• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• 제20권4호통권51호
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• pp.279-286
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• 2005

Earthworm (Eisenia fetida) acute toxicity test was carried out and ecological risk assessment in soil was performed with national monitoring data. 14 day - $LC_{50}$ of nonylphenol and bisphenol A were 288.1 mg/kg and 90.1 mg/kg, respectively. And NOECs of nonylphenol and bisphenol A were 250 mg/kg and 50 mg/kg, respectively. Significant weight decrement was appeared at 70 mg/kg of bisphenol A, however, nonylphenol at concentrations tested did not severe adverse effect on the weight decrement. The environmental monitoring has been carrying out by NIER since 1999. Exposure levels of nonylphenol in soil were ND$\sim$10.55 $\mu$g/kg and those of bisphenol A were ND$\sim$15.50$\mu$g/kg in National Monitoring data which had been performed from 2000 to 2004. The measured soil exposure level was applied to evaluate the environmental risk assessment. The values of PNEC for bisphenol A and nonylphenol were determined as 0.5 mg/kg and 2.5 mg/kg, respectively using the safety factors which were suggested in EU and OECD. The values of HQ (PEC/PNEC) were determined to be below I for bisphenol A and nonylphenol when the maximum exposure levels for bispheol A (15.50$\mu$g/kg) and nonylphenol (10.55$\mu$g/kg) were applied. Conclusively, the environmental risk assessment of bisphenol A and nonylphenol was not critical in soil.

• 한국산업보건학회지
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• 제22권1호
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• pp.9-19
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• 2012

Objectives: The aim of this study is to critically review the exposure surrogates and estimates used to associate health effects in wafer fabrication workers such as spontaneous abortion and cancer, as well as to identify the limitations of retrospective exposure assessment methods Methods: Epidemiologic and exposure-assessment studies of wafer fabrication operations in the semiconductor industry were collected. Retrospective exposure-assessment methods used in cancer risk and mortality and reproductive toxicity were reviewed. Results: Eight epidemiologic papers and two reports compared cancer risk among workers in wafer fabrication facilities in the semiconductor industry with the risk of the general population. Exposure surrogates used in those cancer studies were fabrication(vs. non-fabrication), employment duration, manufacturing eras, job title (operator vs. maintenance worker) and qualitative classifications of agents without assessing specific agent or job-specific exposure. In contrast, specific operation, job title and agents were used to classify the exposure of fabrication workers, contributing to finding a significant association with spontaneous abortion (SAB). Conclusion: Further epidemiologic studies of fabrication workers using more refined exposure assessment methods are warranted in order to examine the associations between fabrication work, environment, and specific agents with cancer risk or mortality as used in SAB epidemiologic studies.

• 한국환경보건학회지
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• 제37권1호
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• pp.12-21
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• 2011

The objective of this study is to review retrospective exposure assessment methods used in wafer fabrication operations to determine whether adverse health effects including mortality or cancer incidence are related to employment in particular work activities and to recommend an appropriate approach for retrospective exposure assessment methods for epidemiological study. The goal of retrospective exposure assessment for such studies is to assign each study subject to a workgroup in such a way that differences in exposure within the workgroups are minimized, as well as to maximize the contrasts in exposure between workgroups. To reduce the misclassification of exposure and to determine if adverse health effects including mortality or cancer incidence are related to particular work activities of wafer fabrication workers, a minimum requirement of work history information on the wafer manufacturing eras, job and department at which they were exposed should be assessed. Retrospective assessment of the task that semiconductor workers performed should be conducted to determine not only the effect of a particular job on the development of adverse health effects including mortality or cancer incidence, but also to adjust for the healthy worker effect. In order to identify specific hazardous agents that may cause adverse health effects, past exposure to a specific agent or agent matrices should also be assessed.

• 한국환경보건학회지
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• 제39권6호
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• pp.532-540
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• 2013

Background: Exposure factors for consumer products have been developed since the 1980s. Such exposure factors are important in risk assessment. Since the exposure/use patterns of consumer products in a country may reflect its respective cultural, meteorological, and socio-economic circumstances, unique Korean exposure factors for consumer products are needed. Such exposure factors are required for newly-enacted chemical regulations in Korea. For this review, published papers and survey reports on exposure factors of consumer products were examined for their assessment methodologies. Results: Investigation into exposure factors for consumer products used a variety of methods: home visit, online, telephone, and mail surveys using questionnaires; face to face interviews; modeling using a constructed database; and direct measurement. To collect more accurate exposure information or to check the reliability of the sampling method, some studies were repeated using the same questionnaire, in-home observation, direct measurement of usage, and videotaping. In Korea, nationwide exposure surveys were conducted five times over five years to obtain Korean exposure factors. However, with the exception of the $5^{th}$-year study, the surveys were online questionnaires and only the $5^{th}$-year study validated the accuracy of exposure information by re-visits and direct measurement. Conclusion: Accurate exposure factors are an essential part of risk assessment to assure safe use of consumer products. For better and safer management of consumer products, accurate exposure factors in Korea should be assessed for various exposure pathways.

• 대한안전경영과학회지
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• 제15권3호
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• pp.1-6
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• 2013

This study was conducted to compare the value of the working environment measurement with the expected exposure value drawn by using a program, thereby going to investigate whether it is available to the risk assessment of domestic workplace. We used the ECETOC TRA program which is one of the exposure predictive models. Four kinds of substances were measured in two workplace which was exposed to organic solvents and one kind of substance was measured in three workplace which was exposed to dusts and then an exposure assessment of chemical risk factors was conducted. The result value of the working environment measurement, solid substance exceeded standard in one site, and it was found that the other solid and liquid substances were within the standard. The value of the exposure assessment program showd the same result; it was higher than the value of the working environment measurement, suggesting that due to its nature, the exposure assessment program is run only on the worst situation. Therefore, it was found that when the exposure assesment program is used, variables should be substituted only after accurately assessing the workplace and it is a good idea to assess the risk beforehand with the exposure assessment program in the case of the workplace which employs no more than 5 people and where it is hard to assess the working environment.

• 환경영향평가
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• 제14권4호
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• pp.195-202
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• 2005

The health risks from the magnetic fields exposure have been brought out difficulties in the construction of transformer substation. According to several epidemiologic studies and the relevant international organizations, magnetic fields should not exceed the exposure limits of 3mG for the people living near electric power lines. The rigid regulation of the exposure levels for the elementary school and residental areas has been established already in Switzerland and Italy. Since 1998, the environmental impact assessment system in Korea has been reviewed for power-frequency magnetic field by precautionary policies. In this study, the possible application of Prior Environmental Performance Review System for the transformer substation was reviewed from the points of the properties of the powerfrequency magnetic fields. The ranges and survey methods of the assessment for the transformer substation were proposed. The ranges of magnetic fields was between 300m to 500m for the 345kV transformer substation. It is necessary to develop further specific assessment methods for various high-voltage transformer substations.

• 한국환경보건학회지
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• 제36권5호
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• pp.391-401
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• 2010

A reduction in risk of occupational exposure to chemical hazards within the workplace has been the focus of attention both through industry initiatives and legislation. The aims of this study were to develop an exposure matrix by industry and process, and to apply this matrix to control the risk of occupational exposure to Dichloromethane (DCM). The exposure matrix is a tool to convert information on industry and process into information on occupational risk. The exposure matrix comprised industries and processes involving DCM, based on an exposure database provided by KOSHA (the Korean Occupational Safety and Health Agency), which was gathered from a workplace hazards evaluation program in Korea. The risk assessment of the exposure matrix was performed using Hallmark risk assessment tool. The results of the risk assessment were indicated by a Danger Value (DV) calculated from the combination of hazard rating (HR), duration of use rating (DUR), and risk probability rating (RPR) of exposure to the chemical, and were divided into four control bands which were related to control measures. The applicability of the risk assessment of the exposure matrix was evaluated by a field study, and survey of the employees of the exposure matrix groups. Among 45 industries examined, this study found that greater attention should be paid to two industries: the manufacture of other optical instruments and photographic equipment, and the manufacture of printing ink, and to one process among 47 examined, the packing process in the manufacture of printing ink, because these were regarded as carrying the highest risk. This tool of a risk assessment for the exposure matrix can be applied as a general exposure information system for hazard control, risk quantification, setting the occupational exposure limit, and hazard surveillance. The exposure matrix includes workforce data, and it provides information on the numbers of exposed workers in Korea by agent, occupation, and level of exposure and risk.

• Toxicological Research
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• 제21권4호
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• pp.297-301
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• 2005

Farmers are generally expressed to pesticides through mixing loding, application activity and harvesting of crop after application of pesticides. The present work investigated the exposure and risk of furathiocarb to workers when harvesting of cucumber was carried out in green house after application of furathiocarb EC. Glove was used for the hand exposure assessment, socks for foot and dermal patches for the other parts of body. Personal air monitor equipped with a XAD-2 resin was used for the respiratory exposure assessment. During the harvest of cucumber in green house, the initial rate of potential dermal exposure (Day 1) for methidathion was 1.3 mg/hr. The major exposure parts were hand $(78\~83\%),\;thigh\;(5\~7\%)$ and arms $(6\~9\%)$ during 3 days' harvest. No exposure was detected from the respiratory monitoring. For risk assessment, the potential dermal exposure (PDE), the absorbable quantity of exposure (AQE) and the margin of safety (MOS) and margin of exposure (MOE) were calculated. In risk assessment of harvester exposure for 7days, all MOS was > 1 and MOE was > 100 indicating that possibility of risk was little.

• 한국환경보건학회지
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• 제37권1호
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• pp.73-79
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• 2011

The growing interest in nanotechnology has resulted in increasing concern and a number of published environmental and workplace measurements for assessing occupational exposure to engineered nanomaterials. However, the amount of previous exposure data remains limited. Furthermore the data available was collected with extensive variation in terms of exposure measurement strategy, which limits the ability to pool the data in the future. In response, this paper reviewed several pertinent issues related to exposure measurement strategy to suggest a harmonized measurement strategy which would make exposure data more useful in the future, e.g. correlation between exposure metrics, relationship between activity and exposure, task-based or shift-based assessment, background concentration, limitation of personal exposure monitoring and other determinants of exposure/modeling. An improved sampling strategy for nanomaterial exposure assessment should be considered in order to maximize the use of the data from various real time monitoring instruments.

• 한국지하수토양환경학회지:지하수토양환경
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• 제12권1호
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• pp.64-72
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• 2007

토양매체중의 오염물질들은 다양한 경로를 통해 인체나 생태계에 노출되어 위해성 문제를 유발하고 있다. 토양위해성평가(Soil Risk Assessment)는 토양오염물질로 인한 악영향의 개연성을 정량적으로 평가하는 과정으로, 유해성 확인(Hazard Identification), 용량-반응평가(Dose-Response Assessment), 노출평가(Exposure Assessment), 그리고 위해도 결정(Risk Characterization)의 4가지 단계적 과정으로 이루어진다. 이중 노출평가과정에서 매우 중요하게 작용하는 노출인자(Exposure Factor)는 토양오염물질의 인체노출량을 산정하는데 필수적인 요소로, 미국, 유럽국가 등 선진국에서는 나라별 상황에 적절한 노출인자를 사용하고 있으나, 우리나라는 아직 국내에 적용하기 적합한 노출 인자에 대한 연구가 매우 부족한 실정이다. 본 연구에서는 토양오염 위해성평가를 위한 국가별 노출인자를 비교분석하고, 이를 토대로 국내상황에 적용가능한 노출인자를 제시하였다. 국가별 노출인자 연구는 미국 Environmental Protection Agency, 영국 Environmental Agency, 네덜란드 RIVM, 호주, 그리고 독일에서 적용되고 있는 노출인자값에 대해 노출인자별로 총괄적인 비교분석을 수행하였다. 또한 국가별 비교분석연구와 국내에서 제시된 노출인자 자료를 종합하여, 국내자료가 없는 경우 외국에서 보편적으로 적용하고 있는 인자값을 국내 적용 타당성을 고려하여 제시하였다. 본 연구에서 고려된 노출인자 조사항목은 평균수명, 노출기간, 노출빈도, 체중, 체표면적(또는 노출체표면적), 피부흡수계수(Skin Absorption Factor), 토양-피부간 흡착계수(Soil-Skin Adherence Factor), 음용수 섭취량, 호흡률, 토양 섭취량 그리고 농작물 섭취량 등이다. 본 연구는 오염토양의 위해성평가를 수행할 때 국내 상황을 고려한 노출평가에 필요한 기반연구가 될 것이다.