• 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 Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.35-40
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• 2012

In this study, adsorption characteristics of expanded graphite (EG) were investigated by a series of batch adsorption tests using p-Xylene as a model volatile organic compounds (VOCs). After acid treatment, graphite were expanded at various temperature from $600^{\circ}C$ to $1000^{\circ}C$ for one minute. The optimal temperature was $800^{\circ}C$, where the expansion ratio reached 195 times of original volume. The BET specific surface area of EG was $92.4m^2/g$, which was only 1/10 of granular activated carbon (GAC), however the adsorption of p-Xylene by EG was almost completed within 5 minutes while that of GAC continued for 7 days because the majority of pores of EG was consisted with meso- and macro-pores. According to the Langmuir isotherm analysis, the maximum specific adsorption of p-Xylene onto EG was 24.0 mg/L with the adsorption constant of 7.94. In conclusion, the adsorption capacity of EG was much less than that of GAC due to the significantly lower specific surface area, but the first order kinetic constant was more than 500 times larger than GAC. Overall, EG might be effective where the fast adsorption is required.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.150-158
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• 2020

Objective: This study is designed to measure the concentration of DBPs (disinfection by-products) in pool water and in air and to estimate the carcinogenic potential through the evaluation of inhalation exposure. Methods: The subjects were six indoor swimming pools with many users in Gwangju. Samples of pool water and indoor air were taken every one month from August 2018 to August 2019 and analyzed for eight swimming pool standards. Three-liter air samples were collected and the VOCs were analyzed using GC/MS directly connected to thermal desorption. Results: pH was 6.8-7.5 and the concentration of free residual chlorine in pool water was 0.40-0.96 ?/ℓ. Physicochemical test items such as KMnO₄ consumption and heavy metal items such as Aluminum met existing pool hygiene standards. No VOC materials were detected except for the DBPs. The concentration of THMs in the pool water was 11.05-41.77 ㎍/L and the THMs mainly consist of Chloroform (63-97%) and BDCM (3-31%). The concentration of indoor air THMs is 13.24-32.48 ㎍/㎥ and consists of Chloroform. The results of carcinogenic assessment of chloroform in the indoor swimming pool via inhalation exposure were 2.0 to 6.4 times higher than the 'acceptable risk level' suggested by the US EPA. Conclusions: The concentration of THMs in the pool water is 11.05-41.77 ㎍/L, most of which is chloroform. In addition, the concentration of indoor air THMs is 13.24-32.48 ㎍/㎥. The result of carcinogenic assessment of chloroform was 2.0 to 6.4 times higher than the 'acceptable risk level' suggested by the US EPA.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.466-472
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• 2011

Hazardous chemicals, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and heavy metals, are known as being harmful to human health were included in oils released by the Herbei Spirit Oil Spill accident in December 2007. To investigate changes of eating habits by the exposure to harmful substances, we conducted 5 focus group interviews for residents at Taean coast areas, who had experienced the oil spill accident. Participants included 46 women (mean age: $57.2{\pm}10.9$) who were mainly responsible for preparing family meals. Focus group discussions were audio-taped, transcribed and categorized by themes. Participants expressed more frequent illness symptoms such as dizziness, vomiting, visual loss, and skin diseases after the accident. They mentioned that their worries about economic hardship and worsened health status since the accident induced mental problems, such as depression about their children. Regarding eating habits, participants reported less intakes of fishes and meats and relatively more intakes of vegetables and kimchi due to the lack of household incomes after the accident. Although the participants had been used to collecting or catching fish or shellfish for their consumption previously, they mainly purchased these foods from local markets after the accident. Changes of eating habits induced by the accident included drinking boiled water and having steamed or fried seafood rather than raw seafood. Changes of food intakes occurred less frequently in older adults due to their longterm fixed eating habits, although they felt uncomfortable for having raw fish. The findings of this study clearly present that the exposure of hazardous substances by the oil spill accident had a significant impact on changes in eating habits besides economic, physical, and mental problems among the residents in Taean. Continuous health and nutrition monitoring and support are needed.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2015

The objectives of this study were to calculate the radius of influence (ROI) of well for an air-sparging (AS)/soil vapor extraction (SVE) system and to evaluate the applicability of the system applied for the remediation of the petroleum contaminated rail site. For air permeability test, three monitoring wells were installed at a location of 1.3 m, 2.3 m, 3.0 m from the extraction well. And the pressure of each monitoring well was measured by extracting air from the extraction well with the pressure and flow of $(-)2,600mmH_2O$ and $1.58m^3/min$. The ROI for an extraction well was calculated as 4.31 m. Air was injected into the injection well with the pressure and flow of $3,500mmH_2O$ and $0.6m^3/min$ to estimate the radius of influence for oxygen transfer. Oxygen concentrations of air from three monitoring wells were measured. The ROI of an injection well for oxygen transfer was calculated as 3.46 m. The 28 extraction wells and 19 injection wells were installed according to the ROI calculated. The AS/SVE system was operated eight hours a day for five months. The rail site was contaminated with the petroleum and concentrations of benzene, toluene, and xylene were over the 'Worrisome Standard' of the 'Soil Environment Conservation Act'. The contaminated area was estimated as $732m^2$ and contaminants were dispersed up to (-)3 m from the ground. During the operation period, soil samples were collected from 5 points and analyzed periodically. With the AS/SVE system operation, concentrations of benzene, toluene, and xylene were decreased from 7.5 mg/kg to 2.0 mg/kg, from 32.0 mg/kg to 23.0 mg/kg, from 35.5 mg/kg to 23.0 mg/kg, respectively. The combined AS/SVE system applied to the rail site contaminated with volatile organic compounds (VOCs) exhibited a high applicability. But the concentration of contaminants in soil were fluctuated due to the heterogeneous of soil condition. Also the effect of the remediation mechanisms was not clearly identified.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.240-250
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• 2004

A gas chromatography-mass spectrometric (GC-MS) assay method was developed for the rapid and sensitive determination of volatile- and semivolatile organic compounds in water. Two hundreds mL of water sample was extracted in a 250 mL separatory funnel with 1 ml of pentane at pH 6.5. Fluorobenzene and 1,2-dichlorobenzene-d4 as internal standards were added to water sample and the solution was mechanically shaken for 5 min and analyzed by GC-MS (selected ion monitoring) without more any concentration or purification steps. The peaks had good chromatographic properties and the extraction of these compounds from water also gave relatively high recoveries with small variations. The range of detection limits of the assay was 0.5-10 ng/L. Turnaround time for up to about 40 samples was one day. This method is simple, convenient, and can be learned easily by relatively inexperienced personnel. This method was used to analyze 15 volatile- and semivolatile organic compounds in water of a Lake, and raw and treated water from three Water Treatment Plants in Korea. As the analytical results, benzene, toluene, xylene, isopropylbenzene, 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene, 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene, naphthalene and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol were detected at concentrations of up to 0.4, 1.9, 1.3, 0.2, 1.8, 13.0, 1.7 and $1.1{\mu}g/L$, respectively. But chlorobenzene, trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene, ethylbenzene, n-butylbenzene and dibromochloropropane levels during that period were not significant. The removal effect of the compounds in three Water Treatment Plants was calculated. The compounds studied were generally removed during conventional water treatment, especially during the active carbon filtration.

• Clean Technology
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.259-265
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• 2011

The textile industry is suffered from air pollution problems which must be resolved. In particular, white smoke and odor after the tenter process require abatement. The major air pollution problem in the textile industry occurs during the finishing stages, where various chemicals are used for coating the fabrics. Lubricating oils, plasticizers, and water repellent chemicals are the fabric treatment chemicals. The coated fabrics are cured by heating in tenter facility. In this process, most of air pollutants emitted into the air. White smoke is basically made up of tiny solid or liquid particles of VOCs less than one micron in size. The oil mist can be carried over long distance from their point of origin. The most effective method of removing odor from tenter process is to get rid of tiny oil mist at the emitted gas. For this reason, the full-scale EFC (Electric Fume Collector) of 700 CMM was tested for removing odorous substances emitted from tenter facility. As a result of this study, odor and white smoke can be eliminated effectively and quite large amounts of oil can be recovered.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.91-99
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• 2008

A multilayer tower-type photoreactor, in which $TiO_2$-coated glass-tubes were installed, was used to measure the vapor-phase BTEX removal efficiencies by ozone oxidation ($O_3$/UV), photocatalytic oxidation ($TiO_2$/UV) and the combination of ozone and photocatalytic oxidation ($O_3/TiO_2$/UV) process, respectively. The experiments were conducted under various relative humidities, temperatures, ozone concentrations, gas flow rates and BTEX concentrations. As a result, the BTEX removal efficiency and the oxidation rate by $O_3/TiO_2$/UV system were highest, compared to $O_3$/UV and $TiO_2$/UV system. The $O_3/TiO_2$/UV system accelerated the low oxidation rate of low-concentration organic compounds and removed organic compounds to a large extent in a fixed volume of reactor in a short time. Therefore, $O_3/TiO_2$/UV system as a superimposed oxidation technology was developed to efficiently and economically treat refractory VOCs. Also, this study demonstrated feasibility of a technology to scale up a photoreactor from lab-scale to pilot-scale, which uses (i) a separated light-source chamber and a light distribution system, (ii) catalyst fixing to glass-tube media, and (iii) unit connection in series and/or parallel. The experimental results from $O_3/TiO_2$/UV system showed that (i) the highest BTEX removal efficiencies were obtained under relative humidity ranging from 50 to 55% and temperature ranging from 40 to $50^{\circ}C$, and (ii) the removal efficiencies linearly increased with ozone dosage and decreased with gas flow rate. When applying Langmuir-Hinshelwood model to $TiO_2$/UV and $O_3/TiO_2$/UV system, reaction rate constant for $O_3/TiO_2$/UV system was larger than that for $TiO_2$/UV system, however, it was found that adsorption constant for $O_3/TiO_2$/UV system was smaller than that for $TiO_2$/UV system due to competitive adsorption between organics and ozone.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.321-333
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• 2022

In this study, the concentration and distribution characteristics of BTEX (benzene toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene) emitted from Daesan Petrochemical Industrial Complex were examined to determine their potential hazards to local residents. Residents living nearby the complex areas may be exposed to the chemicals through various media (air, water, and soil), especially by air. This study evaluated human health risks by inhalation using both deterministic and probabilistic risk assessment approaches. As a result of the deterministic risk assessment, the non-cancer risk was much lower than the regulation limit of hazard index (HI 1.0) for all the points. However, in case of cancer risk evaluation, it was found that the risk of excess cancer for benzene at point A located in the industrial complex was 2.28×10^-6, which slightly exceeded the standard regulatory limit of 1.0×10^-6. In addition, the probabilistic risk assessment revealed that the percentile exceeding the standard of 1.0×10^-6was found to be 45.3%. The sensitivity analysis showed that exposure time (ET) had the greatest impact on the results. Based on the risk assessment study, it implied that ethylbenzene, toluene, and xylene had little adverse effects on potential human exposure, but benzene often exceeded the cancer risk standard (1.0×10^-6). Further studies on extensive VOCs monitoring are needed to evaluate the potential risks of industrial complex areas.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.89-95
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• 2009

Objectives : To assess the protective effects of wearing protective devices among the residents and volunteers who participated in the cleanup of the Hebei Spirit oil spill. Methods : A total of 288 residents and 724 volunteers were surveyed about symptoms, whether they were wearing protective devices and potential confounding variables. The questionnaires were administered from the second to the sixth week following the accident. Spot urine samples were collected and analyzed for metabolites of 4 volatile organic compounds(VOCs), 2 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAHs), and 6 heavy metals. The association between the wearing of protective devices and various symptoms was assessed using a multiple logistic regression adjusted for confounding variables. A multiple generalized linear regression model adjusted for the covariates was used to test for a difference in least-square mean concentration of urinary biomarkers between residents who wore protective devices and those who did not. Results : Thirty nine to 98% of the residents and 62-98% of volunteers wore protective devices. Levels of fatigue and fever were higher among residents not wearing masks than among those who did wear masks(odds ratio 4.5; 95% confidence interval 1.23-19.86). Urinary mercury levels were found to be significantly higher among residents not wearing work clothes or boots(p<0.05). Conclusions : Because the survey was not performed during the initial high-exposure period, no significant difference was found in metabolite levels between people who wore protective devices and those who did not, except for mercury, whose biological half-life is more than 6 weeks.