• Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.115-119
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• 2006

The object of this study was to examine whether the germanium fortified yeast administered to SD rat is accumulated in the liver and kidney. The administration doses were within 2,000 mg/kg which is the level of NOAEL (no observed adverse effect level) proved through the previous study of single/consecutive oral toxicity test. There were no significant clinical symptoms and mortality following the administration of organic germanium-fortified yeast (0, 500, 1,000, 2,000 mg/kg) during the whole test period, and also no difference in the consumed amount of feed and water for each group. No significant abnormalities of hematology and blood chemistry parameters were found in all groups of organic germanium-fortified yeast (0, 500, 1,000, 2,000 mg/kg). The amount of germanium accumulated in liver and kidney was 0 g/kg by ICP-AES method in the group of organic germanium-fortified yeast. In the positive control group of $GeO_2$ (150 mg/kg), the amount of accumulation was shown to 3135.0 and 4277.2 g/kg in each female and male kidney and 1044.3 and 2135.8 g/kg in each female and male liver, respectively. Organic germanium-fortified yeast, a biosynthetic product resulting from putting germanium into yeast, did not show any clinical symptoms, blood chemical significance, and residues in kidney and liver. It could be inferred that the non-toxic amount of organic germanium-fortified yeast was up to 2,000 mg/kg.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.13 no.1_2
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• pp.11-17
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• 1998

Cadmium, a major aquatic pollutant in many parts of the world, is toxic and readily accumulated in aquatic organisms. It mainly exists in water as complexes with organic ligands such as dissolved organic carbon and this complexation is known to have effects on the aquatic toxicities. In this study, acute toxicity, histology, and bioaccumulation were studied to evaluate effects of humic acid on cadmium toxicity and bioavailability to fish using Oryzias lalipes and Cyprinus carpio. 96h-LC$_{50}$ of cadmium was 6.38mg/L using Oryzias latipes. However, the mortality showed the dose-dependent decrease when humic acid was added to the test solution. When fish were exposed to 5 mg/L of cadmium, histological changes in the exposed organs (caudal fins, gills, kidney, liver, and gut) of C~lprinus carpio were decreased by humic acid, especially in kidney and liver. Bioaccumulation of cadmium also decreased by treatment of humic acid. It seems that the formation of complexes between cadmium and humic acid may decrease bioavailability of cadmium to fish, and thus reduce the toxic effects of cadmium.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.183-187
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• 2001

The biological activities of wastewater and sludge taken from the wastewater treatment process of Hyangnam pharmaceutic factories in Hwaseong, Kyeonggi-Do was measured using a respirometer. Oxygen uptake rate (OUR) was used as a tool for measuring biological activity. OUR was measured for varying amounts of sludge and organic chemicals in wastewater, and its toxicity was evaluated. Maximum OUR was observed as 61, 75, and 89 mg O$_2$/L/hr when sludge was added as 3, 5, and 10% of total volume, respectively. When the concentration of organic chemicals was changed to 1,486, 337, and 164 mg COD/L, maximum OUR was 53, 13, 8 mg O$_2$/L/hr, respectively. The toxicity test results showed that there seemed that there seemed to be no observable toxic effect on microbes in pharmaceutic wastewater.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.346-351
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• 2001

Oxidation of Cr(III) to Cr(VI) can increase availability and toxicity of chromium. In this study, possible mechanisms by which pH and organic matter can control the chromium oxidation and reduction in soil system were examined using four soils of different pHs and organic matter contents. Reduction of Mn-oxides occurred in the soils of higher organic matter content (4.0%), but Mn-oxide was quite stable during the incubation in the soil of pH 7.0 and 0.5% organic matter content. Manganese oxides can be reductively dissolved at lower pH and higher organic matter conditions. The soil of pH 7.0 and 4.0% organic matter content showed the highest Cr-oxidation potential. Reduction of soluble Cr(VI) was observed in all the soils examined. The most rapid reduction was found in soil of pH 5.5 and 4.0% organic matter content, but the reduction was slow in soil of pH 7.0 and 0.5% organic matter content. Thus, the reductive capacity of organic matter added soils was much higher as compared to other two soils of lower organic matter content. In all the soils examined, the reductive capacity of soluble chromium was much higher than the oxidative capacity. Organic matter was found to be the most important controlling factor in the chromium oxidation and reduction. Reduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III) could be a potentially useful remediation or detoxification process, and availability and toxicity of chromium in soil would be controlled by controlling organic matter content and pH of the soils.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.29 no.A
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• pp.83-88
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• 2009

The removal efficiency of organic compounds and the toxicity evaluation of microorganism have been studied in dye wastewater treatment using $UV/TiO_2$ and $UV/H_2O_2$ photooxidation system. Sample waters tested in this work were raw dye wastewater and dye wastewater treated in $UV/TiO_2$ and $UV/H_2O_2$ photooxidation system respectively. Total organic carbon(TOC) removal rate was 50% in $UV/TiO_2$ process and 80% in $UV/H_2O_2$ process. It has been investigated with colony counting agar method and paper disk method whether the type of treatment process has affected the microorganism growth. In the raw wastewater, more than four types of microorganisms have survived. But, little of microorganisms were alive at TOC removal rate of 50% in $UV/TiO_2$ system. In contrast to that, two types of microorganisms were found at TOC removal rate of 80% in $UV/H_2O_2$ system.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.182-189
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• 1992

The influnces of 9 kinds of solvents on the toxicities against several insect species, phytotoxicity and solubility of compounds were evaluated by means of leaf dipping and spray methods. In case of the spray application, density and vapor pressure seemed to be a contributing factor to lethal toxicity against brown planthopper and diamond-back moth, respectively; the bigger the property of density and the smaller the vapor pressure gave the stronger toxicity. It appeared that the toxicity of solvents was not correlated with anyone of physical properties such as boiling point, dipole moment, dielectric constant, surface tension and viscosity. Spray treatment gave more toxicity to insects than leaf dipping treatment. Although dielectric constant and dipole moment seemed to be contributing factors to phytotoxic damage to rice seedling and bean plants, respectively, no general correlation between phytoxicity and the other physical properties was found. Leaf dipping application caused stronger phytotoxicity than spray application. It is concluded that 5% acetone solution may be most suitable to test chemicals because of its favorable solubility of compounds, lower toxicity to insects, and lower phytotoxicity.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.143-151
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• 2001

Six rivers were selected as preliminary screening sites to determine the test conditions of Microtox in assessing the toxicity of the sediment. In addition, a pH range of 6.0∼6.5 was established in testing pore water, aqueous extracts and organic extracts. Each extractable fraction of sediment showed different toxicities. Therefore, in order to properly examine the toxicity in the sediment, all extractable fractions of sediment samples needed to be tested with Microtox. Thus, sediment samples were additionally collected from at least 4 secondary sites within 50∼100ｍ area of the primary sampling site to reduce any variation or deviation in toxicity assessment. From all sediment toxicity data that was collected from this study, it was concluded that the Keumho river was the most polluted with the highest sediment toxicity of all the rivers analyzed and needed further detailed research on its pollution problem.

• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.206-208
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• 2002

Methylmercury (MeHg; $CH_{3}HgCl$) is, second only to cadmium as being, the most toxic on the earth. Inorganic mercury from various waste sources can be easily methylated by bacteria in water and subsequently ingested by fishes and then highly accumulated in human. Although toxicity from mercury exposure occurs with both organic and inorganic forms, organic mercury is more potently toxic to central nervous system. Minamata disease is an example of organic mercury toxicity. (omitted)

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.113-132
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• 2003

In May 2001, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) for phasing out and eliminating POPs was signed by 90 countries at the Diplomatic Meeting in Stockholm. In 1998, three years before the Convention, the protocols on POPs and heavy metals were adopted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe under the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution. Growing attention on POPs and heavy metals during the past 10 years is primarily due to their toxicity in minute quantities. POPs and some metal compounds are even more toxic because of their bioaccumulation potentials associated with a high lipid solubility. Furthermore, owing to their persistence and semi - volatility, they are widely distributed in the environment, traveling great distances on wind and water currents. Recent international cooperation to address POPs and heavy metals has focused on these issues. Long -range transport of those pollutants are particularly concerned since Korea is located downwind of prevailing westerlies from China. In this paper, a review is provided to assess the properties, sources, emissions, and atmospheric concentrations on POPs and heavy metals.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.67-77
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• 2008

It has been observed that the linear relationship between the logarithm of bioconcentration factor (log BCF) of highly hydrophobic chemicals and their log $K_{ow}$ breaks when log $K_{ow}$ becomes greater than 6.0. Consequently, super hydrophobic chemicals were not thought to cause baseline toxicity as a single compound. Researchers often call this phenomenon as "hydrophobicity cutoff" meaning that bioconcentration or corresponding baseline toxicity has a certain cutoff at high log $K_{ow}$ value of hydrophobic organic pollutants. The underlying assumption is that the increased molecular size with increasing hydrophobicity prohibits highly hydrophobic compounds from crossing biological membranes. However, there are debates among scientists about mechanisms and at which log $K_{ow}$ this phenomenon occurs. This paper reviews three hypotheses to explain observed "cutoff": steric effects, kinetic or physiological limitations, and chemical activity cutoff. Although the critical molecular size that makes biological membranes not permeable to hydrophobic organic chemicals is uncertain, size effects in combination with kinetic limitation would explain observed non-linearity between log BCF and log $K_{ow}$. Chemical activity of hydrophobic chemicals generally decreases with increasing melting point at their aqueous solubility. Thus, there may be a chemical activity cutoff of baseline toxicity if there is a critical chemical activity over which baseline effects can be observed.