• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.53-57
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• 2009

Heavy metal pollution may be one of the most serious challenges confront crop production and human health. Therefore, the selection of heavy metal tolerance cultivars which adapted to the contaminated fields will introduced a suitable solution for management this critical environmental risk. The objectives of this research is to assess human health risk using geochemical analyses and exposure assessment of heavy metals in rice cultivars. Risk for inhabitants in the closed mine area was comparatively assessed for As, Cd, Cu and Pb in 10 rice varieties as a major exposure pathway. The average daily dose (ADD) of each heavy metal was estimated by analyzing the exposure pathways to rice and soil. For the non-carcinogenic risk characterization, Hazard Quotient (HQ) and Hazard Index (HI) were calculated using toxicity indices provided by US-EPA IRIS. The different rice varieties revealed a wide range of HI values from 23.6 to 34.3, indicating that all rice varieties have a high potential toxic risk. The DA rice variety showed the lowest HI value while the TB rice variety the highest. The probabilities of cancer risk for As via rice consumption were varied with rice varieties ranging from 2.0E-03 to 3.5E-03 which exceeded the regulatory acceptable risk of 1 in 10,000 set by US-EPA. The DA rice variety also showed the lowest value while the TB rice variety gave the highest value. Our results indicate that risk assessment can be contribute to screen the pollution safe rice cultivars in paddy fields affected by the mining activity.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.73-86
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• 2004

In order to estimate the post-ingestion bioavailability of heavy metals and to assess the risk of adverse health effects on human exposure to toxic heavy metals, environmental geochemical surveys were undertaken around the Dogok Au-Ag-Cu and the Hwacheon Au-Ag-Pb-Zn mine sites. Human risk assessment of toxic heavy metals was performed with the results of the SBET(simple bioavailability extraction test) analysis for soil and chemical analytical data for crop plant and water. Arsenic and other heavy metals were highly elevated in tailings from the Dogok(218 As mg/kg, 90.2 Cd mg/kg, 3,053 Cu mg/kg, 9,473 Pb mg/kg, 14,500 Zn mg/kg) and the Hwacheon(72 As mg/kg, 12.4 Cd mg/kg. 578 Pb mg/kg, 1,304 Zn mg/kg) mines. These significant concentrations can impact on soils and waters around the tailing dumps. The quantities of As, Cd and Zn extracted from paddy soils in the Hwacheon mine using the SBET analysis were 55.4%, 20.8% and 26.4% bioavailability, respectively, and for farmland soils in the Dogok mine, 40.8%, 37.6% and 33.0% bioavailability, respectively. From the results of human risk assessment, HI(Hazard Index) value exceeded 1.0 for As in the Hwacheon mine and for Cd in the Dogok mine. Thus, toxic risks for As and Cd exist via exposure(ingestion) of contaminated soil, water and rice grain in these mine sites. The cancer risk for As by the consumption of rice and groundwater in the Hwacheon mine area was 8E-4 and 1E-4, respectively. This risk level exceeds the acceptable risk(1 in 100,000) for regulatory purpose. Therefore, regular ingestion of locally grown rice and ground-water by the local population can pose a potential health threat due to long-term arsenic exposure.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.591-601
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• 2021

As the domestic chemical industry continues to develop, handling and transportation of chemicals increases every year. Road freight in Korea accounts for more than 90%, and most of the chemical transportation is done through roads. These chemical vehicles can lead to major accidents if accidents occur. Transportation vehicles are likely to cause water pollution and soil pollution, which are factors of environmental damage, as well as traffic accidents that are the primary damage. In this work, we write a scenario for hydrogen chloride gas leakage by setting Banpo IC and Seocho IC sections as research areas, and use the ALOHA program to measure the predicted distance and analyze the time when hydrogen chloride gas reached according to the distance. In addition, risk assessment using population density was carried out for areas of damage caused by time using GIS. This suggests the need for prevention and countermeasures in areas of damage.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2004.09a
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• pp.330-333
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• 2004

국내 폐금속광산 일대에서 비소 및 중금속의 발암 및 비발암 위해성을 근거로 복원 기준치를 설정하였다. 폐금속광산일대의 주요한 노출 경로는 부지내 폐광석과 광미로부터 직접적인 오염물 흡입과 지하수를 통한 부지내 및 외 섭취의 경로로 구분된다. 지하수의 오염원은 폐광석과 광미 침출로부터의 오염과 갱구 유출로부터의 오염 및 지질매체 자체에 의한 오염이 설정되었다. 높은 오염 수준에 대해서 높은 오염성분감소비와 폐광산일대의 다양한 배경농도로부터 복원기준치를 설정 했을때, 토양 및 지하수의 복원기준치는 비소 위해도의 영향이 매우 큰 것으로 평가되었다. 비소의 높은 독성은 복원 기준치를 매우 낮게 형성했고, 위해도가 낮은 아연과 카드늄은 높게 설정되었다. 궁극적으로 오염성분 감소비에 따른 복원기준치 설정은 오염성분의 노출 경로 차단이 복원 목표치를 현실화시킬 수 있음을 보여주었다.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.204-209
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• 2009

This study was conducted to assess water movement in paddy-upland rotation soil scheduled for ginseng cultivation through the measurement of infiltration and permeability of soil water. Soil sample was divided with four soil layers. The first soil layer (to 30cm from top soil) was loamy sand, the second and the third soil layers (30$\sim$70 ㎝) were sand, and the fourth (< 120 ㎝) was sandy loam. The soil below 130 ㎝ of fourth soil layer was submerged under water. The shear strength, which represents the resisting power of soil against external force, was 3.1 kPa in the first soil layer. This corresponded to 1/8 of those of another soil layer and this value could result in soil erosion by small amount of rainfall. The rates of infiltration and permeability depending on soil layers were 39.86 cm $hr^{-1}$ in top soil, 2.34 cm $hr^{-1}$ in 30$\sim$70 ㎝ soil layer, 5.23 cm $hr^{-1}$ and 0.18 cm $hr^{-1}$ in 70$\sim$120 ㎝ soil layer, with drain tile, and without drain tile, respectively. We consider that ground water pooled in paddy soil and artificial formation of soil layer could interrupt water canal within soil and affect negatively on water movement. Therefore, we suggest that to drain at 5 m intervals be preferable when it makes soil dressing or soil accumulation to cultivate ginseng in paddy-upland rotation soil to reduce failure risk of ginseng cultivation.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.276-283
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• 2008

To provide the research strategy for protection of children's health from hazardous chemical, we reviewed the hazardous chemicals can be exposed through maternity, children's life style and living environment. Recently, diseases related with children's living condition were focused as asthma, atopy, childhood developmental disability, congenital malformations and obesity. Children can be exposed to hazardous chemicals through an ambient air, water, soil, food, toys and other factors such as floor dust. Also children's health was deeply related with a wrong life style and neglectful caring by a lack of knowledge and information of harmful ones at parents and child care center's nursers. According to the previous study, the chemical risk factor of children's health were identified as inorganic arsenic, bisphenol A, 2,4-D, dichlorvos, methylmercury, PCBs, pesticide, phthalates, PFOA/PFOS, vinyl chloride, et al. Domestic studies for identification of causality between children exposure to chemicals and resulted hazardous effects were not implemented. The confirmation of chemical risk factors through simultaneously performing toxicological analysis, human effect study, environmental/human monitoring, and risk assessment is needed for good risk management. And also, inter-agency collaboration and sharing information can support confirming scientific evidence and good decision making.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.19 no.1 s.62
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• pp.26-32
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• 2005

Recent earthquakes, measuring over a magnitude of 5.0, on the eastern coast of Korea, have aroused interest in earthquake analyses and the seismic design of caisson-type breakwaters. Most earthquake analysis methods, such as equivalent static analysis, response spectrum analysis, nonlinear analysis, and capacity analysis, are deterministic and have been used for seismic design and performance evaluation of coastal structures. However, deterministic methods are difficult for reflecting on one of the most important characteristics of earthquakes, i.e. the uncertainty of earthquakes. This paper presents results of probabilistic seismic hazard assessment(PSHA) of an actual caisson-type breakwater, considering uncertainties of earthquake occurrences and soil properties. First, the seismic vulnerability of a structure and the seismic hazard of the site are evaluated, using earthquake sets and a seismic hazard map; then, the seismic risk of the structure is assessed.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.129-143
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• 2012

This paper demonstrates the effectiveness of advanced spatial modeling techniques for environmental monitoring and impact assessment through a case study of Chernobyl nuclear accident occurred in 1986. Land-cover types changed after the accident are analysed by a post classification comparison method using bi-temporal Landsat TM data acquired in 1986 and 1992 near the accident site. Spatial modeling including various kriging algorithms are also applied to analyze the relationships between Cesium concentrations in soil and thyroid cancer incidence rates in Belarus, which was greatly damaged by the accident. The change detection results clearly showed the decrease of croplands and the increase of abandoned lands, and concrete structures were newly built around the nuclear plant to prevent the spread of radioactive contamination. In Belarus, high Cesium concentrations were observed in southern areas with high thyroid cancer risk estimated by Poisson kriging. Geographically weighted regression, which could account for geographic variations of independent variables including Cesium concentrations and distances from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, was applied to extract the relationships between the independent variables and the thyroid cancer risk. The estimated risk values showed a correlation coefficient value of 0.98 with respect to the thyroid cancer risk values, which implied that the thyroid cancer risk in Belarus was affected by the accident. In conclusion, it is expected that advanced spatial modeling techniques applied in this study would be useful for environmental impact assessment and public health research.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.73-86
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• 2007

Risk-based remediation strategy (RBRS) is a consistent decision-making process for the assessment and response to chemical release based on protecting human health and the environment. The decision-making process described integrates exposure and risk assessment practices with site assessment activities and remedial action selection to ensure that the chosen actions are protective of human health and the environment. The general sequences of events in Tier 1 is as follows: initial site assessment, development of conceptual site model with all exposure pathways, data collection on pollutants and receptors, and identification of risk-based screening level (RBSL). If site conditions do not meet RBSL, it needs further site-specific tier evaluation, Tier 2. In most cases, only limited number of exposure pathways, exposure scenarios, and chemicals of concern are considered the Tier 2 evaluation since many are eliminated from consideration during the Tier 1 evaluation. In spite of uncertainties due to the conservatism applied to risk calculations, limitation in site-specific data collections, and variables affecting the selection of target risk levels and exposure factors, RBRS provides us time- and cost-effectiveness of the remedial action. To ensure reliance of the results, the development team should consider land and resource use, cumulative risks, and additive effects. In addition, it is necessary to develop appropriate site assessment guideline and reliable toxicity assessment method, and to study on site-specific parameters and exposure parameters in Korea.