• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.48-58
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• 1995

This study was performed to find out the exposure level of mixed organic solvents, excretion of urinary hippuricacid and subjective symptoms according to the exposure of organic solvents of female workers who works on 5 shoes manufacturing industries in Taejon City from 24, september to 20, october 1993. The studied groups were divided into 3 groups that were consist of direct exposure group(48 workers), indirect exposure group(49 workers) and non-exposure group(68 workers) to the organic solvents. The exposure levels of toluene of direct exposure group which $89.86{\pm}56.20ppm$ had higher than that of indirect exposure group which had $40.23{\pm}47.21ppm$. In the exposure level of mixed organic solvent(R-value), direct exposure group was $2.84{\pm}1.53$ and exceeded approximatly 3 times the R-value. Whereas, indirect exposure group was not exceeded the R-value as $0.80{\pm}0.61$. In the excretion level of urinary hippuric acid, direct exposure group was $1.78{\pm}1.25g/l$, indirect exposure group was $1.22{\pm}0.93g/l$ and non-exposure group was $0.51{\pm}0.18g/l$ respectively. Therefore both direct exposure group and indirect exposure group were significantly higher than non-exposure group(P<0.01). In the correlation between toluene levels and urinary hippuric acid level, the direct exposure group had positive correlation(R=0.8309, P<0.01), also indirect exposure group had positive correlation(R=0.5859, P<0.05) and also in the correlation between the R value of mixed organic solvents and the urinary hippuric acid levels, the direct exposure group had positive correlation(R=0.4492, P<0.05), and indirect exposure group had ositive correlation(R=0.7911, P<0.01). In the complain rates of the worker's subjective symptoms at work, both direct exposure group and indirect exposure group were higher than non-exposure group(P<0.05, P<0.01). But the sujective symptoms of "floating sensation" of direct exposure group had significantly higher than indirect exposure group. In the percent of subjective symptoms complaints during the worker's daily life, both direct exposure group and indirect exposure group had generally more statistical significance than nonexposure group(P<0.01), direct exposure group had not statistical significant difference from indirect exposure group. As the results mentioned above, it has been analysed that the indirect at the adjacent manufaturing process are exposed to the considerable amount of solvent. Therefore, I think that there should be the betterment of surrounding through the complete working environment management to the occurrence source of the organic solvent, the changes of health management system to the indirect-exposed workers, and the systematic management of the special medical examination and the like.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.35-47
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• 2014

The purpose of the study is to evaluate the pollution level (gaseous and particle phase) in the public facilities for the PAHs, non-regulated materials, forecast the risk level by the health risk assessment (HRA) and propose the guideline level. PAH assessments through sampling of particulate matter of diameter < 2.5 ${\mu}m$ ($PM_{2.5}$). The user and worker exposure scenario for the PAHs consists of 24-hour exposure scenario (WIES) assuming the worst case and the normal exposure scenario (MIES) based on the survey. This study investigated 20 PAH substances selected out of 32 substances known to be carcinogenic or potentially carcinogenic. The risk assessment applies major toxic equivalency factor (TEF) proposed from existing studies and estaimates individual Excess Cancer Risk (ECR). The study assesses the fine dusts ($PM_{2.5}$) and the exposure levels of the gaseous and particle PAH materials for 6 spots in each 8 facility, e.g. underground subway stations, child-care facilities, elderly care facilities, super market, indoor parking lot, terminal waiting room, internet caf$\acute{e}$ (PC-rooms), movie theater. For internet caf$\acute{e}$ (PC-rooms) in particular, that marks the highest $PM_{2.5}$ concentration and the average concentration of 10 spots (2 spots for each cafe) is 73.3 ${\mu}g/m^3$ (range: 6.8-185.2 ${\mu}g/m^3$). The high level of $PM_{2.5}$ seen in internet cafes was likely due to indoor smoking in most cases. For the gaseous PAHs, the detection frequency for 4-5 rings shows high and the elements with 6 rings shows low frequency. For the particle PAHs, the detection frequency for 2-3 rings shows low and the elements with 6 rings show high frequency. As a result, it is investigated that the most important PAHs are the naphthalene, acenaphthene and phenanthrene from the study of Kim et al. (2013) and this annual study. The health risk assessment demonstrates that each facility shows the level of $10^{-6}-10^{-4}$. Considering standards and local source of pollution levels, it is judged that the management standard of the benzo (a)pyrene, one of the PAHs, shall be managed with the range of 0.5-1.2 $ng/m^3$. Smoking and ventilation were considered as the most important PAHs exposure associated with public facility $PM_{2.5}$. This study only estimated for inhalation health risk of PAHs and focused on the associated cancer risk, while multiple measurements would be necessary for public health and policy.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.413-424
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• 2020

Environmental policies and industry practices have recently seen a gradual paradigm shift from reactive management to proactive prevention of environmental impacts. Accordingly, preventive conservation policies are carried out to address the increasing value of protecting soils and soil functions as resources are limited. To propose a direction for future soil erosion research, we analyzed domestic and international research trends of soil erosion, based on journal papers retrieved from the Web of Science databases over the last decade, using VOSviewer for keyword co-occurrence analysis. The results showed that the number of publications on soil erosion per land area in Korea ranked high worldwide. In particular, studies on the soil erosion control were found to account for a more significant proportion than other countries. The active ongoing studies on soil erosion in Korea indicate that the country has recognized the severity of soil erosion resulting from climate, topography, and land use. However, the number of keywords found in the studies on the soil erosion control in Korea was relatively smaller than those found at the international level, indicating the need to diversify and expand the study subjects. In particular, studies on the soil erosion process and the related physical and chemical soil properties are necessary to find the fundamental solutions to soil erosion problems.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.59-65
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to analyze the risk of the forest fire, considering the topography and the forest, for establishing disaster prevention measures of cultural heritage, Uireung, over in Cheonjang-mountain. To do that, we estimate the occurrence and spread of the forest fire over in Cheonjang-mountain through a forest fire probability model(logistic regression), using the space characteristic data($100m{\times}100m$). The factor, occurrence of the forest fire, are diameter class, southeast, southwest, south, coniferous, deciduous, and mixed forest. We assume the probability of the fire forest in each point as follow : [1+exp{-(-4.8081-(0.02453*diameter class)+(0.6608*southeast)+(0.507*southwest)+(0.7943*south)+(0.29498*coniferous forest)+(0.28897*deciduous forest)+(0.17788*mixed forest))}]$^{-1}$. To divide dangerous zone of the big forest fire, we make the basic materials for disaster prevention measures, through the map of coniferous forests, deciduous forests, and mixed forest. The damage of cultural heritage caused by a forest fire will be reduced through the effective preventive measures, by forecast a forest fire to using this study.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.55-62
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• 2018

Objectives: This study set out to measure the heavy metal concentrations in waste water produced in the casting pickling process at dental technical laboratories and examine the actual state of its treatment. Methods:The investigator measured the concentrations of each heavy metal at 55 dental technical laboratories using an inductively coupled plasma optical emission system. Results: The annual usage of electrolytes was under 10 L in 50 (90.9%), and was 10L or more in five (9.1%) laboratories. Among the laboratories, 15 (27.3%) commissioned the treatment of waste,12 (21.8%) treated the waste with general sewage,and 28 (50.9%) treated the waste in aseptic tank. The arithmetic $mean{\pm}standard$ deviation and the geometric mean of chrome(Cr) were $75.3{\pm}50.9$ and 58.3 mg/L; those of cobalt (Co) were $112.3{\pm}106.7$ and 66.1 mg/L; those of nickel (Ni) were $62.9{\pm}83.5$ and 8.9 mg/L; those of molybdenum (Mo) were $17.1{\pm}13.4$ and 12.0 mg/L; those of iron (Fe) were $31.5{\pm}44.1$ and 6.2 mg/L; those of lead (Pb) were $0.3{\pm}0.3$ and 0.3 mg/L; those of beryllium (Be) were $3.6{\pm}3.6$ and 2.0 mg/L. The hydrogen ion concentration was under pH 2 across all the samples. Conclusions: The findings show that the dental technical laboratories were not doing well with the separation, storage, collection, and treatment of the electrolytes they discarded, and that most of the electrolytes were introduced through the general sewage or aseptic tank. The causes of this include alack of perception among the practitioners at dental technical laboratories and contracted companies avoiding collection for economic reasons. There is a need for education to improve the perceptions of waste water treatment among the practitioners at dental technical laboratories. Environment-related departments should be stricter with legal applications in the central and local governments. It is also required to provide proper management of commissioned treatment.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.248-254
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• 2022

Background: Occupational hazards in crop farms vary diversely based on different field operations as soil management, harvesting processes, pesticide, or fertilizer application. We aimed at evaluating the immunological status of crop farmers, as limited systematic investigations on immune alteration involved with crop farming have been reported yet. Methods: Immunological parameters including plasma immunoglobulin level, major peripheral immune cells distribution, and level of cytokine production from activated T cell were conducted. Nineteen grape orchard, 48 onion open-field, and 21 rose greenhouse farmers were participated. Results: Significantly low proportion of natural killer (NK) cell, a core cell for innate immunity, was revealed in the grape farmers (19.8±3.3%) in comparison to the onion farmers (26.4±3.1%) and the rose farmers (26.9±2.5%), whereas cytotoxic T lymphocyte proportion was lower in the grape and the onion farmers than the rose farmers. The proportion of NKT cell, an immune cell implicated with allergic response, was significantly higher in the grape (2.3±0.3%) and the onion (1.6±0.8%) farmers compared with the rose farmers (1.0±0.4%). A significantly decreased interferon-gamma:interleukin-13 ratio was observed from ex vivo stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells of grape farmers compared with the other two groups. The grape farmers revealed the lowest levels of plasma IgG1 and IgG4, and their plasma IgE level was not significantly different from that of the onion or the rose farmers. Conclusion: Our finding suggests the high vulnerability of workplace-mediated allergic immunity in grape orchard farmers followed by open-field onion farmers and then the rose greenhouse farmers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.42 no.9
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• pp.1387-1394
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• 2013

Allergies are one of the most common chronic diseases during childhood. While the prevalence of allergic disease in children is increasing dramatically, few studies have evaluated the risk and preventive factors related to this health condition, especially in South Korea. The purpose of this case-control study was to evaluate independent determinants of allergic disease, and to examine whether it is associated with growth and other health conditions in childhood. The current study included 209 cases and 311 age and sex-matched controls (fifth and sixth graders) residing in Daegu, South Korea. Environmental data was collected, including child and family histories of allergies, birth information, and reaction to weaning foods during infancy. In addition, current dietary habits (assessed by 2 day-24 hr food records), health conditions, and anthropometric data were obtained through questionnaires and student health check-ups at the school. Based on chi-square tests, cases had a significantly higher prevalence of having a disease at birth, an allergic reaction to weaning foods, frequent hospital visits, and frequent experiences of the common cold and digestive diseases. In addition, significantly more mothers had a higher education in the cases compared to controls. Based on multivariable conditional logistic regression analysis, factors significantly associated with greater odds for having allergies were parental (OR=21.42) and fraternal (OR=14.40) histories of allergies. The anthropometric measures showed that cases tended to be shorter in height and lighter in weight than the controls, but these differences were not statistically significant. These findings may indicate that current nutrient intakes may not be the only critical factor associated with delayed growth delay in the allergic group. A well-planned, large cohort study is warranted to confirm our findings in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.411-438
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• 2024

This study aims to identify and comprehensively view health information-related research trends using a bibliometric analysis. To this end, 1,193 papers from 2002 to 2023 related to "health information" were collected through the Korea Citation Index (KCI) database and analyzed in diverse aspects: research trends by period, academic fields, intellectual structure, and keyword changes. Results indicated that the number of papers related to health information continued to increase and has been decreasing since 2021. The main academic fields of health information-related research included "biomedical engineering," "preventive medicine/occupational environmental medicine," "law," "nursing," "library and information science," and "interdisciplinary research." Moreover, a co-word analysis was performed to understand the intellectual structure of research related to health information. As a result of applying the parallel nearest neighbor clustering (PNNC) algorithm to identify the structure and cluster of the derived network, four clusters and 17 subgroups belonging to them could be identified, centering on two conglomerates: "medical engineering perspective on health information" and "social science perspective on health information." An inflection point analysis was attempted to track the timing of change in the academic field and keywords, and common changes were observed between 2010 and 2011. Finally, a strategy diagram was derived through the average publication year and word frequency, and high-frequency keywords were presented by dividing them into "promising," "growth," and "mature." Unlike previous studies that mainly focused on content analysis, this study is meaningful in that it viewed the research area related to health information from an integrated perspective using various bibliometric methods.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.69-92
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• 2001

The purposes of this study were to offer foundation making more certain standards of musculoskeletal disorder diagnosis, We researched musculoskeletal symptoms degrees, frequencies, and cares and then examined relation between musculoskeletal symptoms and diagnosis of musculoskeletal conditions using moire topography among workers at an automobile manufacturing plant. Therefore we propose the possibility of moire topography as diagnosing utilities of musculoskeletal disorders. Methods: This study was to examine the general characteristics, complaints of musculoskeletal symptoms, and work-related musculoskeletal disorder rates of cervicobrachial and lumbar area by survey among 435 workers at an automobile manufacturing plant and then to show each frequency and percentage, In the diagnosis using moire topography, we studied pain control necessity of cervicobrachial and lumbar area, 435 subjects were classified by 5 levels: A(no symptoms), B(need management), C(need treatment) and then more divided by B1(light symptoms)/B2(heavy symptoms), C1(light symptoms)/C2(heavy symptoms), And musculoskeletal areas were divided by 2 parts, cervicobrachial area(neck, shoulder, arm&elbow, and wrist&hand) and lumbar area, Then, frequency and percentage of each musculoskeletal areas(cervicobrachial and lumbar area) were appeared. At last, Pearson's chi-square test analysis was utilized to observe the relation between diagnosis using moire topography and general characteristics and the relation between diagnosis using moire topography and work-related complaint of musculoskeletal symptoms of cervicobrachial and lumbar area, Results: The subjects employed for this research were categorized into; by gender, all of them were males(l00%): by age, under 35 years 12 %, 36-40 years 56.3%, 41-45 years 26.3 %, and above 46 years 5.3% with 36-40 years accounting for most of it. By living location, owned houses represented 69.7%, rented houses 23.4%, monthly-rented 1.6%, the others 5.3%; by education, middle school and lower represented 3.0%, high school 89.4%, and junior college and higher 7.6% with high school occupying most of the group. By marital status, married represented 95.2%, unmarried 4.1%, and the others 0.7% with most of them married; by alcohol, drinking represented 81.8% and non-drinking 18.2%; by smoking status, smoking represented 53.6%, non-smoking 46.4% with no big difference between them. By working time(hours/week), below 50 represented 26.9%, 50-60 67.6%, above 60 5.5%; by working time(hours/day), below 9 represented 21.6%, 10-12 73.1%, above 13 5.3%; by job tenure(years), below 10 represented 25.1%, 11-15 54.3%, 16-20 15.2%, above 21 5.5%. By personal income per year, below 30 million won represented 11.0%, 30-40 84.8%, above 40 4.1%; by sleeping hours, below 6 hours represented 26.7%, 7-8 hours 69.9%, above 9 hours 3.4%. Complaint rates of musculoskeletal symptoms and work-related musculoskeletal disorder rates were 63.9% and 54.9% with shoulder area occupying most of both them. By pain degree of musculoskeletal symptoms, shoulder area represented $2.73{\pm}0.84$, lumbar area $2.66{\pm}0.86$, wrist and hand area $2.59{\pm}0.86$, neck area $2.55{\pm}0.74$, and arm and elbow area $2.48{\pm}0.71$. By cares about musculoskeletal symptoms, taking medication or care represented 34.4%-46.7%, absence or leave 15.4%-28.7%, and job transfer 6.3%-11.5%. So experienced cases more than one thing among cares about musculoskeletal symptoms represented 39.6%-54%. In the diagnosis using moire topography, pain control necessity of cervicobrachial area was shown below; A(no symptoms) 20.7%, B1(need management/light symptoms) 64.6%, B2(need management/heavy symptoms) 11.5%, C1(need treatment/light symptoms) 3.0%, C2(need treatment/heavy symptoms) 0.2%. By lumbar area, A(no symptoms) 8.7%, B1(need management/light symptoms) 52.2%, B2(need management/heavy symptoms) 30.3%, C1(need treatment/light symptoms) 8.7%, C2(need treatment/heavy symptoms) was none. In the relation between pain control necessity and general characteristics, age(P=0.013), education(P=0.000), and job tenure(P=0.012) with pain control necessity showed differences with significance. The relation between pain control necessity and complaint of musculoskeletal symptoms of cervicobrachial and lumbar area showed no difference with significance; in cervicobrachial area represented P=0.708, lumbar area P=0.318 Conclusions: This study for musculoskeletal symptoms on workers at automobile manufacturing plant showed that complaint rates of musculoskeletal symptoms for cervicobrachial and lumbar area were so high, 63.9%. But Pearson's chi-square test analysis was utilized to study the relation between musculoskeletal symptoms and the diagnosis using moire topography, showed no differences with significance. They have no differences with significance, but the prevalence rates of diagnosis using moire topography for cervicobrachial and lumbar area were more higher than complaint rates of musculoskeletal symptoms; complaint rates of musculoskeletal symptoms were 52.4%, 34.5% and the diagnosis using moire topography were 79.3%, 91.3% for cervicobrachial and lumbar area. The results of this study indicate that the diagnosis using moire topography can find weak musculoskeletal disorders that an individual can not feel, not be judged work-related musculoskeletal disease. Therefore, this study has an important meaning that diagnosis using moire topography can predict and control own physical condition complete musculoskeletal disorders beforehand, since oriental medicine theory considers that prevention is important.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.38-51
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• 2015

In the maps of the period, there were three large ponds called Dongji(東池), Seoji(西池) and Namji(南池) in Hanyang, the capital of Joseon Dynasty. They were different than the ponds found in the palace, civic buildings, and private dwellings. Dongji, Seoji and Namji were ponds relating to Fortress wall of Seoul, and all had lotuses cultivated in them. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the locational and spatial characteristics of these ponds and to detail the construction and reconstruction process and management conditions through maps, drawings, illustrations, historical records and literary works from the urban environmental perspective. The results are as follows. First, Seoji and Namji were intended for Bibo(裨補) which redeemed the geographical weaknesses of Hanyang, securement of bright court water(明堂水), supplement for fire energy(火氣), fire preventive water and waterscape facilities, while Dongji was emphasized on protecting water mouth(水口) besides Bibo and securement of bright court water. Second, Seoji was connected to mountain streams and Dongji and Namji were to ditches. The ponds connected to ditches had been difficult to fill and maintain. Third, Seoji and Namji were in urban areas, whereas Dongji was in farmlands, and these locational differences had an influence on the use of ponds. Fourth, the shapes of ponds, in contrast to the ponds in palace and civic buildings, which were perfectly square, were either freeform or square with rounded edges. Fifth, lotus ponds could be maintained by continuous management polices, earth filling and reconstructing process were repeated during the Joseon Dynasty. The lotus ponds of Fortress Wall of Seoul which had managed over 500 years, were built in, in accordance with the tenets of Bibo pungsu geomancy; however as time passed, they were maintained not only as public open spaces, but also a cultural attraction for residents and visitors.