• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.59-63
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• 2007

Objectives : Nitrogen dioxide $(NO_2)$ has been inconsistently associated with gradual decreases in lung function. Here, we studied the effects of $NO_2$ exposure in asthmatics by examining the association between changes in lung function and concentrations of $NO_2$ which were personally measured. Methods : Peak expiratory flow (PEF) and daily personal exposures to $NO_2$ were recorded on 28 patients with asthma (confirmed by methacholine provocation test) over 4 weeks. We used generalized estimating equations to assess the relationship between personal $NO_2$ exposure and PEF, adjusting for potential confounders such as age, gender, outdoor particulate matter, temperature, humidity, and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. Results : The personal $NO_2$ exposures were higher than the corresponding ambient levels. The mean personal: ambient ratio for $NO_2$ was 1.48. The personal $NO_2$ exposures were not associated with the morning PEF, evening PEF, or the diurnal PEF variability. However, environmental tobacco smoke was negatively associated with both the morning and evening PEF. Conclusions : Among the asthmatic adults who participated in this study, we found no apparent impact of personal $NO_2$ exposures on the peak expiratory flow.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.9 no.12
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• pp.295-299
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• 2018

The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between the level urine cotinine and periodontal diseases in Korea adults. The date from the 2014, 2015 Korean National Health and Nutrition Survey were used, and 5,146 subjects over 30 years were included in the analysis. Periodontal disease was assessed using the Community Periodontal Index. Binary logistic regression model was used to estimate the odds ratio with 95% confidence intervals. There was a 2.08-fold (95% CI; 1.73-2.05) increased in the odds of periodontal disease for those with any ETS exposure compared with those with non-smokers following adjustment for sex, age, education, and income. The level of urine cotinine also showed a dose-dependent increase in extent of periodontal disease. Among persons in the Korea who had never used tobacco, those exposed to ETS were more likely to have periodontal disease than were those not exposed to ETS. In the future, voluntary compliance of smokers to measures to reduce ETS exposure should be encouraged.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.87-100
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• 2021

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to analyze the factors affecting Bisphenol A (BPA) exposure in children and adolescents using the results of the Korean National Environmental Health Survey (KoNEHS) cycle 3. Methods: A total of 2,380 subjects (n=571, 887, and 922 for 3-5, 6-11, and 12-17 years of age, respectively) were analyzed using an environmental exposure survey and environmental chemical substances concentration levels. Univariable linear regression analysis was performed to determine associated variables such as sex, age, income level, housing type, secondhand smoke time, cup noodles and canned food consumption, seafood consumption, new furniture (within the previous six months), drinking water type, and consumption of herbal medicines. Variables with p-values of less than 0.2 were extracted from the results and a multivariable linear regression analysis was performed using stepwise selection. Results: Univariable linear regression analysis showed positive associations between BPA concentration levels and variables including sex, age, secondhand smoke time, new furniture (within the previous six months), renovated living space (within the previous six months), fish and shellfish consumption, plastic-bottled drink consumption, and herbal medicine. As a result of performing multivariable linear regression analysis, the lower was the age the higher was the concentration of BPA levels. Additionally, women showed higher BPA levels than those of men. The more frequently fish was consumed, the higher was the BPA concentration. Moreover, higher BPA concentrations were observed when taking herbal medicine. Conclusions: The main factors affecting BPA concentration levels were age, gender, and consumption of fish and herbal medicine.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.153-159
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• 2021

Objectives: Life course exposure to passive smoke may predict health, but there are few validated measures. We tested the reliability and validity of a retrospective life course passive smoking questionnaire. Methods: Participants from the third follow-up of the Childhood Determinants of Adult Health study (2014-2019, ages 36-49 years) retrospectively reported mother/father/other household member smoking when living at home during childhood, including duration (years) and smoking location (never/sometimes/always inside house). The severity of exposure index (SEI; sum of mother/father/other years smoked multiplied by smoking location), cumulative years of exposure (CYE; sum of mother/father/other years), and total household smokers (THS) were derived. The reliability of retrospective passive smoking reports was examined with intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) using household smoking reported 34 years earlier in 1985 by participants when aged 7-15 years. Construct validity was examined by correlating retrospective passive smoking with participants' smoking in adulthood and lung function in childhood and adulthood. Results: Among 2082 participants (mean±standard deviation [SD], 45.0±2.5 years; 55.2% females), THS ranged from 0 to 5 (mean±SD, 0.9±1.0), CYE ranged from 0 to 106 (mean±SD, 10.5±13.9), and SEI ranged from 0 to 318 (mean±SD, 24.4±36.0). Retrospective measures showed moderate agreement with total household smokers reported in childhood (ICC, 0.58 to 0.62). The retrospective measures were weakly but significantly (p<0.05) correlated with participants' smoking (r=0.13 to 0.15) and lung function (r= -0.05 to -0.06). Conclusions: The retrospective passive smoking questionnaire showed reasonable reliability and validity. This measure may be useful for epidemiological studies.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Veterinary Pathology Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.88-88
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Veterinary Pathology Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.87-87
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• 2005

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.281-287
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• 2006

Cigarette smoke causes atypical structure of pulmonary and oxidative damage. Therefore, we carried out to determine if exposure to cigarette smoke alters pulmonary structure and anti-oxidant related enzyme in a animal model, when natural product extracts using by Nebulizer. The rat were divided into four groups: $H_2O-treated$ (Control), natural product (Camellia sinensis) extracts-treated (CS), natural product extracts-treated with cigarette smoke-exposed (CS+SM) and cigarette smoke-expose (SM). All groups are similar to Control group in weight, but SM group is lower than the other groups. Microscopic image of the pulmonary structure in SM group showed deleterious alterations in the morphology, but the other groups are maintained in normal structure. In anti-oxidant related enzymes, SOD (superoxide dismutase) and catalase, SM group represents the lowest enzyme activity among all groups. But G6PD (glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase) and LPO (lipid peroxidation) is SM group represents the highest enzyme activity among all groups. These result indicate that the natural product extracts is an efficient tissue protective substance against smoke-induced lung injury.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tobacco Science Conference
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.30-78
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• 1997

Exposure of nonsmokers to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) has been claimed to be associated with an increased risk for lung cancer e. g., in the US, Europe, Japan and several Asian countries. The present paper reports on and discusses the scientific evidence available to date that can be used in order to assess this potential risk for Korea. Evidence related to three key steps in risk assessment, i.e., the characterization of a potential risk, data associating a response to a dose, and data characterizing actual exposures of people to ETS will be reviewed. The final assessment of the potential risk will be left to those qualified and commissioned with the task of risk assessment as a basis for public health policy in Korea.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.11-20
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• 2002

Tobacco smoke was confirmed as a human carcinogen by many research results. Because many adolescents stay long time in the PC game room, they are exposed to much of tobacco smoke. To evaluate the effect of passive smoking in the PC game room, airborne nicotine concentrations in 2 PC game rooms in Sung-nam city and urinary cotinine concentrations were measured for 20 adolescents. And the subjects were interviewed for duration and time in PC game room and smoking pattern. Subjects are composed of each of 10 smokers(5 males and 5 females) and 10 nonsmokers(5 males and 5 females). They stayed for three hours in the PC game room without smoking. Concentrations of nicotine in smokers and nonsmokers were 129.72 $\mu$g/$^3$ and 99.99 $\mu$g/m$^3$, respectively. Urinary cotinine concentrations were increased as time goes on after exposure to nicotine and showed maximum value at 9.45 hours after nicotine exposure and were 32.21 and 110.66 $\mu$g/L for nonsmoker and smokers. The more using time and frequency in PC game room, the higher urinary cotinine maximum concentration and the longer using duration, also the more increase urinary cotinine concentration. Urinary cotinine has a tendency to increase by passive smoking. Therefore, it is recommended that the effective control for indoor air quality and extensive research be needed to reduce nicotine concentration by passive smoking in the PC game room.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.155-163
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• 2022

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) can give rise to a vast array of differentiated derivatives, which have gained great attention in the field of in vitro toxicity evaluation. We have previously demonstrated that hPSC-derived alveolar epithelial cells (AECs) are phenotypically and functionally similar to primary AECs and could be more biologically relevant alternatives for assessing the potential toxic materials including in fine dust and cigarette smoking. Therefore, in this study, we employed hPSC-AECs to evaluate their responses to exposure of various concentrations of diesel particulate matter (dPM), cigarette smoke extract (CSE) and nicotine for 48 hrs in terms of cell death, inflammation, and oxidative stress. We found that all of these toxic materials significantly upregulated the transcription of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1α, IL-β, IL-6, and TNF-α. Furthermore, the exposure of dPM (100 ㎍/mL) strongly induced upregulation of genes related with cell death, inflammation, and oxidative stress compared with other concentrations of CSE and nicotine. These results suggest that hPSC-AECs could be a robust in vitro platform to evaluate pulmotoxicity of various air pollutants and harmful chemicals.