Prevention Of Industrial Accidents Research Articles

New Experimental Approaches for the Determination of Flammability Limits in Methane–Hydrogen Mixtures with CO2 Inertization Using the Spark Test Apparatus

This study presents a novel experimental method to determine the flammability limits and the minimum oxygen concentration in methane–hydrogen mixtures using the spark test apparatus (STA), by incorporating CO2 as an inert compound. The proposed methodology allows for the more accurate and efficient assessment of the safety of these flammable mixtures, which is crucial for industrial applications where hydrogen-enriched fuels are used. When comparing the literature data, the differences between methods are not significant, although the procedure, apparatus, and test conditions influence the results. Then, the proposed method is experimentally validated in the STA. Methane is enriched with hydrogen at different concentrations (10, 20, 30, and 50%). The results in the STA show good alignment with the literature data. Furthermore, literature data analysis allows for the generation of an empirical curve that shows the influence of hydrogen addition in methane–air mixtures. The theoretical flammability intervals are also presented as a result. Such representations, after method validation, are the base of the flammability interval test in the STA. The capability of the STA to define flammability ranges in ternary diagrams provides an innovative graphical approach to control explosive atmospheres and facilitates its application in the prevention of industrial accidents.

Prioritization of Evaluation Items for Industrial Accident Prevention Factors Using the Fuzzy TOPSIS Technique

With the rapid progress of industrialization, serious accidents have frequently occurred at industrial sites. Despite the existence of several laws and regulations for preventing industrial accidents, including the Occupational Safety and Health Act, social criticism has been raised regarding their inefficiency. To address this issue, the Serious Accident Punishment Act was implemented. The Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Korea Safety and Health Agency have prepared and implemented various industrial accident prevention measures and programs; however, the number of industrial accidents has not decreased. Therefore, new evaluation criteria must be introduced when establishing policies or systems to prevent industrial accidents. This study introduces evaluation items used in Europe and the United States as industrial accident prevention items for assessing industrial accident prevention projects and proposes a plan to select priorities for these items by applying the fuzzy TOPSIS technique. Prioritization was determined by calculating four evaluation criteria and ten industrial accident prevention items using a 7-point linguistic scale. Our results allow for the simultaneous consideration of several industrial accident prevention items. Thus, various aspects of industrial accident prevention activities can be comprehensively evaluated, enhancing the effectiveness and execution of safety and health management, thereby helping to reduce industrial accidents.

Learning-based framework for industrial accident prevention: fuzzy cognitive mapping approach

PurposeDespite efforts to improve safety management practices in industrial companies, major accidents seem to be inevitable. Many accidents still occur because companies are unable to learn from past occurrences due to ineffective incident and accident learning processes. This study proposes a learning-based framework for industrial accidents investigation and contributes to accident prevention research.Design/methodology/approachThe proposed learning process includes the analysis of the industrial accident using the Event Tree Analysis (ETA) method, capitalisation of causative factors using the Swiss Cheese Model (SCM), and finally modelling the relationships among the accident causative factors and analysing their causality using the Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping (FCM) technique and running learning scenarios.FindingsThe proposed learning process was applied to an industrial accident, and the results showed that human unsafe behaviours and unsafe supervision were the principal causative factors of the blowout accident.Practical implicationsThe proposed learning-based framework provides a structured approach for oil and gas companies to systematically analyse and learn from past accidents, enhancing their prevention strategies. Theoretically, the framework bridges the gap between theory and practice by demonstrating how established accident analysis methods can be combined and applied in a real-world industrial context.Originality/valueThe proposed learning process combines accident analysis and investigation techniques with simulations for an in-depth and robust learning-based framework for accident prevention.

Implementation of Industrial Accident Prevention Policies Based on an Investigation of Actual Conditions in an Explosives Manufacturing Plant

Abstract In order to establish principles for implementing requirements contained in legal acts regarding methods of preventing serious industrial accidents, a study of the procedures in place at NITROERG SA, a company manufacturing explosives, was conducted. The analysis also included regulations concerning actions to be taken in the event of an accident, aimed at minimizing negative impacts on people and the environment. Legislative solutions imply the necessity for business entities to submit reports to emergency services, while also carrying out a range of activities to counteract threats associated with serious accidents. This article presents how these recommendations are implemented by the company and the methods of obtaining data to improve the undertaken projects. However, incidents in recent years indicate the need for further verification of processes to eliminate risks.

산업안전보건법상 건설공사 시공을 주도하여 총괄·관리하는 자의 판단기준에 대한 제언

At a construction site ordered by a public institution, local government, private company, etc., if the construction project owner is the person who leads the construction and supervises and manages it, as a contractor under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, he is given the obligation to take safety and health measures for the contractor's workers and is responsible for the industrial safety and health of the contractor. In the event of a disaster, you will be held criminally responsible. In this case, the construction project owner is likely to actively strive to prevent industrial accidents of contractor workers, so the criteria for determining whether the construction project owner is a person who leads and supervises and manages construction is very important from the perspective of construction disaster prevention. This study examines the criteria for judgment on the person who leads, supervises and manages construction as presented in court precedents and the Ministry of Employment and Labor manuals, including ⅰ) whether or not it is a part of the business essential to the business operation of the construction project owner, ⅱ) only the construction project owner in the ordering project. Whether there are risks that can be identified and controlled; iii) Whether the company has a construction license or professional manpower for construction work; iv) Whether you are in a position to lead and manage construction; ⅴ) Construction work After organizing the performance location into whether it was within the construction project owner's workplace or a place controlled and managed, the appropriateness was examined through previous studies and cases. Among the above judgment standards, from the perspective of the contractor's industrial accident prevention, appropriate judgment standards for those who lead and manage construction work and judgment standards that should be excluded are presented on logical grounds, and the The conclusion was drawn that the criteria for judging a person need to be legislated. We hope that this study will be used as policy decision data for those who lead and manage construction work to prevent industrial accidents for contractors, or as basic data when revising the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

산업재해 예방과 노동조합의 리더십 역할

This study investigates the role of labor union leadership and participatory leadership in the process of workers' expressions being acknowledged and subsequently implemented by management in the context of the increasingly emphasized industrial accident prevention. Specifically focusing on issues related to industrial safety closely associated with the quality of workers' lives, we explore how labor unions exercise leadership in fostering employee participation and innovation within a collaborative labor-management environment. Through case analyses, this study reveals that when labor unions actively collaborate with or exhibit proactive leadership towards management, they play a crucial role as channels that actively listen to workers' expressions, convert them into collective voices, and convey them to the management. Furthermore, in such cases, labor unions also function as coordinating bodies, actively seeking additional opinions and performing supplementary adjustments to decisions established in collective agreements. These improvements subsequently lead to a virtuous cycle, creating an environment conducive to the realization of genuine participatory organizations through sustained and more proactive expressions and improvement activities. The findings of this study suggest that for individual and collective expressions of workers to influence managerial decision-making, a foundation of trust built through prolonged labor-management collaboration activities and systems is essential. Additionally, continuous educational efforts to develop workers' participation capabilities are necessary. Importantly, the leadership of labor unions, representing workers, and the leadership of management, accepting and incorporating workers' opinions into actual managerial activities, both play crucial roles in enhancing worker participation. Thus, for effective communication of on-site workers' proposals and demands to the management, a paradigm shift in the perceptions of both management and labor unions, coupled with the development of leadership competencies aligned with the times, is deemed necessary.

Deontic Knowledge Representation and Reasoning in Industrial Accident Prevention Training by Means of Time Travel Prevention Games

Industrial accident prevention is an issue of societal relevance to avoid loss of human lives, injuries, damage of installations, and financial losses. The authors deploy game-based training in virtual environments where trainees experience challenges of safe operation and disastrous self-induced accidents. Nothing is more affective and, thus, effective than a trainee’s own experience. Time travel prevention games are a game category particularly tailored to the needs of human players who look for opportunities to make good for a damage. Time travel pre-vention games for purposes such as accident prevention in the industries are ad-vantageous due to their conservation of resources including human health and lives. They are affective by allowing for unprecedented learner/player/trainee ex-periences and they are effective due to the fascination of application-oriented game play including opportunities to influence the fate, the latter being less close to reality, but the more attractive and worth telling. For optimal guidance to human trainees, the digital game system needs to learn about the trainees’ strength and weaknesses, about needs and desires. In terms of behavioral sciences, the system observing a human’s behavior hypothesizes theories of mind. In training games, modalities of events/actions are decisive. There are modalities of events/actions such as possibility, unavoidability, and the like as well as obliga-tions and oughts. Training aims at the emergence of cognitive states that are use-ful in practice. The system’s reasoning is deontic.

Characterization and application of modern formwork systems during analysis of the aspect of industrial accident prevention

In the field of the construction industry, many aspects of industrial accident protection must be taken into account in order to prevent extraordinary events. Furthermore the three most common types of questions asked in investments are what, when and for how much. This is no different in structural engineering within the construction industry. This issue is particularly interesting when we talk about temporary structures, such as slab formwork. With the finished product, such as a residential building, a public building or an industrial hall structure, formwork is no longer encountered, and yet it is one of the most costly and time-consuming processes of monolithic reinforced concrete structure construction. Post-calculations show that formwork accounts for about 35-40% of the total cost of reinforced concrete structural construction. Thus, it is understandable that both designers and contractors have always been concerned about how best to optimize the amount of formwork to be used and their timely use. For this reason, the remaining formwork bark panels, which partially replace the floor formwork, were developed. The article shows that time and cost factors can also influence the occurrence of extraordinary events.

A novel drum-shaped metastructure aided weak signal enhancement method for bearing fault diagnosis

Rolling bearings, extensively utilized in rotating machinery, have critical significance for online fault diagnosis in the domains of industrial equipment maintenance and accident prevention. Presently, fault diagnosis methods heavily rely on identifying the optimal resonance band in the high-frequency range (several kHz) to achieve high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) fault information. However, these approaches, which necessitate high sampling rate sensing systems and complex algorithm deployments, contradict the practical requirements for cost-effective sensors and edge computing in online diagnosis. To address this contradiction, this paper introduces a novel Drum-shaped Metastructure (DMS) to enhance weak bearing fault signals, thus promoting the detection performance of conventional sensors. The DMS is constructed with a drumhead metastructure consisting of a central block mass attached with four spiral beams, of which its length can be adjusted by a tunable frequency mechanism (TFM) for different frequency responses of interest. The detail of its selective frequency enhancement characteristics is first studied through numerical simulations within a frequency range of 200 Hz to 1000 Hz. Subsequently, the effectiveness of the weak signal enhancement is verified on various bearing test systems, which utilize a prototype DMS fabricated by 3D printing. The results present a significant enhancement in the SNRs of the bearing fault signal, which is achieved by demodulating the full frequency band without the need for complex algorithms. Therefore, the proposed DMS provides a new cost-efficient approach to weak bearing fault diagnosis and online monitoring.

Electronic performance monitoring framework to quantify unhealthy and unsafe on-site behaviours

Health and Safety (H&S) should be a significant concern in construction projects. The quantification of the work injury accidents started with work A. W. Heinrich (1931), passing per Frank E. Bird Jr. (1969) to a study by ConocoPhillips Marine (2003). These theories, also known as the Accident triangle, Heinrich's triangle, or Bird's triangle, are a base for industrial accident prevention applied in practice by the Dupont STOPTM methodology. Over this methodology, the number of unhealthy and unsafe behaviours is classified and accounted for to diagnose the potential workers' recordable injuries, lost workdays, and fatalities. The At-risk behaviours and the Near Misses are the most challenging safety measurement approach as they depend on the human-observation notes usually conducted in a safety audit. Electronic Performance Monitoring (EPM) concerns the use of innovative hardware and software to assess on-site safety and productivity. The electronic monitoring of construction workers can contribute to evaluating unsafe behaviours. At-risk behaviours could be measured based on location, trajectory, and motions. Also, with the monitoring of the equipment and vehicles, it is possible to measure Near Misses. The Information Technologies integration allows for collecting information about Recordable Injuries, Lost workdays, and Fatalities. This work discusses and presents a framework connecting EPM deployment to data acquisition of unhealthy and unsafe on-site behaviours. The contributions in the theoretical and practical fields concern the opportunities of using new technological assumptions to increase data acquisition and improve the accuracy and effectiveness of quantitative safety analysis.

Evaluating country performance in preventing industrial accidents: A multi-criteria decision analysis approach

This study presents a methodology that adopts a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) approach to evaluate countries' performance in preventing industrial accidents, using accident records and combining three MCDA techniques (TOPSIS, Electre II, and CoCoSo) to create a robust ranking. Applied to OECD countries, the methodology provides valuable insights into countries' commitment to industrial accident prevention. It highlights the impact of European Union legislation, variations in the ranks of G7 economies, and identifies role models like Spain and Italy while shedding light on the neglect of regulations in developing countries like Hungary and Turkey. In a world where industrial accidents have far-reaching consequences, this study emphasizes the importance of sincerity and dedication in accident prevention efforts.

산업재해 예방을 위한 근로자 의무와 역할의 개선방안 연구

Workers play an important role in recognizing and preventing risks at work sites. However, the current Occupational Safety and Health Act does not provide rights and obligations commensurate with the worker's role as an industrial accident prevention agent. The study analyzed the regulations on workers' industrial accident prevention roles and obligations in major countries and presented the following implications to improve workers' duties and roles as subjects of industrial accident prevention.
 First, the obligations of workers are specified: ① the duty to pay attention to the safety and health of others affected by their work performance (duty of care), ② the duty to work in accordance with training and instructions on safe work provided by the employer (obligation to comply), ③ reflects the obligation to report immediately upon discovery of an imminent risk of industrial accident (reporting obligation), ④ obligation to cooperate to identify the risks of the workplace and to select appropriate measures(duty of cooperation). Second, by limiting the scope of workers' obligations, it prevents comprehensive obligations from being imposed or the employer's obligations from being passed on to the employees. Third, there should be punishment provisions for workers' violation of their obligations, but punishment should be given for intentional and obvious violations, and the worker's violation of the law should not be interpreted as a reason to defend the employer's violation of the law. Fourth, judicial liability, such as disciplinary action and compensation for damages resulting from a violation of an employee's obligations, is limited to an appropriate scope considering the characteristics of the employment contract. Fifth, give workers the right to improve safety and health (right to participate, right to suggest, right to request improvement, right to report, etc.) and promote active activities.
 I‘m expecting that by using the research results, future workers' participation in workplace safety and health improvement and industrial accident prevention activities will be promoted, and self-discipline based on the responsibility of industrial accident prevention subjects will be quickly established.

Critical review on data-driven approaches for learning from accidents: Comparative analysis and future research

Data-driven intelligent technologies are promoting a disruptive digital transformation of human society. Industrial accident prevention is also amid this change. Although many emerging technologies, such as machine learning (ML), are extensively employed in workplace safety, these approaches need to fit the intended safety purpose of accident analysis, risk assessment, adverse outcome prediction, or anomaly detection. Hence, examining the “real-world” need for accident prevention and the advantages of emerging data-driven methodologies to better integrate them is necessary. This study provides a systematic review to clarify the current research status, existing problems, and future insights into these evolving technologies in accident prevention. We present notable gaps and barriers in data-driven accident prevention by analyzing 194 published studies from four perspectives: Paradigm, Model, Data Source, and Purpose. The results demonstrate (1) lack of a systematic framework to guide the application of Big Data (BD) in the field of safety; (2) few prior studies have considered model interpretability; (3) more proactive data needs to be incorporated into accident analysis; (4) safety-related data and domain knowledge need to be further integrated; (5) some recent data-driven techniques are unexplored in safety science. Further, the future research opportunities are discussed based on these findings. Such review may help clarify the mapping of data-driven tasks to safety goals to accelerate the uptake of data-driven technologies in safety or accident analysis research.

The Prevention of Industrial Manual Tool Accidents Considering Occupational Health and Safety

The industrial sector is improving its management systems and designing healthy workspaces by focusing on selecting the best ways to reduce accidents and optimize financial and human resources. Hand tools represent the general equipment used in a significant range of industrial jobs. This research aims to develop a tool selection method to help users, managers, and tool designers ensure awareness and care regarding ergonomics based on the anthropometrics of employees, considering the main risk factors for tool selection. The information, which relates to hand security risk factors and the established parameters set by official international institutions, is evaluated during the study. This paper also presents a safety risk assessment framework based on criteria collected through a survey from 10 experts to rate the initial risk value and determine its importance using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). As a result, the analysis identified the possibility of injury (with 73.06% accuracy) as the biggest concern for companies due to its immediate effects on workers’ health. It provides a decision regimen—a tool for decision-makers to design and plan prevention activities to reduce accidents, injuries, and possible illnesses. It further lays out a methodical and analytical model to be used by managers to ensure correct hand tool selection. This model can be used to reduce the possibility of illnesses or injuries for workers and tailor the ergonomic design of each workstation according to specific hand anthropometric data for the worker.

MIC accident: lesson may guide for evaluation of genotoxic potential of the industrial chemicals for prevention of industrial accidents.

Most of the individual and/or amalgamated compounds present in the atmospheric air are not known for their toxicologic potential and impact on human health. The toxicologic strength of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas was unknown till its accidental leakagethat instantly claimed thousands of lives. Cytogenetic study showed increased chromosome aberrations (CA) and sister chromatid exchanges (SCEs) and delayed cell replication index (RI) in a multicentre genetic screeningprogram on gas victimsimmediate post-disaster. A surveillance study after 30 years displayed reduction in CA compared to the initial status in survivors of the severely and moderately exposed strata. Altogether, cytogenetic damage was significantly predominant in the severely exposed population. Stable and replicable aberrations and chromatid exchanges were detected in both studies, which collectively indicate genetic instability. The variation in individual cytogenetic spectrum from similar exposure status could be the result of inter-individual response to the external factors over 30 years post-disaster. The spectrum of CA detected after 30 years might be the cumulative effect of occupational, environmental and life-style factors at a background of one episode of acute MIC exposure. Had MIC's toxicologic potential was known before, fatality and health effects could have been averted. In vitro assessment of toxicity of tin showed a positive correlation with dose and age of exposure, which was aggravated by smoking. Age has shown a significant effect on CA in the general population. The present report recommends evaluation of toxicity prior to use, and reduction of pollution at source for a maintaining a sustainable environmental context.

Efficient safety management plan for industrial accident prevention of hazardous machinery: Focus on safety certification system and regulations in South Korea

The “4th industrial revolution” is accelerating changes in technology, industry, and machinery, and the “Internet of everything” (IoE) requires comprehensive integration of people and machines. Despite the development of these technologies, fatal accidents continue to occur due to malfunctions of dangerous machinery, so the importance of the safety certification system is increasing, but there are few objective analysis data. In this study, the necessity of a safety certification system was confirmed by analyzing the effect of the safety certification system on the prevention effect of industrial accidents in three methods. Based on these analysis results, the industrial accident prevention effect of the current safety certification system and necessary supplementary tasks were derived. Safety certification systems for more than 30 machines and equipment are in operation in South Korea. In this research, the press, crane, catapult, and lift machines most commonly used in industrial fields were analyzed. This study was conducted in five steps: a safety certification system operation status investigation, a survey and interviews, an analysis of dangerous machinery and equipment accidents, focus group interviews, and study of the direction of safety certification systems in consideration of recent IoE developments. As a result of the analysis, various opinions were presented on the safety certification system by subject, and it was found that it was necessary to prepare supplementary measures for the advancement of the safety certification system advancement, expand its field applicability, and improve the efficiency of safety certification.

Study on concentration distribution and detonation characteristics for non-axisymmetric fuel dispersal

The study of non-axisymmetric fuel dispersal and detonation can provide reference for the prevention of industrial cloud explosion accidents and the design of fuel air explosive (FAE). The concentration and detonation fields of 85 kg cylindrical and fan-shaped fuel are investigated by experiments and numerical simulations. A dynamic model of the whole process for fuel dispersal and detonation is built. The concentration distribution of fuel is used as the initial condition to calculate the detonation stage, thus solving the initial value problem of detonation field. The phase and component changes of fuel cloud at different locations are compared. The fuel cloud is divided into directions of 0°, 90°, 135° and 180°. The results show that the maximum cloud radius is 20.94 m in 135° and the minimum is 12.04 m in 0°. The diameter of the detonation fireball is 53.6 m, and the peak temperature is 3455 K. The highest peak overpressure is 3.44 MPa in 0° and the lowest is 2.97 MPa in 135°. The proportion of liquid phase in 0° is 22.90%, and the fuel loss is 11.8% and 9% higher than that in 135° and cylindrical charge, respectively. The stable propagation distance of blast wave in 135° is 42.50% longer than 0° and 28.37% longer than cylindrical charge.

Problems and suggested improvement plans for occupational health service in Korea.

The purpose of this paper was to review the problems relating to Korea's occupational health services and suggest ways to improve them. Korea can be classified as a welfare state type of conservative corporatism partially interwoven with liberalism. While experiencing compressed economic growth, the economic sectors of developed (excess areas) and developing (deficient areas) countries are interwoven. Therefore, it is necessary to perfect conservative corporatism along with a complementary reinforcement of liberal contents and to apply a multilayered approach focusing on complementing the deficient areas. It is essential to form a national representative indicator related to occupational health, and a strategy for selection and concentration is needed. The proposed central indicator is the occupational health coverage rate (OHCR), which is the number of workers who have applied for mandatory occupational health services under the Occupational Safety and Health Act in the numerator with the total working population in the denominator. This paper proposes ways to raise the OHCR, which is currently at the level of 25%-40%, to 70%-80%, which is the level of Japan, Germany, and France. To achieve this target, it is necessary to focus on small businesses and vulnerable workers. This is an area of market failure and requires the active input of community-oriented public resources. For access to larger workplaces, the marketability of services should be strengthened and personal intervention using digital health resources should be actively attempted. Taking a national perspective, work environment improvement committees with tripartite (labor, management, and government) participation for improvement of the working environment need to be established at the center and in the regions. Through this, prevention funds linked to industrial accident compensation and prevention could be used efficiently. A national chemical substance management system must be established to monitor the health of workers and the general public.

중대산업사고 발생 원인과 통계 기반 중대산업사고 예방을 위한 시사점 연구

The purpose of this study is to draw implications for the prevention of major industrial accidents by analyzing the statistic and causes of major industrial accidents according to the Industrial Safety and Health Act. For this purpose, an empirical analysis of major industrial accidents that occurred over the past 17 years was conducted. As a result of the analysis, it was confirmed that the process safety management system is effective in preventing major industrial accidents. In addition, a lot of major industrial accidents occurred during normal operation and maintenance work by not complying with safe operation guidelines or safe work permit procedures. In terms of material and type of accident, there were many fire and explosion accidents caused by flammable liquids and flammable gases, and the main ignition sources were static electricity and electric sparks. By facility, many accidents occurred during maintenance work in storage tanks, reactors, and piping, or due to runaway reactions.

2020년 산업재해로 발생한 재해자의 특성요인 분석을 통한 산업재해저감방안 도출

Objective: This study aims to provide foundation data to prevent industrial accidents by extracting insights from the analysis of the Characteristics of the victims of Industrial Accidents in 2020.BRBRBackground: South Korea faced various industrial accident occurrences and the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (KOSHA) conducts an industrial accident survey every year to produce statistical data related to various industrial accidents. However, since the report is mainly composed of descriptive statistical analysis and provided, it is difficult to conduct an in-depth analysis to prevent industrial accidents. In order to prevent industrial accidents, not only a basic analysis of industrial accidents but also a detailed analysis of the victims of the industrial accidents is required. Therefore, this study intends to provide basic data for the prevention of industrial accidents in the future by analyzing the characteristics of the victims of industrial accidents based on the 2020 Industrial Accident Report.BRBRMethod: To analyze the data from the Industrial Accident Cause Investigation Report in 2020 of KOSHA, the cross-tabulation analysis by the Pearson