• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.39 no.6 s.181
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• pp.689-697
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• 2006

Distribution and speciation of arsenic in water resources was investigated in the Ulsan mine area. In 62% of uoundwater samples from the mine area, total As concentrations exceeded 0.05 mg/l, the Korean Drinking Water Standard. As(V) was the major type in groundwater with minor As(III). Arsenic species appeared to be in transition stages following redox changes after exposure to the air through the monitoring wells. In areas around the mine, the mine and Cheongog spring appeared to be the sources of arsenic contamination of water resources. The spring showed 0.345 mg/1-As, as much as seven times of the Korean standard. Groundwater and stream samples showed As-concentrations greater than 0.05 mg/l in 30% and 33% samples, respectively, and 60 and 67% of samples exceeded 0.01 mg/l of WHO guideline, respectively. Again, As(V) was a dominant species, however, several samples had As(III) in appreciable levels. In one stream sample, organic species including DMA and AsB were detected in low levels, probably resulted from transformation or related biogeochemical processes.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.166-174
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• 2001

Objectives : To obtain basic data on blood lead level and urinary level of arsenic and cadmium of children living near a petrochemical estate and a suburban area in Ulsan, Korea and to observe the trend of the changes. In the level of these metals in these children. Methods : The study subjects comprised 626 children living near a petrochemical estate and 299 children living in a suburban area of Ulsan. We analyzed the level of lead, arsenic and cadmium using atomic absorption spectrometer. Results : The mean levels of blood lead in children living near the petrochemical estate were $5.25{\mu}g/dl,\;5.24{\mu}g/dl,\;and\;7.24{\mu}g/dl$, and in the years 1997, 1999, and 2000, respectively, whereas those of children living in the suburban area were $3.81{\mu}g/dl,\;4.75{\mu}g/dl,\;and\;7.19{\mu}g/dl$ respectively. The mean levels of urinary arsenic in children living near the petrochemical estate were $4.57{\mu}g/g$ creatinine, $4.78{\mu}g/g$ creatinine, and $6.02{\mu}g/g$ creatinine in the year 1997, 1999, and 2000 respectively, whereas those of children living in suburban area were $2.35{\mu}g/g$ creatinine, $4.75{\mu}g/g$ creatinine, and $7.07{\mu}g/g$ creatinine, respectively. The mean levels of urinary cadmium in children living near the petrochemical estate were $1.15{\mu}g/g$ creatinine, $1.05{\mu}g/g$ creatinine, and $1.71{\mu}g/g$ creatinine in the year 1997, 1999, and 2000, respectively, whereas those of the children living in the suburban area were $0.74{\mu}g/g$ creatinine, $1.29{\mu}g/g$ creatinine, and $1.48{\mu}g/g$ creatinine, respectively. There were increasing trends in the level of blood lead, urinary arsenic and cadmium of children in Ulsan, and the differences in the level of these metals were disappearing between the children living in other areas year by year. Conclusions : These results suggest that the amount of exposure to lead, arsenic, and cadmium is increasing from year to year, and there is a need for periodic biological and atmospheric monitoring of these metals in Ulsan.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.38 no.5 s.174
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• pp.535-545
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• 2005

Environmental survey from some abandoned metal mine areas was undertaken on to assess the risk of adverse health effects on human exposure to arsenic influenced by past Au-Ag mining activities. Elevated levels of As were found in tailings from the studied mine areas. This high concentration may have a impact on soils and waters around the tailing piles. In order to perform the human risk assessment, chemical analysis data of soils, rice grains and waters fur As have been used. The HQ values fer As via the rice grain and groundwater consumption were significantly higher compared with other exposure pathways in all metal mine areas. However, there were minimal soil and water dermal contact risks. The resulting Hl values of As from the Dongil, Okdong and Hwacheon mine areas were higher than 5.0, and their toxic risk due to drinking water and rice grain was strong in these mine areas. The cancer risk of being exposed to As by the rice grain route from the Dongil, Okdong and Hwacheon mine areas was $5.2\times10^{-4},\;6.0\times10^{-4}\;and\;8.1\times10^{-4}$, respectively. The As cancer risk via the exposure pathway of drinking water from these mine areas exceeded the acceptable risk of 1 in 10,000 fer regulatory purposes. Thus, the daily intakes of groundwater and rice grain by the local residents from the Dongil, Okdong and Hwacheon mine areas can pose a potential health threat if exposed by long-term arsenic exposure.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.153-160
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• 1993

Health complaints among vinylhouse workers in Sungjoo county, Kyungpook province led to the investigation of heavy metal levels of air, soil and humans as well as physical conditions of the vinylhouse. The average temperature and humidity inside the vinylhouse were 8 higher and 10% point lower, respectively, as compared to the outside. While discomfort index(D. I.) outside was pleasant level(69.2), D. I. inside was 82 at which point 100% of people feels discomfort. Cadmium concentration of soils inside the vinylhouse(0.116 mg/kg) was 1.8 times higher than the soils outside. Arsenic concentration of soils inside the vinylhouse(4.882 mg/kg) was only slightly higher than the soils outside(4.182 ng/kg). However, both heavy metal concentrations detected in soils inside or outside the vinylhouse were within the normal range. Analysis of 10 air samples taken inside the vinylhouse showed that only one sample had a cadmium concentration above the detectable level and the rest of samples were below the detectable levels. While there were no difference of arsenic concentrations in urine between male and female, cadmium concentrations in urine samples of female (3.31 ug/l) was slightly higher than male(2.38 ug/l). Age-dependent increases of cadmium concentrations in urine samples were also observed. However, there was no concentration difference of these heavy metals in urine between vinylhouse workers and non-vinylhouse workers. Urine concentrations of cadmium and arsenic detected from vinylhouse workers or non-vinylhouse workers were within the normal range. The present study represents a first attempt to evaluate physical and environmental risk factors of the vinylhouse affecting the vinylhouse farmer's health. The study revealed that, while physical conditions of the vinylhouse such as temperature and humidity are the possible factors associated with the farmer's complaints, environmental contamination as judged from heavy metal levels in soil, air and humans is not a risk factor contributing to the vinylhouse farmer's health problem.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.291-301
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• 2018

BACKGROUND: Rice is one of the main sources for inorganic arsenic among the consumed crops in the world population's diet. Arsenic is classified into Group 1 as it is carcinogenic for humans, according to the IARC. This study was carried out to assess dietary exposure risk of inorganic arsenic in husked rice and polished rice to the Korean population health. METHODS AND RESULTS: Total arsenic was determined using microwave device and ICP-MS. Inorganic arsenic was determined by ICP-MS coupled with HPLC system. The HPLC-ICP-MS analysis was optimized based on the limit of detection, limit of quantitation, and recovery ratio to be $0.73-1.24{\mu}g/kg$, $2.41-4.09{\mu}g/kg$, and 96.5-98.9%, respectively. The inorganic arsenic concentrations of daily exposure (included in body weight) were $4.97{\times}10^{-3}$ (${\geq}20$ years old) $-1.36{\times}10^{-2}$ (${\leq}2$ years old) ${\mu}g/kg\;b.w./day$ (PTWI 0.23-0.63%) by the husked rice, and $1.39{\times}10^{-1}$ (${\geq}20$ years old) $-3.21{\times}10^{-1}$ (${\leq}2$ years old) ${\mu}g/kg\;b.w./day$ (PTWI 6.47-15.00%) by the polished rice. CONCLUSION: The levels of overall exposure to total and inorganic arsenic by the husked and polished rice were far lower than the recommended levels of The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), indicating of little possibility of risk.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.289-298
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• 2015

Objectives: The method of analyzing urinary arsenic by flow injection hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometry (FI-HG-AAS) is generally used because it shows relatively greater sensitivity, low detection limits, low blocking action, and is simple to operate. In this study, the results of analysis according to three pre-reductants commonly used in the FI-HG-AAS method were compared with each other. Methods: To analyze urinary arsenic, nineteen urine samples were collected from adults aged 43-79 years old without occupational arsenic exposure. Analysis equipment was FI-HG-AAS (AAnalyst 800/FIAS 400, Perkin- Elmer Inc., USA). The three pre-reductants were potassium iodide (KI/AA), C3H7NO2S (L-cysteine), and a mixture of KI/AA and L-cysteine (KI/AA&L-cysteine). Results: In the results of the analysis, the recovery rate of the method using KI/AA was 82.3%, 95.7% for Lcysteine, and 123.5% for KI/AA and L-cysteine combined. When compared with the results by use of high performance liquid chromatography inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HPLC-ICP-MS), the method using L-cysteine was the closest to those using HPLC-ICP-MS ($98.57{\mu}g/L$ for HPLC-ICP-MS; $74.96{\mu}g/L$ for L-cysteine; $69.23{\mu}g/L$ for KI/AA and L-cysteine; $13.06{\mu}g/L$ for KI/AA) and were significantly correlated (R2=0.882). In addition, they showed the lowest coefficient of variation in the results between two laboratories that applied the same method. Conclusion: The efficiency of hydride generation is considered highly important to the analysis of urinary arsenic via FI-HG-AAS. This study suggests that using L-cysteine as a pre-reductant may be suitable and the most rational among the FI-Hg-AAS methods using pre-reductants.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.19-25
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• 2002

The objectives of this study were to understand the possible mechanism of duck sperm toxicity induced by arsenic exposure in vivo, and to investigate the roles of the antioxidant L-ascorbic acid in ameliorating the arsenic-induced sperm impairment. To test the acute toxicity, the percentages of mortality of mature drakes treated with different concentrations of trivalent sodium arsenite, As (III), and pentavalent sodium arsenate, As (V) were measured. The LD50 value of As (III) for mature drakes was $4.89{\pm}1.49$ ppm. Although As (V) didn't cause any deaths even at a concentration of 40 ppm, the chronic toxicity of As (V) on sperm quality was shown by a decreased fertilization rate. When the concentrations of As (V) were above 0.4 ppm, fertilization rates were lower than those of 0.04 ppm and control. Drakes treated with 40 ppm of As (V) had the highest malondialdehyde (MDA) level in the testis tissue, $3.100{\pm}0.218{\mu}mole/g$ testis. This showed that 40 ppm of As (V) significantly induced lipid peroxidation in testis tissue. For the 1.2 ppm As (III) treatment, several significant effects were observed: (1) sperm motility was decreased most dramatically by $52.0{\pm}9.1$% after three days of incubation; (2) fertilization rate of artificially inseminated semen was the lowest, $26.4{\pm}15.4$; (3) the MDA concentration in testis tissue, $7.846{\pm}0.246{\mu}mole/g$ testis, was significantly higher than the others (p<0.05); (4) the sperm number, $1.17{\pm}0.40({\times}10^9)$, was significantly lower than with the 60 ppb and control treatments (p<0.05); (5) a black appearance and soft texture was observed in the testis tissue. The antioxidant L-ascorbic acid administered along with 1.2 ppm As (III) decreased the toxicity of arsenic. The ameliorating effects included: improved sperm motility, increased sperm number and fertilization rate, and decreased MDA concentration in the testis tissue. This study suggests that the toxicity of the trivalent arsenic on sperm quality is partly from free radicals generated by its metabolic pathway, and the antioxidant ascorbic acid ameliorates arsenic-caused sperm impairment.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.234-241
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• 2016

The approach presented in this article refers to the bioanalytical method validation for the detection and quantitative determination of arsenic species including arsenite (As(III)), arsenate (As(V)), dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) and monomethylarsonic acid (MMA) in dog plasma by high-performance liquid chromatography inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HPLC-ICP/MS). The arsenic species were separated using an agilent As speciation column by a mobile phase of 2 mM sodium phosphate monobasic, 0.2 mM ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid disodium salt dehydrate, 10 mM sodium acetate, 3 mM sodium nitrate and 1 % ethyl alcohol at pH 11 (adjusted with 1M NaOH). The method validation experiment was obtained selectivity, linearity, accuracy, precision, matrix effect, recovery, system suitability, dilution integrity and various stabilities. All calibration curves showed good linearity (R²>0.999) within test ranges. The lower limit of quantitation (LLOQ) was 5 ng/mL for As(III), As(V) and DMA, and 20 ng/mL for MMA. The system suitability and dilution values were within 6.5 % and 7.7 %. Subsequently, the developed and validated HPLC-ICP/MS method was also successfully applied to determine the arsenic speciation in dog plasma samples, and the recoveries for the spiked samples were in the range of 91.5–102.2 %. Therefore, this method could be applied to the evaluation of arsenic exposure, health effect assessment and other bio-monitoring studies in biological samples.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.38-47
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• 2011

This study focused on health risk assessment via multi-routes of As exposure to establish a target cleanup level (TCL) in abandoned mines. Soil, ground water, and rice samples were collected near ten abandoned mines in November 2009. The As contaminations measured in all samples were used for determining the probabilistic health risk by Monte-Carlo simulation techniques. The human exposure to As compound was attributed to ground water ingestion. Cancer risk probability (R) via ground water and rice intake exceeded the acceptable risk range of $10^{-6}{\sim}10^{-4}$ in all selected mines. In particular, the MB mine showed the higher R value than other mines. The non-carcinogenic effects, estimated by comparing the average As exposure with corresponding reference dose were determined by hazard quotient (HQ) values, which were less than 1.0 via ground water and rice intake in SD, NS, and MB mines. This implied that the non-carcinogenic toxic effects, due to this exposure pathway had a greater possibility to occur than those in other mines. Besides, hazard index (HI) values, representing overall toxic effects by summed the HQ values were also greater than 1.0 in SD, NS, JA, and IA mines. This revealed that non-carcinogenic toxic effects were generally occurred. The As contaminants in all selected mines exceeded the TCL values for target cancer risk ($10^{-6}$) through ground water ingestion and rice intake. However, the As level in soil was greater than TCL value for target cancer risk via inadvertent soil ingestion pathway, except for KK mine. In TCL values for target hazard quotient (THQ), the As contaminants in soil did not exceed such TCL value. On the contrary, the As levels in ground water and polished rice in SD, NS, IA, and MB mines were also beyond the TCL values via ground water and rice intake. This study concluded that the health risks through ground water and rice intake were greater than those though soil inadvertent ingestion and dermal contact. In addition, it suggests that the abandoned mines to exceed the risk-based TCL values are carefully necessary to monitor for soil remediation.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.137-148
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• 2010

The Myoungbong mine located in Boseong-gun, Jellanamdo consists of Au-Ag bearing quartz veins which filled the fissures of Bulguksa granitic rocks of Cretaceous. The tailings obtained from the Myungbong mine were used to investigate the effects of various processes, such as oxidation of primary sulfides and formation(alteration) of secondary and/or tertiary minerals, on arsenic immobilization in tailings. This study was conducted via both mineralogical and chemical methods. Mineralogical methods used included gravity and magnetic separation, ultrasonic cleaning, and instrumental analyses(X-ray diffractometry, energy-dispersive spectroscopy, and electron probe microanalyzer) and aqua regia extraction technique for soils was applied to determine the elemental concentrations in the tailings. Iron (oxy)hydroxides formed as a result of oxidation of tailings were identified as three specific forms. The first form filled in rims and fissures of primary pyrites. The second one precipitated and coated the surfaces of gangue minerals and the final form was altered into yukonites. Initially, large amounts of acid-generating minerals, such as pyrite and arsenopyrite, might make the rapid progress of oxidation reactions, and lots of secondary minerals including iron (oxy)hydroxides and scorodite were formed. The rate of pH decrease in tailings diminished, in addition, as the exposure time of tailings to oxidation environments was prolonged and the acid-generating minerals were depleted. Rather, it is speculated that the pH of tailings increased, as the contribution of pH neutralization reactions by calcite contained in surrounding parental rocks became larger. The stability of secondary minerals, such as scorodite, were deteriorated due to the increase in pH, and finally arsenic might be leached out. Subsequently, calcimn and arsenic ions dissociated from calcites and scorodites were locally concentrated, and yukonite could be grown tertiarily. It is confirmed that this tertiary yukonite which is one of arsenate minerals and contains arsenic in high level plays a crucial role in immobilizing arsenic in tailings. In addition to immobilization of arsenic in yukonites, the results indicate that a huge amount of iron (oxy)hydroxides formed by weathering of pyrite which is one of typical primary minerals in tailings can strongly control arsenic behavior as well. Consequently, this study elucidates that through a sequence of various processes, arsenic which was leached out as a result of weathering of primary minerals, such as arsenopyrite, and/or redissolved from secondary minerals, such as scorodite, might be immobilized by various sorption reactions including adsorption, coprecipiation, and absorption.