• The Journal of Korean Society for School & Community Health Education
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.59-73
• /
• 2016

Objectives: The working environment affects employees' physical and mental aspects, and has a deep associations with depression. The purposes of this study are to investigate how hazardous environment working experience impacts on depression, to provide rationale and practical implications for reducing depression and drinking. Methods: This study targeted 215 dental hygiene students from 3 universities located in Gyeonggi-do from November 30 to December 4, 2015. We analyzed the data with frequency analysis, descriptive statistics, t-test. One-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient, Regression analysis by using SPSS. Results: This study showed that experience working in hazardous environments increased depression and alcohol drinking, on the other hand alcohol drinking reduced depression. In addition, experience working in hazardous environments effected on depression indirectly through mediating of drinking, subjective health had not role of Moderating Effects between experience working in hazardous environments and depression. Conclusions: In order to reduce workers' depression and alcohol, the improvements of harmful environment are needed. For this governments and local governments should efforts to support enhancing workplace environment, to develop model of standard work environment, and to change employers' awareness on the harmful environment.

• Journal of Korean Dental Hygiene Science
• /
• v.5 no.2
• /
• pp.1-11
• /
• 2022

Background: This study was aimed at investigating the type of work of dental hygienists and identifying factors affecting the subjective health status according to hazardous risk factors in the working environment. Methods: From May 15 to 31, 2019, we surveyed 411 dental hygienists working at dental hospitals in the metropolitan area. SPSS 25.0 was used to perform the frequency analysis, t-test, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson's correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis. Results: Regarding factors related to the degree of exposure to hazardous risk factors in the work environment and subjective health status, the more exposed the ergonomic (p<0.05) and psychological (p< 0.001)factors, the worse is the subjective health status. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that the working environment should be improved for dental hygienists such that they can perform their duties in a safe environment.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.73-86
• /
• 1999

This study was performed to find out factors affecting degree of satisfaction with workers' working environment. The study subjects were 165 workers who were working at painting process of twelve furniture manufacturing factories in Incheon area. We used self-administered questionnaire containing general characteristics, working conditions, the degree of satisfaction with working environment, and the degree of satisfaction with working condition. In addition, we measured the exposure levels of occupational hazardous agents. The results were as follows; 1. Correlations between the degree of satisfaction with workers' working environment and the measured of occupational hazardous agents did not affect the degree of satisfaction with workers' working environment. 2. Factors affecting the degree of satisfaction with workers' working environment were not the exposure levels of occupational hazardous agents, but the degree of satisfaction with working condition, size of industry, health status, and types of ventilation system. As the degree of satisfaction with working condition was increased, the degree of satisfaction with working environment was increased. Also, for the workers who had good health status, the degree of satisfaction with work environment was appeared to be high. To increase the degree of satisfaction, with workers' working environment, firstly, effective work management and production control are required. Also, the worker's effort to negotiate continuously with top manager on improving working conditions is required. Secondly, developing heath promotion program to be appropriate for the characteristics of worksite is required. Moreover, leading worker's participation in health promotion program is very important to increase the degree of satisfaction with workers' working environment.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.100-107
• /
• 2018

Objectives: This study examines exposure to hazardous substances in the working environment caused by exposure to toxic substances produced in the aluminum die casting process in the automobile manufacturing industry. Materials and Methods: The exposure concentration levels, detection rates and time-trend of 15 hazardous factors in the aluminum die casting process over 10 years(from 2006 to 2016) were used as a database. Results: The study found that hazardous factors in the aluminum die casting process were mostly metals. The rate for detected samples was 70.6%(405 samples), and that for not detected samples was 29.4%. The noise for an eight-hour work shift showed a 49.7% exceedance rate for TLV-TWA. Average noise exposure was 89.0 dB. The maximum exposure level was 105.1 dB. Conclusion: The high numbers of no-detection rates for hazardous substance exposure shows that there is no need to do a work environment measurement. Therefore, alternatives are necessary for improving the efficiency and reliability of the work environment measurement. Moreover, to prevent noise damage, reducing noise sources from automation, shielding, or sound absorbents are necessary.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.393-405
• /
• 2018

Objective: This study examines the types of hazardous factors in the working environment and the time-trend for their exposure levels over 10 years (2007 to 2016). Study Design and Method: The types of hazardous factors and exposure levels were drawn from the 19 measurement reports on the working environment over 10 years at a shock absorber manufacturing facility. Risk assessment of the types of factors and time-trend of exposure levels were evaluated using the factors and exposure levels. Results: A total of 34 hazardous factors were evaluated. The types were noise, 15 organic compounds, seven kinds of acid sand alkalis, eight kinds of heavy metals, and three other compounds. Special management materials used were nickel, hexavalent chrome, and sulfuric acid. Human carcinogens (1A) used were trichloroethylene, nickel, and sulfuric acid. There were six types of substances belonging to the IARC's 2B (body carcinogens) classification or higher, including, methyl isobutyl ketone, ethyl benzene, and trichloroethylene. No detection was found for 627 out of the 2065 total measurements in 19 exposure survey reports, representing 30.4%. Organic solvents, acid and alkali products, and heavy metals showed continuous low exposure concentrations. Noise, welding fumes, and the evaluation of mixed solvents show a gradual decrease in geometric mean and maximum over the time-trend of 10 years. Conclusions: In the case of a shock absorber manufacturing facility, the hazardous factors of noise and the evaluation of mixed solvents still indicate high concentrations exceeding the exposure limits and necessitate reduction studies. These two factors and welding fumes showed a continuous decrease in their ten-year tendency. Organic compounds, acids/alkalis, and heavy metals were managed smoothly in a work environment of continuous low concentrations.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• /
• v.11 no.3
• /
• pp.179-189
• /
• 2001

This study was performed to identify the current status of work environment management and to provide appropriate recommendations for small scale industry with less than 5 workers from September, 2000 to October, 2000 in Seoul city and Gyoung-gi province. The 211 companies were surveyed by checklist included the elements of management of work environment, hazardous chemicals, MSDS, personal protective equipment, and ventilation system. The proportion of metal products manufacturing and printing industries are 25.6 % and 22.3%, respectively. The daily working hours in printing industry is longer than others. The industries that produce potentially hazardous agents, such as noise, dust, metal, organic solvents, radiation and chemical material are pulp, plating, machinery, and printing, respectively. In above industries, only 2.8 % of those recognised and had MSDS. The proportion of companies providing fire extinguishers, safety showers are found to be 13.3 %, 7.1 %, respectively. Only 24.2 % of companies provided personal protective equipment to the workers. The ventilation system was operated in most of companies. But local exhaust ventilation system is provided to 22.3 % of those, also had not been annually inspected. This study showed that the current status of occupational safety and health was not appropriate for workers in small scale industries. It is suggested that annual physical examination have to be performed, MSDS usage must become widespread, and employer and emplyees in small scale industry should be educated for the treatment and storage of hazardous chemicals to improve the occupational safety and health of the working environment. also, regulatory standard has to be applied to local exhaust ventilation system in small scale industry to improve the working condition.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.235-247
• /
• 1999

This study was performed to investigate what was the most serious occupational factors in small scale industries. Twenty-three occupatonally hazardous substances were measured at the five workplaces in the Eastern Seoul during 1995∼1996. Total of 2,020 samples were analyzed by either GC/FID for organic vapors or AAS for heavy metals. From the results of this study noise was the most serious factor at the selected workplaces. Noise level in the metal processing, the printing, and the auto repairing industries exceeded the 8 hr PEL by 19.7%, 13.6%, and 11.6%, respectively. Mean concentrations of toluene in the shoe making and the printing industries exceeded the assessment crieterion by 6.0% and 3.8%, respectively. Further study of risk assessment of occupational exposure may be required to protect workers from hazardous working conditons.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.287-301
• /
• 2022

Objectives: This study compared the characteristics of the work environment between agricultural and general workers and analyzed the effects of agricultural working characteristics on work-related health problems. Methods: The participants of this study were 2,347 agricultural workers and 48,042 general workers who were selected by applying standardized weights to the raw data of 50,538 respondents from the 6th Korean Working Condition Survey (KWCS). Variables applicable to both worker groups and related to exposure to hazardous risk factors in the working environment, working hours and intensity of work, health problems and work-related status, and satisfaction with the work environment were selected. Chi-square tests and independent sample t-tests were performed to evaluate the differences in the variables between the two groups. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted to analyze the effects of work environment characteristics on work-related health problems. Results: Compared to general workers, agricultural workers were more exposed to hazardous environments, irregular work patterns such as working on Saturday/Sunday, and short repetitive tasks. They reported more work-related and general health problems, including back pain, upper extremity muscle pain, lower extremity muscle pain, and general fatigue. Agricultural workers showed lower satisfaction with their work environment than general workers. Factors affecting one or more work-related health problems included gender, working years, hazardous factors, irregular work pattern, working hours, and labor intensity. Conclusions: Our findings showed that agricultural workers were relatively more vulnerable to safety issues compared to other occupational groups. Therefore, it is necessary to establish standardized safety and health standards and strengthen systematic safety and health management policies and services for agriculture.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.16 no.6
• /
• pp.653-663
• /
• 2000

A lot of hazardous wastes are discharged as by-products of working process by industrial development. Hazardous wastes is physical characteristics of difficult destruction at hight temperature. Numerical simulation and combustion experiment performed of dump incinerator for hazardous waste incineration. For the numerical simulation, the SIMPLEST algorithm was used to ensure rapid converge A K-$\varepsilon$ model was incorporate for the enclosure of turbulence flow. Combustion model was used by ESCRS (extended simple chemically reacting system) model available of CHEMKIN thermodynamic data for the source term of species conservation equation or energy equation. Radiation model is used by six flux model. A parametric screening studies was carried out through numerical simulation and experiment. Residence time and concentration in the incinerator was strongly dependent on the parameters of mixture velocity, mixture equilibrium ratio, surrogate velocity and surrogate equilibrium ratio.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.23 no.3 s.31
• /
• pp.275-284
• /
• 1990

To obtain the useful information for the status of working environment and health management of workers in manufacturing industries, comparision of results on the status of working environmental and health management of workers for 32 manufacturing industries in Chunan area from 1988 to 1989 was carried out. The results were as follows : 1. The rate of over-PEL (Permissible Exposure Limit) to for hazardous factors decreased significantly 23.5% in 1988, 18.3% in 1989 (p<0.05) and, the highest rate of over-PEL was the stone and sand handling industry, the highest rate of over-PEL was the dusty workplace as 38.5% in 1988, 35.2% in 1989. 2. The rate of workers exposed to hazardous factors in 1988 and in 1989 was 22.4% respectively, the rate of workers checked up special health examination was 40.1% in 1988, 75.3% in 1989. In stone and sand handling and medicochemical industries, none of workers exposed to hazardous factors was subjected to special health examination in 1988, but 75% of workers exposed to hazardous factors had checked up in 1989. 3. The 6 industries appointed as part-time factory physician among 17 industries which were supposed to have factory physician according to the Safety and Healthy Act of Korea, 6 out of 24 industries only appointed industrial hygienist, furthermore 4 out of 6 hygienists had another duty in addition to occupational hygiene itself.