• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.472-481
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• 2012

Objectives: This study aims to investigate the AD (allergic diseases: asthma, allergic rhinitis and atopic dermatitis) prevalence among elementary schoolchildren in an industrial city, Ulsan, and identify major environmental risk factors associated with AD prevalence. Methods: Data on the physician-diagnosed prevalence over the past 12 months and potential risk factors of AD were collected through a questionnaire from a 2009-2010 survey of 4,067 schoolchildren living in different urban environments. The logistic regression analysis was performed to assess differences in AD prevalence among the areas and to determine which environmental factors impacted AD. Results: Our survey results showed that the AD prevalence rate ranged between 26.2% and 35.9%. Children living in polluted areas (near industrial and central urban areas) had about a 10% higher prevalence of AD than did those living in coastal or suburban residences. The Chi-Square test demonstrated that this local difference was statistically significant before and after adjustment of major confounders such as parental AD history and parental education. The results of the logistic regression analysis showed a statistically significant association between several environmental factors (ventilation in winter, odor conditions and exposure to traffic smoke, and outdoor $PM_{10}/O_3$ pollution) and the prevalence of AD found by multivariate model after adjusting confounders. Conclusion: These results suggest that local differences in AD prevalence are significantly associated with outdoor environmental factors. Although there are likely to be other risk factors for AD, living in a polluted area and exposure to high levels of air pollutants can contribute to an increased risk of childhood AD.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.41-50
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• 2016

Environmental impact assessment has been implemented for more than 30 years in Korea. During that period, various amendments were carried out about target plan and assessment factors. However, in current environmental impact assessment act, only a few factors has been considered for soil environment assessment. This study analyzes the national and foreign environmental impact assessment guidelines on soil related factors and figures out the problems and implications of Korean environmental impact assessment. In Korea, water quality, topography and geology, hydraulics and hydrology, and soil contamination were analyzed as a soil related factors. The main assessment targets were pollution related factors such as soil pollution levels, amount of rainfall runoff, and non-point sources. However, in the case of foreign guidelines, soil compaction, soil sealing, and soil salinization is being analyzed for evaluating function and quality of soil environment. The revision of soil-related factors are needed for sustainable development of Korea.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.130-139
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• 2018

Objectives: Air pollution is a growing concern in Korea because of transboundary air pollution from mainland China. A panel study was conducted to clarify the effects of air pollution on respiratory symptoms and health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) in outpatients with and without chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Korea. Methods: Patients filled out a questionnaire including self-reported HR-QoL in February and were followed up in May and July. The study was conducted from 2013 to 2015, with different participants each year. Air quality parameters were applied in a generalized estimating equation as independent variables to predict factors affecting HR-QoL. Results: Lower physical fitness scores were associated with Asian sand dust events. Daily activity scores were worse when there were high concentrations of particulate matter (PM) less than $10{\mu}m$ in diameter ($PM_{10}$). Lower social functioning scores were associated with high PM less than $2.5{\mu}m$ in diameter and nitrogen dioxide ($NO_2$) concentrations. High $NO_2$ concentrations also showed a significant association with mental health scores. Weather-related cough was prevalent when $PM_{10}$, $NO_2$, or ozone ($O_3$) concentrations were high, regardless of COPD severity. High $PM_{10}$ concentrations were associated with worsened wheezing, particularly in COPD patients. Conclusions: The results suggest that PM, $NO_2$, and $O_3$ cause respiratory symptoms leading to HR-QoL deterioration. While some adverse effects of air pollution appeared to occur regardless of COPD, others occurred more often and more intensely in COPD patients. The public sector, therefore, needs to consider tailoring air pollution countermeasures to people with different conditions to minimize adverse health effects.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.649-655
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• 2005

Automotive exhaust is suspected to be one of the main reasons of the rapid increase in greenhouse effect gases in ambient air. Although methane emissions are generally orders of magnitude lower than emissions of $CO_{2}$, the global warming potential (GWP) of methane is greater than that of $CO_{2}$. The environmental impact of methane emissions from vehicles is negligible and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. In this study, in order to investigate greenhouse gas emission characteristics from gasoline passenger cars, 20 vehicles were tested on the chassis dynamometer and methane emissions were measured. The emission characteristics by model year, mileage, vehicle speed were discussed. Test mode is CVS-15 mode that have been used to regulate for light-duty vehicle in Korea. It was found that $CH_{4}$ emissions showed higher for cold start, old model year and long mileage than hot start, new model year and short mileage, respectively. These results were compared with IPCC emission factors and the overall our results were anticipated to contribute for domestic greenhouse gas emissions calculation.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.499-512
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• 2010

The purposes of this study were to identify awareness of pollution and attitudes toward eco-friendly clothing according to women's LOHAS lifestyle. Over 60% of women were not aware of severity of environment pollution by clothing wastes and 37.2% kept their not-wearing clothing in dead storage. 26.7% of women disposed not-wearing clothing into clothing collecting box separately and 20.9% sent them to neighbors or friends. 39.4% of women were willing to pay 10% more for eco-friendly clothing and 84.6% were not willing to buy clothing produced by unethical companies. Factors of LOHAS lifestyle were healthy food, environmental protection, family life, healthy clothing, healthy housing, and community service, and were segmented into using leisure group, family centered group, LOHAS group, and LOHAS stagnated group. Using leisure group were university women with low incomes, well aware of environmental pollution by clothing wastes and eco-friendly clothing, kept their not-wearing clothing into dead storage, and low intention to buy clothing produced by unethical companies. Family centered group were women of 30’s with average income and higher educationl, unaware of environmental pollution by clothing wastes and eco-friendly clothing, but low intention to buying them, disposed not-wearing clothing into clothing collecting box. LOHAS group were the over forties home makers with higher income and education, well aware of severity of environmental pollution, sent not-wearing clothing to others or remodeled, intended to buy eco-friendly clothing, and not to buy clothing produced by unethical companies. LOHAS stagnated group were university students, unaware of severity of environmental pollution by clothing wastes and threw not-wearing clothing into trash box, no experience of eco-friendly clothing, could buy clothing produced by unethical companies if needed.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.157-163
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• 2020

Long-term exposure to environmental pollutants can impair the human skin's barrier function and promote skin aging mechanisms. The visible consequences of these effects are dryness, wrinkles, black spots and worsening skin sensitivity. As awareness of the effects of environmental stressors on the skin has recently increased, consumers' demand for cosmetics that can provide anti-pollution effects is increasing. In this study, the possibility of anti-pollution cosmetic material was investigated by measuring the inhibitory effect of free radicals using a mixture of Nypa fruticans Wurmb (NF), Saussurea neoserrata (SN), Codium fragile (CF) and Enteromorpha compressa (EC), which has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects against irritation caused by dust. Combining the experimental results of a mixture of NF, SN, CF and EC by induction of fine dust stimulation, inhibition of inflammatory factors (PGE₂) and intracellular free radicals (ROS) by inhibiting effects were significant, indicating the possibility of use as anti-pollution cosmetics. The most plants used as sources of anti-pollution cosmetic ingredients contain antioxidants as active substances. In our highly industrialized and chemically polluted world, it is not surprising that most plants used as sources of anti-pollution cosmetic ingredients contain antioxidants as active substances. Considering our results, it can be suggested that this anti-pollutant consisting of NF, SN, CF and EC may be a good ingredient for skincare products for the cosmetic industry due to their antioxidant properties, which may especially alter skin aging.

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

• Proceedings of the Korea Air Pollution Research Association Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.91-92
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the Korea Air Pollution Research Association Conference
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• 2008.04a
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• pp.496-497
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• 2008

• Proceedings of the Korea Air Pollution Research Association Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.117-118
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• 2004