• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.57-65
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• 2011

There are numerous drug interactions related to many psychotropic and cardiovascular medications. Firstly, the principles in predicting drug interactions are discussed. Cytochrome P (CYP) 450 plays a significant role in the metabolism of these drugs that are substrates, inhibitors, or inducers of CYP450 enzymes. The two most significant enzymes are CYP2D6 and CYP3A4. The ability of psychotropic drugs to act as inhibitors for the enzymes may lead to altered efficacy or toxicity of co-administered cardiovascular agents as a substrate for the enzymes. The following is also a review of the known interactions between many commonly prescribed cardiovascular agents and psychotropic drugs. Most beta blockers are metabolized by CYP2D6, which may lead to drug toxicity when they use in combination with potent CYP2D6 inhibitors including bupropion, chlorpromazine, haloperidol, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, and quinidine. Concomitant administration of lithium with angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, and diuretics may increase serum lithium concentrations and toxicity. Calcium channel blockers and cholesterol lowering agents are subject to interactions with potent inhibitors of CYP3A4, such as amiodarone, diltiazem, fluvoxamine, nefazodone, and verapamil. Prescribing antiarrhythmic drugs in conjunction with medications are known to prolong QT interval and/or inhibitors on a relevant CYP450 enzyme is generally not recommended, or needs watchful monitoring. Digoxin and warfarin also have warrant careful monitoring if co-administered with psychotropic drugs.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.20 no.4 s.51
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• pp.311-325
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• 2005

A chemical ranking and scoring system, CRS - Korea, has recently been developed and proposed to use to prioritize on a screening level the toxic chemicals for monitoring and risk assessment. As CRS-Korea requires rigorous assessments prior to its wide application, an assessment was conducted in this study by examining the contribution of individual parameter score to the final chemical score or ranking. The sensitivity of the system to the default values for various parameters of missing data was also tested. The chemical ranking/score was round to depend primarily on the score of a single parameter, i. e., the chemical release, while toxicity scores show little correlation with the priority Further analysis indicated that the dominating effect of the chemical release results from i) its multiplicative relationship with the other two exposure parameters (biodegradation and persistent) and ii) the fact that a maximum score of 10 was assigned to the chemical release parameter while 5 was assigned for all others. AE the fraction of the data that are missing exceeded $70\%$ for various toxicity parameters at compared to less than $10\%$ for exposure parameters, the sensitivity of the ranking to the default value was not significant (rank correlation coefficient = 0.98) for toxicity parameters. Bated on this assessment, an improved CRS system (CRS - Korea II) was proposed in which the impact of the chemical release was properly adjusted by changing the multiplicative relationship to additive one and the maximum score to 5. Chemical priority was derived for each of 16 provinces by using CRS-Korea II. The chemical priority was found to significantly vary among the provinces. It was concluded that not only the national chemical priority but the local chemical priority should be taken into account in setting the nationwide chemical monitoring and risk assessment strategy.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.548-555
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• 2018

Objectives: We conducted ecological risk assessment for cadmium, a heavy metal and carcinogen, to identify safety standards by environmental media and to determine its impact on ecosystems by estimating and evaluating exposure levels. Methods: Species sensitivity distributions (SSDs) were generated using ECOTOX DB. A hazardous concentration of 5% (HC5) protective of most species (95%) in the environment was estimated. Using this estimate, predicted no effect concentrations (PNECs) were calculated for aquatic organisms. Based on the calculated PNECs for aquatic organisms, PNEC values for soil and sediment were calculated using the partition coefficient. Predicted exposure concentrations (PECs) were also calculated from environmental monitoring data with hazard quotients (HQs) calculated using PNECs for environmental media. Results: Chronic toxicity data were categorized into four groups and 11 species. In species sensitivity distribution (SSD) analysis, HC5 was $0.340{\mu}g/L$. Based on this value, the PNEC value for aquatic organisms was calculated as $0.113{\mu}g/L$. PNEC values for soil and sediments using a partition coefficient were calculated as 15.02 mg/kg and 90.61 mg/kg, respectively. In an analysis of environmental monitoring data, PEC values were calculated as $0.017{\mu}g/L$ for water, 1.01 mg/kg for soil, and 0.521 mg/kg for sediment. Conclusions: HQs were 0.150, 0.067 and 0.006 for water, soil and sediment, respectively. HQs of secondary toxicity were 0.365 for birds and 0.024 for mammals. In principle, it is judged that an HQ above 1 indicates a high level of risk concern while an HQ less than 1 indicates an extremely low level of risk concern. Therefore, with HQs of cadmium in the environment being <1, its risk levels can be considered low for each media.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.513-527
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• 2013

Recently, hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) have been of great concern in Korea, largely due to public awareness on the importance of their impacts on environmental health. A group of HAPs includes a large number of various chemicals such as VOCs, PAHs, PCBs, dioxines, furans, organochlorinated pesticides, and some heavy metals. These groups of pollutants are generally known to have genetic toxicity and to be persistent in the environment. In addition, most of chemicals belong to the category of HAPs are widely distributed not only in air, but also in water and soil environments, and has therefore undergone considerable scrutiny for the last three decades. In this article, environmental implications and management of HAPs in Korea will be reviewed, with a particular emphasis on the monitoring of HAPs in the ambient air. A number of field studies will be introduced, which were recently conducted in large urban and industrial areas. Based on the filed studies, eight pollutants have been suggested to be intensively managed as higher priority pollutants, which are benzene, 1,3-butadiene, formaldehyde, acrolein, trichloroethylene, benzo(a)pyrene, hexa-valent Cr, and $PM_{2.5}$. Finally, future directions for a mega scale project for comprehensive monitoring of ambient atmosphere in large urban areas will be suggested. Such an innovative project is believed to provide more realistic information on the nature of the population exposure, which can not be simply identified by emission inventories or source investigations. Therefore, any strategy for the management of HAPs should be developed by not only emission-based approaches, but also observation-based approaches.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.273-280
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• 2008

The single intratracheal instillation (ITI) of bleomycin (BLM) is a widely used method for inducing experimental pulmonary fibrosis in rat model. In the present study, pulmonary function tests (PFTs) of tidal volume ($V_T$), minute volume ($V_M$), and respiratory frequency ($F_R$) have been applied to study their possibility as a tool to monitor the progress of BLM-induced lung injury in rat model. Rats were treated with a single ITI of BLM (2.5 mg/kg) or saline (control). Animals were euthanized at 3, 7, 14, 21, and 28 days post-ITI. Lung toxicity effects were evaluated by inflammatory cell count, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), and light microscopic examination of lung injury. The PFT parameters were measured immediately before the animals were sacrificed. BLM treatment induced significant cellular changes in BALF-increase in number of total cells, neutrophils, and lymphocytes along with sustained increase in number of macrophages compared to the controls at days 3, 7, and 14. BALF LDH level was significantly increased compared to that in the controls up to day 14. On day 3, infiltration of neutrophils was observed in the alveolar spaces. These changes developed into marked peribronchiolar and interstitial infiltration by inflammatory cells, and extensive thickening of the interalveolar septa on day 7. At 14, 21, and 28 days, mild peribronchiolar fibrosis was observed along with inflammatory cell infiltration. The results of PFT show significant consistencies compared to the results of other toxicity tests. These data demonstrate that the most suitable time point for assessing lung fibrosis in this model is 14 days post-ITI of BLM based on the observation of fibrosis at 14, 21, and 28 days. Further, the progress of lung injury can be traced by monitoring the PFT parameters of $F_R$, $V_T$, and $V_M$.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.183-194
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• 2001

As researchers can modify environmental factors to fit the purpose of an experiment in monitoring marine ecosystem using enclosed experimental ecosystems, which is a strong advantage of them, mid-sized enclosed experimental ecosystems (mesocosm) are widely used in the world in basic ecology such as trophodynamic study and applied ecology such as the toxicity test of various chemicals and monitoring of ecosystem changes against marine pollution. Application of the mesocosm in the field has a merit to get more reliable result than that from the experiment in the laboratory. However, the result from the mesocosm study in marine ecosystem is very limited in Korea. Mesocosms which had been used in the marine ecological studies in both foreign countries and Korea were summarized, and application of them to the future study in various research field was suggested in this review paper.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.85-91
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• 2001

The regulation of Material safety data sheets(MSDS) was required for the chemicals in use in the workplace from July 1976. Under the provisions of the workplace hazardous materials information system, employers in Korea must be provided with accurate and comprehensive MSDS. To examine the reliability of MSDS for organic solvents, 63 organic solvents and MSDS were collected from the workplace of 39 companies located in Kyonggi province. Manufacture\`s MSDS were compared with the actual composition of the collected samples, and further examined the reliability by checking whether the chemicals analyzed were included in the MSDS correctly. 38 solvents were able to analyze their composition by gas chromatography-mass selective detector(GC-MSD). Among them, 28 solvents were incorrect in their composition and contents. In some case, health hazardous or carcinogenic chemicals which were not included in the MSDS were detected from samples. As a result of evaluating whether the MSDS correspond to the regulation required by Industrial Safety and Health Act (ISHA), the information in the MSDS including hazard classification, occupational exposure level, toxicity, regulatory information were incorrectly provided, and some MSDS did not disclose carcinogenic in their MSDS, and some MSDS were not written in the standard format. From this survey, continuous monitoring and promoting correct MSDS, and analyzing the components of the solvents were required to endure the reliability of MSDS for organic solvents.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.691-702
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• 2013

This review paper summarizes the theory, application, and potential drawbacks of diffusive gradient in thin film (DGT) probe which is a widely used in-situ passive sampling technique for monitoring inorganic contaminants in aquatic environments. The DGT probe employs a series of layers including a filter membrane, a diffusive hydrogel, and an ionic exchange resin gel in a plastic unit. The filter side is exposed to an aquatic environment after which dissolved inorganic contaminants, such as heavy metals and nuclides, diffuse through the hydrogel and are accumulated in the resin gel. After retrieval, the contaminants in the resin gel are extracted by strong acid or base and the concentrations are determined by analytical instruments. Then aqueous concentrations of the inorganic contaminants can be estimated from a mathematical equation. The DGT has also been used to monitor nutrients, such as ${PO_4}^{3-}$, in lakes, streams, and estuaries, which might be helpful in assessing eutrophic potential in aquatic environments. DGT is a robust in-situ passive sampling techniques for investigating bioavailability, toxicity, and speciation of inorganic contaminants in aquatic environments, and can be an effective monitoring tool for risk assessment.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.592-597
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• 2008

Current water quality standard (WQS) in Korea is based on the protection of human health, not considering the protection of aquatic organisms. Most of chemicals can be toxic to ecological biota as well as human. Health of aquatic biota is closely related to the human health via food chain, therefore ecological risk based-WQS needs to be developed to protect the aquatic ecosystem. In this study, we selected the 31 chemicals in the Project entitled 'Development of integrated methodology for evaluation of water environment'. The methodology for calculating water quality criteria was derived from the Australian and New Zealand processes for deriving guideline trigger value for aquatic ecosystem. The available ecotoxicity data were collected from US EPA's ECOTOXicology Database (ECOTOX), TOX-2000 Database, European Chemicals Bureau (ECB)'s International Uniform Chemical Information Database (IUCLID) and Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA)'s report 'Ambient Water Quality Criteria (AWQC)'. The aquatic toxicity data for the Korean species were selected for risk assessment to reflect the Korean water environment. The monitoring values were calculated from the water quality monitoring data four main Korean rivers. We suggested the order of priorities of chemicals based on ecological risk assessment. We expect that these results can be useful information for establishing the WQS for the protection of aquatic ecosystem.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.278-284
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• 2007

Despite extensive researches and pre-market clinical trials, only limited information on the adverse drug reactions (ADRs) of a drug can be collected at the time of market approval from regulatory agency. ADRs constitute a major public health problem. Post-marketing surveillance of drugs is important to detect signals for ADR. In Korea, one of the main methods for monitoring the safety of marketed drugs is spontaneous reporting system of suspected ADRs. Re-examination and re-evaluation system are in force for monitoring safety of new market approval drugs and currently under marketing drugs, respectively. Recently, regional pharmacovigilance centers were designated from Korean Food and Drug Administration for facilitating ADR surveillance. Over recent years, with the development of information technology, there has been an increased interest in establishing data mining system for detecting signals from Health Insurance Review Agency database. The purpose of this paper is to review the current status of Korean ADR surveillance system and suggest the possible solutions for developing active pharmacovigilance system in Korea.