• Journal of agriculture & life science
• /
• v.45 no.6
• /
• pp.163-173
• /
• 2011

The objective of this study was to determine microbiological risk factors in hot pepper farms for the application of good agricultural practices (GAP). Samples were collected from cultivation environments and utensils, plants, workers, and air at 3 hot pepper farms located in Cheongsong, Korea and were tested to detect sanitary indications [aerobic plate bacteria (APC), coliform, and Escherichia coli], foodborne pathogens, and fungi. APC, coliform, and fungi were detected at the levels of 0.7~6.2, 0.2~4.7, and 0.4~4.3 log CFU, respectively, in the three farms. Four (4.4%; l leaf, l irrigation water, and 2 soil) of 90 samples collected were revealed to be E. coli positives. For foodborne pathogens, Staphylococcus aureus was only detected at $1.0log\;CFU/100cm^2$ in the worker's cloth of B farm, and Bacillus cereus was detected at the levels 1.0~2.5 log CFU in the cultivation environments and utensils and worker of B and C farms. However, other pathogens were not detected. The results demonstrated potential microbiological risks for hot pepper cultivated in the farms. Therefore, a management system to minimize the microbial risk such as GAP is required to ensure the safety of hot pepper.

• Journal of agriculture & life science
• /
• v.44 no.2
• /
• pp.7-15
• /
• 2010

This study was conducted to investigate the bacteriological and physiological quality of seawater and surface sediments in Sacheon Bay of Korea from January to September in 2009. During the study period, the means of temperature was range from 5.3 to $24.9^{\circ}C$ (mean $17.7{\pm}0.4^{\circ}C$), transparency range from 1.4 to 2.5 m (mean $1.8{\pm}0.5m$), suspended solid ranged from 16.2 to 35.8 mg/L (mean $24.2{\pm}2.2mg/L$), chemical oxygen demand ranged from 1.42 to $3.29mgO_2/L$ (mean $2.06{\pm}0.55mgO_2/L$), dissolved oxygen ranged from 6.7 to 9.5mg/L (mean $7.9{\pm}0.6mg/L$), respectively. Seafood, if eaten raw, carries the risk of food poisoning. Seafood poisoning is often cause by pathogenic microorganism originating from fecal contamination, such as Salmonella sp., Shigella sp. and norovirus. Fecal coliforms are an important indicator of fecal contamination. Therefor, data on fecal coliform are very important for evaluating the safety of fisheries in coastal areas. So, we investigated the sanitary indicate bacteria. In this study, 56 sea water samples were collected from the Sacheon Bay, and total and fecal coliforms were compared and analyzed. The coliform group and fecal coliform MPN's of sea water in Sacehon Bay were ranged from <1.8~7,900 MPN/100mL (GM 214.7 MPN/100mL) and <1.8~330 MPN/100mL (GM 9.7 MPN/ 100mL), respectively. Total coliforms were detected in 75.0% of the samples and 76.2% of the total coliforms were fecal coliforms. During the study period, the means of water content, ignition loss, COD, and acid volatile sulfates in sediments in Sacheon Bay were $53.28{\pm}2.58%$, $9.38{\pm}0.42%$, $14.23{\pm}3.36mgO_2/g$, $0.09{\pm}0.07mgS/g$, respectively.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.57 no.5
• /
• pp.563-575
• /
• 2024

In Korea, talc, vermiculite, sepiolite, and serpentine were designated as minerals likely to contain asbestos (MLCA) according to the Ministry of Environment (Asbestos Safety Management Act). The asbestos content in commercial products made of MLCA must not exceed 0.1 %. In this study, mineralogical analyses using PLM, XRD, and TEM-EDS were used to characterize the presence, content, and morphological characteristics of asbestos in MLCA-containing commercial products. A total of 28 samples were analyzed, including 18 cosmetics containing talc, 5 fertilizers containing vermiculite, 2 pet sanitary products containing sepiolite, and 3 accessories containing serpentine. All samples were heated at 450 ℃ for 6 hours to remove organic matter prior to XRD and PLM analyses according to the Ministry of Environment guidelines. Additionally, the presence and morphology of elongated mineral particles (EMPs) were investigated using TEM-EDS analysis according to the recently revised asbestos analysis method (FDA-2020-N-0025) by the US FDA. The analyses showed that no asbestos was detected in both talc-containing cosmetics and sepiolite-containing products, but actinolite asbestos was found (<0.25 %) in vermiculite-containing fertilizers and chrysotile was found (<0.25 %) in decorative serpentine stones. In TEM-EDS analysis, multiple columnar/fibrous particles measuring 0.5 ㎛ or more in length were observed in talc-containing products, and short chrysotile fibers were observed in bracelets containing serpentine. Therefore, these results indicated that the MLCA-containing products that come into direct contact with the human body would require management through precise inspection and continuous monitoring considering EMPs of 5 ㎛ or less. Furthermore, TEM-EDS for asbestos analysis indicated that it could overcome the detection limits of XRD and PLM analyses for short or thin asbestos fibers, thereby improving the precision and accuracy of asbestos analysis.