Since the late 19 century, the Choseon dynasty forcibly opened the door to western countries, including Japan. In addition, cultural propagation called ‘modernity’ caused subtle changes in dietary life. Based on the theory of colonial dual society, this study examined the dietary modernity in Kyungsung (mid 1930s~early 1940s) when 50 years had passed since the Open-Door policy. Three films, <Turning point of the youngsters>(1934), <Sweet Dream>(1936) and <Spring of Korean Peninsula>(1941) (those made in 1930s~1940s) were analyzed. Twenty six scenes [14 scenes from <Turning point of the youngsters>, five scenes from <Sweet Dream>, and seven scenes from <Spring of Korean Peninsula>] related to the dietary life from films were chosen and classified according three criteria (degree of modernization, main influential countries, and benefit groups from modernization). The degree of modernization of all films was more than 80%. The average proportion of the countries that affected modernization were western (35%), western-Japan (28%) and Japan (20%). Approximately 33, 53 and 14% of the upper, middle, lower classes, respectively, benefited from diet modernization. The main places where modernized dietary culture could be enjoyed were cafes, western restaurants, tea rooms, and hotels. The main food or beverages that were considered as modernized dietary culture were liquor (especially beer), coffee, and western meals. People in Kyungsung in the mid 1930s~early 1940s experienced modernity in dietary life differently according to the social classes and these culture changes were generally accepted as a symbol of modernity.
There has been an increased awareness of the need to confirm the chloroform exposure associated with using chlorinated household water. Ten of a 30-minute tub bath were normally taken by two volunteers in a bathroom of an apartment. Chloroform concentrations were measured in bathing water and bathroom air, and exhaled breath of the subjects prior to and after bathing. Bathing using chlorinated tap water resulted in a chloroform exposure and caused a body burden. Based on the difference of chloroform concentrations between breath samples collected prior to and after bathing, the chloroform body burden from a 30-minute bath was estimated to be about 8 to 26 folds higher than that prior to the bath. The mean water and bathroom air chloroform concentrations measured to evaluate the body burden were 9.4 ㎍/ℓ and 14.9 ㎍/㎥, respectively. The chloroform level of the bathroom air was 34 to 130 times higher than that of the living-room air. The relationship between the bathroom air and the corresponding breath chloroform concentrations were significant with p=0.03 and R^2=0.47.
Chloroform present in the swimming water disinfected with sodium hypochlorite is released to the air of swimming pools. The air chloroform concentrations were measured in two swimming pools A and B which applied both sodium hypochlorite and ozone. Their mean concentrations are 28.0 ㎎/㎥ and 33.6 ㎍/㎥ in the swimming pools A and B, respectively. On the other hand, the mean water chloroform concentrations in the swimming pools A and B were 23.9 ㎍/ℓ and 19.5 ㎍/ℓ, respectively. The air chloroform concentrations were lower in the swimming pools A and B than those reported by previous studies abroad employed the swimming pools which applied sodium hypochlorte only for water disinfection. The water chloroform concentrations were also lower in this study than in the previous studies. The relationship between the air and water chloroform concentrations measured in this study was significant with p=0.002 and R^2=O.42. At similar time to the indoor air sampling, outdoor air samples were collected at two sites near each of the swimming pools A and B. The mean outdoor air chloroform concentrations near the swimming pools A and B were 0.41 ㎍/㎥ and 0.16 ㎍/㎥, respectively. The outdoor air chloroform concentrations measured in this study were equal to or lower than those reported by previous studies abroad. The chloroform dose inhaled for a typical one-hour swim was estimated to be 25.9 ㎍ per person, corresponding to a specific 0.37 ㎍/㎏ body weight. for a reference 70 ㎏ male adult, while the inh lation dose of chloroform from the outdoor air was estimated to be 5.6 ㎍ per person per day, corresponding to a specific 0.08 ㎍/㎏/day for the same reference male adult.