Evaluation of the effect of particulate matter on construction accidents using relative probability.

PM is known to have a great adverse effect on the human body. However, there is a lack of research analyzing the impact of PM on the occurrence of accidents. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to analyze the correlation between PM and accidents in the construction industry and to present a new concentration group to manage accidents caused by PM in the construction industry. This study was conducted in the following four stages. (i) collection of data, (ii) classification of data, (iii) relative probability analysis, and (iv) modified PM group classification. The main results of this study are as follows. When the frequency analysis of the traditional method was conducted, 3,721 accidents occurred at a PM concentration of 32 μg/m. However, as a result of the relative probability analysis presented in this study, it was confirmed that the relative accident probability increased as the PM concentration increased. In addition, the current PM concentration is presented by the WHO in six groups from a health perspective. However, in this study, the newly proposed PM group was classified into three groups from the perspective of the probability of construction accidents. The group proposed in this study is not from a health perspective but a group for managing construction site accidents. The contribution of this study was to confirm that PM also affects accidents occurring at construction sites, and the impact of PM on accidents was quantitatively analyzed through the relative probability analysis presented in this study.