• Title/Summary/Keyword: protection risks

Search Result 290, Processing Time 0.025 seconds

Intent to Use a Smartphone Application for Radiation Monitoring in Correlation with Anxiety about Exposure to Radiation, Recognition of Risks, and Attitudes toward the Use of Radiation

  • Han, Eunkyoung;Rott, Carsten;Hong, Seung-Woo
    • Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
    • /
    • v.42 no.4
    • /
    • pp.205-211
    • /
    • 2017
  • Background: Radiation is used in a variety of areas, but it also poses potential risks. Although radiation is often used with great effectiveness in many applications, people perceive potential risks associated with radiation and feel anxious about the possibility of radiation exposure. Various methods of measuring radiation doses have been developed, but there is no way for the general public to measure their doses with ease. Currently, many people use smartphones, which provide information about the location of an individual phone through network connections. If a smartphone application could be developed for measuring radiation dosage, it would be a very effective way to measure individuals' radiation doses. Thus, we conducted a survey study to assess the social acceptance of such a technology by the general public and their intent to use that technology to measure radiation doses, as well as to investigate whether such an intention is correlated with anxiety and attitudes toward the use of radiation. Materials and Methods: A nationwide online survey was conducted among 355 Koreans who were 20 years old or older. Results and Discussion: Significant differences were found between the genders in attitudes, perceptions of radiation risk, and fears of exposure to radiation. However, a significant difference according to age was observed only in the intent to use a smartphone dose measurement application. Attitudes towards the use of radiation exerted a negative effect on radiation risk perception and exposure anxiety, whereas attitudes towards the use of radiation, risk perception, and anxiety about exposure were found to have a positive impact on the intent to use a smartphone application for dose measurements. Conclusion: A survey-based study was conducted to investigate how the general public perceives radiation and to examine the acceptability of a smartphone application as a personal dose monitoring device. If such an application is developed, it could be used not only to monitor an individual's dose, but also to contribute to radiation safety information infrastructure by mapping radiation in different areas, which could be utilized as a useful basis for radiation research.

The Occupational Exposure Limit for Fluid Aerosol Generated in Metalworking Operations: Limitations and Recommendations

  • Park, Dong-Uk
    • Safety and Health at Work
    • /
    • v.3 no.1
    • /
    • pp.1-10
    • /
    • 2012
  • The aim of this review was to assess current knowledge related to the occupational exposure limit (OEL) for fluid aerosols including either mineral or chemical oil that are generated in metalworking operations, and to discuss whether their OEL can be appropriately used to prevent several health risks that may vary among metalworking fluid (MWF) types. The OEL (time-weighted average; 5 mg/$m^3$, short-term exposure limit ; 15 mg/$m^3$) has been applied to MWF aerosols without consideration of different fluid aerosol-size fractions. The OEL, is also based on the assumption that there are no significant differences in risk among fluid types, which may be contentious. Particularly, the health risks from exposure to water-soluble fluids may not have been sufficiently considered. Although adoption of The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's recommended exposure limit for MWF aerosol (0.5 mg/$m^3$ ) would be an effective step towards minimizing and evaluating the upper respiratory irritation that may be caused by neat or diluted MWF, this would fail to address the hazards (e.g., asthma and hypersensitivity pneumonitis) caused by microbial contaminants generated only by the use of water-soluble fluids. The absence of an OEL for the water-soluble fluids used in approximately 80-90 % of all applicants may result in limitations of the protection from health risks caused by exposure to those fluids.

A Study on Fire Protection of Chemical Plants Using FRA (Fire Risk Assessment) Method (FRA(Fire Risk Assessment)기법을 이용한 화학공장의 Fire Protection에 관한 연구)

  • Han, Seung-Hoon;Yoo, Byung-Tae;Tae, Chan-Ho;Chae, Chung Keun;Ko, Jae Wook
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
    • /
    • v.20 no.5
    • /
    • pp.17-26
    • /
    • 2016
  • Chemical plants and oil gas refinery facilities are intrinsically vulnerable to industrial hazards, such as explosion or fire. Especially, the fire is extremely dangerous to facility structures and plant personnel because of direct flame, radiant heat and smoke. In addition, it has the ripple effect of destroying infra-structures and polluting the environment. In an effort to tackle these potential industrial risks, the procedure of FRA techniques in chemical plants were investigated. The main focus was put on the time variation of physical properties of the main building, i.e. control rooms, warehouses and electrical substations, from a direct flame contact and radiant heat. The deformation of a building due to fire was monitored and modeled with respect to time variable. A variety of case studies, domestic and abroad, was tested in the model to verify the FRA procedure. The developed model was proven to be highly effective to reduce the possible risks at chemical plants. An accurate accident frequency prediction and damage quantification was made by the developed model.

Factors to Affect Acceptance of Open Banking from Information Security Perspectives (정보보호 관점에서의 오픈뱅킹 수용도에 대한 영향요인)

  • Go, Jeunghyeun;Lee, Woonboo
    • Journal of Information Technology Services
    • /
    • v.20 no.6
    • /
    • pp.63-81
    • /
    • 2021
  • Joint financial network of Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute, which is an essential facility with a natural monopoly, maintained its closedness as monopoly/public utility model, but it has evolved in the form of open banking in order to obtain domestic fintech competitiveness in the rapidly changing digital financial ecosystem such as the acceleration of Big Blur. In accordance with digital transformation strategy of financial institutions, various ICT companies are actively participating in the financial industries, which has been exclusive to banks, through the link technology called Open API. For this reason, there has been a significant change in the financial service supply chain in which ICT companies participate as users. The level of security in the financial service supply chain is determined based on the weakest part of the individual components according to the law of minimum. In addition, there is a perceived risk of personal information and financial information leakage among the main factors that affect users' intention to accept services, and appropriate protective measures against perceived security risks can be a catalyst, which increases the acceptance of open banking. Therefore, this is a study on factors affecting the introduction of open banking to achieve financial innovation by developing an open banking security control model for financial institutions, as a protective measures to user organizations, from the perspectives of cyber financial security and customer information protection, respectively, and surveying financial security experts. It is expected, from this study, that effective information protection measures will be derived to protect the rights and interests of financial customers and will help promote open banking.

Radiation and Decommissioning Laboratory, an R&D Center for the Back-end Cycle of Nuclear Power Plants

  • Cheon-Woo Kim
    • Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
    • /
    • v.21 no.3
    • /
    • pp.419-425
    • /
    • 2023
  • The Radiation and Decommissioning Laboratory of Central Research Institute (CRI) of Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP) performs research to technically support the effective management of radiological hazards to avoid risks to civilians, the workers, and the environment from the radiological risks. The laboratory mainly consists of three technical groups: decommissioning and SF technology group, radiation and chemistry group, and radwaste and environment group. The groups carry out various R&D such as decommissioning, spent fuel management, radiation protection, water chemistry management, and radioactive waste management. The laboratory also technically supports the calibration of radiometric instruments as a Korea Laboratory Accreditation Scheme (KOLAS), approval for decommissioning, guidance for radioactive waste management, state-of-the-art technology evaluations, and technology transfer.

An Experimental Study on Fire Risks Due to Overcharge and External Heat of ESS Lithium Battery (ESS 리튬배터리의 과충전 및 외부수열에 따른 화재위험성에 관한 실험적 연구)

  • Kim, Si-Kuk;Choi, Su-Gil;Jin, Se-Young;Bang, Suck-Sung
    • Fire Science and Engineering
    • /
    • v.33 no.4
    • /
    • pp.59-69
    • /
    • 2019
  • The present article relates to an experimental study on fire risks due to overcharge and external heat of ESS lithium battery. According to the experimental results of overcharge, ignition occurred as combustible gas and smoke was slowly increased after occurrence of venting, and an explosive combustion form accompanied by flame eruption and sparks was displayed as charged energy is rapidly discharged in an instant. On the other hand, according to the experimental results of external heat, as a tremendous amount of combustible gas and smoke was ignited following being discharged after occurrence of vent, the charged energy itself was rapidly reduced due to the discharged energy so that a passive combustion form was observed when compared with overcharge after occurrence of flames. According the analysis results of fire damage characteristics, differences between external heat (External flame) could be found through visual and X-ray inspections. Namely, while inside electrode plate was completely destroyed and perforation of the electrode plate was observed in the case of overcharge, fire damage of the electrode plate was not severe maintaining the form in the case of external heat.

A Study on the Calculation and Application of the Risk in the Hydrogen Stations (수소충전소의 위험도 산출 및 적용에 대한 고찰)

  • Seo, Doo-Hyoun;Kim, Tae-Hun;Rhi, Kwang-Won
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
    • /
    • v.24 no.5
    • /
    • pp.1-9
    • /
    • 2020
  • In Korea, hydrogen stations are being promoted and commercialized. However, the risk assessment for the hydrogen station is not clear. In particular, it is not clear how to calculate the risk and acceptable criteria for a hydrogen station. Therefore, in this study, three hydrogen stations being installed were selected and general risks were calculated and the social risk of each hydrogen station was calculated. In general, the method of risk assessment is individual/social risk. This is an individual's death rate considering the frequency of accidents, And the likelihood of death according to the number of nearby residents. These can be used to calculate the level of risk for a hydrogen station. However, this method of calculate risks is the criteria for judging whether it is acceptable are unclear. For this reason, this study investigated the allowable standards for foreign risks and considered that they were acceptable by applying the risks of selected domestic hydrogen stations.

Risk Assessment on Carcinogenic Pesticides of Vegetables in Korea (채소류 중 발암성 농약의 위해성 평가)

  • Yoon, Jae-Hong;Chung, Yong;Shin, Dong-Chun;Lee, Jong-Tae
    • Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
    • /
    • v.32 no.2
    • /
    • pp.155-161
    • /
    • 1999
  • Objectio ostinato the carcinogenic risks from the ingestion of some carcinogenic pesticides (CPs) in vegetables sampled at a local agricultural product market in Seoul. Methods: After applying a hazard identification step, we selected four pesticides, such as DDT, dieldrin, folpet, and heptachlor epoxide, for this risk assessment. Concentrations of each pesticide were measured from randomly sampled vegetables. In order to estimate the human exposure levels, we combined the concentration of pesticides in the vegetables with consumption rate of those vegetables. Three scenarios were hypothesized for human exposure assessment. Scenario I was the most conservative which supposed the undetected CPs would be the detection limit values. Scenario II was assumed that the undetected CPs would be a half of the detection limit values, and finally scenario III merely considered only values greater than the detection limit values. We finally presented the estimated carcinogenic risks on the basis of the traditional risk assessment procedure suggested by U.S. EPA. Results: Pesticides including DDT, dieldrin, folpet and heptachlor epoxide were detected in 9 samples (6%) in the range of $0.0006\sim0.09ppm$. The daily intake levels of carcinogenic pesticides were estimated in the range of $0.0009\sim0.0079{\mu}g/day$. As we expected, excess cancer risks based on scenario I was also the highest $(1.1\times10^{-8}\sim5.5\times10^{-5})$. Conclusions: We found that the estimated risks from the pesticides we investigated were not serious. We, however, propose that a continuos monitoring is needed to make sure for the protection of public health.

  • PDF

Field Test for Absorption Energy and Displacement of Rockfall Protection Net (낙석방지울타리 망의 변위량 및 성능검증을 위한 실물낙석시험)

  • Seo, JinHyuk;Hwang, Youngcheol
    • Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
    • /
    • v.21 no.12
    • /
    • pp.17-21
    • /
    • 2020
  • Over 60% of South Korea's land consists of mountainous topography, and recently, due to earthquakes, localized heavy rains and road development, the risks of rockfalls are getting higher. As of now, rockfall prevention facilities are being constructed in 70% of Korean roads cut slope and rockfall protections account for about 20% of them. Rockfall protection's supporting capacity is defined by combining performance of wire mesh, pillars and wire ropes. For the existing constructed rockfall protection, standards of pillars that can absorb 48~61 kJ amount of energy, wire ropes and wire mesh are presented in Guidelines for the installation and management of traffic safety facilities, Rockfall prevention facilities by Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs (2008). However, each factor's correlation of absorption energy is not presented so it is uncertain. This study will conduct vertical drop test and identify adequacy of rockfall protection net of displacement quantity calculation factor which is delta and evaluate rockfall protection net's absorbable energy through standards of overseas performance evaluation criteria.

Ethical considerations for clinical trials performed in children (소아 임상연구에서의 의료 윤리적 고려사항)

  • Oh, Myungho
    • Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
    • /
    • v.52 no.1
    • /
    • pp.1-5
    • /
    • 2009
  • Children are not small adults and there is a need to carry out specific trials that cannot be performed in adults. In general, children (minors) are unable to consent but their assent should be obtained using age appropriate information. Institutional Review Board (IRB) need paediatric expertise to balance the benefits and risks of research in children. The lack of consent has implications on the design, analysis and the choice of comparators used in the trials, which should only be performed by trained investigators with paediatric experience. Pain, fear, distress and parental separation should be prevented and minimised when unavoidable. The children requires even more careful review. Children represent a vulnerable population with developmental, physiological and psychological differences from adults, which make age- and development- related research important for their benefit. Finally, criteria for the protection of children in clinical trials therefore need to be laid down. Specific protection should be defined for research performed in children, at all stages and ages.