Journal of Occupational Safety and Health
Online ISSN : 1883-678X
Print ISSN : 1882-6822
ISSN-L : 1882-6822
Volume 6, Issue 2
Displaying 1-9 of 9 articles from this issue
  • Toshiro HOSHI, Noboru SUGIMOTO
    2013 Volume 6 Issue 2 Pages 35-41
    Published: 2013
    Released on J-STAGE: December 05, 2013
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    In the work site, various automated manufacturing machines are used. As a result, laborers are released from heavy line labor and labor in harmful environments. However, many industrial accidents are generated by automated manufacturing machines. This paper considers the viewpoint of accident prevention in the operation of automated manufacturing machines. There are operations where a delay cannot be permitted and operations where hurried work cannot be permitted. Therefore, the operation button has a color and shape suited to the operation. This characteristic is presented as being evaluated as an "asymmetric property on the time axis." For a laborer to accept mechanical risk, it is necessary that the degree of harm be sufficiently small or that avoidance of the danger be easy. When the "asymmetric property on the time axis" becomes high, mechanical safety improves. This makes it easy for the laborer to accept the machine.
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  • Mitsuya FURUSE, Masayoshi HAGIWARA, Mariko ONO-OGASAWARA, Seiichiro KA ...
    2013 Volume 6 Issue 2 Pages 43-48
    Published: 2013
    Released on J-STAGE: December 05, 2013
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    An analytical method was developed for the quantification of a low level of 1,2-dichloropropane in workplace air using a sampler containing 200 mg Porapak QS and thermal desorption - gas chromatography/flame ionization detector analysis. Air was drawn into the sampler to sample 1,2-Dichloropropane at a flow rate of 200 mL/min for 10 min.
    The breakthrough time was longer than 60 min. The thermal desorption efficiency was close to 100%, and the recovery rate of 1,2-dichloropropane did not decrease after storage for 10 days at room temperature. The calibration curve was linear in the range 2.41 to 151 ppb of 1,2-dichloropropane concentration in the air. The lower limit of quantitation of this method is 1.30 ppb for a sampling volume of 2 L, which is lower than 1/10 of the target value of 35 ppb.
    1,3-dichloropropane can be analyzed by the present method.
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  • Mizuki YAMAGUMA, Takaaki MIZUTANI, Akira YAMAUCHI, Yasuo SHIMIZU
    2013 Volume 6 Issue 2 Pages 49-57
    Published: 2013
    Released on J-STAGE: December 05, 2013
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The possibility of igniting an explosive atmosphere by an electrostatic discharge occurring upon the activation of a safety valve is a major concern to chemical process industries. In order to investigate this matter, we carried out various experiments using an original experimental apparatus. Conductive liquids (water, methyl ethyl ketone, tetrahydrofuran) produced much higher charges than non-conductive liquids (styrene, hexane, kerosene). In particular, Tetrahydrofuran, is found to produce abnormally large charges if certain conditions are met. A nonconductive liquid, however, generated a huge charge when non-soluble powder was added and dispersed in the liquid. Other factors that affected the charge generation were the inner pressure of the liquid container, the difference between the inner pressure and the popping pressure of the valve, the condition of the gas-liquid mixture, the length of the outlet pipe, the liquid temperature, and the size of the safety valve. Considering the quantity of charge obtained in our experiments, we conclude that a strong space charge sufficient to cause an incendiary brush discharge may be formed when a safety valve is activated and, therefore, appropriate preventive measures for explosion and fire should be planned and executed.
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  • Takashi MIURA, Mizuki YAMAGUMA
    2013 Volume 6 Issue 2 Pages 59-66
    Published: 2013
    Released on J-STAGE: December 05, 2013
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    In order to prevent occupational accidents caused by static electricity, such as explosions and fires at industrial chemical plants, the suppression of spark discharges of an energy larger than the minimum ignition energy of the flammable material is essential. Static electricity is generated by friction between two different materials, for example, a container or pipe-line and pellets of raw material. Some of the generated charges are relaxed as a result of gas discharge in a micro gap between the materials. Our aim is, therefore, to measure the absolute quantity of the initial charge separation during friction and the relaxation rate due to the micro gap discharge. We developed an experimental setup to measure in real time the charge generated during friction between a metal and a plastic material in vacuum and air. In this paper, the static electricity generated during friction between stainless steel and poly-ethylene terephthalate (PET) are measured. It was found that the static electricity in air is almost one order of magnitude smaller than that in a vacuum. The prevention of occupational accidents and improvement in safety were discussed on the basis of a typical model for an industrial situation with the experimental results in this study.
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  • Yukiyasu SHIMADA, Teiji KITAJIMA, Arata KIMURA
    2013 Volume 6 Issue 2 Pages 67-75
    Published: 2013
    Released on J-STAGE: December 05, 2013
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The purpose of risk assessment (RA) is the determination of a quantitative and/or qualitative value of risk related to a concrete situation and a recognized hazard. The results of it are used to consider risk controls for preventing occupational and process accidents. The number of workplaces which carry out RA is increasing under administrative measures for industrial disaster prevention based on RA. However, it is most often the case that the original purpose of RA are not understood correctly and truly effective risk controls based on the appropriate risk estimation are not implemented.
    We focused on the workplaces in the chemical process industries (petroleum refinery, petroleum chemical, chemical, etc.) and carried out a hearing investigation and held a discussion with safety experts. The current states and issues, which are related to the RA and the implementation of risk controls, and the subjects of risk information sharing through the life-cycle of a chemical process plant were clarified. For these issues and subjects, we propose a tentative integrated approach to RA and the implementation of risk controls for preventing occupational and process accidents.
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  • Sangwon CHOI, Kwangseok CHOI, Takashi MIURA
    2013 Volume 6 Issue 2 Pages 77-81
    Published: 2013
    Released on J-STAGE: December 05, 2013
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The purpose of risk assessment (RA) is the determination of a quantitative and/or qualitative value of risk related to a concrete situation and a recognized hazard. The results of it are used to consider risk controls for preventing occupational and process accidents. The number of workplaces which carry out RA is increasing under administrative measures for industrial disaster prevention based on RA. However, it is most often the case that the original purpose of RA are not understood correctly and truly effective risk controls based on the appropriate risk estimation are not implemented. We focused on the workplaces in the chemical process industries (petroleum refinery, petroleum chemical, chemical, etc.) and carried out a hearing investigation and held a discussion with safety experts. The current states and issues, which are related to the RA and the implementation of risk controls, and the subjects of risk information sharing through the life-cycle of a chemical process plant were clarified. For these issues and subjects, we propose a tentative integrated approach to RA and the implementation of risk controls for preventing occupational and process accidents.
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  • 2013 Volume 6 Issue 2 Pages 85
    Published: 2013
    Released on J-STAGE: December 05, 2013
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Download PDF (333K)
  • 2013 Volume 6 Issue 2 Pages 86-87
    Published: 2013
    Released on J-STAGE: December 05, 2013
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Download PDF (428K)
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