Learning from Accident Sites... Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency Publishes 70 Research Results from Last Year

Kongdan Industrial Safety and Health Research Institute, Field Studies on Pinch Accidents Analysis and Delivery Workers' Environment

Conceptual diagram of the elevator-exclusive scaffolding development product based on the research results of the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] What was the scene like at the time of the accident? The detailed analysis of why the accident occurred, based on last year's results of safety and health research in industrial sites, has been released.

The Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency Industrial Safety and Health Research Institute (Director Kim Eun-ah) disclosed on the 17th the results of industrial safety and health research conducted in 2020 to support the government's establishment of industrial accident prevention policies and respond to various issues related to industrial accidents.

The institute provides research results annually. This research was conducted last year and includes a total of 70 cases across 5 fields.

The five fields are policy and system, industrial safety, occupational health, occupational environment, and industrial chemistry.

A representative research result was the "Study on Reducing Manufacturing Industry Crushing Fatal Accidents and Efficient Workplace Management Measures."

From 2016 over four years, an in-depth analysis was conducted on 273 crushing fatal accidents, and on-site investigations were carried out at as many as 63 workplaces.

The research identified the main causes of crushing fatal accidents as "removal of protective devices" and "failure to stop operation during maintenance and repair." It was also statistically confirmed that crushing accidents decreased before and after government supervision.

Another research project, "Health Damage and Prevention Measures for Overwork Due to Long Working Hours," derived the average working hours of delivery workers and identified health-related labor conditions such as health examination participation rates, proposing improvements in the working environment to prevent accidents.

In the study "Safety Work Standards and Development of Dedicated Platforms for Elevator Installation and Maintenance," a dedicated elevator system scaffold that can be safely installed and used inside elevator shafts, where the risk of falls is high, was proposed, and an actual prototype was developed.

Additionally, the institute conducted meaningful research including reducing industrial accidents in the construction industry, analyzing causes of fire and explosion accidents in chemical plants, research on airborne infectious diseases such as COVID-19, risk assessment of hazardous factors in coal-fired power plants, and an investigation into the causes of lung cancer among horse handlers, identifying the status of industrial accident issues and suggesting policy directions.

The full texts of 70 research reports along with summaries of each research result in the "Industrial Safety and Health Research Summary" are available on the agency's research institute website.

Kim Eun-ah, Director of the Industrial Safety and Health Research Institute, stated, "It is important to establish industrial accident prevention policies and to commercialize and apply them in step with rapidly changing safety and health environments," adding, "We will do our best to provide scientific evidence for policies and projects through research and development and to create social value."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.