• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.35-43
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• 1987

For the purpose of evaluating metal content in human hair, the auther carried out the comparative study of 55 samples of exposed residents surrounding lead & copper smelter and 55 samples of non-exposed. Hair samples were stingently washed before analysis for lead and copper by atomic absorption spectroscopy. The results obtained were as follows 1. Hair samples of exposed residents contained more lead than non-exposed but showed no significance statistically (P>0.05). 2. Also copper in the hair of exposed residents showed more content than non-exposed but no significance statistically (P>0.05). 3. Lead and copper in the hair of exposed residents revealed a high degree of correlation (r = 0.8442, p<0.005). 4. Lead did not accumulate in hair with age in two group residents and copper in the hair of non-exposed residents maintained in all age. 5. The content of lead and copper in the hair of two group residents showed very considerable variation from individual to individual.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.113-121
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• 2015

The contaminated soil at abandoned smelter areas present challenge for remediation, as the degraded materials are typically deficient in nutrients, and rich in toxic heavy metals and metalloids. Bioremediation technique is to isolate new strains of microorganisms and develop successful protocols for reducing metal toxicity with heavy metal tolerant species. The present study collected metal contaminated soil and characterized for pH and EC values, and heavy metal contents. The pH value was 5.80, representing slightly acidic soil, and EC value was 13.47 mS/m. ICP-AES analytical results showed that the collected soil samples were highly contaminated with various heavy metals and metalloids such as lead (183.0 mg/kg), copper (98.6 mg/kg), zinc (91.6 mg/kg), and arsenic (48.1 mg/kg), respectively. In this study, a bacterial strain, Bacillus cereus KM-15, capable of adsorbing the heavy metals was isolated from the contaminated soils by selective enrichment and characterized to apply for the bioremediation. The effects of heavy metal on the growth of the Bacillus cereus KM-15 was determined in liquid cultures. The results showed that 100 mg/L arsenic, lead, and zinc did not affect the growth of KM-15, while the bacterial growth was strongly inhibited by copper at the same concentration. Further, the ability of the bacteria to adsorb heavy metals was evaluated.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.139-147
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• 1997

The Janghang smelter is the first lead, zinc and copper smelting facility in Korea which was operated for a half century from 1936 to 1989. The clay minerals and their heavy metal association in the soil profile around the smelter have been studied using XRD, EPMA, SEM-EDS, TEM, EPR and sequential extraction techniques. The soils in A horizon are highly acidic showing pH 4.45. The pH is going up with increasing depth. They have residual water contents of 1.18-1.51 wt%, loss on ignition of 6.32-7.79 wt%, and carbon contents of 0.08-0.88 wt%. Soils consist of quartz, feldspar, muscovite, kaolinite, vermiculite, biotite, chlorite, goethite and hematite in the decreasing abundance. The contents of clay minerals, especially vermiculite and chlorite, decrease with increasing depth. Sequential extraction experiments for the profile samples show that heavy metals (Zn, Cu, Pb, Cd) are highly concentrated in the A horizon of the soil profile as water-extractable (mostly amorphous), MgCl2-extractable (exchangeable in clay minerals), and organic phases. The heavy metal contents decrease with increasing depth. It suggests that the heavy metals are mainly associate with clay minerlas in an exchangeable state. It is also noted that heavy metals are highly concentrated in the manganese and iron oxide phases.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.09a
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• pp.1370-1376
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• 2010

In this study, usability and stability in the caisson filling material were reviewed that copper salg(one million tons per one-year) were produced by smelter. In order to complete these studies, chemical and physical comparing analyses were performed by sea-sand materials as to the materials suitability, After construction, the structural displacement of caisson was measured by the instrument and was examined for stability. As a result of analysis, it was determined that copper slag is eco-friendly, and can be used as recycled alternative to aggregates materials.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.13-23
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• 2017

Objectives: This study was conducted to evaluate a relationship between the blood concentrations of toxic metals and the blood pressure in people living near the copper smelter. Methods: The study included 570 adults living within 4km of the smelter. We compared systolic and diastolic blood pressure between tertiary groups for blood cadmium, mercury and lead levels, respectively. Multiple regression analysis was performed to identify risk factors affecting systolic and diastolic blood pressures. Results: In male subjects, there is a significant difference in the mean of systolic and diastolic blood pressure between tertiary groups of blood cadmium and mercury levels, but in women, there was no significant difference in the mean systolic and diastolic blood pressures in all tertiary groups of heavy metals. The results of multiple regression analysis showed that age, BMI, and cadmium concentration in men were risk factors for blood pressure. In women, age and BMI, drinking and smoking, and blood mercury were significantly influenced to blood pressure. Conclusions: Residents living near the Janghang smelter showed high concentrations of blood lead and cadmium, suggesting that they were exposed to high concentrations of heavy metals released from the smelter in the past. Such exposure may have caused some blood pressure increase. Especially, the concentration of cadmium in the case of men and the concentration of mercury in blood in the case of women were found to be significantly related to the increase of blood pressure. The local population should be advised to make efforts to reduce exposure to environmental contaminants, in order to minimize cardiovascular disease, and to pay close attention to any health problems possibly related to toxic metal exposure.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.333-339
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• 2013

This study was conducted to build up the inventories of Pb isotopic compositions of major Pb pollution sources in South Korea. Since non-ferrous metal smelters are one of major anthropogenic sources, two smelters for zinc, each one of smelter for lead and copper were selected for the study. The Pb concentrations and isotopic compositions of metal ores, wastewater, sludge, metal rod and produced sulfuric acid were analysed to understand the Pb isotopic patterns in environment. The isotopic ratio, $^{206}Pb/^{207}Pb$, of zinc ores from zinc smelter were in the range of 1.179~1.198 and the ratio of waste, flue gas and products samples were 1.105~1.147. This results implied that the isotopic patterns of output samples showed mixing patterns between two distinct metal ore soerces. In 2011, major importing countries of zinc ore were Australia, Peru and Mexico. Thus Pb isotopic patterns from zinc smelter is originated from the mixing patterns between less radiogenic Australian ores and more radiogenic South America's ores. Lead smelters also showed the same mixing patterns with those of zinc smelters. However copper smelter showed same Pb isotopic patterns with more radiogenic South America's ores.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.16 no.3 s.77
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• pp.27-33
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• 2007

It is very important in the view point of resource recycling to recover valuable metals such as copper and tin from waste electric and electronic scrap. The waste electric and electronic scrap contains significant amounts of copper, tin, and so on. In this study, a new process for extracting copper and tin contained in the waste electric and electronic scrap using waste copper slag which is generated from the melting furnace of copper smelter was presented. Advantage of the proposed process is to reuse waste copper slag instead of new fluxes as slag formatives. In each experiment, the waste electric and electronic scrap and waste copper slag were melted inputting suitable amount of CaO as an additional flux. Up to 95% of copper and 85% of tin in the raw material were extracted in a Cu-Fe-Sn alloy phase.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.3-14
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• 2019

Copper is one of the first metals utilized by humankind about 11,500 years ago. But copper is not plentiful metallic element in the earth's crust. Copper has a high thermal and electric conductivity and is relatively corrosion resistant. In principle copper is virtually 100 % recyclable as an element without loss of quality. The recycling of copper scrap reduces the energy consumption and environmental burden, comparing to the primary metal production. Currently, approximately 30% of the global copper supply provides by recycling. Copper scrap is smelted in primary and secondary smelter. Type of furnace and process steps depend on the quality and grade of scrap. Depending on copper content of the secondary raw material, refining is required, which is usually done through electrorefining. This work provides an overview of the primary copper production and recycling process.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.236-243
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• 2022

Background: In the case of multiple exposures to different types of heavy metals, such as the conditions faced by residents living near a smelter, it would be preferable to group hazardous substances with similar characteristics rather than individually related substances and evaluate the effects of each group on the human body. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the utility of factor analysis in the assessment of health effects caused by exposure to two or more hazardous substances with similar characteristics, such as in the case of residents living near a smelter. Methods: Heavy metal concentration data for 572 people living in the vicinity of the Janghang smelter area were grouped based on several subfactors according to their characteristics using factor analysis. Using these factor scores as an independent variable, multiple regression analysis was performed on health effect markers. Results: Through factor analysis, three subfactors were extracted. Factor 1 contained copper and zinc in serum and revealed a common characteristic of the enzyme co-factor in the human body. Factor 2 involved urinary cadmium and arsenic, which are harmful metals related to kidney damage. Factor 3 encompassed blood mercury and lead, which are classified as related to cardiovascular disease. As a result of multiple linear regression analysis, it was found that using the factor index derived through factor analysis as an independent variable is more advantageous in assessing the relevance to health effects than when analyzing the two heavy metals by including them in a single regression model. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that regression analysis linked with factor analysis is a good alternative in that it can simultaneously identify the effects of heavy metals with similar properties while overcoming multicollinearity that may occur in environmental epidemiologic studies on exposure to various types of heavy metals.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.154-166
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• 2009

In this study, 1-hour integrated $PM_{2.5}$ mass and chemical composition concentrations were monitored at the St. Louis-Midwest Supersite in Illinois. Time-resolved samples were collected one week in each of June 2001 (22 June to 28 June), November 2001 (7 November to 13 November), and March 2002 (19 March to 25 March). A total of 427 samples were collected by CAMM (continuous ambient mass monitor) and 15 compounds were analyzed by AAS, PILS (particle-into-liquid sampler), and TOT (thermal optical transmittance) method. PMF was applied to identify the sources and apportion the $PM_{2.5}$ mass to each source for highly time resolved data. In addition, the nonparametric regression (NPR) was applied to identify the predominant directions of local sources relative to wind direction. Also, this study performed compare the NPR analysis and location of actual local point sources at the St. Louis area. The PMF modeling identified nine sources and the average mass was apportioned to gasoline vehicle, road dust, zinc smelter, copper production, secondary sulfate, diesel emission, secondary nitrate, iron+steel, and lead smelter, respectively. These results suggested that this study results will be help for $PM_{2.5}$ source apportionment studies at similar metropolitan area, establish $PM_{2.5}$ standard, and establish effective emissions reduction strategies in Korea.