• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.65-74
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• 2016

The critical aspects of biosafety and bio-containment have been increasingly important in recent years. Biological agents involved in biological research projects at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore are usually those with low risks. Biosafety level 2 or BSL 2 laboratories are widely used. However, biosafety measures which refer to the implementation of laboratory practices and procedures, specific construction features of laboratory facilities and safety equipment must be in place to reduce the exposure of laboratory personnel, the public or the environment to potentially infectious agents or other biological hazards. It is also required to pay more attention to laboratory-acquired infections (LAIs) which may occur in research laboratories, clinical laboratories or animal facilities. BSL 2 audit and certification program is implemented as an internal exercise covering laboratories in the university where biological agents are handled or biological research works are carried out. We have put some efforts to raise biosafety standards university-wide in both laboratory infrastructure and laboratory practices to a higher level. Common audit findings are briefly discussed in this presentation.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.266-274
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• 2023

Recently, sterilization technology has received increasing interest due to the COVID-19 pandemic and required safety precautions. Particularly, sterilization devices using near ultraviolet (UV) with a 405 nm wavelength are also drawing attention. It has a UV-C wavelength and other sterilization effects. Its blue-colored light on the boundary between UV and visible light is used as a light-emitting diode (LED) lamp for 405 nm sterilization, owing to its longer wavelengths than UV rays. However, the 405 nm wavelength contains blue light that can damage the eyes and skin during prolonged exposures and affect the emotional and biological parts of the body. Currently, 405 nm sterilization LED light registers are circulating in the market. However, they have not undergone safety tests for blue-light hazards. Thus, with the active distribution of sterilization LED lights, solid safety standards and management systems are essential to protect users from blue-light hazards. Accordingly, in this study, we conducted spectral radiance and spectral radiative luminance tests on 405 nm sterilization LED registers available in the market by the measurement criteria of IEC 62471. Safety standards must be established to secure users' safety against blue light hazards at a time when 405nm sterilization LED lights are actively distributed due to COVID-19.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.256-269
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• 2020

Objectives: Everyone has been affected in some way by the COVID-19 pandemic, while some workers face threats to their health due to their jobs as well as worries about spreading the virus to intimate family members. With these concerns in mind, this study aims to identify occupations more vulnerable to COVID-19 and suggests the necessity of providing proper control measures against the risks in a timely manner in Korea. Methods: Daily briefing reports by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) were compiled (n=120) between January 20 and May 31, 2020. A total of 11,486 confirmed cases were included, which were sorted by occasion, area, and occupation. Among them, 2,411 cases were classified with specific occasions and/or areas of infection, while only 544 cases were determined with identifiable occupations. Guidelines for biological hazard management and COVID-19 guidelines for workplaces from domestic and international bodies were enlisted and compared. Results: It is unsurprising to find that healthcare professionals are experiencing the most immediate threat from COVID-19. In addition, service workers with face-to-face practices or indirect contact are also facing high risks. Religion facilities and eating places (dining, drinking bar, café, etc.,) follow. Guidelines and manuals for biological hazards are still lacking in Korea compared to the US and EU. Workplace manuals for managing COVID-19 are neither as comprehensive as the approaches of NIOSH's hierarchy of controls nor inclusive enough for minimizing secondary or tertiary suffering. Conclusions: The COVID-19 crisis is still ongoing and there is no doubt there will be more such events in the future. This analysis suggests that occupational health professionals, amid a pandemic including COVID-19, are urged to anticipate emerging risks related to all sorts of occupations, identify vulnerable workers and working environments, and plan and take actions to protect workers' health.

• 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.

• Journal of agriculture & life science
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.97-108
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• 2012

Physical, chemical and biological hazards of strawberry farms at the cultivation stage were analyzed to establish the GAP(Good Agricultural Practice) system. Samples were collected from the plants, cultivation environments(water, soil and air), and personal hygiene (hand, glove, and clothes) of three strawberry farms(A, B, and C) and were tested to analyze physical, chemical (heavy metals and pesticide residues), and biological(sanitary indications and foodborne pathogens) hazards. Physical hazards such as insects and pieces of metal and glass were found in the strawberry farms and can be potential bow for strawberry products. Heavy metal and pesticide residue as chemical hazards were detected at levels lower than the regulation limit. In case of biological hazards, total bacteria and coliform were detected at the levels of 1.6~7.3 and 1.3~5.6 log CFU/g, leaf, mL, hand or $100cm^2$. However, Escherichia coli was not detected in all samples. Bacillus cereus and Staphylococuus aureus were detected at levels of ${\leq}$ 1.1~6.1 log CFU and 4.7~5.4 log CFU/g, mL, hand or $100cm^2$, whereas Listeria monocytogenes, E. coli O157 and Salmonella spp. were not detected in all samples. This study demonstrates that various harzards were in strawberry farms at the growing stage. Therefore proper management such as GAP is needed to prevent the occurrence of food poisoning associated with the hazards revealed in this study.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2019

The health benefits associated with consumption of fresh produce have been clearly demonstrated and encouraged by international nutrition and health authorities. However, since fresh produce is usually minimally processed, increased consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables has also led to a simultaneous escalation of foodborne illness cases. According to the report by the World Health Organization (WHO), 1 in 10 people suffer from foodborne diseases and 420,000 die every year globally. In comparison to other processed foods, fresh produce can be easily contaminated by various routes at different points in the supply chain from farm to fork. This review is focused on the identification and characterization of possible sources of foodborne illnesses from chemical, biological, and physical hazards and the applicable methodologies to detect potential contaminants. Agro-chemicals (pesticides, fungicides and herbicides), natural toxins (mycotoxins and plant toxins), and heavy metals (mercury and cadmium) are the main sources of chemical hazards, which can be detected by several methods including chromatography and nano-techniques based on nanostructured materials such as noble metal nanoparticles (NMPs), quantum dots (QDs) and magnetic nanoparticles or nanotube. However, the diversity of chemical structures complicates the establishment of one standard method to differentiate the variety of chemical compounds. In addition, fresh fruits and vegetables contain high nutrient contents and moisture, which promote the growth of unwanted microorganisms including bacterial pathogens (Salmonella, E. coli O157: H7, Shigella, Listeria monocytogenes, and Bacillus cereus) and non-bacterial pathogens (norovirus and parasites). In order to detect specific pathogens in fresh produce, methods based on molecular biology such as PCR and immunology are commonly used. Finally, physical hazards including contamination by glass, metal, and gravel in food can cause serious injuries to customers. In order to decrease physical hazards, vision systems such as X-ray inspection have been adopted to detect physical contaminants in food, while exceptional handling skills by food production employees are required to prevent additional contamination.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.292-299
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• 2019

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether poor preoperative nutritional status in elderly patients exhibited a negative influence on postoperative clinical outcomes. Methods: The medical records of 645 elderly patients were examined retrospectively. The patients had undergone major surgery between January 2017 and January 2018. Their nutritional status was measured using the Nutritional Risk Screening 2002. The data were analyzed using the chi-squared test, the Mann-Whitney U test, logistic regression, linear regression, Cox proportional hazards regression, and the Kaplan-Meier analysis. Results: Preoperative malnutrition was found in 73 patients (11.3%). Poor preoperative nutritional status was significantly associated with pressure ulcers, length of hospitalization, discharge to patient care facilities rather than home, and mortality rate at three months. Conclusion: Preoperative malnutrition in elderly patients was associated with negative postoperative clinical outcomes. These results indicate that an effective nutritional program before surgery can lead to a more rapid postoperative recovery.

• Clean Technology
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.161-172
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• 2007

Fusion technology based on the nanotechnology should be introduced to clean technology for the breakthrough advances. Today, nanoparticles, nanotubes and other engineered nanomaterials are already in use in hundreds of everyday consumer products, and these materials are able to move around the human and environmental mediamore readily than larger particles of pollution. Because of their extremely small size and large surface area, nanoparticles are known to be more reactive and toxic than larger particles. Consequently, this feature raised many concerns of significant health, safety and environment. Herein, we reviewed risk assessment for health and environmental hazards of nanomaterials, and then revealed the potential hazardous of nanomaterials.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.20-26
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• 2017

To guarantee the safety of rice cake production, the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points system was applied to the production process. The purpose of this study was to analyze the microbiological hazards of the manufacture of rice cakes, and establish critical limits in the process of the manufacturing rice cakes. To control the microbiological hazards, the sterilization process was set to a critical limit. The process of manufacturing rice cakes can reduce these microbiological hazards during the steaming process. A microorganism test for each specimen was conducted three times and compared with before and after steaming processes. The finished product was conducted by microbiology experiment and the validity of the steaming process was verified. The results were determined to be capable of reducing the biological element of Critical Control Point via the steaming process. Microbiology such as aerobic plate count, coliform, Escherichia coli(E. coli), Listeria monocytogenes, Enterohemorrhagic E. coli, Salmonella spp., Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus and Clostridium perfringens was evaluated by the experimental method of Korean Food Standards Codex. Aerobic plate count was reduced by steaming process, and no microorganism were detected. All rice cakes in the finished product were judged to be safe for both the Escherichia coli and general bacteria. In conclusion, it suggested that a HACCP plan was necessary for management standard and systematic approach in the establishment of critical limit, problem resolution, verification method, education, and records management. Based on this study, it is intended to provide a baseline for improving quality control standards and improving hygiene levels for small manufacturers.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.785-790
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to investigate the hazards from onions and their cultivation areas. A total of 32 samples were collected from onion farms and tested for biological (sanitary indicators, and pathogenic bacteria and fungi) and chemical (heavy metals and pesticide residues) hazards. Aerobic bacteria and coliforms were detected at a level of 0.2-7.1 log CFU/g (or mL) in the soil and agricultural water, 1.6-3.6 log CFU/g on surface of the onion, 0.0-6.0 log CFU/hand (or $cm^2$) on the workers' hands, clothes, and gloves, and 4.7 log $CFU/cm^2$ on the onion bags. Fungi were detected at a level of 0.0-5.0 log CFU/g (or mL, hand, or 100 $cm^2$) in all the samples. Staphylococcus aureus was detected at a level of 1.2 log CFU/hand on the workers' hands, the detection level of Bacillus cereus was up to 4.8 log CFU/g in the soil. However, Escherichia coli (and in particular strain O157:H7), Listeria monocytogenes, and Salmonella spp. were not detected. Although heavy metals were detected in the environment (in soil and agricultural water) and pesticide residues were detected in onion, the levels were lower than the regulation limits.