• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.166-174
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• 2018

Objectives: This study aimed to estimate the number and proportion of target workplaces for work environment monitoring and evaluate the implementation rate of work environment monitoring. Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted by the Ministry of Employment and Labor between March and May 2017 among 96,295 manufacturing businesses with more than five employees. The response rate was 17.8%. Estimates of the number and proportion of target workplaces for work environment monitoring were calculated as follows: number of workplaces where work environment monitoring was performed in 2016 + exposure rate based on the questionnaire * number of workplaces where work environment monitoring was not conducted. Results: Of the 150,655 total manufacturing businesses with more than five employees, 63,146 are estimated to be subject to work environment monitoring, which accounted for 41.9% of the workplaces. It is estimated that 73.3% of the target workplaces performed work environment monitoring. The number of workers exposed to hazardous substances is estimated to be about 0.7~1.2 million. Conclusions: Information on the distribution of workplaces subject to work environment monitoring and the rate of implementation can be used as baseline information for management and evaluation of the effectiveness of the work environment monitoring system.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.250-260
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• 2013

Objectives: The aim of this study is to analyze the current status of the possession of measurement and analytical instruments among work environment monitoring organizations that have been designated by the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MoEL) in Korea. Methods: Data for measurement and analytical instruments were gathered by inspectors who had been assigned by the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (KOSHA) and MoEL during the evaluation program for designated work environment monitoring service providers in 2012. Data for 11 monitoring instruments and nine analytical instruments were collected from 108 organizations. Basic data such as the type of service provides and the size of employment were also recorded by the inspector. Results: The total number of personal air samplers including high and low flow rates operated in Korea was 5,418, with average of 50.2. Average operation number of noise dosimeters was 35.0, while 3,780 dosimeters were used in 108 work environment monitoring organizations. There were 10,488 monitoring instruments in total. All service providers possessed at least one AAS and GC in their analytical laboratory. Total number of HPLC/MS was five, followed by ICP/MS of seven, with an average of 0.07. Conclusions: Based on the data, domestic work environment monitoring service providers possessed relatively reasonable measurement and analytical instruments. Nearly all instruments had been imported from advanced countries such as USA, UK and Japan. Periodic gathering of data on these instruments may help maintain good workplace monitoring results and the health of workers at the sites.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.112-116
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• 2022

Background/Aims: The Gachon Regional Occupational Cohort Study (GROCS) is a large-scale longitudinal study of occupational safety and health data (covering Work Environment Monitoring, Workers' Health Surveillance, and Occupational Health Service) conducted by the Gachon University Gil Medical Center (GUGMC) in Incheon, Republic of Korea. We conducted GROCS to identify the health effects of workers' occupational risks, behavior, socioeconomic status, and life style. Methods: The GROCS includes data from Work Environment Monitoring, Workers' Health Surveillance, and Occupational Health Service. The baseline year for all data collection was 2018. Work Environment Monitoring was conducted in 240 companies located in Incheon. General Health Examination and Special Health Examination were performed on 32,725 and 9,504 workers, respectively. Occupational Health Services were provided to 16,883 workers in 171 companies. These data have been collected and operated at an external data management institution and were provided as a retrospective cohort after removing personal identification information. Results: In 2018, the total number of companies was 2,854, among which which 488 special Health Examination, 171 Work Environment Monitoring, and 240 Occupational Health Service. The proportion of companies undergoing Special Health Examination was 17.1%, the proportion of companies undergoing Work Environment Monitoring was 8.4%, and the proportion of Companies undergoing Occupational Health Service was 6.0%. Conclusion: GROCS expects researchers to utilize its useful and reliable resource for occupational health and surveillance with for academic or political purposes to lead to improved workers' health and working environment.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.158-165
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• 2018

Objectives: We analyzed the problems that work environment measurement results don't lead to workplace improvement in the Work Environment Measurement System to propose an alternative. Methods: We reviewed reports and articles written by the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency and academic circles to identify the problems in the current Work Environment Measurement System and suggest an alternative. Results: One of the reasons that the Work Environment Measurement has not resulted in workplace improvement is that there were no proper regulating systems for managing the workplace improvement plans or improvement results. Moreover, there are not enough professional manpower in ministry of labor to evaluate the improvement plans and results from the Work Environment Measurement. Therefore, all of the workplace whose Work Environment Measurement results exceed the occupational exposure limit (OEL) should be managed by regional ministry of labor, and outside experts and new system for verifying improvement are needed. Conclusions: To accomplish the purpose of Work Environment Measurement, it is necessary to improve the work environment according to the results of Work Environment Measure. For this, it is necessary for the government to manage the fulfillment of workplace improvement plans and for measurement agencies to secure expertise.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.306-316
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• 2015

In today's highly competitive business environment, most companies try to manage their logistics function strategically to satisfy their orders as cost-effectively as possible and maximize their present and future profits. In this environment, logistics process visibility is essential to companies wishing to competently track components, parts, or products in transit from the original suppliers to the final destinations. Thus, it is important to provide instantly and easily recognizable information about such visibility to all stakeholders, especially customers. To ensure a high-level geographical visibility of the logistics processes, in this paper, we propose a way of implementing a GIS-based logistics process monitoring environment and of integrating a performer's work processing environment on the monitoring system. Additionally, to provide more abundant monitoring information, we describe a procedure for creating and processing various monitoring information, which are represented as ECA rules in this work processing environment. Therefore, it is possible to provide intuitive and visible monitoring information regarding the logistics process and resource elements.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2016.10a
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• pp.768-769
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• 2016

To prevent occupational disasters and build a pleasant work environment, it is necessary to develop a monitoring system to keep operators safe from the hazards. A variety of practical studies must be performed on application services designed to freely provide context-aware monitoring services in USN environments. This paper proposes a system in which work environment monitoring information can be monitored using a mobile phone and inference engine. The structure of a mobile work environment monitoring system is designed first. The proposed system is consisted of data manager, inference engine, database, and application knowledge base.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.62 no.1
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• pp.105-115
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• 2020

With the decrease of the agricultural population in Korea, the workers who is vulnerable to labor are increasing in agricultural industry because of aging, feminization of population. They are exposed in poor working environment with higher temperature and concentrations of dust, gas. Higher concentration of harmful gas and dust can cause chronic and acute disease to workers depending on exposure intensity and frequency. In order to improve the working environment in the livestock facilities, It is important to secure monitoring data of the thermal environment and the concentration of harmful gases and fine dust. Multi-point measurement was performed to analyze the regional environmental conditions in the pig rooms. When analyzing the working environment, video monitoring was conducted to analyze the concentration changes of ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and fine dust according to worker movement and work type. Ammonia and hydrogen sulfide monitoring result showed 1.5~2 times higher concentrations than other work when working in the pigs living zone, and 2~4 times higher than other work when working to increase the activity of pigs. In the case of fine dust, the result was 1.3 times higher than the worker's exposure standard in a specific work. The concentrations of gases and dusts from pig farms are not of concern for acute poisoning in normal work, but there is a risk of chronic respiratory disease if they are continuously exposed. Accordingly, there is a need for development of work environment monitoring device tailored to workers and preparation of alternatives.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.182-192
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• 2014

Objectives: The aim of this study is to analyze the current status of possession of measurement and analytical instruments at work environment monitoring organizations and their relationships with human resources, including the number of professional engineers and evaluation scores resulting from evaluation programs in 2012. Materials: Data for measurement and analytical instruments were gathered by inspectors who had been assigned by the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency(KOSHA) and the Ministry of Employment and Labor(MoEL) during the evaluation program for 2012. Data for 11 monitoring instruments and nice pieces of analytical equipment were collected from 103 organizations. Additional data such as the type of service provides and the number of professional engineers employed were also recorded by the inspectors. Evaluation scores could be acquired from KOSHA. Results: Comprehensive Occupational Health Service Providers showed good operation quality, while University or Hospital Subsidiary and Work Environment Monitoring Organizations recorded relatively poor results. Evaluation scores correlated well with the possession of measurement instruments and human resources for each organization. High yields provided by professional engineers also showed statistically-associated contributions to evaluation scores and monitoring instrument possession. Compared with monitoring instruments, the amount of analytical equipment had little positive impact on organizations' competence. Conclusions: The evaluation results for domestic monitoring organizations revealed that human resources, possession of instruments, and the quality of employees were critical factors for operating the corporations. Each organization should give considerable effort to improving their ability to strengtheninternal quality, resulting in high-yield production for workers and employers by providing improved workplace monitoring services.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2014.10a
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• pp.698-698
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• 2014

According to the analysis of special medical examination and work environment monitoring data, the rate of C1 and D1 on noise hazard exceeded 90% among those of total hazardous factors. The rate of company exceeding noise exposure limit was also more than 90%. The analysis result shows that main ages diagnosed with C1 and D1 was age of 50s. The majority scale company having workers diagnosed with C1 and D1 was the companies employing 5~49 workers. Types of industries which have a large number of companies exceeding noise exposure limit were automobile and trailer manufacturing, metal processing industry and primary metal manufacturing. A large number of work processes exceeding noise exposure limit were forming and processing work, cutting and bending work and grinding. To reduce the number of company exceeding noise exposure limit, the reduction counterplan should be focused on the type of industry and the work process which exceeded noise exposure limit frequently. However, the reduction counterplan is preemptively necessary to the type of industry and the work process which exceeded noise exposure limit consecutively if the purpose of reduction counterplan is not to merely reduce the number of company exceeding noise exposure limit but to abate workers' suffering from noise.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.87-96
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• 2017

Objectives: Improvement of the reliability of work environment measurement results is one of the principal subjects to be resolved in the field of industrial hygiene. Thus, this study was conducted in order to review domestic programs for enhancing the reliability of work environment measurement results and propose a more efficient management plan for workplace monitoring. Materials and Methods: The current domestic programs reviewed in this study are the quality control system and evaluation system for industrial hygiene laboratories, the reliability system accompanied by KOSHA (the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency), the system of permissible exposure limits and observed inspection system for permissible exposure limits. Their contents and data were analyzed by reviewing articles, reports, and guidelines related to reliability improvement for work environment measurement results. Results: As a result of the literature review, all the domestic programs investigated in this study had both merits and demerits in terms of considering the reliability of work environment measurement results. In particular, the fact that preliminary notification is provided to the head of a workplace before implementation would be an obstacle for elevating the reliability of work environment measurement results. Conclusions: Based on the review results obtained from this study, it is proposed that on-site measurement without preliminary notification should be considered for a more efficient inspection system that would enhance the reliability of workplace monitoring.