• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.275-283
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• 2020

Background: In the absence of a vaccine or treatment, the most pragmatic strategies against an infectious disease pandemic are extensive early detection testing and social distancing. This study aimed to summarize public and workplace responses to Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) and show how the Korean system has operated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: Daily briefings from the Korean Center for Disease Control and the Central Disaster Management Headquarters were assembled from January 20 to May 15, 2020. Results: By May 15, 2020, 11,018 COVID-19 cases were identified, of which 15.7% occurred in workplaces such as health-care facilities, call centers, sports clubs, coin karaoke, and nightlife destinations. When the first confirmed case was diagnosed, the Korean Center for Disease Control and Central Disaster Management Headquarters responded quickly, emphasizing early detection with numerous tests and a social distancing policy. This slowed the spread of infection without intensive containment, shut down, or mitigation interventions. After entering the public health blue alert level, a business continuity plan was distributed. After entering the orange level, the Ministry of Employment and Labor developed workplace guidelines for COVID-19 consisting of social distancing, flexible working schedules, early identification of workers with suspected infections, and disinfection of workplaces. Owing to the intensive workplace social distancing policy, workplaces remained safe with only small sporadic group infections. Conclusion: The workplace social distancing policy with timely implementation of specific guidelines was a key to preventing a large outbreak of COVID-19 in Korean workplaces. However, sporadic incidents of COVID-19 are still ongoing, and risk assessment in vulnerable workplaces should be continued.

• 한국환경농학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.07a
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• pp.220-227
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• 2009

For last about 10 years, the Republic of Korea experienced 3 times of outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) from 10 December 2003 to 30 April 2004 (a total number of 19 outbreaks), 22 November 2006 to 6 March 2007 (a total number of 7 outbreaks), and 1 April 2008 to 12 May 2008 (a total number of 33 outbreaks). Among the totally 59 outbreaks, the infected premises included 35 chicken farms, 17 duck farms, 1 quail farm, and 6 farms rearing mixed species. Control measures were applied according to the HPAI standard operation procedure including depopulation of all infected and suspected flocks, movement restrictions, and disinfection of the infected farms within a 500-meter radius. Including movement restrictions, stringent control measures were additionally applied to two designated zones: the protection zone was an area within a 3-kilometer radius of the outbreak farm, and the surveillance zone was an area between a 3- to 10-kilometer radius of the outbreak farm. Farms with dangerous contacts and/or all of poultry within the protection zone was subjected to preemptive culling. Epidemiological investigations were also carried out including trace-back and trace-forward investigations to identify possible sources of spread and dangerous contact farms. Investigation teams conducted on-site examination of farm premises and facilities, interview with farm owner and staff, and review of records. Genetic and pathogenic characteristics of the virus isolates, and the results of the various surveillance activities were also analyzed. HPAI surveillance conducted in Korea includes passive surveillance of investigating notified cases, and active surveillance of testing high risk groups and areas. HPAI is a notifiable disease in Korea and all suspect cases must be reported to the veterinary authorities. Cases reported for other poultry diseases that require differential diagnosis are also tested for HPAI. Active surveillance includes annual testing of breeder duck farms, broiler duck farms and wild bird surveillance, which is concentrated during the autumn and winter. Surveillance activities conducted prior to the outbreaks have shown no evidence of HPAI infection in Korea.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.653-661
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• 2007

The Disinfectants/Disinfection By-products (D/DBP) Rule proposed by the US Environmental Protection Agency requires the implementation of enhanced coagulation as a control strategy for natural organic matter (NOM) removal and as a means of limiting the formation of all DBPs, i.e., not just the trihalomethanes and haloacetica acids. To control DBP formation, several best available technologies (BATs) were determined for removal of DBPs and DBP precursors. The enhanced coagulation is one of the BATs for DBP precursors removal. Treatment facilities that achieve a specified percent removal of total organic carbon (TOC) prior to the application of a continuous disinfectant or that achieve a residual TOC concentration < 2mg/L prior to the application of a continuous disinfectant are considered to be in compliance with enhanced coagulation. The enhanced coagulation was applied to raw water in Korea, the Han River. Raw water were examined and effects of different raw water qualities on enhanced coagulation were investigated. Three analyses were used for raw water characteristics, water quality measurement, molecular weight distributions, hydrophobic/hydrophilic fractionation. The Han River had the relatively low alkalinity and low organic carbon concentration. The results of molecular weight distributions showed significant portions of low molecular weight organics, which is very different from most water in USA. The alum doses for the required TOC removal guided from USEPA manual were quite low (i.e. 10~30 mg/L alum) for the water, probably due to the specific water quality of the Han River.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.5792-5799
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was the Application of the HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) system to Korean Rice Cakes. Main ingredients of rice cakes, work facilities and workers were provided from KB company located in Seogye-dong Yongsan-gu, Seoul between September 12, 2012 and February 13, 2013. The manufacturing process chart was prepared by referring to the manufacturing process of rice cake manufacturers in general. As a result of this study, the microbiological hazard analysis on raw materials and finished products of rice cakes showed safe result. However, microorganism test on the manufacturing environment and workers suggested that microbiological hazard should be reduced through systematic cleaning and disinfection, accompanied by improved personal hygienes based on hygienic education on workers and management of microorganisms in the air.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.109-117
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• 2016

Purpose : This study was designed to provide basic data of effective sanitization method of sprout vegetable for microbiological safety. Methods : Sanitization treatments were performed by dipping the sprout into chlorine and vinegar water. Microbial analysis were composed of the total plate count(TPC) and coliform group count(CGC). Result : Among chlorine water sanitization, the microbial reduction was largest in 100ppm chlorine water, and its TPC and coliform group count decreased to 6.01 log CFU/g and 5.06 log CFU/g. The effective dipping time in 100ppm chlorine water treatment was 5.97 log CFU/g and 5.91 log CFU/g for 30min and 60min, in which TPC were below the microbiological safety limits of 6.00 log CFU/g. Coliform group counts were decreased to 5.44, 5.46, 5.42 log CFU/g in the dipping the spouts for 30min, 60min and 90min. As a result of sanitizing alfalfa spout by vinegar water, a microbial counts tended to decrease with increasing concentration and the dipping time. The effective concentration of vinegar water was 2% for TPC(6.00 log CFU/g) and 1% for coliform group count(5.20 log CFU/g). With 1% vinegar water treatment, TPC became below the microbiological safety limits in all samples and in particular, the sample treated for 60min and 90min(4.93, 4.54 log CFU/g). While coliform group counts were decreased to 3.91 log CFU/g in the dipping the sprouts for 90min, those were still beyond the permitted limit. Conclusion : To secure the food safety of food service facilities including kindergarten feeding, it is considered that along with the systematic study of effective disinfection method for microbiological control at the preconditioning level of spout vegetable within the range of secured maleficence to human body, and the study regarding the measures to lower the initial microbiological pollution of spout vegetable.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.5422-5429
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• 2015

Main idea of this study is applying The HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) system to Confectionery. LB company, located in Gyeryong-si, Chungnam, provided main ingredients of confectionery, work facilities and workers between September 1, 2014 and January 15, 2015. The manufacturing process was made by Referring to the typical manufacturing process of confectionery manufacturers. Based on the microbiological hazard analysis, egg contained $6.2{\times}10^3CFU/g$ of bacteria, which has most amount of bacteria among agricultural materials. However, the Microbiological hazard analysis of the raw materials and after the baking process of confectionery showed a safe result. As a result, the microbiological hazard should be reduced by systematic cleaning, disinfection and improved sanitary education.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.662-669
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to test the effects of electrolyzed water treatment on dried-laver Pyropia sp. processing facilities to control microbial contamination. Following the progression of the process to the next step, as well as during the lapse between process operating hours, the contamination level of total viable cell counts (TVC) and total coliform (TC) of laver increased. The TVC increased during the aging step, and after the molding-drying steps were completed, it increased by approximately 2.0 log CFU (colony forming unit)/g. Freshwater used for processing in April had a TVC of 4.31 log CFU/mL, which was more polluted than 2.61 log CFU/mL of seawater. Electrolyzed water was used to treat the sponge used in the laver-molding process, which resulted in a 2 log CFU/mL decrease.The TVC of dried-laver decreased by 1 to 2 log CFU/g when electrolyzed water was applied to the process. In conclusion, application of electrolyzed water in dried-laver processing was shown to be effective in reducing the microbiological contamination of the final product.

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.123-139
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• 2023

In this study, a survey was conducted on the development of meal kits for children's foodservice to increase the convenience of the cooking process. It was performed among the foodservice managers in the 141 children's foodservice facilities registered in the Center for Children's Foodservice Management about meal-kits in Changwon areas. The survey results were analyzed according to the children's foodservice scale type. The biggest problem in a foodservice system was "difficult to purchase food ingredients directly every week" (38.4%) in small-scale children's foodservices, and "difficult to use the served menu without modification" (38.2%) in institutional children's foodservices (P<0.001). The most important factor when choosing the meal kit was "quality" (41.1%). Respondents on having an experience with using the meal kit were low at 34.8%, and the reasons for not using the meal kits were "expensive" (67.3%) and "not fresh food ingredients" (18.4%). The main reasons for not using children's foodservice meal kits were "expensiveness" (64.4%) and "necessity of adding disinfection process" (16.1%). Most of the reasons for not wanting to use children's foodservice meal kits were that they did not trust the safety of the meal kits. The use of meal kits in children's foodservices may reduce the preparation process and increase the efficiency of foodservice although the safety and quality of meal kits should be guaranteed. The appropriate hygiene management standards need to be set, and HACCP should be applied to develop meal kits for children's foodservices.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.143-150
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• 2023

The global outbreak of COVID-19 has underscored the pressing need for robust infection control practices in pulmonary function laboratories (PFL). However, the existing guidelines and regulatory frameworks provided by relevant authorities in the country have revealed certain deficiencies in effectively addressing this significant public health crisis. This study surveyed the infection control regulations, disposable item usage, ventilation facilities, spatial separation, and the configuration of entrance doors in 51 domestic hospital facilities from Oct 1, 2021, to Nov 2, 2021. The survey findings revealed that while there was a relatively satisfactory adherence to airborne, droplet, and contact precautions with adequate awareness and utilization of personal protective equipment, the environmental disinfection practices exhibited a suboptimal performance rate of 39.22% per patient. Depending on the specific survey domains, substantial variations were observed in the utilization of disposable items (81.05%), ventilation systems (45.75%), dedicated testing spaces (80.39%), separation of administrative areas (15.69%), and the installation of automated doors (19.61%). This study not only highlights the paramount importance of infection control in PFLs within domestic medical institutions but also provides foundational data for developing and enhancing standardized guidelines that align with international benchmarks for infection control in these settings.

• Korean journal of food and cookery science
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.764-772
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• 2015

This study was conducted to investigate food safety management practices at children's foodservice facilities and evaluate the effect of visiting education by Center for Child-care Foodservice Management (CCFSM) for food safety improvement. The subjects of evaluation included child care centers (84.3%), kindergartens (7.8%), and community child centers (7.8%). Facilities by foundation types were private (70.6%), public (19.6%), and corporation (9.8%). The average score of food safety evaluation was 84.09 points. The total score of food safety evaluation of community child center was significantly lower than that of child care center and kindergarten (p<0.01); and the total score of public facilities was higher than that of private facilities. Furthermore, 35.9% of evaluation items showed performance higher than 90%, while 15.4% showed performance less than 60%. The item with lowest performance was 'washing and disinfection of fruits and vegetables (26.5%)'. Results of one-way ANOVA of food safety evaluation score by the frequency of visiting education indicated that the evaluation score of the third session significantly increased from the first and second sessions. In addition, the result of two-way ANOVA showed that both foodservice type (F=21.730, p<0.001) and the frequency of visiting education (F=7.968, p<0.001), and both foundation type (F=31.387, p<0.001) and the frequency of visiting education (F=7.507, p<0.001) affected the total food safety evaluation score. There were significant differences in result scores according to the number of meal served (F=17.133, p<0.001) and the frequency of food safety evaluation (F=17.065, p<0.001). In conclusion, visiting education of children's foodservice facility showed significant effect on the improvement of food safety level.