South Korea - The Korea Times

Health officials criticized for late response to BCG vaccine

By Kim Hyun-binHealth officials are under fire for their belated response to the Japanese-made percutaneous BCG vaccination, which was found to have arsenic exceeding Japan's daily limit.Arsenic is a Category 1 carcinogen whose presence in the human body can result in the development of cancer.The criticism comes as the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety responded three months after the Japanese government's report that the product contained too much arsenic.The Japanese Drug and Safety ministry said there were no safety hazards with the vaccination, but it banned its manufacture.Korea Vaccine, the importer of the Japanese BCG vaccine, says it wasn't a late response claiming the Japanese company only informed them last month and they reported to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety as soon as they received the information. According to the ministry Thursday, the arsenic found in the vaccine was 0.039 micrograms (0.26ppm), which is 1/38 of the daily limit. The Japanese government claims the BCG vaccination could be taken daily for the duration of a person's life and encounter no problem

Nov 9, 2018By Kim Hyun-bin

Health officials criticized for late response to BCG vaccine

Korea revokes driver's licenses of visually impaired athletes

South Korean authorities have revoked driver's licenses of visually impaired athletes who took part in the Asian Para Games, officials here said Friday, following their vision tests.According to the sports ministry and the Korea Paralympic Committee (KPC), the blind athletes recently retook the aptitude test for driver's licenses to check their actual eyesight after returning from the Asian Para Games in Indonesia. The test results showed their eyesight doesn't meet the vision requirements, which forced the authorities to revoke their driver's licenses.Controversy loomed after a lawmaker claimed that four visually impaired athletes selected for the para national team passed a vision test and obtained level 1 and level 2 driver's licenses. The vision requirements for the level 1 license is binocular visual acuity of at least 0.8 and 0.5 for each eye. The vision requirement for the level 2 license is binocular visual acuity of at least 0.5.Three of the four athletes took gold medals at the Asian Para Games in Jakarta.Critics then suspected that these athletes may not have visual impair

Nov 9, 2018

Korea revokes driver's licenses of visually impaired athletes

Fine dust countermeasures to be applied on private sector

Yoo Je-chul, the head of the living environment policy office of the environment ministry, makes a presentation on strengthened countermeasures against fine dust at the Government Complex in Sejong, Thursday. YonhapBy Jung Hae-myoungThe alternate day driving ban will be expanded from the public sector to all drivers starting next February, as a strengthened countermeasure against fine dust, the government said Thursday.Incentives for diesel cars will also be abolished because old diesel vehicles are one of the factors generating fine dust.The government announced a set of toughened anti-fine dust measures, after high levels of fine and ultrafine dust clouded the nation for days.According to the measures, drivers will be subject to an alternate day driving ban based on even and odd last numbers of license plates, depending on their emission discharging levels, starting Feb. 15. So far, the rule has been applied only to public servants and is only recommended for the private sector.The government will also abolish the “clean diesel policy,” promulgated by the Lee Myung-bak

Nov 8, 2018

Fine dust countermeasures to be applied on private sector

PHOTOS Korea takes emergency measures to mitigate fine dust

People wearing protective masks walk in central Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap  Gwangju's sky turned gray.  Buildings in remote areas in Daejeon are not seen clearly. Yonhap South Korea took emergency measures to curb fine dust in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province on Wednesday for the first time in eight months.The Ministry of Environment issued a particulate matter advisory, which calls for extraordinary steps in the capital area, including an even and odd road rationing for public-sector vehicles and the reduction of operation hours at construction sites and major pollutant-emitting workplaces.The Seoul city government has imposed temporary shutdowns on some 360 parking lots at affiliated public institutions and suspended old diesel cars from running in the city.The government takes special mitigation measures for Seoul and surrounding areas when the concentration level of ultra fine particles measuring 2.5 micrometers surpasses 50 ㎍/㎥.The level has risen to as high as 80 ㎍/㎥ in some parts of the three areas since Tuesday.As of 9 a.m., the average ul

Nov 7, 2018

Korea takes emergency measures to mitigate fine dust [PHOTOS]

25% of elderly have no single meal with family: study

By Kim Hyun-binOne out of four elderly people has not had a single meal with a family member within the last year, a study showed, Tuesday. These people have a 30 percent higher chance of developing depression compared to those who eat with their family.According to the research conducted by Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine on 4,959 elderly people aged over 65 from 2010 to 2014, 25 percent of them responded they had not eaten a meal with their family in the last year.The ratio of eating alone was higher among women at 33.5 percent, with 13.1 percent of men saying so.Among those who said they have had at least one meal a day with family members, 11.8 percent said they had one meal, while 18.7 percent said two meals and 44.5 percent, three meals.The eating habits had an effect on depression, the study showed.People who had at least one meal a day with their family were 20 percent less likely to suffer depression than those who ate alone. People who had two or three meals a day with family reduced their chances of depression by 30 and 28 percent, respectively.Elderly people wh

Nov 6, 2018By Kim Hyun-bin

Health officials urge public to receive flu shots this month

By Kim Hyun-binHealth officials are urging the public to get influenza vaccination this month as flu season is just around the corner. Influenza becomes rampant in early winter through spring and there has been an increase in the number of patients diagnosed with the disease in recent years.According to data released by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment in 2016, there were 1.06 million influenza patients, an increase of 250,000 compare to the previous year, with most infections taking place in December.Many experts believe this year's cold wave is expected to be harsher than previous years as the country suffered a record-breaking heat wave during the summer.Health officials are urging people to get vaccinated before the end of autumn to better protect themselves from catching the flu.“It takes two weeks for the flu vaccination to kick in and it is effective for six months. December is when most people get infected so the public should get vaccinated before the end of November,” the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said in a press release.&

Nov 4, 2018By Kim Hyun-bin

Health officials urge public to receive flu shots this month

National pension requires reform to prolong fund reserve

By Kim Hyun-binThe growing elderly population and the decreasing younger generation are raising the question over whether the national pension fund can remain afloat ― to which many experts give pessimistic answers.The faster-than-expected aging society has pushed the National Pension Service (NPS) to come up with a countermeasure to better prolong the pension reserve, as recent government prediction expects the fund to be exhausted by 2057. The prediction is three years earlier than the previous government forecast in 2013, which forecasted the fund to be depleted by 2060. The decline in the funds is inevitably forcing the government to raise premiums to keep the pension running, according to the NPS, which is scheduled to release a pension reform plan this month with a probable premium raise, the first increase in 20 years.“The current premium is at 9 percent (of incomes), half of which is paid by the employer and the other half by the employee. If the fund keeps on depleting, the premium has to go up to fill the gap. The 9 percent could go up to 40 percent in the future,&rdq

Nov 1, 2018By Kim Hyun-bin

National pension requires reform to prolong fund reserve

Doctors plan protest against colleagues' conviction

Choi Dae-zip, president of the Korean Medical Association, lies on the sidewalk in front of the National Assembly in Seoul, Tuesday, in protest of the recent imprisonment of three doctors arrested for misdiagnosis. Yonhap By Kim Hyun-binA doctors' group is planning a rally in Seoul later this month to protest the recent conviction of three doctors who were found guilty of a malpractice that led to the death of a child. They claim it was unfair to prosecute the doctors because they could not “control unexpected” situations, threatening to strike if they were not released. But the public is giving a cold shoulder to their action, saying the doctors were rightfully charged for professional negligence and the government should strengthen punishment for such actions.The Korean Medical Association said they would hold the rally in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, Nov. 11, with 130,000 members and students at medical schools participating. Choi Dae-zip, the president of the association

Nov 1, 2018By Kim Hyun-bin

Doctors plan protest against colleagues' conviction

Why millennial generation proposes marriage to themselves

By Jung Hae-myoung To 20-somethings, marriage is no longer a dreamy future but a costly reality. When asked what pops up in their heads when hearing the word “marriage,” the response was “cost-to-benefit ratio.” According to a 2017 Statistics Korea report, 57 percent of people in their 20s said it was more beneficial to not get married. The cost of marriage can be both materialistic and non-materialistic ― finance, stress from the relationship and personal time, while the benefits remain unsure.“I don't want to give up my life that I have worked so hard to build. From what I have seen of my parents' marriage, the wife has to sacrifice her personal life. Even if culture seems to have changed, traditional roles and awareness still remain in households,” a 25-year-old woman surnamed Lee told The Korea Times. “For me, I still need my own space and time.”According to a 2016 survey conducted by Macromil Embrain of 1,000 people in their 20s, 59.5 percent of women chose not to get married because they want to have “freer life.” When

Nov 1, 2018

Why millennial generation proposes marriage to themselves

Elderly drivers emerging as serious social problem

By Kang Seung-wooOn Sept. 18, a car crashed into a drugstore in Guro-gu, western Seoul. Not drunk at all, the driver, 83, mistakenly crashed his car into it, while trying to enter the parking lot.Also, a 69-year-old drove the wrong way in Hapcheon, South Gyeongsang Province, leading to a crash, in which three people in the car coming in the right direction were seriously injured. However, the driver was not aware of traveling the wrong way, according to police.As the number of elderly drivers is sharply increasing amid the aging of the population, car accidents caused by them are also increasing, sparking calls for aged drivers to voluntarily stop and return their licenses.According to the Road Traffic Authority (KoROAD), the number of drivers aged 65 or older stood at 1.66 million in 2012, but it reached 2.8 million last year. During the same period, the number of the accidents caused by them rose from 15,190 to 26,713.“I often see drivers on highways, struggling to stay in their lanes and going back and forth ― scenes keeping other drivers on nerves and reminding me of drunk

Nov 1, 2018By Kang Seung-woo

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