• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.412-421
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• 2017

Objectives: To establish a system for integrated risk assessment of EDCs in Korea, infrastructure for providing toxicity data of ecological media should be established. Some systems provide soil ecotoxicity databases along with aquatic ecotoxicity information, but a well-structured ecotoxicity database system is still lacking. Methods: Aquatic and soil ecotoxicological information were collected by a toxicologist based on a human readable data (HRD) format for collecting ecotoxicity data that we provided. Among these data, anomalies were removed according to database normalization theory. Also, the data were cleaned and encoded to establish a machine-readable data (MRD) ecotoxicity database system. Results: We have developed a multi-purpose ecotoxicity database model focusing on EDCs, ecological species, and toxic effects. Also, we have constructed a web-based data searching system to retrieve, extract, and download data with greater availability. Conclusions: The results of our study will contribute to decision-making as a tool for efficient ecological risk assessment of EDCs in Korea.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.21 no.1 s.52
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• pp.81-86
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• 2006

Embryotoxicity tests were performed in Daphnia magna to assess aquatic ecotoxicity of bisphenol A, a well known industrial compound showing estrogen-like activity in vivo, and to examine their effectiveness in the toxicological assessment. The whole embryonic developmental period was classified into 6 stages and developmental abnormality was checked to evaluate the embryotoxicity. In the present study, bisphenol A showed the ability to interfere with embryonic development, suggesting its antiecdysteroidal activity. The rates of mortality, delayed development, deformity and immobility all showed good concentration-response relationship, demonstrating their possibility as useful toxicological indices in daphnid embryotoxicity tests that have been rarely performed so far. It seemed favorable to the test sensitivity that embryos are removed from maternal daphnids around 7 hr after deposition from the ovaries to the brood chamber. These results suggest that daphnid embryotoxicity tests can be one of useful tools available for the assessment of ecotoxicity of various chemicals in the aquatic environment.

• 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.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2007

The use of aquatic species in ecotoxicity research is well established in developed countries. However, there are limitations of using the species that are not native to Korea, and the toxicity data produced by domestic test species are significantly needed to reflect the domestic situation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the domestic species that can be applicable for the aquatic toxicity assessment in Korea. Aquatic toxicity data were collected in the framework of the project 'Development of integrated methodology for evaluation of water environment' to obtain a range of test species used for aquatic toxicity assessment internationally. The test species collected were evaluated in terms of domestic distribution based on the reliable references and the advices of experts. We figured out the 71 test species native to Korea. They included 7 fish, 26 invertebrates (2 annelids, 2 bryozoa, 13 crustaceans, 3 insects, 4 mollusc, 1 platyhelminth, and 1 protozoan), 26 plants (9 diatoms, 14 green algae, 3 macrophytes), and 12 others (2 amphibians, 3 bacteria, 6 blue-green algae, and 1 fungus). The result of this study should be a very useful information for ecotoxicity assessment in aquatic ecosystem, especially in choosing the test species applicable for the ecotoxicity in Korea hereafter.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.173-183
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• 2007

The Ministry of Environment plans to introduce the Whole Effluent Toxicity (WET) system in Korea. The WET test is well established in developed countries with recognizing of the limitations of physicochemical analysis method and potential risk of chemicals in water medium. Therefore, it is essential to build the ecotoxicity infrastructure for the induction of WET test. In this study, we extensively collected the domestic and foreign toxicity test methods which employ native test species to Korea. And we suggested that the domestic ecotoxicity test methods with domestic test species in Korea through extracting the range of test conditions. Five domestic fish species selected were Carassiu auratus (Crucian carp), Cyprinus carpio(Common carp), Gasterosteus aculeatus (Three spine stickleback), Misgurnus anguillicaudatus (Oriental weather fish) and Oryzias latipes (Japanese medaka), The toxicity test methods with native test species to Korea were collected from the standard methods (OECD, U.S. EPA, ASTM), government reports, SCI papers and domestic papers. We collected the 32 test methods, and suggested the suitable aquatic toxicity test methods for fish. It is expected that this study could prove a useful information to establish the ecotoxicity test methods with domestic aquatic organisms in Korea henceforth.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.193-200
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• 2016

Water flea is a widely used test species in the aquatic ecotoxicity test. In Korea, D. magna is currently used as a standard test species, however that do not inhabit in the Korean aquatic ecosystem. In this study, Daphnia galeata, which is a dominant species in the Korean aquatic ecosystem, was collected from domestic lake and investigated to suggest the D. galeata for ecotoxicity assessment in Korea. We investigated the characteristics, life span, and toxicity sensitivity compared with D. magna. The life span test of D. galeata was performed in this study, and then the results were compared to the sensitivity with D. magna to confirm the applicability for ecotoxicity assessment. The 48h-L(E)C50 values for seven heavy metals (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, and Zn) of D. galeata and D. magna were collected and analyzed. As a results, shorter lifetime, less reproduction, smaller body size of D. galeata were observed compared with D. magna. D. galeata was similar or more sensitive than D. magna for seven heavy metals. Therefore, we propose that D. galeata is a suitable test species for ecotoxicity testing in Korea.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.62-69
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• 2008

The life cycle assessment method for environmental impact assessment was used, in this study, to assess the production process of wheat flour which is the most important material in the food industry. Environmental impact assessments were compared between that of the Ministry of Environment, Republic of Korea (method I) with that of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (method II). Life cycle inventories (LCI) was performed using internal and external databases and the production statistics database of company S. The procedure of life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) was followed in terms of classification, characterization, normalization and weighting to identify the key issues. The impact categories of method I were divided into 8 categories with consideration of : abiotic resources depletion, global warming, ozone depletion, photochemical oxidant creation, acidification and eutrophication. The impact categories of method II were divided into 10 categories with consideration of: abiotic resources depletion, global warming, ozone depletion, photochemical oxidant creation, acidification, eutrophication, human toxicity, freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity, marine aquatic ecotoxicity and terrestrial ecotoxicity.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Health Society Conference
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• 2005.12a
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• pp.124-126
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• 2005

Aquatic ecotoxicity of bisphenol A, a well known endocrine disrupter in mammals, was studied using lab. reared Daphnia magna as a test organism. The static acute 48h $LC_{50}$ of bisphenol A was 12.9mg/L and 110-hr $LC_{50}$ values of bisphenol A for daphnid embryos of different ages after deposition into the brood chamber increase with ages in the range of 1.55mg/L-8.91mg/L. Bisphenol A showed the ability to inhibit embryonic development. The lethal response and developmental inhibition all showed good concentration-response relationship.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.21 no.2 s.53
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• pp.93-102
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• 2006

Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), an octane booster that is added to the reformulated gasoline, has been a widespread contaminant in aquatic ecosystem. MTBE is a recalcitrant pollutant having low biodegradability. Due to its higher water solubility and low octanol-water partition coefficient, it can be rapidly transported to the surrounding water environment. Also, MTBE is a known animal carcinogen, and is classified as a possible human carcinogen by U. S. Environmental Protection Agency. The adverse effect of MTBE to aquatic biota was widely reported. In Korea, the recent detection of MTBE in groundwater near gasoline filling stations has drawn concern to public health and ecosystem. To address this concern, the effect of MTBE to human health and ecosystem was discussed in this review. Also, ecotoxicity data of MTBE for fish, invertebrates, and algae were extensively compared to estimate the hazard concentration 5($HC_5$) of MTBE as a screening level.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.23-27
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• 2010

Genotoxic- and ecotoxic assessments of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were conducted on the freshwater crustacean Daphnia magna. AgNPs may have genotoxic effects on D. magna, given that the DNA strand breaks increased when exposed to this nanoparticle. Increased mortality was concomitantly observed with DNA damage in the AgNPs-exposed D. magna, which suggests AgNPs-induced DNA damage might provoke higher-level consequences. The results of the comparative toxicities of AgNPs and Ag ions suggest that AgNPs are slightly more toxic than Ag ions. Overall, these results suggest that AgNPs may be genotoxic toward D. magna, which may contribute to the knowledge relating to the aquatic toxicity of AgNPs on aquatic ecosystems, for which little data are available.