• Title/Summary/Keyword: Harmful environmental factor

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Study on the Growth Environment of 'Gangwha-mugwort' Through the Climatological Characteristic Analysis of Gangwha Region (강화지역의 기후특성 분석을 통한 '강화약쑥'의 생육 환경 연구)

  • Ahn, Joong-Bae;Hur, Ji-Na;Jung, Hae-Gon;Park, Jong-Ho
    • Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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    • v.14 no.2
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    • pp.71-78
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    • 2012
  • Eupatilin, one of representative medical components of mugwort, can be efficiently extracted from the 'Gangwha Sajabalssuk'. The Eupatilin content may depend on environmental factors such as soil and regional climate in addition to a genetic factor and Gangwha region has a profitable environmental condition for the mugwort growth. In this study, the climatological characteristics of Gangwha was analyzed in order to find the environmental condition of mugwort containing high Eupatilin in term of atmospheric, oceanographic and land variables. The climate of Gangwha is characterized by the relatively low daily temperature and large diurnal variation with plenty of solar radiation, long sunshine duration and less cloudiness. According to our correlation analysis, the long sunshine duration and the large diurnal temperature variation are highly correlated with the Eupatilin contents. The result implies that Gangwha has the favorable conditions for the cultivation and the habitat of the high-Eupatilin concentrated mugwort. Because of the sea surrounding Gangwha Island with low salinity and moderate wind, the salt contained in sea breeze is relatively low compared to other regions. Furthermore, Gangwha has clean atmospheric environment compared to other regions because the concentrations of toxic gases harmful to crop growth such as nitrogen dioxide ($NO_2$), sulfite gas ($SO_2$) and fine dust (PM-10) are lower in the air. The ozone ($O_3$) concentration is moderate and within the level of natural production. It is also found that moderately coarse texture or fine loamy soils known as good for water drainage and for the growth and cultivation of the 'Gangwha-mugwort' are distributed throughout the areas around mountainous districts in Gangwha, coinciding with those of mugwort habitat.

A Study on Environmental Standards of School Building (교사환경기준에 관한 연구)

  • Hong, Seok-Pyo;Park, Young-Soo
    • The Journal of Korean Society for School & Community Health Education
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    • v.1 no.1
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    • pp.11-43
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    • 2000
  • The purpose of this study was, through analyzing the previous researches, to grasp the present status of environment of school building(ESB), research the sundry records of each element and, through comparative analysis of the standard of ESB in Korea, the United States, and Japan, select the normative standard of ESB, to clarify the point at issue presented in Regulation of Construction & facility Management for Elementary and and Secondary School in Korea, and to suggest an alternative preliminary standard of ESB. To carry out a research for this purpose, these were required: 1. to investigate the existing present status of ESB, 2. to make a comparative analysis of the standard of ESB in each country, 3. to suggest the normative standard of preliminary standard of ESB, 4. to analyze the controversial points of the standard of ESB in Korea, 5. to suggest an alternative preliminary standard of ESB. The conclusions were as follows: 1. Putting, through analyzing the previous researches, the existing present status of ESB together, it seemed that lighting environment, indoor air environment and noise environment were all in poor conditions. 2. In the result of a comparative analysis of the standard of ESB in Korea, Japan and the United States, in Korea the factors of each lighting and indoor air environment were not presented properly, in Japan, in lighting environment aspect, the standard on natural lighting and the factors on brightness were not presented., and in the USA the essential factors of each environment were throughly presented. In the comparison of the standards on each factor, Korea showed that the standard level presented was less properly prescribed than those of the USA and Japan but it also showed that the standard levels prescribed in the USA and in Japan were mostly similar to the standard levels in records investigated. 3. With the result of the normative standard selection on School Builiding environment factor of prescribed in this study, the controversial points of the standard of ESB in Korea were analyzed and the result was utilized to suggest new preliminary standard of ESB. 4. As the result of the analysis of the controversial points of the standard of ESB in Korea, it was found that the standard of ESB in Korea should be established on a basis of School Health Act and be concretely presented in School Health Regulation and School Health Rule. The factors of each environment was improperly presented in the existing standard of ESB in Korea. Moreover the standard of them was inferior to that of the records investigated and those of in the USA and in Japan and it also showed that the standard of it in Korea was improper to maintain Comfortable Learning Environment. 5. A suggested preliminary standard of ESB acquired through above study as follows: 1) In this study a new kind of preliminary standard of ESB is divided into lighting environment, indoor air environment, noise environment, odor environment and for above classification, reasonable factor and standard should be established and the controling way on each standard and countermeasures against it should be considered. 2) In lighting environment, the factors of natural lighting are divided into daylight rate, brightness, glare. In the standard on each factor, daylight rate should secure 5% of a mean daylight rate and 2% of a minimum daylight rate, brightness ratio of maximum illumination to minimum illumination should be under 10:1, and in glare there should not be an occurrence factor from a reflector outside of the classroom. And the factors of unnatural lighting are illumination, brightness, and glare. In the standard on each factor, illumination should be 750 lux or more, brightness ratio should be under 3 to 1, and glare should not occur. And Optimal reflection rate(%) of Colors and Facilities of Classroom which influences lighting environment should be considered. 3) In indoor air environment factors, thermal factors are divided into (1) room temperature, (2) relative humidity, (3) room air movement, (4) radiation heat, and harmful gases (5) CO, (6) $CO_2$ that are proceeded from using the heating fuel such as oval briquettes, firewood, charcoal being used in most of the classroom, and finally (7) dust. In the standard on each factor, the next are necessary; room temperature: $16^{\circ}C{\sim}26^{\circ}C$(summer : $E.T18.9{\sim}23.8^{\circ}C$, winter: $E.T16.7{\sim}21.7^{\circ}C$), relative humidity: $30{\sim}80%$, room air movement: under 0.5m/sec, radiation heat: under $5^{\circ}C$ gap between dry-bulb temperature and wet-bulb temperature, below 1000 ppm of ca and below 10ppm of $CO_2$, dust: below 0.10 $mg/m^3$ of Volume of dust in indoor air, and ventilation standard($CO_2$) for purification of indoor air : once/6 min.(about 7 times/40 min.) in an airtight classroom. 4) In the standard on noise environment, noise level should be under 40 dB(A) and the noise measuring way and the countermeasures against it should be considered. 5) In the standard on odor environment, odor level under Physical Method should be under 2 degrees, and the inspecting way and the countermeasures against it should be considered.

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Study on the Improvement of Ballast Water Risk Assessment of GloBallast (GloBallast 선박평형수 위해도평가 방법의 개선방안에 관한 연구)

  • Lee, S.G.;Kang, W.S.;Kim, E.C.;Shin, K.S.
    • Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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    • v.14 no.4
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    • pp.224-229
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    • 2011
  • Recently, the management of the marine invasive alien species introduced by ballast water has come to the core as an urgent task. Because, hazardous organisms cause harmful effects on the ecosystem. Hazardous organisms also negatively affect fisheries, commercial shipping activities, and marine resources. In this regard, IMO used to operate GloBallast, Ballast Water Risk Assessment System, in order to manage the introduction of invasive species by ballast water. GloBallast is constructed to assess the relative risk due to the movement of ballast water between nations, using the volume and the number of times of ballast water discharge, the environmental similarity between ports, and the abundance of hazardous species as the main factors. According to the results of the demo-operation of GloBallast, it was found out that the environmental similarity factor had affected most highly the results of risk assessment. Therefore, in this study, the correlation between the main factors used in GloBallast risk assessment were re-examined, and some methods were suggested in order to reflect these main factors in the risk assessment more reasonable.

Health effects on workers and actual exposure of VOCs in the nail shops (네일샵 종사자의 휘발성유기화합물 노출실태와 건강에 미치는 영향)

  • Kim, Nan-Hee;Min, Kyoung-Woo;Cho, Gwang-Woon;Seo, Dong-Ju;Im, Kyeong-Hun;Jeung, Won-Sam;Cho, Young-Gwan;Yang, Jin-Seok
    • Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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    • v.27 no.1
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    • pp.59-69
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    • 2017
  • Objectives: The objective of this study is to evaluate the exposure of VOCs and effects of the chemicals on the nail technicians whose works in a nail shop. Methods: For four month from May to August in 2016, we measured twenty-two kinds of VOCs in ten nail shops and carried out health examinations on thirty-four workers in there. Results: The TVOC concentration in indoor air of nail shops is $0.487mg/m^3$ at a minimum and $33.236mg/m^3$ at a maximum where it consists of 70.5% of Ketones, 25.4% of Alcohols, 2.6% of Esters, 0.8% of Aldehydes and 0.7% of Aromatics. The VOCs concentration during nail art works shows an increase in average ratio 1.8 compared to the concentration of indoor air quality and also the concentration of Isopropanol rose with 3.2 of the highest ratio. The results of Spearman correlation between TVOC concentration in indoor air and environmental factor was like that has significance level of correlation(${\rho}$<0.05, r=0.682) in case of number of customers per day, but the other factors were not meaningful in correlation. Correlation between VOCs and medical check-up items was like that has positive significance level(${\rho}$<0.01, r=0.638) between isopropanol and GPT, but the others have not meaningful. The exposure level of VOCs was not exceed the criteria exposure level 1 of working environment measuring method which announced by labor ministry in all ten nail shop indoor air quality. Conclusions: In this study although it was not significant correlation between harmful substances and medical check-up items in the nail shop indoor air quality, it is necessary to do more ventilation and to install exhaust facilities because of existing high VOCs concentration in the nail shop indoor air.

An Analysis of the Current Status and Characteristics of Airborne Fungi in Indoor Air in Multi-Use Facilities Nationwide (전국 다중이용시설의 실내공기 부유 곰팡이의 현황 및 특성 분석)

  • Park, Yongsung;Kwon, Soonhyun;Park, Song-Yi;Kee, Sun-Ho;Yoon, Wonsuck
    • Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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    • v.48 no.5
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    • pp.282-289
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    • 2022
  • Background: Airborne fungi are ubiquitous in the air and exposure to an airborne fungus can be a significant risk factor. The composition of fungi has been potentially important for human health, especially for respiratory diseases like asthma and atopic dermatitis. Therefore, we attempted to ascertain what kind of airborne fungi affect human health at a nationwide level. Objectives: This study was carried out to provide information on indoor fungi distribution at multi-use facilities throughout South Korea. Methods: We classified our data by region and public facility after collection, cultivation, and identification via the sequencing of the ITS (internal transcribed spacer) region. We investigated whether or not the proliferation of HaCaT cells was affected by the identified airborne fungi. Results: In our data, the most isolated airborne fungi by region were Penicillium spp (Seoul, Daegu), Periconia sp (Gyeonggi-do), Iprex sp (Gangwon-do), Phanerochaete sp (Busan), Bjerkandera sp (Gwangju), and Aspergillus sp (Jeju-do). In the public facilities, the most detected fungi were Cladosporium sp (public transport), Penicillium sp (apartment house, retail market, financial institution, karaoke room), Bjerokandera sp (underground parking lot, public toilet, medical institution), Periconia sp (retail store), and Fusarium sp (general restaurant). Next, we selected twenty airborne fungi to examine their cytotoxicity and proliferation of human skin cells. In this experiment, the proliferation of the cells was influenced by most of the identified fungi. In case of the cytotoxicity test, most genera except for Rhodotorula sp and Moesziomyces sp showed cytotoxicity in HaCaT cells. Conclusions: The distribution of mold in the indoor air in multi-use facilities in South Korea differs from region to region, and this is an indicator that should be considered in future health impact studies. In addition, as a result of culturing about 20 types of bacteria dominant in indoor air, it was found that most (90%) inhibit the growth of skin cells, which can be harmful to health. An in-depth study of the health effects of floating fungi is needed.

A Direction of the Monitoring of Household Chemical Products in Aquatic Environments: The Necessities for a Trophic Magnification Factor (TMF) Research on Fish (다양한 수생태계에 적용 가능한 유해물질의 영양확대계수 (trophic magnification factor, TMF) 연구 - 생활화학제품에서 기인한 성분과 어류조사를 중심으로)

  • Eun-Ji Won;Ha-Eun Cho;Dokyun Kim;Seongjin Hong;Kyung-Hoon Shin
    • Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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    • v.55 no.3
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    • pp.185-200
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    • 2022
  • The risk of various hazardous substances in aquatic environment comprises not only the concentration of substances in the environmental medium but also their accumulation in fish through complex food web and the health risks to humans through the fish. In Korea, the monitoring of residual toxicant in aquatic ecosystems began in 2016 following the enforcement of the Acts on registration and evaluation for the management of chemicals used in daily life (consumer chemical products), and attention has been paid to potentially hazardous substances attributed to them. Recently, studies have been carried out to investigate the distribution of these hazardous substances in the ecosystem and calculate their emission factors. These include the accumulation and transport of substances, such as detergents, dyes, fragrances, cosmetics, and disinfectants, within trophic levels. This study summarizes the results of recently published research on the inflow and distribution of hazardous substances from consumer chemical products to the aquatic environment and presents the scientific implication. Based on studies on aquatic environment monitoring techniques, this study suggests research directions for monitoring the residual concentration and distribution of harmful chemical substances in aquatic ecosystems. In particular, this study introduces the directions for research on trophic position analysis using compound specific isotope analysis and trophic magnification factors, which are needed to fulfill the contemporary requirements of selecting target fish based on the survey of major fish that inhabit domestic waters and assessment of associated health risk. In addition, this study provides suggestions for future biota monitoring and chemical research in Korea.

Comparison of Fit Factor for Healthcare Workers Before and After Training with the N95 Mask (의료용 N95 마스크 착용방법에 대한 교육 전·후 밀착계수 비교)

  • Kim, Hyunwook;Baek, Jung Eun;Seo, Hye Kyung;Lee, Jong-Eun;Myong, Jun-Pyo;Lee, Seung-Joo;Lee, Jin-Ho
    • Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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    • v.24 no.4
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    • pp.528-535
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    • 2014
  • Objectives: This study compares the differences of fit factors before and after training on the N95 mask. The results will be utilized to suggest the need of providing effective training on respirator use. Methods: A total of 49 study subjects were tested, comprised of nurses from a general hospital and undergraduate nursing students from a medical school. Anthropometric measurements of face length and face width were compared with the NIOSH(National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) panel. Fit factors(FF) were measured with TSI Portacount Pro+8038 before and after on-site training regarding the proper use of respirators. The FF pass/fail criterion was set at 100. Results: Two subjects(4.1 %) passed the fit test before training on use of the N95. However, 36(73.5%) of the 49 passed the test after training. Overall the FF(GM(GSD)) was 13.4(3.2) before training, but improved to 106.6(2.1) after training, which was statistically significant. These findings suggest the efficacy of educational intervention, and the performance of the direct on-site training proved to be better than that of the traditional educational methods. Conclusions: This study showed the effect of on-site training of the N95 respirator among health care workers(HCW). Therefore, providing effective training on the use of N95 for HCWs before their work assignments will greatly reduce exposure to harmful agents. It is recommended that fit testing be mandated to check for adequate protection being provided by the given respirators.

Construction and Applicability of GIS-Based Grave Management System (GIS기반 분묘관리시스템의 구축 및 적용)

  • Lee, Jin-Duk;Lee, Seong-Hwan
    • Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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    • v.14 no.4
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    • pp.208-220
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    • 2011
  • Korean traditional practice that gets a gravesite for burial and reckless grave establishment not only obstructs systematic national land management and reasonable urban development, but also causes a serious factor which has a harmful effect on natural environment and residential space in reality that our country is limited in area and national and social bases for use and establishment of graves are still inadequite. Though government and local governments have tried to cope with these problems by enacting legislation on funeral and others and so forth, they still have a variety of problems due to the shortage of grave management systems and information of accumulated individual graves. This study describes about the development of a GIS-based grave management system for making administrative management for individual cemeteries the prime object. As a result of application to a pilot area, the system developed in this study was able to be applied for supporting the time-limited burial system and managing cemeteries for those who left no relatives behind by constructing the database with grave-related position/attribute information which are collected by administrative system or direct survey. In addition, it is expected that this system will be utilized as a systematic management method that can be handed down the present or the future descendants under the tradition of the family-oriented funeral culture.

Optimal Growth Model of the Cochlodinium Polykrikoides (Cochlodinium Polykrikoides 최적 성장모형)

  • Cho, Hong-Yeon;Cho, Beom Jun
    • Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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    • v.26 no.4
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    • pp.217-224
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    • 2014
  • Cochlodinium polykrikoides is a typical harmful algal species which generates the red-tide in the coastal zone, southern Korea. Accurate algal growth model can be established and then the prediction of the red-tide occurrence using this model is possible if the information on the optimal growth model parameters are available because it is directly related between the red-tide occurrence and the rapid algal bloom. However, the limitation factors on the algal growth, such as light intensity, water temperature, salinity, and nutrient concentrations, are so diverse and also the limitation function types are diverse. Thus, the study on the algal growth model development using the available laboratory data set on the growth rate change due to the limitation factors are relatively very poor in the perspective of the model. In this study, the growth model on the C. polykrikoides are developed and suggested as the optimal model which can be used as the element model in the red-tide or ecological models. The optimal parameter estimation and an error analysis are carried out using the available previous research results and data sets. This model can be used for the difference analysis between the lab. condition and in-situ state because it is an optimal model for the lab. condition. The parameter values and ranges also can be used for the model calibration and validation using the in-situ monitoring environmental and algal bloom data sets.

Integrated Management Strategy of Vehicle Emission Reduction Policies Based on Total Benefits and Co-benefits (총 편익과 공 편익에 기반한 자동차 배출저감 정책의 통합관리 전략)

  • LEE, Kyu Jin;PARK, Kwan Hwee;SHIM, Sang Woo;CHOI, Keechoo
    • Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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    • v.33 no.4
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    • pp.357-367
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    • 2015
  • This study aims to propose integrated management strategies based on the relationship between co-benefits and total benefits of greenhouse gases and air pollutant emissions for establishing a transport and environmental policy. The results show that the integrated management of the following policies: 'Car Free Day' and 'Early Scrapping of Decrepit Diesel Vehicle', which are used for reducing reduce gasoline and diesel, can together reduce both PM and $CO_2$ emissions and increase total benefits. In addition, the integrated management of 'Car Free Day' with environment policies and 'Congestion Charge' with environment policies simultaneously controls the three factors which influence emissions, including travel volume, travel speed and emissions factor, and was found to be effective in terms of co-benefits. This study reduces both air pollutants, which are harmful to health, and greenhouse gas emissions, which influence climate change, and improves the efficiency of policy through the integrated management of policies.