• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.213-223
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• 1992

Although landfill has been heavily relied upon as a final hazardous waste disposal method in Korea, the legal and technical problems associated with the landfill severely hinder proper disposal of hazardous wastes. The single largest legal problem is simply that, in spite of the recent amendments, the law regulating the hazardous waste landfill is yet in its primitive stage that even the lawful landfill sites cannot be regarded safe. The technical problems include improper selection of landfill sites, poor design and construction of landfill facilities, and lack of QA/AC and post-closure cares. These technical problems stem from inexperience and lack of resources. For the reduction of the potential danger from the improper landfills of hazardous wastes, it is an immediate need to further refine the law and to resolve the technical problems.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.736-742
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• 2014

If an accident occurs at work places that handle 'the accident preparedness substances', it causes more property damage and casualties than accidents of normal chemical substances. Even though various systems and regulations have been operated in order to prevent accidents, techniques for reducing and removing human error, which is one of the main reasons of accidents, are still inadequate. In this paper, hazardous work digitization, potential hazard verification, and work evaluation based on domestic technical guidelines have been performed through a case study of the accident of hydrofluoric acid leakage in Gumi in September 2012, and development of a new risk mapping method has been studied to supplement existing systems.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.310-317
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• 2020

Purpose: In this study, the characteristics of hazardous chemical transport vehicle accidents during the last six years from 2014 to 2019 was analyzed. This study is to prevent chemical transport accidents. Method: Using statistics from the Ministry of Environment, chemical transport vehicle accidents were classified into accident type, accident cause and vehicle type. Result: Of the total 506 cases chemical accidents, 105 cases were caused by transport vehicle. More than 20 percent of total accidents were reported. Most of the accidents were caused by spill·leak. The main causes of the accident were traffic accidents(49 cases) and management negligence(29 cases). This was more than 74% of all transport vehicle accidents. By vehicle type, 57 cases(54%) were most common in tank lorries, followed by trucks (39 cases, 37%) and trailers (9 cases, 9%). Conclusion: In order to prevent accident of transport vehicle, thorough inspection of the transport vehicle is required and safe operation of the driver. In addition, the government needs to expand real-time monitoring of transport vehicles and comprehensively manage different systems by the relevant ministries.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.21-29
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• 2017

Small and medium industry facility handling hazardous chemicals was inspected and summarized. The inspection results were summarized in four categories such as hazards to process, storage, workers, and the others. The result was applied to further improvement of the facility. In conclusion, the industry intented to satisfy minimum requirement of regulation and they do not pay attention to keep maintaining the facility in integrity condition.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.39 no.11
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• pp.650-654
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• 2017

As the amount of chemicals increases, there is a global movement to reorganize the chemical management system. Korea has also reorganized its chemical management system to enact the act on Chemical Control and Registration and Evaluation etc. of chemical substance. However, it is true that there are not enough explanations in domestic workplaces. Therefore, deepening understanding of chemical control act and searched for a complementary point and future development direction. Through the proposed method, chemical control act should be widely adopted and studied both inside and outside the country as a safe chemical management system.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.30 no.sup
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• pp.1.1-1.5
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• 2015

Objectives Despite the great contribution made by chemical substances to the development of modern civilization, their indiscriminate use has caused various kinds of damage to the global environment and human beings. Accordingly, the major developed countries and international society have tried to ensure the safe use of chemicals and a reduction in the use of hazardous chemicals through the establishment of the United Nations Environment Programme and various international agreements. In this reason, we tried to introduce about Green Chemistry progress at the present in worldwide and Korea. Methods We checked and analyzed relative journals, reports using keyword as like Green Chemistry, alternative chemicals, eco-friendly etc. and major country's government homepage search. Results Green Chemistry theory, which argues for the reduction or removal of harmfulness in chemicals throughout their entire life-cycle, has been spreading, and major developed countries, such as the US and Denmark, have developed and operate programs to provide reliable chemical information to help replace hazardous chemicals. Korea has also been conducting studies as like eco-innovation project. Through this project the "Alternative Chemical Search program," has been developed, distributed, and operated since 2011 to provide reliable information to small and medium-sized businesses that have difficulties collecting information to ensure conformity to international regulations. The program provides information that includes the regulations of major countries and Korea, information on 340 alternative chemicals, 70 application cases, and 1:1 consulting. Conclusions The Alternative Chemical Search program is expected to contribute to the establishment of response systems for regulation of Korean small and medium-sized businesses, and it also will be used to provide basic data for Korean hazardous chemical regulation, together with the Act on the Registration and Evaluation, etc. of Chemical Substances and the Chemical Control act, making it possible to establish an infrastructure for Green Chemistry in Korea and to increase national competitiveness.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.58 no.2
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• pp.248-256
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• 2020

In this study, predictive models based on machine learning for evaluating the extent of hazardous zone of explosive gases are developed. They are able to provide important guidelines for installing the explosion proof apparatus. 1,200 research data sets including 12 combustible gases and their extents of hazardous zone are generated to train predictive models. The extent of hazardous zone is set to an output variable and 12 variables affecting an output are set as input variables. Multiple linear regression, principal component regression, and artificial neural network are employed to train predictive models. Mean absolute percentage errors of multiple linear regression, principal component regression, and artificial neural network are 44.2%, 49.3%, and 5.7% and root mean square errors are 1.389m, 1.602m, and 0.203 m respectively. Therefore, it can be concluded that the artificial neural network shows the best performance. This model can be easily used to evaluate the extent of hazardous zone for explosive gases.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.13-21
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• 2019

Leakage accidents in businesses dealing with hazardous chemicals can have a great impact on the workers inside the workplace, as well as residents outside the workplace. In fact, there were cases where hazardous chemicals leaked from many businesses. As a result, the Chemicals Control Act(CCA) was enacted in 2015, the Ministry of Environment introduced an Off-site Risk Assessment(ORA). The purpose of the ORA is to secure safety from the installation of the design of the workplace facilities so that chemical accidents of hazardous chemical handling facilities do not cause human or physical damage outside the workplace. In general, the ORA qualitatively determines where a protected facility is within the scope of the accident scenario. However, elderly who belong to the sensitive group is more sensitive than the general group under the same chemical accident effect, and the extent of the damage is serious. According to data from the Korea National Statistic Office, the number of elderly people is expected to increase steadily. Therefore, a quantitative risk analysis considering the elderly is necessary as a result of a chemical accident. In this study, accident scenarios for 14 locations were set up to perform emergency evacuation due to toxic gas leakage of Cl₂(Chlorine) and HF(Hydrogen Fluoride), and the effects of exposure were analyzed based on the evacuation velocity difference of age 20s and 60s. The ALOHA(Areal Locations of Hazardous Atmospheres) program was used to calculate the concentration for assessing the effects. The time of exposure to toxic gas was calculated based on the time it took for the evacuation to run from the start point to the desired point and a methodology was devised that could be applied to the risk calculation. As a result of the study, the relative risk of the elderly, the sensitive group, needs to be determined.

• 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.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.112-116
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• 2019

In this study, a chloroform consumer chemical product (CCP) reference material (RM) is successfully developed, with potential to be used in the proficiency testing of hazardous compounds in CCPs for analysis and testing agencies. Validation experiments are rigorously conducted to evaluate whether the RM meets the requirements set by the ISO 13528 and ISO Guide 35, using a reliable GC/MS method for the analysis of chloroform. The obtained calibration plot linearity, limit of detection (LOD), and limit of quantitation (LOQ) are excellent. The developed RM meets the homogeneity and stability requirements; the between-unit (s_bb) and within-unit (s_wb) standard deviations are less than 2.5%, and the stability is found to be guaranteed for 50 days.