• 한국환경보건학회지
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• 제35권6호
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• pp.538-541
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• 2009

Humans have a long history of asbestos use. There are reports from the Roman era, of asbestos victims among the slaves who worked in asbestos mines. The fact that asbestos can induce lung cancer and mesothelioma was verified epidemiologically in the 1960s. Asbestos related diseases are predominantly occupational in nature but can be caused by environmental exposure. Environmental mesothelioma is mainly associated with tremolite asbestos and this information comes from many countries including Turkey, Greece, Corsica, New Caledonia and Cyprus. In 1993, the first case of mesothelioma in Korea was reported in an asbestos textile worker. Recently, some asbestos disease victims who lived near an asbestos factory have their cases before the courts. A series of recent asbestos-related events in Korea, for example, the shocking revelation of asbestos containing talc in baby powders have caused the general public to become aware of the health risks of asbestos exposure. Asbestos related diseases are characterized by a long latency period, especially, mesothelioma which has no threshold of safety. Hence the best strategy for preventing asbestos related diseases is to decrease asbestos exposure levels to as low as possible.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제6권1호
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• pp.25-29
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• 2015

Background: Shift work has been associated with occupational stress in health providers and in those working in some industrial companies. The association is not well established in the law enforcement workforce. Our objective was to examine the association between shift work and police work-related stress. Methods: The number of stressful events that occurred in the previous month and year was obtained using the Spielberger Police Stress Survey among 365 police officers aged 27-66 years. Work hours were derived from daily payroll records. A dominant shift (day, afternoon, or night) was defined for each participant as the shift with the largest percentage of total time a participant worked (starting time from 4:00 AM to 11:59 AM, from 12 PM to 7:59 PM, and from 8:00 PM to 3:59 AM for day, afternoon, and night shift, respectively) in the previous month or year. Analysis of variance and covariance were used to examine the number of total and subscale (administrative/professional pressure, physical/psychological danger, or organizational support) stressful events across the shift. Results: During the previous month and year, officers working the afternoon and night shifts reported more stressful events than day shift officers for total stress, administrative/professional pressure, and physical/psychological danger (p < 0.05). These differences were independent of age, sex, race/ethnicity, and police rank. The frequency of these stressful events did not differ significantly between officers working the afternoon and night shifts. Conclusion: Non-day shift workers may be exposed to more stressful events in this cohort. Interventions to reduce or manage police stress that are tailored by shift may be considered.

• 한국환경보건학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국환경보건학회 2006년도 Perspectives of Evironmental Health Issues in Asia-Pacific Region
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• pp.90-110
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• 2006

In the natural course of events, most human exposure to MeHg is through fish/shellfish consumption. The methylmercury exposure levels depends on the amount and species of fish/shellfish consumed daily. The developing brain in the late gestation period is known to be most vulnerable. Further, more methylmercury accumulates in the fetuses than in mothers. Therefore, efforts must be made to protect the fetuses from the risk of methylmercury, especially in populations which consume a lot of fish/shellfish.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제13권1호
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• pp.53-66
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• 1980

The editorials of the leading newspapers may reflect as well as help formulate the public opinions to a significant degree. Bearing this in mind, this study was carried out to provide information useful in formulating such public health policies that could practically meet the social interests and demands in health appearing in the editorials of the newspapers. This analysis covered the editorials of 5 leading newspapers such as Donga Ilbo, Chungang Ilbo, Hankook Ilto, Chosun Ilbo and Seoul Shinmoon for about 10 years from Jan. 1st, 1970 through Oct. 31th, 1979. The major findings are as follows: 1. The total number of health-concerned editorials in the five daily papers for the period was 1,768 or occupied 6.4% of the total editorials of the same sources. The increasing trend of frequnecy of the health-concerned editorials since 1976 indicates the increment of social interests and demands in health. Analysing the contents, environmental pollution received the greatest attention in those editorials, which was followed by medical affairs, environmental sanitation, and disease control in order in terms of frequency of appearance. However, there was a tendency that the interests in the environmental pollution, medical affairs and social welfare tended to increase year by year, whereas those in environmental hygiene and disease control comparatively decreased. 2. Motives of dealing with the health-concerned editorials were provided by announcement of the governmental policies and implementation for 25.6% and by out-breaks of the relevant events for 23.9%. This tendency coincides with the general characteristics of the editorials that reflect the timely issues. Closely analysing, however, the fact that the motives engendered by the out-breaks of the relevant events or by the season concerned comparatively tended to decrease as years pass by, indicates that the editorials tend more to seek the future-oriented demands in health rather than the current issue-oriented. 3. The editorials appeared to be more concerned with the governmental policies. 95.7% of all the editorials analysed were addressed to the government. This signifies the role of government in the field of public health and medical affairs. Their attitudes toward health-related policies of the government were much more negative than the other editorials that were addressed to the government in other fields. This suggests that the governmental interests in health were neither sufficient nor fair. 4. What the editorials most stressed were; (1) increment of governmental interests in health, (2) improvement of the governmental health administration, (3) enriching the basic statistics, and (4) development of various technologies pertinent to health affairs and disease control, and so forth. However, must of their suggestions were not concrete but rather abstract and conceptual. 5. The editorials also expressed strong interests in research area. The areas of the needed research most suggested by items are; (1) development of effective health care delivery system, (2) establishment of more practical system of calculating medical cost, (3) implementation of effective policies to control degenerative diseases, (4) division of medical care services and pharmaceutical services systems, (5) effective ways to prevent Co poisoning accidents, (6) changing status of environmental pollution and its effects upon health, and (7) status of occupational diseases, and so forth. 6. There were some editorials -not small in quantity -that have risk to mislead the public opinions as well as the health policies due to lack of professional knowledge of the writers. It is desirable to establish some kind of mechanism that screens the erroneous contents of the editorials to help prevent misleading opinions.

• 한국환경보건학회지
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• 제49권3호
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• pp.129-133
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• 2023

Background: With the rise in global mobility, aircraft indoor air quality has become a significant public health concern. This study focuses on the health implications of increased travel and bleed air-air drawn from aircraft engines for cabin pressurization and air conditioning. Objectives: This research aims to review the potential health effects related to exposure to aircraft cabin air, particularly the effects of bleed air during fume events. Methods: We conducted a literature review of existing studies on aircraft cabin air quality. We focused on both the immediate and health effects of exposure to cabin air, particularly those related to bleed air contaminants. Results: The review found a possible link between exposure to aircraft cabin air and certain health issues, especially in cabin crew and frequent flyers. There was an increased incidence of respiratory and neurological symptoms related to bleed air exposure. However, the cumulative health effects of frequent air travel remain inconclusive due to limited data. Conclusions: This study highlights the need for improving air quality in aircraft to protect public health. While further research is needed to understand the cumulative effects of frequent air travel, the reduction of exposure to bleed air contaminants should be a priority. These findings underline the need for regulatory changes and technological improvements in aircraft cabin air quality.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제8권4호
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• pp.859-887
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• 2015

Structural health monitoring (SHM) has gained in popularity in recent years since it can assess the performance and condition of instrumented structures in real time and provide valuable information to the asset's manager and owner. Operational modal analysis plays an important role in SHM and it involves the determination of natural frequencies, damping ratios and mode shapes of a constructed structure based on measured dynamic data. This paper presents the operational modal analysis and seismic response characterization of the Tsing Ma Suspension Bridge of 2,160 m long subjected to different earthquake events. Three kinds of events, i.e., short-distance, middle-distance and long-distance earthquakes are taken into account. A fast Bayesian modal identification method is used to carry out the operational modal analysis. The modal properties of the bridge are identified and compared by use of the field monitoring data acquired before and after the earthquake for each type of the events. Research emphasis is given on identifying the predominant modes of the seismic responses in the deck during short-distance, middle-distance and long-distance earthquakes, respectively, and characterizing the response pattern of various structural portions (deck, towers, main cables, etc.) under different types of earthquakes. Since the bridge is over 2,000 m long, the seismic wave would arrive at the tower/anchorage basements of the two side spans at different time instants. The behaviors of structural dynamic responses on the Tsing Yi side span and on the Ma Wan side span under each type of the earthquake events are compared. The results obtained from this study would be beneficial to the seismic design of future long-span bridges to be built around Hong Kong (e.g., the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge).

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제38권2호
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• pp.197-202
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• 2005

Objectives: During the spring of 2002, an unprecedented 2 Asian dust events were experienced in Seoul. On those days, the $PM_{10}$ was surprisingly increased, with daily $PM_{10}$ averages exceeding $600\;and\;700{\mu}g/m^3$ on March 21 and April 8, respectively. Accordingly, public concern relating to the possible adverse health effects of these dust events has increased, as the dust arrives in Korea after having flown over heavily industrialized eastern China. We investigated the effects of these Asian dust events on the mortality during the spring of 2002, in Seoul, Korea. Methods: The total number of deaths per day during the spring of 2002 in Seoul was extracted form the mortality records of the National Statistical Office. We constructed 14 Asian dust days (March 17-March 23, April 7-April 13) and 42 control days during the 56 day study period (March 3-April 27) with respect to the days of the week. The daily average numbers of deaths between the Asian dust and control days were analyzed, with adjustment for meteorological variables and pollutants. Results: The daily PM10 average during the Asian dust weeks was $295.2{\mu}g/m^3$, which was significantly higher than during the control days (p<0.001). The daily average number of deaths from all causes during the Asian dust days was 109.9; 65.6 for those aged 65 years and older, 6.7 from respiratory causes (J00-J99) and 25.6 from cardiovascular causes (I00-I99). The estimated percentage increases in the rate of deaths were 2.5% (95% CI=-5.0-10.6) from all causes; 2.2% (95% CI=-7.4-12.8) for those aged 65 years and older, and 36.5% (95% CI=0.7-85.0) from respiratory causes, but with a 6.1% (95% CI=-19.7-9.7) decrease in deaths from cardiovascular causes. Conclusion: The Asian dust events were found to be weakly associated with the risk of death from all causes. However, the association between dust events and deaths from respiratory causes was stronger. This suggests that persons with advanced respiratory diseases may be susceptible to Asian dust events.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제2권2호
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• pp.169-175
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• 2011

Objectives: The questionnaire of occupational stress index (OSI) has been popular in the workplace, and it has been tailored for bus drivers in Taiwan. Nevertheless, its outcomes for participants are based on self-evaluations, thus validation by their physiological stress biomarker is warranted and this is the main goal of this study. Methods: A cross-sectional study of sixty-three city bus drivers and fifty-four supporting staffs for comparison was conducted. Questionnaire surveys, 24-hour urine cortisol testing, and blood draws for dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate (DHEA-S) testing were performed. The measured concentrations of these biological measures were logarithmically transformed before the statistical analysis where various scores of stressor factors, moderators, and stress effects of each OSI domain were analyzed by applying multiple linear regression models. Results: For drivers, the elevated 24-hour urine cortisol level was associated with a worker's relationship with their supervisor and any life change events in the most recent 3 months. The DHEA-S level was higher in drivers of younger age as well as drivers with more concerns relating to their salary and bonuses. Non-drivers showed no association between any stressor or satisfaction and urine cortisol and blood DHEA-S levels. Conclusion: Measurements of biomarkers may offer additional stress evaluations with OSI questionnaires for bus drivers. Increased DHEA-S and cortisol levels may result from stressors like income security. Prevention efforts towards occupational stress and life events and health promotional efforts for aged driver were important anti-stress remedies.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권12호
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• pp.4080-4092
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• 2021

In this study, the performance of sequence tracking methods for multiple interaction events in specific CdZnTe Compton imagers was evaluated using Monte Carlo simulations. The Compton imager consisted of a 6 × 6 array of virtual Frisch-grid CZT crystals, where the dimensions of each crystal were 5 × 5 × 12 mm³. The sequence tracking methods for another Compton imager that consists of two identical CZT crystals arrays were also evaluated. When 662 keV radiation was incident on the detectors, the percentages of the correct sequences determined by the simple comparison and deterministic methods for two sequential interactions were identical (~80%), while those evaluated using the minimum squared difference method (55-59%) and Three Compton method (45-55%) for three sequential interactions, differed from each other. The reconstructed images of a 662 keV point source detected using single and double arrays were evaluated based on their angular resolution and signal-to-noise ratio, and the results showed that the double arrays outperformed single arrays.

• 환경영향평가
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• 제16권5호
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• pp.341-350
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• 2007

Lake Youngrang is a lagoon whose effluent flows into the East Sea. Because two resort towns and two golf courses are situated at the lake basin, many tourists visit this area. Stormwater runoff surveys were carried out for the eight storm events from 2004 to 2005 in the eutrophic lake watershed to give a basic data for the diffuse pollution control of the lake. Dimensionless mass-volume curves indicating the distribution of pollutant mass vs. volume were used to analyze the first flush phenomenon. The mass-volume curves were fitted with a power function and polynomial equation curves. The regression analysis showed that the polynomial equation curves were better than the power function in representing the tendency of the first flush, and second degree polynomial equation curves indicated the strength of the first flush effectively.