• Proceedings of the KOR-BRONCHOESO Conference
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• 1972.03a
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• pp.6-7
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• 1972

The air pollutants can be classified into the irritant gas and the asphixation gas, and the irritant gas is closely related to the otorhinolaryngological diseases. The common irritant gases are nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, hydrogen carbon compounds, and the potent and irritating PAN (peroxy acyl nitrate) which is secondarily liberated from photosynthesis. Those gases adhers to the mucous membrane to result in ulceration and secondary infection due to their potent oxidizing power. 1. Sulfur dioxide gas Sulfur dioxide gas has the typical characteristics of the air pollutants. Because of its high solubility it gets easily absorbed in the respiratory tract, when the symptoms and signs by irritation become manifested initially and later the resistance in the respiratory tract brings central about pulmonary edema and respiratory paralysis of origin. Chronic exposure to the gas leads to rhinitis, pharyngitis, laryngitis, and olfactory or gustatory disturbances. 2. Carbon monoxide Toxicity of carbon monoxide is due to its deprivation of the oxygen carrying capacity of the hemoglobin. The degree of the carbon monoxide intoxication varies according to its concentration and the duration of inhalation. It starts with headache, vertigo, nausea, vomiting and tinnitus, which can progress to respiratory difficulty, muscular laxity, syncope, and coma leading to death. 3. Nitrogen dioxide Nitrogen dioxide causes respiratory disturbances by formation of methemoglobin. In acute poisoning, it can cause pulmonary congestion, pulmonary edema, bronchitis, and pneumonia due to its strong irritation on the eyes and the nose. In chronic poisoning, it causes chronic pulmonary fibrosis and pulmonary edema. 4. Ozone It has offending irritating odor, and causes dryness of na sopharyngolaryngeal mucosa, headache and depressed pulmonary function which may eventually lead to pulmonary congestion or edema. 5. Smog The most outstanding incident of the smog occurred in London from December 5 through 8, 1952, because of which the mortality of the respiratory diseases increased fourfold. The smog was thought to be due to the smoke produced by incomplete combustion and its byproduct the sulfur oxides, and the dust was thought to play the secondary role. In new sense, hazardous is the photochemical smog which is produced by combination of light energy and the hydrocarbons and oxidant in the air. The Yonsei University Institute for Environmental :pollution Research launched a project to determine the relationship between the pollution and the medical, ophthalmological and rhinopharyngological disorders. The students (469) of the "S" Technical School in the most heavily polluted area in Pusan (Uham Dong district) were compared with those (345) of "K" High School in the less polluted area. The investigated group had those with subjective symptoms twice as much as the control group, 22.6% (106) in investigated group and 11.3% (39) in the control group. Among those symptomatic students of the investigated group. There were 29 with respiratory symptoms (29%), 22 with eye symptoms (21%), 50 with stuffy nose and rhinorrhea (47%), and 5 with sore thorat (5%), which revealed that more than half the students (52%) had subjective symptoms of the rhinopharyngological aspects. Physical examination revealed that the investigated group had more number of students with signs than those of the control group by 10%, 180 (38.4%) versus 99 (28.8%). Among the preceding 180 students of the investigated group, there were 8 with eye diseases (44%), 1 with respiratory disease (0.6%), 97 with rhinitis (54%), and 74 with pharyngotonsillitis (41%) which means that 95% of them had rharygoical diseases. The preceding data revealed that the otolaryngological diseases are conspicuously outnumbered in the heavily polluted area, and that there must be very close relationship between the air pollution and the otolaryngological diseases, and the anti-pollution measure is urgently needed.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.37-45
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• 2006

Recently, wood-framed houses has been built in the Korea for pension. Wood is good material for human healthy, while the construction lumbers are treated with preservative such as CCA (chromated copper arsenate), which contain some toxic elements for human body. However, if the waste woody biomass treated with various heavy metals, which has been collected from house construction or demolition, was fired in the field, and incinerated or landfilled after mass collection, such components will result in the toxic air pollutants in the burning or land fills, and spreaded into other areas. So the careful selection of wood and chemicals are required in advance for house construction, in particular, for environment-friendly housings. Therefore, this study was carried out to determine the content of toxic heavy metals in woody materials such as domestic hinoki and imported hemlock treated with CCA for housing materials, and the post-treated wood components such as organic fertilizer, sludge, dry-distilled charcoal and carbonized charcoal, to be returned finally into soil. The results are as follows. 1) The chemical analysis of toxic trace elements in various solid biomass required accurate control and management of laboratory environment, and reagents and water used, because of the error of data due to various foreign substances added in various processing and transporting steps. So a systematic analyzers was necessary to monitor the toxic pollutants of construction materials. 2) In particular, the biomass treated with industrial biological or thermal conditions such as sludge or charcoals was not fully dissolvable after third addition of $HNO_3$ and HF. 3) The natural woody materials such as organic fertilizer, sludge. and charcoals without any treatment of preservatives or heavy metal components were nontoxic in landfill because of the standard of organic fertilizers, even after thermal or biological treatments. 4) The CC A-treated wood for making the construction wood durable should not be landfilled, because of its higher contents of toxic metals than the criterion of organic fertilizer for agriculture or of natural environment. So the demolished waste should be treated separately from municipal wastes.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.167-175
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• 2018

Natural gas is a clean fuel that discharges almost no air-contaminating substances. This study examined the simultaneous reduction of $CH_4$ and NOx of NGOC/LNT catalysts for CNG buses related to the improvement of the $de-CH_4/NOx$ performance, focusing mainly on identifying the additive catalysts, loading of the washcoat, stirring time, and types of substrates. The 3wt. % Ni-loaded NGOC generally exhibited superior $CH_4$ reduction performance through $CH_4$ conversion, because Ni is an alkaline, toxic oxide, and exerts a reducing effect on $CH_4$. A excessively small loading resulted in insufficient adsorption capacity of harmful gases, whereasa too high loading of washcoat caused clogging of the substrate cells. In addition, with the economic feasibility of catalysts considered, the appropriate amount of catalyst washcoat loading was estimated to be 124g/L. The NOx conversion rate of the NGOC/LNT catalysts stirred from $200^{\circ}C$ to $550^{\circ}C$ for 5 hours showed 10-15% better performance than the NGOC/LNT catalysts mixed for 2 hours over the entire temperature range. The NGOC/LNT catalysts exhibitedapproximately 20% higher $de-CH_4$ performance on the ceramic substrates than on the metal substrates.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.345-353
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• 2022

A wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) is a major gateway for the engineered nano-particles (ENPs) entering the water bodies. However existing studies have reported that many WWTPs exceed the No Observed Effective Concentration (NOEC) for ENPs in the effluent and thus they need to be designed or operated to more effectively control ENPs. Understanding and predicting ENPs behaviors in the unit and \the whole process of a WWTP should be the key first step to develop strategies for controlling ENPs using a WWTP. This study aims to provide a modeling tool for predicting behaviors and removal efficiencies of ENPs in a WWTP associated with process characteristics and major operating conditions. In the developed model, four unit processes for water treatment (primary clarifier, bioreactor, secondary clarifier, and tertiary treatment unit) were considered. Additionally the model simulates the sludge treatment system as a single process that integrates multiple unit processes including thickeners, digesters, and dewatering units. The simulated ENP was nano-sized TiO₂, (nano-TiO₂) assuming that its behavior in a WWTP is dominated by the attachment with suspendid solids (SS), while dissolution and transformation are insignificant. The attachment mechanism of nano-TiO₂ to SS was incorporated into the model equations using the apparent solid-liquid partition coefficient (Kd) under the equilibrium assumption between solid and liquid phase, and a steady state condition of nano-TiO₂ was assumed. Furthermore, an MS Excel-based user interface was developed to provide user-friendly environment for the nano-TiO₂ removal efficiency calculations. Using the developed model, a preliminary simulation was conducted to examine how the solid retention time (SRT), a major operating variable affects the removal efficiency of nano-TiO₂ particles in a WWTP.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.3-15
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• 2008

Different toxic wastes are disposed of in our surroundings and these will ultimately threaten the existence of living organisms. Biohydrometallurgy, which includes the processes of bioleaching and bioremediation through the activities of microorganisms such as bacterial or fungal species, is a technology that has the potential to overcome many environmental problems at a reasonable economic cost. Bioleaching were carried out for dissolution of metals from different materials using most important metal mobilizing bacteria such as Thiobacillus ferrooxidans, Thiobacillus thiooxidans and Laptospirillum ferrooxidans. According to the reaction, bioleaching is parted as direct and indirect mechanism. In direct mechanism the bacteria oxidize the sulphides minerals by accepting electron and producing sulphuric acid in leaching media for their growth and metabolism. In other hand the indirect bioleaching is demonstrated as the oxidation of sulphides mineral by the oxidant like $Fe^{3+}$ produced by the iron oxidizing bacteria. Through this process, substantial amount of metal can be recovered from low-grade ores, concentrates, industrial wastes like sludge, tailings, fly ash, slag, electronic scrap, spent batteries and spent catalysts. This may be alternative technology to solve the high deposition of waste, which moves toward a healthy environment and green world.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.83-93
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• 2006

In heavily industrialized areas, soil sites are contaminated with high concentrations of heavy metals. These pollutants are highly accumulated to the human body through the food web and cause serious diseases. To remove heavy metals from the soil, a potential strategy is the environmental friendly and cost effective phytoremediation. For the enhancement of remediation efficiency, the symbiotic interaction between the plant and plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) has been attended. In this review, the interaction of the plant and PGPR in the heavy metal-contaminated soil has been reviewed. The physicochemical and biological characteristics of the rhlzosphere can influence directly or indirectly on the biomass, activity and population structure of the rhizobacteria. The root exudates are offered to the soil microbes as useful carbon sources and growth factors, so the growth and metabolism of rhizobacteria can be promoted. PGPR have many roles to lower the level of growth-inhibiting stress ethylene within the plant, and also to provide iron and phosphorus from the soil to plant, and to produce phytohormone such as indole acetic acid. The plant with PGPR can grow better in the heavy metal contaminated soil. Therefore higher efficiency of the phytoremediation will be expected by the application of the PGPR.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.165-172
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• 2020

Heavy metals are common pollutants in the freshwater environment and have toxicological effect in habitat organisms. The heavy metals highly accumulated in sediment and organism, and observed various physiological responses. In this study, we investigated the molecular response to heavy metal toxicity (Al, Aluminum; Cr, Chromium; Cu, copper; Mn, Manganese; Zn, Zinc) through expression of heat shock protein 40, 70, 90 (HSP40, 70, 90), cytochrome 450 (CYP450), Glutathione S-transferase (GST) and Serine-type endopeptidase (SP). HSPs showed up-regulation in Cu and Zn exposures. Furthermore, HSPs expression in treated groups tended to be higher than the control group. The tendency of CYP450 and GST mRNA expression was higher for Cr and Cu than for other exposure group. The expression of SP gene was low at Al exposure and other group were measured to be similar to control. These results suggest that heavy metal toxicity in freshwater ecosystem may affect physiological and molecular process. Also, the comprehensive gene expression in the aquatic midge Chironomus riparius give useful information to potential molecular biomarkers for assessing heavy metal toxicity.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.117-124
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• 2000

Objectives : It is the objective of this study to compare hepatotoxicity of nickel chloride and cadmium chloride with each other through IPRL(Isolated Perfused Rat Liver) method. Methods : Biochemical indicator of hepatic function such as AST(aspartate aminotransferase), ALT(alanine aminotransferase), LDH(lactate dehydrogenase) and perfusion flow rate were used as the indicator of hepatotoxicity. Oxygen consumption rate were used as vability indicator. $300({\pm}50)g$ - weighted rats were allocated randomly to each group($0{\mu}M,\;50{\mu}M,\;200{\mu}M\;NiCl_2\;and\;CdCl_2$ exposure) by 5, totally 25. After Krebs-Ringer bicarbonate butler solution flowed into the penal vein and passed the liver cell, it flowed out of vena cava. Liver was administered with each $NiCl_2\;and\;CdCl_2$ of each concentration and observed with buffer solution sampling time. Butler which got out of liver was sampled and then biochemical indicator of hepatotoxicity was measured. Results : AST, ALT, and LDH in buffer increased with sampling time much more in $CdCl_2$ exposure group than $NiCl_2$ exposure group in both 50 and $200{\mu}M$ and statistical significance w3s verified with 2-way repeated ANOVA. Viability was decreased more and more in all substances during passed time. Conclusions : It is inferred that $CdCl_2$ has stronger hepatotoxicity than $NiCl_2$. IPRL method would be used widely for acute hepatotoxicity when considerating the benefit of it.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.47 no.9
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• pp.649-657
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• 2019

Hydrazine, which is used as a representative monopropellant, is an extremely poisonous substance and has a disadvantage that it is harmful to the human body and is very difficult to handle. In recent years, research on the development of non-toxic and environmentally friendly propellants has attracted much attention. Ammonium dinitramide(ADN) based propellant developed by Swedish Space Corporation has superior performance to hydrazine and has been commercialized through performance verification in space environment. On the other hand, the exhaust gas from a thruster nozzle collides with a satellite while it is spreading in the vacuum space, thermal load and surface contamination may occur and may reduce the performance and lifetime of the satellite. However, a study on the effect of the exhaust gas of the green propellant thruster on the satellite has not been conducted in earnest yet. Therefore, the exhaust gas behavior in space was analyzed in this study for the ADN based green monopropellant using Navier-Stokes equations and the DSMC method. As a result, it can be expected to be used as design validation data in the development of satellite when using the ADN based green monopropellant.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.370-385
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• 2023

Cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (Cyano-HABs) are an international environmental problem that negatively affects the ecosystem as well as the safety of water resources by discharging cyanotoxins. In particular, the discharge of microcystins (MCs), a highly toxic substance, has been studied most actively, and various water treatment methods have been proposed for this purpose. In this paper, we reviewed adsorption technology, which is recognized as the most feasible, economical, and efficient method among suggested treatment methods for removing MCs. Activated carbons (AC) are widely used adsorbents for MCs removal, and excellent MCs adsorption performance has been reported. Research on alternative adsorption materials for AC such as biochar and biosorbents has been conducted, however, their performance was lower compared to activated carbon. The impacts of adsorbent properties(characteristics of pore surface chemistry) and environmental factors (solution pH, temperature, natural organic matter, and ionic strength) on the MCs adsorption performance were also discussed. In addition, toward effective control of MCs, the possibility of the direct removal of harmful cyanobacteria as well as the removal of dissolved MCs using adsorption strategy was examined. However, to fully utilize the adsorption for the removal of MCs, the application and optimization under actual environmental conditions are still required, thereby meeting the environmental and economic standards. From this study, crucial insights could be provided for the development and selection of effective adsorbent and subsequent adsorption processes for the removal of MCs from water resources.