• Development and Reproduction
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.167-180
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• 2015

Arsenic is a toxic metalloid that exists ubiquitously in the environment, and affects global health problems due to its carcinogenicity. In most populations, the main source of arsenic exposure is the drinking water. In drinking water, chronic exposure to arsenic is associated with increased risks of various cancers including those of skin, lung, bladder, and liver, as well as numerous other non-cancer diseases including gastrointestinal and cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and neurologic and cognitive problems. Recent emerging evidences suggest that arsenic exposure affects the reproductive and developmental toxicity. Prenatal exposure to inorganic arsenic causes adverse pregnancy outcomes and children's health problems. Some epidemiological studies have reported that arsenic exposure induces premature delivery, spontaneous abortion, and stillbirth. In animal studies, inorganic arsenic also causes fetal malformation, growth retardation, and fetal death. These toxic effects depend on dose, route and gestation periods of arsenic exposure. In males, inorganic arsenic causes reproductive dysfunctions including reductions of the testis weights, accessory sex organs weights, and epididymal sperm counts. In addition, inorganic arsenic exposure also induces alterations of spermatogenesis, reductions of testosterone and gonadotrophins, and disruptions of steroidogenesis. However, the reproductive and developmental problems following arsenic exposure are poorly understood, and the molecular mechanism of arsenic-induced reproductive toxicity remains unclear. Thus, we further investigated several possible mechanisms underlying arsenic-induced reproductive toxicity.

• Proceedings of the KSEEG Conference
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• 2004.12a
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• pp.9-28
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• 2004

Concern about arsenic is increasing throughout the world, including areas of the United States. Elevated levels of arsenic above current drinking-water regulations in ground and surface water can be the result of purely natural phenomena, but often are due to anthropogenic activities, such as mining and agriculture. The current study correlates arsenic speciation in acid mine drainage and mining influenced water with the important water-chemistry properties Eh, pH, and iron(III) concentration. The results show that arsenic speciation is generally in equilibrium with iron chemistry in low pH AMD, which is often not the case in other natural-water matrices. High pH mine waters and groundwater do not 짐ways hold to the redox predictions as well as low pH AMD samples. The oxidation and precipitation of oxyhydroxides depletes iron from some systems, and this also affects arsenite and arsenate concentrations differently through sorption processes.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.176-183
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• 2013

The variation of the stable region of arsenic compounds in aqueous environment with temperature has been investigated by constructing the Pourbaix diagram of arsenic at different temperatures. The standard potential corresponding to the boundary between arsenic compounds with different charge valence was estimated to be decreased with temperature, which means the stability of arsenic compound with +5 charge valence increases. The distribution diagram of the most highly oxidized arsenic compound showed that arsenic acid is formed at higher pH and arsenate is generated at lower pH as temperature rises. The aquatic toxicity due to arsenic compounds was considered to be decreased with temperature in the neutral pH condition based on the $LD_T$ value defined in this study.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.21 no.1 s.52
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• pp.1-11
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• 2006

Arsenic is a ubiquitous element found in several forms in environment. Although certain foods, such as marine fish, contain substantial levels of organic arsenic forms, they are relatively low in toxicity compared to inorganic forms. In contrast, arsenic in drinking water is predominantly inorganic and very toxic. Chronic ingestion of arsenic-contaminated drinking water is therefore the major pathway posing potential risk to human health. World populations are exposed to low to moderate levels of arsenic of parts per billion (ppb) to thousands of ppb. When exposed to human, it could metabolize into monomethylarsonous acid ($MMA^{III}$) and dimethylarsinous acid ($DMA^{III}$) which are highly toxic. Lots of stuides have been recently focused how $MMA^{III}\;and\;DMA^{III}$ induce toxic insults in various target tissues. Epidemiological studies revealed that chronic arsenic exposure caused cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes etc. In this review, the current understanding of arsenic on health effects will be discussed.

• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.163.1-163.1
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• 2003

Arsenic is a ubiquitous element that ranks 20th in abundance in the earth's crust, 14th in the sea water, and is a component of several hundred minerals. Arsenic and its compounds are mobile in the environment. Groundwater contamination by arsenic is a serious threat to mankind all over the world and it can also enter food chain. Humans are exposed to this toxic arsenic from air, food and water. (omitted)

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2004.09a
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• pp.72-75
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• 2004

The potential of electrokinetic (EK) technology has been successfully demonstrated for the remediation of heavy metal contaminated fine-grained soils through laboratory scale and field application studies. Arsenic contamination in soil is a serious problem affecting both site use and groundwater quality. The EK technology was evaluated for the removal of arsenic from two soil samples: kaolinite clay artificially contaminated with arsenic and arsenic-bearing tailing soil taken from the Myungbong (MB) mining area. The effect of cathodic electrolyte on the process was investigated using three different types of electrolyte: deionized water (DIW), potassium phosphate (KH$_2$PO$_4$) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH). The result of experiments on the kaolinite clay shows that the potassium phosphate was most effective in extracting arsenic, probably resulting from anion exchange of arsenic species by phosphate. On the contrary, the sodium hydroxide seemed to be most efficient in removing arsenic from the tailing soil, and it is explained by the fact that sodium hydroxide increased the soil pH and accelerated ionic migration of arsenic species through increase in desorption and dissolution of arsenic species into pore water.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.12-22
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• 2020

Managed aquifer recharge (MAR) is a promising water management strategy for securing stable water resources to overcome water shortage and water quality deterioration caused by global environmental changes. A MAR demonstration site was selected at Imgok-ri, Sangju-si, Korea, based on screening for the frequency of drought events and local water supply situations. The abundant groundwater discharging from a nearby abandoned coal mine is one of the potential recharge water sources for the MAR implementation. However, it has elevated levels of arsenic (~12 ㎍/L). In this study, the potential of the natural attenuation of arsenic by the field geological media was investigated using batch and column experiments. The adsorption and desorption parameters were obtained for two drill core samples (GM1; 21.8~22.8 m and GM2; 26.0~27.8 m depth) recovered from the potentially water-conducting fracture-zones in the injection well. The effluent arsenic concentrations were monitored during the continuous flow of the mine drainage water through the columns packed with the core samples. GM2 removed about 60% of arsenic in the influent (0.1 mg-As/L) while GM1 removed about 20%. The results suggest that natural attenuation is an acitive process occurring during the MAR operation, potentially lowering the arsenic level in the mine drainage water below the regulatory standard for drinking water. This study hence demonstrates that using the mine drainage water as the recharge water source is a viable option at the MAR demonstration site.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.245-251
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• 2013

BACKGROUND: The objectives of this study are to investigate the contamination levels of heavy metals in soil, ground water, and agricultural product near the abandoned Boeun and Sanggok mine areas in Korea and to assess the health risk for these local residents exposed to the toxic heavy metals based on analytical data. METHODS AND RESULTS: By the results of human health risk assessment for local residents around Boeun and Sanggok, human exposure to cadmium, copper, arsenic from soil and to lead, cadmium, and arsenic from rice grain were higher in Sanggok, but human exposure to zinc and arsenic from ground water was higher in Boeun. By the results of hazard index (HI) evaluation for arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc, HI values in both areas were higher than 1.0. This result indicated that the toxicity hazard through the continuous exposure to lead, cadmium, arsenic from rice, ground water, and soil would be likely to occur to the residents in the areas. Cancer risk assessment for arsenic, risks from the rice were exposed to one to two out of 10,000 people in Boeun and one of 1,000 people in Sanggok. These results showed that the cancer risks of arsenic in both areas were 10~100 times greater than the acceptable cancer risk range of US EPA ($1{\times}10^{-6}{\sim}1{\times}10^{-5}$). CONCLUSION(S): Therefore, if these two local residents consume continuously with arsenic contaminated soil, ground water, and rice, the adverse health effects (carcinogenic potential) would be more increased.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.30-36
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• 2007

The global environment is deteriorating at an alarming rate, despite of enhanced international environmental regulation. Many studies have been performed to reduce toxic pollutants. Recently, plant-based phytoremediation technology for moving toxic contaminants from soil and water has been receiving large attention. Arsenic-contaminated soil is one of the major pollutant sources for drinking water. Pteris erotica has been known as a hyper-accumulator of arsenic from soils. In this study, we investigated the effect of arsenic absorption on sap flow inside xylem vessels of Pteris. The synchrotron X-ray micro-imaging technique was employed to monitor the refilling process of water containing arsenic inside the xylem vessels of Pteris's leaves and stems non-invasively. The captured phase-contrast X-ray images show both anatomy of internal structure and transport of water inside Pteris. The exposure of Pteris to arsenic solution was found to increase largely the water raise speed in xylem vessels. The present results would provide important information needed for understanding the mechanisms of accumulation and transportation of toxic materials in plants.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.209-215
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the characteristic of the iron oxide carrier for removing arsenic contained in the groundwater. 4 types of iron oxide carrier used in the study is iron oxide coated sand carrier (IOCSC), iron oxide coated zeolite carrier (IOCZC), iron oxide plasticity carrier (IOPC) and platinum iron oxide plasticity carrier (PIOPC). The results of this study, IOPC is showed high arsenic adsorption strength and the maximum amount of adsorption than the IOCC. Based on the results of the arsenic adsorption characteristic, by using IOCC was conducted to column test. As a result, PIOPC is showed a high arsenic adsorption amount than IOPC, it was found that the time required to reach the breakthrough point is also extended. Therefore it is determined that stably compliance with water quality standards enhanced drinking water when using the PIOPC.