Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

Original Article

Concepts of Occupational Exposure Limit and Their International Comparisons: Kyung Sim Koh, Soo Hun Cho; Korean Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 1995;7(1):152-168. Published online February 28, 1995; DOI: https://doi.org/10.35371/kjoem.1995.7.1.152

Abstract PDF: This paper focuses on the origin of the concepts of occupational exposure limit, and traces the history and development of thoughts and regislations of various countries and organizations concerning the founding principles upon which it is based. The concepts of establishing standards for occupational chemicals in workplace air constitute a social consensus or agreement about acceptable levels of occupational hygiene. The level of scientific development of a country and the discussion of experts in the field of occupational health play an important role. The physician in occurational health has to be especially concerned to discover and estimate the risks to anyone particularly susceptible to exposures within the hygienically acceptable conditions.

Original Article

Mercury Concentration in air and in Urine of Workers in Fluorescent Lamp Manufacturing Factories in Korea: Kwang Jong Kim, Chul Whan Cha; Korean Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 1990;2(2):179-185. Published online August 31, 1990; DOI: https://doi.org/10.35371/kjoem.1990.2.2.179

Abstract PDF: This research was conducted to investigate the correlations between urinary mercury concentration and each independent variable related with urinary mercury levels. the urinary mercury concentrations of 543 workers exposed to metal mercury vapor in a total of 11 fluorescent lamp manufacturing factories and at the same time mercury concentrations in air were measured from June 1989 to December 1989. And annually mercury consumption per workers, mercury consumption per lamp, numbers of breakage lamps, frequency of mercury infusion, numbers of droppers, and numbers of vacuum exhaustion pumps were also investigated. The results were as follows: 1. The geometric mean of airborne mercury concentration in a total of 11 factories was 47.9 microgram/m3 (5.8~352.2 microgram/m3), six factories(54.5%) of them were exceed the threshold limit value(50.0 microgram/m3). 2. The geometric mean of urinary mercury concentration among 543 workers was 84.3 microgram/l (1.13~533.9 microgram/l), the distribution of workers by urinary mercury concentration showed that 26 workers(4.8%) were above the mercury posioning level(300 microgram/l). 3. The correlation coefficient between urinary mercury concentration and monthly numbers of breakage lamps was the highest(0.74) and next was mercury consumption per lamp (0.67), annually mercury consumption per worker(0.63) in order.

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