• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.89-98
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• 2002

This study was taken in general hospital, hotel, shopping center, underground cafe, school, house, for the purpose of investigating the distribution of indoor radon concentration in urban area, by E-PERM which approved U.S. EPA, between August and November 1999. There are two sampling Places were exceed 148 ㏃/㎥(4 pCi/L; U.S EPA remedial level), difference mean is 24.0㏃/㎥ when compared with underground vs. aboveground indoor radon concentration in the same building and ratio is 1.6, so underground area is higher than aboveground (p<0.05). Influencing factors were examined. They related to the location of sampler(detector) open or near the door is lower radon concentration than inside portion, which explains probably open area has better ventilated air and dilutes indoor radon concentration. Temperature has a negative relationship (p<0.05) with indoor radon concentration and relative humidity has a positive (p<0.05) Simultaneously to investigate water radon concentration, collected piped-water and the results were very low, which is the same in piped-water concentration other countries. In conclusion, underground indoor radon concentration is higher than aboveground. Concentration was related to sampling spot, open portion is lower than inside. Higher the temperature, lower the indoor radon concentrations. On the other hand higher the relative humidity, higher the indoor radon concentrations. Indoor radon concentration is influenced by sampling point, temperature, relative humidity.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.51-65
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• 2015

Indoor inhalation of vapors intruded into buildings is an important exposure pathway in volatile organic compoundscontaminated sites. Site-specifically measured indoor air concentration is preferentially used for risk assessment. However, when indoor air concentration of VOC is not measured, the indoor air concentration needs to be estimated from soil concentration or measured soil gas concentration of the VOC. Some risk assessment guidance (e.g., Korea Ministry of Environment (KMOE) and American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) International guidance) estimate the indoor air concentration from soil concentration while other guidances (e.g., United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and Dutch National Institute for Public Health (RIVM)) estimate it from measured soil gas concentration. This study derived indoor inhalation risks of intruded benzene in two benzene-contaminated residential areas with four different risk assessment guidances (i.e., KMOE, USEPA, ASTM, and Dutch RIVM) and compared the derived risks. The risk assessment results revealed that indoor air estimation approach from soil concentration could either underestimate (when the contaminant is not detected in soil) or overestimate (when the contaminant is detected in soil even at negligible concentration) the indoor air inhalation risk. Hence, this paper recommends to estimate indoor air concentration from soil gas concentration, rather than soil concentration. Discussions about the various indoor air concentration estimation approaches are provided.

• Journal of the Korean housing association
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.55-62
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• 2015

The international concern on the inhalable fine dust is continuing to increase. In addition to the toxic properties of the fine dust itself, it can be more dangerous than other environmental factors since the dust pollution is hard to be detected by human sense. Although the information on outdoor air condition can be acquired easily, the indoor dust concentration is another problem because the indoor air condition is influenced by the architectural environment and human activity. It means occupants may be exposed to indoor dust pollution over a long period without being aware. Therefore the indoor dust concentration should be measured separately and visualized as an intuitive information. By visualizing, the indoor dust concentration in each space can be recognized practically in compare with the degree of pollution in adjacent spaces. Besides the visualization outcome can be used as base data for related research such as an analysis of the relation between indoor dust concentration and architectural environment. Meanwhile, with the development of network and micro sensing devices, it became possible to collect wide range of indoor environment data. In this regards, this paper suggests a system for visualization of indoor dust concentration and demonstrates it on an actual space.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.67-75
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• 1994

Formaldehyde has been in widespread industrial use since World War II . Numerous sources of formaldehyde are present in the indoor environment. Additionally, the current trend toward tighter, more energy efficient buildings with lower ventilation rates has led to increase concentrations of this and other pollutants generated indoors. In this paper, the field survey was carried out once a month from January to MarctL 1994 to measure indoor and outdoor formaldehyde concentration in several underground locations in Seoul. The results could be summarized as follows : 1. At Yang- jae underground shopping center, the mean formaldehyde concentration was 77.8ppb for indoor and 68.4ppb for outdoor. At Ban- po underground shopping center, it was 175.8ppb for indoor and 127.3ppb for outdoor. At Jam- shil underground shop ping center, it was 135.2ppd for indoor and 34.6ppb for outdoor. Indoor the No.2 sub way line, it was 105.6ppb. The formaldehyde concentration using Berge equation was as follows : At Yang- jae underground shopping center, the mean formaldehyde concentration was 85.99ppb for indoor and 72.75ppb for outdoor At Ban- po underground shopping center, it was 254. 17ppb for indoor and 138.14ppb for outdoor. At Jam- shil underground shopping center, it was 249.13ppb for indoor and 36.87ppb for outdoor. Indoor the No.2 subway line, it was 131.73ppb. 3, The result of correlation analysis indicated that the relationship between temperature and formaldehyde concentration is very high( $\gamma $= 0.831 ∼ 0.974). 4. Also, the relationship between humidity and formaldehyde concentration is variant ($\gamma $ = 0.246 ∼0.999). 5. The mean formaldehyde concentration indoor and outdoor Ban- po underground shop ping center and indoor Jam- shil underground shopping center and indoor the No.2 sub way line exceed the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, Air- conditioning Engineers( ASHRAE) stflndard of 100ppb(120 $\mu $g/m$^{3}$).

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.325-337
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• 2014

The research on the actual condition of indoor asbestos concentration in Korea has not been thoroughly accomplished up to now. In this research the ratio of asbestos-containing buildings and indoor asbestos concentration was studied. This investigation was conducted in 2012 and 2013 and buildings were categorized based on region, building type by use, existing space(ground or basement), and construction year, respectively. Also the indoor asbestos concentration change was monitored to evaluation the efficiencies of two types of asbestos-concentration abatement devices. As a result, the ratio of asbestos-containing buildings in Seoul was largely decreased. The ratio of asbestos-containing buildings was higher in hospitals and schools regionally and in ground buildings than in basement. The average indoor asbestos concentrations were 0.0011, 0.0008 piece/cc in 2012 and 2013 investigation, respectively. Those values were much lower than standards(0.01 piece/cc), therefore the threat of indoor asbestos concentration might be negligible. In asbestos-concentration abatement experiments, the circulation velocity of ventilator were changed 2-6.7 m/sec. With 6.7 m/sec of velocity of ventilator, the concentration of indoor asbestos was fluctuated and maximum value was 2.4 piece/cc. With 4.5 and 2 m/sec of velocities of ventilator, the maximum concentration of indoor asbestos was fluctuated and maximum value was 0.9 piece/cc. This indicated that the concentration of indoor asbestos was decreased partly due to the free drop of asbestos. From these results, the proper velocity of ventilator seems to be between 4.7 and 6.5m/sec under this circumstance and further research is required. These research results may be used to guideline of asbestos management policy.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.81-86
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• 2010

The main sources of the new house syndrome(sometimes it called sick building syndrome) are a concentration of formaldehyde (HCHO) and a concentration of total volatile organic compounds(TVOC). I had field measurements of indoor air quality in the apartment unit at medium-size cities(Y city, C city). I measured indoor air temperature, HCHO concentration in 16 units, TVOC concentration in 6 units and air tightness in 7 units. And I measured outdoor air quality, HCHO concentration and TVOC concentration. Mean concentration of HCHO was $357{\mu}g/m^3$(2006 standard=$120{\mu}g/m^3$), mean concentration of TVOC was $3,092{\mu}g/m^3$ and mean effective air leakage area was 193 cm2. There was a close relation between the indoor air temperature and HCHO concentration, between the indoor air temperature and TVOC concentration. Air tightness also had relation.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.451-459
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• 1997

This paper alms to describe the indoor-outdoor air quality in school environment through the analyses of heavy metal concentration by inductively Coupled Plasma(ICPI, which were observed at some school environment, such as traffic area, industrial area seme-industrial area, and residence area. The results are as follows : (1) Regardless Indoor and outdoor, the area with the highest concentration of heavy metal is industrial area followed by traffic area, residence area and semi-industrial area in descending order of magnitude. And the heavy metal concentration of indoor is higher than that of outdoor. (2) The main heavy metal components with more high level concentration of Indoor than those of outdoor are Zn, Al, Ca and these heavy metal concentrations are higher in class than In corridor and outdoor.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.197-202
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• 2007

Formaldehyde is a typical indoor air pollutant that has numerous adverse health problems in modern living conditions. Phytoremediation that use plants to remove contaminants from polluted media can be applied to improve indoor air quality. Two sets of experiments; 1) two rooms in newly built auditorium and 2) a bed room in 2-year-old apartment; were performed to investigate plant effects on indoor formaldehyde concentration. It was observed from the experiments that plant can help decontaminating formaldehyde at low concentration level (0.1 ppm) but the effects decreased considerably at hish concentration (1ppm). The purification effects of indoor plant also showed the periodic pattern due to its physiological activity. More purification was observed as increasing plant density in the bed room but the formaldehyde concentration returned the original concentration level in two days after removing plants. It was suggested from the results that air purification using plants is an effective means of reduction on indoor formaldehyde level, though, reduction of source is highly desirable when the concentration level is high. The results also suggest that introducing supplementary purifying aids and/or efficient ventilation could be considered due to periodic removal pattern of plant.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.347-349
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• 2009

Air quality of indoor space environment is affected by various pollutants like as particles and chemical stuffs. The indoor air pollution affects directly the human respiration organs to cause consequently unpleasant mental status. The $CO_2$ concentration level is one of the harmful components of air pollutants. Major factor to increase the $CO_2$ concentration level is the people's breath amount in indoor. The car exhaust gas diffused from the around road also has strong affect on $CO_2$ concentration. There are some other reasons to affect the $CO_2$ concentration change, such as, real-time change of the population movement, closeness to the indoor air flow inlet window and changes in road car traffic amount. A remote monitoring system to measure environmental indoor air pollution concerning on the $CO_2$ concentration was studied and installed realized set-up model. Zigbee network configuration was applied for this system and the $CO_2$ concentration data were collected through USN network. A software program was developed to assure systematic analysis and to display real-time data on web pages. For the experimental test various condition was set up, like as, window opening, stopping air condition operation and adjusting fan heater work, etc. The analysis result showed the relation of various environmental conditions to $CO_2$ concentration changes. The causes to increase $CO_2$ concentration were experimentally defined as windows closing, the stopping air condition system, fan heater operation. To keep the $CO_2$ concentration under the legally required ppm level in public access indoor space, the developed remote measurement system will be usefully applied.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.190-200
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• 2002

This study was carried out to investigate and analyze TSP of the PC rooms. The concentration of the total suspended particulate and heavy metals contained in the total suspended particulate of the 15 PC rooms located in one local city were measured. The statistical correlation coefficients between the total suspended particulate and factors of the indoor condition (number of fan or size of pc room, illumination), between the heavy metals and factors of the indoor condition were studied. The results are as follows: 1. The factors of the indoor condition of the 15 PC rooms are as follows. Average illumination was 24 luxes. Average number of computers installed were 37. Average number of the fans was 7. and the size of investigated PC rooms was $139.94m^2$. 2. The mean age of the subjects was 21.8 years old. they $(51.5\%)$ used the 15 pc rooms for fewer than 2 hours per one day. 3. The mean concentration of total suspended particulate (TSP) is lower in the evening ${139.085\;(2.462)\;{\mu}g/m^3}$ than the night ${166.216(2.609){\mu}g/m^3}$. 4. The mean concentration of total suspended particulate was industrial work area) residential area) commercial area. 5. The distribution of heavy metals were indicated as Zn>Cr>Pb>Cd in the indoor air at PC rooms. and the concentration rate of Zn was the highest among heavy metals. but this increase didn't show any relationship with many factors of indoor condition (number of fan or size of pc room, lighting) 6. The concentration of TSP & heavy metals didn't have any relationship between the factors of indoor environment (number of fans, size of pc room, lighting).