• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.16 no.5
• /
• pp.806-811
• /
• 2006

The regulation of labelling criterion for genetically modified (GM) foods has been enforced since 2001 in Korea. Therefore, GM soybean (GMS) or GM maize (GMM) processed foods must be labeled as GMO derived. We surveyed to see whether this regulation is kept relevantly or not and the distributive statue of GM processed foods. Using the method of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based on endogenous gene (Le1n, SSIIb), promoter gene (P35S), terminator gene (NOS) and transgenic gene (RRS, Bt11, Bt176, GA21, T25, Mon810), we detected GMS and GMM processed foods circulating at the market in Busan area. Out of total 100 samples, 38 items were showed to be contaminated with recombinant gene by qualitative PCR. Among 82 domestic and 18 imported items, 32 (39.0%) and 6 (33.3%) items were detected with GM ingredients respectively. Also among the 80 soybean and 20 maize processed foods, 23 (28.7%) and 15 (75.0%) foods were sensitive to detect GMS and GMM ingredients respectively. For the qualitative PCR positive foods, we chased identity preservation (IP) certificates. And we verified that the PCR positive crops were grown up, harvested and shipped separately from GMO but just mixed with GMO in the threshold of the non attentional contamination levels (3%). Thus we can not find out any regulation-violent case at all. The results of this study will help to keep the regulations of GM labelling and be informative to consumers who want to know the laboratory results of GMO testing.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.42 no.4
• /
• pp.286-293
• /
• 2006

Three hundred thirty two bacterial colonies which were able to degrade crude oil were isolated from soil samples that were contaminated with oil in Daejon area. Among them, one bacterial strain was selected for this study based on its low surface tension ability, and this selected bacterial strain was identified as Pseudomonas sp. G314 through physiological-biochemical tests and analysis of its 16S rRNA sequence. Pseudomonas sp. G314 showed a high resistance to antibiotics such as ampicillin, chloramphenicol, spectinomycin, and streptomycin, and heavy metals such as Li, Cr, and Mn. It was found that the optimal pH and temperature for biosurfactant production of Pseudomonas sp. G314 were pH 7.0 and $30^{\circ}C$, respectively. After seven hours of inoculated, the biosurfactant activity reached the maximum, and surface tension of the culture broth was decreased from 72 to 25 dyne/cm. The crude biosurfactant was obtained from the culture broth by acid precipitation, followed by solvent extraction, evaporation and then freeze drying. The CMC (critical micelle concentration) value of the crude biosurfactant was 20 mg/L.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.59-64
• /
• 1998

The environmental problem of the rural area has been accelerated in soil as well as water. Soil contamination is usually caused by improper operation of landfills, abandoned mine fields, accidental spills, and illegal dumpings. Once soil contamination is initiated, pollutants migrate and may cause groundwater contamination which takes much effort for remediation. Early detection, therefore, is important to prevent further contamination. Electrical resistivity method was used to detect soil contamination, but it was not effective to the heterogeneous condition. Static cone penetrometer test (CPT) has been used widely to investigate geotechnical properties of the underground. In this study, electrical resistivity method and CPT are combined to improve the applicability of it. The pilot test was performed to examine the variation of electrical resistivity with different soil minerals and pore fluid characteristics. Soil samples used were poorly graded sand, silty sandy soil, and weathered granite soil. For all the cases, electrical resistivity decreased with increasing of moisture content. Soil mineral also affected the electrical resistivity significantly. Above all, leachate addition in the pore fluid was very sensitive and caused decreasing of electrical resistivity markedly. It implies that electrical resistivity method can be applied to investigate pollutant plume effectively. This is specially sure when the sensors contact the contaminated soils directly. The CPT method involves cone penetration to the ground, therefore, underground contamination around the cone could be investigated effectively even for heterogeneous condition as it penetrates if electrical resistivity sensors are attached on the cone.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.83-96
• /
• 2005

Brominated flame retardants have the market share of 40%, comparing others because of their low cost and highly effective retardation against the flame. However, their toxic effects in human and properties of the accumulation in the environments have been issued among the international organization such as EU, OECD and etc. It, therefore, was surveyed the classification, toxic effects, and the usage of Brominated flame retardants, the trends for their managements in the world and Korea, and their contaminated levels in Korean Peninsula. In addition, the management directions for them were proposed. Penta, octa, and deca-BDE among brominated retardants will seem to be prohibited by the regulation as a flame retardants for plastics in Europe because of their toxic effects. Although Penta and Octa BDEs was used marginally in Korea, deca-BDE was 27% of brominated flame retardants (49,050 ton) which had been used in 2002. However, risk assessment for brominated retardants might not launched in Korea, yet. These reports demonstrate that toxic brominated retardants such as PBDEs will be assessed for their usage and the level of contamination in the environment in the area of the point sources like the industrial areas, incinerators and etc. However, the law to regulate the hazardous chemicals seems not to be dictated the monitoring of their contamination in the environment. We, therefore, suggest how to evaluate and to monitor the toxic contaminants with EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) and LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) system. Further, to establish the management system of BFRs (such as the monitering of contamination levels in environments, life cycle assessment, and risk assessment for the toxic chemicals), It can be recommended the law to deal with the method analyzing chemicals will be established, which contains QA/QC (Quality Assurance and Quality Control) to evaluate the analytic capability of the companies to prepare EIS (Environment Impact Statement) or other institutes for analyzing chemicals.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.582-588
• /
• 2004

Eighty one bacterial strains of parathion degrading bacteria were isolated from soil samples that were contaminated with pesticide in Daejeon area. Among them, one bacterial strain was finally selected in media containing parathion as the sole source of carbon and energy, and this strain was identified as Pseudomonas rhodesiae H5 through physiological and biochemical tests, and analysis of its 16S rRNA sequence. Pseudomonas rhodesiae H5 was able to utilize various carbohydrates but did not utilize sorbose as sole carbon source. Pseudomonas rhodesiae H5 was resistance to ampicillin, spectinomycin, and mitomycin C but sensitive to kanamycin and chloramphenicol. And this strain showed high resistance up to several milligrams of heavy metals such as $BaCl_2$, LiCl, and $MnSO_4$. Optimal growth condition for temperature and pH of P. rhodesiae H5 was 3$0^{\circ}C$, and pH 7.0, respectively. It can be presumed that P. rhodesiae H5 hydrolyzed an organophosphate bond of parathion, forming p-nitrophenol, and then metabolized via ortho-ring cleavage mechanism.

• Journal of Korean Society for Geospatial Information Science
• /
• v.12 no.2 s.29
• /
• pp.17-28
• /
• 2004

This study has tried to develop the modified DRASTIC Model by supplying the parameters, such as structural lineament density and land-use, into conventional DRASTIC model, and to predict the potential of groundwater contamination using GIS in Hwanam 2 District, Gyeonggi Province, Korea. Since the aquifers in Korea is generally through the joints of rock-mass in hydrogeological environment, lineament density affects to the behavior of groundwater and contaminated plumes directly, and land-use reflect the effect of point or non-point source of contamination indirectly. For the statistical analysis, lattice-layers of each parameter were generated, and then level of confidence was assessed by analyzing each correlation coefficient. Groundwater contamination potential map was achieved as a final result by comparing modified DRASTIC potential and the amount of pollutant load logically. The result suggest the predictability of contamination potential in a specified area in the respects of hydrogeological aspect and water quality.

• The Korean Journal of Malacology
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.77-86
• /
• 2011

The unwanted artificial oil-spill has severely contaminated the coastal environment in the world. Level of contamination has so far been monitered by various indicator species including mussel, oysters, flounder, and cockle. In this study, we decided to use the oyster as a model organism to observe the morphological changes being exposed to the artificial oil-spill in the coastal areas in Taean, Korea. The oysters were collected from four local sites (Sindu-ri, Uiwang-ri, Jonghyeon-dong, Ansan and Uihang-ri) exposed to various levels of pollution after an oil spill in Taean. Microscopic analysis of the hepatopancreatic microstructure in the digestive gland from the collected oysters show that the swelling, whorl, and destruction phenomenon of the nuclear membrane, a well-known microstructure induced by heavy metal exposure, was observed. Nuclear body (Nb), another typical characteristic of contamination or infection were also observed in some samples. Necrosis was observed in tissue samples collected from the area with a high degree of oil pollution. In addition, parasite-like particles (virus, perkinsus) were observed in most samples. Taken together, these results suggest that oil contamination in the oyster habitats influences the cytopathological changes in Crassostrea gigas.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.167-176
• /
• 2005

Atmospheric deposition and riverine waters were sampled throughout a year, to estimate the loading fluxes of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) into the Masan Bay and its vicinity, Korea. Atmospheric deposition fluxes of total PAHs in the surveyed area varied from 62.2 to 464 ${\mu}g/m^2/year$. Concentration of total PAHs in water samples from six rivers ranged from 34.6 to 239 ng/L. Contribution of the carcinogenic PAHs to the total PAHs occupied $38\%$ and $50\%$ for atmospheric deposition and river waters, respectively. Atmospheric deposition fluxes and water concentrations of PAHs were slightly low or moderate to those in locations from some countries. Correspondence analysis was used to investigate the loading characteristics of PAHs according to transport routes. Atmospheric deposition samples were corresponded to higher molecular aromatics of PAHs, while riverine water samples were associated with lower molecular weight of PAHs. The results indicate that the higher-molecular-weight PAHs can be primarily transported by atmosphere deposition and the lower-molecular-weight PAHs can be mainly contaminated by riverine discharge into the Masan Bay and its vicinity. Loadings fluxes of PAHs into the Masan Bay and its vicinity were 39.2 g/day via atmosphere and 10.3 g/day via rivers, showing that atmospheric input was about 4 times higher than riverine one. Therefore, in order to minimize the contamination burden of PAHs from terrestrial sources to the Masan Bay and its vicinity, the control and management of PAHs deriving from atmosphere will be necessary.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.19-24
• /
• 2000

Seismic reflection data was obtained by using 28 and 100 Hz geophones at the ground subsidence sites in an old coal mine area. Frequency spectrum of the geophone analyzed with offset revealed that 1) In the near offset ($1\~10m$), the signals in the 100 Hz geophone data contains higher frequency components (up to 300 Hz) than that of the 28 Hz (<200 Hz), 2) In the intermediate offset ($11\~39m$), although the 28 Hz geophone data showed very similar frequency characteristics as the near offset data, the 100Hz geophone data seemed to be contaminated by noise at high frequency zone (>200 Hz). In the far offset ($\geq40\;m$), the signals in both the 28 and 100 Hz geophone data are attenuated to noise level at high frequency Bone more than 150 Hz.

• The Korean Journal of Emergency Medical Services
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.19-27
• /
• 2007

Purpose: By identifying the actual profile of emergency medical personnel's pre-admission infection control practices, this study intended to provide a basic reference material for the improvement and reorientation of pre-admission infection control measures, and thereby help establish an effective plan for pre-admission infection control activities. Methods: Total 119 EMT's working for Jeollabuk-do Provincial Fire Defense HQ were asked to join a structured questionnaire survey from June to August 2006. Results: 1. It was found that 56.1% respondents answered no guideline available on the prevention of infection. Out of our rescue brigade members who knew about relevant guideline available, 34.2% respondents answered that their department conducted quality control program for the guideline. 2. For protective outfit in emergency practice, it was found that most respondents put on gloves or nothing at all(38%), which was followed by sterile gloves(29.2%), disposable mask(26.9%), gown(4.3%) and protective goggle(1.6%). And it was noted that all respondents(100%) washed out any clothing contaminated with somatic secretion on their own. 3. For a question about any experience in emergency activities exposed to infectious diseases, it was found that most of all respondents(77.9%) answered 'No', which was followed by 'Don't Know'(18.6%) and Yes(3.9 %). 4. For a question about any experience in inquiring of patients about infectious diseases, it was found that most respondents(49.4%) answered 'Yes' and 'Sometimes'(9.1%). It was noted that 20.2% respondents had extra medical examination in medical institution in terms of whether they were exposed to infectious diseases, apart from regular medical examination. Conclusions: In order to protect 119 EMT's from infectious diseases, it will be necessary to acquire emergency medical staffs specializing in infection control and organize corresponding personnel training units to keep providing reorientation and evaluation. In addition, it will be also necessary to supply them with a full set personal protection apparatuses and other equipments required for disinfection and sterilization.