• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.87-95
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• 2024

Background: This study focuses on assessing occupational risk for the health hazards encountered during maintenance works (MW) in semiconductor fabrication (FAB) facilities. Objectives: The objectives of this study include: 1) identifying the primary health hazards during MW in semiconductor FAB facilities; 2) reviewing the methods used in evaluating the likelihood and severity of health hazards through occupational health risk assessment (OHRA); and 3) suggesting variables for the categorization of likelihood of exposures to health hazards and the severity of health effects associated with MW in FAB facilities. Methods: A literature review was undertaken on OHRA methodology and health hazards resulting from MW in FAB facilities. Based on this review, approaches for categorizing the exposure to health hazards and the severity of health effects related to MW were recommended. Results: Maintenance workers in FAB facilities face exposure to hazards such as debris, machinery entanglement, and airborne particles laden with various chemical components. The level of engineering and administrative control measures is suggested to assess the likelihood of simultaneous chemical and dust exposure. Qualitative key factors for mixed exposure estimation during MW include the presence of safe operational protocols, the use of air-jet machines, the presence and effectiveness of local exhaust ventilation system, chamber post-purge and cooling, and proper respirator use. Using the risk (R) and hazard (H) codes of the Globally Harmonized System alongside carcinogenic, mutagenic, or reprotoxic classifications aid in categorizing health effect severity for OHRA. Conclusion: Further research is needed to apply our proposed variables in OHRA for MW in FAB facilities and subsequently validate the findings.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.1-7
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• 2010

Since subway fire disaster at Daegu, Korea smoke control system and passengers evacuation distance has been focused to reform. Existing smoke control facilities need to expand volume of ventilation capacity however, the complicate subway station structure can hardly react dispersion of smokes from massive subway cabin fire. Smoke flow at platform level move upward thought vertical stairway and passengers evacuation goes with same direction. The victims of evacuees from subway station fire mainly due to exposure of heat radiation and smoke. The study demonstration the effect of downward evacuates stairway system by separating evacuation route to smoke movement pass way including saving times of evacuation.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.105-112
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• 2015

Sawmilling industry remained a high risk with the average 4.73% of industrial accidents in 2010-2012 that was eight times that of general manufacturing. Sawmilling industry had 200 industrial accidents victim in average. Manufacturing process in sawmill industry contained dangerous machinery such as conveyors, roller, saw ( band saw, circular saw) etc. It may be effective to figure out the type of industrial accidents occurred in the past and extend risk assessment which can predict hazard such as near miss when implementing exposure or potential dangers in sawmill industry. This study conducted research on the actual condition on the place of industrial accident occurrence, detailed work and contact object when injured, and injured part targeting 643 businesses which had industrial accidents in 2010-2012. As the results, RPN of general sawmill industry was the highest 'ganglip saw' with 36,157. RPN of the following order were 'moving truck' with 25,454, 'special machining operations' with 22,283. Also, probability of general sawmill industry was a lots within 1 year, while risk appeared a lots within 5 years. So, risk assessment shall be needed to emphasis on accident prevention of sawmill industry. And additional work will be needed on the risk assessment in hazard prevention work of supervisors.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.150-158
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• 2019

Soil contaminated with heavy metals from artisanal gold mining in Anka Local Government Area in Northwestern Nigeria was investigated to evaluate the human health risk as a result of heavy metals. Measured concentration of heavy metals and exposure parameters were used to estimate human carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risk. GIS-based Kriging method was utilized to create a prediction maps of human health risks and probability maps of heavy metals concentrations exceeding their threshold limits. Hazard index calculation showed that 21 out of 23 locations are posing non-cancer risk for children. Adults and children are at high cancer risk in all locations as the total cancer risk exceeded $1{\times}10^{-6}$ (the lower limit CTR value). Kriging model showed that only a very small area in Anka has a hazard index of less than unity and cumulative target risk of less than $1{\times}10^{-4}$, indicating a significant carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks for children. The probability of heavy metals to exceed their threshold concentrations around the study area was also found to be high.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.981-983
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• 2003

The Remote Sensing Group of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) has acquired SAR data of the Central Cebu Island for its research study area. The MGB is one of the proponent of DOST-NASA PACRIM II Project, which is composed of eleven (11) agencies and institutions in the Philippines, that focuses on the scientific application of radar data with the theme on hazard and natural resources management. The PACRIM II Project, being done on three-year term, is slated for completion in the year 2004. The main thrust of the project study of the MGB is the baseline environmental monitoring studies, on which the data are to be fused with some other available data from LandSAT and photogrammetry. The generated data is part of the information for the update of thematic mapping being done. The 12 ${\times}$ 60 km swath AirSAR data covers the Central Cebu Island. The highlights of conducting this research project are: Extent of Watershed Basin boundaries - identification of the tributaries that drain water supply to the metropolitan area; Monitoring of the mountain highways - identification of landslide risk prone sites as part of natural hazard monitoring on a national highway that cuts along the mountainous areas; and Coastline change assessment - monitoring the coastline activities relative to the rapid urbanization and exposure as part of coastal management. The Phase 1 of this report discusses the fusion with the ArcView generated data as baseline studies on the monitoring activities.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.155-165
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• 2021

Objectives: Acute exposure to high concentrations of chemicals can occur when a chemical accident takes place. As such exposure can cause ongoing environmental pollution, such as in the soil and groundwater, there is a need for a tool that can assess health effects in the long term. The purpose of this study was assessing the health risks of residents living near a chemical accident site due to long-term exposure while considering the temporal concentration changes of the toxic chemicals leaked during the accident until their extinction in the environment using a multimedia environmental dynamics model. Methods: A health risk assessment was conducted on three cases of formaldehyde chemical accidents. In this study, health risk assessment was performed using a multimedia environmental dynamics model that considers the behavior of the atmosphere, soil, and water. In addition, the extinction period of formaldehyde in the environment was regarded as extinction in the environment when the concentration in the air and soil fell below the background concentration prior to the accident. The subjects of health risk assessment were classified into four groups according to age: 0-9 years old, 10-18 years old, 19-64 years old, and over 65 years old. Carcinogenic risk assessment by respiratory exposure and non-carcinogenic risk assessment by soil intake were conducted as well. Results: In the assessment of carcinogenic risk due to respiratory exposure, the excess carcinogenic risk did not exceed 1.0×10-6 in all three chemical accidents, so there was no health effect due to the formaldehyde chemical accident. As a result of the evaluation of non-carcinogenic risk due to soil intake, none of the three chemical accidents had a risk index of 1, so there was no health effect. For all three chemical accidents, the excess cancer risk and hazard index were the highest in the age group 0-9. Next, 10-18 years old, 65 years old or older, and 19-64 years old showed the highest risk. Conclusion: This study considers environmental changes after a chemical accident occurs and until the substance disappears from the environment. It also conducts a health risk assessment by reflecting the characteristics of the long-term persistence and concentration change over time. It is thought that it is of significance as a health risk assessment study reflecting the exposure characteristics of the accident substance for an actual chemical accident.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.24-31
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• 2009

Based on fallen leaves of major Korean conifer species 'Pinus densiflora' and major Korean broadleaved species 'Quercus variabilis', this study sought to identify combustion emission gas types and measure their concentration by means of FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared) spectrometer. As a result, it was found that there were total 13 types of combustion gas detected from fallen leaves of Pinus densiflora and Quercus variabilis, such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, acetic acid, butyl acetate, ethylene, methane, methanol, nitrogen dioxide, ammonia, hydrogen fluoride, sulfur dioxide and hydrogen bromide. Notably, nitrogen monoxide was additionally detected from fallen leaves of Quercus variabilis. It was found that the overall concentration of combustion gas emitted from the fallen leaves of Pinus densiflora was 4.5 times higher than that from fallen leaves of Quercus variabilis. Particularly, it was found that emission concentration of some combustion emission gas types like carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and butyl acetate exceeded the upper limit of their time-weighted average (TWA, ppm), while the emission concentration of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide exceeded their short-term exposure limit (STEL, ppm) for both species. Thus, it was found that carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide have higher hazard to health than other gas types, because these two gas types account for higher than 99% of overall gas emission due to combustion of surface fire starting from litter layer in forest.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.141-158
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• 2019

Objectives: An adverse outcome pathway is a biological pathway that disturbs homeostasis and causes toxicity. It is a conceptual framework for organizing existing biological knowledge and consists of the molecular initiating event, key event, and adverse output. The AOP concept provides intuitive risk identification that can be helpful in evaluating the carcinogenicity of chemicals and in the prevention of cancer through the assessment of chemical carcinogenicity predictions. Methods: We reviewed various papers and books related to the application of AOPs for the prevention of occupational cancer. We mainly used the internet to search for the necessary research data and information, such as via Google scholar(http://scholar.google.com), ScienceDirect(www.sciencedirect.com), Scopus(www.scopus. com), NDSL(http: //www.ndsl.kr/index.do) and PubMed(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed). The key terms searched were "adverse outcome pathway," "toxicology," "risk assessment," "human exposure," "worker," "nanoparticle," "applications," and "occupational safety and health," among others. Results: Since it focused on the current state of AOP for the prediction of toxicity from chemical exposure at work and prospects for industrial health in the context of the AOP concept, respiratory and nanomaterial hazard assessments. AOP provides an intuitive understanding of the toxicity of chemicals as a conceptual means, and it works toward accurately predicting chemical toxicity. The AOP technique has emerged as a future-oriented alternative to the existing paradigm of chemical hazard and risk assessment. AOP can be applied to the assessment of chemical carcinogenicity along with efforts to understand the effects of chronic toxic chemicals in workplaces. Based on these predictive tools, it could be possible to bring about a breakthrough in the prevention of occupational and environmental cancer. Conclusions: The AOP tool has emerged as a future-oriented alternative to the existing paradigm of chemical hazard and risk assessment and has been widely used in the field of chemical risk assessment and the evaluation of carcinogenicity at work. It will be a useful tool for prediction, and it is possible that it can help bring about a breakthrough in the prevention of occupational and environmental cancer.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.139-144
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• 2016

The study of radiation-hazard in the human skin tissue is carried out by direct irradiating to experimental animals. The influences of a radiation to the animal's skin tissue are analyzed from this experiment. However, this also accompanies losses in terms of both time and economy. In this study, we simulated human tissue by using a swine skin tissue. The depth of the swine skin tissue for the experiment is determined, and the amount of the direct radiation below this skin depth is analyzed numerically. The amount of the radiation occurred by exposure below the skin tissue can be inferred. Moreover, it is possible to use only cells effectively and animal experiments to analyze the body-hazard by radiation.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.470-479
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• 2020

Objectives: The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused the death of 740,000 people around the world as of August 12, 2020. Foot-and-Mouth Disease, Avian Influenza, and African Swine Fever are serious livestock diseases. Government agencies in Korea have provided ingredient information and usage instructions for disinfectants used to counter those infectious diseases. The purpose of this study was to provide information on the chemical ingredients in disinfectant products used against COVID-19 and certain livestock diseases. Methods: We collected information from the Korean government. The Central Disaster Management Headquarters and Central Disease Control Headquarters provided information on disinfectant products used against COVID-19. The Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency of Korea provided information on efficacy-certified disinfectant products for use against selected livestock diseases. Health hazard and environmental hazard information on the ingredients in the disinfectants was collected from the Korea Occupational Safety & Health Agency's Material Safety Data Sheets, and toxicity value information was collected from United States Environmental Protection Agency's CompTox Chemicals Dashboard. Results: There were 76 COVID-19 disinfectant products in use, and the most common ingredients were benzalkonium chloride (51%), alkylbenzyl dimethyl ammonium (30%), and ethanol (3%). There were 216 livestock disease disinfectant products comprised of 89 acidic, 88 oxidic, 30 aldehydic, three alkaline, and six other products. Among the 49 active ingredients used in the disinfectants that were investigated, health and environmental hazard information was provided for many of them, but only 20 chemicals had official toxicological information. Conclusion: Since the disinfectants included numerous chemicals, an understanding of their chemical characteristics could be critical to prevent unintended human or environmental exposure.