A man who worked in the synthetic leather manufacturing plant for 3 months died at November 3. Author review the medical record, the death certificate, and interviewed his wife and the doctor who treated him. His major job was DMF handling. At the working place, he felt severe health problem, and admitted to the hospital via emergency clinic. He complained severe abdominal pain and showed jaundice and ascites, He suffered hepatic coma and respiratory insufficiency from fulminant hepatitis from 19th days after admission. Drug abuse, hepatitis (A, B, C), and alcoholic hepatitis were rule out with his history and serological study data, As a result, author couldn't find any cause of death, but fuIminant hepatitis from DMF toxicity.
Abdominal Pain ; Ascites ; Cause of Death ; Death Certificates ; Dimethylformamide* ; Emergencies ; Hepatic Encephalopathy ; Hepatitis* ; Hepatitis, Alcoholic ; Humans ; Jaundice ; Medical Records ; Plants ; Respiratory Insufficiency ; Spouses ; Substance-Related Disorders

Twenty-four factories registered at the Ministry of Labor as factories using or producing cadmium in 1991 were investigated to know the present state of occupational exposure to cadmium in 1992. Nine factories among 24 stopped using or changed to other substances and 1 factory didn't produce any more, but delivered it to other factories through imports. Therefore, only 14 factories were producing or using cadmium. But, alloying materials were uspplied to about 20 and more factories, however, they couldn't be investigated because of limited information. Three factories had less than 50 workers were 3, 6 had 50-300 and 5 had more than 300. About 167 workers were exposed to cadmium. According to the classification by process, there were 4 alloy processes, 2 refinary, 2 elctroplating, 2 dry cell making, 1 industrial battery and 1 copper refinary. 8 factories used metal cadmium, 3 cadmium oxide, 2 cadmium sulfide, and 1 cadmium hyroxide. One factory was importing cadmium stearates only and supplying them to the PVC making factories. The amount of metal cadmium producing in 2 refinary factories was about 50-65 ton per month. The other cadmium compounds were imported. According to exposure level of cadmium in air of the 10 factories examined, each factory could be divided into high, moderate and low exposure groups. 1 battery recycling factory and 3 alloy factories were in the high exposure group and their mean air concentrations were 0.06679, 0.05481, 0.02492, and 0.003mg/m3, respectively. Refinary and industrial battery making factories were in the middle exposure group and their mean air concentrations were 0.00773 and 0.00613 mg/m3, respectively. Finally, low exposure group were copper smelting, dry cell case making, duplicator drum making and electroplating factory and their mean air concentrations were 0.00096, 0.00071, 0.00057 and 0.00054 mg/m3 respectively.
Alloys ; Cadmium Compounds ; Cadmium* ; Classification ; Copper ; Electroplating ; Korea* ; Occupational Exposure* ; Osmeriformes ; Recycling ; Stearates

Lung Function test results can be influenced by race, socioeconomic status, and physical fitness. The choice of the most appropriate predictive equations should be based upon these considerations as well as age, sex, and body size. About 70% of Korean males smoke, and non-smokers can be a selective group in Korea. In this study, lung function test results of 683 healthy Korean male workers were analyzed to get the predictive equations of Forced Vital Capacity(FVC), Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 second(FEV(1)), and FEV(1)/FVC (FEV(1)%). The age of studied workers ranged from 18to 60, and most of those finished high school or less. Healthy smokers without any respiratory symptoms or disease history were included in the study, while the effect of smoking on the test results were examined in the analysis. FVC, FEV(1), and FEV(1)% were regressed against age, height, weight and smoking status or smoking amount. Age and height explained FVC and FVC(1) most efficiently and the contribution of other variables were not significant. Whereas, smoking was significantly associated with a decrease in FEV(1)% even among healthy un-symptomatic workers. For FEV(1)%, age, height, and smoking amount were significant variables, constituting the most efficient prediction model. The lower limit of normal for percent predicted values was calculated from lower 95 percentile as well as 95% confidence interval. When the results of this study was compared to those from studies of white Caucasians, the predicted FVC and FEV(1) were lower for the given age and height but the differences were less than 10%. The slopes of regression equation for height and age were, however, not significantly different when the social backgrounds of the studied subjects were similar.
Body Size ; Continental Population Groups ; Forced Expiratory Volume ; Humans ; Korea ; Male* ; Physical Fitness ; Respiratory Function Tests ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Social Class

No abstract available.
Adolescent* ; Child* ; Humans

This study was conducted to investigate of water qualities in the upper and middle reaches of the Han River. For this purpose, water was sampled at Kwangjin and 1st Han-River Bridges of the Han River in Seoul and analysed from August, 1988 to September, 1989. The results are summarized as follows: 1. Water quality at 1st Han-River Bridge was more polluted than that at Kwangjin Bridge. 2. Except biological oxygen demand (BOD), turbidity, suspended solid (SS), dissolved oxygen (DO), DO saturation (DOS), ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N), nitrite nitrogen (NO2-N) and chloride ion (Cl-) at Kwangjin and 1st Han-River Bridges were lower as compared with the previous data before redevelopment of the Han River. 3. SS, DO and pH at Kwangjin and 1st Han-River Bridges could be classified to the 1st grade in environmental water quality standard. DOS at Kwangjin Bridge was over 100% and that at 1st Han-River Bridge was below 100% in the Han River. BOD at Kwangjin Bridge could be classified to 2nd grade and that at 1st Han-River Bridge to 3rd grade in environmental water quality standard. 4. The higher the level of water was, the lower the levels of turbidity and SS, and NH3-N was decreased with increasing water level at 1st Han-River Bridge. DO was decreased as water temperature went up but DOS was increased with DO. BOD was positively correlated with nitrite-nitrogens. 5. Turbidity and SS at the both sites and Chloride ion (Cl-) at Kwangjin Bridge were increased in July and August. And DO at the both sites and NH3-N at 1st Han-River Bridge were decreased in at July and August.
Ammonia ; Biological Oxygen Demand Analysis ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Nitrogen ; Oxygen ; Rivers ; Seasons* ; Seoul ; Water Quality ; Water*

Production of free radicals of superoxide anion in tissues by cadmium, activities of superoxide dismutase and catalase to protect tissue damages caused by the free radicals and ATPase that plays an important role in energy metabolism at cellular level were investigated. Experiments in viro were conducted with liver, kidney and testicle tissue homogenates of rats adding 0.05~0.50 mM cadmium chloride, and in vivo experiments administering single dose of 5mg of cadmium/kg of body weight in 0.1% cadmium chloride solution intraperitoneally 48 hours prior to evisceration. Production of superoxide radicals in liver and testicle increased with addition of cadmium in vitro, but not in kidney. In vivo experiments, however superoxide radicals slightly increased in liver and kidney but not in testicle. Superoxide dismutase (Cu, Zn-SOD and Mn-SOD), catalase and ATPase (total, (Mg++)- & (Na+)- (K+)-) activity decreased in the presence of cadmium in dose dependent manner. Reduction of these enzyme activities varied not only with dosage of cadmium but also with type of tissue and between in vitro and in vivo experiment.
Adenosine Triphosphatases* ; Animals ; Body Weight ; Cadmium Chloride ; Cadmium* ; Catalase* ; Energy Metabolism ; Free Radicals ; Kidney* ; Liver* ; Rats* ; Superoxide Dismutase* ; Superoxides* ; Testis*

Dose-response relationship among blood cadmium concentrations, catalase and superoxide dismutase activities were studied with acutely intoxicated rats by cadmium. The Sprague-Dawley male rats to which single dose of 1-32 mg/kg CdCl2 were administered into peritoneal cavity were sacrificed by decapitation at 3-36 hours after the administration. Cadmium concentrations in blood increased significantly with dose of CdCl2 administered and reached peak level at 3 hours later. Catalase activities in rats' tests were not correlated with exposure time elapsed after the administration in rats to which 1-2 mg/kg of CdCl2 were administered, but they showed linear relationship with time in groups to which 4-32 mg/kg of CdCl2 were administered. Cu, Zn-SOD activities in tests of acutely intoxicated rats by cadmium were not altered either by dosage or by time elapsed after the administration. Mn-SOD activities in the tests were also not influenced by dosage of 1-2 mg/kg CdCl2, but remarkably inactivated by dosage of 4-32 mg/kg CdCl2 with time elapsed after the administration. Neither catalase, Cu, Zn-SOD nor Mn-SOD activities of tests were correlated with blood cadmium concentrations in acutely intoxicated rats by cadmium.
Animals ; Cadmium Chloride ; Cadmium* ; Catalase* ; Decapitation ; Humans ; Male ; Peritoneal Cavity ; Rats* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Superoxide Dismutase* ; Superoxides* ; Testis*

In order to designate a status necessary for establishment of preventive measures and guidelines of health education against hepatitis B in the course of secondary school education, knowledge and practice toward hepatitis B virus infection was surveyed by a questionnaire method on total of 4,855 college entrants in the academic year of 1987 and analyzed the data collected using IBM PC(Trigem 88-II) with SAS package program. About two percent of college entrants had past history of HBV infections not showing any difference between both sexes and geographical regions. About one third(33.7%) of total students had tested hepatitis B surface antigen(HBsAg), only 4% had tested hepatitis B surface antibody(HBsAb) and vaccination rate amounted to 24.6%, one fourth of total subjects. Both serological tests and vaccination were most commonly performed during adolescence, showing higher rates in female students than in male students. The rates also seemed to be higher in those from urban cities than those from rural cities. Students who had acquired correct knowledge that hepatitis B was infected by virus were amounted to 78.5% of college entrants, and remaining 21.5% had misunderstood that rickettsia, bacteria, fungi or parasites were casual agents. Female students were better aware of the causal agents than male students but there was no difference between places of growth. As for mode of transmission of HBV, 51.5% of male students and 47.7% of female students had correct knowledge. A very few student had known that fact that HBV was transmitted by body fluids such as tear (6.9%), nasal discharge(10.1%) and semen or vaginal secretion(19.2%) and majority(75%) of students had misunderstood that hepatitis B virus would be transmitted per os through food ingestion. Approximately one half(48.9%) of college entrants had correctly whom to be vaccinated. Approximately one half of the students knew that hepatoma(57.8%) and liver cirrhosis(57.4%) might complicate with hepatitis B virus infection, whereas 12.0% of the students responded that bronchitis was one of the complications of hepatitis B infection. In summary of the above results, we highly recommend that health education program for eradication of hepatitis B virus infection should be introduced in curricula of secondary school education in this country.
Adolescent ; Bacteria ; Body Fluids ; Bronchitis ; Curriculum ; Eating ; Education ; Female ; Fungi ; Health Education ; Hepatitis B virus ; Hepatitis B* ; Hepatitis* ; Humans ; Liver ; Male ; Parasites ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Rickettsia ; Semen ; Serologic Tests ; Tears ; Vaccination

This study was carried out in order to estimate the residual amount of mercury in soy-bean sprouts in each steps of cooking. Samples were taken at markets and also cultured at home without applying the mercury containing pesticides as control. Mercury was determined by dithizone method. It was disclosed that soy-bean sprouts purchased at markets contained 1.32+/-0.274 ppm, 13 times as high as the maximal allowable concentration of mercury in food recommended by Ministry of Health and Social Affairs. Mercury contents, however, dropped off steadily by steps of cooking: rinsed with distilled water and boiled in distilled water showing concentrations of 0.11+/-0.025 ppm in boiled sprouts and 0.03+/-0.022 ppm in sprout-soup. These values were not statistically different from those in control samples, and not exceeded the maximal allowabled levels of mercury in food. It can be concluded that the use of mercury containing pesticides in the cultivation of soy-bean sprouts is not so serious problem as it has been suspected in respect of food contamination, but careful attention must be paid to indiscriminate use of mercury containing pesticides as they may contaminate air, water and soil and secondarily bring harm to human health through food chains.
Cooking* ; Dithizone ; Food Chain ; Food Contamination ; Humans ; Pesticides ; Soil ; Water

The energy expended while playing tennis was determined from the players heart rate and from the amount of oxygen they consumed. This study was made using eight healthy but unathletic male college students. Expired air was collected for 2 minute periods during each game by the Douglas bag method. Samples were collected when serving and receiving. The air collected was measured using a wet test gas meter. The amount of air collected was expressed in STPD. Oxygen consumption was determined by measuring the oxygen content of the expired air with a Orzat gas analyzer. The energy expended during the tennis games was calculated indirectly. The caloric coefficient of oxygen was multiplied by the volume of oxygen consumed. The caloric coefficient of oxygen varied from 4.6 to 5.1 kcal/liter of oxygen. In this study the value of 5 kcal/liter of oxygen was used in the calculations. The accuracy of the measurements of energy expended was tested using regression analysis of the measured volume of oxygen. The mean values of heart rate, oxygen consumed and energy expended did not vary when the activity of serving and receiving was compared. The mean value of oxygen consumed during play was 1.4329+/-282 ml/min or 21.6+/-4.0 ml/kg/min. The energy expended was 7.15+/-1.46 kcal/min or 6.45+/-1.23 kcal/kg/min. The values were equivalent to 5.5 mets. When the levels of oxygen consumed were estimated using the formulas, they were found to be higher than the measured levels. The estimated amounts, however, were within 25% of the measured amounts.
Heart Rate* ; Heart* ; Humans ; Male ; Oxygen Consumption ; Oxygen* ; Tennis*