• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.147-158
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• 2016

Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate the assessment of exposure to welding fume and heavy metals among construction welders. Methods: Activity-specific personal air samplings(n=206) were carried out at construction sites of three apartment, two office buildings, and two plant buildings using PVC(poly vinyl chloride) filters with personal air samplers. The concentration of fumes and heavy metals were evaluated for five different types of construction welding jobs: general building pipefitter, chemical plant pipefitter, boiler maker, ironworker, metal finishing welder. Results: The concentration of welding fumes was highest among general building pipefitters($4.753mg/m^3$) followed by ironworkers($3.765mg/m^3$), boilermakers($1.384mg/m^3$), metal finishing welders($0.783mg/m^3$), chemical pipefitters($0.710mg/m^3$). Among the different types of welding methods, the concentration of welding fumes was highest with the $CO_2$ welding method($2.08mg/m^3$) followed by SMAW(shield metal arc welding, $1.54mg/m^3$) and TIG(tungsten inert gas, $0.70mg/m^3$). Among the different types of workplace, the concentration of welding fumes was highest in underground workplaces($1.97mg/m^3$) followed by outdoor($0.93mg/m^3$) and indoor(wall opening as $0.87mg/m^3$). Specifically comparing the workplaces of general building welders, the concentration of welding fumes was highest in underground workplaces($7.75mg/m^3$) followed by indoor(wall opening as $2.15mg/m^3$). Conclusions: It was found that construction welders experience a risk of expose to welding hazards at a level exceeding the exposure limits. In particular, for high-risk welding jobs such as general building pipefitters and ironworkers, underground welding work and $CO_2$ welding operations require special occupational health management regarding the use of air supply and exhaust equipment and special safety and health education and fume mask are necessary. In addition, there is a need to establish construction work monitoring systems, health planning and management practices.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.30 no.5 s.81
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• pp.469-480
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• 2004

The radon concentrations were measured to survey distribution of radon concentrations in Seoul subway stations. The radon concentrations in air and water were measured at seventeen subway stations(Mapo, Chungjongno, Sodaemun, Kwanghwamun, Chongno3ga, Ulchiro4ga, Tangdaemun, Sangildong on Line 5;Nowon, Chunggye, Hagye, Kongnung, Taenung, Mokkol, Chunghwa, Sangbong, Myomok on Line 7) using the $RAdtrak^{TM}$ radon gas detector, Pylon AB-5 continuous passive radon detector and liquid scintillation counting method from January to May 1999. The major results obtained from this study were as follows: The long-term mean concentrations of radon were $61.8\;Bq/m^3$ in office, $78.9\;Bq/m^3$ in platform, $38.2\;Bq/m^3$ in concourse and $20.1\;Bq/m^3$ in outdoor, respectively. These levels were less than the action level ($148\;Bq/m^3$) of the U.S. EPA. The highest level of short-term mean concentrations was $116.55\;Bq/m^3$ at Chongno3ga station on the 5th line subway stations, while the lowest mean concentration was $19.55\;Bq/m^3$ at Mokkol station on the 7th line subway stations. The highest concentration of radon in the road water and storing underground water in the subway stations was $234.7\;KBq/m^3\;and\;155.5\;KBq/m^3$ in Sodaemun subway station, respectively. The results suggest that radon concentration in subway stations seems to be affected by ventilation and radon concentratin in underground water in the subway stations.

• Journal of Aquaculture
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.42-50
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• 2009

Shrimp farming which is entirely conducted in outdoor ponds in the west coast of Korea has been suffered from mass mortality due to viral epizootics. Intensive indoor shrimp culture under limited water exchange can solve these problems of outdoor ponds including viral transmission from environment, pollution due to discharge of rearing water, low productivity and limited culture period. In this study, juvenile L. vannamei (B.W. 0.08-0.09 g) was stocked with $3,000-5,455/m^3$ in density in four raceway tanks (two $12.9\;m^2$, two $18\;m^2$ tanks) and cultured for 42 days with 2.7-3.4% of daily water exchange. Results from four tanks showed FCR of 0.79-1.29, survival of 38.2-48.0%, and yields of $2.49-4.22\;kg/m^3$ which is consistent with 12-20 and 8-14 times higher than those of commercial shrimp hatchery and outdoor pond in Korea, respectively. Concentrations of total ammonia nitrogen in all four tanks were 1.11-1.42 ppm in mean level and did not exceed 6.0 ppm (0.096 ppm of $NH_3$) which is still acceptable levels for shrimp growth. During the culture trial, concentration of $NO_2$-N rapidly increased from stocking, resulting in mean concentration of 18.45-22.07 ppm. It also exceeded 10 ppm over four weeks and maintained at 35-45 ppm for four days in all tanks, accounting for low survival of shrimp due to long-term exposure to high concentration of $NO_2$-N. Nevertheless, the results with survival rate over 38% from raceways which experienced the extreme $NO_2$-N levels suggests that under "biofloc system" white shrimp can acclimate to high $NO_2$-N concentration to some degree.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.726-732
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• 2014

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of maintenance system as well as the effect of Se, Zn, and vitamin E supplementation of ram-lambs on the slaughter value and concentration of mineral elements in the loin muscle of lambs. The experiment was conducted on 72 Polish Merino ram-lambs divided into three groups: group C, indoor with no supplement, 19 lambs; S, indoor with supplement, 23 lambs; G, outdoor with no supplement, 30 lambs. From birth all the lambs were maintained indoor with their dams and then weaned at the age of 8 weeks. The rams from group C and S were placed in individual straw-bedded pens and fattened individually with concentrate mixture offered ad libitum until the age of 16 weeks. The lambs from group G were grazed every day from May to July (2 months). During the fattening period each lamb from the supplemented group S was administered per os 1 mL 0.1% $Na_2SeO_4$ (Se, 0.42 mg), 3 mL 10% $ZnSO_4$ (Zn, 68 mg), and 1 mL premix protect vitamin E (0.1 g ${\alpha}$-tocopherol, 5 mg lysine, 5 mg methionine) daily. A comparison of half carcasses across the groups has shown no difference between the control group and the one with supplements, while the weight of half carcasses in the grazing group was smaller in comparison with groups C and S (p<0.001). The meat content in the pelvic limb showed no differences across all groups under study. The pelvic limb of grazing lambs contained less fat compared to the control and supplemented groups (p<0.001). The concentrations of Se and Zn in the blood plasma of ram-lambs from the supplemented group were significantly higher than for the control and grazing lambs. Inorganic Se and Zn supplementation with vitamin E to the diet of lambs increased Se and Zn levels in loin muscle (p<0.001) to $0.46{\mu}g/g$ and $32.9{\mu}g/g$ in fresh tissue, respectively.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.751-756
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• 2009

In the perspective of saving energy in buildings, the high performance of insulation and air tightness for improving the heating and the cooling efficiency, has brought economically positive effects. However, these building energy saving technologies cause the lack of ventilation, which is the direct cause of increasing the indoor contaminants, and is also very harmful to the residents, because they spend over 90% of their time indoors. Therefore, the ventilation is important to keep the indoor environment clean and it can also save the energy consumption. In this study, a HEPA type nano ceramic filter is designed as a passive ventilation system to collect airborne particles and to supply fresh outdoor air. The double layer filter, which has $30{\mu}m$ in diameter at the conditions of 10wt% of concentration and 3kV/cm of the electric intensity, is produced by electrospinning. The filtration coating technology is confirmed in the solution with $SiO_2$ nano particles using polymer nano fibers. Also double layer filters are coated with $SiO_2$ nano particles and finally the porous construction materials are made by sintering in the electric furnace at $200{\sim}1400^{\circ}C$. The efficiency is measured 96.67% at the particle size of $0.31{\mu}m$, which is slightly lower than HEPA filter. However the efficiency is turned out to be sufficient.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.477-491
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• 2014

This study was carried out to evaluate the concentration variations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the office environments located in a large urban area with respect to seasonality, smoking status, types of ventilation and heating. Indoor air sampling was undertaken in 37 and 30 offices in Daegu city during summer and winter, respectively. The VOC samples were collected using adsorbent tubes, and were determined by thermal desorption coupled with GC/MS analysis. The analytical method was validated for repeatability, method detection limits (MDL), and duplication precision. A total of 34 VOCs of environmental concern were determined, including 15 aromatics and 19 halogenated hydrocarbons. Average concentrations of BTEX appeared to 1.91 ppb, 22.98 ppb, 3.44 ppb, and 3.70 ppb, respectively. These values were relatively higher levels than those measured at homes and outdoor roadsides reported by other researches. In general, the concentrations of VOCs were higher in winter than summer, in smoking offices than non-smoking offices, in forced ventilation type than natural ventilation type, and in combustion heating than non-combustion heating offices. However, such differences were not always significant at a level of 0.05 by statistical tests (t-test and/or Mann-Whitney test) with some exceptions for BTEX and styrene. This study demonstrated that smoking status, ventilation type and presence of combustion sources indoors could be important factors on the elevated concentrations of some VOCs in the office environment.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.73-79
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• 2009

The hydraulic conductivity of porous media is the most important property in soil characteristics. The hydraulic conductivity is determined by outdoor and indoor methods. Indoor methods normally use soil columns for flow test. Assumption of the column test is that fluid one-dimensionally flows through the column. However, fluids may flow toward the wall of the column, resulting in "boundary flow". This study investigated the effect of boundary flow on the hydraulic conductivity by using a permeameter excluding boundary flow. The results showed that the hydraulic conductivity excluding boundary flow was much smaller than the hydraulic conductivity employing the conventional determination method. This study also investigated the effects of particle size and surfactant on the hydraulic conductivity. As the particle size increased, the hydraulic conductivity was increased. The hydraulic conductivity was reduced by increasing surfactant concentration. The result showed that the viscosity of fluid significantly affected the determination of hydraulic conductivity.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.300-309
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• 2014

Objectives: The objective of this study is to evaluate microbial exposure hazards in the metal-working fluids(MWF) handling industry. Methods: Air quality parameters(airborne bacteria, fungi, endotoxin and oil mist) and bulk MWF in storage tanks were evaluated at 54 points at nine sites in South Korea. Results: The geometric means(GM) of culturable airborne bacteria, fungi, endotoxin and oil mist concentration were $133CFU/m^3$(n=376, range $7{\sim}6,510CFU/m^3$), $159CFU/m^3$(n=381, range $7{\sim}8,469CFU/m^3$), $8.06EU/m^3$(n=103, range $0.34{\sim}280.4EU/m^3$) and $0.20mg/m^3$(n=104, range $0.01{\sim}2.87mg/m^3$), respectively. The ratio of indoor to outdoor concentration was 2.7 for bacteria, 6.1 for endotoxin, and 4.8 for oil mist. Even though average airborne bacteria concentration did not exceed recommended exposure limits($1,000CFU/m^3$), MWF in the storage tanks was highly contaminated with bacteria(arithmetic mean $2.1{\times}10^6CFU/ml$) and exceeded recommended bacteria limits($10^5CFU/ml$). Conclusions: It is necessary for MWF handling workplaces to conduct periodical biohazard inspection of MWF storage tanks. Additionally, further research may be necessary to establish biological occupational exposure limits.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.483-490
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• 2019

Assessing the effect of forest fires and measuring the gas concentration around a fire has received little attention. Therefore, the concentrations of various gases in areas surrounding a fire need to be measured by the development of a suitable device. Unlike conventional portable devices, the AQS (Air Quality System) proposed in this paper is a portable instrument that measures five types of gases simultaneously, including CO, CO2, NOx, VOCs, and NH3, and has high durability through sensor protection algorithms. A PC-based program with an AQS connection was developed to monitor the real-time changes in the gas concentration. The reliability of the developed device was proven through a comparison of the results with other commercial gas analyzers. Measurements of the concentration due to indoor and outdoor fires were performed around a fire area to review the applicability and the predicted results were obtained.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.26-33
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• 2002

Ultimate objective of industrial hygiene is the prevention of health impairment that may result from exposure to chemicals at workplace. Workers in solvent thinner-using occupation environment may be highly exposed to VOCs (volatile organic compounds) because solvent thinner has been used extensively such as painting, spraying, degreasing, coating and so on in Korea. The purpose of this study was to recognize, evaluate, and propose the control methods of VOCs from solvent thinner-using workplace. Five target volatile organic compounds (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, o-xylene, and m-xylene) were monitored in H company of Shiwa Industrial Complex and analyzed in perosnal, occupational indoor and outdoor during working hours simultaneously. Engineering control such as local ventilation should be made in considering the long-term exposure, though measured VOCs concentration did not exceed the workplace exposure standards. In addition, air cleaning device should be installed in local ventilation because Shiwa Industrial Complex has had the serious ambient air pollution. Currently, environmental purification using $TiO_2$ photocatalyst have attracted a great deal of attention with increasing number of recent environmental problems. In this study, $TiO_2$ sol coated on the ceramic bead was prepared by sol-gel method and the photodegradation of target compounds was investigated in gas phase by the exposure to UV-A lamp(365nm) in a batch system.