• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.237-245
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• 2022

Background: The current study reports measurements of activity concentrations of radon (²²⁰Rn) and thoron (²²⁰Rn) in dwellings, followed by inhalation dose assessment of the public, and then by the development of regulation and the national radon action plan (NRAP) in Cameroon. Materials and Methods: Radon, thoron, and thoron progeny measurements were carried out from 2014 to 2017 using radon-thoron discriminative detectors (commercially RADUET) in 450 dwellings and thoron progeny monitors in 350 dwellings. From 2019 to 2020, radon track detectors (commercially RADTRAK) were deployed in 1,400 dwellings. It was found that activity concentrations of radon range in 1,850 houses from 10 to 2,620 Bq/㎥ with a geometric mean of 76 Bq/㎥. Results and Discussion: Activity concentrations of thoron range from 20 to 700 Bq/㎥ with a geometric mean of 107 Bq/㎥. Thoron equilibrium factor ranges from 0.01 to 0.6, with an arithmetic mean of 0.09 that is higher than the default value of 0.02 given by UNSCEAR. On average, 49%, 9%, and 2% of all surveyed houses have radon concentrations above 100, 200, and 300 Bq/㎥, respectively. The average contribution of thoron to the inhalation dose due to radon and thoron exposure is about 40%. Thus, thoron cannot be neglected in dose assessment to avoid biased results in radio-epidemiological studies. Only radon was considered in the drafted regulation and in the NRAP adopted in October 2020. Reference levels of 300 Bq/㎥ and 1,000 Bq/㎥ were recommended for dwellings and workplaces. Conclusion: Priority actions for the coming years include the following: radon risk mapping, promotion of a protection policy against radon in buildings, integration of the radon prevention and mitigation into the training of construction specialists, mitigation of dwellings and workplaces with high radon levels, increased public awareness of the health risks associated with radon, and development of programs on the scientific and technical aspects.

• 한국균학회소식:학술대회논문집
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• 2018.05a
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• pp.13-13
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• 2018

Alternaria is a ubiquitous fungal genus, widely distributed in the environment and a range of different habitats. It includes both plant pathogenic and saprophytic species, which can affect crops in the field or cause post-harvest spoilage of plant fruits and kernels. Numerous Alternaria species cause damage to agricultural products including cereal grains, fruits and vegetables, and are responsible for severe economic losses worldwide. Most Alternaria species have the ability to produce a variety of secondary metabolites, which may play important roles in plant pathology as well as food quality and safety. Alternariol (AOH), alternariol monomethyl ether (AME), tenuazonic acid (TeA), tentoxin (TEN) and altenuene (ALT) are considered the main Alternaria compounds thought to pose a risk to human health. However, food-borne Alternaria species are able to produce many additional metabolites, whose toxicity has been tested incompletely or not tested at all. Both alternariols are mutagenic and their presence in cereal grain has been associated with high levels of human esophageal cancer in China. TeA exerts cytotoxic and phytotoxic properties, and is acutely toxic in different animal species, causing hemorrhages in several organs. The possible involvement of TA in the etiology of onyalai, a human hematological disorder occurring in Africa, has been suggested. Altertoxins (ALXs) have been found to be more potent mutagens and acutely toxic to mice than AOH and AME. Other metabolites, such as TEN, are reported to be phytotoxins, and their toxicity on animals has not been demonstrated up to now. Vegetable foods infected by Alternaria rot are obviously not suitable for consumption. Thus, whole fresh fruits are not believed to contribute significantly with Alternaria toxins to human exposure. However, processed vegetable products may introduce considerable amounts of these toxins to the human diet if decayed or moldy fruit is not removed before processing. The taxonomy of the genus is not well defined yet, which makes it difficult to establish an accurate relationship between the contaminant species and their associated mycotoxins. Great efforts have been made to organize taxa into subgeneric taxonomic levels, especially for the small-spored, food associated species, which are closely related and constitute the most relevant food pathogens from this genus. Several crops of agricultural value are susceptible to infection by different Alternaria species and can contribute to the entry of Alternaria mycotoxins in the food chain. The distribution of Alternaria species was studied in different commodities grown in Argentina. These food populations were characterized through a polyphasic approach, with special interest in their secondary metabolite profiles, to understand their full chemical potential. Alternaria species associated with tomato, bell pepper, blueberry, apples and wheat cultivated in Argentina showed a surprisingly high metabolomic and mycotoxigenic potential. The natural occurrence of Alternaria toxins in these foods was also investigated. The results here presented will provide background for discussion on regulations for Alternaria toxins in foods.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.406-414
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• 2004

The purposes of this study were 1) to investigate the importance level on factors affecting the foodservice management contract perceived by the clients in the office building, government and public offices and manufacturing company in Seoul and Kyungi 2) to compare the perceived importance levels of the present contract and future contract 3) to compare the perceived importance levels of the competitive bid with those of the private contract. To collect the data on the perceived importance level on the affecting the foodservice management contract, the questionnaires were developed by the delphi technique and modified by the pilot test. The questionnaires consisted of 4 categories and 19 items on the factors affecting the foodservice management contract and the importance level on the factors were measured by 5-likert scale. From March 12 to April 13 in 2003, the self-administrative questionnaires were mailed to 280 clients. The questionnaires were responded from the 50 clients (respondent rate: 25％). On the factors affecting the present contract and the future contract, among the 4 categories (the appropriateness of foodservice operation plan, the evaluation of the foodservice company, sales ability, the conditions of the cost in the contract), the importance level of the appropriateness of foodservice operation plan was higher than those of the other categories. In the comparison of the perceived importance level between the present contract and the future contract, the importance level of 4 items (sanitation and safety management plan, menu management plan, service management plan, food cost per meal) in the future contract were significantly higher than those in the present contract (p＜.01, p＜.05, p＜.05, p＜.01). There were the significant differences between the private contract and competitive bid on the factors affecting the present contract in the 3 items, which were $\ulcorner$renewal plan for interior and environment$\lrcorner$, $\ulcorner$strategic alliance with the contractor$\lrcorner$, $\ulcorner$lobby of the foodservice company$\lrcorner$ (p＜.05, p＜.05, p＜.05). And on the factors affecting the future contract, there were significant differences in the 2 items, which were $\ulcorner$renewal plan for interior and environment$\lrcorner$and $\ulcorner$cost per meal$\lrcorner$in comparing the competitive bid and private contract (p＜.05, p＜.01). The clients perceived the appropriateness of foodservice operation plan was more important than the other categories in the future foodservice management contract. It was proposed that the foodservice management contract company should focus on the foodservice operation to satisfy the customers and clients in order to get more contract in the future.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.306-320
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• 2015

This survey was carried out in 2014 to estimate the pesticide residue levels in commercial environment-friendly agricultural products in Seoul metropolitan area. Pesticide residues in 27 commodities were examined and analyzed using LC-MS/MS, which can simultaneously detect up to 85 pesticides. A total of 441 samples were collected and analyzed. Among the detected samples, the residue levels in 1.2% of organic agricultural products and 2.2% of pesticide-free agricultural products exceeded the maximum residue limits (MRLs); hence, 1.8% of the total samples exceeded the MRLs. The safety of the detected pesticides was assessed by monitoring the acceptable daily intake level (ADI) and acceptable dietary exposure (ADE) to the pesticides via consumption of the commodities. ADI and ADE are found to be 0.07728-9.46530% and 0.00141-0.17210%, respectively, which means that the residual pesticides in the environmental-friendly agricultural products in Korea are below the safe limit and therefore, pose no potential public health risks.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.482-492
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• 2015

Objectives: Exposure Assessment for workplace hazards where the exposure level is below occupational exposure limits(OELs) has been performed without considering either the degrees of risk or exposure levels and has failed to lead to intervention in many cases. The objective of this study was to suggest and test an application framework for risk assessment methodology under the current exposure assessment system in Korea. Materials: First, we investigated the exposure assessment systems in Korea and other countries. To adopt some risk assessment techniques, we also analyzed risk assessment systems and compared them to exposure assessment systems. A few suggestions were made. We held a public hearing during an industrial hygiene conference and took surveys using a questionnaire. Results: The first suggestion was to implement the risk assessment and exposure assessment through a "one-stop" system. In that case, one expected question would be who has been doing the jobs so far. In most cases, industrial hygiene consulting services or laboratories have been performing exposure assessment for business owners. Business owners are required to perform risk assessment. As two different groups of people will be required to implement two things in a one-stop system, they need to share information. As an information vehicle to share information, commonly filed survey checklists were suggested. The second suggestion was to categorize exposure level into four groups instead of the current binary divisions based on OELs. In the risk assessment system, exposure level is divided into four groups utilizing the cut-points of 10%, 50%, and 100% of OELs. The same schema can be adopted in the exposure assessment system and different levels of requirements can be assigned for each group. The third suggestion was regarding the regulation system. To provide the suggestions some thrust toward being implemented in the field, changes should be made in the legal system. Two different types of new exposure assessment result reporting forms were suggested. Some investigations such as an ergonomic survey are officially accepted as risk assessment under the current legal system. A few items were suggested to be included in the exposure assessment result reporting to be accepted as risk assessment. A pilot study in two small factories was performed and pointed out the strengths and weakness of our suggestions. Conclusions: Discussions and studies on the improvement of the exposure assessment system have been held for decades and no tangible changes have yet been made. We hope this result can help realize healthy lives for workers in Korea.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.273-282
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• 2011

This study established hazards which may cause risk to human at farm during cultivation stage of paprika. Samples of plants (paprika, leaf, stem), cultivation environments (water, soil), personal hygiene (hand, glove, clothes), work utensils (carpet, basket, box) and airborne bacteria were collected from three paprika farms (A, B, C) located in Western Gyeongnam, Korea. The collected samples were assessed for biological (sanitary indications and major foodborne pathogens), chemical (heavy metals, pesticide residues) and physical hazards. In biological hazards, total bacteria and coliform were detected at the levels of 1.9~6.6 and 0.0~4.610g CFU/g, leaf, mL, hand or 100 $cm^2$, while Escherichia coli was not detected in all samples. In major pathogens, only Bacillus cereus were detected at levels of ${\leq}$ 1.5 log CFU/g, mL, hand or 100 $cm^2$, while Staphylococuus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, E. coli O157 and Salmonella spp. were not detected in all samples. Heavy metal and pesticide residue as chemical hazards were detected at levels below the regulation limit, physical hazard factors, such as insects, pieces of metal and glasses, were also found in paprika farms. Proper management is needed to prevent biological hazards due to cross-contamination while physical and chemical hazards were appropriate GAP criteria.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.226-239
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to identify the problems related to the purchasing processes of school foodservices that should be corrected for the food service safety, by examining the purchasing processes and the status of supplier selection. A questionnaire was given to 300 dietitians working at self-operated food services. Ninety-eight responses, excluding incomplete answers, were used for the statistical analysis. The survey consisted of three parts: the general characteristics of the school foodservice and dietitian, purchasing processes and supplier selection, and the purchase specifications. We found that 84% of the contract was made by informal purchasing, and the contract period was 6 months or one year. For supplier selection, problems related to the document screening systems were the superficiality of the content(45.7%) and the absence or lack of clarity of the appraisal criteria(34.8%). The important factors for the facility and equipment standards of suppliers were included unclear evaluation methods for content(41.1%) and inappropriate appraisal lists(21.1%), while unclear evaluation methods for content(41.9%) and absence or lack of clarity of the appraisal criteria(20.4%) were the problems pertaining to the supplier evaluation checklist. When using the Food Labeling Standards to select suppliers, confirmation of the sell-by date and the storage method had the highest score at 3.85 out of 5. For supplier selection, only 25% of the contract was made by using the purchase specifications. The levels of satisfaction of with Kimchi and rice cakes suppliers were significantly different according to employment type and educational background, respectively. Depending on working experiences, satisfaction was significantly different for the use of document screening, as a standard for the selection and management of suppliers, and for the facility and equipment standards of suppliers, The use of purchase specifications was different by employment type, while the use of purchase specifications for contracts was different by working experience. These results imply that the specialization of suppliers is necessary to unsure food safety. Therefore, the objective methods to evaluate the suppliers should be developed by the government, and appropriate education programs for dietitians should be prepared to enhance the utilization of purchase specifications.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.291-299
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• 2023

The benzo[a]pyrene in edible oils is extracted using methods such as Liquid-liquid, soxhlet and ultrasound-assisted extraction. However these extraction methods have significant drawbacks, such as long extraction time and large amount of solvent usage. To overcome these drawbacks, this study attempted to improve the current complex benzo[a]pyrene analysis method by applying the QuEChERS (Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged and Safe) method that can be analyzed in a simple and short time. The QuEChERS method applied in this study includes extraction of benzo[a]pyrene into n-hexane saturated acetonitrile and n-hexane. After extraction and distribution using magnesium sulfate and sodium chloride, benzo[a]pyrene is analyzed by liquid chromatography with fluorescence detector (LC/FLR). As a result of method validation of the new method, the limit of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) were 0.02 ㎍/kg and 0.05 ㎍/kg, respectively. The calibration curves were constructed using five levels (0.1~10 ㎍/kg) and coefficient (R²) was above 0.99. Mean recovery ratio was ranged from 74.5 to 79.3 % with a relative standard deviation (RSD) between 0.52 to 1.58 %. The accuracy and precision were 72.6~79.4 % and 0.14~7.20 %, respectively. All results satisfied the criteria ranges requested in the Food Safety Evaluation Department guidelines (2016) and AOAC official method of analysis (2023). Therefore, the analysis method presented in this study was a relatively simple pretreatment method compared to the existing analysis method, which reduced the analysis time and solvent use to 92 % and 96 %, respectively.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.587-601
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• 2020

Exposure to hazardous substances occurs through multiple pathways. Aggregated risk assessment, which includes all potential exposure pathways to a single toxicant, is necessary to prevent exposure to harmful substances. We aimed to estimate cadmium and lead exposure through various media, such as food, water, air, smoking, cosmetics, and female hygiene products. This study covered 10,733 subjects from the Seventh Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey(2016, 2017). Dietary exposure was estimated using 24-hour recall data. For water and inhalational exposure, regional variations were considered. Water was classified as tap, bottled, and public water. Inhalational exposure was estimated using the '2014 Time Use Survey' based on daily lifestyle and social status. The frequency and volume of cosmetic usage were randomly approximated by sex and age. Post-menarcheal and premenopausal women were assumed to use feminine hygiene products. Non-carcinogenic aggregated risks were estimated using the Aggregate Risk Index from EPAs and the Total Exposure Hazard Index from Korean government guidelines. For carcinogenic risk assessment, excessive cancer risk was estimated. Ingestion, especially food, was the major route for both cadmium and lead exposure. Smoking was also associated with high cadmium exposure. Exposure to lead from cosmetics was remarkable but not critical. In aggregate risk assessments, median cadmium and lead exposure did not exceed the reference value. Sex, age, smoking status, and income affected exposure levels, unlike to regional variations.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.230-235
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• 2010

We investigated the physicochemical quality characteristics of apple juice upon sterilization using hot water, and under various storage conditions. None of sugar content, acidity, or pH differed significantly among various sterilization conditions but chromaticity was considerably reduced in sterilized juice compared with control material. The chromaticity of non-sterilized juice decreased significantly after sterilization compared with material supplemented with vitamin C (0.1%, w/v). Fungi, yeast, and aerobic bacteria were detected in juice sterilized at $65^{\circ}C$ for 10 or 20 min, but no microorganisms were observed in juice sterilized by other procedures. Vitamin C content affected sterilization temperature to a greater extent than sterilization time. When juice was stored at $4^{\circ}C$ or $37^{\circ}C$ for 3 weeks after application of different sterilization conditions, almost no change in acidity, sugar content, or pH was observed, regardless of sterilization mode or storage period. However, chromaticity decreased with longer storage. Vitamin C levels were reduced by higher sterilization temperatures. However, longer storage periods had the greatest effect on reduction of vitamin C levels, which tended toward lower values regardless of differences in sterilization and storage conditions. In sensory evaluation tests, all of taste, color, and overall preference were highest for juice sterilized at $75^{\circ}C$ for 20 min. The ASC value was low at a storage temperature of $4^{\circ}C$ and at high sterilization temperatures, and a long storage period was associated with a greater ASC value. Thus, the quality of apple juice was excellent when juice was hot water-sterilized, with additional vitamin C, at $75^{\circ}C$ for 20 min, followed by storage at $4^{\circ}C$.