. In contrast to the VFS safety check campaign, which simply focused on publicity and resulted in changes in worker awareness, practicable safety management activities focusing on the handling facilities were carried out. Although notable short-term impacts have yet to be discerned from the campaigns, it is expected that they will eventually serve as a starting point for developing a proper safety culture and environment.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.402-410
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• 2020

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to eliminate communication shadowing loss of the 'smart safety management system'. The 'smart safety management system' can monitor and relay real time data of workers working in high risk workplace (i.e: industrial scene, disaster scene). The data will provide the rescue team the 'golden hour' in their rescue operations. Method: In this research, safety tag was designed and implemented so that it acts as a repeater for the user. Result: In other words, when communication in-between the safety tag and headquarters' communication terminal is jeopardized, the safety tag will act as a repeater-terminal for other safety tags in the area. Conclusion: The research tested if a specific building with communication shadowing loss problem was resolved when safety tags were implemented. Communication shadowing was first identified in-between the safety tag and headquarters' communication terminal. When extra safety tags were deployed in the same situation, the results showed that the communication shadowing loss was resolved. The repeater safety tags could resolve communication shadowing loss of up to three basement levels in this test building.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.27-38
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• 2022

In developed countries, the number of accidents has significantly decreased with the introduction of the process safety management system, but it has a regulatory nature and it is difficult to show the actual situation of workplace safety management. Many organizations recommend the use of process safety performance indicators to comprehensively monitor process safety status. In this study, for the application of process safety performance indicators, the related guidelines were compared and analyzed, and the method of using the process safety system of the workplace as an indicator was reviewed. In literature indicators, compliance with procedures is mainly checked, whereas in system-based indicators, procedures or inspections for a specific purpose of the safety system can be clearly identified, and the operation status can be measured and monitored. It can be seen that this characteristic is more advantageous in terms of the clarity of the supplements derived in operating safety management activities. Using this, it is possible to effectively show the level of safety management in the workplace.