• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.384-392
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• 2013

Objective: This study inspected incident cases, legal control levels, and GHS(Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals) classification results of strong acids such as hydrogen fluoride, hydrogen chloride, nitric acid, and sulfuric acid, which have been responsible for many recent chemical accidents. As a result, it is deemed necessary for legal control levels of these strong acids to be revised and GHS classification be managed nation-wide. Methods: This study inspected incident cases and legal control levels for strong acids such as hydrogen fluoride, hydrogen chloride, nitric acid, and sulfuric acid. The study analyzed and compared chemical information status and GHS classification results. Results: There were 76 domestic incidents involving strongly acidic hazardous materials over the five years between 2007 and 2011. They include 37 leakage incidents(46.7%) within a workplace, 30 leakage incidents(39.5%) during transportation, and nine leakage incidents(13.8%) following an explosion. The strongly acidic materials in question are defined and controlled as toxic chemicals according to the classes of Substances Requiring Preparation for Accidents, Managed Hazardous Substance, Hazardous Chemical(corrosive) as set forth under the Enforcement Decree of the Toxic Chemicals Control Act and Rules on Occupational Safety and Health Standards of Occupational Safety and Health Act. Among them, nitric acid is solely controlled as a class 6 hazardous material, oxidizing liquid, under the Hazardous Chemicals Control Act. The classification results of the EU ECHA(European Chemicals Agency) CLP(Commission Regulation(EC) No. 790/2009 of 10 August 2009, for the purposes of its adaptation to technical and scientific progress, Regulation(EC) No 1272/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on classification, labeling and packaging of substances and mixtures) and NIER (National Institute of Environmental Research) are almost identical for the three chemicals, with the exception of sulfuric acid. Much of the classification information of NITE (National Institute of Technology and Evaluation) and KOSHA(Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency, KOSHA) is the same. NIER provides 12(41.4%) out of 29 classifications, as does KOSHA.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.488-496
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• 2020

This study was based on nitrate chemical accidents at home and abroad. Toxic gases due to adverse reactions are generated in the workplace, laboratory, hospital, container damage, and chemical misinjection. Through a case review of possible situations and safety, this study analyzed various cases of accidents, accident status, accident type, cause of the accident, location of the accidents, etc. from 2014 to 2018. The plans for improvement in education and nitrate accidents were reviewed. As a result, 36 nitrate chemical accidents were investigated, including 16 careless worker accidents, eight transportation accidents, and 12 facilities shortages. Nitrate chemical accidents are occurring continuously. Based on this, the range of toxic effects using CARIS was calculated at the worst-case scenario, and the effective response range was measured through the damage impact range. For this purpose, the impact range was predicted based on the strengthening of safety education, emergency action plan and correlation, and the quantified data was identified. In addition, the reliability of the scope of impact was reviewed based on the correlation formula that could facilitate the evacuation of residents, and it was applied to actual accident scenarios of the workplace to present the effects of the accident response and preventive measures.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.599-607
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• 2017

Since 2015, small and medium domestic enterprises that treat more than a certain quantity of chemical substances in accordance with the Chemical Substance Control Act are obliged to submit an off-site impact assessment and risk management plan. In order to reduce the administrative and economic burden of the risk assessment, its impact was determined. Toxic leaks of nitric acid, methanol, and acetic acid were estimated and the correlations (between them?) were calculated. In addition, the correlations of this study were used to compare the KORA results according to the accident scenarios of the actual workplace and the extent of the damage as a function of distance in the case of toxic leaks. In this study, the correlation formula of the materials can be used to quickly determine the damage distance in the event of the accidental leakage of materials in the road or workplace, and to prepare emergency plans and respond to emergencies more quickly.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.97-105
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• 2008

Vinclozolin (VCZ) is a systemic fungicide commonly used in fruits, vegetables and the wine industry. VCZ and its metabolites, butenoic acid (M1) and enanilide (M2) derivatives, act as anti-androgens through actions on the androgen receptor. Although there is growing body of evidence that VCZ's action as an endocrine disrupting chemical (EDC) in male reproductive physiology and pathphysiology, no evidence on the VCZ's EDC action in female is available yet. Previously we found that the prepubertal VCZ exposures could effectively delay the onset of puberty in female rats, suggesting the postponed or weakened activities of hypothalamus-pituitary-ovary (H-P-O) reproductive hormonal axis. The present study was performed to examine whether the VCZ administration affects the transcriptional activities of reproductive hormone-related genes in the same animal model. VCZ (10 mg/kg/day) was administered daily from postnatal day 21 (PND 21) through the day when the first vaginal opening (V.O.) was observed. To determine the transcriptional changes of reproductive hormone-related genes in hypothalamus and pituitary, total RNAs were extracted and applied to the semiquantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). As a result, treatment with VCZ significantly lowered the transcriptional activity of nitric oxide synthase-2 (NOS-2) which is known to adjust gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) secretion in the hypothalamus (p<0.01). Similarly, the mRNA levels of KiSS-1, G protein-coupled receptor 54 (GPR54) and GnRH were significantly decreased in hypothalamus (p<0.01) from VCZ-treated group. As expected, the transcriptional activities of luteinizing hormone-${\beta}$ (LH-${\beta}$) and follicle stimulating hormone-${\beta}$ (FSH-${\beta}$) in the anterior pituitary from VCZ-treated group were also significantly lower than those from the control group. The present study indicates that(i) the inhibitory effect of VCZ exposure on the onset of puberty in immature female rats could be derived from the reduced transcriptional activities of gonadotropin subunits and their upstream modulators such as GnRH and KiSS-1 in hypothalamus-pituitary neuroendocrine axis, and (ii) these inhibitory effects could be mediated by NO signaling pathway.