• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.711-720
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• 2024

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The diet is an important route of exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs). However, few studies have investigated the association between dietary intake and EDC exposure levels among Koreans. In an earlier study, we showed that the bioactivity of serum aryl hydrocarbon receptor ligands (AhRLs) could be a surrogate biomarker to indicate exposure to EDCs and that they inhibit mitochondrial function. We also found that the mitochondria-inhibiting substances (MIS) in serum ascertained by intracellular adenosine triphosphate (MIS-ATP) and reactive oxygen species (MIS-ROS) levels could be biomarkers of exposure to EDCs, as they showed a strong correlation with AhRL and the levels of EDCs in the blood. Here, we investigated the association between the consumption of specific foods and surrogate serum biomarkers for EDCs, namely AhRL, MIS-ATP, and MIS-ROS, among middle-aged Korean adults. SUBJECTS/METHODS: A total of 1,466 participants aged 45-76 yrs from the Ansung cohort of the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study were included. Food consumption, including that of meat, fish, vegetables, and fruits, was measured using a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire. RESULTS: Fish intake was positively associated with AhRL (β = 0.0035, P = 0.0166), whereas cruciferous vegetable intake was negatively associated with AhRL (β = -0.0007, P = 0.0488). Cruciferous vegetable intake was positively associated with the MIS-ATP levels (β = 0.0051, P = 0.0420). A higher intake of fish was significantly associated with an increased risk of high AhRL (tertile: odds ratio [OR], 1.49; 95% confidence intervals (CIs), 1.08-2.06; P for trend = 0.0305). In addition, the second-highest tertile of cruciferous vegetable intake had lower odds of high AhRL than the lowest tertile (OR, 0.73; 95% CIs, 0.54-0.97), although no significant linear trend was observed. CONCLUSION: Consumption of different types of foods may be differentially associated with EDC exposure in middle-aged Korean adults.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.99-114
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• 2007

Object: To analyze the effect of a media-campaign for "walking exercise participation improvement", which impacted walking-related awareness and behavior change of residents in Seoul. Method: This study used three campaign media including printing information, walking exercise indication board and a public advertisement of cable TV to lead a walking-related awareness change and practice frequency(number of days per week walking) and time(minutes per day walking) of walking exercise. To evaluate the exposure and message-recall levels of a campaign and effects of awareness change and walking practice, this study used a questionnaire survey(N=377). Result: 1) Group of exposure to campaign more participate and had the higher frequency(p=.015) and time(p=.023) in walking exercise and in comparison with group of nonexposure. 2) Group of changed awareness to campaign more participate and had the higher frequency and time in walking exercise and in comparison with group of no changed perception(p <.05). 3) Level of message recall of ${\ulcorner}$printing information${\lrcorner}$ was associated with number of days per week walking, and level of message recall of ${\ulcorner}$public advertisement of cable TV${\lrcorner}$ was associated with minutes per day walking at a statistically significant level(p <.05). Conclusion: These results suggest that media campaign can enhance the success of community-based efforts to promote awareness change and walking practice.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.55-60
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• 2000

Wire codes, introduced by Wertheimer and Leeper, are interesting largely because several case-control studies have reported associations between them and certain types of cancers, including childhood leukemia. This paper is concerned with the reliability of wire codes as a surrogate for residential electric and magnetic field, divided into four categories based on the electrical wiring within 40m of homes. To examine the correlation between spot measurements and wire codes, EMF was measured by using HI-3604 and classified by wire codes. The correlation between long-transformed RMS of magnetic field and wire codes was 0.81. But the correlation between log-transformed RMS of electric field and wire codes was 0.27. The results led us to determine a four category from of the Wertheimer and Leeper code that 1) may be useful in domestic epidemiological studies and 2) is not suitable for electric field exposure. Thus, the critical point of exposure assessment in residential magnetic field is to classify a wire code precisely.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.18 no.spc
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• pp.63-74
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• 2020

The operational safety assessment is an important part of a safety case for the deep geological repository of spent fuels. It consists of different stages such as the identification of initiating events, event tree analysis, fault tree analysis, and evaluation of exposure doses to the public and radiation workers. This study develops a probabilistic safety assessment method for the operational safety assessment and establishes an assessment framework. For the event and fault tree analyses, we propose the advanced information management system for probabilistic safety assessment (AIMS-PSA Manager). In addition, we propose the Radiological Safety Analysis Computer (RSAC) program to evaluate exposure doses to the public and radiation workers. Furthermore, we check the applicability of the assessment framework with respect to drop accidents of a spent fuel assembly arising out of crane failure, at the surface facility of the KRS⁺ (KAERI Reference disposal System for SNFs). The methods and tools established through this study can be used for the development of a safety case for the KRS⁺ system as well as for the design modification and the operational safety assessment of the KRS⁺ system.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Health Society Conference
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• 2003.06a
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• pp.162-165
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• 2003

Uptake efficiencies of PCB 153 in fathead minnow through food chain of sediment-midge-fish were evaluated. Contaminated fish food, the midge Chironomus plumosus was prepared by exposing to sediments with PCB 153. We could harvest the midges with body PCB 153 levels of ∼ 1.0 mg/g and ∼ 10.0 mg/g, respectively, in 2 wk of exposure. PCB 153 level in fish fed with midge of 10.0 mg/g PCB 153 (high-dose group) reached its highest at 11.2 mg/g after 30 d of exposure. However, PCB level in fish fed with midge of 1.0 mg/g PCB 153 (low-dose group) kept increasing following first order rate kinetics until the end of exposure (38 d). When the fish food was changed to the uncontaminated ones, the fish body PCB levels were stabilized in ∼ 3 wk. The uptake efficiency in high-dose fish group was 37%, whereas low-dose group was 55%. Uptake efficiencies in fathead minnows were notably lower than that of pike (∼ 70%). This finding suggests that the uptake efficiency of this PCB congener may depend on the amount of the PCB in diet.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.119-126
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• 2001

Air pollution epidemiologic studies are intrinsically difficult because the expected effect size at general environmental levels is small, exposure and misclassification of exposure are common, and exposure is not selective to a specific pollutant. In this review paper, epidemiologic study designs and analytic methods are described, and two nationwide projects on air pollution epidemiology are introduced. This paper also demonstrates that possible confounding issues in time-series analysis can be resolved and the impact on the use of data from ambient monitoring stations may not be critical. In this paper we provide a basic understanding of the types of air pollution epidemiologic study designs that be subdivided by the mode of air pollution effects on human health (acute or chronic). With the improvements in the area of air pollution epidemiologic studies, we should emphasize that elaborate models and statistical techniques cannot compensate for inadequate study design or poor data collection.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.99-106
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• 2011

Tritium is the one of the most important radionuclide for workers in nuclear power plants (NPPs) and the public, from the dosimetric point of view. Humans are likely to have internal radiation exposure by tritium inhalation. Radiation exposure by tritium accounts for approximately 7% and 60~90% of the total radiation exposure of NPP workers and the public during normal operation, respectively. Thus, many researches have been conducted to estimate the internal dose by tritium precisely in the world. In terms of tritium dosimetry, this paper provides the current status of research for tritium metabolism and dosimetry.

• Atmosphere
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.337-355
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• 2018

Ultrafine particles (< 100 nm in diameter, UFP) are known to be more toxic per unit mass than larger particles and contribute to more than 90% in particle number concentrations in urbanized cities but much less in mass. The major sources of UFP are vehicle emissions in urban areas. Due to their tiny size (the sizes of UFP from vehicle emissions range from 10 to 60 nm depending on engine and fuel types), inhaled UFP can reach the deepest area of respiratory track (e.g., pulmonary alveoli) as well as all of the body via lymph and blood circulation causing various adverse health effects. This article reviews the sources and emission factors of UFP, temporal and spatial distributions in urban areas and their health effects reported by toxicological and epidemiological studies. We also compared the levels of UFP concentrations measured in other countries with those in Korean cities to evaluate the public exposure to UFP in Korea. Ultimately, we expect this study can contribute to developing the risk assessment techniques for public exposure to UFP in the urbanized cities in Korea.

• Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.150-156
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• 2005

Analysis of chromosome aberration (CA) and cytokinesis-block micronucleus (CBMN) assay in peripheral lymphocytes of nurses exposed to low levels of anticancer drug and Ethylene Oxide(EO) gas in a hospital were performed. The frequency of CA was increased in the exposed compared to the controls whereas no increase of the frequency of MN was found. The frequencies of chromatid type CA were 1.2, 3.91 and 9.67 per 500 cells in the controls, workers exposed to anticancer drug and workers exposed to EO, respectively. Lower frequency of CA in nurses handling anticancer drugs with safety covers compared to those without safety covers was observed, but it was not statistically significant. The frequency of CA in nurses handling anticancer drugs increased by the frequency of mixing anticancer drugs. Poisson regression analysis showed a significant association of the frequency of chromatid type CA with age, duration of wort exposure to anticancer drug and EO gas exposure, but no association of the frequency of chromosome type CA with any variables. The results suggested that there were associations between CA and the occupational exposure to low levels of anticancer drug and EO gas.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.265-270
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• 2018

This study was to measure the exposure of diesel vehicle drivers to elemental carbon (EC) as an indicator of diesel particulate matter (DPM) emitted from diesel vehicles in an underground coal mine over 3 years as per NIOSH Method 5040. Our study results (range $10{\mu}g/m^3-377{\mu}g/m^3$ for the loader drivers, $19{\mu}g/m^3-162{\mu}g/m^3$ for the SMV drivers) were similar or less than previous study results (range $5{\mu}g/m^3-2,200{\mu}g/m^3$) for normal mine operations. From this study results, it appeared that the exposures decreased in the second and the third year. It is thought that the reasons for the decreased personal DPM (EC) exposures over the 3 years were related to the following recommendations; more frequent monitoring and maintenance of the diesel vehicles and their DPM filtration systems, more consistent monitoring of the mine's ventilation system and changes of work practices such as minimizing the opening of diesel vehicle windows. An educational program on adverse health effects of exposure to DPM and use of respiratory protection (P2 respirators) also assisted in minimizing driver exposure to DPM.