• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.54-61
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• 2019

Objectives: In this study, we investigated an assessment for exposure levels of hazardous substances to kids cafes that unregulated by law. Methods: Heavy metals, volatile organic compounds, formaldehyde, pesticides and phthalate were measured at 20 kids cafes in Gyeonggi-do and Incheon. Samplings were conducted from April to July in 2018. Results: Heavy metals were detected over the standard mainly around the floor and walls in the 19 kids cafes. Pesticides were detected in 7 locations with chlorpyrifos, diazinon and cypermethrin, and showed the highest detection level of chlorpyrifos. The concentrations of DEHP in all kids cafes were exceeded with standard. The risk assessment results showed that HCHO as carcinogen had a safety level and DEHP as non-carcinogens had a safety level as assessed to be under than 0.1. Conclusions: Considering the exposure investigation results and the importance of child health protection, kids cafe should be included in the legal management list of children's activities zones.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.249-254
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• 2011

A nonthermal plasma reactor in conjunction with a tubular type with a ferroelectric (high-dielectric ceramic) pellet layer was designed and constructed. $SrBiTaO_9$ (SBT) pellets with 2.0 mm in diameter were held within the tube arrangement by two metal mesh electrodes (20 mm separation) connected to a high-voltage AC power supply. The dielectric constant of SBT pellets was 150 at room temperature and 500 at curie temperature ($335^{\circ}C$). The generation rate of ozone in the plasma reactor almost linearly increased with increasing applied voltage. In the case of the plasma reactor packed with SBT pellets the generation rate of ozone sharply increased at the applied voltage more than 20 kV. The ozone generation rate at the negative corona discharge was higher than that of the positive corona discharge. However, the destruction efficiency of toluene and methylene chloride was not increased in proportion to ozone concentration.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.466-470
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• 2022

The catalytic thermal oxidizer process has recently attracted considerable attention for the oxidation and decomposition of volatile organic compounds at low temperatures (< 450 ℃) with high efficiency (> 95%). Although many noble metal catalytic materials are well established, they are expensive and hazardous. Herein, highly active and low-cost Cu-Mn bimetallic catalysts were prepared using a simple and facile synthesis method involving the co-precipitation of Cu and Mn precursors. The synthesis of the catalyst was optimized by controlling the composition ratio of Cu and Mn. The optimized catalyst exhibited a large surface area of 230.8 m²/g with a mesoporous structure. To demonstrate the catalytic performance, the Cu-Mn catalyst was tested for the oxidation reaction of ethyl acetate, showing a high conversion efficiency of 100% at a low temperature of 250 ℃.

• Clean Technology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2009

The adoption of compressed natural gas (CNG) as a vehicle fuel is a common phenomenon as it is accelerating worldwide. Increasing number of CNG driven vehicles around the world has jumped up from one million in 1996 to five million in 2006. CNG as a vehicle fuel is very popular to the end users because of its clean-burning properties and cost effective solution compared to other alternative fuels like diesel and gasoline. The use of CNG as a fuel reduces vehicular emission that is consisted of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC), oxides of nitrogen ($NO_x$), carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) etc. This research highlights the characteristics of CNG vehicles, CNG arrangement in the vehicles, CNG fueling procedures and most importantly the environmental and economic factors that are highly considered as cost effective solution for the flexibility of using CNG in the automobiles.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.57-64
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• 2009

A material database has been developed for VOCs and formaldehyde emitted from building materials in this study. New classification system has been made by correlating the classification methods used in Korean Air Cleaning and Environmental Protection Agency. The developed databases include emission rates of TVOC, 5VOC and formaldehyde emitted from each building material. In addition, the databases can be used as an input variable to estimate indoor air quality (IAQ) using computer simulation since they also contain chemical component and general imformation. Box plot was used to do statistical analysis for emission rates of formaldehyde and TVOCs from different types of building materials. Also we confirmed the building materials worsening IAQ by categorizing the emission characteristic of different types of pollutants.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.1B
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• pp.137-147
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• 2008

Soil Vapor Extraction (SVE) has been extensively used to remove volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from the vadoze zone. In order to investigate the removal mechanism during SVE operation, laboratory modeling experiments were carried out and tailing effect could be observed in later stage of the experiment. Tailing effect means that removal rate of contaminants gets significantly to decrease in later stage of SVE operation. Also, mathematical model simulating the tailing effect was used, which considers rate-limited diffusion in a water film during mass transfer among gas, liquid, and solid phases. Measurement data obtained through the experiment was used as input data of the numerical analyses. Sensitivity analysis was performed to examine the effect of each parameter on required time to reach final target concentration. Finally, it was found that the concentration in the soil phase decreased significantly with a liquid and gas diffusion coefficient larger, actual path length shorter, and water saturation smaller.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.67-74
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• 2024

Purpose: The identification and quantification of indoor airborne contaminants, including bio-aerosols, particulates, and gaseous contaminants, are crucial for maintaining acceptable indoor air quality for hospital operating rooms (ORs). Laparoscopic surgery has become widely accepted for various surgical procedures due to its rapid recovery rate and the low risk associated with small incisions compared to conventional open surgery. The objective of this study is to investigate the indoor air quality in hospital ORs and to identify indoor airborne contaminants generated during laparoscopic surgery. Methods: Measurements of an indoor environment, including temperature, humidity and air quality, were performed in an OR before and during a laparoscopic surgery. Indoor airborne contaminants, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs), formaldehyde, carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO₂), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), suspended indoor particles, and airborne bacteria, were measured simultaneously. Results: The study determined that the concentrations of indoor air particles and airborne bacteria increased during the surgery but were within acceptable levels. However, the concentration of CO₂, reached a high level of 1,791 ppm due to the CO₂ gas required for maintaining the pneumoperitoneum during the surgery. Implications: The results emphasized the use of ventilation and filtration in a laparoscopic surgery room to lower the concentration of filterable and non-filterable contaminants.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.605-617
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• 2015

The ultimate goal of this research is to develop a botanical biofiltration system that combines a green interior, biofiltering, and automatic irrigation to purify indoor air pollutants according to indoor space and the size of biofilter. This study was performed to compare the stability of air flow characteristics and removal efficiency (RE) of fine dust within a wall-typed (vertical) botanical biofilter depending on humidifying cycle and to investigate RE of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by the biofilter. The biofilter used in this experiment was designed as an integral form of water metering pump, water tank, blower, humidifier, and multi-level planting space in order to be suitable for indoor space utilization. As a result, relative humidity, air temperature, and soil moisture content (SMC) within the biofilter showed stable values regardless of three different humidifying cycles operated by the metering pump. In particular, SMCs were consistently maintained in the range of 27.1-29.7% during all humidifying cycles; moreover, a humidifying cycle of operating for 15 min and pausing for 45 min showed the best horizontal linear regression (y = 0.0008x + 29.09) on SMC ($29.0{\pm}0.2%$) during 120 hour. REs for number of fine dust (PM10) and ultra-fine dust (PM2.5) particles passed through the biofilter were in the range of 82.7-89.7% and 65.4-73.0%, respectively. RE for weight of PM10 passed through the biofilter was in the range of 58.1-78.9%, depending on humidifying cycle. REs of xylene, ethyl benzene, total VOCs (TVOCs), and toluene passed through the biofilter were in the range of 71.3-75.5%, while REs of benzene and formaldehyde (HCHO) passed through the biofilter were 39.7% and 44.9%, respectively. Hence, it was confirmed that the wall-typed botanical biofilter suitable for indoor plants was very effective for indoor air purification.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.5_1
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• pp.563-576
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• 2023

In this study nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), formaldehyde (HCHO) from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI), OMI/ Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) tropospheric column ozone (TCO), and Airkorea ground-based O₃ data were analyzed to examine the photochemical reaction relationship between tropospheric ozone and its precursors nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). As a result of analyzing the trend of long-term changes from 2006 to 2020 using OMI satellite data, TCO showed an increasing trend, NO₂ steadily decreased, and HCHO continued to increase in Northeast Asia. In addition, formaldehyde nitrogen dioxide ratio (FNR; HCHO/NO₂ ratio), an indicator of ozone sensitivity, is gradually increasing, which means that the VOC-limited regime is decreasing. This study conducted a sensitivity analysis of ozone generation using TROPOMI FNR and ground-based ozone (O₃) over the recent years (2019~2022) to identify the possible cause for the continuous increase of ozone in Korea. Similar to the previous studies, VOC-limited and transitional regimes appeared in megacities, and VOC-limited regimes also appeared in areas where major power plants were located. In VOC-limited regimes, in other words, areas where NOx is excessively saturated, the reduction in NOx emissions may have weakened the ozone titration and thus led to the increase of ozone. Therefore, VOC emissions should be reduced in the short term rather than NOx emissions to reduce ozone concentrations under the VOC-limited regime.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.187-201
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• 1996

This study was to evaluate the efficiency of diffusive monitor using activated carbon fiber(ACF, KF-1500) in measuring airborne organic solvents. The following characteristics were identified and studied as critical to the performance of diffusive monitor; recovery, sampling rate, face velocity, reverse diffusion and storage stability. For the evaluation of the performance of this monitor, MIBK, PCE, toluene were used as organic solvents. In the sampling rate experiments, eight kinds of solvents (n-hexane, MEK, DIBK, MCF, TCE, CB, xylene, cumene) as well as the above solvents were used. The results were as follows: 1. The desorption efficiencies(DE's) of ACF diffusive monitor ranged from 83 % to 101 %. In contrast, those of coconut shell charcoal ranged from 78 % to 102 %. Especially, the DE's of ACF for the polar solvents such as MEK were superior to those of charcoal. 2. Experimental sampling rates on ACF were average 42ml/min(37-46ml/min) for 11 organic solvents at $24{\pm}2^{\circ}C$, $50{\pm}5%RH$. However ideal sampling rates(DA/L) were 33 % higher than experimental sampling rates. 3. The initial response(15~16 min) of the testing monitor was 2 times higher than the actual concentration determined by the reference methods at $24{\pm}2^{\circ}C$, $8{\pm}5%RH$ and $80{\pm}5%RH$. Within 1 hours, the curve reached a linear horizontal line at low humidity condition. But sampling efficiencies decreased with respect to time at high humidity condition. And sampling efficiencies were higher at high humidity condition than low humidity condition for MIBK. 4. At very low velocity (less than 0.02 m/sec), the concentration of ACF diffusive monitor were poorly estimated. But ACF diffusive monitor were not affected at higher velocity(0.2 m/sec-0.6 m/sec). 5. There was no significant reverse diffusion when the ACF monitors were exposed to clean air for 2 hours after being exposed for 2 hours at the level of 1 TLV. 6. There was no significant sample loss during 3 weeks of storage at room temperature and 5 weeks of storage at refrigeration.