• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• v.46 no.3
• /
• pp.297-311
• /
• 2020

Objective: We compared the level of blood cadmium exposure with health impacts by using data from a survey of residents near an abandoned mine and a national health survey. Methods: For this study, we used data from 7,046 individuals who participated in the Health Effects Survey of Abandoned Metal Mines (AMS, 2008-2011) and 6,871 individuals who participated in the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey IV-VI (KNHANES, 2008-2013). To evaluate the health impacts, the quartiles (S1 to S4) were classified according to blood cadmium concentration, and then the odds ratios of S2 to S4 over S1 for exceeding the reference values of renal function, blood pressure, and bone density were compared. Similarly, the odds ratio of AMS over KNHANES was confirmed. Results: In the AMS, adjusted for general characteristics, the geometric mean of blood cadmium concentration was 1.34 ㎍/L, which was statistically significantly higher than that of the KNHANES 1.22 ㎍/L (p<0.001). In the integrated data of AMS and KNHANES, the estimated odds ratio of S4 over S1 for exceeding the reference value was found to be 1.70 for serum creatinine, 1.71 for hypertension, and a T-score 2.02 for the tarsal bone. They were all statistically significant. Conclusion: Residents around abandoned metal mines had a higher blood cadmium concentration than the general population, and the odds for exceeding the reference values were higher for some health indicators. Continuous biomonitoring should be conducted for vulnerable areas such as around abandoned metal mines, and measures to reduce cadmium exposure and management of chronic diseases are needed.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.75-89
• /
• 1998

It is the purpose of this study to provide the basic data to stimulate the social understanding of an abandoned child from the medical viewpoint and the viewpoint of administrative management. The data are based on the medical dossier of 305 patients which were hospitalized in 'A' hospital (of Seoul municipal hospital) between 1992 and 1996. The method of analysis is SPSS statistical package and the following results can be obtained 1. The abandoned children were frequently found in the Spring by season, in April by month, on Friday by day, and especially in the night and before an individual home and an medical institution in many cases. 2. The children found in an individual home were younger, handicapped smaller, and hospitalized for shorter period. As they were healthy relatively, parents might hope that they were accepted as foundling foster children. Contrary to above case, the children found in an medical institution were worse, handicapped more, and hospitalized for longer period. Accordingly, parents might hope that they were protected in an public institution. 3. The $69.8\%$ of abandoned children had caught a disease at that time and the $53.8\%$ of them had been handicapped. The most serious disease and handicap were the heart-lung trouble and the cerebral palsy, respectively. 4. The only $60.8\%$ of them were adopted and the most of them were healthy relatively. The $10.2\%$ which have been dead had caught four diseases on the average. As the results of above, the followings can be proposed : 1) It is required that the system connected to administrative management, which can provide the abandoned children turned for the better with the family relations to voluntary servants, be developed. 2) It is required that the system of registration management and plan for support economy, which can support the handicapped birth as the congenital malformation in national aspect, be developed. 3) It is required that to protect abandoned children, the health educational program for childbirth-people be prepared in the unit of a public health center.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
• /
• 2006.04a
• /
• pp.183-193
• /
• 2006

Several metalliferous and coal mines, including Seojin and Okdong located at the Kangwon province, were abandoned or closed since 1989 due to the mining industry promotion policy and thus disposed an enormous amount of mining wastes without a proper treatment facilities, resulting in water and soil pollution in the downstream areas. However, no quantitative assessment was made on soil and water pollution by the transport of mining wastes such as acid mine drainage, mine tailing, and rocky waste. In this research, total and fractional concentrations of heavy metals in mining wastes were analyzed and accordingly the degree of water and soil pollutions in the stream area were quantitatively assessed employing the several pollution indices. Concentrations of Ni, Cd, and Pb in soils near the abandoned coal mine areas were 1,240.0, 25.0 and 1,093.0 mg/kg, respectively, and these concentrations were higher than those in soils near the closed metalliferous mine areas. Also Cu concentrations in soils near the tailing dams were about 1967 mg/kg, which is considered as very polluted level. Results demonstrated that soil at the abandoned mine areas were highly contaminated by AMO, tailing, and effluents of the mining wastes. Therefore, a prompt countermeasure on the mining waste treatment and remediation of the codntaminated water and soil should be made to the abandoned or closed metalliferous and coal mines located at the abandoned mine area.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.178-182
• /
• 2002

This study was conducted to estimate the status of heavy metal contamination in agricultural products (n = 280), soils (n = 280), and irrigation waters (n = 48) in abandoned mines & normal farm lands (n = 8). The samples were digested with acids, then analyzed fur the contents of lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), mercury (Hg), arsenic (As) and chrome (Cr) by an inductively coupled plasma spectrometer (ICP) and graphite- atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). The contents of Hg were determined using a mercury analyzer. Abandoned mines had soils with higher contents of heavy metals except Cr and irrigation waters with higher heavy metals except Hg, compared to those of normal farmlands. The contents of heavy metals in agriculture products varied depending types of products. Agricultural products in abandoned mines generally showed with higher contents of heavy metals except Cu, compared to those of normal farmlands. There was no significant relationship in heavy metal contents between agricultural products and soils (p > 0.05). It is suggested that heavy metals of agricultural products and soils in abandoned mines should be continuously monitored.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.21-42
• /
• 2014

Abandoned roads, abandoned expressways included, cause a lot of problems such as contamination and environmental damages to underground water, fragmentation of wildlife habitats yet they are not appropriately maintained or managed because of jurisdictional conflicts and, often more importantly, insufficient budget of governments. The restoration of abandoned roads is known to benefit society and its constituents by providing better environment and higher living standards but the monetary value of the benefit is hard to measure because of non-marketability of the good that the restoration brings about. In this case, the contingent valuation method(CVM) is most powerful in evaluating non-marketable value of goods and hence it is used widely. We also used the CVM to value the benefit of restoration of abandoned expressways to find out: about 40% of total households are willing to contribute positive amount for restoration; better awareness of environmental issues leads to higher willingness-to-pay.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
• /
• v.46 no.3
• /
• pp.304-318
• /
• 2011

The types, distributional and shape properties of abandoned channels in Korea are classified and examined. There are 409 abandoned channels in Korea and they can be classified into the 6 types such as the incised meander cutoff, stream piracy, distributary, artificial incised meander neck-cutoff, channel straightening of free meander and distributary streams. The abandoned channels by incised meander neck-cutoff showing the most frequency with 266, have the topographical properties of high altitude and steep relief and frequently distribute in Gangwon and Gyeonbuk Province and in the upper reaches of main stream of Nakdong-River, and Dal-River and Pyeongchang-River, tributaries of Namhan-River. The most frequency areas of abandoned channels by distributary, channel straightening of free meander and distributary streams are the lower reaches of Namhan-River and main stream in the lower reaches of Nakdong-River, Mangyeong-River and Yeongsan-River, and Geumho-River, respectively. The abandoned channles by incised meandering neck-cutoff and stream piracy are relatively used as farmlands or forests due to the high altitude and relative altitude from the river bed.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2001.09a
• /
• pp.75-89
• /
• 2001

There are 334 coal mines and about 900 metal mines abandoned. The environmental problems such as acid mine drainage from adits etc. and the subsidence has occurred in the abandoned mines. In addition, soil has been contaminated by tailings. According to analysis of mine drainages, some of them from adits in the abandoned coal and metallic mines were acidic and polluted by heavy metals. Especially, water quality of coal mine drainages were different by areas. Treatment of mine drainage by conventional chemical treatment has the drawback because the operating cost is very expensive. The treatment system used in mine drainage is the natural treatment system such as anoxic limestone drain in adits and the constructed wetland. The method of reclamation for abandoned waste rocks and tailings impoundments are mainly landfilling.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.233-242
• /
• 2023

The objective of this study was to develop a management strategy for the recovery of carbon storage capacity of abandoned coal mine forest rehabilitation area. For the purpose, the biomass and stand carbon storage over time after the forest rehabilitation by tree type for Betula platyphylla, Pinus densiflora, and Alnus hirsuta trees which are major tree species widely planted for the forest rehabilitation in the abandoned coal mine were calculated, and compared them with general forest. The carbon storage in abandoned coal mine forest rehabilitation areas was lower than that in general forests, and based on tree species, Pinus densiflora stored 48.9%, Alnus hirsuta 41.1%, and Betula platyphylla 27.0%. This low carbon storage is thought to be caused by poor growth because soil chemical properties, such as low TOC and total nitrogen content, in the soil of abandoned coal mine forest rehabilitation areas, were adverse to vegetation growth compared to those in general forests. DBH, stand biomass, and stand carbon storage tended to increase after forest rehabilitation over time, whereas stand density decreased. Stand' biomass and carbon storage increased as DBH and stand density increased, but there was a negative correlation between stand density and DBH. Therefore, after forest rehabilitation, growth status should be monitored, an appropriate growth space for trees should be maintained by thinning and pruning, and the soil chemical properties such as fertilization must be managed. It is expected that the carbon storage capacity the forest rehabilitation area could be restored to a level similar to that of general forests.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.24-34
• /
• 2000

The project for rehabilitation and revegetation of the abandoned coal-mine lands is a very important national environmental restoration project in the view point of rehabilitation and revegetation of denuded forest-lands caused by coal mining as well as restoration of disturbed natural environment and control of the variable pollutions. In Korea, because a large number of coal mines had been developed in order to fill up abundantly consumption of coal as a major energy source in the developing period, a lot of denuded forest-lands caused by coal mining had distributed in the whole country. And, due to the absence of effective rehabilitation and revegetation works on the denuded forestlands caused by coal-mining, most of them had been remained with being damaged. In 1990, area of the abandoned coal-mine lands, requiring the rehabilitation and revegetation works, was about 1,437.1 ha. For the past ten years ('90~'99), about 1,081.8 ha out of them had been rehabilitated and revegetated, and the rehabilitation planning area was about 33.0 ha in 2000. So, remaining area out of abandoned coal-mine lands will be about 322.3 ha after 2000. In principle, after abandoning coal-mine, mine owners must carry out the rehabilitation and revegetation works on the abandoned mine lands by themselves. But, most of mine owners were in financial difficulty after abandoning coal-mine, so that principle couldn't have obtained the desired effects. To solve this problem, from 1995, Coal Industry Promotion Board (CIPB) have carried out the rehabilitation and revegetation works on the abandoned coal-mine lands at government budgets, and they have obtained good results in the construction area. However, due to application of the "conventional erosion control measures and techniques" to the rehabilitation and revegetation measures on the abandoned coal-mine lands, the results and effects of the works excuted have not been successful. Therefore, unique measures and techniques for rehabilitation and revegetation of the abandoned coal-mine lands will have to be developed, especially including development of new techniques on the soil-dressing and soil-covering, seed spray and hydro-seeding measures with seed-fertilizer-soil materials as the mechanized measures, and using of new materials for the tree planting and seedling measures.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
• /
• v.7 no.4
• /
• pp.265-273
• /
• 2005

Chemical properties and heavy metal concentrations of forest soils of four abandoned coal mine lands affected by coal mining activities in the Mungyeong area were investigated to provide basic information for revegetation of abandoned coal mine lands. Soil pH in abandoned coal mine lands ranged from 5.30 to 6.76 it in the control site was 5.23. Contents of organic matter and total N in abandoned coal mine lands were $4.46\~7.19\%\;and\;0.07\~0.15\%$, respectively. Available P contents were 6.54 for A (Samchang), 6.52 for B (Bongmyeong),3.94 fur C (Kabjung), 5.45 mg/kg for D (Danbong coal mine land) and 5.25 mg/kg for the control site, which had a positive correlation with soil pH. Contents of exchangeable Ca, Mg, K and Na in abandoned coal mile lands averaged 196.1, 88.7, 88.2 and $10.2cmol^+/kg$, with a range of $132.1\~242.1,\;24.2\~138.\; 64.9\~120.8\;and\;8\~12.2cmol^+/kg$, respectively. Those of the control site were 192.8, 95.8, 104 and $21.2 cmol^+/kg$, respectively. Heavy metals such as Al, As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn of forest soil in abandoned coal mine lands have a larger content than those of the control site. Al, Mn and fb content was especially high in abandoned coal mine lands. The Al content of forest soil in abandoned coal mine lands ranged from 397 to 917 ppm, which was considered to be high enough to inhibit tree growth. Therefore, it is suggested that soils of abandoned coal mine lands contaminated by mining activities need to be properly treated for remediation of environmental problems.