• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.227-235
• /
• 2011

The objective of this study was to analyze 157 processes of 145 industries that exceeded Korean Occupational Exposure Limits (KOEL) for carcinogen during the 11 year period from 1999 to 2009. The data included number of industry and workers exposed, type of carcinogen and their exceeded ratio, type and size of industry in each year. These data were collected by 46 regional employment & labor offices in Korea using work environment monitoring reports. The result showed that, in each year, about 10 industries exceed their carcinogen exposure limit. The most common carcinogen exceeding KOEL were found to be formaldehyde, benzene, ethylene oxide and chromium VI. The carcinogen with the highest level of over-exposure were in the order of formaldehyde, benzene, ethylene oxide and asbestos. Fabricated metal product manufacturing industry were found to be most vulnerable against carcinogen with 11.1% of them exceeding carcinogen KOEL followed by electronic components manufacturing industry (8.3%), chemical products manufacturing industry (6.3%), and electrical equipments manufacturing industry (4.9%). The industry employing less than 50 workers had the highest percentage of exceeding carcinogen KOEL with 52.8%. The result also showed that strengthening KOEL for benzene and asbestos helped reduce the level of carcinogen over-exposure. Based on these results, strengthening the KOEL or new regulation turned out to help reduce the carcinogen over-exposure level. Benzene, ethylene oxide and chromium VI were the most frequently over-exposed carcinogen with the highest level. Therefore, these chemicals need to be regulated with a highest priority to improve the workplace environment. The results also show that the small-sized industries employing less than 50 workers was the most vulnerable against carcinogen exposures. Therefore, more government support are needed for these small-sized industries to help them to improve their workplace environment.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.59-75
• /
• 1999

Skin is continuously exposed to external stimuli including ultraviolet radiation, which is a major cause of skin photoaging. According to recent discoveries, UVA with a lower energy but deep-penetrating properties, compared to UVB, is likely to play a major part in causing skin photoaging. The clinical and histochemical changes of photoaging are well characterized, but the biochemical mechanisms are poorly understood partly due to the lack of suitable experimental systems. In this work, three-dimensional, reconstituted skin culture models were prepared. After certain period of maturation, the equivalent models were shown to be similar in structure and biochemical characteristics to normal skin. Mature dermal and skin equivalent models were exposed to sub-lethal doses of UVA, and the effects of UVA relevant to dermal photoaging were monitored, including the production of elastin, collagen, collagenase(MMP-1), and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-1 (TIMP-1). Interestingly, dermal and skin equivalents reacted differently to acute and chronic exposure to UVA. Elastin production was increased as soon as one week after commencing UVA irradiation by chronic exposure, although a single exposure failed to do so. This early response could be an important advantage of equivalent models in studying elastosis in photoaged skin. Collagenase activity was increased by acute UVA irradiation, but returned to control levels after repeated exposure. On the other hand, collagen biosynthesis, which was increased by a single exposure, decreased slightly during 5 weeks of prolonged UVA exposure. Collagenase has been thought to be responsible for collagen degeneration in dermal photoaging. However, according to the results obtained in this study, elevated collagenase activity is not likely to be responsible for the degeneration of collagen in dermal photoagig, while reduced production of collagen may be the main reason. It can be concluded that reconstituted skin culture models can serve as useful experimental tools for the study of skin photoaging. These culture models are relatively simple to construct, easy to handle, and are reproducible Moreover the changes of dermal photoaging can be observed within 1-4 weeks of exposure to ultraviolet light compared to 4 months to 2 years for human or animal studies. These models will be useful for biochemical and mechanistic studies in a large number of fields including dermatology, toxicology, and pharmacology.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.115-126
• /
• 2009

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the frequency and characteristics of occupational blood and body fluid exposure for operating room personnel during surgical procedures and identify risk factors. Methods: A self-report questionnaire was used to survey 519 operating room personnel who participated in 132 surgeries in an acute care hospital in Seoul between April 12 and 20, 2006. Results: The response rate was 82% (530/646) and analyzed total 519 except for improper 11 questionnaires. Exposure rate was 45.5% (60/132) during operations and 20.4% (106/519) for operating room personnel. By job categories, the exposure rate was as follows; anesthesiologists and nurses 31.2% (44/141), operators and assistants 22.1% (32/145), circulating nurses 12.0% (11/92), scrub nurses 11.4% (14/123). The mucous membrane-eye exposure with a high risk of transmitting infection was 6.6% (7/106) and the most frequent route of exposure was blood and body fluid touching unprotected skin. In multivariate analysis, the risk factors of exposure were services, duration of operation, a patient who had a peripheral arterial catheter line, and job category. Conclusion: Educational programs and appropriate use of personal protective equipment are necessary to prevent operating room personnel from being exposed to blood and body fluid.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.57 no.1
• /
• pp.73-82
• /
• 2024

Objectives: The unsafe use of pesticides in agriculture represents a major hazard to human health. This study was conducted to investigate the association between pesticide exposure and health symptoms among chili farmers in northeast Thailand. Methods: This cross-sectional analytic study included 141 chili farmers in Sakon Nakhon Province, in northeast Thailand. Data regarding health symptoms were gathered using a self-report questionnaire. A medical technician tested blood cholinesterase activity using an erythrocyte method, and an occupational medicine specialist at Ramathibodi Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand reviewed the results. Associations between personal characteristics, pesticide exposure factors, and health symptoms were analyzed using multiple logistic regression. Results: Of the 141 chili farmers studied, 66.7% experienced pesticide poisoning, as indicated by below-normal cholinesterase levels. Fatigue was the most frequently reported symptom associated with pesticide exposure, affecting 37.6% of participants. This was followed by nausea and vomiting (31.9%), dizziness (14.9%), and dry throat (14.9%). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that several factors were significantly associated with adverse symptoms: amount of work experience, volume of pesticides used, use of chemical pesticides, use of leaking containers during spraying, direct pesticide exposure while working, contact with pesticide-soaked clothing, consumption of food and drinks in the fields, and blood cholinesterase level indicating risk. Conclusions: This study suggests potential health risks for chili farmers stemming from exposure to and contamination by pesticides used in agricultural practices. To mitigate these risks, it is essential to supply personal protective equipment and to implement educational programs aimed at improving protective behaviors among farmers.

• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.30-43
• /
• 2024

Purpose: This study aimed to enhance health management and prevention strategies for precocious puberty by comparing the knowledge, motivation, and behaviors related to reducing exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) between mothers of children with precocious puberty and those of typically developing children. Methods: Participants were 66 mothers of children with precocious puberty from a hospital and 71 mothers of typically developing children from an elementary school. The research questionnaire assessed knowledge of EDCs, motivation, self-efficacy, and behaviors towards reduced exposure to EDCs, in addition to general characteristics of children with precocious puberty. Data analysis utilized descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, t-tests, ANOVA, and Pearson's correlation. Results: There were statistically significant differences in self-efficacy (p=.015) and behavior (p=.001) regarding reduced exposure to EDCs between the two groups. Behaviors toward reduced exposure to EDCs were positively associated with knowledge of EDCs, motivation, and self-efficacy among mothers of children with precocious puberty. Additionally, these behaviors correlated positively with knowledge of EDCs, motivation, self-efficacy, and the child's birth weight and waist circumference among mothers of typically developing children. Conclusion: The results of this study revealed that mothers of children with precocious puberty exhibited less proactive behavior in reducing exposure to EDCs compared to mothers of typical children. Therefore, it is important to foster interest in the impact of environmental factors, beyond characteristic factors, on behaviors aimed at reducing exposure to EDCs.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
• /
• v.41 no.11
• /
• pp.35-48
• /
• 2003

The purpose of this study is to investigate ideal body image and clothing style through the analysis of models portrayed in fragrance advertisement that is the representative goods showing the fashion brand image. For this study, 120 perfume advertisements appeared in GQ and Vogue magazines issued in 2002 were selected. The models' characteristics portrayed in advertisement are categorized with role relationship, race, body exposure and clothing styles. The results are as follows. 1. Fragrance advertisements most commonly depict a single model portraying narcissism, and later then most common are advertisements both male and female model in a sexual relationship. 2. The analysis of models' race shows racism toward Asian models and Afro- American models. White models are main characters in fragrance advertisements more often than other races, and in mixed-ethnic ads, whites typically outnumbered minorities. This shows currently aesthetic stereotypes, that is, white ideology still exists. 3. The results of models' body exposure are showing nudism with partially clad or nude. This shows the eroticism of male and female. 4. The highest portion of clothing style appeared in fragrance advertisement were casual wear for male model and dressy formal wear for female models, which respects current fashion trends.

• Proceedings of the KOSOMBE Conference
• /
• v.1996 no.05
• /
• pp.41-44
• /
• 1996

There are studied for filmness methods due to disadvantage of conventional X-ray system. Have high DQE, high SNR, amorphous selenium was investigated with image plate. In this point, characteristics of all amorphous selenium image plate was investigated to understand the relationship between the amount of the X-ray exposure and the superficial charge potential in this study. Specially, changes in charge at the surface of the amorphous selenium plate with respect to change of X-ray energy(KeV) was investigated. It was found that the surface charge potential at the amorphous selenium inclosed with respect to the increse in X-ray exposure and that the changed surface potential was a semilinearity in 12.5KeV - 22.5KeV range. Therefore, which suggests that these results call be applied to the development of X-ray image plate.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.236-242
• /
• 1986

The dependence of the current-voltage characteristics of hydrogenated amorphous silicon pin solar cells on the illumimination light intensity has been investigated. The open circuit voltage increases linearly with increasing the logarithm of light intensity up to AM 1, and nearly saturates above AM 1, indicating the open circuit voltage approaching the built-in potential of the pin solar cell above AM 1. The short circuit current density increase with light intensity in proportion to I**0.85 before and I**0.97 after light exposure. Since the series resistance devreses and shunt resistance increases with light intensily, the fill factor increases with light illumination. To increase the fill factor at high illumination in large area solar cells, t6he grid pattern on the ITO substrates should be made. Long light exposure on the solar cells gives rise to the increase of bulk resistance and defect states, resulting in the decrease of the fil factor and short circuit current density. The potential drop in the bulk of the a-Si:H pin solar cells at short circuit condition increases with decreasing temperature, and increases after long light exposure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
• /
• 2012.05a
• /
• pp.457-458
• /
• 2012

• Journal of radiological science and technology
• /
• v.42 no.4
• /
• pp.291-299
• /
• 2019

The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has regulated the definition and requirements of the exposure index (EI). In this study, we calculated the EI of several image receptors in digital radiography system of two different manufacturers according to the method as per IEC, and evaluated the relationship with incident air kerma. To calculate the EI, w e obtained the characteristics curve of each image receptor by increasing the incident air kerma at RQA 3, 5, 7 and 9, respectively. As a result, there was no significant difference in the EI values between different image receptors of the same manufacturer, but EI values of different manufacturer was different despite the same air kerma was incident. Therefore, understanding the characteristics of the digital radiography systems is important in order to use EI as a tool for measuring and managing the radiation dose.