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.

Acupuncture for Regulating Blood Pressure of Stroke Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: Blood pressure (BP) after a stroke is affected by autonomic regulation, the Cushing reaction, and basal history of hypertensive, arteriosclerotic conditions. To prevent recurrent stroke attack and its complications, BP must be regulated to within the normal range through monitoring, rest, and medication. Previous studies have reported that acupuncture may be effective in lowering BP in patients with hypertension. Objectives: This study was aimed at evaluating the efficacy of acupuncture in regulating BP in stroke patients, including both cerebral infarction and hemorrhage. Methods: A review was conducted of articles published in English, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese across 16 electronic databases (Pubmed, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Resister of Controlled Trials, AMED, CINAHL, CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, CiNii, and seven Korean databases) up to April 2020. Only randomized controlled trials that evaluated the efficacy of acupuncture for stroke patients were included and meta-analyzed, and BP data and risk of bias were extracted by scanning the full texts. Data analysis was performed by using RevMan 5.3. Results: From the 16 electronic databases, 7623 relevant articles were identified, and 847 stroke patients of 10 trials met the inclusion criteria. Two trials reported that BP was lowered more in the group who had received acupuncture treatment than the group who were treated with conventional medication. Two trials reported that BP was lowered after auricular acupuncture treatment more than those observed in the group receiving conventional medical treatment. Six trials reported that BP in cerebral infarction patients was lower than in the control group. None of the trials reported any adverse events. Conclusions: It was concluded that acupuncture may be a suitable treatment option for regulating BP after stroke. However, the trials are not free from bias. Further reviews would yield positive results if well-designed trials are conducted.

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.

Herbal Medicine for Dumping Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: Dumping syndrome is a common complication of surgical treatment of gastric cancer, but conventional therapy has limitations related to symptom care due to its structural cause and the decreased quality of life. Objectives: The objective of this review was to assess the clinical evidence for the effectiveness of herbal medicine as a treatment for dumping syndrome. Methods: A literature review was conducted using 16 databases from their inceptions to March 2018. All randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of herbal medicine used to treat dumping syndrome patients were included and meta-analyzed. Methodological quality was assessed using the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. Results: A total of 174 dumping syndrome patients of 3 trials met all inclusion criteria. Two trials assessed the effectiveness of herbal medicine on the symptom response rate compared with conventional pharmacotherapy. Their results suggested significant effects in favor of herbal medicine (risk ratio [RR] = 1.37, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.16-1.63, P = .0003, heterogeneity τ2 = 0, χ2 = 0.02, P = .88, I2 = 0%). One trial assessed its effectiveness on the improvement rate of overall symptoms compared with conventional conservative complex therapy, such as postural management, diet regulation, and counseling (RR = 1.23, 95% CI = 0.96-1.58). Conclusions: Due to the small sample size, scarcity of reported articles, and lack of quality of the current RCTs, it was concluded that the effectiveness of herbal medicine in treating dumping syndrome is unclear.

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.