Abstract

Examination of working environments was conducted to get more detailed data about harmful working environments arid to make a contribution to more effective management. Study was carried out on 722 factories located in Taegu City and eight counties in Kyungpook Province, Korea, for a period of one year, from February 1 to December 30, 1986. The total number and proportion of workers exposed to harmful material was 37,697, 45.2% among 83,368 workers. The results according to exposed material were as follows: 1. In the case of noise, proportion of exceeding the 8-hour TLV was 59%. Included were nail-cutting in assembly metal manufacturing industry and weaving process in textile. 2. Dust in mill process of coal manufacturing industries exceeded the TLV of second class of dust at all parts and exceeded the TLV at 6% as a whole. 3. The fields of industry lower than 70 kux of illumination were storage equipment of food, auto-winder of textile, painting of wood wares and coal mixing, and 44% of all cases was lower than standard. 4. As a result of temperature index investigation(WBGT), about 12% of all subjects exceeded limit value. Included parts were rolling machine and reducing room. 5. In the case of organic solvents, TLV was exceeded at about 8%. The parts exceeded TLV according to materials belonged to this category were as follows. 1) Toluene: adhesive work in assembly metal manufacturing 2) Xylene: printing and paint mixing in chemical manufacturing 3) Methyl ethyl ketone: paint mixing in all parts examined and coating machine partially in chemical manufacturing 4) Methyl isobutyl ketone: printing in chemical manufacturing 5) Acetone: vapor polishing in assembly manufacturing. 6. Among specified chemical materials, the concentration of HC1 in the air in metal assembly manufacturing factory exceedeed TLV in one of three assembly metal manufacturing examined. Others, such as benzene, acetic acid, formic acid, sodium hydroxide, formalin, ammonia, copper, chromate etc. were lower than TLV in its indoor atmospheric concentration. As a whole, the proportion of exceeding TLV was about 0.8%. 7. The concentrations of inorganic lead were lower than TLV in all parts examined. The results of this investigation show the fact that current management of working environments is not satisfactory, and so more active management is needed.