Cooking oil fumes (COFs) from cooking with hot oil may contribute to the pathogenesis of lung cancer. Since 2021, occupational lung cancer for individual cafeteria workers has been recognized in South Korea. In this study, we aimed to identify the distribution of lung-imaging reporting and data system (Lung-RADS) among cafeteria workers and to determine factors related to Lung-RADS distribution.

We included 203 female participants who underwent low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) screening at a university hospital and examined the following variables: age, smoking status, second-hand smoke, height, weight, and years of service, mask use, cooking time, heat source, and ventilation. We divided all participants into culinary and non-culinary workers. Binomial logistic regression was conducted to determine the risk factors on LDCT of Category ≥ 3, separately for the overall group and the culinary group.

In this study, Lung-RADS-positive occurred in 17 (8.4%) individuals, all of whom were culinary workers. Binary logistic regression analyses were performed and no variables were found to have a significant impact on Lung-RADS results. In the subgroup analysis, the Lung-RADS-positive, and -negative groups differed only in ventilation. Binary logistic regression showed that the adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of the Lung-RADS-positive group for inappropriate ventilation at the workplace was 14.89 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 3.296–67.231) compared to appropriate ventilation as the reference, and the aOR for electric appliances at home was 4.59 (95% CI: 1.061–19.890) using liquid fuel as the reference.

The rate of Lung-RADS-positive was significantly higher among culinary workers who performed actual cooking tasks than among nonculinary workers. In addition, appropriate ventilation at the workplace made the LDCT results differ. More research is needed to identify factors that might influence LDCT findings among culinary workers, including those in other occupations.

This study was conducted to identify the success rate for smoking cessation over time after participation in a therapeutic smoking cessation camp, and to identify how participant characteristics, including a supportive workplace environment for smoking cessation (SWESC), affect the success rate for smoking cessation.

In all, 296 participants at smoking cessation camps in Ulsan between 2015 and 2020 were investigated. The success rates of smoking cessation after weeks 4, 6, 12, and 24 at camp were investigated. The participants were grouped as workers with an SWESC, and workers without an SWESC, and variables (age, education, household income, marital status, drinking, exercise, body mass index, morbidity, job, number of counseling sessions, cigarettes smoked per day and smoking initiation age) were investigated. Multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted at each time point. In addition, Cox regression analysis was performed to evaluate the variables affecting the success rate for smoking cessation over time.

The smoking cessation success rate of workers with an SWESC at week 24 (90.7%) was higher than that for workers without an SWESC (60.5%). Multiple logistic regression was performed to determine the relationship between each variable and the success rates for smoking cessation at week 6, 12, and 24. SWESC was confirmed as significant (p < 0.05) variables for increased success rate for smoking cessation at all 3 time points. After adjusting for all variables, the Cox proportional hazards survival analysis showed a hazard ratio of 6.17 for SWESC (p < 0.001,; 95% confidence interval: 3.08–12.38).

At a professional treatment smoking cessation camp, participants with an SWESC showed a significantly higher success rate for smoking cessation. Supportive workplace environment for workers’ health is expected to be an important factor for smoking cessation projects as well as other health promotion projects at workplace.

Occupational skin diseases are skin conditions that occur or worsen in relation to work and known to be the second most common type of occupational disease affecting individuals in the United States. In Korea, epidemiological reports related to occupational skin diseases are rare. But, no cases of occupational contact dermatitis caused by welding and grinding work have been reported previously.

Nine male workers working in the production department for liquefied natural gas (LNG) ships in Ulsan complained of erythematous papules/patches and itching in various areas of the body after welding and grinding work. The work environment monitoring report revealed that the amount of nickel dust exceeded the time weighted average (TWA) and poor local ventilation status. Based on the symptoms and the overall results of surveys, several tests, and work environment monitoring report, the 2 workers who had positive patch-test reactions to nickel were diagnosed with nickel dust-induced allergic contact dermatitis. The other 7 workers were diagnosed that there was a high probability that they had nickel dust-induced irritant contact dermatitis. The 2 workers who had nickel dust-induced allergic contact dermatitis were recommended to switch their jobs.

Nickel is one of the most common cause of allergic contact dermatitis. In this case, the dust was assumed to be created by welding work with a high nickel content new welding rod and subsequent grinding work, and the concentration of this dust exceeded the time weighted average. Thus, it is thought that the nickel dust may have caused contact dermatitis through continuous contact with the workers' exposed skin in a poorly ventilated space. Currently, several domestic shipbuilding companies are manufacturing LNG tankers using a new construction method. Consequently, it is highly likely that similar cases will occur in the future, which makes this case report meaningful.

The destruction of circadian rhythms by night shift work affects major circadian genes, which are known to play a role in advancing or killing the cell cycle through tumor suppressor genes. To find out whether night shift work affects the incidence of colorectal cancer, which was found to be associated with long-term night shift work in previous studies, we surveyed effect of night shift work on colorectal polyps that have a higher incidence than colorectal cancer and can progress to colorectal cancer.

To examine the correlation between rotating night shifts and colorectal polyps, a survey was conducted with 299 men aged 40–60 years from two university hospitals. We examined lifestyle, work history, work patterns, and colonoscopy results. The differences in prevalence among the groups was compared, and prevalence ratio (PR) was calculated via generalized linear modeling.

The prevalence of colorectal polyps in night shift and non-shift workers were 53.0% and 33.5%, respectively. After adjusting for age, smoking status, dietary habits, family history of colorectal cancer, obesity, job type, night shift work (PR: 1.13, 95% CI: 1.02–1.25) was a risk factor of colorectal polyps.

The risk of colorectal polyps was greater in night shift workers than non-shift workers. Also risk of colorectal polyp was higher in older group. Our study investigated colorectal polyp instead of colorectal cancer and lacks information about types and gene mutations of colorectal polyps. Further study is needed to clarify effect of night shift work on development of colorectal cancer.

The detection rate of hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) is very low in South Korea compared with other countries. The absence of uniform consensus and guidelines for diagnosing HAVS has been presumed to be one of the reasons. The HAVS has various manifestations including cold intolerance and its severity can be measured using the cold intolerance symptom severity (CISS) questionnaire. This study aimed to determine whether the CISS questionnaire, being used as a screening tool, can aid in the early detection of HAVS.

A total of 76 male workers with vibration-induced symptoms were enrolled as the final study participants. To compare the CISS score of healthy individuals, 41 men who had never been exposed to local vibration were included in the study. In addition to the former medical questionnaire, the participants answered the CISS questionnaire. A statistical analysis was conducted to identify the association of CISS scores with vibration induced symptom and to determine its cut off value.

The reliability of the CISS questionnaire was proven to be good, with a total Cronbach’s alpha of 0.922. The mean CISS score of the exposed group increased in every vascular stage [stage 0 = 42.6 (18.5); stage 1 = 59.4 (14.1); and over stage 2 = 60.2 (21.6)]. They were significantly higher than that of the non-exposed group. The result was fairly consistent with those in the sensorineural stage. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and area under curve (AUC) of 30 were 88.5, 65.3, 76.1, 82.1 and 0.769, respectively. From the result of logistic regression, the adjusted odds ratio of both components increased by the CISS score grouped by 30s.

The self-reported CISS questionnaire, used to measure the degree of cold intolerance, showed high agreement with the Stockholm classification of HAVS. Hence, we recommend the use of this questionnaire to assess the level of cold intolerance among vibration-exposed workers and detect individuals who are at risk of vibration-induced impairment with a cutoff value of 30.

IRB No. 2018–07–040-001. Registered on 4 September 2018.