생강 저장굴에서 발생한 건강 피해

Health hazards occurred in the underground storing places of ginger roots

Ginger has been cultivated for thousands of years. It is very popular in the food industry as an additive to ginger ale, candies, pastries and cakes. The root has a strong, sweet scent. It contains protein, fat, carbohydrates, ash, calcium, potassium, vitamin A. thiamine, riboflavin, niacin and ascorbic acid. In korea, farmers keep ginger roots into underground holes from the harvest time to the seedtime. They dig 6 meters under the ground and preserve the cultivated ginger roots. This study was conducted to evaluate the health hazards occurred in the underground storing places of ginger roots. Authors reviewed the accidents occurred in those places, therefore transported by the public emergency system in Seo-cheon city from Jan, 1 1996 to Dec, 31 1997. We could confirm 8 persons on transport records. Among them, 5 persons were due to poisoning, 3 persons were due to injuries. We would like to suggest that poisoning could be induced by hypoxia and injuries occurred from a fall into the underground hole. These should be prevented by the health education for farmers. And further investigations are needed to understand their magnitude and the pathogenic mechanisms.