• Title/Summary/Keyword: Environmental complaints

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Incidence and Predictors of Hand-Arm Musculoskeletal Complaints among Vibration-exposed African Cassava and Corn Millers

  • Mbutshu, Lukuke Hendrick;Malonga, Kaj Francoise;Ngatu, Nlandu Roger;Kanbara, Sakiko;Longo-Mbenza, Benjamin;Suganuma, Narufumi
    • Safety and Health at Work
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    • v.5 no.3
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    • pp.131-135
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    • 2014
  • Background: Cassava and corn milling is a growing small-scale enterprise in Africa. We aimed to determine the incidence of hand-arm musculoskeletal complaints among vibration-exposed Congolese cassava and corn millers in the previous 12 months. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted, prior to a follow-up study, from March to May 2013 among cassava/corn millers in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, in which 365 millers age-matched to 365 civil workers anonymously answered a questionnaire. Results: Overall incidence of hand-arm musculoskeletal complaints was 25.8% in millers (vs. 5.2% in civil workers; p < 0.001). The risk of experiencing musculoskeletal symptoms was seven times higher in millers [vs. civil workers; odds ratio (OR) = 7.10; 95% confidence interval (CI): 4.03-12.50; p < 0.0001]; 2.4 times higher in smoking millers (vs. smoking civil office workers; OR = 2.36; 95% CI: 1.42-3.88; p < 0.001); 3.6 times higher in millers with longer daily exposure (> 8 hours; vs. those working ${\leq}8$ hours; OR = 3.56; 95% CI: 1.93-3.61; p = 0.026); and 7.4 times higher in young millers (vs. older millers, OR = 7.39; 95% CI: 1.29-75.52; p < 0.001). Smoking, number of cigarettes, and daily exposure duration were positively correlated with musculoskeletal complaints. Conclusion: This study revealed a relatively high incidence of musculoskeletal complaints among African cassava and corn millers. The use of anti-vibration protective equipment and the regulation of this hazardous occupation may reduce the burden of musculoskeletal disorders in millers.

A Text Mining Study on Endangered Wildlife Complaints - Discovery of Key Issues through LDA Topic Modeling and Network Analysis - (멸종위기 야생생물 민원 텍스트 마이닝 연구 - LDA 토픽 모델링과 네트워크 분석을 통한 주요 이슈 발굴 -)

  • Kim, Na-Yeong;Nam, Hee-Jung;Park, Yong-Su
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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    • v.26 no.6
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    • pp.205-220
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    • 2023
  • This study aimed to analyze the needs and interests of the public on endangered wildlife using complaint big data. We collected 1,203 complaints and their corresponding text data on endangered wildlife, pre-processed them, and constructed a document-term matrix for 1,739 text data. We performed LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation) topic modeling and network analysis. The results revealed that the complaints on endangered wildlife peaked in June-August, and the interest shifted from insects to various endangered wildlife in the living area, such as mammals, birds, and amphibians. In addition, the complaints on endangered wildlife could be categorized into 8 topics and 5 clusters, such as discovery report, habitat protection and response request, information inquiry, investigation and action request, and consultation request. The co-occurrence network analysis for each topic showed that the keywords reflecting the call center reporting procedure, such as photo, send, and take, had high centrality in common, and other keywords such as dung beetle, know, absence and think played an important role in the network. Through this analysis, we identified the main keywords and their relationships within each topic and derived the main issues for each topic. This study confirmed the increasing and diversifying public interest and complaints on endangered wildlife and highlighted the need for professional response. We also suggested developing and extending participatory conservation plans that align with the public's preferences and demands. This study demonstrated the feasibility of using complaint big data on endangered wildlife and its implications for policy decision-making and public promotion on endangered wildlife.

A Study on Health Hazards to Employees near Main Streets

  • Choi, Dal-Woong
    • Toxicological Research
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    • v.28 no.3
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    • pp.201-207
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    • 2012
  • In order to evaluate the physical and psychological health effects from automobile air pollution, 99 employees who worked near a main street were given a general health questionnaire, and the prevalence of their subjective complaints was measured. The collected data were classified according to gender, sleep time, degree of regular exercise, self-consciousness of symptoms, length of employment, work time, rest time, and smoking status. The results obtained were summarized as follows: The scores related to health complaints regarding physical and psychological items were higher in females than in males. THI scores were higher for the < 4 hour sleep time group. The health complaint scores for physical items were higher in the regular exercise group, whereas most scores for mental items were higher in the irregular exercise groups. The health complaints scores for physical and psychological items were higher in the unhealthy symptom group than in other groups. Those employees who had worked for > 4 years showed significantly higher rates of complaints regarding the eyes and skin. THI scores were higher for the < 6 hour working time group. The smoking group showed higher scores regarding health complaints related to physical items. The THI scores of the respiratory organs, mouth, anus, and digestive organs were significantly higher for the smoking group than for the non-smoking group. In summary, this study shows that the health complaint scores regarding physical and psychological symptoms tended to be higher among the unhealthy group, the less sleep time group, the less work time group, smokers, and females. These results can be used to improve the psychosomatic health status and working environments of employees who work near a main street.

A Study of the Health Status of Flight Attendants by Todai Health Index (Todai Health Index를 이용한 항공기 승무원의 건강상태에 관한 연구)

  • Sohn Jong Ryeul;Kim Young Whan;Lee Hyun Jung;Shin Hyun Jun;Kang Sun Young;Lim Jin Woo;Jung Hee Jin;Kim Jin I;Mun Hee Jin;Yang Ji Sok;Hwang Si Ne;Cho Kyoung Jin;Choi Dal Woong
    • Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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    • v.20 no.2 s.49
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    • pp.153-159
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    • 2005
  • In order to evaluate the physical and mental health status of airline flight attendants, 136 airline flight attendants were given a general health questionnaire (Todai Health Index), and the prevalence of their subjective complaints was measured. Collected data were classified according to age distribution, length of employment, service area, smoking status, job satisfaction, gender, and marital status. The results obtained were summarized as follows: 1 The scores of health complaints of physical items were higher in the oldest group $(age 50\~60)$ than in younger groups. The THI eye and skin symptom scores were significantly higher for the oldest groups than for the younger groups. 2. The health complaints scores of physical items were higher in the long-length employment group (more than 5 years), whereas most scores of mental items were higher in the short- length employment group (less than 2 years). The THI mouth and anus scores for the long-length employment group were significantly higher than for groups of workers who had been employed for a shorter time. 3. THI scores were higher for domestic airline crews, dissatisfied workers and females. 4. The irregular life THI score was significantly higher among domestic crews than international crews. 5. The impulsiveness and depression scores were significantly higher in the dissatisfaction group. 6. The female group showed higher scores in the multiple subjective symptoms, mental irritability, depression, and irregular life categories. 7, The THI scores of the mouth, anus and nervousness were significantly higher for the married group than for the unmarried group. In summary, this study shows that the health complaints scores of physical and mental symptoms tended to be higher among the aged group, domestic airline crews, the dissatisfaction group, and females. These results can be used for improving the psychosomatic health status and working environments of flight attendants.

A Study on Health Status of Workers in Metal Manufacturing Industries (금속제조 산업근로자들의 건강실태 조사)

  • 정경석
    • Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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    • v.8 no.1
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    • pp.67-80
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    • 1982
  • In order to evaluate the psychosomatic health status of metal manufacturing industries workers and their working environments, the present study was conducted from March 1, 1981 to the end of September 1981. The data was obtained from the samples of metal manufacturing industries in Kyung-In Area and their 1, 162 employees. In addition, the 803 urban residents including students, office clerks, and general publics were sampled as control groups to compare with factory employees in psychosomatic analysis. The basic tool employed in the present study was the Todai Health Index (THI) which modified CMI and was developed by Tokyo University Research Team of Japan. The results of the present study were summarized as follows: 1. Working environments of the factories 1) The data shows that fabrication shop produced the highest noise level ranging from 91 to 96 dB (A) and iron and steel shop had the lowest noise level ranging from 81 to 86 dB (A). 2) Dust concentration was the highest in iron foundry shop ($3.8 mg/m^3$) and the lowest in fabrication shop ($1.2 mg/m^3$). 3) WBGT above threshold limit values (T.L.V.) was noted in steel shop (38$\circ$C) and iron foundry shop (34$\circ$C) 4) The concentration of Sulfur dioxide ($SO_2$)was 30.5ppm at steel shop and 12.0ppm at iron foundry shop. 5) The concentration of carbon monoxide (CO) was 140.0ppm at steel shop and 110.5ppm at iron foundry shop. 6) The atmospheric lead concentration was $0.49 mg/m^3$ at soldering shop. 2. The responses of psychosomatic complaints were much higher in steel shops group than in other manu-facturing group, except the response of aggressiveness. 3. The responses of psychosomatic complaints were much higher in industrial workers than in urban residents, except the responses of depression and aggressiveness (p < 0.01 ). 4. The psychosomatic symptoms which industrial workers and urban residents complained frequently were nervousness. agressiveness and lie scale in order. 5. The responses of psychosomatic complaints by sex were much higher in female group than in male group, except the response of aggressiveness. 6. The responses of psychosomatic complaints by age were that both the female and male group showed an increasing tendency in the all items, except the response of depression as age was increasing. 7. The responses of psychosomatic complaints by the length of services were that both the female and male group showed a tendency of increasing in physical symptoms as work years increased. 8. The responses of psychosomatic complaints were higher in unmarried group in the score of nervousness, aggressiveness, mental irritability and irregular life.

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Analysis of Urban Environmental Factors Affecting Illegal Parking: Focused on the Smart Civil Complaints Data in Seoul, Korea (불법 주정차에 영향을 미치는 도시 환경 요인 분석: 서울시 스마트 불편신고 민원자료를 중심으로)

  • Park, Junsang;Lee, Sugie
    • Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
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    • v.38 no.3
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    • pp.3-17
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    • 2022
  • The automobile-centered lifestyle has provided many advantages to urban residents, but it is also causing various problems. Among them, illegal parking is one of the representative urban problems that negatively affect them. The purpose of this study is to derive the urban environmental factors affecting illegal parking and provide policy implications by using data related to illegal parking among civil complaints about smart inconvenience reports in Seoul in 2019. It was judged that the influencing factors would differ depending on the time of the complaint, and the analysis was conducted by dividing the time of the complaint into a whole day, daytime, and nighttime. As a result of the analysis of this study, it was found that land-use variables and the number of POI facilities were closely related to illegal parking complaints. Also, the subway station area and road width were found to be closely related to illegal parking complaints. On the other hand, parking facilities did not show significant results with illegal parking complaints. This study showed that the use of civic complaint data could be used as important data to identify urban problems that city residents actually experience and to come up with policy implications.

A Suggestion for Spatiotemporal Analysis Model of Complaints on Officially Assessed Land Price by Big Data Mining (빅데이터 마이닝에 의한 공시지가 민원의 시공간적 분석모델 제시)

  • Cho, Tae In;Choi, Byoung Gil;Na, Young Woo;Moon, Young Seob;Kim, Se Hun
    • Journal of Cadastre & Land InformatiX
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    • v.48 no.2
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    • pp.79-98
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    • 2018
  • The purpose of this study is to suggest a model analysing spatio-temporal characteristics of the civil complaints for the officially assessed land price based on big data mining. Specifically, in this study, the underlying reasons for the civil complaints were found from the spatio-temporal perspectives, rather than the institutional factors, and a model was suggested monitoring a trend of the occurrence of such complaints. The official documents of 6,481 civil complaints for the officially assessed land price in the district of Jung-gu of Incheon Metropolitan City over the period from 2006 to 2015 along with their temporal and spatial poperties were collected and used for the analysis. Frequencies of major key words were examined by using a text mining method. Correlations among mafor key words were studied through the social network analysis. By calculating term frequency(TF) and term frequency-inverse document frequency(TF-IDF), which correspond to the weighted value of key words, I identified the major key words for the occurrence of the civil complaint for the officially assessed land price. Then the spatio-temporal characteristics of the civil complaints were examined by analysing hot spot based on the statistics of Getis-Ord $Gi^*$. It was found that the characteristic of civil complaints for the officially assessed land price were changing, forming a cluster that is linked spatio-temporally. Using text mining and social network analysis method, we could find out that the occurrence reason of civil complaints for the officially assessed land price could be identified quantitatively based on natural language. TF and TF-IDF, the weighted averages of key words, can be used as main explanatory variables to analyze spatio-temporal characteristics of civil complaints for the officially assessed land price since these statistics are different over time across different regions.

Study on the alternatives to trace the origin and to diminish the sediments of drinking water (수돗물의 앙금발생규명 및 저감기술방안)

  • 김갑수;임병진;권은미
    • Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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    • v.9 no.1
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    • pp.17-28
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    • 1994
  • There are many possibilities that may lead to low quality of drinking water Recently, some unknown deposits in tap water raised a lot of public concern regarding the safety of drinking water in Seoul. We analyzed the quality of tap water from several areas of Seoul, including the area where public complaints about tap water were high. The results shows that the quality of tap water in Seoul was good, well below the environmental standards. Only the tap water from the area with high public complaints showed turbidity higher than that of other area. Also, result shows that component of deposit in tap water was Al, Fe, Mn, and Zn. Based on the research result we propose several measures that might help to reduce the amount of deposit in tap water as follows : 1 Using coagulant aid when coagulating or adjusting pH when filtering. 2. Replacing old water pipeline with new corrosive- resistant one. 3. Increasing water treatment efficiency by enhancing water treatment system such as automation of water treatment system adjusting production capacity, and improving operational condition of filler basin. 4. Chlorine disinfection at the distribution reservoir would help maintaining the same pH level and chlorine concentration throughout the water pipeline and reduce corrosion of pipe.

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A Study on the Effect of Abelmoschus Manihot Jinhuakui Extract on Odor Reduction

  • Gok Mi Kim
    • International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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    • v.12 no.1
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    • pp.281-286
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    • 2024
  • With the commercialization and full-timeization of the livestock industry, civil complaints continue to increase, and the livestock industry is facing a crisis due to social problems such as odor caused by livestock manure, soil pollution, water pollution, and environmental pollution. In order to increase productivity in livestock farms, the amount of livestock manure generated is increasing due to excessive use of protein feed and high-density breeding environment, and complaints such as odor and water pollution due to management problems are increasing rapidly. Livestock odor has emerged as a serious social problem, and due to growing complaints, conflicts between the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Ministry of Environment are even causing the livestock industry to lower its status. There is an urgent need for solutions to identify problems in the livestock industry and improve policies. This study aims to develop a " Abelmoschus Manihot Jinhuakui " brand that can improve the intestinal environment of livestock, reduce odors caused by livestock excrement, and improve the productivity of livestock farms in order to improve the increasingly serious odor problem in livestock sites. For Jeju livestock farms, which place more importance on the environment by securing tourists, eco-friendly feed additives were applied to the experiment, the results were derived, and the focus was on solving fundamental problems of odor generation through the development and packaging of feed additive brands. We aim to fundamentally solve the odor problem of domestic livestock farms, secure eco-friendly livestock farms, and contribute to reducing livestock odors and increasing productivity through research results that reduce ammonia levels in each livestock farm.

The Component Analysis of Foreign Substance Occurred in Water Distribution Networks (상수관망에서 발생하는 이물질의 성분분석)

  • Choi, Min-Ah;Kim, Do-Hwan;Bae, Chul-Ho;Lee, Doojin;Choi, Doo Yong
    • Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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    • v.36 no.9
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    • pp.614-623
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    • 2014
  • Customers water quality complaints by foreign substance in local water service can be able to call the main cause bring the distrust for tap water and inhibiting the rate of drinking water. In this study, foreign substances were collected in the target region. Foreign objects were subjected to qualitative and quantitative analysis of compounds and elements components to reveal the cause of detection. Also, resolve the complaints by foreign substance and improve the reliability for tap water providing high quality water supply scheme. Collected substances at the water quality complaint area were included in inorganic compounds due to internal corrosion and aging pipeline, as well as organic compounds containing a large amount of carbon (C) and oxygen (O) component. To decide and reduce for foreign substance, objective assessment of pipe condition in target area was required.