• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.325-340
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• 1998

A cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate the relationship between sick building syndrome(SBS) and the environmental factors affecting SBS on 130 underground workers and 60 controls. The study consisted of 1) a review of environmental condition 2) measurement of temperature, $O_2$, $CO_2$, CO, and formaldehyde and 3) a questionnaire survey of symptom prevalence and perception of environmental conditions using indoor Air Quality questionnaire recommended by National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Bronchitis and dust allergy were more prevalent in underground workers significantly(p < 0.05). Among the 18 symptoms related to the indoor air pollution, the experience rate of dry, itching or irritated eyes, sore or dry throat, chest tightness, tired or strained eyes and dry or itchy skin symptom was significantly different between the underground workers and controls. The diagnostic criteria of SBS was defined as at least 1 symptom is experienced 1-3 times a week during the last 1 month among 18 indoor air pollution related symptoms which can be relieved by moving out of the underground. Applying the criteria, the mean symptom score was significant higher in underground workers than controls significantly (p < 0.05). These resalts indicated that underground workers are under inappropriate ergonomic and physical condition and inadequate ventilation. Their experience rate of symptoms related to indoor air pollution and prevalence of SBS was significantly higher than controls. To reduce the prevalence of SBS of underground workers, the surveillance system of indoor air quality, restriction of using fuel in underground and legislative regulations for the environment are needed to establish a better indoor air quality. Early detection, treatment and prevention of SBS through medical attention is also needed.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.84-91
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• 2008

"Eco-friendly construction" is an emerging issue in the building industry. Main purpose of the eco-friendly construction is to sustain the health and environment of building residents and to minimize the harmful effect on their environment. Apartment residents have great concern on eco-product, since many cases are reported that Sick Building Syndrome is caused by toxic substance from building materials. Environmental performance is to meet through using the highest grade eco-friendly materials. However, generally eco-friendly materials are more expensive than normal materials, Therefore, using eco-friendly materials at public housing project is limited to economical aspect. The purpose of this paper is development of eco-friendly material selection model considered cost efficiency. The selection of Eco-friendly finishing materials and their methods are constructed to consider environmental performance level and cost index compositively. Development of eco-friendly material selection method is economic and reasonable one when public housing is constructed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute Of Construction Engineering and Management
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.953-956
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• 2007

"Eco-friendly construction"is an emerging issue in the building industry. Main purpose of the eco-friendly construction is to sustain the health and environment of building residents and to minimize the harmful effect on their environment. Apartment residents have great concern on eco-product, since many cases are reported that Sick Building Syndrome is caused by toxic substance from building materials. Environmental performance is to meet through using the highest grade eco-friendly materials. However, generally eco-friendly materials are more expensive than normal materials. Therefore using eco-friendly materials at public housing project is limited to economical aspect. The purpose of this paper is development of eco-friendly material selection model considered cost efficiency. The selection of Eco-friendly finishing materials and their methods are constructed to consider environmental performance level and cost index compositively. Development of eco-friendly material selection method is economic and reasonable one when public housing is constructed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2021.05a
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• pp.217-218
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• 2021

With the prolonged Covid-19 epidemic, movement restrictions such as social distancing are prolonged, and as people stay indoors for a longer time, interest in indoor air pollution is increasing. Indoor air quality is not easily purified unlike outdoors. Among indoor building materials, paints and flooring contain formaldehyde that causes sick house syndrome and VOCs that contain carcinogenicity and harmfulness. For modern people who spend a lot of time living indoors for more than an hour, the occurrence of these harmful substances can be said to be fatal. In response to these risks, in July 2019, the government reinforced the standards for indoor air quality to protect the public's health by raising the detection standards for fine dust, ultrafine dust, and formaldehyde in indoor multi-use facilities. People use machines such as air purifiers to improve indoor air quality, or make efforts such as periodic ventilation. In order to reduce or support these other ancillary efforts more effectively, to reduce the generation of pollutants in the building itself, or to adsorb or purify pollutants in the air, use carbon black as an admixture to make a cement hardened body, and to grasp basic physical properties and adsorption capacity. And the result is as follows. As a result of the experiment to determine the appropriate amount of carbon black, it was confirmed that the more the amount of carbon black was added, the better it was in the formaldehyde emission test, but the tendency was not clear when measuring the flexural strength, so a further experiment to improve this is needed.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.37-45
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• 2005

Higher requirement of advanced building design code and the development of construction technique have resulted in more thermal and air tight buildings. This has caused the sick building syndrome in a indoor air quality has been relatively getting worse. A new concept with a solar fresh air heating and electrostatic precipitator or called as STCC(Solar Transpired Collector and Cyclone) has been proposed to solve this IAQ issue. This paper describes the assessment study of STCC system under different outdoor airflow rates. The experiment was carried out under real condition with 30CMM STCC system test facility. Incense smoke was used to study the particle concentration decay trends under outdoor airflow rates 0CMM, 10CMM, 20CMM, 30CMM, with applied voltages of 5kV and 15kV for collecting and discharging electrodes of an Electrostatic Precipitator. Result shows that the particle decay increases by increasing the outdoor airflow rates. The collection efficiency, dust cleaning effectiveness(P) and application area calculation result comparisons have also been studied. This factors could be used to estimate how a dust of indoor air quality(IAQ) and removed for a building space with a STCC system.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.21 no.1 s.73
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• pp.133-140
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• 2006

According to Tokyo protocol which suggests the prevention of global environmental pollution, Korean government establishes the standard of architectural materials emission consistency with best effort to decrease the environmental pollution. But many current architectural materials which are used for constructing and remodeling buildings are composed of a variety of chemicals. These include stimuli bad for the residents' health and safety and harmful discharged air polluting substances such as volatile organic compounds(TVOCs) and formaldehyde(HCHO) that in tern include a variety of carcinogen substances. These discharged substances are also researched into inducing 'sick building syndrome' which induces headache, dizziness, vomiting and concentration failure among residents. But the standard of architectural materials according to the Korean apartment provision is limited to emission factors: HCHO and TVOCs. So the aim of this study is to present a standard of functional material's emission consistency about TVOCs including glues and paints, and a certification grade for green building by instituting a materials standard for green building which has consideration for the residents' safety.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.482-489
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• 2004

The purpose of this study is to reevaluate the performance of Hanji as a architectural material. Recent studies report that one of the causes of the Sick-HouseㆍSick-Building Syndrome is due to the contaminants from interior materials and the lack of ventilation. In this study, the properties of Hanji are investigated. The major focuses of this research are (1) how efficient the Hanji is for ventilation of the house and (2) whether the usage of Hanji brings required ventilation volume to the house. According to the test results, differential pressure in the air and the amount of ventilation showed linear relationship. Test results differ from various kinds of Hanji. Since houses usually have double window system, Hanji can be used to the windows system, especially for inner part of double window system. It is suggested that the combination of Hanji windows for the inner part and glass windows for outer part is very effective, and offers a solution to improvement of indoor air quality and the lack of ventilation with passive ventilation that has less energy consumption.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.15 no.5 s.58
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• pp.298-305
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to figure out the profiles of eco-friendly finishing materials and intoner products through content analysis on the advertisements of three domestic interior design magazines, which have been published for 4 years since 2002. The amount of advertisements has been continuously increasing due to the public concerns on well-being. Finishing material types absolutely took the greatest proportion (92.8%), while products such as furniture and household equipments were only 7.2% among the advertisements. Charcoal, natural jade, yellow soil and nano-silver were the frequently mentioned health-related components in the finishing material. Only 35.7% of the finishing materials hold certification on indoor air quality. Among the interior products, phytonchid in air cleaner was the only advertised component related to health. In conclusion, controlling pollutants of indoor air quality, such as HCHO, VOC, seems to be the big issue in both materials and products due to the concern of Sick Building Syndrome. However, more scientific and objective guidelines are necessary for consumers to live in healthy interior environment.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.128-128
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• 2013

Fabrication of heterogeneous catalysts using Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) has recently been attracting attention of surface chemists and physicists. In this talk, I will present recent results about structures and chemical activities of various catalysts prepared by ALD, particularly focusing on Ni-based catalysts. Ni has been considered as potential catalysts for $CO_2$ reforming of methane (CRM); however, Ni often undergoes rapid decrease in catalytic activity with time, and therefore, application of Ni as catalysts for CRM has been regarded as difficult so far. Deactivation of Ni catalysts during CRM reaction is from either coke formation on Ni surface or sintering of Ni particles during reaction. Two different strategies have been used for enhancing stability of Ni-based catalysts; $TiO_2$ nanoparticles were deposited on micrometer-size Ni particles by ALD, which turned out to reduce coke formation on Ni surfaces. Ni nanoparticles deposited by ALD on mesoporous silica showed high activity and long-term stability from CRM without coke deposition and sintering during CRM reaction. Ni-based catalysts have been also used for oxidation of toluene, which is one of the most notorious gases responsible for sick-building syndrome. It was shown that onset-temperature of Ni catalysts for toluene oxidation is as low as $120^{\circ}C$. At $250\circ}C$, total oxidation of toluene to $CO_2$ with a 100% conversion was found.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.223-234
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• 2015

Objective:This study aims to investigate the correlation between office environment satisfaction levels and workers' subjective symptoms by conducting surveys asking office workers to state their subjective symptoms and office satisfaction levels. Background: The increased number of office workers and their work hours have led to new understandings of the importance of office environments including its temperature, humidity, noise levels, lighting, space arrangements, and quality of air. Method: Specific details on office work, office environment, office space satisfaction levels, workplace related symptoms, absence from work, due to workplace-related symptoms, were analyzed based on the survey answers given by 451 office workers who were the subjects of this research. Results: Office workers showed different characteristics of subjective symptoms depending on their gender, age, work experience, and time spent resting and on computers. Also, differences in symptoms were found for workers with different satisfaction levels for office environment (temperature, humidity, noise levels, quality of air, lighting) and office space arrangements (location of monitors, area and display of office space, chairs and desks). Conclusion and Application: Relationship between workers' satisfaction levels with the office environment and their subjective symptoms is expected to be serve as essential data for systematic management of the workplace.