• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.17-25
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• 2011

Objectives: In this study, the in vitro mammalian chromosomal aberration (CA) assay was conducted to gain additional information concerning the hazards associated with the use of cyclopentane and ammonium nitrate. While these two chemicals had already been tested by many methods, they had not been studied in the CA test. Methods: The assay was performed using the ovarian infantile cell (CHO-K1 cell), by the direct method (-S9) and by the metabolic activated method (+S9 mix). Results: Using the direct method, the 7 dosages in a 48 hour treatment group did not show that the frequency of CA is proportion to the dosage addition. The frequency of CA is not proportion to the dosage addition for a 6 hour treatment using the metabolic activated method. Conclusion: From these findings, it was decided that the 2 chemicals do not induce chromosomal aberrations under the tested conditions.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.26 no.8
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• pp.83-90
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• 2021

In this paper, effects on industrial accident prevention based on better safety and health environment by utilizing ergonomics expert were studied. This study was mainly based on the data from 'the survey for occupational safety and health trend' conducted by Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute. The number of industries participated in the survey was 2,084. Main results of the study were as follows; 1) Only 22.9% of the industries participated in the survey utilized ergonomics expert. The rest of the industries have never had an ergonomics expert due to the reasons such as lack of knowledge for the field of ergonomics, etc. 2) Specific activities done by the industries with ergonomics expert in order to have better safety & health were 'providing work orders'(94.8%), 'providing monitoring guidelines'(85.5%), 'providing information for dangerous work'(95.8%), 'providing safety education'(96.6%), and 'other safety management'(94.1%). 3) When the odds ratio for the levels of communication and the levels of environmental stability regarding safety & health for the different groups(with experts and without experts), it was found that the group with ergonomics experts had a significant higher ORs(2.391, 95% confidence interval(1.949-2.932) and 2.128, 95% confidence interval(1.786-2.537)) respectively than those of the industries without ergonomics expert. The results suggested that ergonomics expert has been unique in most of time in terms of his/her contributions in the field of industrial safety and health.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.224-234
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• 2012

Objectives: This study was conducted in order to obtain information concerning the health hazards that may result from a 13 week inhalation exposure of n-pentane in Sprague-Dawley rats. Methods: This study was conducted in accordance with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) guidelines for the testing of chemicals No. 413 'Subchronic inhalation toxicity: 90-day study (as revised in 2009)'. The rats were divided into 4 groups (10 male and 10 female rats in each group), and were exposed to 0, 340, 1,530, and 6,885 ppm n-pentane in each exposure chamber for 6 hour/day, 5 days/week, for 13 weeks. All of the rats were sacrificed at the end of the treatment period. During the test period, clinical signs, mortality, body weights, food consumption, ophthalmoscopy, locomotion activity, urinalysis, hematology, serum biochemistry, gross findings, organ weights, and histopathology were assessed. Results: During the period of testing, there were no treatment related effects on the clinical findings, body weight, food consumption, ophthalmoscopy, urinalysis, hematology, serum biochemistry, gross findings, relative organ weight, and histopathological findings. Conclusion: The no-observable-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) of n-pentane is evaluated as being more than 6,885 ppm (20.3 mg/L) in both male and female rats. n-pentane was not a classified specific target organ toxicity in the globally harmonized classification system (GHS).

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.65-74
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• 2019

The safety and health signs as an important communication tool can help employees recognize the harm and risk information and take proper actions easily and fast. This study investigated the management of safety and health signs in 75 workplaces and also conducted a survey for the level of subjective comprehension of safety and health signs with 150 employees in Korea. In total, 69 safety and health signs containing alternative signs by KS S ISO 7010 were used for the survey for the ease of comprehension. At the results, the frequency of education on the signs was relatively high, but it was difficult to systematically manage those in the small-sized workplaces. In addition, the results of the ease of comprehension survey showed that proportion of alternative signs was high in the upper rank, and also several alternative signs showed significantly high mean compared with safety and health signs. And the means of alternative signs tended to have higher at the categories of prohibition, instruction, and guidance. Although there are some methodological limitations, it is important that the recent management and the level of comprehension for safety and health signs were empirically identified.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.360-364
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• 2018

Asbestos has been banned in many countries but many countries, including developing countries, are still using asbestos or materials containing asbestos. Substitute materials have been studied and developed over a long period of time because of the hazards of asbestos, and many people have recently shown interest in the hazards of substitute materials. However, comprehensive information about the types of asbestos substitutes, their use and health hazards, and references for the protection for the health of workers is limited. The purpose of this study is to provide people in the related industries with information on the types and health hazards of fibrous materials that can be used as asbestos substitutes. According to the patent resources from the United States and Europe, fibrous materials have been used to develop asbestos-free products since before 1980. Recently, the health hazards of asbestos substitutes have been assessed and many additional researches are required. However, only some of the substitute materials have been assessed for health hazards, and health hazard data has not been sufficient in many cases. Therefore, efforts should be made to minimize workers' exposure to substitute materials that do not contain asbestos.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.384-392
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• 2013

Objective: This study inspected incident cases, legal control levels, and GHS(Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals) classification results of strong acids such as hydrogen fluoride, hydrogen chloride, nitric acid, and sulfuric acid, which have been responsible for many recent chemical accidents. As a result, it is deemed necessary for legal control levels of these strong acids to be revised and GHS classification be managed nation-wide. Methods: This study inspected incident cases and legal control levels for strong acids such as hydrogen fluoride, hydrogen chloride, nitric acid, and sulfuric acid. The study analyzed and compared chemical information status and GHS classification results. Results: There were 76 domestic incidents involving strongly acidic hazardous materials over the five years between 2007 and 2011. They include 37 leakage incidents(46.7%) within a workplace, 30 leakage incidents(39.5%) during transportation, and nine leakage incidents(13.8%) following an explosion. The strongly acidic materials in question are defined and controlled as toxic chemicals according to the classes of Substances Requiring Preparation for Accidents, Managed Hazardous Substance, Hazardous Chemical(corrosive) as set forth under the Enforcement Decree of the Toxic Chemicals Control Act and Rules on Occupational Safety and Health Standards of Occupational Safety and Health Act. Among them, nitric acid is solely controlled as a class 6 hazardous material, oxidizing liquid, under the Hazardous Chemicals Control Act. The classification results of the EU ECHA(European Chemicals Agency) CLP(Commission Regulation(EC) No. 790/2009 of 10 August 2009, for the purposes of its adaptation to technical and scientific progress, Regulation(EC) No 1272/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on classification, labeling and packaging of substances and mixtures) and NIER (National Institute of Environmental Research) are almost identical for the three chemicals, with the exception of sulfuric acid. Much of the classification information of NITE (National Institute of Technology and Evaluation) and KOSHA(Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency, KOSHA) is the same. NIER provides 12(41.4%) out of 29 classifications, as does KOSHA.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.206-211
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• 2017

Background: Self-reported low back pain (LBP) has been evaluated in relation to material handling lifting tasks, but little research has focused on relating quantifiable stressors to LBP at the individual level. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Composite Lifting Index (CLI) has been used to quantify stressors for lifting tasks. A chemical exposure can be readily used as an exposure metric or stressor for chemical risk assessment (RA). Defining and quantifying lifting nonchemical stressors and related adverse responses is more difficult. Stressor-response models appropriate for CLI and LBP associations do not easily fit in common chemical RA modeling techniques (e.g., Benchmark Dose methods), so different approaches were tried. Methods: This work used prospective data from 138 manufacturing workers to consider the linkage of the occupational stressor of material lifting to LBP. The final model used a Bayesian random threshold approach to estimate the probability of an increase in LBP as a threshold step function. Results: Using maximal and mean CLI values, a significant increase in the probability of LBP for values above 1.5 was found. Conclusion: A risk of LBP associated with CLI values > 1.5 existed in this worker population. The relevance for other populations requires further study.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.701-708
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• 2023

Local governments are required to take measures to prevent occupational accidents under Articles 4(2) and 4(3) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, and this study suggested the necessity of establishing an IT-based integrated safety and health information sharing system for serious accident reduction and safety and health management through the case of Incheon Metropolitan City. Recently, as local governments have established labor and health ordinances and basic plans, the need for an independent integrated safety and health management system based on local industrial characteristics has increased. It is necessary to establish a cooperation and support system with basic local governments and hub institutions, share integrated safety and health information with related institutions and organizations, and play a pivotal role in regional safety and health management by managing occupational accident statistics and implementing basic policies. The system through local governments' safety and health management will reduce serious accidents in the region, and the comprehensive safety and health management system for small businesses and projects ordered by local governments will strengthen the operability of the site, which will be effective in preventing critical accidents and industrial accidents.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.160-168
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• 2014

Objectives: Chemical hazard evaluations are important for workers' health and working environments. Allyl chloride (CAS No. 107-05-1) is used in many industries, leading to concerns about the possibility of threats to the health of workers. Since only insufficient or controversial information is available about potential related hazards, an in vitro mammalian chromosomal aberration (CA) assay was conducted in order to gain additional information concerning any such hazards. Moreover, toxicological information from this study could be applied for workers' rights to know, and to prepare or update the Materials Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for a number of industries. Methods and Results: The assay was performed using the Chinese hamster lung fibroblast cell (ATCC, CRL-1935), by the direct method (-S9) and by the metabolic activated method (+S9 mix). Using the direct method, the seven dosages in the 48-hour treatment group did not show that the frequency of CA is proportionate to the dosage. The frequency of CA is not proportionate to the dosage addition for a six-hour treatment using the metabolic activated method. Conclusions: From these findings, it was decided that this chemical does not induce chromosomal aberrations under the tested conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.45-50
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• 2013

Resorcinol is widely used as a wood, tire adhesives, and a raw material of synthetic dye. This material with white crystals at room temperature, the particulates in the air can form explosive mixtures. It is known to be an explosion hazard when exposed to heat in a confined space. The study was evaluated fire and explosion characteristics of the resorcinol through thermal analysis, thermal stability, dust explosion characteristics, and the minimum ignition energy. From this study, it can be used to provide a safety information in the using and handling process of the resorcinol.