• Journal of the Korea Institute of Construction Safety
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.9-15
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• 2021

Recently, buildings have become larger, more complex, and various construction methods have been tried. As a result, the use of construction equipment continues to increase, as well as safety accidents. According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor's report on industrial accidents, the rate of deaths caused by construction equipment among construction accidents has been increasing steadily since 2009. In the safety field of other industries such as crime and traffic, research has been continuously conducted to develop quantitative indicators due to demands for development of evaluation indicators or risk index development. On the other hand, construction equipment has been studied to analyze disaster cases and come up with improvement measures, but there is no research related to risk index. Therefore, the research will develop a quantitative index that can determine the risk level of construction equipment in the field based on the accident case and verify the possibility of use in the field.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.60 no.4
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• pp.512-518
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• 2022

In this study, safety devices for ammonia tanks of a company in Ulsan petrochemical industrial complex were studied. The type of a tank is cylindrical and this tank was originally designed to store propylene in 1972. Due to the changes of the production schedule according to market environments, the usage of this tank has been changed to store ammonia. Despite of the changes of materials, there is no scientific information or reviews for guaranteeing the safety. Therefore, in this study, the current status of this tank is investigated to confirm that the operational conditions are complying with safety conditions. Moreover, the safety devices such as an ammonia absorbing system and water curtains are analyzed how they mitigate the impact of an accident. In addition, consequence analysis is performed to provide a proper emergency response plan. Throughout these analysis, it is confirmed that installed safety devices effectively mitigate the impact of accidents, and the necessary time for an emergency response plan is suggested when ammonia release.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.28-34
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• 2022

Since semiconductor factories are located in densely populated areas, safe handling of hazardous materials handled in the manufacturing process is of utmost importance. In particular, the types of hazardous substances discharged after handling in the semiconductor manufacturing process are very diverse, and the treatment methods such as combustion, absorption and adsorption methods for each material are very complicated. Therefore, in recent semiconductor exhaust treatment processes, two or more treatment methods are applied to one treatment facility, and unexpected accidents occur due to the application of such a complex treatment method. In this study, the cause of accidents in treatment facilities that applied both the scrubber method and the electrostatic precipitation method, which are recent accident cases, are identified, and preventive measures are suggested to find out the points to be noted when applying the complex treatment method.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.46-52
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• 2022

Although pipe performs various functions in industrial sites and residential spaces, if it is damaged due to corrosion caused by the external environment, it may cause equipment failure or a major accident. For this reason, various studies for safety management are being conducted, but studies on detecting corrosion or cracks on the pipe surface using a laser displacement sensor have hardly been conducted. Therefore, in this study, the corrosion degree of the pipe surface was compared and classified into 4 corrosion conditions, and inspection equipment using a laser scanner was manufactured. The corrosion height was calculated from the four surface data obtained from the measuring equipment and applied to various CNN algorithms, and 91% accuracy was obtained during training using the Modified VGGNet16 code with reduced number of parameters.

• Informatization Policy
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.67-88
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• 2023

The expansion of the scope of product liability is necessary because the industrial environment has changed following the enactment of the Product Liability Act. Unlike human-coded algorithms, artificial intelligence is black-boxed according to machine learning, and even developers cannot explain the results. In particular, since the cause of the problem by artificial intelligence is unknown, the responsibility is unclear, and compensation for victims is not easy. This is because software or artificial intelligence is a non-object, and its productivity is not recognized under the Product Liability Act, which is limited to movable property. As a desperate measure, productivity may be recognized if it is stored or embedded in the medium. However, it is not reasonable to apply differently depending on the medium. The EU revise the product liability guidelines that recognize product liability when artificial intelligence is included. Although compensation for victims is the value pursued by the Product Liability Act, the essence has been overlooked by focusing on productivity. Even if an accident occurs using an artificial intelligence-adopted service, however, it is desirable to present standards according to practical risks instead of unconditionally holding product responsibility.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.37-41
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• 2023

Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has had a major impact worldwide. Several countries have implemented restrictions on social interaction ("social distancing"). Several studies have reported that the epidemiology of trauma patients, such as those with facial bone fractures, has changed after COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to further explore these specific changes. Methods This was a retrospective study of patients who presented to a single institution with facial bone fractures between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2020. Baseline patient demographics, clinical information, type of fracture, etiology, and operative management were compared before and after COVID-19. Results Of all cases, 3,409 occurred before COVID-19, and 602 occurred after COVID-19. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the number of patients with facial fractures has not decreased significantly. A significant increase was noted in fractures that occurred outdoors (p < 0.001). However, a decrease was observed in operative management between the groups (p < 0.001). There was no significant difference in the proportion of assault, fall-down, industrial accident, or roll-down. In contrast, the proportion of traffic accidents and slip-down categories increased significantly (p < 0.05). Moreover, a significant decrease was found in the proportion of the sports category (p = 0.001) Conclusions It was confirmed through this study that COVID-19 pandemic also affected epidemiology of facial fractures. Focusing on these changes, it is necessary to develop safety measures to reduce facial fractures.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.393-399
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• 2023

Upper limb amputees wear an upper limb prosthesis for both aesthetic purposes and functional necessity, and in particular, in the case of amputee with both hands, it is essential to wear a myoelectric prosthetic hand capable of gripping action. The prosthetic hand operated by the EMG signal of the remaining muscles is a public insurance benefit item of the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance, and test method standards are needed to be developed for the safety of the user and the effectiveness of the product performance. In this study, we developed systems for measuring the gripping force of myoelectric hand prosthesis by a load cell and for durability test of the prosthesis over repeated use with a proximity sensor, and propose a test method standard. Since the international test method standard has not yet been established, it is expected that Korea will be able to play a leading role in this standardization field in the future.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.640-648
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• 2023

The purpose of this study was to determine the inhibitory effect of heavy metals [Cd(II), Ni(II), and Zn(II)] on the growth of Rhodobacter species (Rhodobacter blasticus, Rhodobacter sphaeroides, and Rhodobacter capsulatus) and their potential use for Cd(II), Ni(II), and Zn(II) bioremoval from liquid media. The presence of toxic heavy metals prolonged the lag phase in growth and reduced biomass growth for all three Rhodobacter species at concentrations of Cd, Ni, and Zn above 10 mg/L. However, all three Rhodobacter species also had a relatively high specific growth rate against each toxic heavy metal stress test for concentrations below 20 mg/L and possessed a potential bioaccumulation ability. The removal efficiency by all strains was highest for Cd(II), followed by Ni(II), and lowest for Zn(II), with the removal efficiency of Cd(II) by Rhodobacter species being 66% or more. Among the three strains, R. blasticus showed a higher removal efficiency of Cd(II) and Ni(II) than R. capsulatus and R. sphaeroides. Results also suggest that the bio-removal processes of toxic heavy metal ions by Rhodobacter species involve both bioaccumulation (intracellular uptake) and biosorption (surface binding).

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.35
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• pp.34.1-34.8
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• 2023

Background: Hydrogen sulfide is a toxic substance that humans can be exposed to occupationally, and cases of hydrogen sulfide poisoning of workers in industrial sites are commonly reported. However, there have been no cases of poisoning of the public due to an unauthorized discharge of wastewater, so it is important to describe this incident. Case presentation: In a small village in Jeollanam-do, Republic of Korea, accounts of a terrible stench had been reported. A 26-year-old man who lived and worked in a foul-smelling area was taken to the emergency room with a headache, dizziness, nausea, and repeated syncope. A subsequent police and Ministry of Environment investigation determined that the cause of the stench was the unauthorized discharge of 9 tons of wastewater containing hydrogen sulfide through a stormwater pipe while the villagers were sleeping. The patient had no previous medical history or experience of symptoms. Leukocytes and cardiac markers were elevated, an electrocardiogram indicated biatrial enlargement, left ventricular hypertrophy, and corrected QT interval prolongation. Myocardial hypertrophy was detected on a chest computed tomography scan, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was confirmed on echocardiography. After hospitalization, cardiac marker concentrations declined, symptoms improved, and the patient was discharged after 7 days of hospitalization. There was no recurrence of symptoms after discharge. Conclusions: We suspect that previously unrecognized heart disease manifested or was aggravated in this patient due to exposure to hydrogen sulfide. Attention should be paid to the possibility of unauthorized discharge of hydrogen sulfide, etc., in occasional local incidents and damage to public health. In the event of such an accident, it is necessary to have government guidelines in place to investigate health impact and follow-up clinical management of exposed residents.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.35
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• pp.10.1-10.10
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• 2023

The purpose of this paper was to review the problems relating to Korea's occupational health services and suggest ways to improve them. Korea can be classified as a welfare state type of conservative corporatism partially interwoven with liberalism. While experiencing compressed economic growth, the economic sectors of developed (excess areas) and developing (deficient areas) countries are interwoven. Therefore, it is necessary to perfect conservative corporatism along with a complementary reinforcement of liberal contents and to apply a multilayered approach focusing on complementing the deficient areas. It is essential to form a national representative indicator related to occupational health, and a strategy for selection and concentration is needed. The proposed central indicator is the occupational health coverage rate (OHCR), which is the number of workers who have applied for mandatory occupational health services under the Occupational Safety and Health Act in the numerator with the total working population in the denominator. This paper proposes ways to raise the OHCR, which is currently at the level of 25%-40%, to 70%-80%, which is the level of Japan, Germany, and France. To achieve this target, it is necessary to focus on small businesses and vulnerable workers. This is an area of market failure and requires the active input of community-oriented public resources. For access to larger workplaces, the marketability of services should be strengthened and personal intervention using digital health resources should be actively attempted. Taking a national perspective, work environment improvement committees with tripartite (labor, management, and government) participation for improvement of the working environment need to be established at the center and in the regions. Through this, prevention funds linked to industrial accident compensation and prevention could be used efficiently. A national chemical substance management system must be established to monitor the health of workers and the general public.