• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.30
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• pp.4.1-4.11
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• 2015

Objectives: This survey was designed to conduct the first nationwide dietary exposure assessment on hazardous substances including the intakes of functional food and herbal medicine. In this paper, we introduced the survey design and the results of the dietary exposure status and internal exposure levels of lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), and mercury (Hg). Methods: We selected 4867 subjects of all ages throughout Korea. We conducted a food survey, dietary survey, biomonitoring, and health survey. Results: Pb and Cd were the highest (median value) in the seaweed ($94.2{\mu}g/kg$ for Pb; $594{\mu}g/kg$ for Cd), and Hg was the highest in the fish ($46.4{\mu}g/kg$). The dietary exposure level (median value) of Pb was $0.14{\mu}g/kg$ body weight (bw)/d, $0.18{\mu}g/kg$ bw/d for Cd, and $0.07{\mu}g/kg$ bw/d for Hg. Those with a blood Pb level of less than $5.00{\mu}g/dL$ (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reference value for those 1 to 5 years of age) were 99.0% of all the subjects. Those with a blood Cd level with less than $0.30{\mu}g/L$ (German Federal Environmental Agency, reference value for non-smoking children) were 24.5%. For those with a blood Hg level with less than $5.00{\mu}g/L$ (human biomonitoring I, references value for children and adults, German Federal Environmental Agency) was 81.0 % of all the subjects. Conclusions: The main dietary exposure of heavy metals occurs through food consumed in a large quantity and high frequency. The blood Hg level and dietary exposure level of Hg were both higher than those in the European Union.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.298-306
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• 2017

Objectives: Since 1998, the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) has been conducted in order to investigate the health and nutritional status of Koreans. The food intake data of individuals in the KNHANES has also been utilized as source dataset for risk assessment of chemicals via food. To improve the reliability of intake estimation and prevent missing data for less-responded foods, the structure of integrated long-standing datasets is significant. However, it is difficult to merge multi-year survey datasets due to ineffective cleaning processes for handling extensive numbers of codes for each food item along with changes in dietary habits over time. Therefore, this study aims at 1) cleaning the process of abnormal data 2) generation of integrated long-standing raw data, and 3) contributing to the production of consistent dietary exposure factors. Methods: Codebooks, the guideline book, and raw intake data from KNHANES V and VI were used for analysis. The violation of the primary key constraint and the $1^{st}-3rd$ normal form in relational database theory were tested for the codebook and the structure of the raw data, respectively. Afterwards, the cleaning process was executed for the raw data by using these integrated codes. Results: Duplication of key records and abnormality in table structures were observed. However, after adjusting according to the suggested method above, the codes were corrected and integrated codes were newly created. Finally, we were able to clean the raw data provided by respondents to the KNHANES survey. Conclusion: The results of this study will contribute to the integration of the multi-year datasets and help improve the data production system by clarifying, testing, and verifying the primary key, integrity of the code, and primitive data structure according to the database normalization theory in the national health data.