• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.109-123
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• 2020

Objectives: The aims of this study were to review the standards and key components of the standards for disposable masks in Korea, the US, EU, Japan, and China and to evaluate the appropriateness of disposable masks during a virus pandemic. Methods: We reviewed the standards in the above countries and compared their key elements for each standard. For the second purpose, systemic paper gathering using key words like 'mask', 'respirator' 'virus', and 'coronavirus' in the PubMed search engine was performed. Fifty-three papers were selected and reviewed in regard to the appropriateness of test protocols with sodium chloride(NaCl) particles for virus filtration and the effectiveness against viruses. Results: The standards for masks are largely divided into two categories: US standards and EU standards. In Korea, the Ministry of Employment and Labor adapted the EU standards for workers and the Health Masks adopted the Ministry of Employment and Labor standards by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. Regarding airborne viral infections, WHO emphasizes only droplet infection, while many studies have shown that small particles enter the air through coughing or sneezing, which increases the possibility of airborne infection. Compared to other particles, various factors such as airborne viability and the ability to replicate the virus in the body are further involved in the virus's airborne infection rate. Airborne infection is classified into absolute air infection, preferential air infection, and opportunistic air infection. The NaCl-certified N95 mask showed good filtration efficiency against viruses and NaCl particles were proved to be a surrogate material for viruses. From this, KF94 is also expected to be effective in blocking viruses. Conclusion: The N95 test method could be used as a surrogate test method for virus filtration. N95-class masks have been found to effectively block viral infections in the air. However, surgical or medical masks are only partially effective against airborne virus infection though they could effectively block large droplet infection. However, most studies considered in this study targeted N95 in foreign countries and studies on masks actually used in Korea are very limited, so studies on microorganisms and reuse on domestic masks should be conducted in the future.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.7-8
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• 2017

Corrosion of reinforced concrete embedded in concrete is a deterioration phenomenon due to intrusion of embodied or Airborne chloride ions. Corrosion of a embedded steel increases the volume of the rebar and causes damage to the structure such as cracking and peeling of the concrete. This causes penetration of various corrosive factors and accelerates the corrosion of reinforcing bars, which has a serious effect on the durability of the structure. Researches on the corrosion phenomenon of these rebars by electrochemical methods have been carried out for a long time, but it is a lack of research in Korea. Therefore, in this study, one of electrochemical experimental methods, Tafel extrapolation method, was used to evaluate the performance of reinforcing bars according to the amount of NaCl and LiNO₂ added to concrete.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.615-622
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• 2015

East Asia is characterized by anthropogenic emissions resulting from the large population and fast economic growth of this region. Since the prevailing wind is westerly and northwesterly, emissions from Ul-jin can be expected to contribute to acidic deposition increase in downwind direction. Aerosols collected at the near coast site, Uljin geun, gyungbook and were analyzed for $NH_4{^+}$, $Mg^{2+}$, $Na^+$, $Ca^{2+}$, $Cl^-$, $SO_4{^{2-}}$, and $NO_3{^-}$ from Aug. 2012 to Feb. 2013. The seasonal averaged aerosol concentration showed the highest potassium and calcium ion in winter and the highest ammonium ion due to a meadow and high solar intensity in summer. Sodium and chloride ion showed the same ratio all seasons and sulfate and nitrate species showed the maximum value in winter Chemical components of aerosols collected at the near coast site, Uljin geun, gyungbook were lower by 16 to 73% than those collected at other similar environment site such as kanghwa, yangyang. Comparing air quality data at the near coast site, Uljin geun, gyungbook, There was found that Uljin coast site is less influenced by the sea salts(potassium, magnesium, calcium) and nss-$SO_4{^{2-}}$ percentage is 3~13% higher than similar condition site.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.315-323
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• 2004

An electrical cascade impactor is a multi-stage impaction device to separate airborne particles into aerodynamic size classes using particle charging and electrical detection techniques. A Faraday cage and an aerosol charger, which are basic components of the electrical cascade impactor, were designed and evaluated in this study. The low-level current response of the Faraday cage was investigated with changing particle size and air flow rate by using sodium chloride (NaCl) particles. The response of the prototype Faraday cage was very similar to that of a commercial aerosol electrometer (TSI model 3068) within ${\pm}$5% for singly-charged particles. The response linearity of the prototype Faraday cage could be extended up to flow rate of 30 L/min. For the performance evaluation of the aerosol charger the monodisperse liquid dioctyl sebacate (DOS) particles, with diameters of 0.1∼0.8$\mu\textrm{m}$, were generated using spraying from an atomizer followed by evaporation-condensation process. Typical performance parameters of the aerosol charger such as P$.$n, wall loss, and elementary charges per particle were evaluated. The performance of the prototype aerosol charger was found to be close to that of the aerosol charger used in an electrical low pressure impactor (ELPI, Dekati).

• Proceedings of the Korea Committee for Ocean Resources and Engineering Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.253-259
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• 2004

The Jeju Island in Korea is the clean area which the tradition culture is preserved locally well with the nature environment of Heaven's blessing. An air pollution is becoming recently serious problem as the industrial development is proceeded with the urbanization. This study investigates that the atmosphere environment at Jeju area influences on the metal corrosion. A study of the atmosphere corrosion for carbon steel, copper, zinc ana aluminium exposed on five test sites indoors and outdoors. Corrosion results are treated statistically and adjusted to a model previously proposed for carbon steel, copper, zinc and aluminium based on the influence of environmental parameters and main pollutants($SO_2$ and chlorides) on tire atmosphere corrosion of metals. Through this study, we try to set the standards atmosphere corrosion at Jeju Island.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.17-23
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• 2015

Excessive manganese (Mn) in the brain promotes a variety of abnormal behaviors, including memory deficits, decreased motor skills and psychotic behavior resembling Parkinson's disease. Hereditary hemochromatosis (HH) is a prevalent genetic iron overload disorder worldwide. Dysfunction in HFE gene is the major cause of HH. Our previous study has demonstrated that olfactory Mn uptake is altered by HFE deficiency, suggesting that loss of HFE function could alter manganese-associated neurotoxicity. To test this hypothesis, Hfe-knockout ($Hfe^{-/-}$) and wild-type ($Hfe^{+/+}$) mice were intranasally-instilled with manganese chloride ($MnCl_2$ 5 mg/kg) or water daily for 3 weeks and examined for memory function. Olfactory Mn diminished both short-term recognition and spatial memory in $Hfe^{+/+}$ mice, as examined by novel object recognition task and Barnes maze test, respectively. Interestingly, $Hfe^{-/-}$ mice did not show impaired recognition memory caused by Mn exposure, suggesting a potential protective effect of Hfe deficiency against Mn-induced memory deficits. Since many of the neurotoxic effects of manganese are thought to result from increased oxidative stress, we quantified activities of anti-oxidant enzymes in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Mn instillation decreased superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) activity in $Hfe^{+/+}$ mice, but not in $Hfe^{-/-}$ mice. In addition, Hfe deficiency up-regulated SOD1 and glutathione peroxidase activities. These results suggest a beneficial role of Hfe deficiency in attenuating Mn-induced oxidative stress in the PFC. Furthermore, Mn exposure reduced nicotinic acetylcholine receptor levels in the PFC, indicating that blunted acetylcholine signaling could contribute to impaired memory associated with intranasal manganese. Together, our model suggests that disrupted cholinergic system in the brain is involved in airborne Mn-induced memory deficits and loss of HFE function could in part prevent memory loss via a potential up-regulation of anti-oxidant enzymes in the PFC.

• Particle and aerosol research
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.79-86
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• 2022

Many commercial air purifiers currently have deployed granular activated carbon (GAC) filters for removing volatile organic compounds in the indoor air. GACs are generally used to remove gaseous contaminants in the air through adsorption by the inner surfaces of pores. In addition, airborne particles can be also filtered by the surface adsorption of the GACs, which can improve the life-time of the particulate filters. In this study, the filtration efficiency of GACs to ultrafine particles through surface adsorption was investigated at different volume flow rates by deploying a continuous particle filtration system. The polydisperse sodium chloride (NaCl) particles were generated by a set of an atomizer and a diffusion dryer, and then mixed with particle-free air at different volume flow rates. The penetration of ultrafine particles and pressure drop for each experimental condition were measured to figure out the effect of the volume flow rate on the surface adsoprtion of the GACs to particles, ~ 2 mm. The particle filtration efficiency of the GACs decreased as the volume flow rate increased from 4 to 14 lpm. However, the 5 times thicker GAC filter layer decreased the penetration of ultraparticles than a preious study. The filtration efficiency of the single granule was also higher than the previous result in the literature with smaller granule filter materials.