• KOREAN JOURNAL OF PACKAGING SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.127-132
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• 2022

The growth of e-commerce market requires more delivery packagings, which protect goods from the damage factors on the delivery. In this study, we have analyzed the distribution environment data (vibration and impact) measured in previous study and compared with global standards (ISTA, ASTM), so that we developed the testing method for Field-to-Lab simulation suitable to the domestic delivery. In order to verify the efficacy of this method, we took the Field-to-Lab tests for 3 packaged products (detergents set, glass tableware set, small furniture), which has been frequent breakages or damages on the actual delivery by e-commerce order, so that we could find out the test results were similar to those of the actual delivery occasions. In addition, we could perform redesign and improvement of the parcel delivery packagings for safe transportation by taking this Field-to-Lab test repeatedly. This test methods was finally proposed to be Korean industrial standard (KS), and is expected to be useful as a designing tool for the packaging optimization between protecting goods and reducing packaging waste.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.551-566
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• 2017

As the modern society is rapidly developing and people become affluent in materials, many new chemical compounds in different forms of products (e.g., antibiotics, pesticides, detergents, personal care products and plastic goods) are produced, used, and disposed of to the environments. Some of them are persistently having a harmful impact on the environment and mimicking endocrine properties; in general they are present in the environment at low concentrations, so they are called organic pollutants. These organic micropollutants flow to sewage treatment plants via different routes. In this study, the generation characteristics, exposure pathways, detection levels, and environmental impacts of organic micropollutants were critically reviewed. In addition, currently available risk assessment methods and management systems for the compounds were reviewed. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), for example, has monitored organic micropollutants and set the monitoring and management of some of the compounds as a priority. To effectively manage organic micropollutants in sewer systems, therefore, we should first monitor organic micropollutants of potential concern and then make a watch list of specific substances systematically, as described in guidelines on listing water pollutants in industrial wastewater.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.125-134
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• 2019

Purpose - Environment-friendly behaviors are diverse and can be motivated by different factors. For example, magnitude of factors affecting recycling behavior could be different from those affecting purchasing of environmentally-friendly products. In this study, the focus is on usage satisfaction of consumers who have purchased environmentally-friendly products. Research design, data, and methodology - For this purpose, data were collected from a total of 345 users of environmentally-friendly products, consisting of 177 users of electric vehicles and 168 users of environmentally-friendly detergents. The study analyzed the relationships among consumer's innovation propensity, consumer's environmental concern, and usage satisfaction. In addition, the moderating effect of the product's innovativeness was examined. Results - The result shows that there is a relationship between consumer's innovation propensity and consumer's environmental concern. In particular, it is shown that both consumer's innovation propensity and consumer's environmental concern have positive effects on usage satisfaction. Further, there was a moderating effect of the product's innovativeness. Namely, products rated higher in innovativeness showed a greater effect of consumer's innovation propensity on usage satisfaction. The degree of the product's innovativeness also affected the directional paths of the relationships. In the electric vehicle (i.e., high product innovativeness) case, consumer's innovation propensity had a direct effect on usage satisfaction, as well as an indirect effect through consumer's environmental concern. In the environmentally-friendly detergent (i.e., low product innovativeness) case, consumer's innovation propensity only had an indirect effect on usage satisfaction, through consumer's environmental concern. Conclusions - Theoretical contributions of this study are as follows. Foremost, this is the first study that suggests an existence of a relationship between consumer's innovation propensity and consumer's environmental concern. Second, this study showed the positive effect of consumer's innovation propensity on usage satisfaction of environmentally-friendly products. Third, this study expanded the scope of previous studies by showing the interaction between consumer's innovation propensity and consumer's environmental concern. Lastly, this study showed that the effect of these variables on usage satisfaction can differ by the degree of innovativeness of the environmentally-friendly product. The results of the study will have implications for marketers and policy makers in formulating marketing activities and policies.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.361-374
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• 2015

Endocirne disruptors (EDs) can cause fertility decrease, developmental disorder, and even cancer in animals. Until 90's, EDs were used in various synthetic products including paints, coatings, detergents, plastics, and plasticizers. Currently, in several countries, the production, trade and use of EDs or EDs-suspected chemicals have been regulated while activity to screen the alternatives for EDs including bisphenol-A, phthalate and nonylphenol is active. Although various toxicity test method was developed and applied for screening of alternatives, however, the safety of alternatives has been not fully demonstrated. Some alternatives have high structural similarity with existing EDs, raising the possible risk of endocrine disruption by alternatives. In an effort to develop the safe alternatives, we reviewed the effects of EDs such as bisphenol-A, phthalates, nonylphenol and their substituents. In addition, in-silico analysis for endocrine disrupting activities of some alternatives was presented.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.21-36
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• 2017

Phthalates, known as typical endocrine disruptors, are plasticizers used to soften plastics such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Because of their material properties, phthalates are used extensively in the production of toys, flooring, wood processing, detergents, and even cosmetics as lubricants and perfume solvents. Due to their endocrine disrupting effect and other adverse health effects published, recently, phthalates have been regulated in many countries. Besides, in an effort to replace phthalates, several chemical plasticizers such as trioctyltrimellitate (TOTM) and dioctylterephthalate (DIOP) have been used instead of the existing harmful phthalates, and novel alternatives are continuously being developed. Nonetheless, phthalates are still being detected in several plastic products, and the safety of alternatives that are considered safe is being questioned. In this review, we describe the adverse health effects of phthalates, their regulation and the current status of their alternatives.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.68-84
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• 1999

The purpose of this study was analyze how korean adult women\`s swimming suit buying behavior varied according to consumer characteristics. Especially, it was intended to provide basic materials for swimming suit product development and quality improvement appropriate to consumer characteristics with a focus on product evaluation criteria. Questionnaire research was conducted for 850 adult women resident in Seoul, to whom questionnaire were distributed and who were asked to complete their questionnaires. 1. As for buying motive, of swimming suit buying behavior, it was shown that the highest proportion of adult women bought their new swimming suit because their old swimming suit was wornout and most adult women tended to buy their new swimming suit or their own will rather than at others\` suggestion. 2. As for the source of information at a time. of swimming suit purchase, adult women collected information from the product on display most and bought their swimming suit in a planned way in relation to the degree of purchase planning. 3. As for product evaluation criteria, adult women showed the high scores in order of the type and quality of material, activity and functionalism, dimensions and fitness. 4. In many cases actual swimming suit purchasers were the adult women who bought their swimming suit, and they used the department store or the large shopping center as the place of purchasing the swimming suit. Its reason was that the department store or the large shopping center had a diverse assortment of products. As for the degree of their travelling companion\`s influence, it was found that most adult women were influenced by their travelling companions when purchasing their swimming suits. 5. As for the level of satisfaction with swimming suit purchase, it was shown that adult women were generally satisfied with their swimming suit purchase. It was found that their level of satisfaction was higher in order of activity and functionalism, the type and quality of swimming suit materials, and ease in washing management while they showed the low level of satisfaction with price, the fastness of color to washing, light and detergents and durability.

• Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.122-127
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• 2001

4-tert-octylphenol (OP) is a surfactant additive widely used in the manufacture of a variety of detergents and plastic products. Also, OP is known to have estrogenic activity by interacting with development and functions of endocrine system. This study was carried out to obtain toxicokinetic parameters of OP in male Sprague-Dawley rats. Male rats were administered OP, by either single oral (gavage) applications of 50, 100 or 200 mg/kg body weight. or a single intravenous injections of 1, 5 or 10 mg/kg body weight. Blood samples taken at several time intervals after administration were obtained from the femoral artery. Analysis of blood samples for OP was performed by gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The detection limit of OP was 1.9 ng/$m\ell$ at SIM (selected ion monitoring) mode of GC/MS. Calibration curve for analysis of the concentrations of OP in plasma was (OP/butylphenol peak area ratio) = 0.0294 $\times$ (plasma cone.) + 0.028 ($r^2$= 0.9991). The OP plasma concentration was 3921 ng/$m\ell$ immediately after single intravenous application, decreased rapidly within 45 min, and was detectable at low concentration up to 6 hr after application. When administered orally in rats (50, 100 and 200 mg/kg), OP was detected in the blood early after gavage administration, indicating the rapid initial uptake from gastrointestinal tract, with Tmax obtained from 0.67~0.83 hr. Using the AUC (area under the curve) of plasma concentration vs. time, low oral bioavailabilities of 1.2, 5.0 and 5.3% were calculated for the 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg groups, respectively.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.105-115
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• 2017

Background: The goal of this study is to develop a general population job-exposure matrix (GPJEM) on asbestos to estimate occupational asbestos exposure levels in the Republic of Korea. Methods: Three Korean domestic quantitative exposure datasets collected from 1984 to 2008 were used to build the GPJEM. Exposure groups in collected data were reclassified based on the current Korean Standard Industrial Classification ($9^{th}$ edition) and the Korean Standard Classification of Occupations code ($6^{th}$ edition) that is in accordance to international standards. All of the exposure levels were expressed by weighted arithmetic mean (WAM) and minimum and maximum concentrations. Results: Based on the established GPJEM, the 112 exposure groups could be reclassified into 86 industries and 74 occupations. In the 1980s, the highest exposure levels were estimated in "knitting and weaving machine operators" with a WAM concentration of 7.48 fibers/mL (f/mL); in the 1990s, "plastic products production machine operators" with 5.12 f/mL, and in the 2000s "detergents production machine operators" handling talc containing asbestos with 2.45 f/mL. Of the 112 exposure groups, 44 groups had higher WAM concentrations than the Korean occupational exposure limit of 0.1 f/mL. Conclusion: The newly constructed GPJEM which is generated from actual domestic quantitative exposure data could be useful in evaluating historical exposure levels to asbestos and could contribute to improved prediction of asbestos-related diseases among Koreans.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.51-56
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• 2009

Safety and quality assessment systems are very important in manufacture, storage, transportation, and handling of hazardous materials(hazmat) to prevent hazmat disasters. At present, hazardous materials exist everywhere in our daily lives with various forms of plastics, household products of cleaning and washing detergents, fertilizers or petroleum-related products. However, hazardous materials are dangerous substances when they are released to human or environment. Hazardous materials become very widely used substances in the age of oil-based industrial economy. The Korean Ministry of Environment (KMOE) describes about one hundred thousand types of chemicals are produced and used worldwide. Over four hundred new chemicals are introduced in every year. A crucial question for the Korean hazardous material management may have been raised: Will you be safe from hazardous material incidents? The gas leak disaster at Union Carbide's Bhopal, India in 1984 that made over 6,400 people killed and 30,000 to 40,000 people seriously injured is the representative case for the safety of hazmat. Korea becomes vulnerable to hazmat disaster due to the development of high-tech industry. Thus, the risk assessment system is required to Korea for transferring abandoned hazmat management systems to self-correcting safety systems. This research analyzed characteristics of various hazmat incidents applying statistical analysis methods including frequency analysis or analysis of category data to hazmat incidents for ten years. All of three analyses of category data indicate the significance of causality between hazmat incident site groups and seasons, regional groups, and incident casualty groups.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.44-53
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• 2011

Siloxane, organo-silicon compound, is used in the various forms of products such as cosmetics and detergents due to its quality physical chemistry attributes. Siloxane included in landfill gas which is caused in the process of decomposing of such products after landfill has imposed negative impacts on the operation of landfill gas utility facilities. The objective of this study was to investigate the siloxane production characteristics depending on the features of various landfill site in Korea so that the analysis was made on the landfilling age and landfill waste by in terms of its concentration, structure and composition. As for the concentration of siloxane depending on time passage, 12 landfill sites were reviewed by landfilling age. As for production attributes change of siloxane by landfill wastes, the source of wastes, physical production ration and siloxane concentration were compared in 6 landfills. The average concentration of total-siloxane within LFG is $6.75mg/m^3$ and cyclic-siloxane out of it occupies over 93%. By element, D4 and D5 in order take the highest proportion regardless of total-siloxane concentration and landfilling age. Even though this study is not able to verify the different impact of each kind of wastes on the generation of siloxane, it is confirmed that total-siloxane and cyclic-siloxane decrease in line with the increase of landfilling age as it does in the first order decay model for landfill gas.