• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.97-103
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• 2012

BACKGROUND: Metal mines were actively developed in the early twentieth century in Korea; however, most of these mines were closed and abandoned without proper management. Therefore, toxic metal contamination in the vicinity of Korean abandoned metal mines has been reported. A risk assessment for these metals was performed for residents near by abandoned Sanyang metal mine. METHODS AND RESULTS: Soil and groundwater samples were collected from May to October 2007 around the mine. After pretreatment of these samples, metal concentrations were measured and then a risk assessment was performed using the Korean soil-contamination risk assessment guidelines. Cancer risk was the highest from inhalation of Pb-contaminated soil, followed in descending order by As-contaminated soil inhalation and water ingestion. The sum of carcinogenic risks was $3.35{\times}10^{-3}$. The noncarcinogenic risk was observed for inhalation of Hg-contaminated soil (5.71). CONCLUSION: Inhalation of soil in dust was the principal pathway to cause the health risk and most of the risk was attributed to As, Pb,Cd, and Hg contamination.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2002.04a
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• pp.254-257
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• 2002

The purposes of this research are to identify the source and to analyze the pathway of nitrate contamination in "cultural village", Jeungpyeong. In order to examine recharge processes and flow pattern that closely related to the influent of nitrate contaminant, the flow field was simulated and the oxygen and hydrogen stable isotopes were analyzed. The nitrogen isotope was used to delineate contaminant sources. The shallow groundwater was mainly composed of precipitation, but leakage of domestic water and sewage contributed to the recharge. Nitrate contaminants were possibly from the leakage of sewage and animal waste. The nitrate concentration decreased due to dilution by low concentration water.ion water.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.837-842
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• 2019

A large amount of radioactive material was released from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) in 2011 and dispersed into the environment. Though seven years have passed since the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, some parts of Japan are still under the influence of radionuclide contamination, especially Fukushima Prefecture and prefectures neighboring Fukushima Prefecture. The long-term effective doses and the contributions of each exposure pathway (5 exposure pathways) and radionuclide ($^{131}I$, $^{134}Cs$, and $^{137}Cs$) were evaluated for people living in the regions of Fukushima and neighboring prefectures in Japan using a developed dose assessment code system with Japanese specific input data. The results estimated in this study were compared with data from previously published reports. Groundshine and ingestion were predicted to contribute most significantly to the total long-term dose for all regions. The contributions of each exposure pathway and radionuclide show different patterns for certain regions of Japan.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.209-229
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• 1998

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.1439-1446
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• 2009

Isocarbophos is a widely used organophosphorus insecticide that has caused environmental pollution in many areas. However, degradation of isocarbophos by pure cultures has not been extensively studied, and the degradation pathway has not been determined. In this paper, a highly effective isocarbophos-degrading strain, scl-2, was isolated from isocarbophos-polluted soil. The strain scl-2 was preliminarily identified as Arthrobacter sp. based on its morphological, physiological, and biochemical properties, as well as 16S rDNA analysis. The strain scl-2 could utilize isocarbophos as its sole source of carbon and phosphorus for growth. One hundred mg/l isocarbophos could be degraded to a non detectable level in 18 h by scl-2 in cell culture, and isofenphos-methyl, profenofos, and phosmet could also be degraded. During the degradation of isocarbophos, the metabolites isopropyl salicylate, salicylate, and gentisate were detected and identified based on MS/MS analysis and their retention times in HPLC. Transformation of gentisate to pyruvate and fumarate via maleylpyruvate and fumarylpyruvate was detected by assaying for the activities of gentisate 1,2-dioxygenase (GDO) and maleylpyruvate isomerase. Therefore, we have identified the degradation pathway of isocarbophos in Arthrobacter sp. scl-2 for the first time. This study highlights an important potential use of the strain scl-2 for the cleanup of environmental contamination by isocarbophos and presents a mechanism of isocarbophos metabolism.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.21-30
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• 2000

For analyzing the direct contamination pathway of radionudides in rice plants, a Solution containing $^{54}Mn,\;^{57}Co,\;^{85}Sr,\;^{103}Ru$ and $^{134}Cs$ was applied to the aboveground Parts of the between RI application and harvest. Its highest observed value was 0.94. The fractions of the initial plant deposition that remained in rice plants at harvest were in the range of $19{\sim}47%,\;17{\sim}43%,\;19{\sim}42%,\;23{\sim}61%$ and $11{\sim}69%$ for $^{54}Mn,\;^{57}Co,\;^{85}Sr,\;^{103}Ru$ and $^{134}Cs$, respectively, when no decay was assumed. The translocation factors of those radionuclides in hulled seeds were in the range of $6.9{\times}10^{-4}3.8{\times}10^{-2},\;3.6{\times}10^{-3}{\sim}1.6{\times}10^{-1},\;5.8{\times}10^{-4}{\sim}3.2{\sim}10^{-2},\;1.6{\times}10^{-4}{\sim}7.6{\times}10^{-3}$ and $3.2{\times}10^{-2}{\sim}2.0{\times}10^{-1}$, respertively, and were highest when they were applied at the stage of active seed development. It was indicated that the remaining percentage and translocation factor would not be greatly affected by the difference in the rain frequency if it is within a factor of 2. These results can be utilzed for predicting the radionuclide concentrations in rice seeds when an accidental deposition of those radionuclides occurs during the rice-growing season.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.169-174
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• 2004

The NOx emission characteristics with oxygen enrichment in nonpremixed counterflow and coflow jet flame of $CH_4$ fuel have been investigated numerically. A small amount of nitrogen is included in oxygen-enriched combustion, in order to consider the inevitable $N_2$ contamination by air infiltration. The results show that the initial increase of NO with increasing oxygen enrichment is due to increasing temperature and residence time, while its subsequent decrease above 75% oxygen is due to decreasing the consumption rate of nitrogen. When oxygen addition exceeds 30%, Thermal NO gradually becomes the dominant production pathway and Prompt NO becomes negative pathway for net NO production rate. It is also seen that Thermal NO plays an important role in NO reduction when strain rate increase in oxygen-enriched combustion. Finally, the results of EINOx with oxygen enrichment in coflow jet flame show the similar profile with those of conterflow flame. It is confirmed that, with leakage of 1% nitrogen in the oxidizer stream, the corresponding EINOx is eight times of that emitted from regular $CH_4$/Air flame.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.56-66
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• 2016

Generally, the contribution of crop-intake pathway (CIP) is remarkable in human health assessment (HHA) of heavy metal contamination. Although the crop exposure concentrations (Cp) should directly be used for calculating the average daily dose (ADD) of CIP, the soil exposure concentration (Cs) multiplied by soil-crop bio-concentration factor (BCF) has frequently been used instead of using Cp values. Thus, the BCF values are significant in the HHA, and care should be taken to ensure the reasonable acquisition of BCF values. Meanwhile, the BCF values are known to be significantly affected by analytical methods. Nevertheless, they have been calculated from the concentrations of soil and crop analyzed by only one method: total digestion (aqua regia extraction). For this reason, this study was initiated to seek appropriate soil analysis methods for effective computation of the ADD of CIP. The concentrations of 5 metal contaminants (As, Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn) in 127 soil samples obtained from 4 abandoned metal mine areas were analyzed by several methods including total digestion and partial digestions using 0.1/1 N HCl, 1M $NH_4NO_3$, 0.1 M $NaNO_3$, and 0.01M $CaCl_2$. The heavy metal concentrations in 127 crop samples (rice grains) were analyzed by total digestion as well. Using the concentrations of soils and crops, the BCF values of each contaminant were calculated according to the kind of soil extraction methods applied. Finally, the errors between Cp and $C_s{\times}BCF$ were computed to evaluate the relevance of each method. The results indicate that the partial extraction using 0.1 N and 1 N HCl was superior or equivalent to total digestion. In addition, the 0.1M $NaNO_3$ method combined with total digestion is recommended for improving the reliability of BCF values.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.1043-1054
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• 2018

Salmonellosis caused by chicken consumption has been a critical issue in food safety worldwide, including in Korea. The probability of illness from consumption of chicken was simulated in study, based on the recipe of Dakgalbi, a commonly eaten chicken dish in Korea. Additionally, the processing stage at slaughterhouses to decrease Salmonella concentration in broilers was modeled to explore its effect on the likelihood of illness. A Monte Carlo simulation model was created using @RISK. Prevalence of Salmonella in chickens at the retail stage was found to be predominantly important in determining the probability of illness. Other than the prevalence, cooking temperature was found to have the largest impact on the probability of illness. The results also demonstrated that, although chlorination is a powerful tool for decreasing the Salmonella concentration in chicken, this effect did not last long and was negated by the following stages. This study analyzes the effects of variables of the retail-to-table pathway on the likelihood of salmonellosis in broiler consumption, and also evaluates the processing step used to decrease the contamination level of Salmonella in broilers at slaughterhouses. According to the results, we suggest that methods to decrease the contamination level of Salmonella such as chlorination had little effect on decreasing the probability of illness. Overall, these results suggest that preventing contamination of broiler with Salmonella must be a top priority and that methods to reduce the concentration of Salmonella in broilers at slaughterhouses hardly contribute to safe consumption of Salmonella-contaminated chicken.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.39-67
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• 2005

In order to properly define the terms such as soil, soil contamination, soil contamination site and remediation, which are the key terms under the Soil Environment Conservation Act(SECA) in Korea, we analyzed the legal definitions of the similar key words in legislations of the developed western countries. The selected countries were the United States of America, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark. The legal definitions of these keywords were very much diversified due to different levels of soil contamination, as well as different industrial, social, and legal backgrounds in each country. However, fair suggestions for definitions of the key terms in SECA were derived from the comparative analyses of these countries. First and foremost, SECA should provide a definition of 'soil' which includes a concept of the natural soil layer produced from soil mineralization processes. Groundwater and sublayer of the groundwater would. be excluded in the boundary of the soil with regards to the Groundwater Act of Korea. Definition of 'soil contamination' of SECA should include a concept of risk assessment(soil contaminants, pathway, and receptors), purpose of land use, and the acquired limitation levels of soil contaminants. Soil contamination activity either industrial or anthropogenic in SECA article2-1, could be substituted for a concept of soil risk assessment. Definition of 'soil contamination site' could derive from amalgamating the concepts of i) soil contamination in conjunction with contaminants, ii) risk assessment, iii) a concept of land use, and iv) knowing limitation of contamination site designation. Definition of 'remediation of contaminated site' should include the objective, intention, action, methodology and limit of the remediation. These suggested definitions would increase the efficacy of soil environment conservation policies, which includes the survey of the potentially contaminated area, remediation, and removal of the site.