• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.35
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• pp.13.1-13.12
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• 2023

Background: Indoor air pollution can cause and exacerbate asthma. We report a previously undescribed case of occupational asthma related to indoor air pollution in a worker at an indoor air gun shooting range and highlight the potential risk of developing occupational asthma in this environment. Case presentation: A 31-year-old man presented with dyspnea, cough, and sputum and was diagnosed with asthma complicated by pneumonia. Objective evidence of asthma was obtained by performing a methacholine bronchial provocation test. It was suspected that the patient had occupational asthma, which began one month after changing jobs to work within the indoor air gun shooting range. The highest peak expiratory flow (PEF) diurnal variability on working days was 15%, but the highest variation was 24%, with 4 days out of 4 weeks having a variation of over 20% related to workplace exposure. Conversely, the diurnal variability on the rest days was 7%, and no day showed a variation exceeding 20%. The difference in the average PEF between working and rest days was 52 L/min. PEF deterioration during working days and improvement on rest days were noted. Conclusions: The results obtained from the in-depth analysis of the PEF were adequate to diagnose the patient with occupational asthma. Exposure to indoor air pollution and lead and the patient's atopy and allergic rhinitis may have contributed to the development of occupational asthma.

• Journal of the Korean housing association
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.55-62
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• 2015

The international concern on the inhalable fine dust is continuing to increase. In addition to the toxic properties of the fine dust itself, it can be more dangerous than other environmental factors since the dust pollution is hard to be detected by human sense. Although the information on outdoor air condition can be acquired easily, the indoor dust concentration is another problem because the indoor air condition is influenced by the architectural environment and human activity. It means occupants may be exposed to indoor dust pollution over a long period without being aware. Therefore the indoor dust concentration should be measured separately and visualized as an intuitive information. By visualizing, the indoor dust concentration in each space can be recognized practically in compare with the degree of pollution in adjacent spaces. Besides the visualization outcome can be used as base data for related research such as an analysis of the relation between indoor dust concentration and architectural environment. Meanwhile, with the development of network and micro sensing devices, it became possible to collect wide range of indoor environment data. In this regards, this paper suggests a system for visualization of indoor dust concentration and demonstrates it on an actual space.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Educational Facilities
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.52-57
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• 2007

Kindergarten children are engaged in the age of physical immaturity as well as the rapid growth. The indoor air contaminants that are proved to affect even the full grown adults are obvious to have no little influence to immature small children in a growth period. In May 2004, for the multi purpose facilities and newly constructed apartments, the Ministry of Environment announced "Indoor Air Quality Control Law for the Multi Purpose Facility," which made the interests to be focused in the urgent understanding of current condition and preparation of measures about the indoor air pollution. In Dec 2005, the law was revised to obligatorily notify the amount of Formaldehyde and Volatile Organic Compounds in the case of newly constructed apartments with more than 100 houses. However, since the kindergarten takes none of the classifications, even the current condition is not grasped although it is directly connected to the health of growing children. Therefore, the study aims to analyze indoor air pollution of one selected kindergarten in Incheon city.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.9-17
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• 2022

As the COVID-19 pandemic situation worsens, the time spent indoors increases, and the exposure to indoor environmental pollution such as indoor air pollution and noise also increases, causing problems such as deterioration of human health, stress, and discord between neighbors. This paper designs and implements a system that measures and monitors indoor air quality and noise, which are representative evaluation criteria of the indoor environment. The system proposed in this paper consists of a particulate matter measurement subsystem that measures and corrects the concentration of particulate matters to monitor indoor air quality, and a noise measurement subsystem that detects changes in sound and converts it to a sound pressure level. The concentration of indoor particulate matters is measured using a laser-based light scattering method, and an error caused by temperature and humidity is compensated in this paper. For indoor noise measurement, the voltage measured through a microphone is basically measured, Fourier transform is performed to classify it by frequency, and then A-weighting is performed to correct loudness equality. Then, the RMS value is obtained, high-frequency noise is removed by performing time-weighting, and then SPL is obtained. Finally, the equivalent noise level for 1 minute and 5 minutes are calculated to show the indoor noise level. In order to classify noise into direct impact sound and air transmission noise, a piezo vibration sensors is mounted to determine the presence or absence of direct impact transmitted through the wall. For performance evaluation, the error of particulate matter measurement is analyzed through TSI's AM510 instrument. and compare the noise error with CEM's noise measurement system.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2003

To estimate the annual WTP for risk reduction of environmental problems such as outdoor and indoor air pollution, and drinking water contamination, a questionnaire survey was conducted by dichotomous contingent valuation method in Seoul. Several covariate models based on Turnbull, Weibull and Spike models were developed and applied to WTP estimation with uncertainty analysis. WTP estimates for risk reduction of air pollution were 13,000 won, 12,000 won, and 10,000 won per month in low-bounded Turnbull, Weibull and Spike models, respectively. The estimates for indoor air pollution were 17,000 won,20,000 won and 21,000 won and these for drinking water contamination were 10,000 won, 13,000 won and 14,000 won in each model, respectively. Goodness of fit for Weibull model was better than those for other models. WTP estimates for indoor air pollution were higher than those for other pollution problems.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Environmental Toocicology Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.169-169
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• 2003

In Korea, there is no CRA studies and has not well known CRA and not well established their methodologies. Therefore, objectives of this study is to establish the framework of CRA consisting of health risk, economic risk and perceived risk and the detail methodologies of three main component of estimating and comparing those risks for on the three environmental problems of air pollution, indoor air pollution and drinking water contamination which being subjective to the eight sub-problems of hazardous ai. pollutants (HAPs), regulated pollutants (representative as PM10) and Dioxins (PCDDS/ PCDFs) in air pollution, and indoor ai. pollutants (IAPs) and Radon in indoor air pollution, and drinking water pollutants (DWPs), disinfection-by- products(DBPs) and radionuclides in drinking water contamination in Seoul, Korea. And then, their problems set priorities by individual and integrated risk. As a results, ranking of health risk were the following order of indoor air pollution, air pollution and then drinking water contamination, in three environmental problems and of radon, PM10, IAPs, HAPs, DWPs, Dioxins, DBPs, and then radionuclides in eight sub-problems. And that of economic risk were the same order. In the contrary, ranking of perceived risk were the following order of air pollution, drinking water contamination, and then indoor air pollution, and of HAPs, Dioxins, radionuclides, PM10, DWPs, IAPs, Radon and then DBPs.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.373-381
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• 2002

Benzene, Ethyl-benzene, Toluene and Xylene (BTEX) can be released to a groundwater in case of the oil leakage from underground storage tank of a gas station. These chemicals are found to contribute to the total inhalation risk from contaminated indoor air. This study presents the assessment of a human exposure to such chemicals released from the groundwater into indoor air. At first, a 2-compartment model is developed to describe the transfer and distribution of the chemicals released from groundwater in a house through showering, washing clothes, and flushing toilets. The model is used to estimate a daily human exposure through inhalation of such BTEX for adults based on two sets of exposure scenarios. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is used to identify important parameters. The results obtained from the study would help to increase the understanding of risk assessment issues associated with the indoor pollution by BTEX released from contaminated groundwater.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2018.05a
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• pp.226-227
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• 2018

Recently, as the interest of the government and the public on energy saving has increased, the airtightness of buildings has been improved to improve the insulation performance of buildings. However, indoor air pollution due to increase of pollution source in indoor space and lack of ventilation is increasing and interest in indoor air quality is increasing. In 2003, the Ministry of Environment enacted and promulgated the Act on Indoor Air Quality Control in Multi-use Facilities. Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive inert gas with colorless, tasteless and odorless nature. The concentration is high in a room where radon can not escape. Although lononggas is naturally occurring, it is not interested in living environment, but it is easily inhaled through human body through respiration and causes lung cancer in long-term exposure. Therefore, this study intends to carry out an experiment for the reduction of radon gas, which is the first carcinogen in indoor air pollution sources.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.86 no.1
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• pp.23-32
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• 2023

Everyone is aware that air and environmental pollutants are harmful to health. Among them, indoor air quality directly affects physical health, such as respiratory rather than outdoor air. However, studies that have examined the correlation between environmental and health information have been conducted with public data targeting large cohorts, and studies with real-time data analysis are insufficient. Therefore, this research explores the research with an indoor air quality monitoring (AQM) system based on developing environmental detection sensors and the internet of things to collect, monitor, and analyze environmental and health data from various data sources in real-time. It explores the usage of wearable devices for health monitoring systems. In addition, the availability of big data and artificial intelligence analysis and prediction has increased, investigating algorithmic studies for accurate prediction of hazardous environments and health impacts. Regarding health effects, techniques to prevent respiratory and related diseases were reviewed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2018.05a
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• pp.232-233
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• 2018

Among the recent environmental pollution, indoor air pollution has an adverse effect on the health of indoor residents. Radon, one of the causes of indoor air pollution, is released from concrete, gypsum board and asbestos slate among building materials. Radon is a primary carcinogen and is a colorless, tasteless, odorless inert gas that adheres to airborne dust and enters the body through breathing. At this time, there is a risk of developing cancer if the alpha rays from the lononggas entering the human body destroys the lung tissue and is continuously exposed to a high concentration of lonon gas. The World Health Organization (WHO) has emphasized the reduction of radon and its exposure to radon by classifying it as a first-level carcinogen, but many people have not recognized it yet, and the research is underdeveloped. Therefore, this study was carried out to investigate the properties of adsorbed coconut radon to prevent the inflow of radon gas, which is an air pollution source of indoor air, and to prevent inflow into the human body.