• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.213-221
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• 2019

Objective: This study was performed to evaluate gender and age differences in hygienic behavior among the general population, focusing on hand-washing habits and the microbial load of hands. Methods: A self-administered questionnaire survey and a separate microbial examination were performed. The Pearson's correlation between hand-washing habits and microbial load was analyzed. Results: In the questionnaire survey on hand-washing habits, gender differences were found in hand-washing frequency, use of hand-washing agents, and hand drying methods (p<0.05). Age differences were found in numbers of washing parts of the hands and also in hand drying methods (p<0.05). Females showed better habits washing hands than did males, as did older people compared to younger. In the microbial examination of indicator bacteria on their hands, younger people tended to show a higher load of total aerobic bacteria than did the older, and females showed a higher load of total coliforms than did males (p<0.05). There were significant relationships between the load of total aerobic bacteria and hand-washing frequency, duration, and method of turning-off water (p<0.05). Conclusions: Although females were expected to show a better practice of hand-washing than were males based on the survey results, they showed a higher level of total coliforms in the hand examination. The older age group showed better hand-washing habits than did the younger age group and had less total aerobic bacteria on their hands. These inter-gender and age differences highlight the need for development and implementation of gender-and age-specific educational programs or campaigns.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.349-355
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• 2000

This study was conducted to enhance the storage stability of fermented shrimp with different salt contents using a high hydrostatic pressure. The effects of the magnitude of pressure and treatment time on the microorganisms of the fermented shrimp were investigated. The highest microbial counts with respect to the salt levels were observed at 18% salt, showing $3.4{\times}10^5\;CFU/g$ for general bacteria, $6.4{\times}10^4\;CFU/g$ for halophilic bacteria, $4.2{\times}10^5\;CFU/g$ for yeast and $3.0{\times}10^4\;CFU/g$ for halophilic yeast. The degree of sterilization increased with the magnitude of pressure and treatment time, and the sterilization could be analyzed by the first order reaction kinetics. The sterilization rate constants $(k_p)$ of the halophilic bacteria was lower than that of general bacteria. The $log(k_p)$ increased linearly with pressure and the slope of the regression line of the halophilic bacteria was greater than that of general bacteria, indicating that the sterilization of the halophilic bacteria was more dependent on the pressure. High hydrostatic pressure treatment was an effective non-thermal sterilization method for the salted and fermented shrimp, and the optimum treatment condition was for 10 min at 6,500 atm.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.487-492
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• 2022

Objective: The exposure levels of disease-causing bacteria and germs were assessed on aircraft cleaning workers on multiple different aircrafts. Method: Five measuring points were selected depending on the aircraft types. Four aircraft cleaning agencies were selected for the test. Aircraft cleaning work was classified as intensive cleaning and general cleaning work. Ventilation in aircraft when sampling during the cleaning operation was categorized into forced ventilation and natural ventilation. The collection of airborne microorganisms was made through inertial impactors which were installed 1.5 meters above the bottom of the aircraft. The airborne bacteria and fungus growth badges were selected by Trytpic Soy Agar and Sabouraud Dextrose Agar. Results: The average concentrations of bacteria in the air were higher in the order of small, medium, and large airplanes. Rainy days had higher concentrations inside and outside the aircraft as compared to those in sunny days. Regarding ventilation, concentrations in natural ventilation were higher than concentrations in forced ventilation. According to the type of work, the concentrations in the intensive cleaning groups (cleaning one plane a day) were lower than those of the ordinary cleaning groups (cleaning several planes per day). Conclusion: The concentration levels of airborne bacteria and fungi in the aircraft surveyed were lower than the indoor environmental standards of Korea (800 cfu/m³ and 500 cfu/m³). The average concentrations of bacteria in the air and fungi in the air were highest in small aircraft owned by Company D.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.15-22
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• 2024

Purpose: In general, cross-infection caused by bacteria occurs more in hospitals than in local communities. In most cases, infectious diseases spread through contact transmission (direct contact, indirect contact). This study tries to examine which places are most likely to detect infections bacteria and what materials should be used to effectively suppress the spread of infectious bacteria. Methods: Domestic and international literature have been reviewed to determine which bacteria are common and spread in which places. At the same time, antibacterial experiments for several finishing materials are performed to determine the survival period of bacteria for each material. The experiment is conducted mainly on antibiotic-resistant bacteria (MRSA, CRE, etc.) that have a high mortality rate and are very contagious. Results: MRSA has a high incidence in many hospital departments with surgery or immunocompromised patients, such as the elderly, organ transplant patients, and hemodialysis patients. There are experimental results that MRSA dies early in ceramics or silk wallpaper. CRE has a high incidence in hospital departments where there are many patients who are prone to bacteria entering the body directly, such as ventilator patients or critically ill patients with surgical wounds. There are experimental results that CRE dies early in silk wallpaper. In addition, bacteria die on the surface for a variety of reasons. Most MRSA and CRE develop in patients with impaired immunity or surgery, and rapidly die in copper or materials with antibacterial properties. Implications: If finishing materials surface with the ability to kill specific bacteria is used in the place where a large number of specific bacteria are detected, the spread of infectious diseases can be effectively controlled.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.361-365
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• 2011

To evaluate the indoor air quality of food manufacturing plants, the presence of viable bacteria and fungi was assessed in the indoor air of the facilities at which 9 food items were manufactured. Air samples were collected from the general zone, low clean zone and clean zone of each factory with an air sampler, in combination with plate counts agar using for bacteria, and dichloran-glycerol agar for fungi. The samples were incubated at $25^{\circ}C$ for 4 to 7 days. After culture, the colony forming units (CFU) on each plate were counted and corrected with a positive hole conversion table. The average concentration of bacteria was $2.2{\times}10^3\;CFU/m^3$ in the general zone, $1.2{\times}10^3\;CFU/m^3$ in the low clean zone and $7.3{\times}10^2\;CFU/m^3$ in the clean zone. The average concentration of fungal microbes was $2.5{\times}10^3\;CFU/m^3$ in the general zone, $2.6{\times}10^3\;CFU/m^3$ in the low clean zone, and $2.0{\times}10^2\;CFU/m^3$ in the clean zone. No meaningful differences were detected between the general zone and the low clean zone, but the clean zone had significantly lower concentrations than the other zones. Additionally, the identification of the fungi was performed according to morphological method using a giant culture and slide culture. The fungi were identified as belonging to 18 genera, and the genera Cladosporium(33%), Penicillium(29%) and Aspergillus(26%), predominated. Aspergillus isolates were identified to species level, and A. ochraceus, a mycotoxigenic species, was identified. As part of the effort to control the quality of the indoor air of food manufacturing plants, our results show that continued studies are clearly warranted.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.51-58
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• 1991

With the soil samples collected from 33 locations in Kwangju area, the physiochemical properties of soil and soil microorganisms have been studied and the results of'the analysis were as follows ;1 . Tlle temperatilre, pH, moisture and organic matter of sampling s'tes were measured in the range of 21.O~28.O$^{\circ}C$, 4.0"6.6, 2.1"24.0% and 2.8~22.0% respectively.and that showed wide range distribution in moisture and organio mattrr particulary.and averase was 24.$^{\circ}C$ of temperature, 4.9 of pH, 11.9% of moisture and 8.9% of'organic matter.2. The general bacterial number, cellulolytic bacterial number, general fungal number and cellulolytic fungal number were measured in tile range of 23$\times$10$^{[-995]}$ _1548x10$^{[-995]}$ , 8.0$\times$10$^{[-995]}$ ~412.0$\times$10$^{[-995]}$ , 0.3$\times$10$^{[-994]}$ ~56.4$\times$10$^{[-994]}$ and 0.Ix10$^{[-994]}$ ~17.2x10$^{[-994]}$ , respectivelyand average was 378.4$\times$10$^{[-995]}$ of general bacteria, 102.5$\times$10$^{[-995]}$ of cellulolytic bacteria.13.OX10$^{[-994]}$ of general fungi and 4.3$\times$10$^{[-994]}$ of cellulolytic fungi.tic fungi.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.369-378
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• 2010

School lunch programs at middle schools have increased in quantity. However, the quality of them is in fact not enough to reach the satisfactory standard, especially in the aspect of environment of school meals. It is true that there seems to be little attention to the environment. In this study, degree of satisfaction about school lunch program was surveyed for students in one middle school. Focus of survey was sanitary condition about the dining room and classroom where they have lunch. First, in order to investigate the degree of satisfaction about their dining place, questionnaire was sent out to the students at one middle school in Seoul. Questionnaire was made with reference to previous research. Second, for the study on environmental sanitation, dropping bacteria (general bacteria) is measured in three parts of dining place (entrance, serving table, dining table). Petriplate film was exposed to the responsible places for 15 minutes and then cultivated at the temperature of $32^{\circ}C$ for 48 hours before counting the number of bacteria formed. For the statistical analysis, SPSS 12.0 was used. The results of the study show that students had more satisfaction in dining room service than in classroom service. Important factors for the meal program such as "taste of food", "amount of food per student", "state of keeping warm", "appearance of food", "diversity of menu", and "kindliness of feeding staff" had more points in dining room than in classroom. For the environmental and sanitary aspect, the result of dropping bacteria (general bacteria) in dining room and classroom showed that table (5.00) and fooddistribution corner (8.67) of dining room were cleaner than those of classroom (P < 0.05). Making a good environment for school feeding will have a positive effect on the improvement of satisfaction and sanitation of school feeding. There should be expansion of dining room service for the students.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.35-44
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• 2003

Bacterial activities of dam reservoir sediments were assessed using the methods of viable counts, ATP contents, dehydrogenase activity, and oxygen consumption. Viable heterotrophs in collected sediments were observed in the range of $10^6{\sim}10^{10}$ CFU/g dry wt. sediment. All assessed methods showed high activities in sediment samples collected from near dam site. In addition, bacteria increase in sediments amended with cellulose, starch, lipid, and protein compounds. Various ranges of antibiotics and heavy metals resistance bacteria were also detected, especially, 10~100 times less numbers of Cd resistance bacteria were observed compared with those of Pb and Cr. In general, antibiotics resistance groups were in the range of $10^{-1}{\sim}10^{-6}$ times of control.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.74-83
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• 2004

Raw-fish food contains a lot of moisture and is a high-protein food. It is a first-stage processed food taking a lot of manual work. Therefore, it is classified as a PHF food, very liable to cause a bacterial food-poisoning. But its manufacturers are usually small-sized and a systematic sanitation management is difficult to expect. But the manufacturer participating in this study produces chilled fresh raw-fish food. Fish are sliced into two fillets, which are packaged under vacuum, kept and distributed in refrigerators, and sold within a day. It is a newly-developed kind of raw-fish food, and a more improved kind of raw-fish food making possible a systematic sanitation management. The HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) is a systematic and continuous process-control method which is very efficient for controling food sanitation and reducing the expenses. A new HACCP model has been developed to be applied to a large-sized chilled fresh raw-fish food manufacturer. To ascertain its efficiency, the baterial examination was done to its workplace and products. The significance test was done on its data by "SPSS 12.0 for Window" and "Mann-Whitney U Test". The numbers of bacteria on its final products were significantly different in flatfish and porgy. The number of bacteria tended to decrease in each time-differential sampling (P＜.00l). The final food products showed no food-poisoning bacteria in all the time-differential tests and in all the samplings, which proves that the CCP of the HACCP system is under control. After the SSOP program was applied, no pathogenic bacteria were found in the work-place, and the kinds and numbers of bacteria decreased. The numbers of general bacteria and colon bacilli also showed a significant difference from those before the SSOP program in the filleting board (P＜.05), in the skinning board (P＜.0l), in the neck-removing knife (P＜.05), and in the filleting knife (P＜.01). The working equipments, periodically disinfected, also showed a significant difference in sanitary conditions (in the dehydrator, P＜.05). The number of bacteria found on the food-touching surface was within the standard (below 500/l00 cm$^2$) After the SSOP program was applied, the general bacteria and colon bacilli were not found. The quality of water used in the food processing was also within the standard. The numbers of bacteria falling from the air in the work-place were negligible in all the samplings (＜30CFU/l000ι). The staphylococci and fungi were not found.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.147-156
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• 2022

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are one of the most common infections in different age groups, including children. Bacteria are the main etiological agents of UTIs. The aim of the present study was to isolate, identify, and determine the antibiotic susceptibility of bacteria isolated from children with UTIs from Baghdad, Iraq. Three hundred and two urine samples were collected from children aged 6 months to 12 years. The samples were cultured on blood agar and MacConkey agar. The selected colonies were subjected to biochemical tests and antibiotic susceptibility analysis using the Vitek^® 2 Compact automated microbial identification system. In this sample, 299 bacteria were identified, of which, 267 were gram-negative bacteria, and 32 were gram-positive bacteria. Escherichia coli (56%) was the most commonly isolated gram-negative bacteria, followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (14%), Enterobacter spp. (10.48%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (9.36%), Proteus spp. (7.8%), Acinetobacter baumannii (1.5%), and Morganella morganii (0.37%). Enterococcus faecalis (62.5%) was the most commonly detected gram-positive bacteria, followed by Staphylococcus aureus (37.5%). E. coli and P. aeruginosa were the most antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Among the tested antibiotics, meropenem showed 100% sensitivity, followed by imipenem (97.4%), amikacin (91.8%), and tobramycin (83.5%). In contrast, the high frequencies of resistance were observed with cefixime (93.2%), cefotaxime (78.7%), and ceftriaxone/cefotaxime (71.2%). In conclusion, carbapenems and aminoglycosides are highly recommended for the empirical treatment of UTIs, while, Quinolones, penicillins, and cephalosporins are not suggested. Frequent antibiotics susceptibility testing are warranted to determine the resistance pattern of UTI bacteria.