• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.32 no.4 s.91
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• pp.275-281
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• 2006

Indoor air quality is the dominant contributor to total personal exposure because most people spend a majority of their time indoors. Especially exposure to indoor air can potentially pose a greater threat than exposure to ambient air when indoor environments have sources of contaminants. In this study, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and formaldehyde (HCHO) within newly constructed apartment have been determined in 27 houses of apartment in Seoul from December 2004 to March 2005. The measured indoor air pollutants were HCHO, volatile organic compounds including benzene, toluene, styrene, xylene, ethylbenzene and sampled on the standard method of Ministry of Environment in Korea. The indoor levels for benzene, xylene, toluene, ethylbenzene, styrene, and HCHO have significant increase trend after 5 hours closing of windows and doors. Levels of measured air pollutants concentrations between living rooms and bedrooms have not shown significant difference. Spearman correlation coefficient among the measured air pollutants ranged from 0.303 to 0.946, indicating similar source in building materials.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.267-274
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• 2005

Formaldehyde (FA) is an important industrial chemical, but it can cause allergic reactions, sick building syndrome and so on. It has also been observed to cause cancer in scientific studies using laboratory animals, and it even causes cancer in humans. Natural products such as ginseng and pine needle containing complicated mixtures of organic chemicals are widely used in the world, because their effective components are responsible for some pharmacological activities including antioxidative effect, anticancer effect. We investigate the effect of Korean ginseng (GE), pine needle extract (PE) and combined GE and PE (cNPE) on mouse lung injury by FA exposure. GE, PE and cNPE was directly transported to pulmonary cells through respiratory organ by nebulizer inhalation. In the case of FA exposure, the pulmonary structure was damaged and its function became abnormal. However, cNPE-FA, GE-FA, and PE-FA treated groups showed similar with the control group compared with FA group. Among them, GE was proved to be more effective than any other extracts. These results demonstrate that natural product extracts could protect pulmonary structure and function against FA exposure.

• Journal of the Korea Furniture Society
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.174-182
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• 2011

Over the last decade, Sick Building Syndrome has become a significant social issue in Korea and many methods have been considered to maintain comfortable indoor air quality. To reduce toxic substances emitted from wood composite products, the source control is an efficient method through the reduction of formaldehyde content by using natural material-based adhesives for composite wood products production. Among alternative materials, soybean protein is considered an appropriate natural material to replace formaldehyde-based resin and many efforts have been made to produce new products, such as soap, shampoo, ink, resin, adhesive and textile through changing the chemical or physical properties of soybean. To process soybeans into these useful products, the beans are dehulled and the oil is removed by crushing at very high pressure or by solvent extraction. For use soybean as an adhesive, it is processed at temperatures below $70^{\circ}C$ to preserve the alkaline solubility of the proteins. In addition, soybean-based adhesive is undergone treatment process to improve mechanical properties using urea, urease inhibitor N-(n-butyl) thiophosphoric triamide and sodium dodecyl sulfate. The modified soybean-based adhesive exhibited sufficient mechanical properties to use as an adhesive for composite wood products. This paper is a review article to discuss the possibilities of soybean-based adhesive for environment-friendly furniture materials.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.63-74
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• 2007

Together with the concern about the indoor all quality as sick house syndrome, 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. School also have its own indoor air quality guideline, Indoor air quality in school is very important because, children who very weak to indoor pollutants reside long time in there. The purpose of this paper is to survey indoor air qualify in school by field measurement. Field measurements were performed in 11 schools which were selected from 3 major cities(Incheon, Dae-jeon, chuncheon) in korea, during July, 2004. Totally concentration of Indoor pollutants were determined in 27 classroom. Target air pollutants were TVOC, formaldehyde, dust, CO, CO2 and NO2. For the result of this investigation, Indoor air quality in classroom was very poor and it was found that some pollutants (TVOC, float bacteria) exceed the guideline.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.993-998
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• 2006

High-rise apartments have a problem using natural ventilation because of the strong outdoor wind velocity. Conventional high-rise apartments have adopted mechanical ventilation systems to maintain the indoor air quality. However, it leads to the overuse of electricity and the sick house syndrome. Double-skin facade is the alternative for the high-rise building to use natural ventilation and this study is focused on the performance of the box-window, which is a kind of double-skin facades. Indoor wind velocity and HCHO concentrations are analyzed with three types of box-windows: the diagonal type, parallel type and perpendicular type. The airflow is simulated by computational fluid dynamics program. Box-windows reduce the maximum value of indoor wind velocity about 50% compared with the single window and the HCHO concentrations do not have the big difference. Box-windows could be the alternative to enhance the use of the natural ventilation and indoor air quality of the high-rise apartment.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.191-204
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• 2005

Building and furnishing materials and consumer product are important sources of volatile organic compounds(VOCs) and other aldehydes in the indoor environment. Some available evidence indicates that VOCs can cause adverse health effects to the building occupants and contribute to some of the symptoms of what we call, 'Sick House Syndrome' in Korea. The aims of this study were to evaluate the efficiency of emission system and to investigate comparison of the emission characteristics of different building materials such as wall-papers, paints, and adhesives. The emission of VOCs from building materials were determined in the small chambers defining the temperature, relative humidity, and ventilation rate in this study. VOCs were sampled for 20 minutes using Tenax-TA tubes and analysed by GC-MS with thermal desorption. The stability of conditions for temperature and relative humidity in this small chamber system showed that the fluctuation of temperature was between 25.4$\pm$0.3$^{\circ}C$ and that of relative humidity was 50.2$\pm$0.6$\%$ under the airflow rate of 167 mL/min. The emission tests from building materials resulted in TVOC emission rates of 0.011 $\~$ 3.108 mg/m$^{2}$h after 7 days. The general wall-papers emitted toluene abundantly and the natural wall-papers mainly emitted n-butanol and a minor amount of alkanes compound such as n -tetradecane. The remainder consisted of toluene, m,p -xylene, and styrene. The paints mainly emitted toluene and the adhesives mainly emitted chloroform as well as toluene. As a result, this study is expected to suggest meaningful data for future studies in exposure control through selecting healthy building materials and for the establishment of guidelines for various building materials in Korea.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.125-134
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• 2015

Objective: In this review we discuss the health effects among office workers. Background: Even if office workers are not exposed hazardous or harmful environment frequently, some problems could be happened to the office workers. Although serious occupational diseases rarely occur to the office workers, it is important to consider occupational risk factors for the office worker because the portion of the office workers is relatively high in all industries. Method: We divided possible health effects for the office workers into three categories; musculoskeletal disorders, indoor environment, and cerebro-cardiovascular diseases. We reviewed related articles, textbooks, and statistical materials non-systematically and described risk factors, related illnesses, and prevention strategies on each category. Results: Office workers have various musculoskeletal disorders to be intervened. By medical treatment, improving working environment, and ergonomic intervention, office workers can be prevented from musculoskeletal injuries. Poor indoor environment can cause many building-related illnesses or sick building syndrome. Although the etiology of some problems by poor indoor environment is not clear, it helps to maintain adequate humidity, temperature, and clarity of indoor air. Cerebro-cardiovascular diseases are a rising issue because office workers in Korea tend to work for a lot of time. To prevent the diseases, it is needed to work for adequate time, lengthen activity level, and manage other medical risk factors for the diseases. Conclusion: There is no distinct occupational disease for office workers. However, there are some aspects to consider the health effects of office workers and it is important to prevent the possible health problems. Application: A strategy against occupational diseases among office workers can be established by reviewing this article.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.13-20
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• 2003

It is highly recognized that there is need for protection against indoor air pollution, as we realize environmental pollution is growing, For example, in an indoor environment, a person spends more than 80 percent of their time inside the building. Thus, concern about indoor decoration materials is growing, since they cause pollution in the rooms of an apartment, as well as in offices. As the indoor decoration materials become more diverse and lusurious, so the effect of VOCs(Volatile Organic Compounds) and HCHO(Formaldehy) is growing. The indoor decoration materials cause the Sick Building Syndrome, such as headaches, dizziness, or lack of concentraion, and they in turn cause serious deterioration in people's health. In this study, I probed the status of the indoor air pollution and carried on an investigation and analysis about the prevention technique. In doing so, I performed experimental tests and an assessment of the indoor decoration materials of an apartment. I also examined elements of the emitted and the emission. Finally, I examined the character of emissions, by changing environmental conditions, such as the temperature, humidity, and ventilation. With respect to VOCs tests, I applied the method of solid state adsorption using the adsorptive tube, based on the measurement of the American EPA TO-17, ASTM 5116-97, and the measurement of the Japanese Wall Decoration Industrial Association. The tested sample was analyzed by High Performance Liquid Chromatography, after going through the process of dissolvent extraction. As subjects of the test, Paint were selected. The process of this test is as follows; first, I figured out the character of the emission, by measuring the emitted concentration of VOCs and HOHC from the indoor decoration materials of an apartment. Second, I made a small-scale chamber and the test was processed in the chamber in order to suggest an environment-friendly prediction modlel development.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.118-126
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• 2007

Environmentally Sound and Sustainable Development (ESSD)" is a key word in recent years. The construction industry, have put a great influence on ergonomic and sustainable environment. Recently, "green building certifications", such as Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and eco-friendly material regulation have been established. With this regard, new construction and aged-housing remodeling projects are required to meet these certification criteria. 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. Aged-housing remodeling construction has a unique characteristic in that the residents are already determined prior to construction execution. Therefore, the analysis of resident's need for building materials in aged-housing remodeling is relatively easy compared to new building construction. As such, it is very important to analyze their preferences for eco-friendly materials prior to project execution. The purpose of this study is to find the needs of residents and priority of their needs. Based on their needs and priority, this paper provides a new strategy in using environment-friendly materials and maximizing their satisfaction level when aged housing remodeling is constructed. In addition, this paper provide new criteria in selecting new developed environmental materials in remodeling projects for the purpose of improving the safety and health level in construction industry.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.32-37
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• 2000

Nowadays, a new word called SBS(sick building syndrome) has been come into existence. At the point of time when an interest about indoor air pollution and, according to this, countermeasure plan are internationally. Moreover institutional countermeasure should be attended at national level since indoor air quality in public places where many people gather is directly connected with national health. Especially indoor pollution of indoor stadia where all sorts of sports are held can give rise to every kinds of respiratory ailments to players as well as audiences. So it is presented as a main factor that indoor space of stadia is crowded with players and audiences compared with other kinds of indoor space. Therefore, in this research to analyze pollution degree of indoor circumstance for gymnasium and exercising room of folk wrestling. basketball, judo, wrestling, hapkido, swordsmanship and boxing making indoor gymnasium and exercising room an object, when 7 items were measures such as thermocircumstance(temperature, relative humidity, air current, intensity of illumination), dust, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide being based on the indoor environmental standard of the first clause of Article 45 of public utilization service which is showed at public hygiene of the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, it was showed that indoor temperature, relative humidity, air current and intensity of illumination were over standard amount at the most of folk wrestling gymnasium and exercising room. Indoor density of carbon monoxide was preserved to the extent of standard amount (10ppm) at all gymnasiums but carbon dioxide was not in excess of standard amount(1,000 ppm) at most of gymnasiums. Indoor density of dust induced from respiration exceeded the standard amount (150 $\mu\textrm{g}$/㎥) at all gymnasiums of the folk wrestling. Since the folk wrestling players and participants feel physical subjective symptom seriously, in other words the degree of indoor air pollution at gymnasiums and exercising rooms of the folk wrestling is very high, fundamental solution and countermeasure plan should be presented.