• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
• /
• v.19 no.6
• /
• pp.442-452
• /
• 2010

Our team carried out a new program for public engagement on nanotechnology in Korea. We chose 22 monitors, who majored in science or technology and graduated from universities long time ago. Most of them were married and housewives. This 'focus group' had not only general knowledge about science or technology but also much interest in social activities. The 167 nanoproducts to be monitored were for daily life, e.g. home appliances (washing machine, refrigerator, water purifier, etc), clothing, cosmetics, food, toy, and others. And the period of it was one month. The monitors had a sheet with 10 questions, and filled them out in essay form. All of them submitted 2~3 sheets every weekend to our team. Before monitoring, our team had a meeting for introduction and explanation about the potential risk of nanotechnology as well as benefits from it. Another meeting was held after finishing monitoring to share their experience one another. The main results of the monitoring were as follows: the number of nanoproducts describing both the definition of 'nano' and the size of nanomaterials was just 2 (1.2%) the number of them explaining the technical methods enough was 15 (9/0%) the number of them accounting for the reason of functional improvement enough was 14(8.4%); the number of them doubtful as if there would be exaggeration or false knowledge was 27 (16.2%); the number of them commenting potential hazards to human health or environment was almost zero; the number of them describing about safety certification acceptable was 9 (5.4%). The monitors made a proposal containing recommendation to Government and industry. The contents were as follows: industry should make the manual in detail and correctly, Describe Certificate detailed and correctly, Do research on risk and toxicity continually, Educate employee about nanoproducts at consumer's center; Government should make indication of nanoproducts compulsory, Appoint Certificate Authority and make Certificate Mark guaranteeing the safety on nanoproducts, Make detailed explanation about nanoproducts compulsory.

• Clean Technology
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.250-258
• /
• 2012

Recent rapidly growth in nanotechnolgies is promised novel benefits through the exploitation of their unique industrial and biomedical applications. In addition, the production amount of these nanomaterials and nanoproducts has increased, and thus their uncontrolled release into the environment is anticipated to grow dramatically in future. Therefore, nanowaste streams must be effectively managed for sustainable nanotechnology. However, the effectiveness and capability of the current systems to handle nanowastes are yet to be established. In this review, we investigated several key topics for new paradigm of nanowaste treatment, (i) global and domestic production of nanomaterials and nanoproducts, (ii) definition and key resources of nanowaste, (iii) current and developing treatment method for nanowaste, and (iv) regulations for nanomaterials and nanoproducts.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
• /
• v.19 no.6
• /
• pp.415-422
• /
• 2010

Recently as the reports on toxicity of some nanomaterials and the nanoproducts containing these nanomaterials are rapidly increasing, the safety management issues about nanomaterials and nanoproducts are emerging hot. Especially safety in the workplace and that of consumers and the protection of environment, in other words safeties throughout the life-cycle of nanomaterials and products become core issues. Despite the importance of such a safety management, however, it is very difficult to construct the hard regulatory framework for safety, owing to uncertainties and potentialities of nano-risk. In this paper I will look around the ethical principles and guidelines for safety management which are preferentially required before going into the discussion on the construction of hard-regulation such as law and something like that. Under the circumstance that hard-regulations for safety management are not implementable, these principles and guidelines are expected to play a leading part in building the responsible risk-governance framework for nanomaterials and nanoproducts, and finally to become a cornerstone of the hard risk-governance framework.

• Toxicological Research
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.53-60
• /
• 2011

Nanotechnology is now applied to many industries, resulting in wide range of nanomaterial-containing products, such as electronic components, cosmetic, medicines, vehicles, and home appliances. Nanoparticles can be released throughout the life cycle of nanoproducts, including the manufacture, consumer use, and disposal, thereby involving workers, consumers, and the environment in potential exposure. However, there is no current consensus on the best sampling method for characterizing manufactured-nanoparticle exposure. Therefore, this report aims to provide a standard method for assessing nanoparticle exposure, including the identification of nanoparticle emission, the assessment of worker exposure, and the evaluation of exposure mitigation actions in nanomaterial-handling workplaces or research institutes.

• Clean Technology
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.459-463
• /
• 2013

Recent rapidly growth in nanotechnolgies is promised novel benefits through the exploitation of their unique industrial and biomedical applications. In addition, these nanomaterials and nano-consumer products have increased in quantity per year, and thus their uncontrolled release into the environment is anticipated to grow dramatically in future. Many papers for cytotoxicity of nanomaterials have been already reported, and thus government supports has funded to various research topics for nanosafety. Herein, we analyzed the importance and performance of nanosafety researches and tried to show the research direction where we have to go.

• Toxicological Research
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.73-79
• /
• 2012

While the ability to develop nanomaterials and incorporate them into products is advancing rapidly worldwide, understanding of the potential health safety effects of nanomaterials has proceeded at a much slower pace. Since 2008, Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) started an investigation to prepare "Strategic Action Plan" to evaluate safety and nano risk management associated with foods, drugs, medical devices and cosmetics using nano-scale materials. Although there are some studies related to potential risk of nanomaterials, physical-chemical characterization of nanomaterials is not clear yet and these do not offer enough information due to their limitations. Their uncertainties make it impossible to determine whether nanomaterials are actually hazardous to human. According to the above mention, we have some problems to conduct the human exposure risk assessment currently. On the other hand, uncertainty about safety may lead to polarized public debate and to businesses unwillingness for further nanotechnology investigation. Therefore, the criteria and methods to assess possible adverse effects of nanomaterials have been vigorously taken into consideration by many international organizations: the World Health Organization, the Organization for Economic and Commercial Development and the European Commission. The object of this study was to develop risk assessment principles for safety management of future nanoproducts and also to identify areas of research to strengthen risk assessment for nanomaterials. The research roadmaps which were proposed in this study will be helpful to fill up the current gaps in knowledge relevant nano risk assessment.

• Clean Technology
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.160-165
• /
• 2014

Over the past decade, an increasing number of manufactured nanoparticles (NPs) have been incorporated into products and manufacturing processes due to the rapid innovation and commercialization in the field of nanotechnology. In addition, these nanomaterials and nano-consumer products have increased in quantity per year, and thus their uncontrolled release into the environment is anticipated to grow dramatically in future. However, A current sewage/wastewater treatment plant (SWTP) is being applied to removal of nanoparticles in wastewater. In Korea, the study on the removal of nanoparticles in SWTP was not reported yet. Therefore, in this work, to design pilot STP before field test, two model equations and commercial process simulation were used to derive the desing parameters.

• Advances in nano research
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.103-115
• /
• 2023

Recent developments in the synthesis of nanomagnesia of controlled sizes and shapes that are suitable for various applications are reviewed. Two main methods, based on liquid-phase synthesis, i.e., chemical methods and bio-based methods, are used to synthesize nanomagnesia. Conventionally, nanomagnesia was synthesized by chemical methods such as coprecipitation, sol-gel, combustion method, and so on using different chemical agents and stabilizers which later on become responsible for several biological risks because of the toxicity of used chemicals. Bio-based protocols are growing as another environmental friend method for the synthesis of various nanostructures especially nanomagnesia using biomass, plant extracts, alga, and fungi as a source of precursor material. The ideal method should offer better control of textural properties of nanostructures and decrease the necessity for purification of the synthesized nanoproducts, which sequentially removes the use of large amounts of chemicals and organic solvents and manipulation of products that are unsafe to the environment. Finally, the broad applicability of nanomagnesia in diverse areas is presented. Employment of nanomagnesia reported in several laboratory and industrial fields are valued from the standpoint of the significance of these issues for technological requests, as described in the literature. Nanomagnesia has various applications such as antimicrobial performance, removing pollutants, batteries application, and catalysis.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.54 no.6
• /
• pp.800-805
• /
• 2016

Rapid growth in nanotechnologies promises novel benefits through the exploitation of their unique industrial applications. However, as the production volume of nanomaterials increases, their unintentional exposure to the environment has been occured. Potential impacts of nanoproducts on the environment can be evaluated in the life cycle assessment (LCA). LCA is the systematic analysis of the resource usages and emissions over the life time from the primary resources to the moment of disposal. In this study, we performed LCA for fabrication processes of superhydrophilic oil/water separator using nano-$TiO_2$. $TOTAL^{TM}$ freeware was used to analyze for all fabrication processes, and 6-environmental impact factors (resource depletion, climate change, ozone depletion, acidification, eutropication, and photochemical oxidation) were introduced. In addition, the use of nano-$TiO_2$ in the fabrication of superhydrophilic oil/water separator was actively contributed to the environmental impact factors, compared to the bulk-$TiO_2$.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.225-236
• /
• 2016

Objectives: Nanomaterials have been used in various fields. As use of nanoproducts is increasing, workers dealing with nanomaterials are also gradually increasing. Exposure assessments for nanomaterials have been carried out for protection of worker's health in workplace. Exposure studies were mainly focused on manufacturing processes, but these studies on after-treatment processes such as refinement, weighing, and packing were insufficient. So, we investigated exposure characteristics of particles during after-treatment processes of $Al_2O_3$ fibers and Ni powders. Methods: Mass-production of Ni powder process was carried out in enclosed capture-type canopy hood. In a developing stage, $Al_2O_3$ was handled with a local ventilation unit. Exposure characteristics of particles were investigated for $Al_2O_3$ fiber and Ni powder processes during the periods of 10:00 to 16:00, 20 May 2014 and 13:00 to 16:00, 21 May 2014, respectively. Three real-time aerosol instruments were utilized in exposure assessment. A scanning mobility particle sizer(SMPS, nanoscan, model 3910, TSI) and an optical particle counter(OPC, portable aerosol spectrometer, model 1.109, Grimm) were used to determine the particle size distribution in the size range of 10-420 nm and $0.25-32{\mu}m$, respectively. In addition, a nanoparticle aerosol monitor(NAM, model 9000, TSI) was used to measure lung-deposited nanoparticle surface area. Membrane filters(isopore membrane filter, pore size of 100 nm) were also used for air sampling for the FE-SEM(model S-5000H, Hitachi) analysis using a personal sampling pump(model GilAir Plus by 2.5 L/min, Gilian). Conclusions: For Ni powder after-treatment process, only 27% increase in particle concentration was found during the process. However, for $Al_2O_3$ fiber after-treatment process, significant exposure(1.56-3.34 times) was observed during the process.