• 한국가구학회지
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• 제22권1호
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• pp.13-17
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• 2011

Recently, interest in indoor air quality is increasing. Especially, radon radioactivity among the indoor air is a well-known risk factor for lung cancer because of ionizing radiation in the form of ${\alpha}$-particles. This study was carried out to investigate effect of black charcoal and activated carbon for reduction of radon radiation that emitted from building materials. Black charcoal and activated carbon were used as a barrier which was against the infiltration of radon. The source of radon was gypsum board. Two types of charcoal barrier were powder- and board-type with 5 mm, 10 mm thickness respectively. The method for this determination is evaluated radon concentration in chamber. The measurements were performed with radon detector, SARAD3120. Results of this study are as following: Black charcoal and activated carbon confirmed the highly efficient barrier. Radon concentration was reduced from 72% to 85% as compared the control chamber. Radon reduction capability, however, was no difference as barrier's types. Results obtained in ventilation condition, radon concentration shows 5.93 pCi/L on average in the closed condition and shows 2.69 pCi/L in the opened condition.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국지구물리탐사학회 2003년도 Proceedings of the international symposium on the fusion technology
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• pp.501-503
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• 2003

Soil-gas radon level and other atmospheric factors have been measured at residual soil profiles that overlie granite bedrock which consists of major geology in Korea for 6 months from November, 2000 to April, 2001. Seasonal variations of soil-gas radon concentration are generally of greater magnitude than day-to-day fluctuations. The highest radon concentrations of 5,131 pCi/L measured during winter season and the lowest radon concentrations of 107 pCi/L during spring season. Two study areas, Bongcheon-dong(granite bedrock) and Seongnam-Yongin(gneiss bedrock) were investigated to assess the radon potential according to their field survey and emanation tests. The mean values of radon decrease in sequentially from Suji-A(813 pCi/L)>Suji-B(757 pCi/L)>Bundang-B(691 pCi/L)>Bundang-A(643 pCi/L)>Bongcheon-dong(513 pCi/L). Estimated soil-gas radon potential using maximum radon emanation ratios of each study area decreases in the order of Bongcheondong(950 pCi/L)>Suji-B(524 pCi/L)>Bundang-A(437 pCi/)>Bundang-B(259 pCi/L)>Suji-A(230 pCi/L) areas. The values of indoor radon and its daughter product concentrations in Bongcheon-dong area show that indoor basement rooms in poor ventilation condition could be classified as extremely high radon risk location of more than 4 pCi/L Rn and 0.02 WL.

• International journal of advanced smart convergence
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• 제4권1호
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• pp.93-98
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• 2015

Recently, Radon has been gotten attention for problems of Nuclear Generating Station and a variety of nuclear. It is naturally arises that is accumulated in the interior through the soil with radioactive materials. People exposed to indoor a Radon increase the high risks of lung cancer. The data are consisted of regional Country, The Location, Average Radon pCi/L, Geo Mean and Geo S.D etc. The research is experimented using E-M algorithm. The research result appears to make a division of soil distance, regional and cluster. It requires in effort to minimize exposure to people who live in areas with high radon levels. A country must apprise to people about Radon risk and needs to work out measures plan.

• 자원환경지질
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• 제31권5호
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• pp.425-430
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• 1998

The results of radon $(^{222}Rn)$ concentrations and working levels (WL) for forty rooms in Kwanak Campus, Seoul National University on granite bedrock of Jurassic age showed that radon concentration have mean value of 3.0 pCi/L and 0.011 for working level. A number of rooms where these values exceed the EPA's action level are five (13%). It was also suggested that indoor basement rooms in poor ventilation condition can be classified as extremely high radon risk zone having more than 4 pCi/L and 0.020 WL. It was proved that inflow of soil-gas was a primary factor that governs indoor radon level by comparison of soil-gas radon concentrations with indoor radon concentrations.

• 한국대기환경학회지
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• 제18권4호
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• pp.327-334
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• 2002

The work presents sensitivity and uncertainty analysis of 2-compartment model for the evaluation of indoor radon pollution in a house. Effort on the development of such model is directed towards the prediction of the generation and transfer of radon in indoor air released from groundwater. The model is used to estimate a quantitative daily human exposure through inhalation of such radon based on exposure scenarios. However, prediction from the model has uncertainty propagated from uncertainties in model parameters. In order to assess how model predictions are affected by the uncertainties of model inputs, the study performs a quantitative uncertainty analysis in conjunction with the developed model. An importance analysis is performed to rank input parameters with respect to their contribution to model prediction based on the uncertainty analysis. The results obtained from this study would be used to the evaluation of human risk by inhalation associated with the indoor pollution by radon released from groundwater.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• 제17권4호
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• pp.315-324
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• 2002

Risk communication can be defined as the exchange of information about the nature, magnitude, significance, acceptability, and management of risk. The effect of risk communication on the perception and knowledge towards risk of environmental pollutants and it's related factors were investigated in this study. To investigate perception and knowledge of students and teachers towards risk of environmental pollutants, we conducted the survey using self-administrated questionnaire. The subjects were 574 for the first survey and 465 for the seconds survey from May to June, 2000. The main methods of transmission used in this study- through video tape, visual materials, question and answer, and participation in measuring pollutants - were not a one - way street. But an interactive process where information and opinions were exchanged among individuals, groups, and institutions. Environmental pollutants measured with participation of study subjects was Radon in the class room. The concentration of Radon was measured using E -PERM Device by installing it at each site for about 5 days. Subjects showed much interest in environmental pollution. Also, more than 98％ of total subjects were perceived as Korea is seriously contaminated at present. By risk communication activity, risk perception of all subjects about Radon was increased, on the other hand, risk perception of Dioxin was decreased except for elementary student. Moreover, knowledge of all subjects about environmental risk was significantly increased (p =0.0001) and effort of reducing environmental pollution was more increased (p<0.05). There is need to further develop, refine, and integrate these approaches environmental risk communication study, there is an even more pressing need to accelerate the diffusion of environmental risk communication practice into government and organizations.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• 제48권2호
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• pp.59-67
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• 2023

Background: This study aims to reevaluate natural radiation exposure, following up on our previous study conducted in 2019, and to assess the associated risk of lung cancer to the public residing in the gold mining areas of Betare-Oya, east Cameroon, and its vicinity. Materials and Methods: Gamma-ray spectra collected using a 7.62 cm×7.62 cm in NaI(Tl) scintillation spectrometer during a car-borne survey, in situ measurements and laboratory measurements performed in previous studies were used to determine the outdoor absorbed dose rate in air to evaluate the annual external dose inhaled by the public. For determining internal exposure, radon gas concentrations were measured and used to estimate the inhalation dose while considering the inhalation of radon and its decay products. Results and Discussion: The mean value of the laboratory-measured outdoor gamma dose rate was 47 nGy/hr, which agrees with our previous results (44 nGy/hr) recorded through direct measurements (in situ and car-borne survey). The resulting annual external dose (0.29±0.09 mSv/yr) obtained is similar to that of the previous study (0.33±0.03 mSv/yr). The total inhalation dose resulting from radon isotopes and their decay products ranged between 1.96 and 9.63 mSv/yr with an arithmetic mean of 3.95±1.65 mSv/yr. The resulting excess lung cancer risk was estimated; it ranged from 62 to 216 excess deaths per million persons per year (MPY), 81 to 243 excess deaths per MPY, or 135 excess deaths per MPY, based on whether risk factors reported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, United Nations Scientific Committee on the effects of Atomic Radiation, or International Commission on Radiological Protection were used, respectively. These values are more than double the world average values reported by the same agencies. Conclusion: There is an elevated level of risk of lung cancer from indoor radon in locations close to the Betare-Oya gold mining region in east Cameroon. Therefore, educating the public on the harmful effects of radon exposure and considering some remedial actions for protection against radon and its progenies is necessary.

• 한국건축시공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국건축시공학회 2018년도 춘계 학술논문 발표대회
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• pp.232-233
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• 2018

Among the recent environmental pollution, indoor air pollution has an adverse effect on the health of indoor residents. Radon, one of the causes of indoor air pollution, is released from concrete, gypsum board and asbestos slate among building materials. Radon is a primary carcinogen and is a colorless, tasteless, odorless inert gas that adheres to airborne dust and enters the body through breathing. At this time, there is a risk of developing cancer if the alpha rays from the lononggas entering the human body destroys the lung tissue and is continuously exposed to a high concentration of lonon gas. The World Health Organization (WHO) has emphasized the reduction of radon and its exposure to radon by classifying it as a first-level carcinogen, but many people have not recognized it yet, and the research is underdeveloped. Therefore, this study was carried out to investigate the properties of adsorbed coconut radon to prevent the inflow of radon gas, which is an air pollution source of indoor air, and to prevent inflow into the human body.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권12호
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• pp.4644-4651
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• 2022

Due to its short half-life, thoron gas has been assumed to have negligible health hazards on humans compared to radon. But, one of the decay products with a long half-life can make it to be transported to a long distance and to cause a severe internal dose through respiration. Since most commercial radon detectors can not discriminate thoron signals from radon signals, it is very common to overestimate radon doses which in turn result in biased estimation of lung cancer risk in epidemiological studies. Though some methods had been suggested to measure thoron and radon separately, they could not be used for real-time measurement because of CR-39 or LR-115. In this study, an effective method was suggested to measure radon and thoron separately from the free air. It was observed that the activity of thoron decreases exponentially due to delay time caused by a long pipe between two chambers. Therefore from two ion chambers apart in time, it was demonstrated that thoron and radon could be measured separately and simultaneously. We also developed a collimated alpha source and with this source and an SBD, we could convert the ion chamber reading to count rate in cps.

• Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제22권4호
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• pp.234-240
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• 2017

Background: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide, for which smoking is considered as the primary risk factor. The present study was conducted to determine whether genetic alterations induced by radon exposure are associated with the susceptible risk of lung cancer in never smokers. Methods: To accurately identify mutations within individual tumors, next generation sequencing was conduct for 19 pairs of lung cancer tissue. The associations of germline and somatic variations with radon exposure were visualized using OncoPrint and heatmap graphs. Bioinformatic analysis was performed using various tools. Results: Alterations in several genes were implicated in lung cancer resulting from exposure to radon indoors, namely those in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), tumor protein p53 (TP53), NK2 homeobox 1 (NKX2.1), phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN), chromodomain helicase DNA binding protein 7 (CHD7), discoidin domain receptor tyrosine kinase 2 (DDR2), lysine methyltransferase 2C (MLL3), chromodomain helicase DNA binding protein 5 (CHD5), FAT atypical cadherin 1 (FAT1), and dual specificity phosphatase 27 (putative) (DUSP27). Conclusions: While these genes might regulate the carcinogenic pathways of radioactivity, further analysis is needed to determine whether the genes are indeed completely responsible for causing lung cancer in never smokers exposed to residential radon.