• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
• /
• v.58 no.3
• /
• pp.89-95
• /
• 2015

Purpose: House dust mite (HDM) has been suggested to be the most important aeroallergen responsible for atopic asthma in Korea. We aimed to investigate that specific IgE antibodies to HDM and other common indoor aeroallergens contribute differently to total serum IgE and show different relationships with longitudinal fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) measurements in Korean atopic asthmatic patients. Methods: A total of 193 children aged 8 to 16 years with intermittent or mild persistent atopic asthma were recruited. Sera were assayed for total IgE and specific IgE antibodies to HDM and other common indoor allergens. FeNO was serially measured 10 times or more over 2 years when subjects were not receiving controller medications. Results: In 152 children who completed the study, IgE antibodies to specific HDM were more prevalent than those to other common indoor aeroallergens. In addition, IgE antibody titers to HDM were the strongest contributor to total IgE increases. Furthermore, only HDM-specific IgE antibody titer significantly correlated with maximum FeNO (r=0.21, P=0.029) and the rate of FeNO higher than 21 parts per billion (ppb) (r=0.30, P=0.002). Eight patients (5%) were found to have maximum FeNO of 21 ppb or less, suggesting the presence of a low FeNO phenotype among atopic asthmatic patients. Conclusion: The quantity of HDM-specific IgE antibody provides a possible explanation for increases of total IgE and significantly correlates with the amount and frequency of FeNO increases in Korean atopic asthmatic patients.

• Biomedical Science Letters
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.315-329
• /
• 2013

This study was conducted to evaluate the distribution, frequency, sensitization rate, and types of specific allergen in allergic patients. We analyzed allergens of 12,882 allergic patient's serum referred for Medical Laboratory using MAST Allergy Screen Test (Inhalation/food panel) from April, 2010 to March, 2011. Allergen reactivity were not detected in 833/12,882 (6.5%) allergic patients and the other allergic patients had two or more types of allergens of food and inhalant, respectively. In the distribution of the allergen food 73.4% (9,450/12,882 patients) was much higher than the pollen 26.6% (3,432/12,882 patients). The sensitization rate to each allergen showed garlic 26.7%, egg white 21.5% of food allergens, mugwort 24.9%, ragweed short 19.6% of pollen allergens, Candida albicans 10.5%, Alternaria spp. 7.9% of fungus allergens, and showed high sensitized rate to Dermatophagoides farinae 90.2%, Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus 77.8%, house dust 57% of indoor allergens, respectively. The specific allergens of food allergen, fungus allergen, and indoor allergen were more frequent in young child than adult, but pollen allergens were frequent in adult than young child. In seasonal distribution, the food allergen were frequent in summer and autumn, the pollen allergen in autumn, fungus allergen in spring and in winter, and indoor allergen in autumn and in winter. In conclusion, the mite of Dermatophagoides farinae and Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, and house dust showed the highest sensitization rate in specific allergen of allergic patients. The allergens showed difference feature according to the age, region, and types of allergen.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.196-204
• /
• 2019

Background: Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MSMS) for simultaneous analysis of multiple microbial secondary metabolites (MSMs) is potentially subject to interference by matrix components. Methods: We examined potential matrix effects (MEs) in analyses of 31 MSMs using ultraperformance LC-MSMS. Twenty-one dust aliquots from three buildings (seven aliquots/building) were spiked with seven concentrations of each of the MSMs ($6.2pg/{\mu}l-900pg/{\mu}l$) and then extracted. Another set of 21 aliquots were first extracted and then, the extract was spiked with the same concentrations. We added deepoxy-deoxynivalenol (DOM) to all aliquots as a universal internal standard. Ten microliters of the extract was injected into the ultraperformance LC-MSMS. ME was calculated by subtracting the percentage of the response of analyte in spiked extract to that in neat standard from 100. Spiked extract results were used to create a matrix-matched calibration (MMC) curve for estimating MSM concentration in dust spiked before extraction. Results: Analysis of variance was used to examine effects of compound (MSM), building and concentration on response. MEs (range: 63.4%-99.97%) significantly differed by MSM (p < 0.01) and building (p < 0.05). Mean percent recoveries adjusted with DOM and the MMC method were 246.3% (SD = 226.0) and 86.3% (SD = 70.7), respectively. Conclusion: We found that dust MEs resulted in substantial underestimation in quantifying MSMs and that DOM was not an optimal universal internal standard for the adjustment but that the MMC method resulted in more accurate and precise recovery compared with DOM. More research on adjustment methods for dust MEs in the simultaneous analyses of multiple MSMs using LC-MSMS is warranted.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.21 no.6
• /
• pp.677-685
• /
• 2012

The elevator is needed healthy and comfortable indoor air quality (IAQ) for using many people, but we found nothing about IAQ studies of an elevator. In general, air in the elevator car is sucked from the elevator's hoistway straight into the car using a fan. The air sucked into the hoistway may be filled with dust, mold and bacteria. This study was performed to measure of characteristics of indoor air quality (PM10, falling bacteria, $CO_2$, Rn and HCHO) in elevator's hoistway, CAR and lobby of 8 sites (4 apartments and 4 commercial buildings) in Gyeongnam from May, 2010 to January, 2011. With regards to the differences of pollutant distribution among hoistway, CAR, and lobby, the concentration of Rn and HCHO were the highest in hoistway followed by CAR and lobby, and PM10, falling bacteria and $CO_2$ were the highest in CAR followed by hoistway and lobby. Mean concentrations of PM10 were 104.9 ${\mu}g/m^3$ in CAR, 92.3 ${\mu}g/m^3$ in hoistway and 68.2 ${\mu}g/m^3$ in lobby, respectively.

• International Journal of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
• /
• v.10 no.4
• /
• pp.75-82
• /
• 2018

Efforts to reduce damages from micro dust and harmful gases in life have been led by national or local governments, and information on air quality has been provided along with real-time weather forecast through TV and internet. It is not enough to provide information on the individual indoor space consumed. So in this paper, we propose a IoT-based Real-Time Air Quality Sensing Board Corresponding Fine Particle for Air Quality Management in Buildings. Proposed board is easy to install and can be placed in the right place. In the proposed board, the air quality (level of pollution level) in the indoor space (inside the building) is easy and it is possible to recognize the changed indoor air pollution situation and provide countermeasures. According to the advantages of proposed system, it is possible to provide useful information by linking information about the overall indoor space where at least one representative point is located. In this paper, we compare the performance of the proposed board with the existing air quality measurement equipment.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
• /
• v.35 no.2
• /
• pp.173-186
• /
• 1997

The purpose of this study is to find out understand the resident's subjective responses to physical indoor environment. The questionnaire survey was carried out to measure form Jan. 8th to Feb. 2th in 1996, the typical external climate of winter in Korea. The subjects were four hundred and eleven housewives, living in apartments of RC structure I Ilsan apartment complex. As the result, residents usual ventilate once or twice a day by opening outward windows for about ten minutes. Unpleasant smell producted by cooking and wet garbage made most of them negatively respond to kitchen's air quality. regression analysis of relativeness between sense of air freshness smell, dust and comfort revealed that sense of comfort was the most highly related with the extent of bad smell. Housing factors such as size of apartments and ventilating, smoking and gas usage had significant effects on indoor air quality and the subjective responses in winter. Therefore it is especially important to consider air pollution problem from the beginning stage when planning small apartments. It is required that the government of environment has to emphasize the importance of ventilation to residents, and makes an effort to establish the design criteria on indoor air quality in house.

• Fire Science and Engineering
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.50-57
• /
• 2017

The present article discusses the response characteristics of smoke detector chamber due to dust and wind velocity. Although situations have improved in terms of early sensing of fires as the smoke detectors are applied indoors, studies tend to place insufficient focus on the side effects and malfunction that can be caused by diversified life dust produced indoors and environmental requirements, etc. Therefore, in the present study, 4 types of photoelectric smoke detectors with different forms and structures of smoke chamber were selected as the experimental objects, and dust test was conducted with fly ash, talcum powder and fiber dust as experiment samples to study indoor applicability of the smoke detectors in terms of their response to diversified dust and wind velocity. Also, to observe response characteristics due to pollution level inside the smoke chamber, wind velocity for dust test were set additionally at 0.25 m/s, 0.5 m/s, and 1.0 m/s. Based to the experimental results, fly ash, talcum powder, and fiber dust (black hair powder) were found to be suitable at the dust test reference wind velocity conditions of 0.25 m/s for both operation test and non-operation test after dust application. On the other hand, under the harsh wind velocity conditions of 0.5 m/s and 1.0 m/s, malfunction of unwanted alarm was observed in non-operation tests in the case of fly ash and talcum powder, and non-operation was confirmed to occur in the case of fiber dust as the alarm failed to operate normally in operation tests.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.16 no.6
• /
• pp.325-333
• /
• 2018

The quality of indoor air quality is facing a very serious situation due to the impact of the quality of the atmosphere in the atmosphere and the surrounding environment. While awareness of the danger of these populations is increasing, there is no way to detect the quality of the indoor air quality as well as the measures to detect the quality of indoor air quality as well as the countermeasures. The study drew a general problem with the design of the service design, the general purpose of the general office, and the use of the public facilities for the purpose of measuring the usage of indoor air quality, the general purpose of public facilities, and the interpretation of the current law. Based on this research, most of the general users' perception of the seriousness of the disease is not reflected in the perception that the dust and indoor air are accumulated in the eyes of the general public.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.10 no.4
• /
• pp.437-444
• /
• 2019

Background: Headache/eyestrain symptoms are common health problems that people experience in daily life. Various studies have examined risk factors contributing to headache/eyestrains, and physicochemical exposure was found to be a leading risk factor in causing such symptoms. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of headache/eyestrain symptoms with physicochemical exposure among Korean construction workers depended on worksite. Methods: This study used data from the 4th Korean Workers Conditions Survey and selected 1,945 Korean construction workers as participants. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to determine the relationship. Results: Exposure to vibrations among all construction workers affected the moderate exposure group [odds ratio (OR) 1.53, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.01-2.32], the high exposure group (OR 1.77 95%CI 1.17-2.67), and the indoor high exposure group (OR 1.61, 95%CI 1.02-2.55) and among outdoor construction workers, the moderate group (OR 6.61, 95%CI 15.4-28.48) and the high group (OR 6.61, 95%CI 1.56-27.98). When exposed to mist, dust, and fumes, the indoor high exposure group was significantly affected (OR 1.63, 95%CI 1.07-2.47). All construction workers exposed to organic solvents were affected, high exposure group (OR 1.69, 95%CI 1.15-2.49) and indoor high exposure group (OR 1.77, 95%CI 1.08-2.89). The high exposure group in all construction worker (OR 1.70, 95%CI 1.20-2.42) and the indoor high exposure group (OR 1.83, 95%CI 1.17-2.89) also were affected by secondhand smoking exposure. Conclusion: Many physicochemical exposure factors affect headache/eyestrain symptoms among construction workers, especially indoor construction workers, suggesting a deficiency in occupational hygiene and health environments at indoor construction worksites.

• Journal of Wellbeing Management and Applied Psychology
• /
• v.5 no.4
• /
• pp.19-31
• /
• 2022

Purpose: This study was conducted to identify indoor air quality in various living spaces using sensors that can measure noise, vibration, fine dust, and odor in real time and to propose optimal indoor air quality maintenance management using Internet of Things(IoT). Research design, data and methodology: Using real-time sensors to monitor physical factors and environmental air pollutants that affect the comfort of the residential environment, Noise, Vibration, Atmospheric Pressure, Blue Light, Formaldehyde, Hydrogen Sulfide, Illumination, Temperature, Ozone, PM10, Aldehyde, Amine, LVOCs and TVOCs were measured. It were measured every 1 seconds from 4 offices and 4 stores on a small scale from November 2018 to January 2019. Results: The difference between illuminance and blue light for each measuring point was found to depend on lighting time, and the ratio of blue light in total illumination was 0.358 ~ 0.393. Formaldehyde and hydrogen sulphide were found to be higher than those that temporarily attract people in an indoor office space that is constantly active, requiring office air ventilation. The noise was found to be 50dB higher than the office WHO recommendation noise level of 35 ~ 40dB. The most important factors for indoor environmental quality were temperature> humidity> illumination> blue light in turn. Conclusions: Various factors that determine the comfort of indoor living space can be measured with real-time sensors. Further, it is judged that the use of IoT can help maintain indoor air quality comfortably.