The case was described of a 43 year old male who developed burns of the both shins as a result of handling wet cement. After wet cement was spilled into the rubber boots he was wearing, he experienced painful erythema of both lower legs. Several weeks later, medical examination revealed dirty and granulated ulceration of the both shins. The largest ulcer, about 18 by 10 centimeters, was located on the anterior aspect of left lower leg. We coneluded that this skin problem resulted from the ertreme alkalinity of calcium hydroxide in wet cement, combined with the effects of pressure and occlusion against the skin.
Adult ; Burns ; Calcium Hydroxide ; Dermatitis, Contact* ; Erythema ; Humans ; Leg ; Male ; Rubber ; Skin ; Ulcer*

A man who worked in the synthetic leather manufacturing plant for 3 months died at November 3. Author review the medical record, the death certificate, and interviewed his wife and the doctor who treated him. His major job was DMF handling. At the working place, he felt severe health problem, and admitted to the hospital via emergency clinic. He complained severe abdominal pain and showed jaundice and ascites, He suffered hepatic coma and respiratory insufficiency from fulminant hepatitis from 19th days after admission. Drug abuse, hepatitis (A, B, C), and alcoholic hepatitis were rule out with his history and serological study data, As a result, author couldn't find any cause of death, but fuIminant hepatitis from DMF toxicity.
Abdominal Pain ; Ascites ; Cause of Death ; Death Certificates ; Dimethylformamide* ; Emergencies ; Hepatic Encephalopathy ; Hepatitis* ; Hepatitis, Alcoholic ; Humans ; Jaundice ; Medical Records ; Plants ; Respiratory Insufficiency ; Spouses ; Substance-Related Disorders

No abstract available.

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.
Carcinogens ; Consensus ; Hygiene ; Occupational Exposure* ; Occupational Health

Five items among neurobehavioral core test battery of World Health Organization, including Santa Ana dexterity, pursuit aiming, digit symbol, simple reaction time, and Benton visual retention, were administered to the workers occupationally non-exposed to neurotoxic agents by operational guide for the WHO neurobehavioral core test battery. Subjects were volunteers from the industrial workers (117) and clerks (40). Detailed occupational history such as exposed agents including noise or vibration, educational level, residence, smoking and drinking habit were recorded. Most of the neurobehavioral tests were correlated with age and educational level. Smoking was correlated with pursuit aiming and digit symbol. Vibration affected pursuit aiming. Job type (industrial workers vs. clerks) and noise exposure did not affected among tested items. Multiple regression analysis was done for establishing predict equation to estimate normal ranges of the tests for male workers. Age was shown to be main independent variable affected for all tests except wrong dot of pursuit aiming. Educational level was also shown to affected most of the tests except Santa ana dexterity and wrong dot of pursuit aiming. Alcohol consumption affected Santa Ana dexterity, non-preferred hand, and smoking affected only wrong dot of pursuit aiming after multiple regression analysis.
Alcohol Drinking ; Drinking ; Hand ; Humans ; Male ; Noise ; Occupations* ; Reaction Time ; Reference Values ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Vibration ; Volunteers ; World Health Organization

OBJECTIVES: A dermatologic outbreak occurred in a factory usingliquid waste mixtures at Gyeongju. We conducted this study to identify causative factors. METHODS: We conducted a questionnaire interview composed of general andjob characteristics. A dermatologist carried out medical examination, European standard patch test and 'as is' patch test. We evaluated the cases with over 5 criteria of Mathias's 7 definitions of occupational dermatologic diseases. RESULTS: Seven of 9 workers were diagnosed with dermatosis and 3 subjects (cases 2, 4 and 6) with Mathias's 7 criteria were confirmed as having occupational dermatologic diseases and were diagnosed as irritant contact dermatitis. Two subjects (cases 1 and 9) with over 5 criteria were evaluated as suspicious status. The remaining 2 subjects (cases 3 and 5) were not compatible with those criteria. The main sources of this outbreak were suggested to be the wasted solvents in the factory of car accessories and aluminum products because the subjects (cases 2, 4, 6, 1 and 9) had the positive skin reaction against those sources in 'as is 'patch test. Furthermore, 4 of the 5 subjects cases 2, 4, 6 and 9) had some skin reactions against the waste solvents of chemical material in 'as is'patch test. CONCLUSION: This outbreak occurred by direct skin contact of liquid waste mixtures of a factory making car accessories and aluminum products. The cutting oils and metal working fluids in those liquid waste mixtures were estimated as the most suspected materials. In addition, this outbreak may have been caused by the hazard effect of mixed waste organic solvents of manufacturing of chemical materials.
Aluminum ; Dermatitis, Contact ; Gyeongsangbuk-do ; Occupations ; Oils ; Patch Tests ; Questionnaires ; Skin ; Skin Diseases* ; Solvents

BACKGROUND: Organophosphate poisoning is one of the most common toxicologic emergencies in Korea. Acute organophosphate poisoning and delayed polyneuropathy by ingestion are well published. There have been several reports about intermediate syndrome in organophosphate poisoning by ingestion but few about intermediate syndrome via dermal route. CASE REPORT: We observed a 59-years-old male who had weakness of proximal limb muscles and respiratory muscles 2 days after dermal exposure by unidentified pesticide. The paralytic symptoms lasted up to 20 days but the delayed polyneuropathy did not develop. The patient needed mechanical ventilatory support for 2 weeks and had completely recovered from IMS 6 weeks later. Electrophysiological study was characterized by an axonal polyneuropathy pattern on the proximal limb muscles. Serum acetylcholinesterase level was below half of normal level. Clinical manifestations and electrophysiological study support the clinical diagnosis of intermediate syndrome. CONCLUSION: Intermediate syndrome is commonly developed by ingestion of organophosphate but, as in this case, dermal absorption can also lead to intermediate syndrome. More detailed history taking and close observation is needed for about 3 or more days after intoxication because of the risk of respiratory failure.
Absorption ; Acetylcholinesterase ; Axons ; Diagnosis ; Eating ; Emergencies ; Extremities ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Muscles ; Organophosphate Poisoning* ; Polyneuropathies ; Respiratory Insufficiency ; Respiratory Muscles

OBJECTIVES: The ambient noise levels in the test rooms affect the workers's hearing threshold. The present study was designed to assess the ambient noise levels in the test rooms to determine if valid hearing tests, both pure-tone air conduction and bone-conduction, could be performed in these environments. METHODS: In the present study, third octave band ambient noise sound pressure levels were measured in 124 audiometric test rooms used for clinical audiometry, and the results were compared with the ANSI third octave band maximum permissible ambient noise levels (MPANLs) for each test condition and frequency range. RESULTS: The ambient noise SPLs were highest in the lower frequencies, and this decreased as the frequency increased. For the "ears covered"condition, about 24.2% of the rooms were in compliance (pass) with the MPANLs for the 125-8000 Hz, 35.5% were in compliance for the 250-8000 Hz range and 55.6% were in compliance for the 500-8000 Hz range. For the "ears not covered"condition, only about 8.1% of the rooms passed for the 125-8000 Hz, 13.7% of the rooms passed for the 250-8000 Hz range and 34.7% of the rooms passed for the 500-8000 Hz range. All 124 rooms met the OSHA MPANLs. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study strongly indicate that clinical audiometry is being conducted in test rooms having unacceptable or excessive ambient noise levels.
Audiometry ; Compliance ; Hearing ; Hearing Tests ; Noise* ; United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration

OBJECTIVES: The Energy Expenditure Prediction ProgramTM (EEPP) has been considered as a simple and quantitative method to evaluate physical work load. However, the adoption of EEPP directly to Korean workers is problematic because it was developed in a laboratory setting for Caucasians. Therefore, this study was conducted to validate EEPP for Korean workers. METHODS: The study subjects consisted of 60 workers from two factories. Cycle ergometer test was conducted to calculate physical work capacity, and heart rate monitoring was conducted to check heart rate during work. After observing the task, energy expenditure was estimated by EEPP. RESULTS: EEPP underestimated energy expenditure less than EEHR (energy expenditure checked by heart rate) did(p<0.0001). The factors effecting EEHR were EEPP and task type. After dividing the task into regular and irregular tasks, the irregular task had a larger difference between the values from the two methods. We provided task specific regression models between EEHR and EEPP. CONCLUSIONS: Because EEPP underestimated energy expenditure, it needs to be adjusted before use with Korean workers. It is suggested that different adjusting equations are formulated for regular and irregular tasks. Further study to develop a specific energy estimation model appropriate for Koreans is needed to obtain more precise estimation.
Energy Metabolism* ; Health Expenditures ; Heart ; Heart Rate

OBJECTIVES: Fatigue is a primary human factor for decreased job performance in the workplace. It is well documented that drowsiness is a typical symptom of fatigue and is closely associated with commercial drivers'safety and well-being. However, few studies have been conducted to develop or validate fatigue symptom instruments for a working population. The main purpose of this study was to develop a general fatigue checklist and a driving fatigue checklist for Korean commercial drivers. METHODS: A total of 287 bus drivers in a commercial transportation company participated in a self-administered survey that was designated Study 1. Based on the statistical results of Study 1, a focus meeting with 16 professional consultants was conducted to revise the fatigue symptom instrument for Study 2. In Study 2, 288 commercial drivers (156 bus drivers and 132 truck drivers) participated in the revised questionnaire survey. All collected responses were entered into a SPSS worksheet and the data analysis was conducted using SPSS software 11.1. The exploratory factor analysis used in this study followed the principle component factoring rule and the varimax rotation method for factor extraction. The criteria for item selection were an Eigen value of 1.0 or greater, a communality score of .50 or greater, and no 'fence rider'property over the extracted factors. RESULTS: Through Study 1, the consultant meeting, and Study 2, a general fatigue checklist was developed with a total of 3 factors and 11 items, and a driving fatigue checklist was developed with 2 factors and 10 items. The 3 factors of the general fatigue checklist were physical fatigue, psychological fatigue, and chronic tiredness. The two factors of the driving fatigue checklist were physical fatigue and perceptive and functional fatigue. CONCLUSIONS: The primary contents of general fatigue were different from those of driving fatigue according to the two fatigue instrument factors developed in this study. The primary fatigue symptoms of the commercial driving population were identified as physical fatigue and perceptive and functional fatigue.
Checklist* ; Consultants ; Fatigue* ; Humans ; Motor Vehicles ; Questionnaires ; Sleep Stages ; Statistics as Topic ; Transportation