• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.767-780
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• 2009

This study investigates the standard, duration period and excess mortality of extreme heat using the standardized daily mortality data from 1991 to 2004, establishing a standard threshold Criteria for Heat Health Watch Warning System in Korea. It ultimately aims to provide the guidance in building up Heat Health Watch Warning System for Korea by suggesting the standard to quantify thermal stress from heat. The standard threshold Criteria for Heat Health Watch Warning System for Seoul metropolitan city takes into account both daily maximum temperature and daily maximum heat index(HI) and consists of four phases; caution, extreme caution, danger, and extreme danger. Extreme caution phase and danger phase are used as the advisory and warning of extreme heat, respectively. Since the nationwide distribution of the frequency of extreme heat day and the excess mortality rate shows little difference across regions, the standard threshold Criteria for Heat Health Watch Warning System for Seoul metropolitan city can be used for other regions.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.781-796
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• 2009

The current standard level of Heat Health Watch Warning System consider both daily maximum temperature and daily maximum heat index(HI), but current standard could not consider daily maximum HI due to the difficulties in forecasting when we consider both daily maximum temperature and daily maximum HI and no considering HI because relative humidity could not observed for some regions. So, Newly established standard level of Heat Health Watch Warning System is based on daily maximum temperature exceeding $30^{\circ}C$ for two consecutive days or daily minimum temperature exceeding $25^{\circ}C$ and daily maximum temperature exceeding $30^{\circ}C$. These days are called "extreme heat days". On extreme heat days, the standard of extreme heat advisory is based on daily maximum temperature among exceeding $32.7^{\circ}C$ and not exceeding $34.8^{\circ}C$, and extreme heat warning is based on daily maximum temperature exceeding $34.8^{\circ}C$. ANOVA analysis was carried out using the data of Seoul Metropolitan City in 1994 to check the robustness of the new standard level of Heat Health Watch Warning System from this study, in particular for mortality variable. The results reveal that the new standard specifies excess mortality well, showing significance level of 0.05 in the difference of excess mortality for each phase.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.277-285
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• 2019

Heat watch warning systems are operating in Korea and several other countries (China, the United Kingdom, France, the United States, Germany, Australia, and Japan). The heat wave indices used in this system are the heat index, perceived temperature, the wet bulb globe temperature, and the daily maximum temperature. To improve the heat wave advisory and warning system, some suggestions have been made. The meteorological-health index (i.e., indirect index), has especially been proposed in previous studies. This information should be provided not only to vulnerable groups (seniors, infants, and children), but also to outdoor workers who may be particularly exposed to heat waves. In addition, to have sufficient preemptive response times, the need for an extension of the heat watch warning period was suggested. Finally, the subdivision of administrative units and risk stages was proposed.

• 한국방재학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.02a
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• pp.385-388
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• 2008

Recently, occurrence frequency of natural disaster decrease but scale of damage increase remarkably by the Climate change due to global warming. Especially, extreme heat become more critical wether problem in the Korean Peninsula. But, we don't have exact threshold about extreme heat. Therefore, to assess the influences by the extreme heat on personal injury, we analyzed statistics on the causes of the daily mortality. And we developed a threshold for extreme heat health watch warning system.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.109-120
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• 2010

Heat wave is a disaster, which increases morbidity and mortality in temperate regions. Climate model results indicate that both intensity and frequency of heat wave in the future will be increased. This study shows the result about relationship between excess mortality and offensive airmass in 7 metropolitan cities, and an operational Heat-Health Warning System (HHWS) in Korea. Using meteorological observations, the Spatial Synoptic Classification (SSC) has been used to classify each summer day from 1982 to 2007 into specific airmass categories for each city. Through the comparative study analysis of the daily airmass type and the corresponding daily mortality rate, Dry Tropical (DT), and Moist Tropical plus (MT+) were identified as the most offensive airmasses with the highest rates of mortality. Therefore, using the multiple linear regression, forecast algorithm was produced to predict the number of the excess deaths that will occur with each occurrence of the DT and MT+ days. Moreover, each excess death forecast algorithm was implemented for the system warning criteria based on the regional acclimatization differences. HHWS will give warnings to the city's residents under offensive weather situations which can lead to deterioration in public health, under the climate change.

• Atmosphere
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.195-207
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• 2020

This study aims to introduce the structure of the impact-based heat health warning system on 165 counties in South Korea developed by the National Institute of Meteorological Sciences. This system was developed using the daily maximum perceived temperature (PTmax), which is a human physiology-based thermal comfort index, and the Local ENSemble prediction system for the probability forecasts. Also, A risk matrix proposed by the World Meteorological Organization was employed for the impact-based forecasts of this system. The threshold value of the risk matrix was separately set depending on regions. In this system, the risk level was issued as four levels (GREEN, YELLOW, ORANGE, RED) for first, second, and third forecast lead-day (LD1, LD2, and LD3). The daily risk level issued by the system was evaluated using emergency heat-related patients obtained at six cities, including Seoul, Incheon, Daejeon, Gwangju, Daegu, and Busan, for LD1 to LD3. The high-risks level occurred more consistently in the shorter lead time (LD3 → LD1) and the performance (r_s) was increased from 0.42 (LD3) to 0.45 (LD1) in all cities. Especially, it showed good performance (r_s = 0.51) in July and August, when heat stress is highest in South Korea. From an impact-based forecasting perspective, PTmax is one of the most suitable temperature indicators for issuing the health risk warnings by heat in South Korea.

• Atmosphere
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.269-278
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• 2006

Extremely hot weathers may cause major weather-related deaths in the summertime. Influences of heat waves on daily mortalities in 6 major cities of South Korea were investigated. Daily deaths at Seoul were exponentially increased with the daily maximum temperature. However, there were regional differences of the temperature dependence on the mortality because of an acclimation effect of inhabitants. The threshold temperature (with respect to daily maximum temperature) at Seoul was found to be about $31^{\circ}C$ provided that it is determined by a two-phase regression model. The meteorological causes of recordable hot summer in late July of 1994 and their impacts on human health were also investigated. Strong surface heating caused by strong insolation under conditions with clear sky and dry surface due to prolonged drought was likely to be closely associated with the extreme hot weather in 1994 in South Korea.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.617-627
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• 2019

This study investigated the relationship between heat-related illnesses obtained from healthcare big data and daily maximum temperature observed in seven metropolitan cities in summer during 2013~2015. We found a statistically significant positive correlation (r = 0.4~0.6) between daily maximum temperature and number of the heat-related patients from Pearson's correlation analyses. A time lag effect was not observed. Relative Risk (RR) analysis using the Generalized Additive Model (GAM) showed that the RR of heat-related illness increased with increasing threshold temperature (maximum RR = 1.21). A comparison of the RRs of the seven cities, showed that the values were significantly different by geographical location of the city and had different variations for different threshold temperatures. The RRs for elderly people were clearly higher than those for the all-age group. Especially, a maximum value of 1.83 was calculated at the threshold temperature of $35^{\circ}C$ in Seoul. In addition, relatively higher RRs were found for inland cities (Seoul, Gwangju, Daegu, and Daejeon), which had a high frequency of heat waves. These results demonstrate the significant risk of heat-related illness associated with increasing daily maximum temperature and the difference in adaptation ability to heat wave for each city, which could help improve the heat wave advisory and warning system.

• Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.199-204
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• 2008

The bio-molecules involved in defense mechanisms can be used as efficient biomarkers for physiological changes in organisms caused by both of internal and external stress. Thus, the expression level of genes which encoding such molecules serve as critical 'early warning system' for environmental assessment as well as health diagnosis of biological organisms. In this study, Cytochrome P450, Heat shock protein 90, Ubiquitin and ${\beta}$-actin gene were isolated for the first time from a red alga Gracilaria textorii. The quantitative differential gene expression analyses of three genes, GteCYP1A, GteHsp90 and Gte-UB, were carried out in G. textorii sporophytes collected from two different localities, polluted Sujeong (Masan, Korea) and potentially unpolluted Danggeum (Daemaemuldo Is., Korea). The transcripts of all three tested genes were highly expressed in the Sujeong population. The results suggest: 1) the Sujeong site was more polluted than the Danggeum site; 2) G. textorii could be applicable to marine environment monitoring in coastal regions.