No abstract available.
Occupational Diseases*

Even in the 21st century, some working environments still expose workers to cement dust. Many people are also exposed to cement dusts particles in their living environment, such as near cement production facilities and areas under construction. The cement industry is involved in the development of the physical infrastructure of advanced industrial society but generates dust during its production. The classic type of pneumoconiosis in coal workers has decreased, but recently, adverse health effects due to exposure to cement dust has increased in construction workers. Cement dust contains fine and ultrafine particles, 0.05-5.0 microm in aerodiameter, which can penetrate into the lung parenchyma and cause toxic damage. Cement dust can cause lung function impairment, chronic obstructive lung disease, pneumoconiosis, and carcinoma of the lungs. Other studies have shown that cement dust may contain toxic heavy metals, such as hexavalent chromium, nickel, and cobalt. Cement dust may cause inflammatory changes in the skin, and often leads to skin diseases or autoimmune diseases. Therefore, close surveillance to monitor the potential toxic effects of cement dust and intervention to minimize its health risks is needed.
Autoimmune Diseases ; Chromium ; Coal ; Cobalt ; Dust ; Lung ; Metals, Heavy ; Nickel ; Organothiophosphorus Compounds ; Pneumoconiosis ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive ; Silicon Dioxide ; Silicones ; Skin ; Skin Diseases

Humidifier disinfectant (HD) damage was terrible chemical damage caused by household goods that happened in only South Korea, but still very little is known in HD damage. Up to now, previous research tried to focus on interstitial fibrosis on terminal bronchioles and alveoli because it is a specific finding, compared with other diseases. To figure out whole effects from HDs, much epidemiologic and toxicologic research is underway. HDs were shown to give rise to typical toxicologic effects on various target organs, such as skin, conjunctiva, naval mucosa, bronchial mucosa, alveoli and so on, which shared common toxicological responses. On a specific target, specific toxicologic effects existed. Diverse diseases along exposure pathways can occur at the same time with a common toxicologic mechanism and cause of HDs, which can be called as HD syndrome. To gain stronger scientific evidence about it, further epidemiological and toxicological studies should be applied.
Asthma ; Bronchioles ; Conjunctiva ; Family Characteristics ; Fibrosis ; Humidifiers ; Korea ; Mucous Membrane ; Reactive Oxygen Species ; Skin

The occurrence of occupational illnesses and injuries has been seriously underestimated in Korea. This underdiagnosis and underreporting of occupational illnesses and injuries subsequently contribute to difficulties in performing effective control of occupational hazards and implementing intervention programs to protect workers. An Inchon model for an occupational disease surveillance system was constructed using multiple data sources. Available data were obtained from medical providers' reports, hospital medical records, medical examination data of employees, and environmental measurement data. This Jnchon model was constructed with the following procedure: 1. assembled multidisciplinary staff 2. geographic targeting was to Inchon 3. established community liaison 4. collected related data to establish the magnitude of problem 5. selected, recruited, and trained case reporters 6. developed mechanisms and guidelines for reporting 7. received, screened, and prioritized case reports 8. analyzed data from case reports and field investigations 9. made and disseminated recommendations 10. evaluated the feasibility of the system. An information system based on the Internet for the occupational disease surveillance was also constructed to support the case reporting of occupational diseases. 133 cases of occupational diseases were collected in Inchon from 1 January to 31 December 1998. These cases included cumulative traumatic disorder, occupational asthma, occupational contact dermatitis, allergic pneumonitis, occupational cancer, noise-induced hearing loss, and pneumoconiosis. These data were different from the previously reported data The occurrence pattern of occupational diseases obtained from this surveillance system will be useful for preventing occupational hazards and for enforcing occupational disease prevention programs. Our experiences in establishing this surveillance system may be also used in other regional settings.
Asthma, Occupational ; Data Collection ; Dermatitis, Allergic Contact ; Feasibility Studies* ; Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced ; Incheon* ; Information Systems ; Internet ; Korea ; Medical Records ; Occupational Diseases* ; Occupational Health ; Pneumoconiosis ; Pneumonia

Diesel exhaust particles (DEP) contain elemental carbon, organic compounds including Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), metals, and other trace compounds. Diesel exhaust is complex mixture of thousands of chemicals. Over forty air contaminants are recognized as toxicants, such as carcinogens. Most diesel exhaust particles have aerodynamic diameters falling within a range of 0.1 to 0.25 microm. DEP was classified as a definite human carcinogen (group 1) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer at 2012 based on recently sufficient epidemiological evidence for lung cancer. Significant decreases in DEP and other diesel exhaust constituents will not be evident immediately, and outworn diesel car having longer mileage still threatens health of people in spite of recent remarkable development in diesel engine technology. Policy change in South Korea, such as introduction of diesel taxi, may raise health risk of air pollution in metropolitan area with these limitations of diesel engine. To protect people against DEP in South Korea, progressive strategies are needed, including disallowance of diesel taxi, more strict regulation of diesel engine emission, obligatory diesel particulate filter attachment in outworn diesel car, and close monitoring about health effects of DEP.
Air Pollution ; Carbon ; Carcinogens ; Humans ; Hydrocarbons ; International Agencies ; Korea ; Lung Neoplasms ; Metals ; Vehicle Emissions

Recent cohort studies have relied on exposure prediction models to estimate individual-level air pollution concentrations because individual air pollution measurements are not available for cohort locations. For such prediction models, geographic variables related to pollution sources are important inputs. We demonstrated the computation process of geographic variables mostly recorded in 2010 at regulatory air pollution monitoring sites in South Korea. On the basis of previous studies, we finalized a list of 313 geographic variables related to air pollution sources in eight categories including traffic, demographic characteristics, land use, transportation facilities, physical geography, emissions, vegetation, and altitude. We then obtained data from different sources such as the Statistics Geographic Information Service and Korean Transport Database. After integrating all available data to a single database by matching coordinate systems and converting non-spatial data to spatial data, we computed geographic variables at 294 regulatory monitoring sites in South Korea. The data integration and variable computation were performed by using ArcGIS version 10.2 (ESRI Inc., Redlands, CA, USA). For traffic, we computed the distances to the nearest roads and the sums of road lengths within different sizes of circular buffers. In addition, we calculated the numbers of residents, households, housing buildings, companies, and employees within the buffers. The percentages of areas for different types of land use compared to total areas were calculated within the buffers. For transportation facilities and physical geography, we computed the distances to the closest public transportation depots and the boundary lines. The vegetation index and altitude were estimated at a given location by using satellite data. The summary statistics of geographic variables in Seoul across monitoring sites showed different patterns between urban background and urban roadside sites. This study provided practical knowledge on the computation process of geographic variables in South Korea, which will improve air pollution prediction models and contribute to subsequent health analyses.
Air Pollution* ; Altitude ; Buffers ; Cohort Studies ; Family Characteristics ; Geographic Information Systems ; Geography ; Housing ; Information Services ; Korea* ; Seoul ; Transportation

Recent cohort studies have relied on exposure prediction models to estimate individual-level air pollution concentrations because individual air pollution measurements are not available for cohort locations. For such prediction models, geographic variables related to pollution sources are important inputs. We demonstrated the computation process of geographic variables mostly recorded in 2010 at regulatory air pollution monitoring sites in South Korea. On the basis of previous studies, we finalized a list of 313 geographic variables related to air pollution sources in eight categories including traffic, demographic characteristics, land use, transportation facilities, physical geography, emissions, vegetation, and altitude. We then obtained data from different sources such as the Statistics Geographic Information Service and Korean Transport Database. After integrating all available data to a single database by matching coordinate systems and converting non-spatial data to spatial data, we computed geographic variables at 294 regulatory monitoring sites in South Korea. The data integration and variable computation were performed by using ArcGIS version 10.2 (ESRI Inc., Redlands, CA, USA). For traffic, we computed the distances to the nearest roads and the sums of road lengths within different sizes of circular buffers. In addition, we calculated the numbers of residents, households, housing buildings, companies, and employees within the buffers. The percentages of areas for different types of land use compared to total areas were calculated within the buffers. For transportation facilities and physical geography, we computed the distances to the closest public transportation depots and the boundary lines. The vegetation index and altitude were estimated at a given location by using satellite data. The summary statistics of geographic variables in Seoul across monitoring sites showed different patterns between urban background and urban roadside sites. This study provided practical knowledge on the computation process of geographic variables in South Korea, which will improve air pollution prediction models and contribute to subsequent health analyses.
Air Pollution* ; Altitude ; Buffers ; Cohort Studies ; Family Characteristics ; Geographic Information Systems ; Geography ; Housing ; Information Services ; Korea* ; Seoul ; Transportation

No abstract available.
Animals ; Calcium* ; Clonidine* ; Ganglia, Spinal* ; Rats* ; Spinal Nerve Roots* ; Tetracaine*

According to previous survey, about two million of people were expected to suffer from toxic effects due to humidifier disinfectant (HD), regardless of healing or not. Extremely small group are recognized as HDs’ victims. Up to now, previous research tried to focus on interstitial fibrosis on terminal bronchiole because it is specific finding, compared with other diseases. To figure out overall effects from HDs, we recommend adverse outcome pathways (AOPs) as new approach. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, decreased T-cell and pro-inflammatory cytokine release from macrophage could be key events between the exposure to HDs and diseases. ROS generation, decreased cell and pro-inflammatory cytokine release from macrophage could be cause of interstitial fibrosis, pneumonia and many other diseases such as asthma, allergic rhinitis, allergic dermatitis, fetal death, premature baby, autoimmune disease, hepatic toxicity, renal toxicity, cancer, and so on. We predict potential disease candidate by AOPs. We can validate the real risk of the adverse outcome by epidemiologic and toxicologic study using big data such as National Health Insurance data and AOPs knowledge base. Application of these kinds of new methods can find the potential disease list from the exposure to HD.
Asthma ; Autoimmune Diseases ; Bronchioles ; Dermatitis ; Fetal Death ; Fibrosis ; Humidifiers* ; Knowledge Bases ; Macrophages ; National Health Programs ; Pneumonia ; Reactive Oxygen Species ; Rhinitis, Allergic ; T-Lymphocytes

The association between total daily mortality and air pollution was investigated for a 1-year period (January 1995 to December 1995) in Inchon, Korea. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relative importance of particulate and gaseous air pollution as predictors of daily mortality. Concentration of total suspended particulates (TSP), inhalable particles (PM10), and gaseous pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, carbon monoxide, were measured daily during the study period. A generalized additive model was used to regress daily death counts on each air pollutant, controlling for time trend and meteorologic influences such as temperature or relative humidity. Total mortality was found to increase 1.2% (95% CI: 0.2 to 2.2%) for each 10 microg/m3 increase in 6-day moving average of TSP, and 1.2% (95% CI 0.2 to 2.1%) for each 10 microg/m3 increase in 5-day moving average of PM10. The association is similar in magnitude to associations between particulate air pollution and mortality found in several other communities in America and Europe. Associations with gaseous pollutants were all statistically insignificant in the generalized additive model. The relative risk of death increased at particulate levels that were well below the current Korean Ambient Air Quality Standard.
Air Pollutants/adverse effects* ; Air Pollution/adverse effects* ; Human ; Korea/epidemiology ; Mortality/trends*