• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.257-266
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• 2018

Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate asphalt fumes and PAHs exposure among asphalt road paving workers. Methods: Task-based personal air samplings(n=41) were carried out in 3 asphalt road paving construction sites using PTFE (polytetrafluorethylene) filters for asphalt fume and XAD-2 with glass fiber filters for PAHs. The concentration of fumes and PAHs were showed by four different job(paver finisher operator, paving laborer(raker), macadam roller operator and tire roller operator). Results: The geometric mean(GM) concentration of asphalt fumes as benzene soluble aerosol was highest at paving laborers($42.32{\mu}g/m^3$), followed by in order, paver finisher operators($41.57{\mu}g/m^3$), macadam roller operators($31.9{\mu}g/m^3$), and tire roller operators($30.31{\mu}g/m^3$). The GM of total PAHs concentration was highest at paver finisher operators($37.5{\mu}g/m^3$), followed by in order, paving laborers($20.13{\mu}g/m^3$), tire roller operators($8.66{\mu}g/m^3$), and macadam roller operators($6.23{\mu}g/m^3$). The results of the evaluation of 16 compounds of PAHs showed that the concentrations of naphthalene, achenaphthylene, achenaphthene, pyrene, fluorene and benz (a) anthracene was higher than those of other PAHs compounds and as the carcinogenic substances, benzo(a)pyrene, and debenz(a,h) anthracene were detected. The benzo(a)pyrene equivalent concentration(BaPeq) was $2.81{\mu}g/m^3$ at paver finisher operators, $2.07{\mu}g/m^3$ at paving laborers, $0.41{\mu}g/m^3$ at tire roller operators and $0.22{\mu}g/m^3$ at macadam roller operators. Asphalt road paving workers have higher benzo(a)pyrene equivalent(BaPeq) values even though at lower total PAHs concentration than workers in steel pipe coating and tar industry. Conclusions: Asphalt road paving workers were found to have risk of carcinogen exposure due to higher Benzo(a)pyrene equivalent concentration(BaPeq) than other PAHs exposure occupations. This study confirmed the carcinogenic hazards among asphalt paving workers.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.35
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• pp.34.1-34.8
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• 2023

Background: Hydrogen sulfide is a toxic substance that humans can be exposed to occupationally, and cases of hydrogen sulfide poisoning of workers in industrial sites are commonly reported. However, there have been no cases of poisoning of the public due to an unauthorized discharge of wastewater, so it is important to describe this incident. Case presentation: In a small village in Jeollanam-do, Republic of Korea, accounts of a terrible stench had been reported. A 26-year-old man who lived and worked in a foul-smelling area was taken to the emergency room with a headache, dizziness, nausea, and repeated syncope. A subsequent police and Ministry of Environment investigation determined that the cause of the stench was the unauthorized discharge of 9 tons of wastewater containing hydrogen sulfide through a stormwater pipe while the villagers were sleeping. The patient had no previous medical history or experience of symptoms. Leukocytes and cardiac markers were elevated, an electrocardiogram indicated biatrial enlargement, left ventricular hypertrophy, and corrected QT interval prolongation. Myocardial hypertrophy was detected on a chest computed tomography scan, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was confirmed on echocardiography. After hospitalization, cardiac marker concentrations declined, symptoms improved, and the patient was discharged after 7 days of hospitalization. There was no recurrence of symptoms after discharge. Conclusions: We suspect that previously unrecognized heart disease manifested or was aggravated in this patient due to exposure to hydrogen sulfide. Attention should be paid to the possibility of unauthorized discharge of hydrogen sulfide, etc., in occasional local incidents and damage to public health. In the event of such an accident, it is necessary to have government guidelines in place to investigate health impact and follow-up clinical management of exposed residents.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.345-349
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• 2019

In Korea, the mountainous area occupies more than 70% of the whole country, cutting of earth slope that cuts a part of the ground surface is widely used when building infrastructures such as road, railroad, and industrial complex construction. In recent years, regulations on environmental damage have become more strict, and various methods have been developed and applied. Among them, Concrete-Panel Retaining Wall technique is actively applied. Concrete-Panel Retaining Wall is a method to resist horizontal earth pressure by forming a wall by attaching a precast retaining wall to the front of the support material and increasing the shear strength of the disk through reinforcement of the support material. Soil nailing, earth bolt, and ground anchor are used as support material. Among them, ground anchor is a more aggressive reinforcement type that introduces tensile load in advance to the steel wire, and a large concentrated load acts on the front panel. This concentrated load is a factor that creates cracks in the concrete panel and reduces the durability of the retaining wall itself. In this study, steel pipe sleeves and reinforcements were purchased at the anchorage of the panel to prevent cracks, and by applying bumpy shear keys to the end of the panel, the weakness of the individual behavior of the existing grout anchors was improved. The problem of degraded landscape by exposure to front concrete of retaining wall and protrusion of anchorage was solved by the production of natural stone patterns and the construction of sections that do not protrude the anchorage. In order to verify the effectiveness of anti-crack sleeves and reinforcements used in the null, indoor testing and three-dimensional numerical analysis have been performed, and the use of steel pipe sleeves and reinforcements has demonstrated the overall strength increase and crack suppression effect of panels.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.77-84
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• 2002

In this paper, we had analyzed comsbustion gases using a GASTEC colorimetric gas detector tube according to the method of NES 713 in order to combustion gases toxicity evaluation for beads polystyrene foam, extruded polystyrene foam, rigid polyurethane foam, flexible polyurethane foam, flexible polyvinyl chloride pipe, vinyl floor cover, polyethyelene foam(flame retardant untreated) and polyethyelene foam (flame retardant treated) of plastics material. As results of gas analyses by using this method, comsbustion gases producted from small specimens of plastics material had reached fatal to man at 30 minutes exposure time that had possesed toxicity index of more than 1. Toxicity indexes of each specimen were estimated range of 4.3∼179.2, flexible polyvinyl chloride showed the hightest toxicity index at 179.2, and beads polystyrene foams showed the lowest toxicity index at 4.3.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.215-223
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• 2006

The internal corrosion of water distribution systems is the main cause for the problem of the public health threat as well as water leakage in the damaged pipeline, red water, and odor and taste of the tap water. This study was examined the effect of chemicals used for pH and alkalinity control and corrosion inhibitors for producing the optimal corrosion control method. Corrosion study at different pH and alkalinity indicated that these control using alkaline chemicals was effective in corrosion rate, Fe release reduction, but examined to be increased in turbidity and corrosion-by-products(TTHMs) problems. The turbidity was slightly increased, requiring caution in controlling corrosion with $Ca(OH)_2$. At pH 9.0, TTHMs concentration is increased two times corn pared with non-control of pH. Using the pipe which had experienced 28 years of exposure, iron release was decreased with the corrosion inhibitor. Consequently, pH, Alkalinity control method using alkaline chemicals must be complemented by corrosion inhibitor application for efficient corrosion control.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.506-512
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• 2007

This study was conducted to describe the exposure levels of welding fumes by the type of manufacturers, work process, welding type and the size of manufacturers, and to find out the trend of chronological changes of airborne welding fume levels. The subjects of this study were 509 manufacturers, consisting of 11 types of manufacturers, 3 work processes, 7 welding types, in Busan from January, 1997 to December, 2005. Airborne concentration of welding fume was determined by manual of National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), and the data were analyzed by using SPSS 10.0 for Windows program. The mean concentration of airborne welding fume in all manufacturers was $1.29\;mg/m^3$ (Range: $0.01{\sim}3.00\;mg/m^3)$. The level of welding fume was the highest, as $1.96\;mg/m^3$, for manufactures of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers, which was lower than $5.0\;mg/m^3$ of 8 hr-TWA in Korean permissible exposure limit for welding fume. There was a significant difference in the mean levels of welding fumes by work process, showing the highest in welding workshop ($1.39\;mg/m^3$), followed by pipeline welding workshop ($1.26\;mg/m^3$) and engineering workshop ($1.20\;mg/m^3$). Among welding types, the mean level of welding fume was the highest in the type of $CO_2$ & arc welding, as $1.46\;mg/m^3$, followed by $CO_2$ welding ($1.40\;mg/m^3$), shielded metal arc welding ($1.31\;mg/m^3$), spot welding ($1.27\;mg/m^3$), and so on. The highest mean level of welding fume was $1.58\;mg/m^3$ in work process of pipe line welding workshop for the manufacturers of basic iron and steel, and $2.27\;mg/m^3$ in the type of arc welding for the manufactures building ship and boats. By the size of manufacturers, the mean concentration of welding fume for manufactures in small scale with less than 50 workers was the highest as $1.45\;mg/m^3$ (Range: $0.07{\sim}3.00\;mg/m^3)$. The mean level of welding fume was the highest as $1.39\;mg/m^3$ both in 1997 and in 2005, showing a trend of fluctuating periodically within a range of $1.10{\sim}1.39\;mg/m^3$. The above results suggested that more effective control program for work environment producing welding fumes should be developed and applied since there were significant variations in welding fume levels by the type of manufacturers, work processes, welding types, the size of manufactures, and by year.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.449-461
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• 2013

As the hydrofluoric acid leak in Gumi-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do or hydrochloric acid leak in Ulsan, Gyeongsangnam-do demonstrated, chemical related accidents are mostly caused by large amounts of volatile toxic substances leaking due to the damages of storage tank or pipe lines of transporter. Safety assessment is the most important concern because such toxic material accidents cause human and material damages to the environment and atmosphere of the surrounding area. Therefore, in this study, a hydrofluoric acid leaked from a storage tank was selected as the study example to simulate the leaked substance diffusing into the atmosphere and result analysis was performed through the numerical Analysis and diffusion simulation of ALOHA(Areal Location of Hazardous Atmospheres). the results of a qualitative evaluation of HAZOP (Hazard Operability)was looked at to find that the flange leak, operation delay due to leakage of the valve and the hose, and toxic gas leak were danger factors. Possibility of fire from temperature, pressure and corrosion, nitrogen supply overpressure and toxic leak from internal corrosion of tank or pipe joints were also found to be high. ALOHA resulting effects were a little different depending on the input data of Dense Gas Model, however, the wind direction and speed, rather than atmospheric stability, played bigger role. Higher wind speed affected the diffusion of contaminant. In term of the diffusion concentration, both liquid and gas leaks resulted in almost the same $LC_{50}$ and ALOHA AEGL-3(Acute Exposure Guidline Level) values. Each scenarios showed almost identical results in ALOHA model. Therefore, a buffer distance of toxic gas can be determined by comparing the numerical analysis and the diffusion concentration to the IDLH(Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health). Such study will help perform the risk assessment of toxic leak more efficiently and be utilized in establishing community emergency response system properly.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.08a
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• pp.1516-1519
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• 2004

A tele-operated robot should be used to maintain and inspect nuclear power plants to reduce the radiation exposure to the human operators. During an overhaul of the nuclear power plants in Korea, a ROV(Remotely Operated Vehicle) may enter a cold-leg connected to the reactor to examine the state of the thermal sleeve and it's position in the safety injection nozzle. To measure the positions of the thermal sleeve or scratches from the video images captured during the examination, the camera parameters should be identified. However, the focal length of the CCD camera could be increased to a close up of the target and the aspect ratio and the center of the image could also be varied with capturing devices. So, it is desired to self-calibrated the intrinsic parameters of the camera and capturing device with the video images captured during the examination. In the video image of the safety injection nozzle, two or more circular grooves around the nozzle are shown as ellipse contours. In this paper, we propose a camera self-calibration method using a single image containing two circular grooves which are the greatest circles of the cylindrical nozzle whose radius and distance are known.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.201-208
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• 2011

Objectives: According to the compliance of the asbestos-related regulation, every building has to be inspected for asbestos presence before its abatement work. This study was performed for identifying the types and contents of asbestos in building bulk samples. Materials and Methods: Bulk samples were collected during the asbestos inspection in 2010. We grouped the bulk samples into the regulated asbestos containing materials(RACM), presumed asbestos containing materials(PACM), and construction products. Additionally, the types of asbestos in all bulk samples were identified by polarization microscopy(PLM). Results: The RACMs were from building, house, pipe and facility. The RACMs were found mainly building (72.1%) and house (93.7%). The contents of chrysotile in building, house and facility were 66.9% (1-90%), 89.7% (2-90%) and 11.0% (2-90%), respectively. PACMs were surfacing material, thermal system insulation (TSI), and miscellaneous material. The miscellaneous materials that showed a high detection rate (79.2%) were ceiling, roofing and wall materials. Among them, the roofing materials had high chrysotile content(9.7%, 2-21%), followed by wall (8.7%, 2-21%) and ceiling (3.4%, 1-17%). In the construction products, asbestos was found mainly in slate (92.6%, 2-21%), including chrysotile. The slate had high asbestos content (9.7%, 2-21%), followed by cement flat board (8.7%, 2-19%) and textile (3.4%, 1-17%) Conclusions: Utilizing these results, it would be contributed to construct a useful ACM database and prevent from asbestos exposure to workers in the asbestos abatement and maintenance works.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.35-43
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• 1997

The knowledge of x-ray spectra is highly desirable in some investigation involves the differential penetrating power and absorption coefficient correction of various photon beam. The transmission data were obtained from the 80 kVp and 120 kVp of CT x-ray beam with the aluminium filter which is designed in a 30 cm of diameter and pipe-typed filter was prepared from 5.0 mm upto 92.3 mm of thickness. To obtain the reconstructed spectra of CT x-ray, the investigator used the iterative numerical analysis which has been extended to include the tungsten characteristics from experimental transmission data with energy interval of 2 keV. Comparison of the calculated transmission data from the reconstructed spectra with that of measurement shows good agreement in both 80 kVp and 120 kVp x-ray beams. This numerical analysis based on iteratively calculation of fractional exposure per energy interval shows the high potential of usefulness of determination the x-ray spectra from the attenuated beam in diagnostic energy range.