Since the Occupational Safety and Health Law, 1981, has been enacted for sustaining and improving health and safety of workers, the safety certification system, which require that protective devices of dangerous machines and instruments, and personal ...
Since the Occupational Safety and Health Law, 1981, has been enacted for sustaining and improving health and safety of workers, the safety certification system, which require that protective devices of dangerous machines and instruments, and personal protective equipments should be tested it's performances, has been introduced by the law in order fundamentally to ensure workers against danger.
Protective devices and personal protective equipments are last resorts to protecting workers from danger or harm. If performances of these protective devices or personal protective equipments fall short of the performance level or the standards, uses of those devices or equipments may increase possibility of accidents resulting in not protecting workers from the accidents.
Therefore, for the fundamental safety measurement of dangerous machines, the Occupational Safety and Health Law has introduced the performance certification system for those devices in article 34 and 35 of the Law; in 1987 for personal protective equipments, in 1987 for protective devices, respectively.
The performance certification system is a series of a test process of protective devices used in dangerous machines or instruments, and personal protective equipments donned by workers working in dangerous or hazardous working conditions. When a item listed in the Law is newly manufactured domestically or imported from foreign countries, the items should be tested on its' performance, quality of material, structures etc. by authorized agencies. This is so called as a type (or model) certification test because if a item has been passed the test, all items in the same specification of the certified item are permitted to be manufactured or imported.
There are currently 14 items for protective devices, including 12 items of safety protective devices and explosion proof devices, 14 items for personal protective equipments such as safety shoes, safety helmets, and anti-dust mask listed in article 33 and 35 in the Occupational Safety and Health Law.
In order to cope with demands of preventing more effectively workers against accidents caused by accident prone or newly developed machines, there has been a strong need for examining current objects of performance test listed in the Law, and for discussing which items should be added or removed from the test objects.
This research aims at examining the issues profoundly and extracting items which would be added or removed from objects of the performance test. With an intensive literature review on performance test systems in Korea and other countries, the author conducted several questionnaire experiments and then raised relating issues.
As a careful analysis of items that are necessary for operation in dangerous machines or instruments or personal protective equipments worn in dangerous or hazardous working conditions described in the Occupational Safety and Health Law, this research proposed a scheme by which items may be added or deleted from objects of the performance tests.
The author, especially, hopes that the suggested proposal may finalize the dispute and act as a settlement of arguments about some items which have been long discussed. The author believes this proposition will increase efficiency of the operation of performance tests as well as support improvement of competitiveness of companies.