Abstract

This study was conducted in order to investigate the status of harmful working environment on twelve rubber and ten chemical products manufacturing industries in Busan area over a period of five months from June 1 to October 31, 1980. The summarized results were as follows; 1. The highest and lowest mean values of harmful environmental elements in workroom of rubber products manufacturing industries were noted in twisting (98.7dB) and coating department (77.3dB) to noise, molding (6.43mg/m3) and forming (1.33mg/m3) to dust, bonding (toluene 463.7ppm, xylene 83.3ppm and benzene 6.7ppm, respectively) to organic solvents respectively. Also in chemical products manufacturing, they were noted in grinding (95.1dB) and shining department (76.8dB) to noise, packing (4.30mg/m3) and staining (3.20mg/m3) to dust, shining (393.3ppm and 375.0ppm, respectively) and varnishing(125.5ppm and 121.7ppm, respectively) to toluene and xylene, and scattering (51.8ppm) and mixing (23.9ppm) to benzene, respectively. 2. The mean values of harmful elements in workroom of rubber products manufacturing were 86.3dB to noise, 4.16mg/m3 to dust, 258.2ppm to toluene, 230.3ppm to xylene, and 54.0ppm to benzene, respectively. Also in chemical products manufacturing, they were 85.2dB to noise, 3.69mg/m3 to dust, 227.9ppm to toluene, 213.2 ppm to xylene, and 36.3ppm to benzene, respectively. 3. Number of workers exposed to harmful working environment, over TLV, of a total 10,195 workers in rubber manufacturing were 1,002(9.8%) to noise, 212(2.1%) to dust, 1,581(15.5%) to tolune, 1,509(14.8%) to xylene, and 1,524(15.0%) to benzene, respectively. Number of workers exposed to harmful working environment, over TLV, of a 1,913 workers in chemical products manufacturing were 112(5.9%) to noise, 132(6.9%) to each organic solvent, respectively. 4. The values of noise and dust of rubber and chemical products manufacturing in 1980 were lower then those in 1977, but the value of organic solvent in 1980 was with that in 1977.