In Korea, to investigate the casual relationship between humidifier disinfectant and lung disease, four rounds of investigation and judgment were conducted. During this investigation, two adults who performed lung biopsy were recognized for their relevance between humidifier disinfectants and lung disease. At first, we did not think of the relationship to humidifier disinfectant because chest computed tomography (CT) finding of 2 cases were improved. However, they performed lung biopsy and it showed typical humidifier disinfectant lung injury (HDLI) pathologic findings, they could be recognized as HDLI. We report these cases here.

We selected 2 cases from the fourth-round investigation at Kangbuk Samsung Hospital. Patient of case 1 used humidifier disinfectants since September 2010. The patient was admitted 6 months later to the intensive care unit (ICU) due to severe dyspnea. Pathology following a lung biopsy revealed typical HDLI finding which was determined to be due to humidifier disinfectant exposure. Patient of case 2 used humidifier disinfectant from 2001 to 2008 for about 3 months each winter. The patient's cough and sputum production symptoms began in December of 2007. The patient was admitted to the respiratory medicine department due to worsening dyspnea. Pathology following a lung biopsy revealed typical HDLI finding. This was determined to have been caused by humidifier disinfectant exposure.

Because the typical radiologic findings associated with HDLI can improve over time, it is necessary to consider the revision of current diagnostic criteria that the presence of radiologic findings is important.

Many studies have reported the negative effects of long working hours on various health problems. However, whether hair loss is associated with working hours has been rarely investigated so far. The main purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between long working hours and the development of alopecia among Korean male workers.

A total of 13,391 male workers not to take alopecia medicine in 2013 were followed up to see if they have alopecia medicine after 4 years, and that was used to confirm the alopecia development. Weekly working hours were categorized into three groups: reference working hours (RWH; < 40 hours/week), long working hours (LWH, 40–52 hours/week), and much longer working hours (MLWH; > 52 hours/week). Multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted to investigate the relationship between long working hours and the development of alopecia after adjusting age, marital status, education, monthly household income, smoking, and work schedule within strata of the covariates.

Long working hours was significantly related to the development of alopecia. The adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for the development of alopecia were 1.57 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.21–2.05) for LWH group and 1.74 (95% CI: 1.23–2.47) for MLWH group relative to RWH group.

Our findings suggest that unintentional development of alopecia is another potential health consequence of long working hours among Korean male workers. Preventive interventions to promote appropriate and reasonable working hours are required in our society.

We investigated the association between long workhours and marital status change from married to divorced or separated status that might have bad health effects.

A total of 40,654 participants with married status in 2014 were followed up in 2015. Weekly workhours were categorized into four groups: ≤ 40, 41–52, 53–60, and > 60 hours per week. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to determine the relationship between groups of workhours and marital status change after adjusting for age, total monthly household income, working type, and depression with sex stratification.

The study populations consisted of 8,346 (20.5%) females and 32,308 (79.5%) males. Odd ratios (ORs) of marital status change for females working for more than 60 hours per week was 4.26 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.25–14.5), when working less than or equal to 40 hours per week was used as reference in the crude model. ORs of working more than 60 hours per week was 4.57 (95% CI: 1.02–20.5) in female workers when considering age, total household earning per month, working type of daytime, and depression in a dose-response manner. However, for male workers, long workhours were not significantly related to change of marriage status.

Long workhours for more than 60 hours per week had significantly higher risk of divorce or separation in females, but not in males. Further follow-up studies are needed to evaluate long term effects of long workhours on divorce risk.

Previous studies have classified cameramen’s job as physiologically heavy work and identified the risk factors of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMDs) in cameramen. However, those studies limited their research subjects to cameramen. In this study, we compared the frequency and severity of WRMDs between cameramen and office workers.

A total of 293 subjects working in four broadcasting companies in Korea were recruited. A questionnaire survey was conducted for a month, starting in October 2016. The subjects were divided into cameramen and office workers according to their occupation. We compared the frequency and severity of WRMDs and ergonomic risk assessment results between the two groups.

The high-risk WRMD group had a higher proportion of cameramen than office workers. Moreover, the high ergonomic risk group also had a higher proportion of cameramen than office workers for WRMDs in the upper extremities and waist+lower extremities. In the multivariable-adjusted model comparing cameramen and office workers, the odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (95% CI) for high-risk WRMDs was 3.50 (95% CI: 1.92–7.72) for the upper extremities and 3.18 (95% CI: 1.62–6.21) for the waist and the lower extremities. The ORs by body parts were 3.11 (95% CI: 1.28–7.57) for the neck, 3.90 (95% CI: 1.79–8.47) for the shoulders, and 4.23 (95% CI: 1.04–17.18) for the legs and feet.

Our study suggests that cameramen are at high risk of WRMDs. Workplace improvements and management of the neck, shoulders, and lower extremities, which are susceptible to WRMDs, are necessary to prevent musculoskeletal disorders among cameramen.