Abstract
Until approximately 30 years ago, the main industry in Korea was agriculture. However, Korea has rapidly industrialized during the past 30 years since 1960 through five 5-year economic development plans, and various industries, such as steel manufacturing, shipbuilding, automobile manufacturing, electronics, construction and mining industries, have been highly developed. During this period, the governments and employers placed emphasis on production, rather than on protection of workers' health. Worker unions were more interested in getting money than protecting their health through improvement of work environments. Thus, extremely high frequency rates of industrial accidents have been annually reported. Only a few industrial health personnel, consisting of mainly medical doctors and fewer industrial hygienists, have performed physical examinations, industrial hygiene surveys and research in the area of industrial health. Therefore, detailed basic information on workers' exposures to chemical and physical agents and prevalence rates of occupational diseases is limited. Since coal workers' pneumoconiosis has accounted for 70 % of total occupational diseases, most studies have been conducted on this subject. This paper presents current data on industrial accidents, prevalence rate of occupational diseases, regulation on occupational safety and health, and environmental conditions in Korean industries.
