• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.149-158
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• 2023

Background: Injury is one of the major health problems in South Korea. Few studies have evaluated both intentional and unintentional injury when investigating the association between exposure to air pollutants and injury. Objectives: We aimed to explore the association between short-term exposure to ambient air pollution and years of life lost (YLLs) due to injury. Methods: Data on daily YLLs for 2002~2019 were obtained from the the Death Statistics Database of the Korean National Statistical Office. This study estimated short-term exposure to particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of <10 ㎛ (PM₁₀), particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of <2.5 ㎛ (PM_2.5), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), carbon monoxide (CO), and ozone (O₃). This time series study was conducted using a generalized additive model (GAM) assuming a Gaussian distribution. We also evaluated a delayed effect of ambient air pollution by constructing a lag structure up to seven days. The best-fitting lag was selected based on smallest generalized cross validation (GCV) value. To explore effect modification by intentionality of injury (i.e., intentional injury [self-harm, assault] and unintentional injury), we conducted stratified subgroup analyses. Additionally, we stratified unintentional injury by mechanism (traffic accident, fall, etc.). Results: During the study period, the average daily YLLs due to injury was 307.5 years. In the intentional injury, YLLs due to self-harm and assault showed positive association with air pollutants. In the unintentional injury, YLLs due to fall, electric current, fire and poisoning showed positive association with air pollutants, whereas YLLs due to traffic accident, mechanical force and drowning/submersion showed negative associations with air pollutants. Conclusions: Injury is recognized as preventable, and effective strategies to create a safe society are important. Therefore, we need to establish strategies to prevent injury and consider air pollutants in this regard.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.10
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• pp.317-324
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• 2020

Combined cycle power plants (CCPP) that use natural gas as fuel are easier to start and stop, and have lower pollutant emissions, so their share of domestic power generation facilities is steadily increasing. However, CCPP have a high concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emission in the initial start-up and low-load operation region, which causes yellow plume and civil complaints. As a control technology, the yellow plume reduction system was developed and operated from the mid-2000s. However, this technology was unable to control the phenomenon due to insufficient preheating of the vaporization system for 10 to 20 minutes of the initial start-up. In this study, CFD analysis and demonstration tests were performed to derive a control technology by injecting a reducing agent directly into the gas turbine exhaust duct. CFD analysis was performed by classifying into 5 cases according to the exhaust gas condition. The RMS values of all cases were less than 15%, showing a good mixing. Based on this, the installation and testing of the demonstration facilities facilitated complete control of the yellow plume phenomenon in the initial start-up.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.17-25
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• 2016

In this study, the air quality of underground and overground railway stations was evaluated focusing on the degree of influence of the outside air quality. The measured components were particulate matter ($PM_{10}$), carbon dioxide ($CO_2$), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide ($NO_2$), formaldehyde (HCHO), ozone ($O_3$), total airborne bacteria (TAB), total volatile organic carbon (TVOC), and Radon (Rn), which are included in the maintenance standards and recommended standards of the Indoor Air Quality Management Act. Also, the indoor/outdoor concentration ratios of $PM_{10}$, $NO_2$, and $O_3$ were calculated to estimate the influence of the outdoor air quality. The concentrations of $PM_{10}$ HCHO, TVOC, $NO_2$, and Rn in the underground stations were found to be higher than those in the overground stations. These results indicate that the (present) generation of contaminants are caused by the indoor source of the underground station. The ozone concentration of the overground stations was higher than that of the underground stations, which indicates that the outdoor ozone concentration influenced that of the overground stations directly. Thus, methods of improving the IAQ should take into consideration the types of contamination.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.529-539
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• 2016

Modeling can be used to understand the atmospheric dispersion of air pollutants scientifically. Recent development of model computation enabled to simulate more diverse area. As flowing out from the emission source, the concentration profiles of air pollutants could be estimated in three dimensional space. This study used CALPUFF diffusion model to predict the diffusion of discharged NO2 and TSP on the atmosphere near a combined heat power plant and incinerator. It was investigated contribution concentration of the surrounding area by sources by comparing the actual measurement results and the results of the modeling. Contribution of emission sources to the local level of NO2 was found quite high particularly at the site, A-3. The estimated results by modelling revealed more significant effect on TSP at A-5.

• Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.63-68
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• 2006

There are $10{\sim}30%$ polyphenol and $2{\sim}4%$ caffeine in green tea. Caffeine is a kind of alkaloid containing nitrogen which cause stimulation, impatience, headache, insomnia, low birth weight infant. Because of these negative effect, decaffeined beverage came out and decaffeined coffee already have a big market since 1970s. Having proving the physiologic functions of green tea, high consumption of coffee is shifting to green tea. Because of the carcinogenic effect of the organic solvents, decaffeine processing with supercritical carbon dioxide has industrialized and have an advantage in environment-friendly and minimized flavor loss. Decaffeined green tea using supercritical carbon dioxide is considered to be safe but there are not enough study, We investigated the chromosome aberration test with mammalian cell line, CHL. When the cells were treated with 5000, 2000, 1000 ${\mu}g/ml$ and compared with the negative controls, there were no significant (P>0.05) increased chromosome aberration. Same results was observed when adding S9 mixture or not. As a result, water extract of decaffeined green tea using supercritical carbon dioxide does not induce chromosome aberration.

• Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.119-124
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• 2006

There are $10{\sim}30%$ polyphenol and $2{\sim}4%$ caffeine in green tea. Caffeine is a kind of alkaloid containing nitrogen which cause stimulation, impatience, headache, insomnia, low birth weight infant. Because of these negative effect, decaffeined beverage came out and decaffeined coffee already have a big market since 1970s. Having proving the physiologic functions of green tea, high consumption of coffee is shifting to green tea. Because of the carcinogenic effect of the organic solvents, decaffeine processing with supercritical carbon dioxide has industrialized and have an advantage in environment-friendly and minimized flavor loss. Decaffeined green tea using supercritical carbon dioxide is considered to be safe but there are not enough study. We investigated the chromosome aberration test with mammalian cell line, CHL. When the cells were treated with 5000, 2000, 1000 ${\mu}g/ml$ and compared with the negative controls, there were no significant(P>0.05) increased chromosome aberration. Same results was observed when adding S9 mixture or not. As a result, water extract of decaffeined green tea using supercritical carbon dioxide does not induce chromosome aberration.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.71-75
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• 2014

Ambient air pollution (AAP) and particulate matters (PM) have been closely associated with adverse health effects such as respiratory disease and cardiovascular diseases. Previous studies have examined the adverse health effects associated with short- and long-term exposure to AAP and outdoor PM on respiratory disease. However, the effect of PM size ($PM_{2.5}$ and $PM_{10}$) on cardiovascular disease has not been well studied. Thus, it remains unclear how the size of the inhalable particles (coarse, fine, or ultrafine) affects mortality and morbidity. Airborne PM concentrations are commonly used for ambient air quality management worldwide, owing to the known effects on cardiorespiratory health. In this article, we assess the relationship between cardiovascular diseases and PM, with a particular focus on PM size. We discuss the association of $PM_{2.5}$ and $PM_{10}$, nitrogen dioxide ($NO_2$), and elemental carbon with mortality and morbidity due to cardiovascular diseases, stroke, and altered blood pressure, based on epidemiological studies. In addition, we provide evidence that the adverse health effects of AAP and PM are more pronounced among the elderly, children, and people with preexisting cardiovascular and respiratory conditions. Finally, we critically summarize the literature pertaining to cardiovascular diseases, including atherosclerosis and stroke, and introduce potential studies to better understand the health significance of AAP and PM on cardiovascular disease.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.30 no.5 s.81
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• pp.481-486
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• 2004

Vehicle occupant exposure to air pollutants has been a subject of concern in recent years because of higher levels of air pollutants inside gasoline or diesel-using vehicle, comparing to the surrounding atmosphere. Contrary to previous studies, fuel of vehicles operated in this study was liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). This study examined the potential exposure and removal efficiency of selected volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitrogen dioxide ($NO_2$) and respirable suspended particle (RSP) by commercial air cleaning device inside vehicle under different ventilation conditions. Vehicle concentrations inside of benzene, toluene, m,p-xylene, $NO_2$ and RSP were lower under the low ventilation condition. This was indicated that outdoor air pollutants could affect the vehicle air quality inside in case metropolitan cities such as Daegu. The urban vehicle concentrations inside of benzene, toluene, m,p-xylene, $NO_2$ and RSP with air cleaning device were higher than those without air cleaning device. This means that the use of air cleaning device equipped with activated carbon filter, which was used in this study, in the interior of vehicles could be expected to reduce the vehicle occupants exposure to air pollutants effectively. In batch type reactor of laboratory scale, removal efficiencies of air cleaning device used were $97.0\%,\;95.7\%,\;94.6\%\;and\;85.5\%$ respectively in benzene, toluene, m,p-xylene and $NO_2$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Health Society Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.293-298
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• 2005

Indoor air quality can be affected by indoor sources, ventilation, decay and outdoor levels. Although technologies exist to measure these factors, direct measurements are often difficult. The purpose of this study was to develop an alternative method to characterize indoor environmental factors by multiple indoor and outdoor measurements. Indoor and outdoor NO$_2$ and VOCs(benzene, toluene, xylene) concentrations were measured every 3 days for 60 consecutive days in 30 houses in Seoul, Asan and Daegu, Korea. Using a mass balance model and regression analysis, penetration factor (ventilation rate divided by the sum of ventilation rate and deposition constant) and source strength factor (source strength divided by the sum of ventilation rate and deposition constant) were calculated using multiple indoor and outdoor measurements. Subsequently, NO$_2$ and VOCs source strengths (ppb/hr) and deposition constant (K, hr$^{-1}$) were estimated. Deposition constants of NO$_2$, toluene and xylene were 0.98 ${\pm}$ 0.28, 0.71 ${\pm}$ 0.24 and 0.74 ${\pm}$ 0.53 hr$^{-1}$, respectively. Source strengths of NO$_2$, toluene and xylene were 16.28 ${\pm}$ 7.47,31.25 ${\pm}$ 38.45 and 23.45 ${\pm}$ 19.67 ppb/hr, respectively In conclusion, indoor environmental factors were effectively characterized by this method using multiple indoor and outdoor measurements.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.1085-1092
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• 2009

The ozone data is one of the important environmental data for measurement of the atmospheric condition of the country. In this article, the Autoregressive Error (ARE) model and Neural Networks (NN) model have been considered for analyzing the ozone data at the northern part of the Gyeonggi-Do, Paju monitoring site in Korea. In the both ARE model and NN model, seven meteorological variables and four pollution variables are used as the explanatory variables for the ozone data set. The seven meteorological variables are daily maximum temperature, wind speed, relative humidity, rainfall, dew point temperature, steam pressure, and amount of cloud. The four air pollution explanatory variables are Sulfur dioxide ($SO_2$), Nitrogen dioxide ($NO_2$), Cobalt (CO), and Promethium 10 (PM10). The result showed that the NN model is generally better suited for describing the ozone concentration than the ARE model. However, the ARE model will be expected also good when we add the explanatory variables in the model.