• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.28 no.spc
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• pp.30-36
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• 2022

A sensor is needed to continuously and automatically measure the change in HNS concentration in industrial facilities that directly discharge to the sea after water treatment. The basic function of the sensor is to be able to detect ppb levels even at room temperature. Therefore, a method for increasing the sensitivity of the existing sensor is proposed. First, a method for increasing the conductivity of a film using a conductive carbon-based additive in a nanoparticle thin film and a method for increasing ion adsorption on the surface using a catalyst metal were studied.. To improve conductivity, carbon black was selected as an additive in the film using ITO nanoparticles, and the performance change of the sensor according to the content of the additive was observed. As a result, the change in resistance and response time due to the increase in conductivity at a CB content of 5 wt% could be observed, and notably, the lower limit of detection was lowered to about 250 ppb in an experiment with organic solvents. In addition, to increase the degree of ion adsorption in the liquid, an experiment was conducted using a sample in which a surface catalyst layer was formed by sputtering Au. Notably, the response of the sensor increased by more than 20% and the average lower limit of detection was lowered to 61 ppm. This result confirmed that the chemical resistance sensor using metal oxide nanoparticles could detect HNS of several tens of ppb even at room temperature.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.410-417
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• 2010

Various functional foods, marketing health and functional effects, have been distributed in the market. These products, being in forms of foods, tablets, and capsules, are likely to be mistaken as drugs. In addition, non-experts may sell these as foods, or use these for therapy. Efforts for creating health food regulations or building regulatory system for improving the current status of functional foods have been made, but these have not been communicated to consumers yet. As a result, problems of circulating functional foods for therapy or adding illegal medical to such products have persisted, which has become worse by internet media. The cause of this problem can be categorized into (1) product itself and (2) its use, but in either case, one possible cause is lack of communications with consumers. Potential problems that can be caused by functional foods include illegal substances, hazardous substances, allergic reactions, considerations when administered to patients, drug interactions, ingredients with purity or concentrations too low to be detected, products with metabolic activations, health risks from over- or under-dose of vitamin and minerals, and products with alkaloids. (Journal of Health Science, 56, Supplement (2010)). The reason why side effects related to functional foods have been increasing is that under-qualified functional food companies are exaggerating the functionality for marketing purposes. KFDA has been informing consumers, through its web pages, to address the above mentioned issues related to functional foods, but there still is room for improvement, to promote proper use of functional foods and avoid drug interactions. Specifically, to address these issues, institutionalizing to collect information on approved products and their side effects, settling reevaluation systems, and standardizing preclinical tests and clinical tests are becoming urgent. Also to provide crucial information, unified database systems, seamlessly aggregating heterogeneous data in different domains, with user interfaces enabling effective one-stop search, are crucial.

• Clean Technology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.73-87
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• 2004

In most of industrial fields, cleaning is employed for removing soils on their products or parts. Halogenated cleaning agents such as CFC-113, 1,1,1-TCE(1,1,1-trichloroethane), MC(methylene chloride) and TCE (trichloroethylene) have been used as cleaning ones in most of companies in the world since their excellent performance of cleaning ability and good material compatibility. However, CFC-113 and 1,1,1-TCE which are ozone destruction substances are not used any more in the advanced countries because of the which are ozone destruction substances are not used any more in the advanced countries because of the Montreal protocol. MC and TCE are now used restrictively at small part of industrial fields in most of countries since they are known to be hazardous or carcinogenic materials. Thus, it is indispensible that the alternative cleaning agents which are environmental-friendly and safe, and show good cleaning ability should be developed or utilized for replacement of the halogenated cleaning agents. Aqueous/semi-aqueous cleaning agents are evaluated to be promising alternative ones among various alternatives in environmental and economical view point. In this study, commercially available 12 aqueous and 6 semi-aqueous cleaning agents were selected and their physical properties, cleaning abilities, rinsing abilities and recycling of contaminated rinse water were measured and analyzed. Aqueous cleaning agents with higher wetting index showed better cleaning ability compared with those with lower wetting index. However wetting index did not have any correlation with cleaning ability in semi-aqueous cleaning agents. It was observed that soil concentration in aqueous and semi-aqueous cleaning agents should be maintained below the certain concentrations which depend on types of clearing agents. More than 70% soils in contaminated rinse water by some of aqueous and semi-aqueous clearing agents could be separated by simple settling method. This means that some cleaning agents with high oil-water separation efficiency will be effiective for recycling oil-contaminated rinse water. It was found that contaminated rinse water with aqueous agents was purified easiy by ultrafiltration method with PAN membrane of 30 kDa.

• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.210-217
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• 2015

Ipfencarbazone is a herbicide of the tetrazolinone class, and is believed to be an inhibitor of very long chain fatty acids (VLCFAs), which control cell division in weeds. The objective of this study was to develop and validate an official analytical method for ipfencarbazone determination in agricultural products. The ipfencarbazone residues in agricultural products were extracted with acetone, partitioned with n-hexane, and then purified through silica SPE cartridge. Finally, the analyte was quantified by gas chromatograph-electron capture detector (GC-ECD) and confirmed with gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer(GC/MS). The linear range of ipfencarbazone was 0.01 to 1.0 mg/L with the coefficient of determination ($r^2$) of 0.9999. The limit of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) was 0.003 and 0.01 mg/kg, respectively. In addition, average recoveries of ipfencarbazone ranged from 80.6% to 112.3% at the different concentration levels LOQ, 10LOQ and 50LOQ, while the relative standard deviation was 2.2-8.6%. All values were consistent with the criteria ranges requested in the CODEX guidelines. Furthermore, and inter-laboratory study was conducted to validate the method. This proposed method for determination of ipfencarbazone residues in agricultural products can be used as an official analytical method.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.11-21
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• 2004

Crystallization of CaC $O_3$ from the solutions of various degrees of supersaturation was carried out by a spontaneous precipitation method. The solution was kept at $25^{\circ}C$ and pH 6.9∼8.8. The solution compositions were varied in two ways: (1) The total carbonate, [C $O_3$]$_{Τ}$, to total calcium. [Ca]$_{Τ}$, ratios vary as ; [C $O_3$]$_{Τ}$/[Ca]$_{Τ}$ >1. [C $O_3$]$_{Τ}$/[Ca]$_{Τ}$=1, and [C $O_3$]$_{Τ}$/[Ca]$_{Τ}$<1. (2) The total calcium concentration, [Ca]$_{Τ}$, held at 0.02 mo1/d $m^3$, 0.2 mo1/d $m^3$, and 0.4 mo1/d $m^3$. We found that the CaC $O_3$ phase crystallized from the solutions of [C $O_3$]$_{Τ}$/[Ca]$_{Τ}$ $\geq$ 1 was mostly calcite with less than 1% of vaterite, while the CaC $O_3$ crystals precipitated from low carbonate concentration toward calcium concentration, [C $O_3$]$_{Τ}$/[Ca]$_{Τ}$ < 1, were dominated by vaterite crystals. It appears that the polymorph of CaC $O_3$ precipitate was mainly controlled not by the calcium concentration but by the carbonate concentration during the spontaneous precipitation. Also, we found that the surface roughness of vaterite increased with decreasing carbonate concentration from 0.8 or 0.5 of [C $O_3$]$_{Τ}$/[Ca]$_{Τ}$ ratios and the surface area of vaterite increased from 5.64∼7.34 $\mu\textrm{m}$ to 8.39∼10.3 $\mu\textrm{m}$.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.186-193
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• 2016

An analytical method was developed for the determination of oxathiapiprolin in agricultural commodities. Oxathiapiprolin is a new oomycide (fungicide of piperidinyl thiazole isoxazoline class) which controls downy mildew in cucurbits caused by Pseudoperonospora cubensis (oomycete plant pathogen). Agricultural commodities were extracted with acetonitrile and partitioned with dichloromethane to remove the interference, adjusting pH between 9 and 10 by 1 N sodium hydroxide. After purification by silica SPE cartridge to clean up the interference of organic compounds, they were finally quantified by HPLC-UVD (high performance liquid chromatograph ultraviolet detector) using a wavelength at 260 nm and confirmed by LC-MS (liquid chromatograph mass spectrometer) in electro-spray ionization positive ion mode. The standard calibration curve was linear with coefficients of determination ($r^2$) 1.00 over the calibration ranges (0.025-2.5 mg/L). Recoveries were ranged between 86.7 to 112.7%, with relative standard deviations less than 10% at three concentration levels (LOQ, 10LOQ, and 50LOQ) performing five replicates. The overall results were determined and estimated according to the CODEX guidelines (CAC/GL40). The proposed method for determination of oxathiapiprolin residues in agricultural commodities can be used as an official method.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.454-468
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• 2014

Objectives: This study was conducted to investigate the actual condition of the farm work environment and personal protective equipment as part of the effort to improve livestock work for the safety and health of poultry farmers and provide basic data for establishing plans to improve and develop personal protective equipment. Methods: For this purpose, a questionnaire survey on general information about stables, the poultry work environment, accidents, the wearing of work clothes and personal protective equipment, and the level of awareness related to personal protective equipment was conducted among 148 poultry farmers. Results: As a result, it was found that poultry workplace environment was exposed to such risks as fine dusts; organic dusts; poisonous gases; odorous substances; chicken excrement; contact with chickens, bacteria or viruses; and accidents related to machine operation. Thirteen percent of respondents suffered severe respiratory diseases, and the most frequently injured sites due to accidents were the hands (25.7%), knees (23.8%), arms (17.3%), and head (10.9%). The most frequent type of accident was collisions between the body and obstacles or machinery during movement (36.4%), followed by erroneous machine operation such as feeders and electric shocks (8.5%). Regarding the wearing of work clothes and personal protective equipment, 51.7% of the respondents wore worn-out clothing or everyday clothes, whereas only 32.0% wore work clothes. The percentage of farmers who wore proper protective equipment for the work environment during poultry work was 48.4%. The most frequently used type of protective equipment was boots (38.9%), followed by mask (36.7%), gloves (36.3%), appropriate work clothes (22.6%), quarantine clothes (17.6%), helmets (13.4%), and goggles (12.6%). The rate of wearing goggles was low because they were considered inconvenient and lowered work efficiency. Furthermore, they purchased everyday products available on the market for their personal protective equipment which were not appropriate for maintaining safety in an actual harmful environment and its consequent risks. As a result of the survey of the awareness level related to personal protective equipment, their levels of awareness of accidents and attitude proved to be average or higher, but the practice of wearing protective equipment and the level of knowledge and management of personal protective equipment were lower. Conclusion: This survey found that the wearing status of personal protective equipment among poultry farmers was insufficient even though they were exposed to risks. Most respondents were aware of the necessity of wearing personal protective equipment and of the potential for accidents, but they did not wear proper protective equipment. Their wearing rate was low due to a lack of knowledge about protective equipment, as well as the inconvenience of wearing it. Therefore there is a need to improve and develop specialized personal protective equipment for respiration, hands, and eyes, as well as work clothes that can protect farmers from major harmful matter that is generated in the poultry workplace. Based on the results of this investigation, we will conduct further studies on the required performance and design directions of personal protective equipment while collecting more objective data through field-oriented assessments.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.238-244
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• 2009

This survey was conducted as a surveillance program following the establishment of safety guidelines for agricultural products in Korea. Concentrations of arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), and mercury (Hg) were measured in 421 samples using a mercury analyzer or ICP-MS. The average levels of Pb in mg/kg were 0.021 for rice, 0.020 for corn, 0.028 for soybeans, 0.034 for red beans, 0.025 for sweet potatoes, 0.021 for potatoes, 0.019 for Chinese cabbage, 0.031 for spinach, 0.021 for Welsh onions, and 0.011 for radishes. The average levels of Cd in mg/kg were 0.021 for rice, 0.002 for corn, 0.020 for soybeans, 0.006 for red beans, 0.008 for sweet potatoes, 0.011 for potatoes, 0.007 for Chinese cabbage, 0.035 for spinach, 0.006 for Welsh onions, and, 0.006 for radishes. The average levels of As in mg/kg were 0.103 for rice, 0.005 for corn, 0.007 for soybeans, 0.005 for red beans, 0.005 for sweet potatoes, 0.004 for potatoes, 0.007 for Chinese cabbage, 0.015 for spinach, 0.009 for Welsh onions and, 0.006 for radishes. Finally, the average levels of Hg in ${\mu}g/kg$ were 2.3 for rice, 0.2 for corn, 0.6 for soybeans, 1.4 for red beans, 0.1 for sweet potatoes, 0.3 for potatoes, 0.5 Chinese cabbage, 2.1 for spinach, 0.5 for Welsh onions, and 0.2 for radishes. Based on the Korean public nutrition report 2005, these levels (or amounts) are calculated only at 2.6% for Pb, 8.7% for Cd, 1.2% for Hg of those presented in provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) which has been established by FAO/WHO. Therefore, the levels presented here are presumed to be adequately safe.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.1383-1391
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• 2016

Anti-estrogen drugs such as tamoxifen have been used for treating patients with ER-positive, early breast cancer. However, resistance to anti-estrogen treatment is inevitable in most patients. Breast cancer anti-estrogen resistance-3 (BCAR3) has been identified as the protein responsible for the induction of tamoxifen resistance in estrogen-dependent human breast cancer. We have previously reported that BCAR3 regulates the cell cycle progression and the signaling pathway of EGF and insulin leading to DNA synthesis. In this study, we investigated the functional role of BCAR3 in regulating c-Jun transcription in non-tumorigenic human breast epithelial MCF-12A cells. A transient transfection of BCAR3 increased both the mRNA and protein of c-Jun expression, and stable expression of BCAR3 increased c-Jun protein expression. The overexpression of BCAR3 directly activated the promoter of c-jun, AP-1, and SRE but not that of $NF-{\kappa}B$. Furthermore, single-cell microinjection of BCAR3 expression plasmid in the cell cycle-arrested MCF-12A cells induced c-Jun protein expression, and co-injection of dominant negative mutants of Ras, Rac, and Rho suppressed the transcriptional activity of c-Jun in the presence of BCAR3. Furthermore, stable expression of BCAR3 increased the proliferation of MCF-12A cells. The microinjection of inhibitory materials such as anti-BCAR3 antibody and siRNA BCAR3 inhibited EGF-induced c-Jun expression but did not affect IGF-1 induced upregulation of c-Jun. Taken together, we propose that BCAR3 plays a crucial role in c-Jun protein expression and cell proliferation and that small GTPases (e.g., Ras, Rac, and Rho) are required for the BCAR3-mediated activation of c-Jun expression.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.477-487
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• 2019

Objectives: Firefighters are known to be exposed to a variety of toxic substances, but little information is available on the exposure profile of firefighting activities. The aims of this study were to conduct exposure monitoring of toxic chemicals at fire scenes, to compare the concentrations of respective chemicals among firefighting tasks, and to assess the main factors influencing the concentrations of chemicals. Methods: Researchers performed sampling at firefighting scenes during four weeks in 2013. At the scene, we collected samples based on firefighters' own activities and examined the situation and scale of the accident. Collected samples were classified into three categories, including fire extinguishing and overhaul, and were analyzed in the laboratory according to respective analysis methods. Results: A total of fourteen fire activity events were surveyed: five fire extinguishing, six overhaul, and three fire investigations. Although no substance exceeded the ACGIH TLV, PAHs were detected in every sample. Naphthalene ranged from 0.24 to 279.13 mg/㎥ (median 49.6 mg/㎥) and benzo(a)pyrene was detected in one overhaul case at 10.85 ㎍/㎥. Benzene (0.01-12.2 ppm) was detected in every task and exceeded the ACGIH TLV. No significant difference in concentrations between tasks was shown. Conclusions: These results indicate that all firefighting tasks generated various hazardous combustion products, including possible carcinogens.