• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2016

Objectives: Personal exposure to air pollution is affected by contact over time and by location. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between personal exposure to $PM_{2.5}$ and the time-activity patterns of the elderly in urban and rural areas. Methods: A total of 44 elderly participants were recruited for a 24-hour $PM_{2.5}$ personal exposure measurement. Twenty-four were from Seoul (urban area) and 20 were from Asan (rural area). Energy expenditure and spatiotemporal positioning were monitored through $PM_{2.5}$ measurement. Spearman correlation analysis was conducted to determine the relationship between $PM_{2.5}$ and time-activity pattern. Results: Daily average $PM_{2.5}$ personal exposures were $19.1{\pm}9.7{\mu}g/m^3$ in Seoul and $29.1{\pm}16.9{\mu}g/m^3$ in Asan. Although outdoor exposure was higher in Seoul than in Asan, residential indoor exposure was higher in Asan than in Seoul. Higher $PM_{2.5}$ personal exposure in Asan could be explained by longer time in residential indoor environments and higher indoor $PM_{2.5}$ concentrations. Seoul elderly had higher energy expenditure, which may be due to the use of mass transportation. Conclusion: Personal exposure to $PM_{2.5}$ was higher among Asan elderly than Seoul elderly because of high residential indoor concentrations and longer residential time. Lack of energy spent and higher personal exposure to $PM_{2.5}$ might have led to higher risk among the Asan elderly.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.659-670
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• 1997

Vehicle occupant exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) has been a subject of concern In recent years because of higher levels of VOCs Inside vehicles as compared to the surrounding ambient atmosphere and because of the toxicity of VOCs. The effectiveness of two commercial ACDs for the removal of selected VOCs in the interior of automobiles was evaluated on 115 commutes throegh urban (Taegu) commutes by two cars and 9 idles. The idling and commuting studios conducted under four different driving conditions showed that the ho commercial ACDs were not effective for the removal of VOCs in the interior of vehicles. The concentrations of all target VOCs except benzene were significantly higher (p<0.05) in the interior of older car than of newer cu. The mean levels of benzene and toluene measured in thins study were well excess of earlier other studios In the United States, besides Los Angeles with which was comparable. It was reported that the in-vehicle exposure to benzene and corresponding upper-bound cancel risk were about 8 times higher than those for outdoor environment, while they were about half of those from Indoor environment.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.719-725
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• 2006

Since low-floor apartments ate vertically closer to patting lots and roadways, it is hypothesized that residents in low-floor apartments may be exposed to elevated ambient levels of motet vehicle emissions compared to residents in high-floor apartments. The present study examined this hypothesis by measuring two motor vehicle source-related pollutants(CO and PM10) in ambient air of high-rise apartment buildings within the boundary of industrial complexes according to atmospheric stability The ambient air concentrations of CO and PM10 were higher for low-floor apartments than for high-floor apartments, regardless of atmospheric stability, The median concentration ratio of the low-floor air to high-floor alt ranged from 1.3 to 2.0, depending upon atmospheric stabilities, seasons and compounds. Moreover, the CO and PM10 concentrations were significantly higher in the winter and in the summer, regardless of the Hoot height. Atmospheric stability also was suggested to be important for the residents' exposure of high-rise apartment buildings to both CO and PM10. The median ratios of surface inversion air to non-surface inversion air ranged from 1.2 to 1.7 and from 1.0 to 1.6 lot PM10 and CO, respectively, depending upon seasons. Conclusively, these parameters(apartment floor height, season, and atmospheric stability) should be considered when evaluating the exposure of residents, living in high-rise apartment buildings, to CO and PM10. Meanwhile, the median PMl0 outdoor concentrations were close to or higher than the Korean annual standards for PM10, and the maximum PM10 concentrations substantially exceeded the Korean PM10 standard, thus suggesting the need for a management strategy for ambient PM 10. Neither the median nor the maximum outdoor CO concentrations, however, were higher than the Korean CO standard.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.10-19
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• 2023

Fall accidents account for the highest accident fatality rate in the construction industry. In addition, wearing and using a safety belt is the most realistic and important preventive measure to reduce fall accidents. Safety belts are protective devices worn by individual workers; they prevent workers from falling and allow for time to rescue the workers. However, the legal standards for safety belts only stipulate the materials, specifications, and strength of parts; there is no provision for an auxiliary rope fixing method to fix the safety belts safely. Due to this reason, workers in industrial sites arbitrarily fix and use the auxiliary rope. Currently, the most used method to fix the auxiliary rope is to tie a knot, which significantly lowers the strength of the material compared to the standard strength. Moreover, many construction sites are located outdoors, so the strength of the materials used in the auxiliary rope is inevitably reduced due to various external environmental conditions. Therefore, to solve this problem, this study was conducted to evaluate the strength of the material of the auxiliary rope for fixing the safety belt and the knot-tying method for the auxiliary rope. In this study, the exposure conditions for the effects of temperature and moisture were set to reflect the characteristics of the construction industry. The results of this study are expected to be used for standards establishment and the safe use of the auxiliary rope for safety belts in actual field applications.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.10
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• pp.547-560
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• 2015

The outdoor recreation fever that is drastically increasing in Korea could be the result of the interaction between mass media and popular culture as well as increase of leisure time and disposable income. Thus, the purpose of this study is to specify how the exposure of outdoor recreation through mass media influences potential outdoor recreationists. In order to specify this decision-making process, playfulness, which is the intrinsic characteristic of adults' fun and play, was added to the theory of planned behavior, which has high explanation power regarding human behavior. As a result of the study, it turned out that playfulness significantly influences attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control, and that attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control also significantly influence behavioral intention. These results specify that playfulness is a factor that has a great effect on outdoor recreation that seeks deviant behavior.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.15 no.10
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• pp.913-918
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• 2006

Despite the wide distribution of air pollutants, the concentrations of indoor air pollutants may be the dominant risk factor in personal exposure due to the fact that most people spend an average of 80% of their time in enclosed buildings. Researches for improvement of indoor air quality have been developed such as installation of air cleaning device, ventilation system, titanium dioxide$(TiO_2)$ coating and so on. However, it is difficult to evaluate the magnitude of improvement of indoor air quality in field study because indoor air quality can be affected by source generation, outdoor air level, ventilation, decay by reaction, temperature, humidity, mixing condition and so on. In this study, evaluation of reduction of formaldehyde and nitrogen dioxide emission rate in indoor environments by $TiO_2$ coating material was carried out using mass balance model in indoor environment. we proposed the evaluation method of magnitude of improvement in indoor air quality, considering outdoor level and ventilation. Since simple indoor concentration measurements could not properly evaluate the indoor air quality, outdoor level and ventilation should be considered when evaluate the indoor net quality.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.47 no.10
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• pp.652-659
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• 2009

Many ancient and historical artifacts were made by copper and its alloys. In the case of outdoor exposure artifacts, the surface could be suffered from corrosion and tarnish by the reaction with its environment. In order to preserve the artifacts, surface treatment would be needed and BTA coating has been usually applied to tin-bronze. This paper dealt with the evaluation of the properties of BTA coated film using a linear polarization method and AC impedance measurement. On the base of corrosion rate and film resistance for the specimen formed by coating process, optimum coating conditions are as follows; 3 cycles brushing or 3 cycles spraying coatings for natural dried process and 1 cycle brushing coating or 5 cycles spraying coating for hot-air dried process.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.18-25
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• 2019

The cracks occurred during service life of concrete structure should be considered in durability design, because of the concrete's material property which is weak in tensile strength. In this study, the fly ash concrete mixtures considering 2 levels of strength is designed and outdoor exposure tests are conducted for those concrete specimens. The exposure environment is set to a splash zone, and in order to evaluate the effect of crack width on the behavior of chloride diffusion, the crack width of up to 1.0 mm is generated at intervals of 0.1 mm at each concrete mixture. After that, apparent chloride diffusion coefficient and surface chloride contents are deducted considering 3 levels of exposure periods(180 days, 365 days, 730 days). The diffusion coefficients of two types of mixture increase with the increase of crack width, and the diffusion coefficients decrease with the increase of exposure periods. In addition, the effect of the crack width on the diffusion coefficient is reduced as the exposure periods increase, which is attributed to the extra hydrate by chloride ion reducing the diffusivity of concrete. The behavior of the surface chloride contents does not significantly change by the increase in crack width, compared to the behavior of apparent chloride diffusion coefficient. Also, In the high strength FA concrete mixture, the surface chloride contents are 78.9 % ~ 90.7 % than the normal FA strength concrete mixture. Thus, Surface chloride contents have correlation with the strength of concrete.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.646-657
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• 2019

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to suggest methods to investigate continuous monitoring of concentration levels and assess the exposure of individuals considering the actual time activity of residents for formaldehyde and particulate matter (PM₁₀, PM_2.5) in the indoor and outdoor air of a house, assess the health risks of children and adults based on the results of the exposure assessment, and provide basic data on studies for assessing exposure and health risks in Korea in the future. Methods: The concentration levels of formaldehyde and particulate matter were measured in a family home in Gyeonggi-do Province from April 25 to July 31, 2019, using electrochemical sensors (formaldehyde) and light scattering sensors (PM₁₀, PM_2.5). Risk assessment by the duration of exposure by time activity was performed by dividing between weekdays and weekends, and indoors and outdoors. Results: The greatest level of carcinogenic risk from inhaling formaldehyde was indoors during the weekdays for both children and adults. For children, the risk was at 7.5 per approximately 10,000 people, and for adults, the risk was at 4.1 per approximately 10,000 people. PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 also showed the greatest values indoors during the weekdays, with children at 1.7 people and 1.4 per approximately 100 people, respectively, and adults at 8.2 per approximately 1,000 and 1.8 per approximately 100 people, respectively. Conclusions: The risks of formaldehyde, PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 were shown to be high indoors. Therefore, consideration of exposure assesment for each indoor pollutant and management of indoor air quality is necessary.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.6-15
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• 2024

Background: People's activities have been restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These changes in activity patterns may lead to a decrease in fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) concentrations. Additionally, the level of population exposure to PM_2.5 may be changed. Objectives: This study aimed to analyze the impact of population movement and meteorological factors on the distribution of PM_2.5 concentrations before and after the outbreak of COVID-19. Methods: The study area was Guro-gu in Seoul. The research period was selected as January to March 2020, a period of significant population movement changes caused by COVID-19. The evaluation of the dynamic population was conducted by calculating the absolute difference in population numbers between consecutive hours and comparing them to determine the daily average. Ambient PM_2.5 concentrations were estimated for each grid using ordinary kriging in Python. For the population exposure assessment, the population-weighted average concentration was calculated by determining the indoor to outdoor population for each grid and applying the indoor to outdoor ratio to the ambient PM_2.5 concentration. To assess the factors influencing changes in the ambient PM_2.5 concentration, a statistical analysis was conducted, incorporating population mobility and meteorological factors. Results: Through statistical analysis, the correlation between ambient PM_2.5 concentration and population movement was positive on both weekends and weekdays (r=0.71, r=0.266). The results confirmed that most of the relationships were positive, suggesting that a decrease in human activity can lead to a decrease in PM_2.5 concentrations. In addition, when population-weighted concentration averages were calculated and the exposure level of the population group was compared before and after the COVID-19 outbreak, the proportion of people exceeding the air quality standard decreased by approximately 15.5%. Conclusions: Human activities can impact ambient concentrations of PM_2.5, potentially altering the levels of PM_2.5 exposure in the population.