Busan Office of Education to Replace Ventilation Systems in School Kitchens... "Preventing Damage from Frying"

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Hwang Du-yeol] The Busan Metropolitan Office of Education is taking steps to improve the working environment of school meal workers to prevent damage caused by "cooking fumes," emissions generated during cooking processes such as frying using oil.

On the 13th, the Busan Office of Education announced that it will improve the ventilation facilities in school cafeterias by flexibly applying the "School Cafeteria Kitchen Ventilation Installation Guide" prepared by the Ministry of Employment and Labor last year.

First, under the "Five-Year Plan for Cafeteria Modernization," ventilation facilities at 195 schools requiring urgent improvement will be sequentially replaced by 2027.

Additionally, for 372 schools where applying the Ministry of Employment and Labor's equipment standards is difficult due to reasons such as low ceiling height, ventilation facilities will be improved annually by 2026 according to the "Four-Year Plan for Ventilation Facility Improvement," which reflects the results of the "Technical Service for Improvement of School Cafeteria Kitchen Ventilation Facilities."

Besides improving ventilation facilities, the plan also includes ▲gradual replacement with electric cooking appliances such as induction cookers and electric ovens ▲development and distribution of oven cooking recipes that minimize cooking fumes ▲and implementation of work rotation to prevent specific tasks from concentrating on certain cooking workers.

Busan Metropolitan Office of Education.

In addition, the Busan Office of Education is implementing various policies to prevent lung diseases among meal workers.

In September last year, the Industrial Safety and Health Committee resolved to provide all meal workers in public and private schools with free low-dose chest computed tomography (CT) scans.

Special health examinations (low-dose lung CT) were also conducted for meal workers with over 10 years of service or aged 55 and older. As a result, 56 individuals (3.17%) who were diagnosed with borderline nodules requiring follow-up observation will receive support for secondary examination costs.

Along with this, for those with abnormal findings such as "suspected lung cancer" from the special health examination (lung CT), additional examination and diagnosis costs of up to 1 million KRW per person will be supported, and administrative support including industrial accident applications and follow-up management will be provided without hesitation.

Ha Yun-su, Superintendent of Busan Metropolitan Office of Education, said, "We will regularly investigate the actual conditions of ventilation facilities on-site through safety and health inspections of cafeterias in the future," and added, "We will promptly improve any deficiencies to ensure that meal workers can work in a safe and comfortable environment."