• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.106-110
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• 2007

The detection and distribution of Aeromonas in water supplies were investigated by using the USEPA Method 1605. Water samples were collected from the Han River, finished waters and tap waters supplied from Water Treatment Plants in Seoul monthly from July 2002 to December 2003. Aeromonas species in each water sample were quantified based on the development of yellow colonies on the surface of membrane filter using a selective medium (Ampicillin-Dextrin Agar with Vancomycin). The Quality Control (QC) for this study met the acceptance criteria of Method 1605. The concentrations of Aeromonas species in surface water samples ranged from $1.0{\times}10^{0}\;to\;9.8{\times}10^{3}\;CFU/ml$. Aeromonas species were found only in one tap water sample with concentration of 1 CFU/500 ml. No Aeromonas species were found in any finished water samples. Aeromonas species detected here were identified as A. salmonicida(51%), A. caviae(4.7%), A. schubertti(3.4%), A. sobria(3.8%), A. hydrophila(2.1%), and A. ichithiosmia(0.4%). A. salmonicida was the dominant species, which is of no significance to human health. Chlorine resistance of A. salmonicida was evaluated and as a result, 99.99% of A. salmonicida decreased after 30 seconds exposure at residual free chlorine 0.2 mg/L. These suggest that the waters supplied in Seoul may be safe against the pathogenic agent Aeromonas.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.72-82
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• 2008

Benzene is a very harmful and toxic compound known as human carcinogen by all routes of exposure. Owing to the risky feature of benzene, several countries such as Japan, UK and EU have established the ambient air quality standard and protect from that risk of it. Korea also has designated it as one of the criteria air pollutants and established the concentration limit ($5\;{\mu}g/m^3$) in the air and is going to apply the standard from 2010. Benzene is emitted from various sources such as combustion plants, production processes, waste treatment facilities and also automobiles. Mobile source is known as one of the major emission sources of benzene. In this study, we estimated the domestic emissions of benzene from mobile source and compared the results with those of advanced countries. Mobile source was divided into 2 categories, Le., on-road source and non-road source. The total emissions of benzene from mobile source were estimated as 3,106 tons/yr and 1,612 tons/yr was emitted from on-road source and 1,494 tons/yr was from non-road source. Emission ratio of benzene from on-road source showed that 80.0% was from passenger cars, 10.1% was from taxis, 7.2% was from light-duty vehicles, 2.5% was from heavy-duty vehicles and 0.2% was from buses. In the case of non-road source, the distribution showed that 66.3% was from construction machineries, 14.5% was from locomotives, 11.7% was from ships, 7.1% was from agriculture equipments and 0.5% was from aircrafts. The cold-start emissions were estimated as 942 tons/yr and this value was almost 1.5 times greater than that for hot engine emissions (608 tons/yr). In addition, the fuel-based distribution was 65.9%, 31.1% and 2.8% from gasoline, LPG and diesel vehicles, respectively. The emission ratio from mobile source occupied 65% and 30% of total benzene emissions in USA and UK, respectively. In case of Korea, the emission ratio of benzene from mobile source occupied 29% (15% from on-road source, 14% from non-road source) which showed similar value with UK.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.8-15
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• 1995

The reliable measurement of metal in biological media in human body is one of critical indicators for the proper evaluation of its toxic effect on human health. Recently in Korea the necessity of quality assurance of measurement in occupational health and occupational hygiene fields brought out regulatory quality control program. Lead is often used as a standard metal for the program in both fields of occupational health and hygiene. During last 20 years lead poisoning was prevalent in Korea and still is one of main heavy metal poisoning and the capability of the measurement of blood lead is one of prerequisites for institute of specialized occupational health in Korea. Furthermore blood lead is most important indicator to evaluate lead burden of human exposure to lead and the reliable and accurate analysis is most needed whenever possible. To evaluate the extent of the interlaboratory differences of blood lead measurement in several well-known institute specialized in occupational health in Korea, authors prepared 68 blood samples from two storage battery industries and all samples were divided into samples with 2 ml. One set of 68 samples were analyzed by authors's laboratory(Soonchunhyang University Institute of Industrial Medicine: SIIM) and 40 samples of other set were analyzed by C University Institute of Industrial Medicine(CIIM) and the rest 28 samples of other set were analyzed by Japanese institute(K Occupational Health Center:KOHC). Authors also prepared test bovine samples which were obtained from Japanese Federation of Occupational Health Organization (JFOHO) for quality control. Authors selected 2 other well-known occupational health laboratories and one laboratory specialized for instrumental analysis. A total of 6 laboratories joined the interlaboratory comparison of blood lead measurement and the results obtained were as follows: 1. There was no significant difference in average blood lead between SIIM and CIIM in different group of blood lead concentration, and the relative standard deviation of two laboratories was less than 3.0%. On the other hand, there was also no significant difference of average blood lead between SIIM and KOHC with relative standard deviation of 6.84% as maximum. 2. Taking less than 15% difference of mean or less than 6 ug/dl difference in below 40 ug/dl in whole blood as a criteria of agreement of measurement between two laboratories, agreement rates were 87.5%(35/40) and 78.6%(22/28) between SIIM and CIIM, SIIM and KOHC respectively. 3. The correlation of blood lead between SIIM and CIIM was 0.975 (p=0.0001) and the regression equation was SIIM = 2.19 + 0.9243 ClIM, whereas the correlation between SUM and KOHC was O.965(p=0.0001) with the equation of SIIM = 1.91 + 0.9794 KOHC. 4. Taking the reference value as a dependent variable and each of 6 laboratories's measurement value as a independent variable, the determination coefficient($R^2$) of simple regression equations of blood lead measurement for bovine test samples were very high($R^2>0.99$), and the regression coefficient(${\beta}$) was between 0.972 and 1.15 which indicated fairly good agreement of measurement results.