• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2021.05a
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• pp.217-218
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• 2021

With the prolonged Covid-19 epidemic, movement restrictions such as social distancing are prolonged, and as people stay indoors for a longer time, interest in indoor air pollution is increasing. Indoor air quality is not easily purified unlike outdoors. Among indoor building materials, paints and flooring contain formaldehyde that causes sick house syndrome and VOCs that contain carcinogenicity and harmfulness. For modern people who spend a lot of time living indoors for more than an hour, the occurrence of these harmful substances can be said to be fatal. In response to these risks, in July 2019, the government reinforced the standards for indoor air quality to protect the public's health by raising the detection standards for fine dust, ultrafine dust, and formaldehyde in indoor multi-use facilities. People use machines such as air purifiers to improve indoor air quality, or make efforts such as periodic ventilation. In order to reduce or support these other ancillary efforts more effectively, to reduce the generation of pollutants in the building itself, or to adsorb or purify pollutants in the air, use carbon black as an admixture to make a cement hardened body, and to grasp basic physical properties and adsorption capacity. And the result is as follows. As a result of the experiment to determine the appropriate amount of carbon black, it was confirmed that the more the amount of carbon black was added, the better it was in the formaldehyde emission test, but the tendency was not clear when measuring the flexural strength, so a further experiment to improve this is needed.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.35
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• pp.52.1-52.13
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• 2023

Background: In 2019, the International Agency for Research on Cancer re-evaluated the carcinogenicity of night-shift work and reported that there is limited evidence that night-shift work is carcinogenic for the development of prostate cancer. Therefore, in 2020 and 2021, the Korean Epidemiologic Investigation Evaluation Committee concluded that 2 cases of prostate cancer were occupational diseases related to the night-shift work. Here, we report the 2 cases of prostate cancer in night-shift workers which were first concluded as occupational diseases by the Korean Epidemiologic Investigation Evaluation Committee. Case presentation: Patient A: A 61-year-old man worked as a city bus driver for approximately 17 years, from 2002 to 2019, and was exposed to night-shift work during this period. In March 2017, the patient was diagnosed with high-grade prostate cancer through core-needle biopsy after experiencing stinging pain lasting for 2 months. Patient B: A 56-year-old man worked as an electrician and an automated equipment operator in a cement manufacturing plant for 35 years from 1976 to 2013 and was exposed to night-shift work during this period. In 2013, the patient was diagnosed with high-grade prostate cancer through core needle biopsy at a university hospital because of dysuria that lasted for 6 months. Conclusions: The 2 workers were diagnosed with high-grade prostate cancer after working night shifts for 17 and 35 years respectively. Additionally, previous studies have reported that high-grade prostate cancer has a stronger relationship with night-shift work than low or medium-grade prostate cancer. Therefore, the Korean Epidemiologic Investigation Evaluation Committee concluded that night-shift work in these 2 patients contributed to the development of their prostate cancer.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.156-165
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• 2024

Objectives: This study aims to identify and analyze the exposure status of welding students in specialized high school welding labratories, compare it with the exposure to welding hazards of industrial workers, and seek to improve the educational environment for youth through domestic and international exposure standards. Methods: This study compares the level of exposure to hazardous factors in a welding laboratory of a vocational high school in Jeollanam-do and a welding process in a general industrial site by measuring the work environment. A 10-question survey was conducted to review the effects of welding hazards on the human body, carcinogenicity information, international (US, UK, France) exposure standards, general characteristics between the two groups, and awareness of occupational health. Results: Exposure to hazardous factors in both groups was below the standards set by MOEL. Specialized high school students were exposed to higher levels than workers, and some hazardous factors exceeded the standards when compared to international exposure standards. During the survey, students were less aware of the hazards of welding, safety and health education, and the need for work environment measurement than workers. Conclusions: For the respiratory protection of students in vocational high school welding labs, it is necessary to create a comfortable training environment. Exposure standards for harmful factors should be strictly applied, such as overseas standards, or exposure should be limited by setting a limit on the number of hours of welding practice per week. In addition, it is necessary to conduct safety and health education for welding students to raise their awareness of the importance of measuring the working environment and wearing appropriate protective equipment.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.457-473
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• 2023

Asbestos has been produced, imported and used in various industries in Korea over the past decades. Since asbestos causes fatal diseases such as malignant mesothelioma and lung cancer, the use of asbestos has been generally banned in Korea since 2009. However, there are still many asbestos-containing materials around us, and safe management is urgently needed. This study aims to examine asbestos-related trend changes using major asbestos-related keywords based on the asbestos trend analysis using big data for the past 32 years (1991 to 2022) in Korea. In addition, we reviewed both domestic trends related to the production, import, and use of asbestos before 1990 and asbestos-related policies from 2023 to 2027. From 1991 to 2000, main keywords related to asbestos were research, workers, carcinogens, and the environment because the carcinogenicity of asbestos was highlighted due to domestic production, import, and use of asbestos. From 2001 to 2010, the main keywords related to asbestos were lung cancer, litigation, carcinogens, exposure, and companies because lawsuits were initiated in the US and Japan in relation to carcinogenicity due to asbestos. From 2011 to 2020, the high ranking keywords related to asbestos were carcinogen, baseball field, school, slate, building, and abandoned asbestos mine due to the seriousness of the asbestos problem in Korea. From 2021 to present (2023), the main search keywords related to asbestos such as school, slate (asbestos cement), buildings, landscape stone, environmental impact assessment, apartment, and cement appeared.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.257-262
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• 1998

Benzo(a)pyrene(B(a)P), an extensively studied polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon(PAH), is a common contaminant produced through the burning of fossil fuels, particularly coal, and from the exhaust products of internal combustion engines. It produces a wide range of toxicities, including carcinogenicity in experimental animals. B(a)P has been shown to suppress systemic immunity in experimental animals, which may contribute to the growth of the chemical-induced tumors. Using colorimetric MTT assay natural killer(NK) cell-mediated growth inhibition of tomor cell was measured in normal and B(a)P-exposed C57BL/6 mice. Non-adherent splenocytes of normal or B(a)P-exposed mice were cultured with Yac-1 cells at four different effector/target(E/T) cell ratios ranging from 200/1, 100/1, 50/1, and 25/1 in an assay volume of 0.1 ml. After the optical density of culture wells containing MTT solution was measured at a wavelength of 540 nm, the percentage of dead cells relative to the control target cell number was calculated. The NK activity of B(a)P-exposed mice was markedly lower than that of non-exposed mice group at all E/T ratios. These results indicated that suppression of NK cell activity may play a role in allowing for the growth of tumors.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.689-699
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• 2003

This study was to examine characteristics of treating toluene vapor, which gets to be problematic due to its harmful carcinogenicity and mass generation from various sources, through a biological treatment facility which is environment-friendly and adopts a high-efficient and low-cost clean technology. In order to identify whether Alnus Firma Fruit (AFF) can be used as a media for a bioreactor, its utility and basic operating factors, a study was conducted on pressure drop, supply of nutrient substances and retention time which are operating factors of a biofilter, and eliminating characteristics were compared between AFF and the conventional biological activatedcarbon (BAC) widely used as filter media. In the case of AFF, the initial microbial deposits was 2.3${\times}$10$^{7}$ CFU/g dry AFF, which represents the initial microbial density higher than the case of BAC showing 5.5${\times}$10$^{6}$ CFU/g dry BAC And it took about 2 weeks to acclimate until its eliminating rate got to be increased over 90%. As a result of comparing pressure loss taking place with the lapse of time between BAC and AFF, after 130 days passed at SV 25h$^{-1}$ , BAC showed that its eliminating efficiency had a tendency to drop greatly due to a great pressure loss (0.53\longrightarrow54.7 mm$H_2O$/m) caused by an excess of biomass as accumulated. On the other hand. AFF showed that the pressure drop was 0.53 mm$H_2O$/m, about 2 times as much as the initial pressure loss of 0.4 mm$H_2O$/m, which represents no great change in the pressure loss, and its eliminating efficiency was also shown to be continuously high. Therefore, when AFF was used as a filler for a biological treatment facility, a biological filter enabling improvement of the purifying efficiency to be promoted could be provided, and moreover, the pressure loss was so small that the filler replacement cycle or the back flushing cycle could be extended. So, even in terms of the operating cost, it was identified to be an economical filler When an inorganic material was used as a filler, the biofilters performance acted sensitively on whether nutrient substances were supplied or not. In the case of AFF with low adsorptivity, addition of ethyl-alcohol increased the solubility of toluene, and consequently, biodegradation got to be actively made by microbes, and thus, its eliminating rate could be increased. As the flow velocity and the inflow concentration got to be more increased, its eliminating rate got to be lower, and particularly, an increase in the flow velocity made its eliminating rate drop more greatly than an increase in the concentration.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.1-8
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• 2015

In this study, we performed risk assessment of chloroprene by hazard evaluation and workplace investigation. The chemical is used to manufacture of shoes, tires, adhesives, and classified as IARC category 2B (possibly carcinogenic to humans) and target organ systemic toxicity. It is used about 1,300 tons per year in 27 sites. It was calculated the risk of carcinogenesis with chloroprene by Monte-carlo simulation that the averages are 2,199 and 26,404 in each case of working less than 15 minutes per day with local exhaust ventilation and over 4 hours per day without local exhaust ventilation. The risk of target organ systemic toxicity are 4.10 and 169.06 with high correlation with working time to be longer and with ventilation system. Therefore, it is recommended that the local exhaust ventilation and respirators to prevent occupational cancer and target organ systemic toxicity with chloroprene. Especially it is determined that there is a need to strengthen the workplace exposure limit (TWA 10 ppm) in Korea since it is managed with TWA less than 5 ppm ($18mg/m^3$) by the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) as well as it has carcinogenicity, reproductive toxicity.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.309-314
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• 2014

Purpose: Cigarette smoking causes many kinds of cancer, and it is more closely related with lung cancer, rather than other cancers. Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer and ninety percent of the smokers are male in China, but there is little published data concerning the psychological responses in the male smokers with lung cancer and its influence on the symptom burden. The aim of the study was to verify the hypothesis that male smokers with lung cancer have more positive attitude and less symptom burden, comparing to male non-smokers. Methods: A total of 194 men with cancer in West China Hospital, Sichuan, China, were assessed by self-administered questionnaire. Psychological response was measured by the Chinese version of Mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer scale (Mini-MAC), and symptom burden was measured by the physical symptom distress scale from the Rotterdam Symptom Checklist (RSCL). Results: We found that smokers with lung cancer got higher scores in positive attitude and a smaller symptom burden than non-smokers. Patients with education lower than high school got higher scores of positive attitude compared to college graduate patients (p=0.038). Smokers with lung cancer who knew the potential carcinogenicity of cigarette showed less negative emotions (p=0.011). The psychological response was not affected by age, clinical stage, cell type, smoking duration and amount. Conclusions: Male smokers with lung cancer have a more positive attitude and fewer symptoms, comparing to male non-smokers. Appropriate psychological intervention for non-smokers with lung cancer deserves more attention.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.307-312
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• 1997

As a preliminary experiment to investigate the antitumor activity of colored rice in vivo, inhibitory effect of solvent extracts from colored rice brans on DNA strand scission and tumor promotion was examined in vitro. Two colored rice cultivars, Sanghaehyanghyulla and Suwon 415 were compared with Chuchung as a control. The antimutagenic activity of each rice cultivars increased in order of Chuchung

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.20 no.2 s.49
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• pp.109-121
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• 2005

A chemical ranking and scoring (CRS-Korea) system was developed and proposed to use as the first step to prioritize the toxic chemicals for the purpose of monitoring and detailed risk assessment that might follow as necessary. The CRS-Korea system takes a basic concept of risk assessment (both human health risk and ecological risk) in that risk score is determined by the product of toxicity score and exposure score. Included in the toxicity category are acute toxicity, chronic/sub -chronic toxicity, carcinogenicity, and other toxicity. The exposure category consists of quantity released to the environment, bioconcentration, and persistence. A consistent scheme and a comprehensive chemical data base are offered in the CRS-Korea system to calculate a score for the each component in the two categories by using specific physicochemical, fate, and toxic properties and the quantity of the chemical used. The toxicity score is obtained by adding up all the individual scores for the components in the toxicity category. The exposure score is determined by multiplication of the score of the quantity released with the sum of persistent score and bioconcentration score. Equal weight is given to the toxicity score and the exposure score. As the CRS-Korea system was applied to identify 50 national priority chemicals, it was found that significant data gap exists on toxicity and fate properties and that the uncertainty associated with estimating the quantify released to the environment is notably high. The proposed CRS system is only a screening tool in the first step toward the priority setting and should be used with expert judgement and other considerations necessary.