• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.158-163
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• 2024

Objectives: The present paper aimed to examine whether an aging workforce is associated with an increase in work-related fatal injuries and to explore the underlying reasons for this potential increase. Material and methods: Aged workers were defined as those who were at least 55 years old. Work-related fatalities were assessed in aged and young workers who were registered with the workers' compensation system in 2021 in the Republic of Korea. Total waged workers, based on raw data from the Local Area Labor Force Survey in 2021, were used as the denominator to estimate the work-related fatality rates. Results: Most work-related fatalities in the aged workers occurred among individuals working in the "construction sector" (58.9%), those with "elementary occupations (unskilled workers)" (46.1%), and those with the employment status of "daily worker" (60.8%). The estimated incidence (0.973/10,000) of work-related fatalities among aged workers was about four times higher than that (0.239/10,000) among younger workers. "Falling," "collision," "struck by an object," and "trip and slip" were more frequent types of work-related fatalities among aged workers relative to young workers. The category of "buildings, structures, and surfaces" was a more frequent cause of work-related fatalities among aged workers than among young workers. Conclusions: Aged workers had a higher incidence of work-related fatalities than young workers. Frequent engagement in precarious employment and jobs, coupled with the greater physical vulnerability of aged workers, were likely causes of their higher level of work-related fatal injuries.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.451-457
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• 2014

The construction industry has a higher mortality rate of accidents than other industries although safety is recently being more important, and it has become a serious problem that needs to be improved. To reduce the number of accidents at construction sites, improving the safety awareness of construction workers is urgent because the lack of safety awareness is one of the key reasons for construction accidents. For this reason, this study compares and analyzes the safety awareness of construction managers and construction workers. Our research shows that the safety awareness of construction workers is lower than that of construction managers, and they have a different perspective on safety management. The development plan for improving the safety awareness of construction workers based on these results is proposed, and it will potentially help reducing the frequency of accidents at building construction sites.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2020.11a
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• pp.63-64
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to find out how construction sites workers experience adaptation processes in relation to the prevention of safety accidents in the workplace through the method of grounded theory. In order to understand the experience of preventing safety accidents of workers at construction sites, a grounded theory analysis method was chosen. In order to achieve the purpose of this study, the first questionnaire was sent to 17 people working in the construction site by e-mail, and the participants of the study were met one by one for in-depth interviews. As a result of this study, the paradigm model of the experience of preventing safety accidents of workers at construction sites was classified into causal conditions, contextual conditions, central phenomena, intervening conditions, action/interactions, and outcomes. The conclusions of this study are as follows. First, forming a safety culture that can improve the safety awareness of construction sites is a priority. Second, it is necessary to improve self-management capabilities so that construction workers can accurately diagnose their current state such as their own body, emotion, and cognition and provide appropriate safety education. Third, providing safety education for construction workers with negative thoughts or distorted beliefs about safety accidents needs to include psychological treatment and counseling, such as methods of emotional purification, methods of relieving and managing stress, and methods of removing trauma.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.113-119
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• 2015

This study is to examine the workers' awareness of the safety in logistic centers. For that purpose, the exploratory factor analysis of workers' safety awareness in logistic centers was performed at first, and the 6 variables extracted from the factor analysis were then used to investigate the difference in intergroup awareness of the safety environment in the logistic centers. We administered a survey to 147 workers attending the logistic centers and collected data from them. The results of the study showed that the intergroup awareness of the safety environment turned out to be statistically different from each other in terms of working environment, safe behavior, work risk, safety knowledge and effort, risk justification and compromising attitudes. Experiences in industrial accidents influenced awareness of working environment, work risk and risk justification. The group who experienced accidents is more likely to feel risky and unsatisfied with working place, and their awareness toward risk justification was high as well. It was also observed that there exists awareness difference between manager group and worker group. The group who manages the working place showed more positive awareness of working environment, safe behavior, work risk, safety knowledge and effort, risk justification and compromising attitudes than the worker group. On the contrary, the worker group showed high recognition in risk of working place, and felt that they are willing to compromise on safety for increasing production. The scale of the logistic center produced negative influence on awareness of safety. The group in small logistic center showed the highest awareness in safety, whereas the group in large logistic center with more than 100 workers showed the highest awareness in risk. They are more likely to deviate from correct and safe work procedures due to over-familiarity with the job, as well. The findings suggest that there is a need for the safety management and education to change the workers' understanding and attitudes towards safety.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.104-110
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• 2019

Since 1986, domestic sewage treatment plants have installed and operated biogas plants that produce biogas (digested gas) using food, livestock manure and sewage sludge as part of the use of alternative energy for energy independence. Despite concerns about safety accidents and risks of large-scale accidents due to the continuous expansion of biogas plants, the Ministry of Environment has managed and supervised biogas plants to be environmental plants, focusing on environmental management. There is a lack of safety awareness of workers' processes. Only recently has the process safety management (PSM) system been implemented in biogas plants, but workers' perceptions of process safety have changed. As there is a difference in the degree of safety process management and safety awareness among workers, it is necessary to establish clear and systematic safety management standards. Therefore, The purpose of this study is to examine whether the application of the plant safety management (PSM) system to biogas plants is effective for workers' safety awareness in order to ensure safe operation of biogas plants and prevent workers' safety accidents in advance.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.86-93
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• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to find out the cognizance of medical device safety information (MDSI) monitoring in the hospital and oriental hospital workers, and the different aspect of MDSI between oriental medical devices and medical devices. Methods: The survey was performed both in the oriental medicine hospital and general hospital. The survey had 16 items; 2 items basic questions, 5 items in the awareness of MDSI, 5 items in the education of MDSI, 4 items in the necessity of defining oriental medical devices and differences between general and oriental medical devices. A total of 120 hospital worker were participated; 60 oriental medicine hospital workers and 60 general hospital workers. They had worked in the oriental medicine or general hospital associated with 'Medical Device Safety Monitoring Center, Dongguk University Ilsan Hospital' in 2019 and 2020. Results: The cognizance of MDSI was high both in oriental medicine hospital and general hospital workers and there were no significant differences between oriental medicine and general hospital workers. When we divided the hospital workers into the senior workers who had worked for over 3 years and junior workers for less than 3 years, the senior workers had higher awareness of MDSI than junior workers. However, the cognizance of education of MDSI was high which was not different between senior and junior workers. Both hospital workers thought that it was necessary to define oriental medicine device legally and the oriental medical device might have low risk and less side effect than medical device. Conclusion: The cognizance of MDSI was high and there was no significant differences between oriental medicine and general hospital workers. Because the senior hospital workers had higher recognition of MDSI, we need to provide the continuous education program for junior hospital workers. Although oriental medical device are thought to be safer than medical device, we need to have a legal definition.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.47-51
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• 2013

This research is the descriptive survey research targeting construction workers for searching a vitalization method on safety education by understanding the real condition of the sense of safety consciousness and the condition of safety education. The collected data of 147 workers are analyzed by using arithmetic mean, t-test, and ANOVA Analysis of Variance through SPSS PC program. This research investigated the real condition of safety consciousness, recognition on safety education, and the differences of safety consciousness depend on the general characteristic of subject. According to the result of the study, development of standardized safety consciousness assessment tool and institutionalization of safety education program is needed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.102-107
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• 2022

South Korea will soon be a super-aged society, as more than 20.6% of its population will be 65 years and older by 2025. As of 2022, 17.5% of the total population in South Korea is 65 years and older, which exceeds the set threshold for an aged society, where more than 14% of the population is 65 years and older. The proportion of older subway construction workers has increased. Aging workers and their work stress negatively impact their workability. A previous study demonstrated that the stress index measured using the uBioMacpa measurement device (Macpa stress index) had a significant correlation with work stress in South Korea. The device tests vascular health and measures stress levels via Macpa signal analysis. In this study, the pulse waves of subway construction workers were measured using uBioMacpa to identify their stress levels. The stress levels were analyzed by age, years of service, job position, employment type, and work type. Herein, these statistics could not be easily represented by a normal distribution; therefore, the Kruskal-Wallis test, a nonparametric statistical method, was used for the analysis of data. The results showed that age, job position, employment type, and working type affected the Macpa stress index and the stress levels of workers increased with age. In terms of job position, technical engineers were more stressed than other workers because of their poor working environment. In terms of employment type, daily-wage workers were more stressed than other workers. In terms of working type, tunneling, waterproofing, and construction scored the highest Macpa stress indexes without any significant difference, whereas earthworks scored the lowest. Based on the analysis of Macpa stress index, safety and health management plans were proposed to reduce the stress levels of workers. Moreover, a manual for efficient stress management must be developed for subway construction workers.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.99-106
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• 2023

This study would analyze a survey conducted with 609 workers to use the results as materials for the settlement of safety culture for the characteristics of the establishment by assessing the status of the workers' exposure to harmful risks and the impact on safety culture to present the following conclusions. This study has significance in that it found that exposure to harmful/dangerous factors in the establishment and the workers' experiences of occupational accidents affect their perception of safety culture and that in particular, 'worker safety priority' of the safety cultural factors was an important factor, and it is judged that continuous studies are necessary so that the perceptions of safety culture will spread in the establishment.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.384-388
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• 2019

The horse stable hand workers are one of the most important occupations in horse-racing industry. However, suicide problem of the horse stable hand workers in Korea has raised the necessity of new study on how these workers experience mental health problems such as occupational stress and depression in organizational situation. Therefore, this study investigated the occupational stress and depression level of the horse stable hand workers and identified the structural relationship in the horse-racing industry through a detailed interview. A total of 207 horse stable hand workers participated in this study, and occupational stress and depression level were surveyed using the Korean Occupational Stress Scale (KOSS) and Korean version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D). The results of this study showed that the occupational stress level of horse stable hand workers was higher than the median of Korean population. The significant difference in occupational stress among the detail job grade was also identified. In addition, 34% of the horse stable hand workers showed high risk of depression, and job demand, organizational system, and inappropriate compensation as the subfactors of occupational stress were showed to mainly affect depression. Although there are some limitations according to the field survey, this study also has significant meaning in that it identifies the relationship between the occupational characteristics of the horse stable hand workers and the mental health. It will be necessary to study the diverse organizational situation and individual mental health for new occupations.