• Food Science and Industry
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.2-10
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• 2021

Microplastics with a size of less than 5 mm have emerged as an important environmental and food safety issue, as they have been detected not only in marine but also in terrestrial ecosystem and drinking water. Although many studies have been conducted on the exposure of microplastics and the effects on human health, the lack of standardized experimental methods for microplastics has been reviewed as a major problem. In order to overcome this, European countries such as the Netherlands and Germany are conducting a project to develop detection methods for microplastics as well as to establish the risk assessment methodologies for microplastics. Being the microplastics suggested to have a substantially potential risk on human health, reliable risk assessments should be conducted considering the various sources of microplastics, chemical pollutants and biological factors. In addition, international standards and regulations should be applied.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.411-429
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• 2018

Daeyoung mine (also called "Daema mine") produced gold and silver from mainly gold- and silver-bearing quartz veins. The mine tailings are a waste hazard, but most of the tailings were swept away or dispersed throughout the area around the mine long before the tailing dump areas were transformed into agricultural land. Soil liner and protection facilities, such as retaining walls, were constructed in the mine area to prevent the loss of tailings. The content of the tailings is 3,424.41~3,803.61 mg/kg, which exceeds the safety standard by a factor of 45. In addition, contamination was detected near agricultural areas and in the sediments in downstream drainage channels. A high level of As contamination was concentrated near the waste tailings yard; comparaable levels were detected in agricultural areas close to streams that ran through the waste dump yard, whereas the levels were much lower in areas far from the streams. The contamination in stream sediments showed a gradual decrease with distance from the mine waste yard. Based on these contamination patterns, we concluded that there are two main paths that affect the spread of contaminants: (1) loss of mine waste, and (2) the introduction of mine waste into agricultural areas by floods after transportation by streams. The agricultural areas contaminated by mass inflow of mine waste can act as contamination sources themselves, affecting other agricultural areas through the diffusion of contaminants. At present, although the measured effect in minimal, sediments in streams are contaminated by exposed mine waste and surface liners. It is possible for contaminants to diffuse or spread into nearby areas if heavy elements trapped in soil grains in contaminated agricultural areas leach out as soil solution or contaminant particles during diffusion into the water supply.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.403-409
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• 2005

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons(PAHs) contamination arises from several sources including processing of food(smoking, direct drying, cooking) and environmental contamination of air, water, or soil, the later being considered as the most important. In this study, to establish the analytical method for some PAHs[benzo(a)anthracene, chrysene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, benzo(k)fluoranthene, benzo(a)pyrene, dibenzo(a,h)anthracene, benzo(g,h,i)perylene, indeno(1,2,3-c,d)pyrene] in fish, alkali digestion time, extraction solvents, elution volume of florisil cartridge for clean-up have been optimized. The methodology involved saponification and extraction with n-hexane, clean-up on Sep-Pak florisil cartridges and determination by HPLC/FLD(High Performance Liquid Chromatography/Fluorescence Detector). Overall method recoveries for 8 PAHs spiked into these products ranged from 90 to 106%.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.99-106
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• 2004

Pollution reduction and/or control technology becomes one of the pressing post-semiconductor research field to lead an advanced industrial structure. Soil/groundwater remediation techniques may act as a core technology which will create many demands on pollution reduction areas. A plenty numbers of abandoned metal mines were left without any remediation action in Korea, and it may be potential sources of heavy metal and As contamination in the ecosystem. In order to bring this soil contamination to a settlement, the emerging soil/groundwater remediation techniques should be introduced. Main research topics in the United States and Europe move towards the clean remediation technology without any secondary impact and the feasible application of developing technique into the field scale study. With these advantages, several soil/groundwater techniques such as electrokinetic soil processing, permeable reactive barrier, stabilization/solidification, biosorption, soil flushing with biosurfactant, bioleaching and phytoremediation will be summarized in this paper.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.105-111
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• 2010

To understand the situation of water contamination with Cryptosporidium spp. and Giardia spp. in the northern region of Portugal, we have established a long-term program aimed at pinpointing the sources of surface water and environmental contamination, working with the water-supply industry. Here, we describe the results obtained with raw water samples collected in rivers of the 5 hydrographical basins. A total of 283 samples were analyzed using the Method 1623 EPA, USA. Genetic characterization was performed by PCR and sequencing of genes 18S rRNA of Cryptosporidium spp. and $\beta$-giardin of Giardia spp. Infectious stages of the protozoa were detected in 72.8% (206 of 283) of the water samples, with 15.2% (43 of 283) positive for Giardia duodenalis cysts, 9.5% (27 of 283) positive for Cryptosporidium spp. oocysts, and 48.1% (136 of 283) samples positive for both parasites. The most common zoonotic species found were G. duodenalis assemblages A-I, A-II, B, and E genotypes, and Cryptosporidium parvum, Cryptosporidium andersoni, Cryptosporidium hominis, and Cryptosporidium muris. These results suggest that cryptosporidiosis and giardiasis are important public health issues in northern Portugal. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first report evaluating the concentration of environmental stages of Cryptosporidium and Giardia in raw water samples in the northern region of Portugal.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.319-326
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• 2010

Bacteroiospermia is a frequently finding in fresh raw and extended porcine semen and can results in detrimental effects on semen quality and longevity. This study aims to evaluate the type of bacterial contaminants in raw and extended porcine semen and the reducing effect of antibiotic test. To investigate bacterial contaminants, out of 387 sample (raw semen 201, extended semen 186) were collected from 6 artifical insemination centers in Gyeongsangnam-do, were inoculated onto blood agar and MacKonkey agar, respectively. Bacterial colonies were selected after culturing for 48 hours, at $37^{\circ}C$, followed by Gram staining, KOH test, oxidase test, catalase test and eventually identified using VITEK System. Total 15 genus and 24 species of bacteria were isolated from these semen samlpes. In raw semen, the most prevalent contaminants were Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Proteus mirabilis, Staphylococcus auricularis, Delftia acidovorans, Acinetobacter lowffii, S. aureus and others. And in extended porcine semen, A. lowffii, S. aureus, S. auricularis and other bacteria were identified. Most of them was G(-), which is nonpathogenic bacteria. It seems that bacterial contaminants in fresh raw and extended porcine semen originated from multiple sources at the farms/stud, and were from animal origin and non-animal origins. Whereas, the 7 virus which is known to be detected in porcine semen in 75 cases was not detected. This results showed that removal of bacterial contamination in raw and extended porcine semen is essential and farms were kept for biosecurity and individual hygienes.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartD
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• v.11D no.1
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• pp.31-38
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• 2004

This paper is about to implement a system for ground water safety evaluation. Since ground water quality is affected from the contamination source of surface water, one can estimate the magnitude of affection and the source themselves. This paper suggests a method to evaluate the spatial relationship of ground water and its contamination sources, using“contain”and“distance”operators in GIS. The research area is the Kunsan City in Chonbuk province, and are 75th wells those are located between the 4th alluvium land types. The results of measured chemical factors and results of related evaluation of these wells are stored and represented in ZEUS 2000 GIS DBMS, and an interface for searching and studying, is implemented by using ZEUS/SQLX, ZEUS/COM, and Visual Basic 6.0 programming languages. After this research, the spatial relationship between hydro-geological geo-objects and ground water is verified and a efficient evaluation system using GIS is suggested. It is the topic of further study that tries to calibrate the suggested evaluation model by applying it to wider area.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.137-142
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• 2017

Cryptosporidium and Cyclospora are well-known coccidian protozoa that can cause waterborne and food-borne diarrheal illnesses. There have been a few reports regarding contamination in different vegetables with Cryptosporidium, but no data are available regarding the sources of Cyclospora infections in Korea. In the present study, we collected 6 kinds of vegetables (perilla leaves, winter-grown cabbages, chives, sprouts, blueberries, and cherry tomatoes) from July 2014 to June 2015, and investigated contamination by these 2 protozoa using multiplex quantitative real-time PCR. Among 404 vegetables, Cryptosporidium and Cyclospora were detected in 31 (7.7%) and 5 (1.2%) samples, respectively. In addition, Cryptosporidium was isolated from all 6 kinds of vegetables, whereas Cyclospora was detected in 4 kinds of vegetables (except perilla leaves and chives). Cryptosporidium (17.8%) and Cyclospora (2.9%) had the highest detection rates in chives and winter-grown cabbages, respectively. Cryptosporidium was detected all year long; however, Cyclospora was detected only from October to January. In 2 samples (sprout and blueberry), both Cryptosporidium and Cyclospora were detected. Further investigations using TaqI restriction enzyme fragmentation and nested PCR confirmed Cryptosporidium parvum and Cyclospora cayetanensis, respectively. In conclusion, we detected C. cayetanensis in vegetables for the first time in Korea. This suggests that screening should be employed to prevent these protozoal infections in Korea.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.522-525
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• 2003

Mine waters, surface waters and groundwaters were sampled around seven Au-Ag mine areas (Dongil, Okdong, Dongjung, Songcheon, Ssangjeon, Dogok and Gubong Au-Ag mines). The main contamination sources of As in these abandoned Au-Ag mines can be suggested as mine tailings and waste rocks including the sulfide gangue minerals (arsenopyrite). The relatively high concentration of As in mine waters was shown in the Dongil (524 ${\mu}g/L$) and the Dogok (56 ${\mu}g/L$) mine areas. Arsenic concentrations in stream waters from the Dongil ($0.9\~118{\mu}g/L$), the Songchon ($0.8\~63{\mu}g/L$), the Ssangjeon ($1.6\~109{\mu}g/L$) and the Gubong ($3.6\~63{\mu}g/L$) mine areas exceeded the permissible level for stream water in Korea. Groundwaters collected from the Dongil ($0.9\~64{\mu}g/L$ ), the Okdong ($0.2\~69{\mu}g/L$) and the Gubong ($0.5\~101{\mu}g/L$) mine areas contained high As concentration to cause the arsenicosis in these areas. In As speciation, the concentration ratios of As(III) to As(total) present up to $75\%$ and $100\%$ in stream waters from the Okdong and the Songcheon mines, and $70\%$ in groundwaters from the Okdong and the Dongjung mines. Arsenic concentration decreases downstream from the tailing dump correlatively with pH and Fe concentration. Highly elevated As concentrations are found in the dry season (such as April and March) than in the wet season (September) due to the dilution effect by heavy rain during summer in stream waters from the Dongil and the Songcheon mine areas.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.215-218
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• 2002

The purposes of this research are to identify the source and the extent of contamination of nitrate in groundwater in a typical agricultural area. The study area has many livestock raising facilities, rice paddies and grape farms. In order to identify the hydrogeological character, we sampled groundwater and surface water in 27 locations and performed chemical analyses. Nitrate-nitrogen is the major contaminant in this area. Approximately 32 ~ 42% of groundwater samples are over the drinking water limit(10 mg/L) and 77% estimated to be entered from artificial sources. The nitrogen isotope analysis indicates animal waste being the major source of nitrate in water samples. Not only presently operating livestock facilities but also abandoned ones influence groundwater quality for a long time.