• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.208-214
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• 2016

We analyzed research trend and public perception related with tap water to identify major factors affecting low consumption of tap water. 805 research articles were collected for text mining analysis and 1,000 on-line questionnaires were surveyed to find social variables influencing tap water intake. Based on the word network analysis, research topics were divided into 4 major categories, 1) drinking water quality, 2) water fluoridation, 3) residual chlorine, and 4) micro-organism management. Compared with these major research topics, scientific studies of drinking behavior, or social perception were rather limited. 22.4% of total respondents used tap water as drinking water source, and only 1% drank tap water without further treatments (i.e. boiling, filtering). Experience of quality control report (B=0.392, p=0.046) and level of policy trust (B=1.002, p<0.0001) were influential factors on tap water drinking behavior. Age (B=0.020, p=0.002) and gender (B= - 1.843, p<0.0001) also showed significant difference. To increase the frequency of drinking the tap water by social members, the more scientific information of tap water quality and the water policy management should be clearly shared with social members.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.1-5
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• 2011

We surveyed the citizens opinion about springs in Seoul for two years from 2008 to 2009. It was found that spring water was mostly used by citizens older than 50, and that 29.5% of citizens used purified tap water as drinking water, 27.2% of them used boiled tap water, 21.1% of them used spring water, and 12.1% of them used bottled water. Citizens who store spring water more than a day are 76.7%. Although many citizens (70.3%) knew that water quality had been tested, 40% of them didn't care about checking the certificate of water quality analysis. Once recognized that the spring water was unfit for drinking exceeded standard of drinking water, 85% of citizens would rather not use the spring water.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.119-126
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• 2011

Abstract: The amount of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and o-xylene (BTEX) in 30 kinds of bottled waters purchased from market and 9 kinds of tap waters from home were determined using headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME). The sample was stirred at 1200 RPM G for 4 min using a magnetic bar with $100\;{\mu}m$ PDMS as adsorbent for BTEX. Then it was desorbed from the fiber for 1 min at room temperature. Quantitation was achieved using standard calibration method. The limit of detection was determined as benzene 0.39 (${\pm}0.04$) ng/mL, toluene 0.08 (${\pm}0.04$) ng/mL, ethylbenzene 0.04 (${\pm}0.01$) ng/mL, and o-xylene 0.05 (${\pm}0.02$) ng/mL. Benzene and o-xylene were not detected in any samples, but toluene was detected in 11 samples, and ethylbenzene was detected just in 3 samples among 30 investigated bottled waters. The concentration range of investigated materials for toluene and o-xylene were $0.24({\pm}0.09)\sim2.95\;({\pm}0.08)\;ng/mL$, $0.08({\pm}0.06)\sim0.93({\pm}0.10)\;ng/mL$, respectively.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.53-60
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• 2020

Due to global climate change, Korea is experiencing flooding and drought severely. It is hard to manage water resources because intensive precipitation during short periods and drought are commonly occurred in Korea, recently. Severe drought occurred in 2015 and 2017 in the islands, and coastal and inland areas in Korea, and the citizens experienced decreased water supply and emergency water service by using bottled water. Therefore, the Korean government provided additional governmental funds such as the grant of drought disaster. In this study, we tried to calculate the cost of water for drought response based on the cost of tap water for the regional local governments in Korea and the grant of drought disaster by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety in Korea, etc. The estimated costs of water for drought responses in coastal and inland areas which have a chance to apply alternative water sources such as brackish or seawater desalination and water reuse in Korea were higher than in other areas in Korea. Additionally, as the novel approach of drought response, the 300 ㎥/day-scale desalination vessel was suggested to provide desalinated water for the islands in Korea. The estimated expenses of water supply for the target island areas (Sinan-gun and Jindo-gun) by the desalination vessel was lower than those by emergency water service by using bottled water.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.1107-1108
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• 2006

As expanding municipal and industrial areas since started the economic development plan in earnest in 1970's, the water resource, mainly river surface water has been seriously polluted. Nevertheless, being upgraded in their treatment technologies for the drinking water, the safety has been issued one of crucially social problem in Korea. The water authorities has tried to improve the quality such as amending the drinking water quality standard to be monitored; hazardous chemicals and microorganis have been added and now 55 items, before 47 items, since in 2002. The Water Authorities of Seoul, the capital city of Korea, planned to assess the safty of drinking water quality after amended the standard. This study was conducted to assess the risk due to polluted chemicals including 21 heavy metals, VOCs, pesticides, PAHs, DBPs and organic chemicals among the regulated items. The risk assessment were undertaken hazard identification, exposure assessment, dose-response assessment and risk characterization. For the exposoure assessment, tap water, bottled water and purified water were sampled and analyzed in February, 2004. Risk characterization of detected chemicals was categorized into carcinogenecity and noncarcinogenecity, and estimated the excess of carcinogens and compapared with the reference dose (RfD) of noncarcinogenns. The excess risk of carcinogens from samples were considered comparatively in the acceptable levels; $10^{-6}$ for cancer risk and hazard quotient (HQ) 1.0 for noncancer risk. The deteced levels were estimated in $10^{-5}{\sim}10^{-6}$ of cancer risk and below 1.0 of HQ of noncancer risk. While three kinds of water were determined within the acceptal levels, DBPs were detected in tap water and purified were and some undesireable chemicals such as more fluoride detected rather than the quality stanadard. For the drinking water safety, it shoud be continuously monitored, assessed and managed as well risk communiction between the authoritis and public.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.9
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• pp.3437-3442
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• 2011

An on-line flow injection analysis with dual pre-concentration method was developed to determine the ultra trace tri and hexavalent chromium in water. In this system, the cation and anion pre-concentration columns were combined with a 10-port injection valve and then used to separate and concentrate Cr (III) and Cr (VI) selectively. The two species of concentrated chromium were sequentially eluted and determined by using HCl-KCl buffer of pH 1.8 as an eluent. Cr (III) was oxidized by hydrogen peroxide to Cr (VI). It was detected spectrophotometrically at 548 nm by complexation with DPC (diphenylcarbazide). Several factors such as concentration of $H_2O_2$, DPC and coil length in reaction condition were optimized. The linear range for Cr (III) and Cr (VI) was 0.1-50 ${\mu}g$/L. The limit of detections ($3{\sigma}$) of Cr (III) and Cr (VI) were 52 ng/L and 44 ng/L under the optimized FIA system, and their recoveries 98% and 103%, respectively. This method was applied to analyze contamination level of chromium species in tap water, groundwater and bottled water.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.513-524
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• 2020

Objective: The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the environmental and biological exposure of local residents who consumed arsenic-contaminated drinking water for less than one year. Methods: As a part of water quality inspections for small-scale water supply facilities, surveys were conducted of residents of two villages that exceeded the arsenic threshold for drinking water. The environmental impact survey consisted of surveys on water quality, soil, and crops in the surveyed area. Biological monitoring was performed by measuring the separation of arsenic species in urine and total arsenic in hair. Results: In the results of biological monitoring, the concentrations of AsIII and AsV were 0.08 and 0.16 ㎍/L, respectively. MMA and DMA were 0.87 and 36.19 ㎍/L. There was no statistically significant difference between the group who drank arsenic-removed groundwater or water from the small-scale supply facility and the group who drank tap water, purified water, or commercial bottled water. Some of the water samples exceeded the arsenic threshold for drinking water. There were no samples in the soil or rice that exceeded the acceptable threshold. Conclusion: In the case of short-term exposure to arsenic-contaminated drinking water for less than one year, there were no significant problems of concern from the evaluation of biological monitoring after arsenic was removed.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.103-108
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• 2013

Vietnam is a developing country with the rate around 5%-6% per year, especially in urban areas. Rapidly developed urban areas lead to stress for infrastructure and the water supply is also stressed. In Hanoi city, total water capacity from the manufactories is around one million cubic meters per day and almost the entire main water source is groundwater but it is not enough to supply all of Hanoi's people, especially in the summer. A demo project is implemented in Hanoi University of Civil Engineering (HUCE) to produce drinking water by using the rainwater and membrane system and supply for people. In this project, rainwater is collected on the rooftop of the lecture building with an area of around $500m^2$ and $100m^3$ volumetric rainwater tanks. Afterwards, the rainwater is treated by the micro-membrane system and supplied to the tap water. Total cost for construction, technology and operation in the first year is around USD 48,558. In the long-term (15 yr) if HUCE invests in the same system, with $20m^3$ volumetric storage tank, it can provide drinking water for 500 staffs in every year. The cost of investment and operation for this system is lower than 30% compared to buying bottled water with the price USD 1.8/bottle. The drinking water parameters after treatment are pH, 7.3-7.75; turbidity, 0.6-0.8 NUT; total dissolved solids, 60-89 mg/L; coliform, 0; heavy metal similar with water quality in the bottle water in Vietnam.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.191-198
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• 2022

BACKGROUND: Plants can be grown using a culture medium without soil using a hydroponic system. Crop production by the hydroponic system is likely to increase as a means of solving various problems in the agricultural sector such as aging of rural population and climate change. Different water sources can be used to prepare the culture medium used in the hydroponic system. Therefore, it is necessary to study the effect of different water sources on crop production by the hydroponic system in order to explore the applicability of various water resources. METHODS AND RESULTS: Lettuce was cultivated by the hydroponic system and three different water sources [tap water (TW), bottled water (BW), and groundwater (GW)] were used to compare the effect of water sources on lettuce growth. The three kinds of waters with a nutrient solution (TW-M, BW-M, GW-M) were also used as the media. After the six-week growth period, the lettuce length and weight, the number of leaves, and the contents of chlorophylls and polyphenols were compared among the different media used. The lettuces did not grow in the waters without the nutrient solution. In the media, the lettuce growth and the contents of chlorophylls were affected by the different water sources used to prepare the media, while the contents of polyphenols were not affected. The absorbed amounts of ions by lettuces, especially Ca and Zn ions, and the dry weight of the harvested lettuces showed a strong positive correlation. CONCLUSION(S): Overall, this study shows that different water sources used for growing lettuce in a hydroponic system can affect lettuce growth. Further studies on the enhancement of crop qualities using different water sources may be required in future studies.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.587-601
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• 2020

Exposure to hazardous substances occurs through multiple pathways. Aggregated risk assessment, which includes all potential exposure pathways to a single toxicant, is necessary to prevent exposure to harmful substances. We aimed to estimate cadmium and lead exposure through various media, such as food, water, air, smoking, cosmetics, and female hygiene products. This study covered 10,733 subjects from the Seventh Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey(2016, 2017). Dietary exposure was estimated using 24-hour recall data. For water and inhalational exposure, regional variations were considered. Water was classified as tap, bottled, and public water. Inhalational exposure was estimated using the '2014 Time Use Survey' based on daily lifestyle and social status. The frequency and volume of cosmetic usage were randomly approximated by sex and age. Post-menarcheal and premenopausal women were assumed to use feminine hygiene products. Non-carcinogenic aggregated risks were estimated using the Aggregate Risk Index from EPAs and the Total Exposure Hazard Index from Korean government guidelines. For carcinogenic risk assessment, excessive cancer risk was estimated. Ingestion, especially food, was the major route for both cadmium and lead exposure. Smoking was also associated with high cadmium exposure. Exposure to lead from cosmetics was remarkable but not critical. In aggregate risk assessments, median cadmium and lead exposure did not exceed the reference value. Sex, age, smoking status, and income affected exposure levels, unlike to regional variations.