• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.1111-1120
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• 2008

In order to study the degree of improved air quality as an outcome of the action plan of Atmospheric Environment Improvement in Gimhae, Gyeongnam Province, we investigated the status and trends of air pollutant before and after the plan. Nitrogen dioxide and ozone, both classified as hazardous substances, were closely monitored with particular attention. The level of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, fine particles and ozone (but for carbon monoxide) was decreased after the plan was implemented. The number of days on which ozone exceeded the National Ambient Air Quality Standard has decreased, but the level was still often exceeded. The level of nitrogen dioxide did not surpass until the 2006 standard, but when the revised 2007 standard was implemented, it exceeded 80% of some standards. The yearly level of ozone has decreased since the plan was introduced. The concentration of nitrogen dioxide, however, has reduced in high order area while increased in low order area.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.140-151
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• 2019

It is to assess the indoor air quality of the chemical hazardous materials exposed to the fire after firefighters returned to the fire scene. The research subject randomly selected four fire stations located in Seoul, Korea. Two fire stations were set up as control groups after the return of the firefighting activities at the actual fire scene, and two other fire stations were set up as control groups to measure the air quality of the room at normal levels regardless of the action. We conducted 24-hour monitoring for all fire accidents that occurred in Seoul Metropolitan using fire safety map computer system. Also, indoor air quality was measured immediately after homecoming if the experiment group was to be dispatched due to an accident of intermediate or larger scale. 11 hazardous substance items such as fine dust, formaldehyde, volatile organic compounds, PAH, VCM, acidity, asbestos, CO₂, NO₂, O₃ were measured according to the process test method. Three of 11 types of harmful substances exceeded domestic and foreign standards, and one of them was found to be close to foreign standards. In particular, total volatile organic compounds, carbon dioxide and sulfuric acids were 2.5 times, 2.2 times and 1.1 times higher than the standard. Also, for formaldehyde and sulfuric acid, it was measured higher in the control group than in the case group. This findings could be used in policies to improve indoor air quality in the fire station of the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

• International Journal of Safety
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.52-57
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• 2002

The Decomposition of NO$_2$ (nitrogen dioxide), one of the Hazardous Air Pollutant (HAP), was studied by utilizing the SPCP (Surface induced discharge Plasma Chemical Processing) reactor so as to obtain optimum process variables and maximum decomposition efficiencies. Experimental results showed that for the frequency of 10kHz, the highest deco position efficiency of 84.7% for NO$_2$ was observed at the power consumptions of 20W. The decomposition efficiency of $NO_2$ was found to be: 1) proportional to the residence times, and inversely proportional to the initial concentrations of $NO_2$; 2) the maximum when the electrode diameter was 3mm; 3) influenced by the electrode material, decreasing in the order of W>Cu>Al; and 4) proportional to the $CH_4$ content, due to which the highest efficiency of 98% was obtained with almost all the $NO_2$ removed.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.549-560
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• 2015

The priorities of siting restriction was derived from quantification of environmental hazard according to industrial classification based on 'Chemical Ranking and Scoring System(CRS)' which is handling the discharge characteristics of 31 industrial classifications regulated from locating at 'Industrial Complex in Rural Area(ICRA)'. CRS that is utilizing the data of 'Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers(PRTR)' is applied to determine human health risk and ecological risk which are calculated by discharged amount and materials $LC_{50}$ according to water, soil and air media based on industrial classification. From this process, exposure assessment and toxicity assessment for integrating the adverse environmental impact and the mitigation effect of environmental risk according to the development of environmental technologies into establishing the rational landuse management method for the 31 industrial classifications regulated from locating at ICRA was analyzed. From the assessment result of the siting restriction removal at ICRA for 31 industrial classifications, based on 2012 year reference 6 industries that includes Manufacture of Guilt Coloration Surface Processing Steel Materials, Manufacture of Biological Product, Manufacture of Smelting Refining and Alloys of Copper, Dyeing and Finishing of Fibers and Yarns, Manufacture of Other Basic Iron and Steel n.e.c., Rolling Drawing and Extruding of Non-ferrous Metals n.e.c. are calculated as having relatively lower environmental hazards, thus it is judged that the siting restriction mitigation at ICRA is possible for the 6 industrial classifications that are not discharging the specific hazardous water contaminants during manufacturing process.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.21-31
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• 2000

Performance characteristics of a wet air cleaning system were investigated experimentally, and discussed in relation with physicochemical properties of the target pollutants. The system is composed of an air cleaner, a separator, and a medium filter. Removal efficiency of the system was measured for ambient particles and gaseous air pollutants: $SO_2$, NO, $NO_2$, HCHO, and $NH_3$. For particle removal test, particles were introduced into the system through a fan, and the particle size distribution was measured at three locations by using two laser particle counters. Particle removal efficiency for each system component was obtained from the particle size distribution. It was found that the separator primarily removed coarse particles greater than $5{\mu}m$ in diameter, and that the medium filter mainly removed fine particles less than $5{\mu}m$ in diameter. For gas removal test, air with gaseous air pollutant was injected into the outlet of the fan, and the concentration was measured both at the upstream of the air cleaner and at the downstream of the separator. It was found that the gaseous species with high Henry's law coefficients, such as $SO_2$, HCHO, and $NH_3$, showed high removal efficiency, but the gaseous species with low Henry's law coefficients, such as NO and $NO_2$, showed low removal efficiencies. It was also found that negative ions were generated from the air cleaner.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.651-656
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• 2005

Toluene, which is emitted from textile process, is considered as an important hazardous air pollutant. In this study, the catalytic activity of transition metal oxides(Cu, Mn, V, Cr, Co, Ni, Ce, Sn, Fe, Sr, Cs, Mo, La, W, Zn)/${\gamma}-Al_2O_3$ catalysts was investigated to carry out the complete oxidation of toluene. The metal catalysts were characterized by XRD-ray diffraction), FE-SEM(Field Emission Scanning Electron Micrograph), BET(Brunauer Emmett Teller) method and TPR(Temperature Programmed Reduction). Among the catalysts, Cu/${\gamma}-Al_2O_3$ was highly promising catalyst for the oxidation of toluene. From the BET results, it seems that the catalytic activity is not correlated to the specific surface area. XRD results indicated that most of catalysts exist as amorphous phase. From the FE-SEM results, it was observed that copper on ${\gamma}-Al_2O_3$ surface was well dispersed among catalysts. The catalytic activity for the toluene oxidation could be explained with that metal oxide catalyst was dispersed well over supports and was attributed to reduction activity in surface of catalysts.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.247-257
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• 2019

Objectives: The Korea Ministry of Environment regulates concentrations of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) through Atmosphere Environmental Standards to protect public health from HAPs. However, simply determining the exceedance of HAP concentrations has several limitations and more comprehensive assessment is required. In addition, integrated risk assessment is needed considering exposure in all microenvironments, including outdoor as well as indoor environments. The purpose of this study was to assess the differences in risk by sub-population groups according to time-activity patterns and reported concentrations, as well as the lifetime risk for Koreans. Methods: In this study, we calculated time-weighted average exposure concentrations for benzene and $PM_{10}$ among preschool-age children, students, housewifes, workers, and the elderly using residential time and concentrations for indoor (house, school or workplace, other), outdoor, and transport by the meta-analysis method. The risk assessments were conducted by excess cancer risk and disease death risk using 1,000,000 Monte-Carlo simulations for probabilistic analysis. Results: Preschool-age children, students, housewifes, workers, and the elderly spent 91.9, 86.0, 79.8, 82.2, and 77.3% of their day in their house, workplace, or school, respectively. The more than 99% excess cancer risk for benzene exceed 1.0E-06 in all sub-populations and lifetime. The acute disease death risk for $PM_{10}$ for housewifes and workers for lifetime were 3.35E-04 and 3.18E-04, and chronic disease death risks were 2.84E-03 and 2.70E-03, respectively. Conclusions: The risk of benzene and $PM_{10}$ by sub-population group and for the lifetime of housewifes and workers were assessed. Benzene showed risky results for this study. All disease death risks of $PM_{10}$ were higher than 1.0E-04 and showed different risks by sub-population. This study can be used as a basis for lifetime exposure and risk assessment to benzene and $PM_{10}$.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.555-568
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• 2014

The construction equipment is one of the major sources for hazardous air pollutants in Korea, and the its management has been of great concern recently. The objective of this study was to estimate each contribution of emission of construction equipments according to their production year, electric power consumption and type. To achieve this goal, we developed pollutant emission factors for the machineries manufactured after 2009, which are excluded from the present framework of Korean air pollutants inventory, CAPSS. More than 800 data obtained from emission investigations were utilized for the estimation. Compared with the previous estimation, the scheme used this study was modified to incorporate new emission factors as well as to include the corresponding activity data. Such improvement allow us to gain more detailed emission informations which are better characterized by specifications of construction equipments. The total amount of pollutants emitted from construction equipments in 2011 were estimated as 126.8, 7.0, 58.3, and 17.0 kton for $NO_x$, PM, CO, and VOC, respectively. The estimation results indicate that the increase in the emission of equipments is significantly related to their age and power consumption. The emissions of the older ones manufactured from 1992~1996 were estimated to be the contribution ranged from 23.7% to 26.8%, whereas the newer ones (2009~2011) showed the attributions of 11.3~21.5%. In addition, the results show that the emission of each equipment was increased with the increase in the electric power consumption of engine, probably due to their average output power. Among the nine types of machinery compared, excavators and forklifts were investigated to contribute relatively higher emissions in the level of 39.8~44.0% and 32.0~34.2%, respectively.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.410-415
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• 2004

In order to learn the emission characteristics of hazardous pollutants associated with environmental tobacco smoking (ETS), we measured the concentrations of major aromatic VOC and carbonyl compounds released from ETS. By acquiring the different smoke types of ETS, we were able to determine that the concentrations of those species range from ppb (normal exhaled air of smoker prior to smoking) to ppm levels (direct release of ETS without filter). Using these measurement data, we also evaluated the body-retaining rate of these compounds as the result of ETS. The results of our analysis indicated that predominant portion of them (e.g., > 99%) are retained as the result of cigarette smoking. To learn more about the potential impact of ETS, more extensive study may be required to assess the gross picture of pollutant deposition inside respiratory intake and their health-effects.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.53-61
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• 2006

Recently, lots of researchers have been attracted to develop various alternative fuels and to use renewable fuels in order to solve the exhaust emission problems. DME (Dimethylether) is synthetic fuel, and can be produced from natural gas, coal and biomass. The emission is clean because it contains little sulfur and aromatic components In this study, the fuel was tested to investigate the applicability as an alternative fuel for diesel. This study was carried out by comparing the exhaust emissions and performance of diesel engine with DME, ULSD (ultra low sulfur diesel), LSD (low sulfur diesel) respectively. In order to measure regulated emissions, CO, $NO_{3}$, HC from vehicle different fuel types were used on chassis dynamometer CVS (constant volume sampler)-75 mode and EPA TO-I1A method was chosen for aldehydes analysis.