• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
• /
• v.26
• /
• pp.7.1-7.9
• /
• 2011

Objectives: This study was conducted to examine the relationship between crude oil exposure and physical symptoms among residents participating in clean-up work associated with the Hebei Spirit oil spill, 2007 in Korea. Methods: A total of 288 residents responded to a questionnaire regarding subjective physical symptoms, sociodemographic characteristics and clean-up activities that occurred between two and eight weeks after the accident. Additionally, the urine of 154 of the respondents was analyzed for metabolites of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heavy metals. To compare the urinary levels of exposure biomarkers, the urine of 39 inland residents who were not directly exposed to the oil spill were analyzed. Results: Residents exposed to oil remnants through clean-up work showed associations between physical symptoms and the exposure levels defined in various ways, including days of work, degree of skin contamination, and levels of some urinary exposure biomarkers of VOCs, metabolites and metals, although no major abnormalities in urinary exposure biomarkers were observed. Conclusions: This study provides evidence of a relationship between crude oil exposure and acute human health effects and suggests the need for follow-up to evaluate the exposure status and long-term health effects of clean-up participants.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
• /
• v.23 no.6
• /
• pp.54-72
• /
• 2018

This study reviewed standard operation procedures for fractionation and analytical methods of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) in north america and european countries to aid proper establishment of risk assessment protocols associated with TPH exposure in Korea. In current, the TPH fraction methods established by Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) and Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon Criteria Working Group (TPHCWG) are most frequently employed worldwide. Both methods were developed on the basis of direct exposure of TPH from soil, although the method by TPHCWG also took into account the mobility of TPH. Volatile and extractable fractions of petroleum hydrocarbons were analyzed either separately or together. TPH fractionation methods were evaluated based on conservative toxicity values considering the uncertainty of risk assessment in light of current standard protocol for analyzing soil contaminants in Korea, and it was concluded that the method developed by MassDEP is more appropriate.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
• /
• v.39 no.3
• /
• pp.418-429
• /
• 2019

This study was conducted to evaluate the antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of lyophilized extracts of scallions (Allium fistulosum L., SLE), garlic (Allium sativum, GLE), and gold kiwi (Actinidia chinensis, GKE) and their effects on the quality of chicken breast meat inoculated with L. monocytogenes during storage for 9 days at $4^{\circ}C$. The lowest minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum bactericidal concentration (25 and 100 mg/mL, respectively) against L. monocytogenes were observed for SLE and GLE, respectively. GKE had the lowest half-maximal inhibitory concentration ($IC_{50}$) for 2,2′-azinobis-3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid radical scavenging activity (5.06 mg/mL). The pH values of meat inoculated with L. monocytogenes and dipped in 1% SLE (LSLE), 1% GLE (LGLE), or 1% GKE (LGKE) were lower than that of the control on day 3 of storage (p<0.05). The initial population of L. monocytogenes in meat was 4.95-5.01 Log CFU/g. However, the population in the LSLE (5.73 Log CFU/g) was lower than that in the control (6.23 Log CFU/g) on day 5 (p<0.05). The volatile basic nitrogen value of the LSLE (19.90 mg/100 g) was lower than that of the control (24.38 mg/100 g) on day 7 (p<0.05). Moreover, treatment with SLE resulted in the maintenance of meat quality and reduced the population of L. monocytogenes on the meat. Thus, SLE may be used as an alternative natural and environmentally friendly sanitizer for reducing L. monocytogenes contamination in the chicken meat industry.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.28 no.1B
• /
• pp.137-147
• /
• 2008

Soil Vapor Extraction (SVE) has been extensively used to remove volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from the vadoze zone. In order to investigate the removal mechanism during SVE operation, laboratory modeling experiments were carried out and tailing effect could be observed in later stage of the experiment. Tailing effect means that removal rate of contaminants gets significantly to decrease in later stage of SVE operation. Also, mathematical model simulating the tailing effect was used, which considers rate-limited diffusion in a water film during mass transfer among gas, liquid, and solid phases. Measurement data obtained through the experiment was used as input data of the numerical analyses. Sensitivity analysis was performed to examine the effect of each parameter on required time to reach final target concentration. Finally, it was found that the concentration in the soil phase decreased significantly with a liquid and gas diffusion coefficient larger, actual path length shorter, and water saturation smaller.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.29 no.8
• /
• pp.938-943
• /
• 2007

Anaerobic degradation of petroleum hydrocarbons in a soil artificially contaminated with 10,000 mg/kg soil of diesel fuel was tested by adding an anaerobic sludge taken from a sludge digestion tank. Treatments of soil(50 g) with 15 mL/kg soil and 30 mL/kg soil of the digestion sludge(2,000 mg/L of vss(volatile suspended solids)) showed 37.2% and 58.0% of total petroleum hydrocarbons(TPH) removal during 90 days incubation, respectively. In evaluation of several anaerobic conditions including nitrate reducing, sulfate reducing, methanogenic, and mixed electron accepters condition, treatments with the digested sludge showed significant degradation of diesel fuel under all anaerobic conditions compare to a control treatment of soil without the sludge and a treatment of autoclaved soil treatment with autoclaved digestion sludge. The rate of diesel fuel degradation was the highest in the treatment with the sludge and mixed electron accepters (75% removal of TPH) for 120 days incubation followed in order by sulfate reducing, nitrate reducing, methanogenic condition as 67%, 53%, 43%, respectively. However, the removal rate of non-biodegradable isoprenoid was the highest in the sulfate reducing condition. These results suggest that anaerobic degradation of diesel fuel in soil with digested sludge is effective for practical remediation of soil contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.107-114
• /
• 2007

This study aimed to investigate the hexachlorobenzene (HCB) dechlorinating ability of sediment microbes collected from a natural canal receiving secondary effluents from an industrial estate and nearby factories. Nine sites along the stream and one in the estuary in the Gulf of Thailand into which the canal spills were specified and sampling for sediment and water. Preliminary analysis of the sediments showed that the first four sites nearest to the discharging location were contaminated by HCB within the range of 0.18 to 1.25 ppm. Apart from that, 1,3,5-trichlorobenzene which has never been commercially produced or used in any manufacturing processes except for the transformation from higher chlorinated benzene was also identified in the range of 0.16 to 0.24 ppm. This suggested a possibility of sporadically HCB contamination in this stream. Of more important, people in the community along this canal earn their living by coastal fishery; hence, posing a risk of spreading HCB and its less chlorinated congeners via food chain from caught marine creatures to human. As a result, there is an urgent need to understand the behavior of HCB dechlorination in this stream sediment which can lead to a clean-up action in the future. Serum bottles with sediment slurries (sediment to water ratio of 1:1 (v/v) and filtered to remove particles larger than 0.7 mm) from each site were inoculated with 2 mg/l of HCB, kept anaerobically in the dark at room temperature without any nourishment, and analyzed for HCB and its less-chlorinated congeners every 6 days. Total chemical oxygen demand, suspended solids, and volatile suspended solids were in the range of 21,492-73,584, 158,100-518,100 and 6,000-32,700 mg/l, respectively. It was found that all sediment slurries began to dechlorinate HCB in 12 to 30 days and the HCB was completely removed within 42 to 60 days or so. On the other hand, there was no HCB dechlorination occurred in the controlled set which was sterilized by autoclaving prior to the addition of HCB. This implies that the HCB transformation was solely due to microorganisms' activities. HCB was dechlorinated principally via pentachlolobenzene to 1,2,3,5-tetrachlorobenzene and terminated at 1,3,5-trichlorobenzene which is the major pathway as reported by many researchers. Dichlorobenzene has not been detected in any samples within the dechlorination period of 60 days. The results indicate that the microbial matrix in the sediment of this stream has an outstanding capability to dechlorinate HCB. Existing substrates and nutrients which mainly sorbed onto the solid phase and the typical temperature in Thailand were sufficient and suitable to promote the activities of these HCB-dechlorinating microbes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2008.11a
• /
• pp.363-363
• /
• 2008

The development of dry etching process for sapphire wafer with plasma has been key issues for the opto-electric devices. The challenges are increasing control and obtaining low plasma induced-damage because an unwanted scattering of radiation is caused by the spatial disorder of pattern and variation of surface roughness. The plasma-induced damages during plasma etching process can be classified as impurity contamination of residual etch products or bonding disruption in lattice due to charged particle bombardment. Therefor, fine pattern technology with low damaged etching process and high etch rate are urgently needed. Until now, there are a lot of reports on the etching of sapphire wafer with using $Cl_2$/Ar, $BCl_3$/Ar, HBr/Ar and so on [1]. However, the etch behavior of sapphire wafer have investigated with variation of only one parameter while other parameters are fixed. In this study, we investigated the effect of pressure and other parameters on the etch rate and the selectivity. We selected $BCl_3$ as an etch ant because $BCl_3$ plasmas are widely used in etching process of oxide materials. In plasma, the $BCl_3$ molecule can be dissociated into B radical, $B^+$ ion, Cl radical and $Cl^+$ ion. However, the $BCl_3$ molecule can be dissociated into B radical or $B^+$ ion easier than Cl radical or $Cl^+$ ion. First, we evaluated the etch behaviors of sapphire wafer in $BCl_3$/additive gases (Ar, $N_2,Cl_2$) gases. The behavior of etch rate of sapphire substrate was monitored as a function of additive gas ratio to $BCl_3$ based plasma, total flow rate, r.f. power, d.c. bias under different pressures of 5 mTorr, 10 mTorr, 20 mTorr and 30 mTorr. The etch rates of sapphire wafer, $SiO_2$ and PR were measured with using alpha step surface profiler. In order to understand the changes of radicals, volume density of Cl, B radical and BCl molecule were investigated with optical emission spectroscopy (OES). The chemical states of $Al_2O_3$ thin films were studied with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) and depth profile anlysis of auger electron spectroscopy (AES). The enhancement of sapphire substrate can be explained by the reactive ion etching mechanism with the competition of the formation of volatile $AlCl_3$, $Al_2Cl_6$ or $BOCl_3$ and the sputter effect by energetic ions.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
• /
• v.7 no.2
• /
• pp.87-93
• /
• 2002

A amphipod, Leptocheirus plumulosus was exposed to Ag contaminated sediments to evaluate relative importance of various uptake routes (sediment, porewater, supplementary food) for Ag bioaccumulation in sediment-dwelling marine invertebrates. Additionally, influence of AVS (acid-volatile sulfide) on the partitioning of Ag to porewater and on the Ag bioavailability was determined to evaluate the utility of AVS criteria for the management of metal contaminated sediment. The experimental sediments were spiked with 4 levels of Ag (0.1-3.3 ${\mu}$mol Ag/g) and AVS concentrations were manipulated to 40 or <0.5 ${\mu}$mol/g, then equilibrated for >2 months to allow pore water/particulate distributions similar to nature. A L. plumulosus was incubated in the contaminated sediments with overlying water for 35d. During the exposure, the amphipods was fed with supplementary food ($TetraMin^{(R)}$) with or without Ag contamination. Following exposure, tissue Ag in L. plumulosus was strongly correlated with the weak acid extractable Ag in sediments ($r^{2}$=0.87, p<0.001). The ratio of AVS to Ag-SEM (Ag extracted simulaneouls with AVS) had a strong influence on porewater Ag concentration, consistent with previous studies. However, Ag bioaccumulation in L. plumulosus was not influenced by AVS concentrations. The amphipods fed Ag contaminated food took up ${\sim}$ 1.8 X Ag accumulated by the amphipods fed uncontaminated supplementary diet. The result suggests that the benthic invertebrates exposed to metal contaminated sediments would accumulate metals largely via ingestion of contaminated sediments and food, with minor contribution from dissolved sources of porewater and overlying water.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.37 no.2
• /
• pp.185-193
• /
• 2004

A physical model experiment was conducted using a sand and gravel-filled tank model, to investigate the influence on the GPR response of LNAPL vapor phase effects in the unsaturated zone and of residual phase of LNAPL trapped in the saturated zone. Background measurements of GPR were made with only water in the tank using a fluctuating water table model. Gasoline was, then, injected into the bottom of the model tank to simulate a subsurface discharge from a leaking pipe or tank at depth, obtaining GPR data with rising and lowering of water table. Results from the experiment show the GPR sensitivity to the changes in the moisture content in the vadose zone and its effectiveness for monitoring minor fluctuation of the water table. The results also demonstrate a potential of GPR for monitoring possible vapor phase effects of volatile hydrocarbons in the vadose zone as a function of time, and for detecting the effects of residual phase of hydrocarbons in the water saturated system. In addition, the results provide the basis for a strategy that has the potential to successfully detect and delineate residual LNAPL contamination in the water-saturated system at field sites where the conditions are similar to those simulated in the physcial models described herein.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.215-220
• /
• 1999

Behaviour of a fungicide $^{14}C-propiconazole$ was investigated in a rice plant grown-lysimeter soil. The lysimeter was composed of soil cores of silty clay. $Propiconazole(Tilt\;250^R\;EC)$ plus $^{14}C-labeled$ propiconazole was applied on the surface of lysimeter soil at a rate of 0.12kg/10a after rice transplanting. The application was done consecutively for two years. The behaviours of propiconazole in the lysimeter soil were investigated by measuring the amounts of $^{14}C-leachate$, $^{14}CO_2$, the residues distributed in each soil segment and taken up by rice plants. The relative amounts of $^{14}C$ leached from the lysimeter were the background level of the applied $^{14}C$ throughout expeiment. The amounts of $^{14}CO_2$ evolved from the lysimeter were 5.7 and 7.8% of the original $^{14}C$ in the 1st and 2nd treatment, respectively. The amounts of volatile substances soil were the background level throughout experiment, which indicated that propiconazole was stable chemically in the experimental condition. The $^{14}C-activities$ absorbed and translocated into rice plants were 3.7 and 7.6% in 1st and 2nd treatment, respectively. The $^{14}C-activities$ in the soil layer of the lysimeter was distributed mainly in the depth of 0 to 20cm, which suggested propiconazole did not have the risk of groundwater contamination.