• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.130-135
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• 2003

This study is planned to investigate the compliance of small sized enterprises of under 5 employees directed by Industrial Safety and Health Act. Occupational safety regulation can be required for employer and employee to comply because that all members of workplace should be involved to protect worker's health. When all members of workplace comply with safety regulation, effectiveness of regulation will be realized as expectation. The study subject is composed of three groups as 501 employers, 501 employees of small sized enterprises of under 5 employees and 107 safety inspectors sampled by stratified random sampling for comparison. Data for analysis is collected from each sample using interview with structured questionnaires. Compliance is measured by 5 point scale composed by 8 sub items such as general perception, understanding, clearness, necessity, relevancy, implementation, penalty, and general compliance of the regulation. Among sub items of employer's compliance, the level of perception of regulation, necessity of regulation, relevancy of penalty are differentiated among three groups. The level of all 8 items of employee's compliance also differentiated among three groups. These results show that strategies for ensuring the same level of compliance among three groups will be needed through education, training and evaluation of regulation and feedback.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Industrial Safety Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.303-308
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• 2001

Various organic solvents are most commonly using material in various factories, for examples, paint producting process and other industries, actually most of them are toxic materials, If many kinds of organic chemicals are concurrently exposed to workplace, toxidities can be influenced as additive effect or synergistic effect.(omitted)

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.336-347
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• 2011

Objectives: In Korea, an average of 258 workers claim compensation for their noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) on an annual basis. Indeed, hearing disorder ranks first in the number of diagnoses made by occupational medical check-ups. Against this backdrop, this study analyzed the impact of 19 types of noise-generating machines and equipment on the sound pressure levels in workplaces and NIHL occurrence based on a 2009 national survey on work environments. Methods: Through this analysis, a series of statistical models were built to determine posterior probabilities for each worksite with an aim to present risk ratings for noise levels at work. Results: It was found that air compressors and grinding machines came in first and second, respectively in the number of installed noise-generating machines and equipment. However, there was no direct relationship between workplace noise and NIHL among workers since noise-control equipment and protective gear had been in place. By building a logistic regression model and neural network, statistical models were set to identify the influence of the noise-generating machines and equipment on workplace noise levels and NIHL occurrence. Conclusion: This study offered NIHL prevention measures which are fit for the worksites in each risk grade.

• Proceedings of the Korea Institute of Fire Science and Engineering Conference
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• 2009.04a
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• pp.82-92
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• 2009

This study analyzed the present operation state and cases of safety accidents of inflammables and explosives in army camps by focusing on staffs in charge for safety supervision of inflammables and explosives in army camps. Moreover, through this analysis, the study surveyed the actual safety supervision conditions in a workplace related to the hazardous materials, the safety plan for inflammables and explosives, the quality of education for safety supervision, the consciousness of safety supervisors for the safety supervision of inflammables and explosives, and so on. On basis of this research, the actual conditions of inflammables and explosives in army camps were investigated. By not only establishing the systematic safety plan but also developing the safety supervision education programs to manage inflammables and explosives in army camps safely, this study tries to arouse military officers' interest and ensure a safe workplace. Furthermore, this study presents public relations and revitalization of the education to make safety supervisors for inflammables and explosives and the interested parties recognize the hazards of safety accidents, by cutting them off from safety accidents in advance.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.25 no.2_2
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• pp.257-262
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• 2022

With the shortage of labor force in small and medium-size industries, the Korean Employment Permit System (EPS) continues to bring migrant workers. However, the question remains of the health and safety management of their migrant workers. Considering that a significant part of safety and health problems are caused by migrant workers due to a lack of information on identifying risk and inexperience in the field. Telephone interviews were conducted to investigate the migrant workers' perspectives on workplace safety practices. The survey focused on workers' accident histories, understanding of safety practices, and responding to industrial accidents. A total of 66 accidents occurred among 30 participants. 10 accidents were not reported to the employer (company), which the foreign workers judged to be minor injuries that should not be reported as accidents. 80.0% of the participants expressed dissatisfaction with the PPE they were using. Among various reasons lack of understanding due to language barriers, lack of awareness of the importance of safety, communication difficulties were major reasons for the caused accidents and potential health issues. It is necessary to improve the safety and health support system by providing practical support through specialized educational institutes with experts in the field. A legal framework and a proper safety management system need to be maintained. This study suggests changing the current policy to improve the health and safety of migrant workers by, establishing specialized educational institutes with locally grown foreign experts in the field.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2017.10a
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• pp.80-88
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• 2017

Although hazard identification is one of the most important steps of safety management process, numerous hazards remain unidentified in the construction workplace due to the dynamic environment of the construction site and the lack of available resource for visual inspection. To this end, our previous study proposed the collective sensing approach for safety hazard identification and showed the feasibility of identifying hazards by capturing collective abnormalities in workers' walking patterns. However, workers generally performed different activities during the construction task in the workplace. Thereby, an additional process that can identify the worker's walking activity is necessary to utilize the proposed hazard identification approach in real world settings. In this context, this study investigated the feasibility of identifying walking activities during construction task using Wearable Inertial Measurement Units (WIMU) attached to the worker's ankle. This study simulated the indoor masonry work for data collection and investigated the classification performance with three different machine learning algorithms (i.e., Decision Tree, Neural Network, and Support Vector Machine). The analysis results showed the feasibility of identifying worker's activities including walking activity using an ankle-attached WIMU. Moreover, the finding of this study will help to enhance the performance of activity recognition and hazard identification in construction.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.9-15
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• 2023

Hydrogen is gaining attention as a sustainable and renewable energy source, potentially replacing fossil fuels. Its high diffusivity, wide flammable range, and low ignition energy make it prone to ignition even with minimal friction, potentially leading to fire and explosion risks. Workplaces manage ignition risks by classifying areas with explosive atmospheres. However, the effective installation of a blast wall can significantly limit the spread of hydrogen, thereby enhancing workplace safety. To optimize the wall installation of this barrier, we employed the response surface methodology (RSM), considering variables such as wall distance, height, and width. We performed 17 simulations using the Box-Behnken design, conducted using FLACS software. This process yielded two objective functions: explosion likelihood near the barrier and explosion overpressure affecting the blast wall. We successfully achieved the optimal solution using multi-objective optimization for these two functions. We validated the optimal solution through verification simulations to ensure reliability, maintaining a margin of error of 5%. We anticipated that this method would efficiently determine the most effective installation of a blast wall while enhancing workplace safety.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.12-18
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• 2023

Objectives: Personal protective equipment (PPE) is an essential means for protecting workers against hazardous agents or risks that threaten their safety and health. Governmental organizations related to safety and health in the workplace regulate the PPE rules to protect workers and to minimize damage from hazardous agents. This study discussed current PPE rules overseen by the Korea Ministry of Environment and explores future perspectives on the matter. Methods: This study was based on a review of PPE regulations with which every stakeholder should comply in the workplace. Both South Korean regulations enforced by the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Ministry of Environment and cases from other countries were reviewed. Results: Regulations related to the PPE required for handling chemical substances in the workplace are enforced by the Occupational Safety and Health Act, Enforcement Decree, Enforcement Rules, and Notification of Protective Equipment Certification under the Ministry of Employment and Labor. The Ministry of Environment also regulates the PPE standards for 97 substances requiring preparation for accidents and adjustment of work conditions, but a recent amendment (partially amended on September 30, 2022) loosened some unreasonable or excessive provisions. It requires workers simply to carry or otherwise keep PPE handy instead of wearing it for some tasks in which hazardous chemicals are not handled directly. Conclusions: It is important to regularly review provisions that need to be improved or supplemented to help all stakeholders. Considerations should be also made to build a reasonable regulatory system that can induce more mature safety management in each workplace.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers D
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• v.51 no.7
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• pp.279-285
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• 2002

This Paper deals with the economical equipment control which is used by internet network system at the industrial workplace. If the control devices can be accessed by internet, we can have the developed possibility of work conditions. in this paper, we presented the advanced digital timer which has a communication function to control and observe panel to realize control solution based on internet to be easily applicable at workplace with low cost, and we used RS-485 serial communication module to have parallel expansibility and safety. And, this system was experimented and designed for easy system management and status check from remote station through internet. As the result for experiment, the circuit configuration would be more simplified than the existing, and it is expected that multi connection control and monitoring can be simply implemented with low cost equipment at industrial workplace.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.259-266
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• 2013

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the workloads of industrial and automobile storage battery industries and their association to biological exposure indices. Background: Occupational lead exposure at battery manufacturing workplace is the most serious problem in safety and health management. Method: We surveyed 145 workers in 3 storage battery industries. Environmental factors(lead in air, temperature, humidity and vibration)), biological exposure indices(lead in blood and zinc protoporphyrin in blood) and individual workload factors(process type, work time, task type, weight handling and restrictive clothing) were measured in each unit workplace. Results/Conclusion: Air lead concentration is statistically significant in associations with workload factors(process type, work time, task type, and restrictive clothing) and environmental factors (humidity and vibration), whereas zinc protoporphyrin in blood are significantly associated with work time and weight handling. And lead in blood is significantly associated with work time, weight handling and temperature. Application: The results of this study are expected to be a fundamental data to job design.