• 한국환경보건학회지
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• 제36권2호
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• pp.82-94
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• 2010

This study was undertaken in an attempt to provide scientific grounds in explaining the causes of environmental and respiratory diseases resulting from air pollutants in Gyeongju and its neighboring areas. In relation to heavy metals, lead (Pb) was $0.0135{\sim}0.1744\;{\mu}g/m^3$ and high in order of Pohang, Ulsan, and Gyeongju while nickel (Ni) was $0.0023{\sim}0.0115\;{\mu}g/m^3$. The concentrations of heavy metals in the investigated areas did not exceed the environmental standards or Guideline Value of Korea or other countries. However, it is considered necessary to apply intensive control to some heavy metals including cadmium (Cd) that show a relatively high level of hazard. Based on the responses to the survey, measured personal interest in environmental pollution and the basic knowledge of the causes of the respiratory diseases was higher in those with a family history of allergic reactions to metals and bronchial asthma. The incidence of allergic disease was higher in those who are currently in poor health state. In addition, the general knowledge of environmental pollutants was higher in those with higher educational level and those with a higher interest in environmental pollution. Personal interest in environmental pollution was higher in those with higher basic knowledge of environmental pollutants. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the awareness through better education and campaigns on environmental pollution.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• 제35권
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• pp.17.1-17.6
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• 2023

The current 52-hour workweek in South Korea consists of 40 hours of regular work and 12 hours of overtime. Although the average working hours in South Korea is declining, it is still 199 hours longer than the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average of 1,716 hours per year. In view to this, the South Korean government has now proposed to reform the workweek, mainly intending to increase the workweek to 69 hours when the workload is heavy. This reform, by increasing the labor intensity due to long working hours, goes against the global trend of reducing work hours for a safe and healthy working environment. Long working hours can lead to increased cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases, industrial accidents, mental health problems, and safety accidents due to lack of concentration. In conclusion, the Korean government's working hour reform plan can have a negative impact on workers' health, and therefore it should be thoroughly reviewed and modified.

• 한국독성학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국독성학회 2002년도 Current Trends in Toxicological Sciences
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• pp.43-43
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• 2002

Mass spectrometric study of oxidant damage: Generation of endogenous oxidizing species have been implicated in the pathogenesis of a wide variety of diseases from cancer to Alzheimer's Disease to Inflammatory bowel diseases. Antioxidant compounds may therefore be useful in treating or preventing these diseases.(omitted)

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• 제36권4호
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• pp.326-327
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• 2020

• ALGAE
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• 제29권4호
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• pp.249-265
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• 2014

As with land crops, cultivated algae are affected by various diseases ranging from large outbreaks of a disease to chronic epiphytes, which may downgrade the value of the final product. The recent development of intensive and dense mariculture practices has enabled some new diseases to spread much faster than before. A new disease is reported almost every year, and the impact of diseases is expected to increase with environmental change, such as global warming. We observed the incidence of diseases in two Pyropia sea farms in Korea from 2011 to 2014, and estimated the economic loss caused by each disease. Serious damage is caused by the oomycete pathogens, Pythium porphyrae and Olpidiopsis spp., which decreased the productivity of the Pyropia sea farms. In Seocheon sea farms, an outbreak of Olpidiopsis spp. disease resulted in approximately US $1.6 million in loss, representing approximately 24.5% of total sales during the 2012-2013 season. The damage caused by green-spot disease was almost as serious as oomycete diseases. An outbreak of green-spot disease in the Seocheon sea farms resulted in approximately US $1.1 million in loss, representing 10.7% of total sales in the 2013-2014 season in this area. However, the causative agent of green-spot disease is still not confirmed. "Diatom felt" is regarded as a minor nuisance that does not cause serious damage in Pyropia; however, our case study showed that the economic loss caused by "diatom felt" might be as serious as that of oomycete diseases. Bacteria and cyanobacteria are indigenous members of epiphytic microbial community on Pyropia blades, but can become opportunistic pathogens under suitable environmental conditions, especially when Pyropia suffers from other diseases. A regular acid wash of the Pyropia cultivation nets is the most common treatment for all of the above mentioned diseases, and represents approximately 30% of the total cost in Pyropia sea farming. However, the acid wash is ineffective for some diseases, especially for Olpidiopsis and bacterial diseases.

• 대한인간공학회지
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• 제31권1호
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• pp.157-163
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• 2012

Objective: This study is to understand medical management method in shipbuilding industry. Background: In shipbuilding industry, medical management for prevention of work-related musculoskeletal diseases due to limitations of engineering measures may be important measure. Results: Medical management of musculoskeletal diseases can be divided into primary, secondary, tertiary preventions. Primary preventions consist of symptom survey, appropriate work placement with work capacity evaluation, health promotion. Second preventions are early detection of symptomatic patient and appropriate treatment. Tertiary preventions are rehabilitation treatment and early return-to-work by return-to-work evaluation. In addition, patients with psychological counseling for emotional problems are needed. Conclusion: Medical management measures such as improving the work environment to be made are expected to exert greater effects.

• 한국환경보건학회지
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• 제38권6호
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• pp.472-481
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• 2012

Objectives: This study aims to investigate the AD (allergic diseases: asthma, allergic rhinitis and atopic dermatitis) prevalence among elementary schoolchildren in an industrial city, Ulsan, and identify major environmental risk factors associated with AD prevalence. Methods: Data on the physician-diagnosed prevalence over the past 12 months and potential risk factors of AD were collected through a questionnaire from a 2009-2010 survey of 4,067 schoolchildren living in different urban environments. The logistic regression analysis was performed to assess differences in AD prevalence among the areas and to determine which environmental factors impacted AD. Results: Our survey results showed that the AD prevalence rate ranged between 26.2% and 35.9%. Children living in polluted areas (near industrial and central urban areas) had about a 10% higher prevalence of AD than did those living in coastal or suburban residences. The Chi-Square test demonstrated that this local difference was statistically significant before and after adjustment of major confounders such as parental AD history and parental education. The results of the logistic regression analysis showed a statistically significant association between several environmental factors (ventilation in winter, odor conditions and exposure to traffic smoke, and outdoor $PM_{10}/O_3$ pollution) and the prevalence of AD found by multivariate model after adjusting confounders. Conclusion: These results suggest that local differences in AD prevalence are significantly associated with outdoor environmental factors. Although there are likely to be other risk factors for AD, living in a polluted area and exposure to high levels of air pollutants can contribute to an increased risk of childhood AD.

• 실내환경 및 냄새 학회지
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• 제16권3호
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• pp.277-286
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• 2017

The objectives of this study were to investigate the effects of $PM_{10}$ and $O_3$ concentration on the symptoms of allergic diseases. The questionnaire was used to determine whether or not symptoms of allergic diseases were present from September to October 2012. The air pollution concentration data used was the corresponding point CEM (continuous emission monitoring) data. The average concentration of $PM_{10}$ was $56.09{\mu}g/m^3$ in the control area, and the concentration in the exposed area was $40.44{\mu}g/m^3$. In the two areas, concentration of $O_3$ was 28.73 ppb and 28.74 ppb, respectively. The total average concentrations of $PM_{10}$ and $O_3$ were $45.66{\mu}g/m^3$ and 28.73 ppb in the Gwangyang area. The rate of asthma diagnosis was higher in the control area (9.6%) than in the exposed area (4.1%), but the rate of allergy eye disease was higher in the exposed area (23.9%) than in the control area (16.5%). There was a significant difference in the symptoms of some allergic diseases when the relative concentration of $PM_{10}$ and $O_3$ were high and low.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• 제35권
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• pp.35.1-35.11
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• 2023

Background: Cardio-cerebrovascular diseases (CVDs) are the most common cause of death worldwide. Various CVD risk assessment tools have been developed. In South Korea, the Korea Occupational Safety & Health Agency (KOSHA) and the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) have provided CVD risk assessments with health checkups. Since 2018, the KOSHA guide has stated that NHIS CVD risk assessment tool could be used as an alternative of KOSHA assessment tool for evaluating CVD risk of workers. The objective of this study was to determine the correlation and agreement between the KOSHA and the NHIS CVD risk assessment tools. Methods: Subjects of this study were 17,485 examinees aged 20 to 64 years who had undergone medical examinations from January 2021 to December 2021 at a general hospital. We classified subjects into low-risk, moderate-risk, high-risk, and highest-risk groups according to KOSHA and NHIS's CVD risk assessment tools. We then compared them with cross-analysis, Spearman correlation analysis, and linearly weighted kappa coefficient. Results: The correlation between KOSHA and NHIS tools was statistically significant (p-value < 0.001), with a correlation coefficient of 0.403 and a kappa coefficient of 0.203. When we compared risk group distribution using KOSHA and NHIS tools, CVD risk of 6,498 (37.1%) participants showed a concordance. Compared to the NHIS tool, the KOSHA tool classified 9,908 (56.7%) participants into a lower risk category and 1,079 (6.2%) participants into a higher risk category. Conclusions: In this study, KOSHA and NHIS tools showed a moderate correlation with a fair agreement. The NHIS tool showed a tendency to classify participants to higher CVD risk group than the KOSHA tool. To prevent CVD more effectively, a higher estimation tool among verified CVD risk assessment methods should be selected and managements such as early intervention and treatment of risk factors should be performed targeting the high-risk group.

• 한국멀티미디어학회논문지
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• 제25권2호
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• pp.363-373
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• 2022

Multi-omics data is difficult to interpret due to the heterogeneity of information by the volume of data, the complexity of characteristics of each data, and the diversity of omics platforms. There is not yet a system for interpreting to visualize research data on environmental diseases concerning environmental harmful substances. We provide MEE, a web-based visualization tool, to comprehensively explore the complexity of data due to the interconnected characteristics of high-dimensional data sets according to exposure to various environmental harmful substances. MEE visualizes omics data of correlation between omics data, subjects and samples by keyword searches of meta data, multi-omics data, and harmful substances. MEE has been demonstrated the versatility by two examples. We confirmed the correlation between smoking and asthma with RNA-seq and Methylation-Chip data, it was visualized that genes (P HACTR3, PXDN, QZMB, SOCS3 etc.) significantly related to autoimmune or inflammatory diseases. To visualize the correlation between atopic dermatitis and heavy metals, we selected 32 genes related immune response by integrated analysis of multi-omics data. However, it did not show a significant correlation between mercury in blood and atopic dermatitis. In the future, should continuously collect an appropriate level of multi-omics data in MEE system, will obtain data to analyze environmental substances and diseases.