• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.175-187
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• 1999

To investigate the risk perception of environmental issues, two consequtive surveys were conducted to environmental professionals using a standardized questionnaire from September to October in 1999. The number of subjects were 72 for the first survey and 68 for the second one. The questionnaire was consisted of items such as the degree of environmental pollution in Korea, risk perception of some issues on human health and ecosystem, and seriousness of the problems in the real situation in Korea. For the degree of environmental pollution in Korea, the average risk rating in the second test (7.4 point) was significantly higher than that in the first test (7.2 point). The risk perception on the general human health and ecosystem, and the seriousness in Korea situation were analyzed in the order of ′air pollution′, ′water pollution′,′soil contamination′,′waste′,′toxic chemical pollutants′,′food contamination′,′ocean contamination′, ′odor pollution′, and ′noise pollution′. Also ′toxic chemical pollutants′ problem was perceived to be the highest risk on general human health or ecosystem, and on present situation in Korea. ′Automotive vehicle exhaust′ problem was perceived to be the most severe environmental problems among specific 30 items. ′Industrial source air pollution′,′toxic air pollutants′, and ′domestic and industrial source pollutants to surface water′ were relatively severe environmental problems comparing to other problems. The pollution issues were classified into four categories by two aspects of perception; risk in general setting and seriousness in Korea situation. If the issues were highly serious in Korea and low risk perception in general setting then it is named "the Korea-specific group". Those that were all high score in two aspects, named "the Common group". Those that were all low in two aspects, named "the Nonsignificant group". And the issues were high risk perception in general setting and low seriousness in Korean situation, named "the Latent group".

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.352-360
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• 2011

Standard combination chemotherapy including isoniazid, rifampin, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol is very effective against tuberculosis. But, these medicines can cause hepatotoxicity which is the main reason for treatment interruption or change in drug regimen. In order to identify risk factors associated with hepatotoxcity in Koreans and assess elevated baseline LFTs' contributions to hepatotoxicity, a retrospective case control study was performed. The medical records of 277 patients who diagnosed with tuberculosis at a community hospital from January 1st, 2007 to June 30th, 2010 were reviewed. Patients were categorized into 3 groups (non toxic group, patients without increase in LFT levels; mild to moderate hepatotoxic group and severe hepatotoxic group). And the correlation between risk factors and hepatotoxicity was analyzed by using SPSS program. The overall incidence of hepatotoxicity was 18% and 8.7% of patients developed severe toxicity. Patients in the severe toxic group had the longest treatment period among the three groups. In 75% of severe toxic group, hepatotoxicity occurred within 18.3 days after starting medication. Hypoalbuminemia (serum albumin <3 g/dl) was a significant risk factor for development of severe toxicity. Elevated baseline transaminase (except ALT), total bilirubin, and preexisting hepatitis were also risk factors which were more than twice as likely to increase risk of severe hepatotoxicity (p>0.05). In conclusion, hypoalbuminemia (serum albumin level <3 g/dl) was a significant risk factor for anti-tuberculosis druginduced severe toxicity. Therefore, before starting antituberculosis chemotherapy, serum albumin level should be assessed at baseline. In high-risk patients (hypoalbuminemia, elevated LFTs) for hepatotoxicty, liver function should be closely monitored up to at least 21 days after taking medication.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.107-112
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• 2006

Purpose: In many Korean hospitals, serum acetaminophen concentrations in cases of overdose cannot be measured initially because of inadequate laboratory facilities. Under these circumstances, physicians base the administration of the antidote, N-acetylcysteine, on ingestion amounts as determined by initial history taking. We therefore examined the correlated between ingested amounts and serum acetaminophen concentrations. Methods: Medical records were reviewed retrospectively for patients who presented to the ED with acetaminophen overdose between January 2002 and March 2006. Fifty-nine patients were recruited and sixteen patients were excluded. The forty-three remaining patients were placed into either the high-risk or low-risk group based on their ingested amount (140 mg/kg), and were separately categorized into the toxic or non-toxic group based on their serum acetaminophen concentrations, according to the Rurnack-Matthew nomogram. Results: Ten patients (83.3%) among twelve in the high-risk group were found to have non-toxic serum concentrations, and just one patient (3.2%) among thirty-one in the low-risk group fell into the toxic group based on their serum concentrations. The sensitivity and specificity of risk stratification of the ingested amount as a predictor of intoxication requiring antidote therapy were 66.7% and 75.0%, respectively. Conclusion: This study suggests that the therapeutic decision for acetaminophen overdose should not be based solely on ingested amount only, but requires assessment of acetaminophen concentration.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.97-103
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• 2012

BACKGROUND: Metal mines were actively developed in the early twentieth century in Korea; however, most of these mines were closed and abandoned without proper management. Therefore, toxic metal contamination in the vicinity of Korean abandoned metal mines has been reported. A risk assessment for these metals was performed for residents near by abandoned Sanyang metal mine. METHODS AND RESULTS: Soil and groundwater samples were collected from May to October 2007 around the mine. After pretreatment of these samples, metal concentrations were measured and then a risk assessment was performed using the Korean soil-contamination risk assessment guidelines. Cancer risk was the highest from inhalation of Pb-contaminated soil, followed in descending order by As-contaminated soil inhalation and water ingestion. The sum of carcinogenic risks was $3.35{\times}10^{-3}$. The noncarcinogenic risk was observed for inhalation of Hg-contaminated soil (5.71). CONCLUSION: Inhalation of soil in dust was the principal pathway to cause the health risk and most of the risk was attributed to As, Pb,Cd, and Hg contamination.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.54-61
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• 2019

As the market for portable electronic devices expands, the demand for Lithium Ion Battery (LIB) is also increasing. LIB has higher efficiency than other secondary batteries, but there is a risk of explosion / fire due to thermal runaway reaction. Especially, Electric Vehicles (EV) equipped with a large capacity LIB cell also has a danger due to a large amount of toxic gas generated by a fire. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the risk of toxic gas generated by EV fire to minimize accident damage. In this study, the flow of toxic gas generated by EV fire was numerically analyzed using Computational Fluid Dynamic. Scenarios were established based on literature data and EV data to confirm the effect distance according to time and exposure standard. The purpose of this study is to analyze the risk of toxic gas caused by EV fire and to help minimize the loss of life and property caused by accidents.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.83-96
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• 2005

Brominated flame retardants have the market share of 40%, comparing others because of their low cost and highly effective retardation against the flame. However, their toxic effects in human and properties of the accumulation in the environments have been issued among the international organization such as EU, OECD and etc. It, therefore, was surveyed the classification, toxic effects, and the usage of Brominated flame retardants, the trends for their managements in the world and Korea, and their contaminated levels in Korean Peninsula. In addition, the management directions for them were proposed. Penta, octa, and deca-BDE among brominated retardants will seem to be prohibited by the regulation as a flame retardants for plastics in Europe because of their toxic effects. Although Penta and Octa BDEs was used marginally in Korea, deca-BDE was 27% of brominated flame retardants (49,050 ton) which had been used in 2002. However, risk assessment for brominated retardants might not launched in Korea, yet. These reports demonstrate that toxic brominated retardants such as PBDEs will be assessed for their usage and the level of contamination in the environment in the area of the point sources like the industrial areas, incinerators and etc. However, the law to regulate the hazardous chemicals seems not to be dictated the monitoring of their contamination in the environment. We, therefore, suggest how to evaluate and to monitor the toxic contaminants with EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) and LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) system. Further, to establish the management system of BFRs (such as the monitering of contamination levels in environments, life cycle assessment, and risk assessment for the toxic chemicals), It can be recommended the law to deal with the method analyzing chemicals will be established, which contains QA/QC (Quality Assurance and Quality Control) to evaluate the analytic capability of the companies to prepare EIS (Environment Impact Statement) or other institutes for analyzing chemicals.

• Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.260-266
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• 2008

Recently, there has been scientific discussion on the utility of -omics techniques such as genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics within toxicological research and mechanism-based risk assessment. Toxicogenomics is a novel approach integrating the expression analysis of genes (genomic) or proteins (proteomic) with traditional toxicological methods. Since 1999, the toxicogenomic approach has been extensively applied for regulatory purposes in order to understand the potential toxic mechanisms that result from chemical compound exposures. Therefore, this article's purpose was to consider the utility of toxicogenomic profiles for improved risk assessment, explore the current limitations in applying toxicogenomics to regulation, and finally, to rationalize possible avenues to resolve some of the major challenges. Based on many recent works, the significant impact toxicogenomic techniques would have on human health risk assessment is better identification of toxicity pathways or mode-of-actions (MOAs). In addition, the application of toxicogenomics in risk assessment and regulation has proven to be cost effective in terms of screening unknown toxicants prior to more extensive and costly experimental evaluation. However, to maximize the utility of these techniques in regulation, researchers and regulators must resolve many parallel challenges with regard to data collection, integration, and interpretation. Furthermore, standard guidance has to be prepared for researchers and assessors on the scientifically appropriate use of toxicogenomic profiles in risk assessment. The National Institute of Toxicological Research (NITR) looks forward to an ongoing role as leader in addressing the challenges associated with the scientifically sound use of toxicogenomics data in risk assessment.

• Advances in environmental research
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.241-254
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• 2017

This study was conducted to investigate the levels of heavy metals in twelve species of vegetables and assessment of health risk. Samples were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS). The ranges of Cr, Ni, Cu, As, Cd and Pb in vegetables species were 0.37-5.4, 0.03-17, 0.35-45, 0.01-2.6, 0.001-2.2, and 0.04-8.8 [mg/kg, fresh weight (fw)], respectively. The concentrations of As, Cd and Pb in most vegetable species exceeded the maximum permissible levels, indicating unsafe for human consumption. Health risks associated with the intake of these metals were evaluated in terms of estimated daily intake (EDI), and carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks by target hazard quotient (THQ). Total THQ of the studied metals from most of the vegetables species were higher than 1, indicated that these types of vegetables might pose health risk due to metal exposure. The target carcinogenic risk (TR) for As ranged from 0.03 to 0.48 and 0.0004 to 0.025 for Pb which were higher than the USEPA acceptable risk limit (0.000001) indicating that the inhabitants consuming these vegetables are exposed to As and Pb with a lifetime cancer risk. The findings of this study reveal the health risks associated with the consumption of heavy metals through the intake of selected vegetables in adult population of Bangladesh.

• 대한예방의학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1994.02a
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• pp.405-411
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• 1994

Hazardous wastes released into the general environment are of concern to the public and to public health authorities. In response to this concern, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, as amended (commonly called Superfund), was enacted in 1980 to provide a framework for environmental, public health, and legal actions concerning uncontrolled releases of hazardous substances. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) was created by Superfund to address the public health issues of hazardous wastes in the community environment. Two key Agency programs, Public Health Assessments and Toxicological Profiles, are designed to assess the risk to human health of exposures to hazardous substances that migrate from waste sites or through emergency releases (e.g., chemical spills). The Agency's public health assessment is a structured process that permits ATSDR to identify which waste sites or other point sources require traditional public health actions (e.g.. human exposure studies, health studies, registries, health surveillance, health advisories). The ATSDR qualitative public health assessment complements the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's quantitative risk assessment. For Superfund purposes, both assessments are sitespecific. ATSDR's toxicological profiles are prepared for priority hazardous substances found most frequently at Superfund sites. Each profile presents the current toxicologic and human health effects information about the substance being profiled. Each profile also contains Minimal Risk Levels (MRLs), a type of risk assessment value. This paper covers ATSDR's experience in conducting public health assessments and developing MRLs, and it relates this experience to recommendations on how to improve chemical risk assessments.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Environmental Toocicology Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.76-76
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• 2002