• Infection and chemotherapy
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.319-327
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• 2018

Background: Lancet-related needlestick injuries (NSIs) occur steadily in clinical practices. Safety-engineered devices (SEDs) can systematically reduce NSIs. However, the use of SEDs is not active and no study to guide the implementation of SEDs was known in South Korea. The lancet-related NSIs may be eliminated to zero incidence using a SED lancet with effective sharp injury protection and reuse prevention features. Materials and Methods: We implemented a SED lancet by replacing a conventional prick lancet in a tertiary hospital in a sequential approach. A spot test of the new SED was conducted for 1 month to check the acceptability in practice and a questionnaire survey was obtained from the healthcare workers (HCWs). A pilot implementation of the SED lancet in 2 wards was made for 1 year. Based on these preliminary interventions, a hospital-wide full implementation of the SED lancet was launched. The incidence of NSIs and cost expenditure before and after the intervention were compared. Results: There were 29 cases of conventional prick lancet-related NSIs for 3 years before the full implementation of SED lancet. The proportion of prick lancet-related NSIs among yearly all kinds of NSIs during two years before the pilot study was average 11.7% (22/188). Pre-interventional baseline incidence of all kinds of NSIs was 7.01 per 100 HCW-years. After the full implementation of SED lancet, the lancet-related NSIs became zero in the 2nd year (P = 0.001). The average direct cost of 18,393 US dollars (USD) per year from device and post-exposure medical care before the intervention rose to 20,701 USD in the 2nd year of the intervention. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was 210 USD per injury avoided. Conclusion: The implementation of a SED lancet could eliminate the lancet-related NSIs to zero incidence. The cost increase incurred by the use of SED lancet was tolerable.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.222-227
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• 2002

Although there are a few reports concerning the side effects and toxicity of herbal medicines, there has not yet been any report concerning their causes, mechanisms or prevention. We investigated the internal reports concerning the side effects and toxicity of herbal medicines. In the findings, liver disorder (hepatic injury) was found in 7 cases, kidney disorders (nephropathy) were found in 12 cases, heart disorders were found in 4 cases and mineral-caused diseases were found in 2 cases. Besides, we found the major cause of the side effects and toxicity was drug abuse, such as over-dosage and long term medication. So, we hope this report brings more attention to the safety and toxicity of herbal medicines.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.39-44
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• 2013

There have been large explosions at some chemical plants recently. Accidents in chemical plants have been caused mainly by servicing for maintenance. There is a need to find a key target for effective injury prevention in maintenance. In this paper, facilities were selected as a key target and the risk priority numbers of the facilities were calculated in order to prioritize preventative measures. The research method was based on the followings; the list of the facilities is found through injury analysis. Then, the risk of each facility was calculated by the frequency of accidents and the working day loss through injuries. In addition, the risk of the facilities was calculated again by the frequency and the severity based on knowledge and experience of experts. As a result, the facilities in chemical plant maintenance are ranked in order of high to low risk priority number; reactor, dryer, tank lorry, etc. In the future, special measures and attention should be directed according to the risk priority number during the maintenance of chemical plants.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.434-440
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• 2018

Background: In industrial countries, home care of community dwelling elderly people is rapidly growing. Frequent injuries in home caregivers result from slips, trips, and falls (STFs). The current study tests attentional cognitive failure to mediate the association between work stressors and STFs. Methods: A sample of 125 home caregivers participated in a questionnaire study and reported work interruptions, unreasonable tasks, quality-threatening time pressure, conscientiousness, attentional cognitive failures, and STFs. Results: In structural equation modeling, the mediation model was shown to fit empirical data. Indirect paths with attentional cognitive failures as the link between work stressors and STF were all significant in bootstrapping tests. An alternative accident-prone person model, that suggests individual differences in conscientiousness to predict attentional cognitive failures that predict more frequent work stressors and STFs, showed no significant paths between work conditions and STFs. Conclusion: To prevent occupational injury, work should be redesigned to reduce work interruptions, unreasonable tasks, and quality-threatening time pressure in home care.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.62-69
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• 2019

Korean shipbuilding companies have taken many efforts for safety over the years by developing Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) Management Systems, Procedures, Training, and studying Programs for prevention of incidents. As a result, the shipbuilding industry has succeeded in reducing overall injury rates. Nevertheless, the industry also noticed that incident rates are still not at zero and more importantly, serious injuries and fatalities are still occurring. One factor that may be attributing to this is the lack of managing potential severity during incident investigations, most incident investigations are implemented based on the actual result. Generally, each shipbuilding company develops their customized incident investigation programs and these are also commonly being focused on actual result. This study aimed to develop a shift in strategy toward safety to classify the criteria of potential severity from any incidents and manage that to prevent any recurrence or causing any serious injuries or fatalities in the shipbuilding industry. Several global energy companies have already developed potential severity management tools and applied them in their incident investigations. In order to verify the necessity of improvement for current systems, a case study and comparative analysis between a domestic shipbuilding company and several global energy companies from foreign countries was implemented and comparison of two incident investigation cases from specific offshore projects was conducted to measure the value of a potential severity system. Also, a checklist was established from the data of fatalities and serious injuries in recent 5 years that occurred in Korea shipbuilding industry and a proposal to verify high potential incidents in the incident investigation process and comparative analysis between the assessment by appling proposed checklist and the assessment from a global energy company by using their own system was implemented. As a measure to prevent any incidents, it is required to focus on potential severity assessment during the incident investigation rather than to only control actual result. Hence, this study aims to propose a realistic plan which enables to improve the existing practices of incident investigation and control in the shipbuilding industry.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.74-84
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• 2019

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop content for safety education to prevent hospital safety accidents among hospitalized children and to investigate the status of safety education performed by nurses. Methods: First, the Delphi method was used, with 18 experts, to develop educational contents for preventing safety accidents. Second, an exploratory survey was performed of the actual status of safety education for preventing safety accidents among hospitalized children using a questionnaire developed based on the Delphi method. The participants of this study were 159 nurses with at least 6 months of work experience. Results: The educational content developed through the Delphi method for preventing safety accidents among hospitalized children contained seven domains (falls, injury, electric shocks/burns, suffocation/aspiration, poisoning/abuse, kidnapping, medical devices) with 44 topics. The item mean of nurses'perceptions of the importance of child safety education was 4.18, and the actual performance score was 3.72, which was a statistically significant difference (t=11.58, p<.001). Conclusion: These seven comprehensive domains of accident prevention education for hospitalized children are expected to be useful for interventions to support the safety of hospitalized children.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.44 no.4 s.218
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• pp.75-86
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate the educational program of life safety for low grade elementary school students. The objectives of the life safety education were established, and the contents and instructions of the educational program were organized according to the needs of the 560 children and their mothers. Both experimental and control groups were evaluated before, immediately after and 3 weeks after the education in terms of knowledge about safety, attitudes and behaviors. The results of this study were as follows: 1. Twelve contents for safety education consisted of safety for electronic games, playing facility, mobile exercise machines, elevator/escalators, traffic and prevention for injury, pricking/cutting, collision/fall/slippery, drowning, burning, electric shock, food toxicity and child missing/sexual harassment/kidnapping. 2. The score of knowledge for safety, attitude, and behavior of the experimental group was improved after the post-tests. Thus, the educational effects were demonstrated to be significant in all evaluation sections.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.114-125
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• 2019

The frequency of official injury of fire-fighting officers exposed to an extreme situation in disaster areas has been continuously increased. In spite of increase of injury, procedures of injury approval are complex, so the working environment of fire-fighting officers is very poor in terms of safety management. This study was, therefore, conducted to provide basic data for improvement of the injury management system for fire-fighting officers, by empirically analyzing the system for those in Busan city. The findings of the empirical analysis are as follows: first, the frequency of injury experienced by them is higher than that of other occupations; second, application for injury is not actively made; third, fire-fighting officers should bear the expense if injury is approved. On the basis of such an analysis on actual conditions, an analysis on policy factors for improving the injury management system shows; first, various high-risk matters should be considered in the review of application for injury, for improvement factors of the application for injury, while it is necessary to extend the benefit and support project for injured officers, for operation improvement factors of the injury management system, and the compensation act should be improved, for the improvement factors of the injury system. Second, it is urgent to develop damage prevention and coping education program for improving the injury management system. In addition, the simplification of administrative procedures of application for injury and the extension of benefit and support project for injured officers should be realized as soon as possible, moreover, the enhancement of directors' interest and support is also required.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.730-737
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• 2014

In this study, chloride content of marine concrete bridge at the south coast in 5~34years was calculated based on the measured data and the validity of the proposed value was evaluated. Also, correlation of existence of salt injury prevention coating, chloride content, carbonation depth and the compressive strength of marine concrete bridges were derived and relationship of the four was evaluated. According to the research results, surface chloride content value in the tidal zone proposed form KCI 2009 and value in the splash zone and atmospheric zone proposed form Cheong et al.(2005) was the most valid. Also, salt injury prevention coating of marine concrete bridges had the outstanding effect of preventing chloride content penetration, carbonation depth and reduction in the compressive strength. Compressive strength of concrete was reduced by the increase of carbonation depth and chloride content.

• Journal of Korean Orthopaedic Sports Medicine
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.25-30
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• 2004

Objective: Recently, inline skates are populary increasing and have become major recreational activities. This study was performed to determine the effective prevention means on various extremity injury by investigating injury severity occording to acute injury and overuse injury. Results: Acute inline skating injury was experienced mostly among the age between 6$\~$14 years old children after school around nearby their home without using no appropriate safety device gear. The wrist injury was mostly happened. We think that overuse injury is related to boot itself, boot fitting and improper skating techniques. Conclusion: So afterall, appropriate safety equipment wearing in inline skating at the safe place after learning about the skating skills can reduce the acute inline skating extremity injuries. Choosing a pair of good fitting boots, performing the exact pushing techniques and take good rests in the middle of skating frequently can reduce the overuse injury.