• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.15-20
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• 2005

Recently, IAQ(indoor air quality) is one of the greatest problems in our modern societies. Although research for IAQ is made rapid progress but microorganism concentration is much to be desired. So we have examined a variety of department store, subway station, underground shopping center, kindergartens, library etc. where people complain about the indoor air quality. The microorganism concentration of indoor air was investigated in this study and the average of total microorganisms was measured. The experimental results show that the ministry of Environment recommendation value (800 $CFU/m^3$)is in need of revision in the naer future.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.227-231
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• 2018

Indoor air pollution has become a serious issue, affecting the health and comfort of building occupants. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are among the most common indoor contaminants, and are released from numerous indoor emission sources. Among the VOCs, formaldehyde and toluene are toxic chemicals at low levels and are frequently detected indoors. Exposure to formaldehyde and toluene can irritate sensitive tissue and may increase the risk of cancer. Therefore, monitoring formaldehyde and toluene is critical for the health and comfort of residents. In addition, as human indoor activities can generate VOC gases, analysis of their influence on VOCs is needed. In this study, we compared electronic nose (E-Nose) data for formaldehyde and toluene with E-Nose data for indoor mixture gas with consideration for human indoor activities.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.115-122
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• 1997

Diurnal variation of $PM_{10}$ concentration was investigated for 24 sites in library including reading room, bookstock room, lobby, office and so on, and 9 sites in student building at Kangwon National University using scattering light integrated type digital dust indicator. The dimensional conversion factors for mass concentrations (K) were determined by comparing between the $PM_{10}$ concentrations collected by $PM_{10}$ hig volume air sampler and the digital dust indicator. The dimensional conversion factor (K) was 3.33 for indoor air in this experiment. The highest concentrations were 649 $\mug/m^3$/day for smoking room in the library and 242 $\mug/m^3$/day for circle room in the student building. Most of spaces in the library except a office and bookstock rooms were over 150 $\mug/m^3$/day of $PM_{10}$ concentrations and 6 indoor spaces were over the guideline for indoor air quality in student building except a health center and two restaurants. Therefore, it should be required to make an improvement on the indoor air quaility for public facilities in the university buildings.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Structure & Construction
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.181-190
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• 2019

In high school classrooms, it is reported that ventilation is often insufficient, increasing health risks among students. Therefore, indoor air quality in school classrooms is very important in terms of students' health and learning abilities. In this study, the effect of window opening, which is a control mechanism for air control in summer high school classrooms, on the change in air and indoor environment of the classroom was analyzed and physical conditions of indoor and air environment were observed during the classroom course, and satisfaction of the students and teachers was assessed with questionnaires. It was found that change rate of $CO_2$ concentration in classroom was effectively reduced by carrying out activity of opening the window by active environment control activity of occupants at break time, intermission time and cleaning time. And optimal window opening by students was presented to prevent unpleasantness and degradation of indoor air quality and the effects were analyzed.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.397-407
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• 2018

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to investigate human health risk assessment of indoor air pollutants at small-sized public-use facilities (e.g., daycare centers, hospital and elderly care facilities) that the susceptible population is mainly used. Methods: To assess indoor air quality (IAQ), the concentrations of indoor air contaminants such as HCHO, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene, styrene, PM-10, CO, $NO_2$ and $O_3$ in air samples were measured according to the Indoor Air Quality Standard Method. By conducting the questionnaire survey, the major factors influencing IAQ were identified. Human health risk assessment was carried out in the consideration of type of use (user and worker) at 75 daycare centers, 34 hospitals and 40 elderly care facilities. Results: As a result of measurement of indoor air contaminants, the average concentration of HCHO and TVOCs in hospitals was higher than daycare centers and elderly care facilities, about 8.8 and 23.5% of hospitals were exceeded by IAQ standard. In human health risk assessment, for the user of daycare centers and elderly care facilities, the mean carcinogenic risk of HCHO inhalation was higher than acceptable value. Except for HCHO, other values were determined under acceptable risk. Similarly, for the worker of hospitals, the mean carcinogenic risk of HCHO inhalation was higher than acceptable value and other values were evaluated under acceptable risk. In contrast, the risk levels of other contaminants measured in elderly care facilities were acceptable. In the determination of factors influencing IAQ, the construction year, building type, ventilation time, and the use of air cleaner were identified. Conclusions: This study provides the information for establishing the plans of public health management of IAQ at small-sized public-use facilities that have not yet been placed under the regulation. The findings suggest the consideration of human health risk assessment results for the IAQ standards.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.85-92
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• 1999

Indoor air quality tends to be the dominant contributor to personal exposure because most people spend over 90% of their time indoors. For some contaminants, exposure to indoor air poses a potentially greater health threat than outdoor air exposures. Indoor nitrogen dioxide ($NO_2$) levels are mainly affected gas range, flue gas spillage, kerosene heaters, wood-burning appliances and cigarette smoke. In addition, indoor $NO_2$ levels are influenced by such house characterization as surface reaction and air exchange rate. In this study, the measurements of indoor and outdoor $NO_2$ concentrations were taken using identical protocols, and information was collected on housing characteristics using identical questionnaires in 14 houses out of 15 houses for daily 30 daily 30 days in Brisbane, Australia.The usage of gas range was the most contributing factor in indoor $NO_2$ concentration in relation to house characteristics. Average indoor and outdoor ratios of NO2 concentration in electronic and gas cooking houses were $0.6{\pm}0.1$ and $0.9{\pm}0.2$, respectively. The frequency distributions of $NO_2$ concentration in each house were approximately log-normal Geometric mean of indoor $NO_2$ concentrations of electronic and gas cooking houses for daily 30 days ranged from 2.5 ppm to 11.5 ppm with a mean 6.8 and from 4.7 ppm to 28.6 ppm with a mean 15.6 ppm, respectively. The $NO_2$ concentrations between electronic and gas cooking houses were significantly different (p<0.05). Since each house has different life-style and house characteristics, sampling interval to measure the $NO_2$ levels was recommended above 7 days.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.9-17
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• 2022

As the COVID-19 pandemic situation worsens, the time spent indoors increases, and the exposure to indoor environmental pollution such as indoor air pollution and noise also increases, causing problems such as deterioration of human health, stress, and discord between neighbors. This paper designs and implements a system that measures and monitors indoor air quality and noise, which are representative evaluation criteria of the indoor environment. The system proposed in this paper consists of a particulate matter measurement subsystem that measures and corrects the concentration of particulate matters to monitor indoor air quality, and a noise measurement subsystem that detects changes in sound and converts it to a sound pressure level. The concentration of indoor particulate matters is measured using a laser-based light scattering method, and an error caused by temperature and humidity is compensated in this paper. For indoor noise measurement, the voltage measured through a microphone is basically measured, Fourier transform is performed to classify it by frequency, and then A-weighting is performed to correct loudness equality. Then, the RMS value is obtained, high-frequency noise is removed by performing time-weighting, and then SPL is obtained. Finally, the equivalent noise level for 1 minute and 5 minutes are calculated to show the indoor noise level. In order to classify noise into direct impact sound and air transmission noise, a piezo vibration sensors is mounted to determine the presence or absence of direct impact transmitted through the wall. For performance evaluation, the error of particulate matter measurement is analyzed through TSI's AM510 instrument. and compare the noise error with CEM's noise measurement system.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.175-187
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• 2014

The subways play an important part in serious traffic problems. Almost seven million citizens a day are using subways as a means of traffic communication in the Seoul metropolitan city in 2012. However, the subway system is a semi-closed environment, so many serious problems occurred in subway stations and injured passengers' health. Platform screen doors (PSD) are expected to prevent negligent accident such as injury or death from falling and improve the air quality of the subway station. Installation of PSD at stations in Seoul metropolitan subway had been completed in December 2009. Consequently, the underground transportation system became a closed environment, so the air quality has improved the platforms, but it has deteriorated in the tunnels. Especially, the subway cabin has many doors, and the doors are frequently opened and closed. For this reason, the effect of door opening on subway cabin, dust flow inside the subway cabin. In this process, the maintenance work may influence the health of people who work underground, as well as that of subway users (passengers). In this study, we measured air quality inside and outside of the subway cabin line 2 in Seoul, Korea. This study focused on the investigation of Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and measurement target pollutants are PM10, CO, $CO_2$, $NO_2$, $O_3$. It was found that levels of PM10, $CO_2$, and $NO_2$ inside subway cabin line 2 exceeded the Korea IAQ standard. Concentrations of PM10, $CO_2$, and $NO_2$ inside of the cabin are higher than outside of the cabin (Indoor Outdoor ratio is higher than 1.). Concentrations of CO, $O_3$ inside of the cabin are lower than outside of the cabin (Indoor Outdoor ratio is lower than 1.). There is a high correlation between $CO_2$ and passengers inside of the cabin and PM10 is only the weakest correlation with passengers. Therefore, it is important to find out the emission source of $NO_2$. The results of this study will be useful as fundamental data to study indoor air quality of a subway cabin.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.344-354
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• 2005

This study was carried out to evaluate the performance of a small chamber sampling and analytical method for the measurement of total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) and formaldehyde (HCHO) emission from building materials. While VOC was determined by the adsorbent tube sampling and sequential thermal desorption coupled with GC/MSD analysis, formaldehyde sampled with DNPH-silica cartridge was analyzed by HPLC. Wide-range performance criteria such as repeatability, desorption efficiency, emission chamber recovery test, duplicate precision, breakthrough volume and method detection limits were investigated for the evaluation of small chamber method. The overall precision of the small chamber sampling and analytical methods was estimated within 20~30% for target compounds. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that the small chamber sampling and analytical method can be reliably applied for the measurement of building materials pollutants.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2020.11a
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• pp.135-136
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• 2020

Recently, there is a problem that is most important in constructing buildings and building materials. It is a harmful substance generated in buildings. These harmful substances are CO₂, radon and formaldehyde, volatile organic compounds generated from building materials. These are bad for the human body, may have a negative effect and cause large illnesses such as cancer. Recently built apartments have a high density, so there is a problem that harmful substances do not escape well. As a result, people's interest in indoor air quality is growing and in order to solve this problem and various researches are being conducted on the materials used for concrete pouring to find out how much the materials used adsorb harmful substances. this study uses carbon black as a material that can adsorb these harmful substances. The purpose of this study is to measure the bending strength, compressive strength, and to determine whether the paste containing carbon black can improve indoor air quality.