• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.394-407
• /
• 2016

The spatial air pollution distribution of the Ulsan metropolitan region (UMR) was analyzed using monitoring data and high-resolution numerical simulations. A three-year (2011~2014) analysis for the average concentrations from the 13 air quality monitoring sites in the UMR showed that $SO_2$ and $PM_{10}$ levels in industrial regions were much higher than those in other regions, whereas spatial differences of $NO_2$ and CO concentrations were not significant. In particular, elevated $O_3$ concentrations were clearly found at urban sites near petrochemical complex area. Results from high-resolution simulations by CMAQ model performed for four months of 2012 showed large spatial variations in grid-average pollutant concentrations between industrial areas and other areas in the UMR, which displayed significant changes with wind pattern by season. It was noted that the increases of $SO_2$ and $PM_{10}$ levels were limited in costal industrial areas or over the area nearby the sea in all seasons. Modeled $O_3$ concentrations were quite low in industrial areas and main urban roads with large $NO_x$ emissions. However, the model presented that all pollutant concentrations were significantly increased in the urban residential areas near the industrial complexes in summer season with increase of southerly wind.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.30 no.5
• /
• pp.504-509
• /
• 2014

Twenty-five stations of the urban monitoring network in Seoul were assessed with a focus on surveillance function of the exceedances of 8-hour ozone and 24-hour $PM_{10}$ standards. The two standards were selected because their attainment rates were particularly low. Two hierarchical cluster analyses were performed to group stations with similar atmospheric environments-one using daily highest 8-hour [$O_3+NO_2$], 8-hour $O_3$ concentrations plus corresponding 8-hour $NO_2$ concentrations considering the interconversion of $O_3$ and $NO_2$, and the other using 24-hour $PM_{10}$ concentrations. An index to measure higher concentration and exceedances of the standards was introduced. Within a cluster, sufficiently high score was assigned to the trends station or the station with higher index. Scores for $O_3+NO_2$ and $PM_{10}$ of a given station were added and ranked in the descending order to determine the relative importance.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.34 no.1
• /
• pp.38-55
• /
• 2018

Hourly measurements of $PM_{2.5}$ mass, organic and elemental carbon (OC and EC), and water-soluble ionic species were made at the air quality intensive monitoring stations in Baengryeongdo (BR) and Seoul (SL) during the winter (December 01~31, 2013) and summer (July 10~23, 2014) periods, to investigate the increase of $PM_{2.5}$ and secondary ionic species and the reasons leading to their increase during the two seasons. During winter, $PM_{2.5}$ and its major chemical species concentrations were higher at SL than at BR. Contribution of organic mass to $PM_{2.5}$ was approximately 1.7 times higher at BR than at SL, but the $NO_3{^-}$ contribution was two times higher at SL. Total concentration of secondary ionic species ($SO{_4}^{2-}$, $NO_3{^-}$, and $NH_4{^+}$) at BR and SL sites accounted for 29.1 and 40.1% of $PM_{2.5}$, respectively. However, during summer, no significant difference in chemical composition of $PM_{2.5}$ was found between the two sites with the exception of $SO{_4}^{2-}$. Total concentration of the secondary ionic species constituted on average 43.9% of $PM_{2.5}$ at BR and 53.0% at SL. A noticeable difference in chemical composition between the two sites during summer was attributed to $SO{_4}^{2-}$, with approximately twofold concentration and 10% higher contribution in SL. Low wind speed and high relative humidity were important factors in secondary formation of water-soluble ionic species during winter at SL, resulting in $PM_{2.5}$ increase. While the secondary formation during summer was attributed to strong photochemical processes in daytime and high relative humidity in nighttime hours. The increase of $PM_{2.5}$ and its secondary ionic species during the winter haze pollution period at SL was mainly caused either by long-range transport (LTP) from the eastern Chinese regions, or by local pollution. However, the increased $SO{_4}^{2-}$ and $NO_3{^-}$ during summer at SL were mainly caused by LTP, photochemical processes in daytime hours, and heterogeneous processes in nighttime hours.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.36 no.6_3
• /
• pp.1635-1641
• /
• 2020

Air pollution is one of the most severe threats to society globally due to the rapid expansion of urbanization and industrialization. Particularly, particulate matter (PM) pollution was recently designated as a social disaster by the Korean government because of increases in public concerns and the accumulation of scientific evidence that links high levels of PM2.5 (PM smaller than 2.5 ㎛ in diameter) to a long list of adverse health effects. Atmospheric PM concentrations can also affect the indoor PM levels to which people are exposed most of the time. Thus, understanding the characteristics of indoor and ambient PM pollution based on measurements, model simulations, risk assessments, and management technologies is inevitable in establishing effective policies to mitigate social, economic, and health costs incurred by PM pollution. In this special issue, we introduce several interesting studies concerning indoor and outdoor PM from the perspective of monitoring, assessment, and management being conducted by i-SEED (School of Integrated Science for Sustainable Earth & Environmental Disaster at Pukyong National University) and SPMC (School Particulate Matter Center for Energy and Environmental Harmonization). We expect that this special issue can improve our understanding of the current and future of indoor and outdoor PM pollution, integrating the results from interdisciplinary research groups from various academic fields.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.34 no.2
• /
• pp.356-365
• /
• 2018

While social networks have become very popular and powerful way of connecting people and sharing new information, they also effectively spread wrong or biased information to the public. We examine the so-called "Shandong peninsular rumor" that claims Chinese government is responsible for the increased air pollution in South Korea and Japan, by moving pollution-causing industries near Beijing to the Shandong peninsular which is close to South Korea. We demonstrate that the amounts of $NO_x$ and $SO_2$ emissions inferred by space-borne monitoring and regional air quality models show clear declining trends in past several years. We do not have any evidences to support the relation of Shandong peninsular emissions change to South Korean air quality.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.48 no.3
• /
• pp.151-169
• /
• 2015

Objectives: The deleterious effects of air pollution on various health outcomes have been demonstrated. However, few studies have examined the effects of air pollution on liver enzyme levels. Methods: Blood samples were drawn up to three times between 2008 and 2010 from 545 elderly individuals who regularly visited a community welfare center in Seoul, Korea. Data regarding ambient air pollutants (particulate matter ${\leq}2.5{\mu}m$ [$PM_{2.5}$], nitrogen dioxide [$NO_2$], ozone [$O_3$], carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide) from monitoring stations were used to estimate air pollution exposure. The effects of the air pollutants on the concentrations of three liver enzymes (aspartate aminotransferase [AST], alanine aminotransferase [ALT], and ${\gamma}$-glutamyltranspeptidase [${\gamma}$-GTP)]) were evaluated using generalized additive and linear mixed models. Results: Interquartile range increases in the concentrations of the pollutants showed significant associations of $PM_{2.5}$ with AST (3.0% increase, p=0.0052), ALT (3.2% increase, p=0.0313), and ${\gamma}$-GTP (5.0% increase, p=0.0051) levels; $NO_2$ with AST (3.5% increase, p=0.0060) and ALT (3.8% increase, p=0.0179) levels; and $O_3$ with ${\gamma}$-GTP (5.3% increase, p=0.0324) levels. Significant modification of these effects by exercise and alcohol consumption was found (p for interaction <0.05). The effects of air pollutants were greater in non-exercisers and heavy drinkers. Conclusions: Short-term exposure to air pollutants such as $PM_{2.5}$, $NO_2$, and $O_3$ is associated with increased liver enzyme levels in the elderly. These adverse effects can be reduced by exercising regularly and abstinence from alcohol.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.19 no.6
• /
• pp.647-661
• /
• 2003

For continuous monitoring of atmospheric visibility in the city of Kwanaju, Korea, a transmissometer system consisting of a transmitter and a receiver was installed at a distance of 1.91 km across the downtown Kwanaju. At the transmitter site an integrating nephelometer and an aethalometer were also installed to measure the scattering and absorption coefficients of the atmosphere, respectively. At the receiver site. an URG PM$_{2.5}$ cyclone sampler and an URG-VAPS (Versatile Air Pollutant Sampler) with three filter packs and two denuders were used to collect both PM$_{2.5}$ and PM$_{10}$ samples at a 2-hour or 12-hour sampling interval for aerosol chemical analysis. Sulfate, organic mass by carbon (OMC), nitrate, elemental carbon (EC) components of fine aerosol were the major contributors to visibility impairment. Diurnal variation of visibility during best-case days showed rapid improvement in the morning hours, while it was delayed until afternoon during the worst-case days. Aerosol mass concentration of each aerosol component for the worst-case was calculated to be 11.2 times larger than the best-case for (NH$_4$)$_2$SO$_4$(NHSO), 19.0 times for NH$_4$NO$_3$ (NHNO), 2.2 times for OMC, respectively. Also result shows that elemental carbon and fine soil (FS) were 3.7 and 2.2 times more than those of best-case. respectively- Sum of total contributions of wet NHSO and NHNO to light extinction was calculated to be 301 Mm$^{-1}$ for the worst-case. However, sum of contributions by dry NHSO and NHNO was calculated to be 123 Mm$^{-1}$ for the best case. Mass extinction efficiencies of fine and coarse particles were calculated to be 5.8$\pm$0.3 $m^2$/g and 1.8$\pm$0.1 $m^2$/g, respectively.ely.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.34 no.4
• /
• pp.542-553
• /
• 2018

Since many previous studies reported the health effect of air pollution and indicated traffic as a major pollution source, significant policy efforts have been made to control traffic to reduce air pollution. However, there have been few studies that evaluated such policy implementation. In Seoul, Korea, the exclusive median bus lane system was implemented in 2004, and the metropolitan government applied air pollution reduction policies such as conversion of diesel buses to compressed natural gas buses and installation of emission control devices. This paper aimed to investigate the impact of the exclusive median bus lane system on air pollution reduction. Using hourly concentrations of particulate matter ($PM_{10}$) and nitrogen dioxide ($NO_2$) measured at 131 regulatory monitoring sites in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do for 2001-2014, we calculated annual and daily average concentrations at each site. We assessed the impact of the policy using differences-in-differences analysis by annual and daily average models after adjusting for geographic and/or meteorological variables. This method divides population into treatment and control groups with and without policy application, and compares the difference between the two time periods before and after the policy implementation in the treatment group with the difference in the control group. We classified all monitoring sites into treatment and control groups using two definitions: 1) Seoul vs. Gyeonggi-do; 2) within vs. outside 300 meters from the median bus lane. Pre- and post-policy periods were defined as 2001-2005 and 2006-2014, and 2004 and 2014 in the annual and daily models, respectively. The decrease in $PM_{10}$ concentrations between the two periods across monitoring sites in the treatment group was larger by $1.73-5.88{\mu}g/m^3$ than in the control group. $NO_2$ also showed the decrease without statistical significance. Our findings suggest that an efficient public transport policy combined with pollution abatement policies can contribute to reduction in air pollution.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.353-368
• /
• 2013

All Koreans had suffered heavily from municipal and industrial air pollution problems since 1960's to 1980's. However the levels of $SO_2$, CO, and Pb have been dramatically decreased since 1990's due to various air pollutants' reduction policies under the provisions of the 1978 Environmental Preservation Act and the 1990 Air Quality Preservation Act such as increasing the supply of low-sulfur fuel, the use of cleaner fuel, no use of solid fuel, and so on. Even though the national ambient air quality standard has been strengthened to protect public health and welfare, the levels of $NO_2$, $O_3$, and $PM_{10}$ frequently exceed the corresponding standards; for example, only 4 stations (1.7%) out of 239 nationwide monitoring stations satisfied the 24-hr based PM10 standard in 2011. Moreover, upto the present time, since there are serious underlying policies of economism and growth-first which can not be solely solved by the environmental laws, it is difficult to root out undesirable social evils such as public indifference, passive academic activities, complacent government bureaucracy, insufficient social responsibility of enterprise, and radical activities of environmental groups. The paper initially reviewed air pollution history of Korea with surveying various environmental factors affecting in/out-door air pollution in the past Korea. Further this study extensively investigated legal and political changes on air pollution control and management for the last 50 years, and then intensively discussed the present environment-related laws and policies unreasonably enforced in Korea. It is necessary to practically revise many outdated legal policies based on health-oriented thinking and on our current economic levels as well.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.190-204
• /
• 2003

The PM (particulate matter) concentration data sets exceeding the Daily Air Quality Guidance Levels (i.e., established by the Korean Ministry of Environment) were selected from 31 air qality monitoring stations in Seoul from 1990 to 2000. (For reference, the 24hr environmental standard values of PM$_{10}$ and TSP are 150 and 300${\mu}$g/m$^{3}$, respectively.) When the data sets were compared between land use types, both PM fractions were exceeded most frequently in residential areas. However, the highest TSP concentration was measured at industrial areas (351.0${\pm}$35.9${\mu}$g m$^{3}$), while the highest PM$_{10}$ concentration was measured in residential areas (182.9${\pm}$42.4${\mu}$g m$^{3}$). When the temporal distribution patterns of the exceedance data sets were compared to those measured routinely (without any discrimination based on exceedance criteria), large differences were present. It was demonstrated that the occurrences of exceedance data sets increased rather significantly in recent years.