Pesticide residues in vegetables and risk assessment for consumers in Korea during 2010-2014.

This study was carried out to assess the exposure to pesticide residues from vegetable consumption of residents in Seoul using data on pesticide residue concentrations and the quantity of vegetables consumed. A total of 34,520 samples of 96 types of vegetables collected from 2010 to 2014 by the Seoul Metropolitan Government Institute of Health and Environment (SIHE) were analysed for 283 different pesticide residues. Among the vegetable samples, 86.1% did not contain any measurable levels of pesticide and 1.4% had residues exceeding Maximum Residue Limits (MRL). A total of 105 different pesticide residues were found and 45 residues exceeded MRLs. The most commonly found residues were azoxystrobin, diethofencarb, procymidone, cypermethrin, and tebufenpyrad. A total of 547 vegetable samples from 37 different types of vegetables had residues exceeding MRLs. From these results, 20 agrochemicals were chosen based on their high level of detection and violation rate of the MRL. The potential health risk associated with exposure to the pesticides through vegetable intake was estimated as a Risk Index (RI, %ADI). For a citizen of Seoul, the RIs of the mean value and 97.5th percentile were shown to be 0.0 ~ 7.4% and 0.4 ~ 73.9% respectively. For citizens of Seoul by age (consumers only), the highest RIs for children (under 6 years old) and the elderly (over 65 years old) were with chlorothalonil, and the estimated daily intakes (EDI) were 56.0%, 112.5%, respectively, of its ADI. For adults (19 ~ 64 years old) the highest RI was for chlorfenapyr and the EDI reached 118.6%. These results show that, despite the high levels of some pesticide residues, they may not be considered as a serious public health problem.

Application of revised nursing work index to hospital nurses of South Korea.

PURPOSE: Based on the Revised Nursing Work Index (NWI-R), this research aimed to develop a Korean Hospital General Inpatient Unit-Nursing Work Index (KGU-NWI). This study also aimed to compare the common points and differences between the subfactors of the KGU-NWI and the subfactors from previous studies. METHODS: Based on opinions from 3,151 nurses in Korean hospital general inpatient unit, this research used 57 items of NWI-R and the principal axis factor analysis for deriving subfactors. We evaluated the convergent validity through factor analysis and the content validity of KGU-NWI in terms of the association between nurses' job outcome and the subfactors derived. RESULTS: Six subfactors and 26 items for KGU-NWI were derived from NWI-R. Among them, 'physician-nurse relationship', 'adequate nurse staffing' and 'organizational support and management of hospital' were the same with results from previous studies. In addition, two subfactors, 'participation of decision-making processes' and 'education for improving quality of care', which were similar with results from previous Korean studies, were newly added by using Korean hospital cases. In contrast to previous Korean studies, a unique subfactor this study found was 'nursing processes'. This research confirmed that the six subfactors were highly correlated with job satisfaction, intention to leave, and quality of health care, which represented a nurse's job outcome. CONCLUSION: KGU-NWI including six subfactors and 26 items is an applicable instrument to investigate nurse work environment in Korean hospital general inpatient unit.