Sri Lankan migrant worker perceptions of workplace hazard and safety awareness: case of the manufacturing industry in Korea.

This study was carried out to understand the perspective of unskilled Sri Lankan employees in the manufacturing industry to gain a deeper understanding to learn how to utilize expatriate labor meaningfully in a host country workplace. The structural questionnaire was developed according to previous studies and international labor standards and was validated with an expert in the field. The questionnaire included three parts covering the basic information, perception of workplace hazards, and health and safety awareness of workers. Unfamiliar work practices and processes due to lack of safety and work training have become an impediment. Further investigation of this study shows that language is one of the main barriers to living and working in Korea, the findings of this study indicate where employment permit system (EPS) workers appear to be fervent and our research exhibits the unrevealed image of EPS workers in the Republic of Korea.

ELF-MF occupational exposure in die-casting and electroplating workers in Korea.

A 24-h exposure assessment was performed in two groups of blue-collar workers from a die-casting plant and an electroplating plant to investigate levels of exposure to extremely low-frequency magnetic fields (ELF-MFs), using an EMDEX Lite (Enertech, USA) dosimeter. ELF-MF exposure of workers from the die-casting plant (arithmetic M ± SD 0.649 ± 1.343 µT) is higher than in electroplating workers (0.138 ± 0.045 µT). Higher ELF-MF exposure occurred among workers living in the same building as their workplace compared with that among other workers. This study suggests that ELF-MF exposure levels should be taken into consideration when providing dormitories for workers to minimize levels of residential ELF-MF exposure due to emissions from industrial plants. The study recommends that blue-collar workers should be made aware of measures to minimize their exposure to environmental agents such as ELF-MFs and electromagnetic fields during work, such as maintaining a safe distance between machines and avoiding undesirable behavior with equipment.

Characteristics and potential human health hazards of charged aerosols generated by high-voltage power lines.

We investigated the characteristics of charged aerosols produced by high-voltage power lines (HVPLs) to explore the effects on respiratory disease incidence among those who handle HVPLs. Charged aerosol currents and charged aerosol concentrations were measured over 24 h at 12 sites. Aerosol current effective levels were 2.7 times higher compared to exposed and control sites. This pattern of relative enhancement at exposed sites was seen consistently in all measurements and the difference was 1.7 higher at exposed sites. Correlation analysis among all important variables revealed strong positive correlations between currents and concentration, currents and magnetic field, humidity and concentration, and humidity and particles of 10 µm or less (PM10), while negative correlations were observed between charged aerosol concentrations and wind velocity and between wind velocity and humidity. Estimated production of charged aerosols from HVPLs found that people who work with HVPLs are highly likely to be exposed to charged aerosols.

Herbal medicine for hemorrhage-related hydrocephalus: A systematic review of randomised controlled trials.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: Hemorrhage related hydrocephalus is a common complication intraventricular hemorrhage, subarachnoid hemorrhage, intracranial hemorrhage and traumatic brain injury. It increases morbidity and disability. The aim of this review is to assess the efficacy of herbal medicine for hemorrhage related hydrocephalus. METHODS: We searched randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating herbal medicine through 13 electronic databases. Extracting and assessing the data were performed independently by two authors. The Cochrane risk of bias tool was used to assess the risk of bias. RESULTS: We identified 15 trials investing 12 different herbal formulas. The methodological quality was generally low. In the 11 RCTs of comparisons with conventional treatment alone, herbal medicine plus conventional treatment showed a significant improvement on ventriculomegaly after treatment. Also, the 12 RCTs showed a significant difference on clinical signs and symptoms between two groups. We pooled the data of five trials compared Zhongfengxingnao liquid and Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix plus conservative treatment with conservative treatment. There were significant effects on normalizing ventricle volume (Huckman index, RR 2.49; 95% CI 1.24-5.00, n = 80) and improving of Chinese scale of clinical neurologic deficit (MD -8.07; 95% CI -9.40 to -6.75, n = 264). CONCLUSION: Herbal medicine has potential benefits on improving ventriculomegaly and clinical signs and symptoms. However, a relatively small participants number and methodological limitations reduced the strength of the evidence. More rigorous trials are warranted.

Sensitive Tumorigenic Potential Evaluation of Adult Human Multipotent Neural Cells Immortalized by hTERT Gene Transduction.

Stem cells and therapeutic genes are emerging as a new therapeutic approach to treat various neurodegenerative diseases with few effective treatment options. However, potential formation of tumors by stem cells has hampered their clinical application. Moreover, adequate preclinical platforms to precisely test tumorigenic potential of stem cells are controversial. In this study, we compared the sensitivity of various animal models for in vivo stem cell tumorigenicity testing to identify the most sensitive platform. Then, tumorigenic potential of adult human multipotent neural cells (ahMNCs) immortalized by the human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) gene was examined as a stem cell model with therapeutic genes. When human glioblastoma (GBM) cells were injected into adult (4-6-week-old) Balb/c-nu, adult NOD/SCID, adult NOG, or neonate (1-2-week-old) NOG mice, the neonate NOG mice showed significantly faster tumorigenesis than that of the other groups regardless of intracranial or subcutaneous injection route. Two kinds of ahMNCs (682TL and 779TL) were primary cultured from surgical samples of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. Although the ahMNCs were immortalized by lentiviral hTERT gene delivery (hTERT-682TL and hTERT-779TL), they did not form any detectable masses, even in the most sensitive neonate NOG mouse platform. Moreover, the hTERT-ahMNCs had no gross chromosomal abnormalities on a karyotype analysis. Taken together, our data suggest that neonate NOG mice could be a sensitive animal platform to test tumorigenic potential of stem cell therapeutics and that ahMNCs could be a genetically stable stem cell source with little tumorigenic activity to develop regenerative treatments for neurodegenerative diseases.

Absence of DNA damage after 60-Hz electromagnetic field exposure combined with ionizing radiation, hydrogen peroxide, or c-Myc overexpression.

The principal objective of this study was to assess the DNA damage in a normal cell line system after exposure to 60 Hz of extremely low frequency magnetic field (ELF-MF) and particularly in combination with various external factors, via comet assays. NIH3T3 mouse fibroblast cells, WI-38 human lung fibroblast cells, L132 human lung epithelial cells, and MCF10A human mammary gland epithelial cells were exposed for 4 or 16 h to a 60-Hz, 1 mT uniform magnetic field in the presence or absence of ionizing radiation (IR, 1 Gy), H(2)O(2) (50 µM), or c-Myc oncogenic activation. The results obtained showed no significant differences between the cells exposed to ELF-MF alone and the unexposed cells. Moreover, no synergistic or additive effects were observed after 4 or 16 h of pre-exposure to 1 mT ELF-MF or simultaneous exposure to ELF-MF combined with IR, H(2)O(2), or c-Myc activation.

Effects of 837 and 1950 MHz radiofrequency radiation exposure alone or combined on oxidative stress in MCF10A cells.

The aim of this study was to determine whether the exposure to either single or multiple radio-frequency (RF) radiation frequencies could induce oxidative stress in cell cultures. Exposures of human MCF10A mammary epithelial cells to either a single frequency (837 MHz alone or 1950 MHz alone) or multiple frequencies (837 and 1950 MHz) were conducted at specific absorption rate (SAR) values of 4 W/kg for 2 h. During the exposure period, the temperature in the exposure chamber was maintained isothermally. Intracellular levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), the antioxidant enzyme activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), and the ratio of reduced/oxidized glutathione (GSH/GSSG) showed no statistically significant alterations as the result of either single or multiple RF radiation exposures. In contrast, ionizing radiation-exposed cells, used as a positive control, showed evident changes in all measured biological endpoints. These results indicate that single or multiple RF radiation exposure did not elicit oxidative stress in MCF10A cells under our exposure conditions.

Effects on micronuclei formation of 60-Hz electromagnetic field exposure with ionizing radiation, hydrogen peroxide, or c-Myc overexpression.

PURPOSE: Epidemiological studies have demonstrated a possible correlation between exposure to extremely low-frequency magnetic fields (ELF-MF) and cancer. However, this correlation has yet to be definitively confirmed by epidemiological studies. The principal objective of this study was to assess the effects of 60 Hz magnetic fields in a normal cell line system, and particularly in combination with various external factors, via micronucleus (MN) assays. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Mouse embryonic fibroblast NIH3T3 cells and human lung fibroblast WI-38 cells were exposed for 4 h to a 60 Hz, 1 mT uniform magnetic field with or without ionizing radiation (IR, 2 Gy), H(2)O(2) (100 µM) and cellular myelocytomatosis oncogene (c-Myc) activation. RESULTS: The results obtained showed no significant differences between the cells exposed to ELF-MF alone and the unexposed cells. Moreover, no synergistic effects were observed when ELF-MF was combined with IR, H(2)O(2), and c-Myc activation. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate that ELF-MF did not enhance MN frequency by IR, H(2)O(2) and c-Myc activation.

Assessment of the charged aerosol value in copy centers.

This study was performed to examine the potential health effects of copiers on their users and relevant workers by evaluating the charged aerosol current generation characteristics and indoor air quality (IAQ) in the copy center. In the 10 copy centers and one control site that were investigated in this study, the charged aerosol generation characteristics (effective levels, charged aerosol current, and charged aerosol concentration) and air pollutants (fine particles, ozone, and nitrogen oxide) were measured indoors and outdoors, and compared. In addition, a six-day continuous measurement was performed in a copy center to assess the charged aerosol generation characteristics according to the copying volume and the copier operation, and their correlation with indoor air pollutants. The indoor and outdoor charged aerosol effective levels in the 10 copy centers were 93.4% and 82.4%, respectively, and they were about 1.4 times higher than the charged aerosol effective level in the indoor control site (66.2%). The comparison of the negative and positive ion currents by space showed that the positive ion current was about 4.2 times higher indoors than outdoors, and about 2.5 times higher during the operation time than during the non-operation time. The indoor charged aerosol concentration (1,512.3 ions/cm(3)) was about 4.6 times higher than the outdoor concentration (325.8 ions/cm(3)), and 19.5 times higher than the indoor charged aerosol concentration in the control site (77.3 ions/cm(3)). Based on these results, it was found that the operation of the copier was an important influential factor of the charged aerosol generation level in the copy center, and that the positive ions were dominant. In the analysis of the correlation between the indoor charged aerosol generation and the air pollutants, the effective level had high positive correlations with the charged aerosol concentration (r=0.938, p<0.01) and O(3) (r = 0.870, p<0.05). The charged aerosol concentration had positive correlations with O(3) (r=0.700) and PM(10) (r=0.479), although the correlations were not statistically significant. In conclusion, it seems that the ultra-fine particles (UFPs, d < 0.1 um ≤ 100 nm) may affect the human respiratory and circulatory systems because they have charged aerosol characteristics. Based on these results, it was found that the operation of the copier was an important influential factor of the charged aerosol generation level in the copy center, and that the positive ions were dominant.

Oxidative stress and antioxidant defenses in asthmatic murine model exposed to printer emissions and environmental tobacco smoke.

Exposure to particulate emissions from printer and cigarette smoke affects the structure and function of mitochondria, which may account for the pathogenesis of respiratory diseases. The addition of charge for the pollutant aerosols may increase the toxicity by their deposition in the lower respiratory tract. The mitochondrial damage in the lung of asthmatic mice was assessed by examining the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), lipid peroxides, reduced glutathione, and the activities of isocitrate dehydrogenase, alpha-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase, succinate dehydrogenase, malate dehydrogenase, complexes I to IV, and cytochrome c. The oxidative phosphorylation (levels of adenosine triphosphatase) was evaluated for the assessment of mitochondrial functional capacity. We found highly significant elevated levels of ROS, lipid peroxides, and decreased levels of mitochondrial enzymes in the mice exposed to environmental tobacco smoke and printer emissions + environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). However, mice exposed to printer emissions alone exhibited slight significant variations in the parameters studied. From the results, we conclude that printer emissions exert a synergistic effect in the presence of ETS and induce intense damage to the lung mitochondria by disrupting the structural and functional integrity of the mitochondrial membrane.