• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.88-97
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• 2014

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the occurrence of microbiological contamination of kitchen utensils and environments of food service operations at university located in Seoul, Korea. Methods: We collected swab samples from the surfaces of knives, chopping boards, floors, and drains, as well as drinking water and airborne bacteria samples from 20 food service operations. Three bacterial indicators and five food poisoning bacteria were measured quantitatively and qualitatively, respectively. We used selective culture media and the PCR assay targeting 16S rRNA gene for the microbiological analysis. Results: We detected bacterial indicators on knives or chopping boards in eight different food service operations and, three food service operations (I, M, and O) showed more than 3 log colony forming units $(CFU)/100cm^2$ on their knives, significantly higher than the others. The levels of bacterial indicators on the floors and drains in the cooking areas were much higher than those on the cooking utensils. S. aureus was detected on 10 floors and 8 drains. Culturable bacteria were identified in 5 drinking water samples, and food service operation B ($431.1CFU/m^3$) and C ($551.2CFU/m^3$) showed more than $400CFU/m^3$ of total airborne bacteria. Conclusions: These results suggest that some of food service operations in this study may require additional investigation to secure the microbial safety of cooking environments. In addition, further actions including hygiene education for employees and proper guidelines to maintain clean cooking environments should be prepared.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.37-44
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• 2008

Soil ecology has important roles in global ecosystems. However, soil ecological quality information is being ignored when assessing ecological impact of construction actions. And methods for classifying and assessing soil ecological quality have been very little established in comparison to those for animal and plant ecosystems. In this study, it was examined whether soil ecological quality information has influence on determining an eco-friendly route for a road construction project. For this, sensitivity analysis was systematically performed by varying the relative significance (weights) of soil ecological quality information among natural environmental and ecological factors. When the weight of soil ecological quality was greater than just 14%, the soil ecological quality information significantly influenced the determination of the eco-friendly routes for a specific road construction project. This demonstrates that soil ecological quality information has to be considered for more reliable environmental impact assessment, and also supports the validity of use of soil ecological quality information and its mapping technique in planning and siting of eco-friendly construction projects.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.401-408
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• 2015

This research seeks to improve the understanding of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its advantages in the shipping sector. Recently, an improved emphasis on CSR, which incorporates environmental and social concerns into economic considerations of firms, can be found in business management and marketing literature. This is mainly because of people's increased awareness in regards to the negative consequences of corporate activities such as increased environmental pollution and gaps between the rich and the poor. According to the previous literature, it has been revealed that responsible actions by companies can generate positive outcomes in terms of financial and time aspects, but more importantly, intangible equity of the company, including improved corporate reputation, image as well as brand. As the regulation is intensifying in regards to environmental and social responsibility in the shipping sector, shipping companies are trying to engage in CSR to gain competitive advantages. While the reputation and image of shipping companies play essential roles for developing sustainable maritime transport, few studies have been conducted for how the CSR of shipping companies influence the shipping companies' reputation and image relative to other industries. In this regard, this study aims to investigate the effect of the corporate social responsibility on corporate reputation and image of shipping companies on the basis of an exploratory study in the Republic of Korea. This research would be beneficial to both academics and practitioners for developing useful CSR strategies which could promote the public's recognition of the shipping sector.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.506-519
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• 1996

The water quality in the rural areas is degrading due to a variety of causes such as the increase of the urban sewage and industrial wastes, the disposal of solid wastes, the growth of livestock waste, the growth of leisure facilities, the establishment of agricultural industry estates and etc. The water pollutants are scarce while the effluent is increasing from wide scattered sources. The technology specifically designed for the rural wastes water treatment plant needs to be implemented with improvement of agricultural water quality. 1. An integrated management measures against water pollution sources. The prevention of water pollution is the best measures in the environmental pollution. Hence, the most effective measures needs to be against the sources. Small-scale water treatment plants needs to be constructed in each village in the rural areas. As for the industrial effluent, the effluent discharge needs to be strictly monitored. Government subsidy for the establishment of treatment plant for livestock wastes is necessary. 2. The establishment of national-wide network for agricultural water quality. The network for agricultural water quality have been operated to conserve the agricultural water quality, and to develop management policies by the assessment of water pollution in the rural areas. The results of agricultural water quality network indicates that the water quality is degrading not only around urban areas but also in the distant rural areas, and the water quality at the pumping stations and weirs is worse than that of reservoirs. 3. The legal, systematic, and technical approaches for the agricultural water quality management. The actions currently implemented for the improvement of agricultural water quality involve temporary measures such as the improvement of irrigation facilities. These contingency measures are not effective in the long-term, and sometimes bring secondary pollution. Therefore, integrated measures covering the whole water environment such as the flow, quality, river morphology, aquatic ecosystem, and the surrounding environment, need be invented and implemented. Besides, the legal, systematic, and technical frameworks for the management are not fully established so far. The technology for the treatment of rural water pollution should be refined afterwards, and the research for the development of rural waste water treatment plant should be carried out.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.30 no.5 s.81
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• pp.440-448
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• 2004

Airborne bacteria, gram negative bacteria (GNB) and fungi were measured in 70 class of 17 kindergartens. The objective of this study is to identify the factors influencing airborne concentrations of bacteria, GNB and fungi using multiple regression analysis. The average concentrations of bacteria and fungi exceeded $1,000\;CFU/m^3$. The average of GNB was $3.7{\times}10^2\;CFU/m^3$. This results indicated that air of kindergartens was contaminated with microbes such as bacteria and fungi. ANOVA test found that the concentrations of bacteria, GNB and fungi were significantly different by the characteristics of weather (rain, after rain, sunny) sampling date (July, August, September and October), the location of sampling site (ground level and basement) and the location of toilet (inside class, nearby class and away class). Multiple regression tests concluded that sampling date, the scale of city where kindergartens are located, the location of sampling site and ventilation efficiency can significantly affect the airborne concentration of bacteria, GNB and fungi. Most of these factors could be related moisture. Environmental factors that can cause the increment of moisture should be controlled in order to reduce airborne concentration of bacteria, GNB and fungi. Legal actions concerning prohibition on the presence of toilet inside class and ventilation criteria should be taken.

• Korean Management Science Review
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.127-141
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• 2012

Business firms and consumers exist within a society, and their activities influence a society, because they are not separated from a society. Thus, consumers as well as business firms have been asked to conduct socially responsible actions (i.e., environmentally friendly production and socially friendly activities). Previous researchers have investigated on the relationship between corporate social responsibilities and business performances. For example, researchers have analyzed the effects of corporate social responsibility on consumer's corporate evaluations. The corporate social responsibility is commonly classified into the three dimensions (economic, social, and environmental responsibility). In this paper, we demonstrated that the consumer social responsibility can also be classified into the three dimensions. Previous researchers have shown that the three dimensions of corporate social responsibility influence consumer's corporate evaluation. However, they have not considered the interaction effect of the corporate social responsibility and the consumer social responsibility on consumers' corporate evaluation. Different from the past studies, this study investigated on the interaction effect of consumer social responsibility (economic, social, environmental responsibility) and corporate social responsibility (economic, social, environmental responsibility) on consumer's corporate evaluation. For the study, we collected survey data of 200 consumers and analyzed the interaction effect with ANOVAs. The result showed that the three dimensions of social responsibility to both corporate and consumers influence positively the corporate evaluation. They also showed that the interaction effect of consumer responsibility and corporate responsibility on the corporate evaluation was statistically significant. This implies that it is necessary for corporate to conduct corporate social responsibility differently depending on consumer's activity for consumer social responsibility.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.27 no.10
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• pp.1030-1034
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to clarify the penetration behavior of particulate matters by wave and tidal actions in sandy beach located in enclosed bay and to evaluate the effect of stranded oil on penetration of particulate matters. Experiments were rallied out using a model sandy beach facility. The particulate matters penetrated into saturated sediments by wave action from breaking wave run-up point with a semi-circular forming in low energy beach as enclosed bay. On the other hand, the penetration velocity of the particulate matters was to be faster according to the increase of slope and breaking wave height. The particulate matters by tidal action penetrated into the sediments at an angie of 45 degrees in the direction of porous water flow. The stranded oil completely blocked the penetration of the particulate matters into the sediments. These results indicate that the penetrated oil prevents the penetration of the particulate matters into the sediments and, therefore, results in the reduction in the supply of plankton, bacteria and organic detritus for the benthic organisms in the sandy beach.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.341-346
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of Cordyceps militaris extract supplementation on the improvement of blood glucose, lipid compositions and hepatic functional enzyme activities in the serum of streptozotocin(STZ, 50 mg/kg BW, IP injection)-induced diabetic rats fed the experimental diets for 5 weeks. The concentrations of blood glucose and lipid compositions(total cholesterol, ${\beta}$-lipoprotein, free cholesterol, cholesteryl ester, triglyceride and phospholipid) and atherosclerotic index in serum were significantly lower in the DM+CM group than in the DM group, whereas the ratio of HDL-cholesterol concentration to total cholesterol in the DM+CM group were higher than in the DM group. The activities of hepatic functional enzymes(aminotransferase, LDH and ALP) in serum were lower in the Cordyceps militaris extract administration group(group DM+CM) than in the hyperglycemic DM group. The results shown above suggested that Cordyceps militaris extract supplementation effectively improves blood glucose and atherosclerosis in the serum of diabetic rats.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Health Society Conference
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• 2002.04a
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• pp.91-99
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• 2002

A recent survey investigated that there were over one thousand un-controlled closed landfills(1,072 sites) in Republic of Korea. Most of these landfills were constructed before 1986. Waste management act were not promulgated at that time, so they usually do not have dranage system and leachate treatment facility. Also, considerable attention has been received to landfill leachate pollution, leachate has an adverse impact on the surrounding environment such as soil, groundwater, and water supply source. According to the result of survey for closed landfill management, it was reported that 875 sites out of 1,072sites(81.6％) have no leachate treatment facility and 630 sites out of 1,072sites(58.7％) have been used for farm lands and residence. Consequently it is hard to do postclosure care continuously in most of cases and these uncontrolled landfills have contaminated farm lands and residence. The average age of these landfills are ranged mostly between 2 to 15 years. Much time and advanced technology are needed to remediate these uncontrolled landfills, therefore the survey for present status of closed landfill sites is required and suitable treatment processes should be prepared. With this point of view, We has been investigated to find out the present status of closed landfill, problems of post management and discussed plans for remediation and reuse. Remedial actions of un-controlled landfill have been carried out the many cities since 1997 upto now. Most frequently applied technology were reuse after excavation and there were several cases to capping in the surface of landfill and to construct subsurface barriers. It is considered that landfills in use have a possibility not to be controlled because of inadequate construction and improper management. Therefore remediation of uncontrolled landfills and recovery technology should be develop continuously Especially, it has been expected that resource technology of landfill gas as a energy has some advantages in controlling odors in the site area and accelerating stabilization of landfills with the energy.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.5937-5946
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• 2012

The term endocrine disruptors is used to describe a variety of natural and manmade substances that have the capacity to potentially interfere with and modify the normal physiology of endocrine system either by mimicking, blocking or modulating the actions of natural endogenous hormones. The rising incidence of breast cancer over the last 50 years and the documented higher incidence in urban as compared to rural areas suggest a relationship to the introduction and increased use of xenoestrogens in our environment. The literature has developed over the last decades where initial experiments on endocrine disruptors did not support an involvement in breast cancer, and then evidence mounted implicating various environmental factors including hormones, endocrine disrupting chemicals and non-endocrine disrupting environmental carcinogens in the pathogenesis of breast cancer. Available data support the hypothesis that exposure to endocrine disruptors in utero leaves a signature on mammary gland morphogenesis so that the resulting dysgenic gland becomes more predisposed to develop tumors upon exposures to additional insults later on during life. Exceptionally, exposure to phytoestrogens could be beneficial to human health. Most of the available data are from well developed countries while the developing countries are still understudied regarding these issues. Here, we raise a note of caution about potential role of environmental toxins including endocrine disruptors in breast cancer development and call for serious measures to be taken by all involved parties in the developing world.