• Anxiety and mood
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.135-139
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• 2013

Objective : This study was conducted to examine the relationship between the annual changes of suicide methods and suicide rates in South Korea. We compared the suicide methods in South Korea with those in six other OECD countries, Japan, Finland, France, United States, Canada and Australia. Methods : Data of suicide rates and methods since the year 2000 were obtained from the official electronic mortality data published by the seven countries and from the World Health Organization [WHO] mortality database. We compared the correlation between suicide methods and suicidal rates in South Korea using Spearman's correlation test. Results : The proportion of hanging steadily increased, whereas self-poisoning steadily decreased from 2000 to 2011. The increased use of hanging was associated with the increase of suicide rates in South Korea. The preference for jumping as a suicide method in South Korea can be notably compared to that of other countries. Conclusion : Preference use of lethal methods, such as hanging, may play a great role in the increase of suicide rates in South Korea. The limitation of physical and cognitive access to lethal methods can be an effective suicide prevention strategy.

• Korean journal of food and cookery science
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.762-772
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• 2016

Purpose: Adolescence is a critical period for growth and development; hence, knowledge about good food habits is essential amongst children. This study was conducted to investigate prevalence of awareness among food sellers, which could probably influence children's health and perceptions on food around schools towards adulterated food management beliefs, competencies, and food safety practices. Methods: Data was collected from 195 dealers around 25 elementary, middle and high schools in Daegu and Gyeongbuk provinces using a self-administered questionnaire in July and August, 2015. The data was analyzed using frequency analysis, one-way analysis of variance, $x^2$-test, factor analysis, and reliability analysis by SPSS Statistics (ver. 23.0). Results: A total of 121 people (62.1%) reported satisfaction of providing information and education on adulterated food. The perception of hazardous substances was found to be related to food poisoning bacteria and viruses (65.6%), heavy metals (42.1%), environmental hormones (36.4%), residual pesticides (27.2%), and irradiated food (26.7%). The perceived score on hygiene practices for processed food seller was $4.04{\pm}0.56/5.00$ and for cooked food seller was $4.09{\pm}0.45$. The capacity of adulterated food management practice of food sellers was significantly correlated with food knowledge on adulteration and public relation capacity, necessity of adulterated food management, and perception of hygiene practices (p<0.01). Similarly, knowledge and public relation capacity were significantly different according to ages (p<0.01). The perception of the necessity of adulterated food management was significantly different according to education levels (p<0.05), and the evaluation of hygiene practices was significantly different according to age (p<0.01). Conclusion: In order to solve the problem of adulterated food, which is one of the four social evils, and to strengthen the capacity of children to solve social problems, various practices like campaign on health promotion, goof food habits, education, and adulterated food management, should be actively promoted not only for children but also for food sellers around the schools.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.73-82
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• 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 agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.245-263
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• 2000

This study was conducted to provide the basic data about the health effects of pesticide exposure among farmers for agricultural health study. We analyzed 412 self-administered questionnaires collected from the male farmers who spray pesticides in Kyoung-ju area, Korea. Survey questions were about chronic symptoms, acute symptoms while pesticide spraying, pesticide intoxication accident, safety rules, protective equipments etc. The correlations among the variables related to pesticide exposure and the factors in acute pesticide poisoning and chronic symptoms of farmers were also analyzed. For chronic symptoms, the prevalence of 'tiredness and languor', 'lumbago', 'nocturia', 'shoulder pain', 'numbness', and, for acute symptoms while pesticide spraying, the experience rate of 'itching sense of skin', 'dizziness/headache', 'fatigue', 'eye glaring' were high compared with other symptoms. For 'experience of intoxication accident by pesticide in family', 7.1% of the subjects experienced the accident and the causes were pesticide spraying, food contamination by pesticide, suicide etc. Among safety rules, 'take a bath after spraying', 'change clothes after spraying' were kept relatively well, and, for protective equipments, hat, boots, mask, gloves, protective clothes(lower) were put on relatively well. The factors associated with acute pesticide poisoning were the extent of keeping safety rules, spraying time, orchard cultivation, agricultural area and spraying days per year etc. And the factors associated with chronic symptoms were acute symptoms while pesticide spraying, agricultural area, farming career, extent of keeping safety rules, extent of agricultural work and the pesticide exposure index etc. From these results, it is suggested that to reduce the health effects by pesticide exposure among farmers, the education to promote to keep safety rules and wear protective equipments, and information services should be recommended. And further studies on the long term health effects of pesticide exposure among farmers are required.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.21-34
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• 2006

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the knowledge, attitude and practice toward sanitary administration of the new restaurateurs, to carry out the sanitary management of business for improvement of sanitary level, and to provide basic data which were necessary for sanitary education of the restaurateurs. Methods: The self-recording survey on the attitude and the knowledge toward the sanitation, the sanitary administration, and its education was conducted against new 393 restaurateurs by the administrative division of Gwangju city in charge of the food industry which put in the regular sanitary education annually for the new restaurateurs. Results: In regard to food sanitation, some 87.9% to 94.4% got the right knowledge about the reason and precaution of food poisoning, storage methods of frozen or cold food, and the disposal of product after expiration of validity term. But it was about 56.0% to 63.0% who knew right about the cause and the major precaution of food poisoning, storage temperature in the refrigerator. 30.6% of the subject placed an emphasis on personal sanitation of the workers as the most important thing in the sanitary management. 83.6% replied that it was necessary to improve the sanitary level. Concerning the health examination, 78.3% replied it was needed. 76.4% pointed the need for education, but respondents with higher educational level less emphasized its needs. It was most frequently pointed out by 71.6% restaurateur's poor awareness about it. 36.7% indicated the environmental sanitation like facilities in the restaurants as the first thing to be improved. The rate of personal sanitation was 43.7%. Conclusions: To improve the poor sanitary conditions of the food service business, it was recommended to offer institutional backing and financial aid from administrative office, to encourage restaurateurs to take pride in their job, and to conduct the sanitary education effectively by the technical education institution.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.905-919
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• 2005

This study raised the necessity of developing performance indicators for measuring the management efficiency and effectiveness of school food service, and as a means of helping its implementation, a balanced score card (BSC) approach developed by Norton and Kaplan was adopted. This study established BSC in seven phases through literature: Phase 1 Defining a school food service and the scope of working activities, Phase 2 Establishing the vision of a school food service, Phase 3 Setting strategic goals, Phase 4 Identifying critical success factors (CSFs), Phase 5 Developing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Phase 6 Extracting cause and effect relationship, and Phase 7 Completing a preliminary BSC. The preliminary BSC was fumed into a survey, which was administered to food service related people working at the Office of Education and School Food Service including 16 offices,209 dietitians, 48 school administrators both from self-operated and contract-managed, and 9 experts in areas related to school food service. They were asked questions about strategies from 4 different perspectives,12 CSFs, 39 KPls, and the cause and effect relationships among them. As a result, among the CSFs based on 4 different perspectives, all factors other than ' zero sum on profit/loss ' from the financial perspective turned out to be valid. In terms of KPIs, manufacturing cost percentages, casualty loss count/reduction rates, school foodervice participation rates, and sales goal achievement rates were found to be valid from the financial perspective, while student satisfaction index, faculty satisfaction index, leftover ratio, nutrition educational performance count, index of evaluating nutrition education, customer claim count/reduction rate, handling customer claim count/reduction rate, and parent satisfaction index were found to be valid from the customers' perspective. Besides, nutritional requirement sufficient ratio, nutritional management score, food poisoning outbreak count, employee safety accident count, sanitary inspection assessment index, meals per labor hour (productivity index), computerization ratio, operational management index, and purchase management assessment index were also found to be valid from the perspective of internal business processes. From the perspective of innovation and learning, employee turnover ratio/rate of absenteeism, annual education and training count, employee satisfaction index, human resource management assessment index, annual menu-related customer feedback, food service information index for employees and parents/schools were also found to be valid. The significance of this study is to present indices for measuring overall performance of school lunch food service operations without putting any limitation on types of school food service management, and to help correctly assess the contribution of the current types of school food service management to schools and students. (Korean J Community Nutrition 10(6) : $905\∼919$, 2005)

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.115-123
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• 2013

Food safety management should be based on scientific evidences. FAO and WHO presented risk analysis as one of four principles in food safety management. WTO also admits the self safety regulation only when it is made on the basis of risk assessment. Without scientific analysis, tracing and eliminating the cause of food poisoning is impossible. Research and development plays a key role to produce scientific evidences. The Korean government ran over 40 programs in 11 agencies from 2008 to 2010. However, there is no statistics on food safety R&D at present. In this research, food safety projects conducted from 2008 to 2010 are listed up by means of analysing National Science and Technology Information Service (NTIS). The analytical criteria are the name of programs, national standard classification of science and technology, and keywords. As result, Korea Food and Drug Administration, Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and Rural Development Administration play major role in the food safety R&D. The portion of more than one year projects should rise up in order to achieve the data for risk assessment, which is strongly required to improve. Besides, the research should be deeper so as to publish more SCI papers. The R&D portfolio should be changed in direction to raise up the portion of biological hazards such as norovirus. In order to do so, a large number of food safety programs should be emerged. The categories of food safety management and the hygiene/quality management of the agricultural and livestock products in the national standard classification of science and technology should be emerged because they are set up reflecting agencies' interests in spite of few differences between them.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.397-405
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• 2012

In this study, performance evaluation of newly developed technology for the economical and safe removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) coming out from electronic devices washing operation and offensive odor induction materials was made. Metal oxidization catalyst has shown 50% of removal efficiency at the temperature of $220^{\circ}C$. Composite metal oxidization catalyst applied in this study has shown that the actual catalysis has started at the temperature of $100^{\circ}C$. Comprehensive analysis on the catalyst property using Mn-Cu metal oxidization catalyst in the pilot-scale unit was made and the removal efficiency was variable with temperature and space velocity. Full-scale unit developed based on the pilot-scale unit operation has shown 95% of removal efficiency at the temperature of $160^{\circ}C$. Optimum elimination effective rates for the space velocity was found to be $6,000hr^{-1}$. The most appropriate processing treatment range for the inflow concentration of VOCs was between 200 ppm to 4,000 ppm. Catalyst control temperature showed high destruction efficiency at $150{\sim}200^{\circ}C$ degrees Celsius in 90~99%. External heat source was not necessary due to the self-heat reaction incase of VOCs inflow concentration is more than 1,000 ppm. Equipment and fuel costs compared to the conventional RTO/RCO method can be reduced by 50% and 75% respectively. And it was checked when there was poisoning for sulfide and acid gas.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.167-181
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• 2012

Our society is aging rapidly, and the number of elderly people who are in charge of purchasing and preparing foods at home is increasing. However, most the elderly have difficulty managing nutrition and food safety by themselves. The purpose of this study was to develop the necessary knowledge, through focus group interview and Delphi technique to establish a food safety and nutrition education program. The diet and educational needs of the elderly were surveyed through FGI. The education topics were decided by the Delphi technique. The education program consisted of a five week program, and the topics taught were 'Dietary Change for Healthy Life', 'Prevention of Food Poisoning in Everyday Life', 'Safe Food Handling for my Health', 'Healthy Dietary Life to Prevent Chronic Disease', and 'Safety! Nutrition! Healthy Dietary Life'. This education program was designed to decrease the perceived barriers, and to increase the perceived interests and the sense of self-efficacy. Education program materials, lesson plans, slides, handouts, videos, leaflets, and booklets were developed. Based on the results, the contents of the food safety guideline leaflets for the elderly were decided as the following: (1) wash your hands in the correct way; (2) select safe food; (3) cook foods safely; (4) keep foods safely; (5) keep kitchen utensils clean. In conclusion, if advanced education programs are implemented and delivered continuously in locations such as health centers and community welfare centers, those will contribute significantly to enhance the perception of food safety and to change the desirable dietary behavior of the elderly.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.59-80
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• 2022

The purpose of this study was to develop a workbook that can support the class and evaluation of the subject, 「Food safety and health」 and to verify its validity. The development direction of the workbook was set by analyzing the 「Food safety and health」 curriculum, dietary education materials, and previous studies related to the workbook, and the overall structure was designed by deriving the activity ideas for each area. Based on this, the draft was developed, and the draft went through several rounds of cross-review by the authors and the examination and revision by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, before the final edited version was developed. The workbook was finalized with corrections and enhancements based on the advice of 9 experts and 44 home economics teachers. The workbook consists of 4 areas: the 'food selection' area, with 10 learning topics and 36 lessons, the 'food poisoning and food management' area, with 10 learning topics and 36 lessons, the 'cooking' area, with 11 learning topics and 43 lessons, and the 'healthy eating' area, with 11 learning topics and 55 lessons, resulting in a total of 42 learning topics, 170 lessons. The workbook was designed to evenly cultivate practical problem-solving competency, self-reliance capacity, creative thinking capacity, and community capacity. In-depth inquiry-learning is conducted on the content, and the context is structured so that self-diagnosis can be made through evaluation. According to the validity test of the workbook, it was evaluated to be very appropriate for encouraging student-participatory classes and evaluations, and to create a class atmosphere that promotes inquiry by strengthening experiments and practices. In the current situation where the high school credit system is implemented and individual students' learning options are emphasized, the results of this study is expected to help expand the scope of home economics-based elective courses and contribute to realizing student-led classrooms with a focus on inquiry.