• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.140-148
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• 2012

Objectives: This study was performed to provide harmonized guidelines on health and environmental classification criteria and its results of chemicals in Korea. Methods: Firstly, The history of GHS implementation in UN and Korea was reviewed. Secondly, the differences in classification criteria on health and environmental hazards among UN GHS and two Korean government agencies, Korea Ministry of Employment and Labour (KMoEL) and Korea Ministry of Environmental (KMoE). The classification results were compared between classifications of Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (KOSHA) based on KMoEL and classifications of Korea National Institute of Environmental Research (KNIER) based on KMoE. Finally, an inter-agency harmonization on the classification criteria and the results was suggested by comparing the classification results of 5 chemicals; Benzene, carbon disulfide, formaldehyde, toluene-2,4-diisocyanate, and trichloroethylene. Results: KMoEL and KMoE revised regulations on chemical management and published a Notices on GHS classification criteria according to UN GHS document. However, the hazard to the ozone layer contained in the latest edition of UN GHS document published in 2011 was not included yet. The differences in classifications of 5 chemicals between KOSHA and KNIER were 36.2% in health hazards and 23.4% in environmental hazards, respectively. In conclusion, we suggested that a new revision be needed to include newly contained hazard and inter-agency working party be organized to harmonize classification results.

• International Journal of Safety
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.43-46
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• 2005

The construction workers might be at the risk of many occupational injuries and illnesses. To protect workers from various hazards, industrial health and hygiene systems were specified for the construction workers by law. It is important to know the actual health and safety(H&S) conditions by tasks and the characteristics of injuries and illnesses of construction workers. This study was designed to investigate the actual conditions of construction workers exposed to various harmful substances and work elements including evaluation of health status of each worker and general H&S system. Questionnaire was sent to 600 construction workers nationwide and totally 367 people responded to it having 61.67% of response rate. The common construction hazards were dust(29.6%), noise(19.3%), repetitive motions(12.0%), handling excessive heavy materials(11.2%) in order. The repetitive motions and handling heavy materials related to muscle disorders accounted for 23.2%. The accident and injury types were in order of overexertion, falling, overturning, dropping or flying, electric shock, collision, etc.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2005.03a
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• pp.491-498
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• 2005

Acid Rock Drainage(ARD) is the product formed by the atmospheric(i.e. by water, oxygen and carbon dioxide) oxidation of the relatively common iron-sulphur minerals pyrite($FeS_2$). ARD causes the acidification and heavy metal contamination of water and soil and the reduction of slope stability. In this study the generation characteristics and the prediction of ARD of various road cut slopes were studied. An attempt to classify the rocks into several groups according to their acid generation potentials was made. Acid Base Accounting(ABA) tests, commonly used as a screening tool in ARD predictions, were performed. Sixteen rock samples were classified into PAF(potentially acid forming) group and four rock samples into NAF(non-acid forming) group. The chemical analysis of water samples strongly suggested that ARD with high content of heavy metals and low pH could pollute the ground water and/or stream water.

• Journal of the Korean Geophysical Society
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.207-209
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• 2005

The local magnitude scales yield in the Southern Korean Peninsula following the Richter's original definition are reviewed. In order to compare the previous ML scales, the new distance correction term of ML scale is derived as - log A 0 = 1.017 log ( r/17) + 0.00028 ( r-17)2 + 2 .0 using broadband velocity seismograms from 126 local events occured from 2000 to 2004. The attenuation rate of this formula fall between those of western and eastern North America. This result is in nearly accord with the ML scales proposed by Kim and Park(2002). The differences between various ML scales is owing to insufficient seismic data not to distribute whole area of Southern Korea.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.21 no.2 s.53
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• pp.197-208
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• 2006

The hazards of chemicals can be classified using classification criteria that are based on physical, chemical and ecotoxicological endpoints. These criteria may be developed be iteratively, based on scientific or regulatory processes. A number of national and international schemes have been developed over the past 50 years, and some, such as the UN Dangerous Goods system or the EC system for hazardous substances, are in widespread use. However, the unnecessarily complicated multiplicity of existing hazard classifications created much unnecessary confusion at the user level, and a recommendation was made at the 1992 Rio Earth summit to develop a globally harmonized chemical hazard classification and compatible labelling system, including material safety data sheets and easily understandable symbols, that could be used for manufacture, transport, use and disposal of chemical substances. This became the globally harmonized system for the Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS). The developmental phase of the GHS is largely complete. Consistent criteria for categorizing chemicals according to their toxic, physical, chemical and ecological hazards are now available. Consistent hazard communication tools such as labelling and material safety data sheets are also close to finalizations. The next phase is implementation of the GHS. The Intergovernmental Forum for Chemical Safety recommends that all countries implement the GHS as soon as possible with a view to have the system fully operational by 2008. When the GHS is in place, the world will finally have one system for classification of chemical hazards.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.69-80
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• 1993

Environmental hazards of a chemical could be assessed by two different approaches : toxicity test and assessment of exposure potentials to human and environmental organisms. For the prediction of environmental fate of chemicals three available computer programs were compared each other and were verified. The results obtained by using these computer programs, PCHEM, EXAMS, and E4CHEM were summarized as follows. The estimated octanol/water partition coefficients by PCHEM were similar to the experimental values in the literature. But the other factors, water solubility and vapor pressure were different from the data in the literature. The simulation results of selected compounds by EXAMS showed similar tendency to the literature results of model field environment. Therefore, this computer program could be utilized to predict the environmental fate of chemicals. E4CHEM program is very simple and this program could predict the ultimate environmental fate of stable chemicals by input of two or three parameters. However, the validity should further be verified in the future field study using more compounds. It is suggested that these approaches could be fully utilized by understanding their limitations to predict the environmental fate of new chemicals under development, to screen the potential environmental pollutants among chemicals already-in use, and to devise measures to minimize the hazards to the environment.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Environmental Toocicology Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.36-37
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• 2004

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.56-65
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• 2006

In the past, flooding is commonly occurred in the Bockha stream watershed area with inundation by the water and eroded sediments. The purpose of this study is to find the relationship between area under cultivation and amount of soil erosion in each watershed areas using geographic information system(GIS) for decreasing the damages of flooding. The soil erosion amounts were computed on GIS using by universal soil loss equation(USLE). Small catchment areas was divided by topography and computed soil erosion amounts. The mean amount of soil erosion is 0.03 $ton/ha{\cdot}yr$ on the condition of the 1,329 mm/yr annual precipitation. The high erosion area(0.05 $ton/ha{\cdot}yr$) is shown in farm areas of the Sangyong-ri in Baeksa-myeon. The high erosion watershed area is related on the slopes of the farm lands and bare soil areas adjoining between the mountain slope and fluvial streams show much amount of soil erosion.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.15 no.2 s.42
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• pp.105-121
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• 2005

Most of the landslides triggered by intensive rainfall on natural slope occur serious damages of human beings and properties. There have been many landslides since 1991 in Gyeonggi province. The influential factors are rainfall, topography, geology and soil properties. There were 660 landslides occurred by intensive rainfall as much as 250mm at Yongin and Anseong area from Tuly 19th to luly 21st,1991 This study surveyed location, topography, geology, geometry of the landslide and rainfall at the area and analyzed occurrence characteristics of the landslides. Most of the landslides occurred on the soil layer above the bed rock. They showed changes of landslide types from translational slides at the head part to flow at the central part. The landslides have relatively small magnitude of which length is shorter than 50m. In order to identify characteristics of landslides dependent on soil conditions, geotechnical properties of soil were evaluated by laboratory tests using soil samples which were collected on slided area and not-slided area. Soil properties of the slided area show high percentage of coarse material such as gravel and sand. However, soil of the not-slided area is mainly composed of fine material such as silt and clay. Permeability coefficients of the slided area are higher than those of the not-slided area.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.17 no.1 s.50
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• pp.75-87
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• 2007

The recognitions of geometrical characteristics and occurrence conditions are very important to evaluate the land-slides in natural terrains. In this paper, the geometrical characteristics of landslides are analyzed according to a geo-logical condition in three landslides areas. The three landslides areas are classified to the geological condition. The three landslides areas are Jangheung, Sangju and Pohang. The geology of Jangheung area, Sangju area and Pohang area is gneiss, granite, and the tertiary sedimentary rock, respectively. During a heavy rainfall of $150{\sim}588mm$ in these areas, 1,582 landslides have occurred in 1998. The geometrical characteristics according to the geological condition analyzed from the investigation of these landslides. The frequency of landslide is high exceedingly above 90% of a slope attitude, while the frequency is very low below 70%. The frequency of landslide is high exceedingly between $26^{\circ}$ and $30^{\circ}$ of slope angle, while the frequency is very low below $20^{\circ}$. The size of the landslides is ranged from several tens to several hundreds The length is ranged from 5 m to 300 m, and the width is ranged from 3 m to 50 m. Also, the depth is less than 1 m. Therefore, the landslides in these areas have small width, long length and shallow depth. The type of the landslides is changed from transitional slide at the scarp to debris flow at the low part of slope.