• Ocean Science Journal
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.91-100
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• 2005

Bioassay using the marine bacteria, Vibrio fischeri and rotifer, Brachionus plicatilis, and chemical analyses were conducted to assess the toxicity of the various sewage sludges, one of the major ocean dumped materials in the Yellow Sea of Korea. Sludge elutriates extracted by filtered seawater were used to estimate the ecotoxicity of the sludge. Chemical characterization included the analyses of organic contents, heavy metals, and persistent organic pollutants in sludge. Bacterial bioluminescent inhibition (15 min), rotifer mortality (24 hr) and rotifer population growth inhibition (48 hr) assay were conducted to estimate the sludge toxicity. EC50 15 min (inhibition concentration of bioluminescence after 15 minutes exposed) values by Microtox(R) bioassay clearly revealed different toxicity levels depending on the sludge sources. Highest toxicity for the bacteria was found with the sludge extract from dyeing waste and followed by industrial waste, livestock waste, and leather processing waste. Clear toxic effects on the bacteria were not found in the sludge extract from filtration bed sludge and rural sewage sludge. Consistent with Microtox(R) results, rotifer neonate mortality and population growth inhibition test also showed highest toxicity in dyeing waste and low in filtration bed and rural sewage sludge. High concentrations of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and heavy metals were measured in the samples from the industrial wastes, leather processing plant waste sludge, and urban sewage sludge. However, there was no significant correlation between pollutant concentration levels and the toxicity values of the sludge. This suggests that the ecotoxicity in addition to the chemical analyses of various sludge samples must be estimated before release of potential harmful waste in the natural environment as part of an ecological risk assessment.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.453-479
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• 2011

Residual pharmaceutical compounds have been recognized as emerging environmental pollutants and are widely distributed all over the world. These compounds cause bioaccumulation and biomagnification during present for a long time in the environment: thereby after adversely biota and human bodies. It is difficult to remove residual pharmaceutical compounds using conventional water/wastewater treatment because of resistant property to photodegradation, biodegradation and chemical decomposition. Moreover, domestic literature data on the pollution of residual pharmaceutical compounds in rivers and lakes are limited. In this paper, species, sources, fate and risk of residual pharmaceutical compounds as well as behavior properties in freshwater resources are demonstrated to encourage the domestic concern about residual pharmaceutical compounds. An extensive review of existing data in the form of figures and tables, encompassing many therapeutic classes are presented.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.353-360
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• 2006

This study identified a particle size distribution (PSD) of fine particulate matter and emission characteristics of V and Ni by the comparison between anthropogenic sources of oil combustion (industrial boiler, oil power plant, etc.) and lab-scale combustion using a drop-tube furnace. In oil combustion source, the mass fraction of fine particles (less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter) was higher than that of coarse particles (larger than 2.5 micrometers in diameter) in $PM_{10}$ (less than 10 micrometers in diameter) as like in lab-scale oil combustion. In addition to this, it was identified that ultra-fine particles (less than 0.1 micrometers in diameter) had a large distribution in fine particles. Toxic metals like V and Ni had large mass fractions in fine particles, and most of all was distributed in ultra-fine particles. Most of ultra-fine particles containing toxic metals have been emitted into ambient by combustion source because it is hard to control by the existing air pollution control device. Hence, we must be careful on these pollutants because it is obvious that these are associated with adverse health and environmental effect.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.9
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• pp.1170-1177
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• 2014

Mycobacterium gilvum PYR-GCK is a bacterial strain under study for its bioremediation use on heavy hydrocarbon pollutants in the environment. During the course of our study, mammalian cell entry (mce) genes, known to facilitate pathogenicity in M. tuberculosis, were highly expressed during a comparative and substrate-related cultural global transcriptomic study. RNA sequencing of the global transcriptome of the test strain in two different substrates, pyrene and glucose, showed high expression of the mce genes based on the differential results. After validating the expression of these genes with quantitative real-time PCR, we arrived at the conclusion that the genes were expressed based on the pyrene substrate (a phytosterol compound), and sterol metabolism is said to activate the expression of the mce genes in some actinomycetes bacteria, M. gilvum PYR-GCK in this case. This study is believed to be important based on the fact that some mycobacterial strains are undergoing a continuous research as a result of their use in practical bioremediation of anthropogenic exposure of toxic organic wastes in the environment.

• Clean Technology
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.6-23
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• 1998

Recently, semiconductor industry has grown rapidly because of the large demand for electronic devices and equipment. The semiconductor industries have also played an important role on the economic growth in Korea. As the environmental regulations become strict, the proper environmental management and the well-developed waste minimization technologies in semiconductor industries are two of urgent problems to be solved. The semiconductor manufacturing process consists of a series of continuous chemical processes, such as cleaning, oxidation, diffusion, photolithography, etching and film deposition. During the processes, various environmentally hazardous wastes are produced. The wastes may be classified as wastewater, gaseous pollutants, and solid wastes. For waste minimization, the substitution of raw materials and process optimization techniques are used, while the selective destruction technologies of toxic chemicals contained in the wastes have been reported. Also, new technologies have been developed for source reduction and waste reduction, such as reduction of toxic chemical use and substitution of hazardous liquids with gaseous reactants or solvent.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.64-71
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• 1997

Floating aquatic plant system using water hyacinth was applied to examine feasibility as a wastewater treatment system for the industrial complex in rural area. The wastewater from the industrial complex does not likely contain toxic pollutants because the industries which generate wastewater with toxic compounds are not allowed to move in. Pilot plant was installed at Baeksuk Nongkong Danzi in Chunahn-City, Chunchungnam - Do , and field study was performed during summer and fall of 1996. Hydraulic loading rate was 0. $0.19m^3/m^2$.day. The effluent concentration of DO was higher than influent, and it implies that 0.6m depth reactor was reaerated enough to increase DO level. The influent concentration of BOD varied significantly from less than 30 to 120mg/${\ell}$ during the study period, however, effluent concentrations were generally lower than the water quality standard and removal efficiency was up to 85%. The influent concentration of COD also showed wide variation from less than 40 to 160mg/${\ell}$ and effluent concentration was higher than water quality standard when influent concentration was over l00mg/${\ell}$. The influent concentrations of T-N and T-P were lower than water quality standard and no further treatment was required, and these compounds were also removed in the system. Although some improvement and refinement are still required, overall* the floating aquatic plant system was proved to be feasible to apply to treat wastewater from industrial complex in rural area.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.505-512
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• 2021

Background: The occurrence of environmental disease is known to be associated with chronic exposure to toxic chemicals, including waterborne contaminants, air/indoor pollutants, asbestos, ingredients in humidifier disinfectants, etc. Objectives: In this study, we reviewed toxicological studies related to environmental disease as defined by the Environmental Health Act in Korea and toxic chemicals. We also suggested a direction for future toxicological research necessary for the prevention and management of environmental disease. Methods: Trends in previous studies related to environmental disease were investigated through PubMed and Web of Science. A detailed review was provided on toxicological studies related to the humidifier disinfectants. We identified adverse outcome pathways (AOPs) that can be linked to the induction of environmental diseases, and proposed a chemical screening system that uses AOP, chemical toxicity big data, and deep learning models to select chemicals that induce environmental disease. Results: Research on chemical toxicity is increasing every year, but there is a limitation to revealing a clear causal relationship between exposure to chemicals and the occurrence of environmental disease. It is necessary to develop various exposure- and effect-biomarkers related to disease occurrence and to conduct toxicokinetic studies. A novel chemical screening system that uses AOP and chemical toxicity big data could be useful for selecting chemicals that cause environmental diseases. Conclusions: From a toxicological point of view, developing AOP related to environmental diseases and a deep learning-based chemical screening system will contribute to the prevention of environmental diseases in advance.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.81 no.3
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• pp.234-246
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• 1992

This study was conducted to determine the toxic effects of air pollutants on landscaping tress, Pinus densiflora, Pinus koraiensis, Ginkgo biloba, Liriodendron tulipifera, Platanus occidentalis and their resistance to the pollutant toxicity in urban and industrial regions of Seoul and Taejon, Korea. Total sulfur contents and enzyme activities such as superoxide dismutase and peroxidase were analyzed in tree foliage of Pinus densiflora, Pinus koraiensis, Ginkgo biloba, Liriodendron tulipifera, Platanus occidentalis. In addition, POD activity was analyzed in the foliage on tree seedlings, i.e. Pinus densiflora, Pinus koraiensis, Ginkgo biloba, Lirioderdron tulipifera, with the fumigation of $SO_2$ in gas chamber 4 hours a day for six days. In Ginkgo biloba total sulfur content and POD activity had a negative correlation while other species had a positive relationship in total sulfur content and enzyme activity. Air pollutants accumulated in tree tissues were supposed to enhance the enzyme activity like POD providing the resistance mechanisms. Especially Pinus koraiensis and Platanus occidentalis had higher POD activity than other species. The increase of temporary POD activity against environmental stress appeared in sensitive trees and prolonged increase of POD activity played an important role in resistance mechanism. SOD and POD activities in all species had a positive correlation except Ginkgo biloba. Changes of SOD and POD activities were different between species and in most species SOD as well as POD seemed to participate in resistance mechanism.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.8 no.1 s.27
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• pp.99-106
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• 2006

During the dry periods, many types of pollutant are accumulating on the paved surface by vehicle activities. Particularly, the highways are stormwater intensive landuses because of high imperviousness and high pollutant mass emissions from vehicles. The accumulated pollutants in highways are washed-off during a rainfall event and are highly contributing on water quality of receiving water bodies. The stormwater runoff from the highways are containing various pollutants such as metals, oil & grease and toxic chemicals originated from vehicles. Therefore, this research is performed to find pollutant characteristics in the magnitude of statistical pollutant concentrations during storm periods. During the monitoring periods, the first-flush phenomenon is visibly occurred on most storm events, which is confirmed from hydro- and pollute-graphs. The 95% confidence intervals of washed-off pollutant concentration are ranged to 154.7-257.1 mg/L for 755,138.9-197.6 mg/L for COD, 3.5-6.4 mg/L for oil & grease, 6.3-9.2 mg/L for TN and 2.3-3.31 mg/L for TP. The first flush effect is mostly occurred within initial 30 min of storm duration.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.377-386
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• 2010

Introduction of TBELs into Korean environmental regulatory system for wastewater may require very careful considerations and appropriate modifications of the TBELs applied in US. The Korean regulations for wastewater are based on uniform regulatory criteria for wastewater effluent discharge and are quite different from the individual permit system in US. In addition, the toxic pollutants regulated in Korea are much less than those in US. Therefore, the effects of TBELs application on the pollutants reduction and the economic feasibility should be carefully assessed for different categories of wastewater sources. In this study, the applicability of TBELs for the industrial categories of Korea was discussed. The TBELs were derived for a sample category, the pulp paper paperboard manufacture, based on the previously reported analytical data from 52 facilities of the domestic pulp paper paperboard manufacture in Korea. It was suggested that the BAT effluent limitations were BOD 30 mg/L, $COD_{Mn}$ 40 mg/L, SS 40 mg/L, T-N 30 mg/L and T-P 4 mg/L and that the allowable effluent loads were $0.31{\sim}1.75kgCOD_{Mn}/ton$-products. Due to the limitation of insufficient data, there were difficult to obtain the important factors to derive more systematic and accurate limitation standards for the pollutants such as the 'Long Term Average (LTA)', the 'Product Normalized Discharge Flow (PNDF)', and the 'Variability Factor (VF)'. However, as the first trial of TBELs determination based on the all available analytical data reported, the procedure and the outcome of the study may provide valuable insight on application of TBELs in Korea.