• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.10 no.1_2
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• pp.21-35
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• 1995

Risk assessment processes, which include processes for the estimation of human cancer potency using animal bioassay data and calculation of human exposure, entail uncertainties. In the exposure assessment process, exposure scenarios with various assumptions could affect the exposure amount and excess cancer risk. We compared risk estimates among various exposure scenarios of vinyl chloride, trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene in tap water. The contaminant concentrations were analyzed from tap water samples in Seoul from 1993 to 1994. The oral and inhalation cancer potencies of the contaminants were estimated using multistage, Weibull, lognormal, and Mantel-Bryan model in TOX-RISK computer software. In the first case, human excess cancer risk was estimated by the US EPA method used to set the MCL(maximum contaminant level). In the second and third case, the risk was estimated for multi-route exposure with and without adopting Monte-Carlo simulation, respectively. In the second case, exposure input parameters and cancer potencies used probability distributions, and in the third case, those values used point estimates(mean, and maximum or 95% upper-bound value). As a result, while the excess cancer risk estimated by US EPA method considering only direct ingestion tended to be underestimated, the risk which was estimated by considering multi-route exposure without Monte-Carlo simulation and then using the maximum or 95% upper-bound value as input parameters tended to be overestimated. In risk assessment for volatile organic compounds, considering multi-route exposure with adopting Monte-Carlo analysis seems to provide the most reasonable estimations.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.595-607
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• 2002

The objectives of this study were to identify the phenomena of school health nursing at schools in Korea and to contribute to building a school health domain of International Classification for Nursing Practice. A retrospective method was used in this study to develop ICNP during the period from July to October 200l. The procedure of the study involved choosing nursing phenomena using preliminary terms from the reports on the field of school health nursing practice documented by nursing students in 10 different nursing colleges. The detail procedures of the study were as follows. 1) Choosing nursing phenomena by using preliminary terms 2) Choosing the characteristics of school health nursing practice from the selected nursing phenomena 3) In order to make a consensus regarding the appropriate characteristics of phenomena. 15 study group members re-categorized the nursing phenomena through 5 times of cyber meetings and 3 times of formal meetings. 4) To verify each characteristic, 5 community nursing faculties and 25 school health nurses participated in the procedure to give scores on nursing characteristics. 5) Classification of the definite nursing phenomena and characteristics. Following the 5 step procedures, school health nursing phenomena were categorized into human and environmental domains. Human domains were classified into human behavioral and functional domains. Environmental domains were classified into physical and psychosocial domains. The essential characteristics of each phenomena were selected when it obtains the mean score of 3.0 or over at the related characteristics. The human behavioral domain consisted of 7 phenomena including risk for spinal disorder, inadequate dietary habit, inadequate weight control, smoking and substance abuse, inadequate stress management, inadequate sex related coping strategies and inadequate accident management. The human functional domain consisted of 6 phenomena including inadequate eye care and visual management, risk for respiratory disorder, inadequate dental health care, inappropriate infectious disease control, risk for gastrointestinal disorder, and lack of sexual identity. The physical environmental domain consisted of 6 phenomena including risk for incident at inside classroom, risk for incident at outside classroom, risk for incident around school, risk for exposure to hazardous facilities around school. inadequate garbage and disposal management, and inadequate physical environment for learning. The psychosocial domain included impaired social interaction at school. Each phenomenon was composed of 2 to 8 characteristics and all phenomena will include a total number of 85 characteristics. The phenomena of school health nursing in Korea partially confirmed school health architecture of ICNP. Further study on verification of school health nursing phenomena in Korea needs to be done to support the findings of this study through review of literature on nursing classifications or field studies.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.165-174
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• 1999

This study was conducted to analyze the priority of environmental problems in Korea by investigating the environmental professionals' perception. The delphi technique was applied to identify their risk perception towards some specific items related with pollution. A standardized questionnaire on environmental problems and their priorities was used to 74 subjects. In the questionnaire, the environmental problems were divided into the general ones,9 items, and the specific ones,30 items. Also, the perception was associated with two points of view which were the risk on general human health or ecosystem, and on the present situation in Korea. The priority of risk from general environmental problems on human health or ecosystem was analyzed in the order of 'water pollution', 'air pollution', 'soil contamination', 'waste', 'toxic chemical pollutants', 'food contamination', 'ocean contamination', 'odor pollution', and 'noise pollution'. The priority of risk on the present situation in Korea was analyzed in the order of 'water pollution','air pollution','waste','toxic chemical pollutants','food contamination','soil contamination','ocean contamination','odor pollution', and 'noise pollution'. And these priorities were significantly related with the characteristics of respondents such as sex, age, and major concerned area. However, for the first five priorities of risk from the specific environmental problems on human health or ecosystem, the environmental professionals agreed with 'automotive vehicle exhaust', 'domestic and industrial source pollutants to surface water', '$CO_2$nd g1oba1 warming effect','toxic air pollutant' and 'industrial source air pollution'. The priorities of risk on the present situation in Korea were similar to these results.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.203-216
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• 1999

This paper describes a set of multi-pathway models for estimating health risk to lead. The models link concentrations of an environmental contaminant (lead) in air, water and food to human exposure through inhalation, ingestion, and dietary routes. Exposure is used as the foundation for predicting risk of health detriment within the population. The process of estimating exposure using often limited data and extrapolating to a large diverse population requires many assumption, inferences, and simplification. This paper is divided into four section. The first section provides lead contaminant levels on obtaining environmental concentration of air, tap water, and foods. The second section provides a discussion of exposure parameters and uncertainty associated predicting human health risk of contaminants. The third and fourth section illustrate lifetime average daily exposure (LADE) and excess cancer risk (ECR) based on exposure parameters. The relationship between concentration of lead in an environmental medium and human exposure is determined with pathway exposure factors (PEFs). The calculation of LADE and ECR is carried out using Monte-Carlo simulation with probability density function of exposure parameters. Examination of the result reveals that, for lead exposure, ingestion (food) is the dominant route of exposure rather than inhalation (air), and ingestion (tap eater).

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.206-211
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• 2017

Background: Self-reported low back pain (LBP) has been evaluated in relation to material handling lifting tasks, but little research has focused on relating quantifiable stressors to LBP at the individual level. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Composite Lifting Index (CLI) has been used to quantify stressors for lifting tasks. A chemical exposure can be readily used as an exposure metric or stressor for chemical risk assessment (RA). Defining and quantifying lifting nonchemical stressors and related adverse responses is more difficult. Stressor-response models appropriate for CLI and LBP associations do not easily fit in common chemical RA modeling techniques (e.g., Benchmark Dose methods), so different approaches were tried. Methods: This work used prospective data from 138 manufacturing workers to consider the linkage of the occupational stressor of material lifting to LBP. The final model used a Bayesian random threshold approach to estimate the probability of an increase in LBP as a threshold step function. Results: Using maximal and mean CLI values, a significant increase in the probability of LBP for values above 1.5 was found. Conclusion: A risk of LBP associated with CLI values > 1.5 existed in this worker population. The relevance for other populations requires further study.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.13 no.1_2
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• pp.27-31
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• 1998

Motor vehicle exhaust is the major cause to the air contamination in Seoul. It includes many toxic chemicals to human health such as aidehyde, PAHs, benzene, xylene, toluene, benzo[a]pyrene, nickel, arsenic and cadmium in gasoline exhaust and formaldehyde, PAHs, 1,3-butadiene, benzene and particulate matter in diesel exhaust. Some chemicals out of them are classified as a human carcinogen. Many large diesel vehicles such as buses and trucks are drivened frequently in Seoul so that the air in Seoul is seriously contaminated by diesel exhaust, especially particulate matter. The amounts of particulate matter from large diesel vehicles may be estimated to be more than 50% of small dust in Seoul. The particles of particulate matter are coated with many toxic chemicals and some of these are considered as a human carcinogen. The cancer risk has to be throughly managed because the population density of Seoul is very high. Government should list hazardous air pollutants in Seoul, assess the exposure of people to toxic pollutants, especially carcinogens and manage human health risk.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.454-461
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• 2021

Background: Fish and fishery products (FFPs) unintentionally contaminated with various environmental pollutants are major exposure pathways for humans. To protect human health from the consumption of contaminated FFPs, it is essential to develop a systematic tool for evaluating exposure and risks. Objectives: To regularly, accurately, and quickly evaluate adverse health outcomes due to FFPs contamination, we developed an automated dietary exposure and risk assessment system called HERA (the Human Exposure and Risk Assessment system for chemicals in FFPs). The aim of this study was to develop an overall architecture design and demonstrate the major features of the HERA system. Methods: For the HERA system, the architecture framework consisted of multi-layer stacks from infrastructure to fish exposure and risk assessment layers. To compile different contamination levels and types of seafood consumption datasets, the data models were designed for the classification codes of FFP items, contaminants, and health-based guidance values (HBGVs). A systematic data pipeline for summarizing exposure factors was constructed through down-scaling and preprocessing the 24-hour dietary recalls raw dataset from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNAHES). Results: According to the designed data models for the classification codes, we standardized 167 seafood items and 2,741 contaminants. Subsequently, we implemented two major functional workflows: 1) preparation and 2) main process. The HERA system was developed to enable risk assessors to accumulate the concentration databases sustainably and estimate exposure levels for several populations linked to seafood consumption data in KNAHES in a user-friendly manner and in a local PC environment. Conclusions: The HERA system will support policy-makers in making risk management decisions based on a nation-wide risk assessment for FFPs.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.150-158
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• 2019

Soil contaminated with heavy metals from artisanal gold mining in Anka Local Government Area in Northwestern Nigeria was investigated to evaluate the human health risk as a result of heavy metals. Measured concentration of heavy metals and exposure parameters were used to estimate human carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risk. GIS-based Kriging method was utilized to create a prediction maps of human health risks and probability maps of heavy metals concentrations exceeding their threshold limits. Hazard index calculation showed that 21 out of 23 locations are posing non-cancer risk for children. Adults and children are at high cancer risk in all locations as the total cancer risk exceeded $1{\times}10^{-6}$ (the lower limit CTR value). Kriging model showed that only a very small area in Anka has a hazard index of less than unity and cumulative target risk of less than $1{\times}10^{-4}$, indicating a significant carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks for children. The probability of heavy metals to exceed their threshold concentrations around the study area was also found to be high.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.294-305
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• 2010

This study estimated the health risk of heavy metals in particulate matter $(PM)_{2.5}$ in a Gwangyang industrial complex. The $PM_{2.5}$ containing heavy metal was collected from January to November, 2008 using a denuder air sampler and by IC (Ion Chromatograph). The risk assessment was performed in a four-step process; hazard identification, exposure assessment, dose-response assessment and risk characterization. In the hazard identification process, $Cr^{6+}$, Ni, As, and Pb were categorized as human carcinogens and probable human carcinogens, while Ti, Mn, Se, P, $Cr^{3+}$, Cu, and Zn were not classified as human carcinogens. It was found that the excess cancer risk by Central Tendency Exposure (CTE) of $Cr^{6+}$ and As in $PM_{2.5}$ was > $10^{-6}$, and the total excess cancer risk posed by carcinogen heavy metals in $PM_{2.5}$ was > $10^{-6}$. It was also determined that the total hazard index by CTE of non-carcinogen heavy metals in $PM_{2.5}$ was <1. Taken together, these results indicate a high cancer risk associated whit inhalation of heavy metal-containing$PM_{2.5}$ in industrial areas.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.6-11
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• 2016

Background: A permit to work (PTW) is a formal written system to control certain types of work which are identified as potentially hazardous. However, human error in PTW processes can lead to an accident. Methods: This cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted to estimate the probability of human errors in PTWprocesses in a chemical plant in Iran. In the first stage, through interviewing the personnel and studying the procedure in the plant, the PTW process was analyzed using the hierarchical task analysis technique. In doing so, PTWwas considered as a goal and detailed tasks to achieve the goal were analyzed. In the next step, the standardized plant analysis risk-human (SPAR-H) reliability analysis method was applied for estimation of human error probability. Results: The mean probability of human error in the PTW system was estimated to be 0.11. The highest probability of human error in the PTW process was related to flammable gas testing (50.7%). Conclusion: The SPAR-H method applied in this study could analyze and quantify the potential human errors and extract the required measures for reducing the error probabilities in PTW system. Some suggestions to reduce the likelihood of errors, especially in the field of modifying the performance shaping factors and dependencies among tasks are provided.