• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.592-597
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• 2008

Current water quality standard (WQS) in Korea is based on the protection of human health, not considering the protection of aquatic organisms. Most of chemicals can be toxic to ecological biota as well as human. Health of aquatic biota is closely related to the human health via food chain, therefore ecological risk based-WQS needs to be developed to protect the aquatic ecosystem. In this study, we selected the 31 chemicals in the Project entitled 'Development of integrated methodology for evaluation of water environment'. The methodology for calculating water quality criteria was derived from the Australian and New Zealand processes for deriving guideline trigger value for aquatic ecosystem. The available ecotoxicity data were collected from US EPA's ECOTOXicology Database (ECOTOX), TOX-2000 Database, European Chemicals Bureau (ECB)'s International Uniform Chemical Information Database (IUCLID) and Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA)'s report 'Ambient Water Quality Criteria (AWQC)'. The aquatic toxicity data for the Korean species were selected for risk assessment to reflect the Korean water environment. The monitoring values were calculated from the water quality monitoring data four main Korean rivers. We suggested the order of priorities of chemicals based on ecological risk assessment. We expect that these results can be useful information for establishing the WQS for the protection of aquatic ecosystem.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.69-78
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• 2013

This study reviewed the adjuvants or extractants used in environment-friendly organic agro-materials used in a range of advanced countries or institutes. We observed that potassium hydroxide and fermented ethyl alcohol are generally acceptable extractants, and the inert ingredient list 4 of United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) is applicable for crop production adjuvants.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.28 no.spc
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• pp.44-49
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• 2022

It is necessary to establish a marine environment management system in Korea for hazardous noxious substances (HNS) effluent from marine industrial facilities because the Marine Environment Management Act primarily focuses on pollution control from vessels and offshore man-made structures. In this study, we investigated the effluent guidelines of foreign cases focusing on the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), which provides detailed information on the action levels and establishing principles for the industrial wastewater discharge of HNS. Based on the review, we also considered appropriate options for establishing new guidelines for Korea.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.25 no.2_spc
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• pp.70-85
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• 2020

This paper introduces the 'Smart Scoping for Environmental Investigations Technical Guide' issued by the US Environmental Protection Agency in 2018, which describes the use of smart scoping during lifecycle of remedial investigation projects. This paper also briefly summarizes the guidelines of soil and groundwater contamination investigation of South Korea. The smart scoping practices can support the development of a robust and realistic conceptual site model that is very useful for investigations and evaluations of the contaminated site. The application of evaluation tools relevant for the site-specific characteristics is important for the development of a conceptual site model. The smart scoping recommends the use of previous investigation data and implementation of best proven strategies for successful remedial investigation project. The use of smart scoping in contaminated site investigation will provide better management of contaminated sites.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.12 no.3_4
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• pp.23-29
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• 1997

The main reason of applying chlorination is to sterilize microbes existing in the drinking water treatment. But chlorination could lead to the formation of disinfection by-products (DBPs) by the reaction of free chlorine with humic substance in the water. Especially the DBPs including trihalomethanes (THMs), haloacetic acids (HAAs), haloacetonitriles (HANs), and haloketones (HKs) exist in the tap water. The US environmental protection agency (US EPA) defines that trihalomethanes, dichloroacetic acid, trichloroacetic acid, and dichloroacetonitrile among DBPs are probable/possible human carcinogens. US EPA suggests maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) for THMs (80$\mu$g/L) and HAAs (60$\mu$g/L) in drinking water. In Korea, THMs in drinking water has been surveyed but DBPs in general has not been studied in drinking water practically. Therefore only THMs have been regulating as criteria compounds since 1990 but neither HAAs nor HANs. Researches on HAAs are yet to be found. HAA formation potentials(HAAFPs) have not been practiced. HAAs depends on the characteristics of water sources by chlorination. In this study, HAAFPs from three distinct sources were investigated by laboratory chlorination experiments. This study was performed to measure the level of HAAs in drinking water in Seoul area. At April 1996, after collecting the raw waters from the three sites with the different properties, the water samples were chlorinated at various conditions(pH 5.5, pH 7.0 and without pH adjustment) in the state of raw water to have 0. 5mg/L of residual chlorine concentration. And the raw water, treated water, and tap water of water treatment were collected to measure the HAAs concentration. The quantitative analysis of HAAs was conducted by US EPA methods.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.107-116
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• 2002

Arsenic (As) is a ubiquitous element found in several forms in foods and water. Although certain foods, such as marine fish, contain substantial levels of organic arsenic forms, they are relatively low in toxicity compared to inorganic forms. in contrast, arsenic in drinking water is predominantly inorganic and highly toxic. Chronic ingestion of arsenic-contaminated drinking water is therefore the major pathway posing potential risk to human hearth. since the early 1990s in Bangladesh ozone, arsenic exposure has caused more than 7,000 deaths and uncounted thousands shout symptoms of long-term arsenic poisoning. Significant portion of world populations are exposed to low to moderate levels of arsenic of parts per billion (ppb) to hundreds of ppb. As a consequence, the World Health Organization (WHO) and U.S. environmental health agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made arsenic their highest priority. Recently, the WHO, European Union (EU), and US. EPA lowered an acceptable level of 10 ppb for arsenic in drinking water In this article, various health effects of arsenic in drinking water were reviewed and the current status for risk assessment to regulate arsenic in drinking water was discussed.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.26
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• pp.2.1-2.7
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• 2011

Objectives: N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) is classified as a probable human carcinogen by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) and is formed during the chlorination of municipal drinking water. In this study, selected nitrosamines were measured in chlorinated drinking water collected from Chuncheon, Kangwon-do, Republic of Korea, and a risk assessment for NDMA was conducted. Methods: Twelve water samples were collected from 2 treatment plants and 10 household taps. Samples were analyzed for 6 nitrosamines via solid-phase extraction cleanup followed by conversion to dansyl derivatives and high-performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence detection (HPLC-FLD). Considering the dietary patterns of Korean people and the concentration change of NDMA by boiling, a carcinogenic risk assessment from ingestion exposure was conducted following the US EPA guidelines. Results: NDMA concentrations ranged between 26.1 and 112.0 ng/L. NDMA in water was found to be thermally stable, and thus its concentration at the end of boiling was greater than before thermal treatment owing to the decrease in water volume. The estimated excess lifetime carcinogenic risk exceeded the regulatory baseline risk of $10^{-5}$. Conclusions: This result suggests that more extensive studies need to be conducted on nitrosamine concentration distributions over the country and the source of relatively high nitrosamine concentrations.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2018.05a
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• pp.224-225
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• 2018

Modern people are more interested in the indoor environment as they spend more time indoors than in the past. Among the air pollutants in the indoor air, ladon gas is a colorless, tasteless, odorless, inert gas produced by nuclear decomposition of naturally occurring uranium in rocks and soils. It has been proven that ladon gas is introduced into the room through cracks on the floor of the building or basement wall, and it causes various diseases such as lung cancer when exposed to radon during human breathing. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) specifies 4pCi / L as a necessary measure for radon, and the Korea Environmental Protection Agency has implemented comprehensive indoor radon management measures since 2007. Therefore, in this study, we intend to adsorb and reduce radon in indoor air pollutants.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.107-119
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• 2010

The aim of this study was to compare the carcinogen classification systems of developed countries or global organizations with domestic system under Industrial Safety and Health Act (ISHA). We selected the representative institutions which had carcinogen classification system such as International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), National Toxicological Program (NTP), Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA), American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH), and European Union (EU). We collected the carcinogen lists issued by 5 institutions, and merged by CAS number of each chemical with Microsoft Access 7.0. We found that confirmed human carcinogens, probable human carcinogens and possible human carcinogens were 34, 179, and 252, respectively. All of the institutions classified chemicals as 2 (NTP), 3 (EU) or 5 (IARC, ACGIH, US-EPA) categories based on the weight of scientific evidences for carcinogenicity and periodically updated the carcinogen list by regular procedure. However, a total of 90 chemicals could be classified as carcinogen under ISHA in Korea. There was no procedure or system which periodically update the carcinogen lists. In addition, the status of carcinogen classification according to regulation was confused. In conclusion, these findings suggest that the carcinogen classification and management system should be amended by consideration of systems of advanced institutions and the domestic regulation system.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.37-47
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• 2014

In this study, field measurement was carried out for reasonable improvement of asphalt concrete manufacturing facilities' PM emissions estimation method. Through those, this study calculated PM emission factor and tried to estimate PM emissions from asphalt concrete manufacturing facilities suitable for domestic characteristics. As a result, the efficiency of the PM control device was measured as 99.9%. Using this, uncontrolled PM emission factor was calculated. PM emission factor was calculated 10.97 kg/ton at 23 asphalt concrete manufacturing facilities of 22 workplaces. The PM current emission factor of the US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) is 14.4 kg/ton, the factor calculated from this study is about 24% lower than the EPA standard.