Time to Change Office Air? The Answer Is in My Hands... Launching the Spread of 'Smart Ventilation Management'

KOSHA Develops Smart Evaluation Tool to Support Financial Call Centers

Samugeumyung Ubuntu Foundation to Collaborate on Protecting Call Center Workers' Health

Park Doo-yong, Chairman of the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (left), and Shin Pil-gyun, Chairman of the Office Finance Ubuntu Foundation, are signing a business agreement to protect the health of call center workers.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Kim Yong-woo] A smart project to prevent infectious diseases among the closely gathered ‘call center’ employees is underway.

The Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (KOSHA, President Park Doo-yong) and the Office and Finance Ubuntu Foundation (Chairman Shin Pil-gyun) have launched a collaborative project actively dedicated to protecting the health of call center workers.

On January 29, the two organizations signed a “Memorandum of Understanding to Support Autonomous Work Environment Management in Call Center Workplaces” at KOSHA’s Seoul Northern Branch. The goal is to protect the health of call center workers.

KOSHA will distribute its self-developed smart ventilation management evaluation tool called “co-S.U.M. (co-Safe air exchange by Untact and Mobile).” The foundation plans to support financial sector call centers in utilizing this tool.

“co-S.U.M.” is a tool that allows workplaces to manage ventilation conditions autonomously and can be used for free via PC and smartphones.

By inputting basic information such as workspace size, number of workers, and working hours, it provides the risk level according to the ventilation status and suggests ventilation methods.

In densely populated and enclosed spaces like call centers, or places with close contact with many customers, scientific ventilation management is possible, making it effective in preventing infectious diseases such as COVID-19.

Based on self-assessment results from financial sector call center workplaces, if ventilation conditions are found to be weak and a detailed evaluation is requested from KOSHA, experts from KOSHA will visit the site to provide consulting. The foundation plans to actively cooperate in this project by first distributing about 100 air quality measuring devices.

Park Doo-yong, President of KOSHA, said, “A cooperative foundation has been established to protect call center workers in the financial sector who are vulnerable to infectious diseases,” adding, “KOSHA will continue to devote efforts through various programs to protect the health of vulnerable occupations.”

Shin Pil-gyun, Chairman of the Office and Finance Ubuntu Foundation, stated, “Call center workers, for whom social distancing within the workplace is difficult, face a high risk of COVID-19 cluster infections,” and added, “We expect that the smart ventilation management system will enhance the autonomous environmental management capabilities of call center workplaces.”