Absenteeism is an important index that is related not only to health but also to direct daily activities. It may lead to a student's poor educational performance and overall reduction in educational quality. Particularly, diseases causing school absenteeism are important for environmental health of children's study. However only a few studies regarding the effects of air pollution on school absenteeism due to respiratory disease have been reported. This study was performed to examine the effect of air pollution on absenteeism by respiratory disease, using school attendance reports from March 2002 to December 2004. In this study, we counted absenteeism numbers using school absenteeism data from the first to sixth grade and classified absenteeism into illness-related, non-illness-related and respiratory disease-related illness absences. To this end, we used air pollution data (CO, NO2, PM10, and SO2) and temperature and relative humidity data collected during the study period. Daily counts of absenteeism were analyzed by Generalized Additive Model after the adjustment of several factors such as seasonal variation, day of the week, and meteorological parameter confounders in a nonparametric approach. For each air pollutant, we analyzed illness-related absences, non-illness-related absences, and respiratory- illness related absences. Then, we considered both influenza and non-influenza related absenteeism type. In illness-related absences analysis, absenteeism risks increased to 1.05(1.02-1.08) for CO and 1.06 (1.02-1.10) for NO2 by each interquartile range change with adjustment for influenza. The risks for respiratory-related absences of CO and NO2 increased to 1.05(1.02-1.08) and 1.04(1.01-1.08), respectively by each interquartile range change with adjustment for influenza. However, in the analysis of non-illness-related absences, there were no significant risks for the effect of all air pollution. This result shows that air pollution can affect respiratory-related absences and provides a basis for developing environmental health policy against air pollution.

본 연구에서는 열수 팥 추출물이 hydroxyl 라디칼에 의해 유도되는 산화적 스트레스에 미치는 영향을 알아보기 위하여 항산화활성과 DNA 및 세포의 산화적 손상 억제 효과를 조사하였다. 팥 열수 추출물의 DPPH 라디칼과 hydroxyl 라디칼의 제거능은 다소 낮았으나, Fe2+-chelating과 과산화수소 제거효과는 높게 나타나 활성산소의 생성을 억제하는 데 효과적인 것으로 확인되었다. 또한 팥 열수 추출물의 in vitro DNA cleavage, DNA migration 및 H2AX의 인산화비 억제활성은 높은 활성을 보여주고 있어 라디칼에 의한 DNA 손상 억제에 효과적으로 작용하였다. 또한 지질과산화와 p21의 발현율을 통해 세포의 산화적 손상에 미치는 영향을 살펴보면 지질과산화 억제능과 p21의 발현율에 매우 효과적으로 작용하고 있어 라디칼에 의한 산화적 스트레스로부터 세포를 보호할 것으로 생각된다.