• KIEAE Journal
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.51-57
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• 2005

In this study, time-dependent concentration variations of VOCs from fixed furniture and Ondol floor widely used as finishing material of the floor were measured, and prediction equations were developed based on the measured results. VOCs were measured and analyzed based on EPA TO-17 and NIOSH 1500, 1501 method respectively, and GC/FID were used for the analysis of VOCs concentration. Measurements were carried out for 10 days after the installation of furniture and for 40 days after the installation of the floor in the residence constructed more than 10 years ago. In both case of floor and furniture installation, time-dependent concentration decay of VOCs can be properly converted into logarithmic scale. Especially in case of furniture, toluene showed the highest concentration and took longest time to decay. As a result of the prediction of VOCs concentration decay under different air change rate using estimated equations, concentration decay rate of indoor VOCs increased rapidly as the air change rate also increased.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.517-525
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• 2009

We measured ambient concentrations of hazardous air pollutants such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and aldehydes in residential areas nearby small and medium scale shipbuilding companies. The VOC concentrations were higher during the normal operation periods than vacation at which almost all operations were shutdown. Concentrations of VOCs was higher, as the sampling site was nearer from shipbuilding companies. The major components of VOCs were m,p-xylene, ethylbenzene, o-xylene, toluene, and 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene which had been found as major VOC compounds emitted from painting processes of shipbuilding in the previous studies. The major components of aldehydes analyzed were benzaldehyde, acrolein, formaldehyde, and acetaldehyde. The concentration of aldehydes was highest at the furthest sampling point from shipbuilding companies because the formation of aldehyde compounds could be occurred by the secondary chemical reactions of VOCs. The results of this study shows a proper counterplan need to be established for the reduction of hazardous air pollutants emitted from small and medium scale shipping companies.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.117-126
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• 2005

This study was executed to know the best matrix of photochemical ozone reduction in the metropolitan area. For this object, we used the OZIPR(Ozone Isopleth Plotting Package for Research) model for comparing the effectiveness of VOCs and NOx amount variation about the ozone creation. Among the various ozone reduction scenarios, 50% reduction of VOCs from organic solvent and road traffic respectively was the best matrix for ozone reduction. Although it needs more accurate assessment and confirmation of VOCs and NOx emission amount data, according to existing data, the control of VOCs is the best way for photochemical ozone reduction in Seoul.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.503-511
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• 2009

VOC mixture was fed to a trickle bed air biofilter (TBAB) with step-change in influent mixture concentrations from 50 ppmv to 1,000 ppmv, corresponding to loadings of $5.7\;g/m^3/hr$ to $114.1\;g/m^3/hr$. VOC mixture was an equimolar ratio of two aromatic VOCs, i.e., toluene and styrene, and two oxygenated VOCs, i.e., methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) and methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK). The TBAB system employed backwashing as biomass control. The experimental results showed that a critical loading rate for VOC mixture removal was determined to be about $60\;g/m^3/hr$, and critical loading rates for individual VOCs in the mixture were different. Specifically, toluene content in the mixture played a major role in the biofilter overall performance. As VOC mixture was fed beyond the critical loading rate, reacclimation of the biofilter to reach the 99% removal efficiency following backwashing was delayed, which was a critical factor in the biofilter performance. In the mass balance analysis, 63.8% of the carbon equivalent in VOCs removal was used for $CO_2$ production during the experimental runs. The 82.6% nitrogen utilized in the biofilter was contributed to microbial cell synthesis. The obtained results were compared against consistently high efficient performance of TBAB for VOC mixture by employing backwashing as biomass control.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.35-45
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• 2008

In order to recommend criteria for the administration law on indoor air quality, this study was conducted to examine the distribution and the concentration of indoor air pollutants ($PM_{10},\;CO_2$, CO, HCHO, TBC, $NO_2$, Rn, VOCs, asbestos, $O_3$) in public facilities in the Chung-Nam area. The concentrations of indoor air pollutants were obtained from sixty seven public facilities such as a cinema, an office, a restaurant, a theater and an academy. This study was performed from August to December, 2005. The results of this study showed that the concentrations of indoor air pollutants such as $PM_{10},\;CO_2$, CO, HCHO, TBC, Rn and $O_3$ were less than the recommended limits. However, the average concentration of VOCs was $521.73{\mu}g/m^3$ (GM : $221.69{\mu}g/m^3$), which was higher than the recommended limit of $400{\mu}g/m^3$. Moreover, the average concentration of $NO_2$ was 345.66ppb (GM : 69.95ppb), which was higher than the recommended limit of 50 ppb. The correlation between the concentrations of indoor air pollutants and the type of facilities with respect to $CO_2$, TBC and Rn was statistically low (p<0.05). However, the correlation was high in terms of the CO and $O_3$ concentrations (p<0.01). No relationship between the indoor air pollutants and the type of facilities was observed for $PM_{10}$, VOCs and $NO_2$. The year of construction was compared to the concentrations of indoor air pollutants. Specifically, when the construction date was less than 3 years, the HCHO, VOCs and TBC concentrations were $44.75{\mu}g/m^3,\;555.07{\mu}g/m^3$ and $337.79CFU/m^3$, respectively. These concentrations were $120{\mu}g/m^3$ and $211.84CFU/m^3$ higher for VOCs and TBC than the concentrations obtained from the facilities more than 3 years. However, the concentration of HCHO was similar between the facilities older and younger than 3 years of age. Year, temperature, humidity and indoor air pollutant correlation analyses showed that temperature and humidity, temperature and TBC, temperature and $O_3,\;PM_{10}$ and $NO_2$, HCHO and VOCs, $CO_2$ and Rn had positive relationships. However temperature and Rn, humidity and $CO_2,\;CO_2$ and $O_3,\;O_3$ and Rn had negative relationships. Accordingly, it will be necessary to manage the factors affecting indoor air quality so that the residents can have a more comfortable and healthier living environment. Ultimately, the results of this study are expected to be utilized as baseline data.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.393-405
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• 2018

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are representative air pollutants due to their detrimental effects on human health and their role in formation of secondary organic aerosols. Assessments and monitoring programs of VOCs using periodic grab sampling like Tedlar bags, canisters, and sorbent traps provide limited information, often with delay times of days or weeks. Selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS) is an emerging analytical technique for the real-time quantification of VOCs in air. It relies on chemical ionization of the VOCs molecules in air introduced into helium carrier gas using $H_3O^+$, $NO^+$, and $O_2{^+}$ precursor ions. Real-time monitoring method of 60 VOCs in the ambient air was developed using TO-15 standard gas mixture. Calibration curves, method detection limit, and quantitation reproducibility of the target compounds were tested. Dynamic dilution system was used to dilute standard gas from 0.174 ppbv to 100 ppbv, where calibration curves showed good linearity with $r^2$> 0.95 in all target analytes. Limit of detection (LOD) all compounds were sub ppbv, and some halogenated compounds showed pptv levels. Seven consecutive analyses of target compounds showed good repeatability with relative standard deviation of less than 10%. One day monitoring of VOCs in ambient air was conducted in Geoje. Average concentration of target VOCs in Geoje were relatively lower than other regions, among which formaldehyde showed the highest concentration ($15.4{\pm}5.78ppbv$). SIFT-MS provided good temporal resolution data (1 data per 3.2 minute), which can be used for identifying ephemeral short-term event. It is expected that SIFT-MS will be a versatile monitoring platform for VOCs in ambient air.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.59-69
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• 2017

Objectives: The objective of this study is to evaluate the exposure of VOCs and effects of the chemicals on the nail technicians whose works in a nail shop. Methods: For four month from May to August in 2016, we measured twenty-two kinds of VOCs in ten nail shops and carried out health examinations on thirty-four workers in there. Results: The TVOC concentration in indoor air of nail shops is $0.487mg/m^3$ at a minimum and $33.236mg/m^3$ at a maximum where it consists of 70.5% of Ketones, 25.4% of Alcohols, 2.6% of Esters, 0.8% of Aldehydes and 0.7% of Aromatics. The VOCs concentration during nail art works shows an increase in average ratio 1.8 compared to the concentration of indoor air quality and also the concentration of Isopropanol rose with 3.2 of the highest ratio. The results of Spearman correlation between TVOC concentration in indoor air and environmental factor was like that has significance level of correlation(${\rho}$<0.05, r=0.682) in case of number of customers per day, but the other factors were not meaningful in correlation. Correlation between VOCs and medical check-up items was like that has positive significance level(${\rho}$<0.01, r=0.638) between isopropanol and GPT, but the others have not meaningful. The exposure level of VOCs was not exceed the criteria exposure level 1 of working environment measuring method which announced by labor ministry in all ten nail shop indoor air quality. Conclusions: In this study although it was not significant correlation between harmful substances and medical check-up items in the nail shop indoor air quality, it is necessary to do more ventilation and to install exhaust facilities because of existing high VOCs concentration in the nail shop indoor air.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.175-182
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• 2013

Lately, customers think highly of the emotional satisfaction and as a result, issues on odor are matters of concern. The cases are odor of interior material and air-conditioner of vehicles. In particualar, with respect to the odor of air-conditioner, customers strongly claimed defects with provocative comments : "It smells like something rotten," "It smells like a foot odor," "It stinks like a rag." Generally, it is known that mold of evaporator core in the air-conditioning system decays and this produce VOCs which causes the odor to occur. In this study, partial least squares regression model is applied to predict the strength of the odor and select of important VOCs which affect car air conditioning smell. The PLS method is basically a particular multilinear regression algorithm which can handle correlated inputs and limited data. The number of latent variable is determined by the point which is stabilized mean absolute deviations of VOCs data. Also multiple linear regression is carried out to confirm the validity of PLS method.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.182-187
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• 2008

The environmental significance of indoor air quality is gaining more attention. Especially, the contamination of indoor air by volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) has become a serious environmental concern. We investigated the VOCs emissions from some interior materials used in the conventional railway passenger cabin. The seat cover and the flooring of cabins were used as testing materials, and they were put in a clean environmental chamber. The temperature and relative humidity was kept at $25{\pm}1^{\circ}C$ and $50{\pm}5%$, respectively. It was found that these interior materials emitted significant amount of VOCs under constantly ventilated condition. The flooring emitted more halogenated VOCs than the seat cover, because it is made of PVC, which contains many chlorine atoms. However, the emission gradually decreased over time. Because the VOCs emission from interior materials may threaten the health of passengers in the cabin, interior materials emitting less VOCs should be used.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.12 no.9
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• pp.967-976
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• 2003

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are present in essentially all natural and synthetic materials from petrol to flowers. In this study, indoor and outdoor VOCs concentrations of houses, offices and internet-cafes were measured and compared simultaneously with personal exposures of each 50 participants in Asan and Seoul, respectively. Also, factors that influence personal VOCs exposure were statistically analyzed using questionnaires in relation to house characteristics, time activities, and health effects. All VOCs concentrations were measured by OVM passive samplers (3M) and analyzed with GC/MS. Target pollutants among VOCs were Toluene, o-Xylene, m/p-Xylene, Ethylbenzene, MIBK, n-Octane, Styrene, Trichloroethylene, and 1,2-Dichlorobenzene. Indoor and outdoor VOCs concentrations measured in Seoul were significantly higher than those in Asan except Ethylbenzene. Residential indoor/outdoor (I/O) ratios for all target compounds ranged from 0.94 to 1.51 and I/O ratios of Asan were a little higher than those of Seoul. Relationship between personal VOCs exposure, and indoor and outdoor VOCs concentrations suggested that time-activity pattern could affect the high exposure to air pollutant. Factors that influence indoor VOCs level and personal exposure with regard to house characteristics in houses were building age, inside smoking and house type. In addition insecticide and cosmetics interestingly affected the VOCs personal exposure. Higher exposure to VOCs might be caused to be exciting increase and memory reduction, considering the relationship between measured VOCs concentrations and questionnaire (p<0.05).