• Toxicological Research
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.121-128
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• 2005

Economic animal husbandry workers exposed to organic dust can be suffered from immunologic disorders. Our study was to determine immunological parameters related with occurrence of respiratory allergic diseases to animal husbandry workers in Korea for the first time. Peripheral blood were obtained from twenty-five pig barn workers, forty-nine chicken farming workers and fifty-one non-agricultural control workers. Significantly upregulated plasma IgE level was observed with pig-barn workers than that of chicken farming workers or healthy community control subjects. Furthermore, level of histamine, a hallmark of allergy induction, was upregulated in the pig and chicken farming workers in comparison with that of the control subjects. Downregulation of $IFN_\gamma$ and $TNF_{\alpha}$ production from T cells was apparent in the animal husbandry workers compared with the control subjects. Meanwhile, T cells collected from the pig barn workers demonstrated significantly higher production of IL-4 and IL-10 than the other groups. There were also alterations in IgG subclass distribution. In conclusion, immunological modulation probably leading to occupational allergic diseases can be occurred in the economic animal husbandry workers and the pig barn workers could be the most risky group to the work-related allergic disease.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.549-561
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• 2015

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the job stress factors of mobile communication network construction workers using survey based on 'Job stress factors evaluation tool for Koreans' that was developed by KOSHA in 2003. Background: Due to the rapid growth of penetration rate of smartphone, the necessity of LTE service changing from 3G network was brought up. The demand of LTE network construction in a short period of time leads to the aggravation of the job stress of mobile communication network construction workers. Method: Two hundred and fifty workers who were in the mobile communication network industry participated in this study, and among them 206 responses were analyzed for this study due to the unreliability and insincerity of responses. The eight job stress factors which are physical environment, job demand, job autonomy, relation conflict, job instability, organizational system, inadequate compensation, workplace culture were analyzed. Results: The job stress factors of mobile communication network construction workers were compared to those of other industry workers, and other work related characteristics were analyzed. The results showed that the stress level of a physical environment and job requirement were relatively higher than those of manufacturing industry workers, meaning that mobile communication network construction workers have rough working conditions and increased amount of work due to the demand of LTE network construction. The stress level of physical environment for outdoor job workers was relatively higher than that of indoor job workers. With the analytical result for level of job satisfaction, significant difference was observed (p <0.05) with every factor, and the job stress was found the highest with those not satisfied with every factor Conclusion: From the results of this study, the work loss due to the job stress could be prevented, and accurate stress factors could be removed at the workplace. Application: The results of this study may not represent the whole mobile network construction workers, the effort for job stress management is needed to improve the work efficiency and the workers' quality of life.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.76-83
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• 2020

This study examined the effects of perceptual differences of safety leadership between managers and workers on workers' safety attitudes and behavior in two construction sites. In addition, the mediating role of safety attitude between safety leadership and safety behavior across discrepancy level of safety leadership. This study was conducted on two first-tier construction companies within the 100th place in 2019. Two companies were similar in size(100 - 150 billion won) and process from the basement frame finishing stage to start of the ground structure of apartment. In A Site, 40 managers and 73 workers, 42 managers and 77 workers in B site participated the survey on managers' safety leadership, and workers' safety attitude and behavior. The results showed that there was no significant difference between the safety leadership scores assessed by the manager and workers at site B. However, the safety leadership scores assessed by the managers were significantly higher than that by the workers at site A. The workers' safety attitudes and behaviors at site B were higher than those of workers at site A. Moreover, Site B was significantly higher in the effects of safety leadership on safety behavior than Site A. At site B, safety leadership had a significant influence on safety behavior even after controlling the safety attitude of workers. At site A, safety leadership had no significant effect on safety behavior after controlling safety attitude. These findings suggest that there is managers' self-serving bias on safety leadership in site A and that this bias of leadership can negatively affect workers' safety attitude and behaviors. In addition, it can be seen that if the self-serving bias on safety leadership occurs, the manager's safety leadership has less influence on workers' safety behavior.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.20 no.2 s.49
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• pp.97-108
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• 2005

This study is to estimate differences, relationships and related factors of environmental risk perception and perceived benefit among residents and workers. A self-administered questionnaire survey using a structured instrument was carried out to residents and workers in industrial area during April, 2002. Total number of participants were 657 including 329 residents and 328 workers. Participants assessed environmental risk perception, self- assessed knowledge, trust in authorities and perceived benefit associated with 10 products manufactured in industrial area. There were difference in environmental risk perception, knowledge and trust in authorities and perceived benefit among residents and workers. Especially, trust in authorities and perceived benefit were statistically significant difference among residents and workers. Inverse relationships between environmental risk perception and perceived benefit have been observed for different products. In other words, the greater the perceived benefit, the lower the perceived risk, and vice versa. Factors mostly associated with participant's characteristics of environmental risk perception were age. marriage status (workers), education level (workers). There was statistically significant difference. Perceived benefit was statistically significant difference with sex, marriage status, residence duration, education level (workers). Related factors of environmental risk perception among residents and workers were age, trust in authorities. And factors affecting the perceived benefit were sex, age, education level (workers), and trust in authorities (workers). According to the results, people having high trust in the authorities perceived less risks than people having low in the authorities. To improve the communication of risk information, further study focus on assessment of experts, government and stakeholder in industrial area. Methodologies of this study can be used as the basis for investigating the structure of public perception of environmental products risks and benefit, designing a public information and risk communication program, and developing policy actions to improve acceptance.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.327-334
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• 2015

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate Korean workers' work ability and to identify its contributing factors. Background: In order for Korea to overcome the phenomena of becoming an aged society, older adults must participate in the workforce to balance out the population; workers' work ability must also be maintained. In addition, influential factors in employees' capabilities and degrees of importance thereof should be identified in advance to maintain work ability. Method: The Work Ability Index (WAI) questionnaire was completed by 5,708 Korean workers. Survey questionnaire consisted items of current work ability, physical and mental demands of the job, numbers of diseases, work impairment due to diseases, sick leaves, work ability in 2 years and mental resources. Results: Results indicated that work ability and length of service increased with age. It was also found that employees in administrative positions had greater work ability than site workers, workers directly managed by a supervisor had greater work ability than workers in cooperative firms, and workers who performed intellectual tasks had greater work ability than workers who performed physical labor. Job stress was additionally observed to contribute towards overall work ability. And musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) were found to negatively affect work ability. Conclusion: The strongest determining factors in the work ability of Korean workers were stress level and mental state. Therefore, when the WAI is used to assess Korean workers, the weighting of WAI items pertaining to physical and mental abilities should be adjusted accordingly to account for these factors. Application: The result is expected to suggest that workers maintain work ability in an aged society.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.1-7
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• 2013

Based on a literature review regarding shift work, it is recognized that it has an adverse effect on workers' health. Especially, the night shift rather than the day shift imposes severe disorders on workers, which are indicated to dyssomnia, maladaptation to social life, and health problems such as gastroenteric trouble, cardiovascular diseases and depression. As the shift work can be explainable by using workers' labor ability necessarily to maintain company business consistently, it does not consider biorhythm, active mass and health condition of workers Actually duration of shit work would deprive workers of fundamental life rights by causing physical and mental effects. As a result of reviewing previous case studies related to effect of work pattern (day shift and night shift) on workers' health, an incidence of physical diseases like dyssomnia, gastroenteric trouble, cardiovascular diseases and premature delivery was higher in shift workers than normal workers. Additionally the incidence of mental disorders such as busy brain, social isolation, depression and work stress was also higher in shift workers than normal workers. These adverse physical and mental problems were intensified to night shift workers compared to day shift workers. Considering current various reports and study results, it is recommended that the shift work, especially the night work pattern, should not apply to contemporary work situation for sustaining workers' health condition constantly.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.27 no.2 s.46
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• pp.299-312
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• 1994

This survey was performed to obtain the basic information for the prevention and management of occupational low back injury (LBI). The subjects of this survey were 952 workers (male, 892 ; female, 60) who had taken occupational LBI in some industries of Pusan area from January 1 to December 31, 1991. Observation period was 2.6 years from the beginning to the end of medical treatment. The obtained results were summarized as follows ; 1. The proportion of LBI workers was 15.9% of the workers who had taken any occpational injuries and 0.32% of all workers in this surveyed area. 2. 8.0% of the workers had taken LBI on the 1st day of employment and 55.2% of the workers were within one year, 91.4% of the workers were within 10 years according to cumulative frequency distribution. 3. Handling of heavy objects was the most common cause of LBI (32.0%) and fall down (26.9%) and slip down (16.3%) were the next in order. 4. The most common causes of both lumbar sprain and HNP were handling of heavy objects and that of lumbar fracture was fall down. 5. The mean duration for medical treatment of LBI workers was 143 days. 6. The total direct compensation cost for LBI workers was 6,736 million Won and the proportion of medical, resting, disability compensation costs were 25.0%, 37.0%, 38.0 % respectively. 7. The percentages of retreated workers and disabled workers were 11.9% (113 persons) and 22.9% (218 persons) of total LBI workers respectively.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.97-102
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• 2020

Background: It is well known that the prevalence of obesity in Korea is increasing over time, however it is not known how the trends among occupational groups and sex differ in such increasing trends. This study was designed to provide recent trends of obesity among workers in Korea and to identify whether there were differences among occupational groups. Methods: We used data from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, Phases I to VI (19982015), to analyze trends in the prevalence of obesity in adult Korean workers. Obesity was defined as a body mass index of 25 kg/㎡ or higher. Occupations were classified into 3 groups: (a) nonmanual workers, (b) service/sales workers, and (c) manual workers. Results: During the period of the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Phases I to VI, the prevalence of obesity in male workers increased in all occupations (31.1% to 39.5% in manual workers, 32.3% to 38.2% in service/sales workers, and 25.3% to 39.7% in manual workers). However, female workers did not show any particular tendency toward obesity, except for a significant decrease in the prevalence rate in service/sales workers (30.8% to 23.9%, p for trend = 0.0048). Conclusion: The trends of obesity prevalence by sex and occupation were different. For male manual workers, the prevalence rate increased steadily during the data period, while it decreased steadily in female sales/service workers.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.87-97
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• 2010

Objectives: This study was conducted to investigate the effect of trust on work stress. Trust can be classified into three dimensions; social trust, institutional trust, and trust in others. The relationship between work stress and trust is regarded as having three components. First, trust has an influence on work stressors as an antecedent variable; secondly, trust modifies the effect of the various stressors, and finally, trust is one of the stressors. Methods: Data for this study was collected by interviews and self-administered structured questionnaires from 376 Korean and 77 Japanese workers in small businesses. Subjects were selected by two stage stratified random sampling from the working population of manufacturing industries. Results: Three different positions of trust are significantly related with the stress causation web. Social trust, institutional trust and trust in others significantly influence different work stressors in both Korean and Japanese workers. Three different kinds of trust influence work stressors among Korean workers, but institutional trust has no impact on work stressors among Japanese workers. As a moderating variable for perceived stress, distrust in an employer is statistically significant in both groups. However, stress symptom prevalence among Korean workers is modified by caution, trust in career development, and distrust in co-workers, but that of Japanese workers is modified only by distrust in employer. Job satisfaction of Korean workers is affected by general trust, utility of relation, institutional trust and trust in employer, but among Japanese workers, caution, reputation and trust in employer have influence on job satisfaction. Conclusion: The effect of trust on work stress, perceived stress, stress reaction and job satisfaction are different among Korean workers and Japanese workers. Three dimensions of trust have three different positions as antecedent, moderating and mediating factors in stress causation.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.347-354
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• 2019

Background: The aim of this study was to describe the types of diseases that developed in semiconductor workers who have registered with the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service (KWCWS) and to identify potential common occupational characteristics by the type of claimed disease. Methods: A total of 55 semiconductor workers with cancer or rare diseases who claimed to the KWCWS were compared based on their work characteristics and types of claimed diseases. Leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and aplastic anemia were grouped into lymphohematopoietic (LHP) disorder. Results: Leukemia (n = 14) and breast cancer (n = 10) were the most common complaints, followed by brain cancer (n = 6), aplastic anemia (n = 6), and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (n = 4). LHP disorders (n = 24) accounted for 43%. Sixty percent (n = 33) of registered workers (n = 55) were found to have been employed before 2000. Seventy-six percent (n = 42) of registered workers and 79% (n = 19) among the registered workers with LHP (n = 24) were found to be diagnosed at a relatively young age, ${\leq}40years$. A total of 18 workers among the registered semiconductor workers were finally determined to deserve compensation for occupational disease by either the KWCWS (n = 10) or the administrative court (n = 8). Eleven fabrication workers who were compensated responded as having handled wafers smaller than eight inches in size. Eight among the 18 workers compensated (44 %) were found to have ever worked at etching operations. Conclusion: The distribution of cancer and rare diseases among registered semiconductor workers was closely related to the manufacturing era before 2005, ${\leq}8$ inches of wafer size handled, exposure to clean rooms of fabrication and chip assembly operations, and etching operations.