The history of occupational health in Korea has covered the era of the Republic of Korea after the Liberation from Japanese colonialism. But the number of Korean workers exceeded about 2 millions at the times of liberation in 1945, so that it is expected that many occupational health problems inflicted Korean workers under the Japanese colonialism. The authors reviewed medical literatures, administrative documents, and other available data which were published under the colonial state, and collected things which had reference to the health status of Korean workers. The results were as follows; 1. Nutritional status of Korean workers was supposed to be inferior to of general population, some students, and poor inhabitants in a remote moutain villages. 2. It was supposed that the constitution of Korean workers was near lower limit of average build of contemporary Koreans. 3. The accidents rate in mines was significantly high but decreasing year after year, and the most importance cause of accidents was the fall of roof in the mine. The medical facilities and equipments for miners were supposed to be not sufficient in the mines and workshops. 4. Some occupational disease including silicosis, noise-induced hearing impairment, and decompression disease were known. But, overall incidence or prevalence of these diseases could not be identified. 5. On the whole, the fatalities of acute infectious diseases of Korean workers were higher than those of Japanese inhabitants in Korea and Korean inhabitants. The prevalence of pulmonary tuberculosis of Korean workers was increasing with every passing year. 6. The medical personnels and facilities were so deficient that most Korean workers were out of adequate medical use. We discussed only a part of the health status of Korean workers under the Japanese colonialism, so it would be necessary to have a better grasp of details of occupational health policy and health status in the era of afflicting.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group* ; Colonialism* ; Communicable Diseases ; Constitution and Bylaws ; Decompression ; Education ; Hand Strength ; Hearing Loss ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea ; Nutritional Status ; Occupational Diseases ; Occupational Health ; Prevalence ; Republic of Korea ; Silicosis ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary

Many physical and psychological problems, involved in shiftwork were noted, including peptic ulcer, rheumatoid arthritis, sleep disturbances, anxiety, etc. But emotional and psychological problems in nighttime workers were not sufficientiy investigated. To evaluate psychological problems encountered by night duty workers, Symptom Checklist-90-Revision was administered to 61 workers, including 47 night duty workers and 14 ordinary daytime workers, and the results of the both groups were compared. 1. Of 9 symptom dimensions, depression and hostility showed significantly higher scores in night duty workers. 2. Three global indicies(GSI, PST, PSDI) of night duty workers were higher than those of daytime workers, but statistically not significant. 3. Scores in all symptom dimensions, except somatization and hostilithy, of investigation group were lower than those of norm group. 4. In night duty workers, duration of night-time work per day was positively correlated with depression, anxiety, phobic anxiety and psychoticism. From the above results, it was suggested that psychological health maintenance program should be developed for night duty workers.
Anxiety ; Arthritis, Rheumatoid ; Depression ; Hostility ; Peptic Ulcer

This study was performed to analyze the clinical, radiological results of 70 patients with isthmic spondylolisthesis and 30 patients with degenerative spondylolisthesis who were underwent with wide decompression, reduction with transpedicular screw system and posterolateral fusion from Mar. 1990 to Dec. 1995. In this study we excluded posterior lumbar interbody fusion, circumferential fusion or decompression method for sondylolisthesis. The mean follow up duration was 29 months. The most common level was L5-Sl in isthmic group (36 patients, 51%), and L4-5 in degenerative group (23 patients, 77%). The clinical result were analyzed according to Kirkaldy-Willis criteria. The satisfactory result were obtained 90% in each group. Screw failure occured in unstable level with severe slip angle, so anterior column support may be recommended in this group. Pedicle screw fixation and wide decompression augmented with posterolateral bone graft is a satisfactory alternative method for degenerative and isthmic spondylolisthesis.
Decompression ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Spondylolisthesis* ; Transplants

Antifungal bacteria for biological control of plant diseases or production of novel antibiotics to plant pathogens were isolated in 1997 from various soils of Ansung, Chunan, Koyang, and Paju in Korea. Sixty-four bacterial strains pre-screened from approximately 1,400 strains were tested on V-8 juice agar against eight plant pathogenic fungi using in vitro bioassay technique for inhibition of mycelial growth. Test pathogens were Alternaria mali, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, C. orbiculare, Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cucumerinum, F. oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici, Magnaporthe grisea, Phytophthora capsici, and Rhizoctonia solani. A wide range of antifungal activity of bacterial strains was found against the pathogenic fungi, and strain RC-B77 showed the best antifungal activity. Correlation analysis between inhibition of each fungus and mean inhibition of all eight fungi by 64 bacterial strains revealed that C. gloeosporioides would be best appropriate for detecting bacterial strains producing antibiotics with potential as biocontrol agents for plant pathogens.
Agar ; Alternaria ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Bacteria* ; Biological Assay ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Colletotrichum ; Fungi ; Fusarium ; Gyeonggi-do ; Korea ; Magnaporthe ; Mali ; Mass Screening* ; Phytophthora ; Plant Diseases ; Plants* ; Rhizoctonia ; Soil*

Oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) induces a wide range of cellular responses to produce atherosclerotic lesion, but key factors determining the response are not understood. In this study, purified LDL was oxidized with copper sulfate, and its physical properties and the related biological responses were investigated. The average hydrodynamic diameter of the lightly oxidized LDL was approximately 25 nm and its Rf value relative to nLDL on agarose gel was between 1.0 and 1.25. The diameter of the extensively oxidized LDL was over 30 nm, the Rf value was over 2.0. A 24 h-exposure of resting RAW264.7 macrophage cells to 100 microg/ml of the lightly oxidized LDL induced proliferation and macrophage activation whereas the extensively oxidized LDL induced cell death at the same concentration. In contrast, 200 microg/ml of oxLDL caused cell death regardless of oxidation degree. Short incubation (4-6 h) of the highly oxidized LDL (100 microg/ml) also resulted in cell proliferation. OxLDL-induced cell death showed mixed characteristics of apoptosis and/or necrosis depending on the strength and duration of the insult. These results suggest that cellular responses induced by oxLDL be dependent on the oxidation degree, the duration of exposure, and the concentration of oxLDL. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.
Animal ; Apolipoproteins B/metabolism ; Apoptosis/physiology ; Apoptosis/drug effects ; Cell Death/physiology* ; Cell Division/physiology ; Copper Sulfate/metabolism ; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug ; Human ; Lipid Peroxidation ; Lipids/metabolism ; Lipoproteins, LDL/pharmacology ; Lipoproteins, LDL/metabolism* ; Macrophages/pathology ; Macrophages/drug effects ; Macrophages/cytology* ; Mice ; Necrosis ; Oxidation-Reduction ; Thiobarbituric Acid Reactive Substances/metabolism