• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.336-342
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• 2022

Background: This study aims to identify the safety and health risk perceptions toward the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic based on gender in Korean university students who work and study during the pandemic. Methods: A nationwide convenient sampling method was implemented to eliminate any regional characteristics in 757 university students, including those who studied while working. The participants answered the online questionnaire for one week. The collected data were analyzed using the R version 3.4.1 program. Results: The results comparing the safety and health risk perceptions toward COVID-19 based on the gender of the subjects who work while studying, "I often use the Internet to obtain information on COVID-19 infection control" are females appeared to use the internet more often (t = -2.18, p = 0.031) than males. "Compared to pre-COVID-19, I am currently feeling safe after the outbreak" is females felt less safe (t = 3.43, p < 0.001). Although COVID-19 infection control awareness is high among Korean university students and officials, males reported higher scores over females in all the questions, which was statistically significant. Conclusion: There should be prioritized psychological measures for prevention against COVID-19 for vulnerable groups with high mental health risks. A network must be established to protect the mental health of such groups, and candidates who require intervention must be actively identified and supported. Therefore, there must be efforts to deliver accurate information based on scientific evidence of the infectious disease, and the actions should be supported through such active communication.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.41-52
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• 2022

Objectives: This study intends to review the impact on cleaning workers and suggest directions for improvement by reviewing the legal and institutional ways in which Article 86 Nos. 7 and 16 of the Enforcement Decree of the Occupational Safety and Health Act work on the maintenance and promotion of cleaning workers' health. Methods: The following laws and systems were reviewed and considered: First, the occupational safety and health legislation obligated or required to be applied to protect the health of cleaning workers; Second, the status of control of chemicals or mixtures used at cleaning sites through the Consumer Chemicals Product and Biocide Safety Control Act; Third, Control of consumer products according to foreign material safety data sheet related laws. Results: Legal and institutional measures necessary to protect the health of cleaning workers include the legal control of harmful substances to be controlled, work environment monitoring, and special health examinations. The application of the Consumer Chemicals Product and Biocide Safety Control Act does not satisfy the legal and practical level of health maintenance and promotion required by the Occupational Safety and Health Act, and the communication of chemical information is insufficient. Overseas, there are restrictions on the use of consumer products in the workplace without material safety data sheets. Conclusions: It is necessary to improve the system to ensure the health of workers handling consumer chemical products. The remaining laws and regulations exempted from the obligation to prepare material safety data sheets should be additionally reviewed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.60-67
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• 2023

This study identified hazard exposures, health problems, and job satisfaction among elderly agricultural workers. A total of 1,340 agricultural workers (1,079 males and 261 females) were extracted from the 6^th Korean Working Conditions Survey data. Three age groups (A: 40s or below, B: 50s, and C: 60s or above) were statistically compared in hazard exposures, health problems, and job satisfaction. Elderly agricultural workers (60s or above) had significantly more exposure to ergonomic hazards, severe health problems, and lower job satisfaction than young agricultural workers. The study findings may help understand the characteristics of hazard exposures, health problems, and job satisfaction of elderly agricultural workers and will be useful for improving these conditions.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.184-191
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• 2021

Background: Hearing protection devices (HPDs) are often used in the workplace to prevent hearing damage caused by noise. However, a factor that can lead to hearing loss in the workplace is improper HPD fitting, and the previous literature has shown that instructing workers on how to properly insert their HPDs can make a significant difference in the degree of attenuation. Methods: Two studies were completed on a total of 33 Hydro One workers. A FitCheck Solo field attenuation estimation system was used to measure the personal attenuation rating (PAR) before and after providing one-on-one fitting instructions. In addition, external ear canal diameters were measured, and a questionnaire with items related to frequency of use, confidence, and discomfort was administered. Results: Training led to an improvement in HPD attenuation, particularly for participants with poorer PARs before training. The questionnaire results indicated that much HPD discomfort is caused by heat, humidity, and communication difficulties. External ear canal asymmetry did not appear to significantly influence the measured PAR. Conclusion: In accordance with the previous literature, our studies suggest that one-on-one instruction is an effective training method for HPD use. Addressing discomfort issues from heat, humidity, and communication issues could help to improve the use of HPDs in the workplace. Further research into the effects of canal asymmetry on the PAR is needed.

• 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.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.83-93
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• 2016

Objectives: This study aimed (1) to share findings from the U.S. on customer use of social media for information seeking and sharing about food recall risks, and (2) to discuss the implications of the findings for the context of food safety and risk communication in Korea. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 1,026 social media users aged 18 years or older in the U.S., recruited from the Knowledge Network's nationally representative panel. Results: About 26 percent of respondents used social media either to seek or share food recall information in the past year, with social networking sites being the most popular tool. With respect to social media use for information seeking, being married, perceived risk of getting foodborne diseases, and trust in Internet were significant, positive predictors; being Whites and trust in health professionals were negative predictors. Social media use for information sharing was positively associated with education, being married, foodborne disease history, and perceived risk of foodborne diseases; Whites, income, and trust in health professionals were negative predictors. Conclusions: The study gives theoretical, methodological, and practical implications for the context of food safety and risks in Korea.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.60-65
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• 2014

Background: To elucidate the relationship between safety culture maturity and safety performance of a particular company. Methods: To identify the factors that contribute to a safety culture, a survey questionnaire was created based mainly on the studies of $Fern{\acute{a}}ndez-Mu{\tilde{n}}iz$ et al. The survey was randomly distributed to 1000 employees of two oil companies and realized a rate of valid answer of 51%. Minitab 16 software was used and diverse tests, including the descriptive statistical analysis, factor analysis, reliability analysis, mean analysis, and correlation, were used for the analysis of data. Ten factors were extracted using the analysis of factor to represent safety culture and safety performance. Results: The results of this study showed that the managers' commitment, training, incentives, communication, and employee involvement are the priority domains on which it is necessary to stress the effort of improvement, where they had all the descriptive average values lower than 3.0 at the level of Company B. Furthermore, the results also showed that the safety culture influences the safety performance of the company. Therefore, Company A with a good safety culture (the descriptive average values more than 4.0), is more successful than Company B in terms of accident rates. Conclusion: The comparison between the two petrochemical plants of the group Sonatrach confirms these results in which Company A, the managers of which are English and Norwegian, distinguishes itself by the maturity of their safety culture has significantly higher evaluations than the company B, who is constituted of Algerian staff, in terms of safety management practices and safety performance.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2020

Objectives: This study examined factors influencing hospital workers' perception of patient safety culture, job boredom and job crafting in reporting of safety compliance. Methods: Structured questionnaires were used to collect data from 245 hospital workers who were full-time staff for six months or more. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients and hierarchical multiple regressions with SPSS/WIN version 22.0. Results: The mean score for perception of patient safety culture was 3.16±0.32, for job boredom was 2.52±0.52, for job crafting was 3.35±0.49 and for degree of safety compliance was 2.87±0.3. The hierarchical multiple analysis revealed that hospital work environment (β=.27, p<.001), communication process (β=.27, p<.001) of subarea perception of patient safety culture and cognitive crafting (β=.15, p=.039) of subarea job crafting were predictive of patient safety compliance (R2=.47, p<.001). Conclusions: The findings indicate that perception of patient safety culture and job crafting are important factors to be considered in working to improve hospital workers' safety compliance. Therefore, education and systematic programs to improve perception of patient safety culture and job crafting should be developed.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.345-352
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• 2015

Background: Goal-oriented communication of risk of hazards is necessary in order to reduce risk of workers' exposure to chemicals. Adequate training of workers and enterprise priority setting are essential elements. Cleaning enterprises have many challenges and the existing paradigms influence the risk levels of these enterprises. Methods: Information on organization and enterprises' prioritization in training programs was gathered from cleaning enterprises. A measure of enterprises' conceptual level of importance of chemical health hazards and a model for working out the risk index (RI) indicating enterprises' conceptual risk level was established and used to categorize the enterprises. Results: In 72.3% of cases, training takes place concurrently with task performances and in 67.4% experienced workers conduct the trainings. There is disparity between employers' opinion on competence level of the workers and reality. Lower conceptual level of importance was observed for cleaning enterprises of different sizes compared with regional safety delegates and occupational hygienists. Risk index values show no difference in risk level between small and large enterprises. Conclusion: Training of cleaning workers lacks the prerequisite for suitability and effectiveness to counter risks of chemical health hazards. There is dereliction of duty by management in the sector resulting in a lack of competence among the cleaning workers. Instituting acceptable easily attainable safety competence level for cleaners will conduce to risk reduction, and enforcement of attainment of the competence level would be a positive step.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.226-233
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• 2011

Exactly 25 years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, 11th of March 2011 the Fukushima nuclear accident occurred in Japan and was ranked at level 7 same to the Chernobyl. A Korean and Japanese joint civil survey was conducted around Fukushima on April 13-17. The radiation survey data clearly shows a large hotspot area between 20 km and 50 km radius north and west direction from the accident reactors, with the highest radiation recorded being 55.64 ${\mu}Sv/hr$ in the air, 99.89 ${\mu}Sv/hr$ in the surface air, and 36.16 ${\mu}Sv/hr$ in a car, respectively. 3.65 ${\mu}Sv/hr$ in the air and 6.89 ${\mu}Sv/hr$ in the surface air were detected at the playground of an elementary school in Fukushima City. Spring came with full cherry blossoms in Fukushima, but it was silent spring of radiation contamination. Interviews with Fukushima nuclear refugees reveal serious problems about Japanese nuclear safety systems, such as there was no practical evacuation drill within 1-10 km and no plan at all for 10-30 km areas. Several reforms items for Korean nuclear safety system can be suggested: minimization of accident damage, clear separation of regulatory and safety bureaus with a new and independent administrating agency, community participation and agreement regarding the safety system and levels, which is the major concern of 80% Korean. To tackle threats of nuclear disaster in neighboring nations like China, a new position entitled 'Ambassador for nuclear safety diplomacy' is highly necessary. The nuclear safety of Korea should no longer be the monopoly of those nuclear engineers and limited technocrats criticized as a 'nuclear mafia'.