This study analyzes the impact of occupational health risk assessments on the safety and health levels and the safety behaviors of workers in manufacturing workplaces. An online survey was conducted among 3,172 companies, yielding 637 responses. The statistical analysis on the collected responses revealed three key findings. First, the safety and health levels (safety importance, safety comprehension, safety awareness) positively influence the outcomes of occupational health risk assessments(safety practice, safety management, safety improvement) and safety behaviors (activity change, safety check). Second, the effectiveness of occupational health risk assessments has a positive impact on safety behaviors. Lastly, the effectiveness of occupational health risk assessments partially mediate the relationship between safety and health levels and safety behaviors. These findings are expected to contribute to the promotion of risk assessments in the field of industrial health and to enhancing safety performance by improving workplace safety, health levels, and safety behavior.
In this study, 38 residents of the Jeonnam areas in Korea were assessed for their level of exposure to VOCs. The aim was to understand the difference in levels of indoor, outdoor, and personal exposure to VOCs (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene) and a health effect assessment was conducted to determine whether there was any fatal cause from carcinogenic or non-carcinogenic elements from case and control group. Personal exposure to benzene showed a higher distribution than indoor and outdoor concentrations, and it was found that the average concentration of the case group was higher than that of the control group in all indoor, outdoor, and personal exposures. With regard to benzene, in the CTE, RME, and Monte-Carlo analysis, all subjects in the case group were seen to exceed the lifetime cancer risk of 10−6 defined by the US EPA and in the RME analysis the control group subjects were also seen to exceed the lifetime cancer risk of 10−6 defined by the US EPA. In the case of toluene, ethylbenzene on the CTE, RME, and Monte-Carlo analysis, the non-carcinogenic standard of 1 was not exceeded.