• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.317-331
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• 2023

Objectives: Construction workers are exposed to various hazardous substances simultaneously. However, little is known about the exposure hazards in construction industry. This study was aimed at identifying the risk of exposure hazards among construction workers. Methods: The expert survey (n=29) was conducted, including construction industry health managers (n=11) and work environment monitoring experts (n=18), on exposure probability, intensity and risk of hazardous substances by construction occupations Results: The exposure hazards of 30 construction occupations were identified and summarized through a literature review and expert survey. The most prevalent hazards were in order of noise, awkward posture, heat/cold, crystalline silica, cement/concrete dust, metal fumes, and volatile organic compounds. The hazards with highest risk score(over seven points) at construction occupations were noise(formwork carpenter, concrete finisher, rebar worker, demolition worker, driller/rock blaster), hazardous rays(welder), heat/cold (earthworks, formwork carpenter, rebar worker, concrete placer, scaffolder), awkward posture(bricklayer, caulker/tile setter, rebar worker) and heavy lifting(bricklayer, rebar worker). Among construction workers, the job types with the highest risk of exposure to carcinogens, and in which occupational cancer has been reported, were in order of stonemason, concrete finisher, rock blaster, welder, insulation installer, painter, scaffolder, plant worker and earthworks in order Conclusions: Systematic research and discussion on occupational disease among construction workers and its various hazardous factors are needed to establish job exposure matrix for facilitating standard for promptly processing the workers' compensation.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.293-299
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• 2014

Objectives: The main objective of this study is to investigate domestic usage amount of insecticide for vegetable cultivation to provide fundamental data for establishing job-exposure matrix(JEM) related to farmers treating agricultural insecticide. Materials and Methods: The survey on domestic usage amount of insecticide for vegetable cultivation was conducted by two research methods. The first method is to utilize agricultural pesticides published annually from Korea Crop Protection Association(KCPA). The second method is to apply cultivation area of vegetable announced officially from Statistics Korea(SK). An estimation of domestic usage amount of insecticide for vegetable cultivation through the second method was done by multiplying total cultivation area of vegetable($m^2$) with optimal spray amount of insecticide for vegetable cultivation per unit cultivation area of vegetable ($kg/m^2$). Results: As a result of analysis of public data related to insecticide for vegetable cultivation, it was found that its domestic usage amount has decreased gradually from the first sale year(1969) to current year(2012). There is, however, a considerable difference of annual usage trend of insecticide for vegetable cultivation between shipments and estimation. The annual usage trends of insecticide for vegetable cultivation based on regional classification were different from those based on total aspect. Conclusions: The region which used insecticide for vegetable cultivation the most in Korea was Jeolla-do, followed by Gyeonsang-do, Chungcheong-do, Seoul/Gyeonggi-do, Gangwon-do and Jeju-do. Substantially, mean ratio of usage amounts of insecticide based on shipments and those based on estimation by cultivation area was $281{\pm}115%$, which indicates that usage amounts of insecticide estimated by cultivation area are three times lower than those based on shipments.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.59-64
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• 2014

Objectives: The principal aim of this study is to investigate and analyze domestic usage amounts of insecticide in rice cultivation in order to provide fundamental data for establishing a job-exposure matrix(JEM) related to farmers working with agricultural insecticides. Materials and Methods: An investigation of domestic usage amounts of insecticides rice cultivation was performed through two methods. The first method utilized information on agricultural pesticides published annually by the Korea Crop Protection Association(KCPA). The second method made use of area of cultivation of rice as officially determined by Statistics Korea(SK). An estimation of domestic usage of insecticides in rice cultivation through the second method was determined by multiplying the total cultivation area of rice($m^2$) by the optimal spray volume of insecticides for rice cultivation per unit of cultivation area($kg/m^2$). Results: As a result of the analysis of public data regarding insecticides in rice cultivation, it was found that the domestic usage amount has decreased sharply from the first year of market sales(1969) to the final data year(2012). There is little difference in the annual usage trend of insecticides in rice cultivation between shipment and estimation. Also, the annual usage trends of insecticides in rice cultivation based on regional classification were nearly similar to those based on the overall aspect. Conclusions: The region which used the largest volume of insecticide in rice cultivation in Korea was the Jeolla Provinces, followed by the Gyeonsang Provinces, the Chungcheong Provinces, Seoul/Gyeonggi Province, Gangwon Province and Jeju Province. Substantially, the mean ratio of usage amounts of insecticide based on shipments and those based on estimation by cultivation area was $96{\pm}29%$, which indicates that the domestic usage amount of insecticide for rice cultivation corresponded to the optimal spray standard per unit area.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2022

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to evaluate exposure characteristics of lead using data from the domestic occupational exposure literature. Methods: Occupational airborne exposure data on lead reported in the domestic literature from 1981 to 2018 were collected and re-analyzed. The exposure levels in the data were expressed as an estimated arithmetic mean and a weighted arithmetic mean (WAM) of the number of samples. Lead exposure characteristics were analyzed by industry, process, and year. Results: From a total of 14 documents, 8,305 airborne lead measurements for 17 industries were identified, and the WAM concentration in eight industries exceeded the occupational exposure limit of 50 ㎍/m³. Three industries (battery manufacturing, lead smelting, and litharge manufacturing) accounted for 95% of the total data, and exposure trends could be confirmed over 10 years. Exposure levels continue to decrease in all three industries. Conclusions: Considering the distribution outlook of lead and lead compounds, the main management targets are lead storage battery manufacturing and secondary smelting for lead regeneration.

• Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.134-140
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• 2006

Because shipyard workers are involved with various manufacturing process in shipyard industry, and they are exposed to many kinds of hazardous materials. Especially, painting workers were exposed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). This study was conducted to assess the exposure status of PAH based on job-exposure matrix. We investigated the effect of genetic polymorphism of xenobiotic metabolism enzymes involved in PAH metabolism on levels of urinary metabolite. A total of 93 shipbuilding workers were recruited in this study. Questionnaire variables were age, sex, use of personal protective equipment, smoking, drinking, and work duration. The urinary metabolite was collected in the afternoon and corrected by urinary creatinine concentration. The genotypes of CYP1A1, CYP2E1, GSTM1, GSTT1 and UGT1A6 were investigated by using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) methods with DNA extracted from venous blood. Urinary 1-OHP levels were significantly higher in direct exposured group (spray and touch-up) than indirect exposed group. Urinary 1-OHP, concentration of the high exposure with wild type of UGT1A6 was significantlyhigher than that of the high exposure with other UGT1A6 genotype. In multiple regression analysis of urinary 1-OHP, the regression coefficient of job grade was statistically significant (p<0.05) and UGT1A6 was not significant but a trend (p<0.1). The grade of exposure affected urinary PAH concentration was statistically significant. But genetic polymorphism of xenobiotics metabolism enzymes was not statistically significant. Further investigation of genetic polymorphism with large sample size is needed.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.126-134
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• 2001

Statistical approaches for analysis of data from the limited number of samples in ship building industry(SBI) collected by an industrial hygienist for checking compliance to an occupational standard were considered. Sampling for compliance usually has been guided by judgment selection, rather than true randomness, resulting in the creation of compliance samples which approximate a censored sample from the upper tail of the exposure distribution. Similar exposure groups(SEGs) including welding and painting process were established to assess representative values in each groups after reviewing the whole production line in SBI. For the convenient statistical approaches, the code has assigned to each SEGs. The descriptive statistics and probability plotting were used to yield the representative values in each SEGs. In the first step, SEGs of 558 were established from 5 ship building companies. The 38 SEGs showed the uncertainty are divided into each 5 companies and assessed the representative values again. The 44 SEGs in each companies was not showed the normal and lognormal distribution was analyzed each data. And also, recommendation was suggested to resolve the uncertainty in each groups.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.93-100
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• 2003

Objectives : Because shipyard workers are involved with various manufacturing process, they are exposed to many kinds of hazardous materials. Welders especially, are exposed to bisphenol-A (BPA) during the welding and flame cutting of coated steel, This study was conducted to assess the exposure status of the endocrine disrupter based on the job-exposure matrix. The effects of the genetic polymorphism of xenobiotic enzyme metabolisms involved in the metabolism of BPA on the levels of urinary metabolite were investigated. Methods : The study population was recruited from a shipyard company in the f province. A total of 84 shipbuilding workers 47 and 37 in the exposed and control groups, respectively, were recruited for this study. The questionnaire variables included, age, sex, use of personal protective equipment, smoking, drinking and work duration. The urinary metabolite was collected in the afternoon and correction made for the urinary creatinine concentration. The of the CYP1A1, CYP2E1 and UGT1A6 genotypes were investigated using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) methods with the DNA extracted from venous blood. Results : The urinary BPA level in the welders group was significantly higher than in the control group (p<0.05). The urinary BPA concentration with the wild type UGT1A6 was higher than the other UGT1A6 genotypes, but with no statistical significant. From themultiple regression analysis of the urinary BPA, the regression coefficient for job grade was statistically significant (p<0.05). Conclusions : The grade of exposure to BPA affected the urinary BPA concentration was statistically significant. However, the genetic polymorphisms of xenobiotics enzyme metabolism were not statistically significant. Further investigation of the genetic polymorphisms with a larger sample size is needed.