• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.247-258
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• 2015

Exposure of high concentration of ground-level ozone (GLO) can trigger a variety of health problems including chest pain, coughing, throat irritation, asthma, bronchitis and congestion. There are substantial human and animal toxicological data that support health effects associated with exposure to ozone and associations have been observed with a wide range of outcomes in epidemiological studies. The aim of the present study is to estimate the spatial distributions of GLO using geostatistical method (ordinary kriging) for assessing the exposure level of ozone in the eastern part of Texas, U.S.A. GLO data were obtained from 63 U.S. EPA's monitoring stations distributed in the region of study during the period January, 2012 to December, 2012. The descriptive statistics indicate that the spatial monthly mean of daily maximum 8 hour ozone concentrations ranged from 30.33 ppb (in January) to 48.05 (in June). The monthly mean of daily maximum 8 hour ozone concentrations was relatively low during the winter months (December, January, and February) and the higher values observed during the summer months (April, May, and June). The higher level of spatial variations observed in the months of July (Standard Deviation: 10.33) and August (Standard Deviation: 10.02). This indicates the existence of regional variations in climatic conditions in the study area. The range of the semivariogram models varied from 0.372 (in November) to 15.59 (in April). The value of the range represents the spatial patterns of ozone concentrations. Kriging maps revealed that the spatial patterns of ozone concentration were not uniform in each month. This may be due to uneven fluctuation in the local climatic conditions from one region to another. Thus, the formation and dispersion processes of ozone also change unevenly from one region to another. The ozone maps clearly indicate that the concentration values found maximum in the north-east region of the study area in most of the months. Part of the coastal area also showed maximum concentrations during the months of October, November, December, and January.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.271-279
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• 2009

Vinyl chloride (VC) is a known human carcinogen, and it is released to multi-environmental media via several exposure routes. VC was potentially evaluated as a water quality pollutant based on human health risk assessment in Korean water environments. In this study, we investigated physicochemical and toxicological properties of VC, human health and ecological risk assessment, and the regulation of VC as a water quality pollutant in developed countries. Currently there are no standard or guideline values of VC in Korean legal system for the protection of human health and aquatic ecosystem, except that it is designated as a specific toxic substance and a water quality pollutant. Human health risk assessment of VC was previously performed based on the limited water quality monitoring data. The monitoring level of VC in Korean water system is more higher than other countries'. VC was assessed as potential hazardous chemical based on the US EPA's cancer risk assessment. There were a few ecotoxicity data of VC available using very limited kinds of aquatic organisms, and the toxicity results obtained seem to be overestimated without considering the losses of VC in open exposure system. Therefore it is needed to monitor the VC in various areas and to carry out the ecotoxicity research using multi-level organisms. We expect that these results can be useful information for implementing VC as a water quality pollutant in legal system for the protection of human health and aquatic ecosystem in near future.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.157-162
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• 2010

In this study, we investigated the atmospheric heavy metal concentrations in the particulate matter inside the subway stations of Seoul. In particular, we examined the correlation between the heavy metals and studied the effect of the heavy metals on cell proliferation. In six selected subway stations in Seoul, particulate matter was captured at the platforms and 11 types of heavy metals were analyzed. The results showed that the mean concentration of iron was the highest out of the heavy metals in particulate matter, followed by copper, potassium, calcium, zinc, nickel, sodium, manganese, magnesium, chromium and cadmium in that order. The correlation analysis showed that the correlations between the heavy metals was highest in the following order: (Cu vs Zn), (Ca vs Na), (Ca vs Mn), (Ni vs Cr), (Na vs Mn), (Cr vs Cd), (Zn vs Cd), (Cu vs Cd), (Ni vs Cd), (Cu vs Ni), (K vs Zn), (Cu vs K), (Cu vs Cr), (K vs Cd), (Zn vs Cr), (K vs Ni), (Zn vs Ni), (K vs Cr), and (Fe vs Cu). The correlation coefficient between zinc and copper was 0.937, indicating the highest correlation. Copper, zinc, nickel, chromium and cadmium, which are generated from artificial sources in general, showed correlations with many of the other metals and the correlation coefficients were also relatively high. The effect of the heavy metals on cell proliferation was also investigated in this study. Cultured cell was exposed to 10 mg/l or 100 mg/l of iron, copper, calcium, zinc, nickel, manganese, magnesium, chromium and cadmium for 24 hours. The cell proliferation in all the heavy metal-treated groups was not inhibited at 10 mg/l of the heavy metal concentration. The only exception to this was with the cadmium-treated group which showed a strong cell proliferation inhibition. This study provides the fundamental data for the understanding of simultaneous heavy metal exposure tendency at the time of particulate matter exposure in subway stations and the identification of heavy metal sources. Moreover, this study can be used as the fundamental data for the cell toxicity study of the subway-oriented heavy metal-containing particulate matter.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.49-56
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• 2011

To investigate the toxicological effects of ${\beta}$-glucan, we performed basic studying on ${\beta}$-glucan in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. Standard endpoints in this study included mortality, clinical observations, changes of body weights, analysis on food consumption, ophthalmoscopic examination, hematologic examination, serum biochemistry, analysis of organ weights, gross anatomic pathology and histopathology. No clinical signs and mortality were observed in animals treated with beta-glucan throughout the experimental period. The average body weight of each treatment groups showed similar levels at end of experiment. There were no treatment-related changes in mortality, body weights changes, food consumption, ophthalmoscopic examination. Although there were statistically significant differences between the control and treated groups in some relative and absolute organ weights, and hematological and biochemical analysis, the data were in biologically normal ranges and did not show a dose-dependent manner. In the morphological change, hepatic tissue were not showed ballooning degeneration and irregular arrangement of hepatic cell in ${\beta}$-glucan treatment groups with control group. Also, organs weights (liver, heart, kidney and stomach) and hematological indices (WBC, RBC, Hb, Hct and Platelet) did not show statistically significant differences among the experimental groups. In summary of these results, there were no changes in mortality, mean body weight, clinical signs, food consumption. There were no changes in ophthalmological examination, hematology, blood chemistry, necropsy and histopathology. In conclusion, although further investigation of glucan should be performed in the functions registered in many ancient literatures, ${\beta}$-glucan is physiologically safe and may have potential as candidate food for human health.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.179-186
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• 2005

Dimethylamine (DMA) is a widely used commodity chemical with few toxicity data. Groups of 10 male and female F-344 rats were exposed by inhalation to 0, 5, 10, 20, 40 and 80 ppm of DMA for 6 hrs/day, 5 days/week for 90 days. The changes of body weight, organ weight, hematology, clinical chemistry, and histopathological changes were evaluated after the exposure. As the results, the body weight was significantly decreased at 80 ppm in male and female rats (p<0.05). The absolute lung weight showed no statistically significant changes in any group. In contrast, the relative lung weight significantly increased at 80 ppm in male and female rats (p<0.05). Erythrocytes, mean cell hemoglobin, leukocytes, neutrophil, and platelet numbers were significantly increased in male and female at 40 or 80 ppm of DMA (p<0.05, p<0.01). In addition, the serum values of total protein, urea nitrogen were increased in male and creatine kinase, total protein were increased in female rats at 40 or 80 ppm (p<0.05, p<0.01). Histopathological examinations of the male and female lung samples showed slight hyperplasia and congestion at 80 ppm. Taken together, our study revealed that maximum tolerated dose of DMA would be over 40 ppm.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.87-98
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• 2002

This study was conducted to evaluate the safety of a recombinant human Factor VIII(GC-$\gamma$ AHF) manufactured by Korea Green Cross Company with different technology according to the Regulation of Korean Food and Drug Administration (l 998. 12. 3). In acute toxicity test, both genders of Sprague-Dawley rats and Beagle dogs were administered intravenously with GC-$\gamma$ AHF of three doses (3,125, 625 and 125 IU/kg), and single dose of 3,125 IU/kg, respectively. No dead animal and abnormal autopsy findings were found in Control and GC-$\gamma$ AHF treated group. Therefore, the 50% lethal dose ($LD_{50}$) of GC-$\gamma$ AHF was conidered to be higher than 3,125 IU/kg in rats and dogs. In the four weeks repeated intravenous toxicity study, GC-$\gamma$ AHF was administrated intravenosly to both genders of rats and dogs with 3 doses (500, 150, 50 IU/kg). There were neither dead animals nor significant changes of body weights during the experimental Period. In addition, no significant GC-$\gamma$ AHF related changes were found in clinical sign, urinalysis and other finding. Statistically changes were observed in hematological, biochemical and organ weight parameters of treated groups: however these changes were not dose dependent. No histopathological lesion were observed in both control and treated animals. Above data suggest that no observed adverse effect level of test materials in rats and dogs might be over 500 IU/kg/day in this study. In ocular irritation test, any injury on iris, conjunctiva and cornea in rabbits were not observed. The acute ocular irritation index (A.O.I.), mean ocular irritation index (M.O.I.) and Day-7 individual ocular irritation Index (I.O.I.) of GC-$\gamma$ AHF were 0. In the primary skin Irritation test, the primary irritation index (P.I.I.) oj GC-$\gamma$ AHF were 0. Therefore, the GC-$\gamma$ AHF is considered not to have the primary skin and eye toxicity in rabbits. In active systemic anaphylaxis (ASA) test, GC-$\gamma$ AHF and GC-$\gamma$ AHF emulsified with Freund's complete adjuvant (FCA) did not induce any symptom of anaphylactic shock in guinea pigs. In passive cutaneous anaphylxis (PCA) test, after sensitization with antisera of GC-$\gamma$ AHF sensitized mice, blue spots were observed on the hypodermis of back of rats, but diameter of each spot was smaller than 5 mm in each test groups except the positive control group. Based on the results of this study, GC-$\gamma$ AHF is not conidered to have any antigenic potential. In conclusion, at levels of up to 500 IU/kg, GC-$\gamma$ AHF did not produce treatment-related toxicity under the conditions of these acute-, four week repeated-toxicity, primary skin and eye toxicity, and antigenicity test.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.136-143
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• 2016

Purpose: In patients with altered mentality caused by drugs or unknown causes, ammonia is checked to facilitate differential diagnosis or diagnose hepatic coma. This helps early prevention and treatment of brain damage due to hyperammonemia. This study was conducted to evaluate clinical characteristics of intoxicated adult patients with hyperammonemia. Methods: We evaluated 95 patients with hyperammonemia among intoxicated patients above the age of 15 who visited our ED from January 2013 to December 2015. We analyzed the demographic characteristics and type of poisoning substance, reason for ingestion, toxicological characteristics such as elapsed time from ingestion to hospital visit, lab, clinical progression and complications. Data were evaluated using the student's t test or Mann-Whitney U test for continuous variables, and Chi-square test and Fisher's exact test for frequency analysis of categorical variables. Results: When compared to healthy individuals, patients with hyperammonemia showed statistical significance on their SOFA score (p=0.016) and poison severity score (p<0.001). Additionally, patients with hyperammonemia showed significantly different initial serum AST level (p=0.012) and maximum serum AST level during the hospital stay (p=0.026) when compared to healthy individuals. Moreover, individuals with sustained hyperammonemia compared to transient hyperammonemia showed clinically significant SOFA scores (p<0.001), poison severity scores (p=0.007), mortality rates in the ICU (p=0.021), as well as different duration of hospital stay (p=0.037), serum creatinine level (p=0.002), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (p=0.025), and serum myoglobin (p=0.015). Conclusion: Most poisoning-induced hyperammonemia cases were transient and recovered without special treatment. Therefore, hyperammonemia is almost non-specific among poisoning patients.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.323-333
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• 2009

Parabens are alkyl esters of p-hydroxybenzoic acid, which are widely used in foods, cosmetics, and pharmaceutic products as preservatives. Absorbed parabens are metabolized fastly and excreted. Actually human body is exposed to complex mixture of parabens. Safety assessment at various toxicological end points revealed parabens have a little acute, subacute and chronic toxicities. Some reports have argued that as parabens have estrogenic activity, they are associated with the incidence of breast cancer through dermal absorption by cosmetics. There is an inference that antiandrogenic activity of parabens may give rise to a lesion of male reproductive system, but also there is an contrary. At cellular level, parabens may inhibit mitochondrial function of sperms and androgen production in testis, but also there is an contrary. Parabens seem to have little or no toxicity in embryonic development. Parabens can cause hemolysis, membrane permeability change in mitochondria and apoptosis, suggesting cellular toxicity of parabens. Parabens evoked endocrine disruption in several fish species and have toxic effect on small invertebrates and microbes. Therefore, the toxicity of parabens should be considered as a potentially toxic chemical in the freshwater environment. In conclusion, though parabens may be considered as a low toxic chemical, more definite data are required concerning the endocrine disrupting effect of parabens on human body and aquatic animals according to route and term of exposure as well as the residual concentration of parabens.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.555-559
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• 2020

In order to examine the toxicity of palatinose-L (Pal-L) bioconverted from sucrose, we performed a 14-consecutive day toxicity study with male and female Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. We recorded clinical signs of toxicity, body weight, organ weights, hematology, blood biochemical, urinalysis, histological changes in organs, such as the liver and kidneys, and clinical chemistry analysis data for all SD rats. There were no significant changes in food/water consumption, body weight, and organ weights during the experimental period. Although there were some hematologic and urinalysis alterations, these changes were not considered toxicologically significant. In addition, histopathological examination of the liver and kidneys revealed no abnormal or toxicological changes between the control and Pal-L-treated rats of both sexes. Collectively, these results suggest that Pal-L was not indicated to have any toxicity in the SD rats when it was orally administered up to a dose of 1,000 mg/kg/day for 14 days.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.159-173
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• 2016

Crickets have been attracting considerable interest in the field of nutrition and toxicology due to the global exhaustion of food resulting from a growing population. The cricket is normally eaten in several countries after roasting, similar to the grasshopper; however, safety evaluation data on cricket powder is limited. Here, we performed general toxicity studies of cricket powder including a single, 2-week repeated dose range evaluation test, a 13-week repeated oral dose toxicity test in Sprague-Dawley rats, a single oral dose toxicity test in Beagle dogs, and a skin sensitization test in guinea pigs following the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development test guidelines 406 and 408 in addition to Good Laboratory Practice. To investigate the NOAEL and target organs of cricket powder, Sprague-Dawley rats were allocated to 4 groups: vehicle control, 1,250 mg/kg, 2,500 mg/kg, 5,000 mg/kg dose test groups and cricket powder was administered over 13 weeks after single dose and dose range finding studies in rats based on the results of the single oral administration toxicity study in rats and Beagle dogs. The results of the study showed that the NOAEL of cricket powder was over 5,000 mg/kg for both sexes of rats without adverse effects in a 13-week repeated oral toxicity study and there was no skin hypersensitivity reaction. Therefore, our results reveal that crickets can be widely used as a new substitute food or nutrient resource.