As the construction industry becomes increasingly sophisticated and complex, work using large construction equipment is increasing, and fatal accidents caused by the equipment are steadily occurring. Construction machinery is mainly used at constructi...
As the construction industry becomes increasingly sophisticated and complex, work using large construction equipment is increasing, and fatal accidents caused by the equipment are steadily occurring. Construction machinery is mainly used at construction sites, and owners are required to register it with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and undergo periodic inspections. Inspectors who conduct safety inspections for construction machinery have not yet conducted work environment measurements because they believe they work in the service industry and have minimal exposure to harmful factors. However, recently, some inspectors have reported noise-induced hearing loss, and as
employers' safety awareness has improved since the enforcement of the Serious Accident Punishment Act, interest in workers' health has also increased. In this study, a work environment measurement exposure assessment was conducted targeting two people from the same exposure group at each of 18 inspection stations. According to previous research, noise, dust, silicon oxide (quartz) that may be contained in vehicle exterior soil, and emissions were measured. The work environment measurement was conducted for hazardous factors such as titanium dioxide, toluene, xylene, methyl isobutyl ketone, and acetone contained in gases (nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide), paint for magnetic particle inspection used in non-destructive testing, black magnetic particles, and fluorescent magnetic particles.
As a result of the noise measurement, the average noise exposure level of all 18 inspection stations was 78.4 dB(A), and some of the inspectors at 3 of them exceeded 85 dB(A), so they were required to thoroughly wear protective equipment such as earplugs to protect their hearing, including special health checkups. This must be managed. In addition, when measuring smoke emissions and horns, people are momentarily exposed to up to 98 to 101 dB(A), so active measures are needed to protect inspectors from noise by wearing earplugs or communicating with customers through a microphone in the control room during the test. As a result of correlation analysis of the inspectors’ noise exposure level according to the number of vehicle inspections, a statistically significant result was derived with a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.365 (p=0.002). The remaining harmful factors were not detected or were detected in trace amounts. Additional exposure assessment research by inspectors is needed considering the type of construction machinery vehicle, age, external condition, degree of use of construction machinery, measurement period (seasonal factors), and additional hazardous factors (EC) among air emissions. In addition, although on-site inspectors
inspect more vehicles than inspectors inside the inspection station, accurate evaluation is difficult due to external factors during business trips or while in transit, which is a limitation that could not be measured in this study. Compared with the exposure standards notified by the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the inspectors’ exposure evaluation complies with all standards. But some inspection stations confirmed that noise is at a level where there is a health effect. However, the number of vehicle inspections at the inspection station changes every day and inspectors rotate between inspection stations, so all inspection stations need health management for noise-induced hearing loss.This study was the first to conduct an exposure assessment of hazardous factors for domestic construction machinery inspectors and is expected to be used as basic data on the inspectors' working environment and have academic significance for their health management.