• Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.45-51
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• 2008

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) have been shown to cause nervous system disorders through skin contact or respiration, and also cause foul odors even at low densities in most cases. Also, as a compound itself, VOCs are directly harmful to the environment and to the human body, and may participate in photochemical reactions in air to create secondary pollutants. In this study, HL-60 cells were treated with volatile organic compounds, including ethylbenzene and trichloroethylene, at a value of $IC_50$. Then, the in house-prepared Human HazChem arrayer was utilized in order to compare the gene expression between the two VOCs. After hybridization, 8 upregulated genes and 8 downregulated genes were discovered in the HazChem array. The upregulated genes were identified as SG15, TNFSF10, PRNP, ME1, NCOA4, SRXN1, TXNRD1, and XBP1. The downregulated genes were identified as MME, NRF1, PRARBP, CALCA, CRP, BAX, C7 or f40, and FGFR1. Such results were highly correlated with the quantitative RT-PCR results. The majority of the 16 genes were related with the characteristics of VOCs, including respiratory mechanism, apoptosis, and carcinogenesis-associated genes. Our data showed that our human HazChem array can be used to monitor hazardous materials via gene expression profiling.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.369-375
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• 2011

Objectives: Exposure to hazardous chemicals during pregnancy may result incritical reproductive health outcomes. Indoor residential levels are significant component of personal exposure. The collection of residential exposure data has been hampered by the cost and participant burden of health studies of indoor air pollution. This study utilized a participant-based approach to collect volatile organic compounds concentration from homes. Methods: Four hundred thirteen women were recruited from three major hospitals in Seoul and Gyeongi Provence and 411 agreed to participate. A passive sampler (OVM 3500, 3M, USA) with instructions were given to the participants, as well as a questionnaire. They were asked to deploy the sampler in their homes for three to five days and return them viapre-stamped envelope. Results: Three hundred forty six participants returned the sampler. Among the returned samplers, three hundred samplers satisfied our monitoring quality criteria. The success rate of the monitoring method was 73%. The geometric mean of TVOC level was 429(2) ${\mu}g/m^3$. The TVOC guideline of 500 ${\mu}g/m^3$ was exceeded in 38% of the houses. The residential VOC levels were significantly associated with remodeling of the house. Conclusions: The results suggested that a participant-based sampling approach may be a feasible and costeffective alternative to exposure assessment involving home visits by a field technician.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.666-674
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• 2007

In this study, sampling and analysis was carried out for 13 compounds, in order to investigate the odorous compound emissions from landfill stacks and surrounding ambient air. These results revealed that concentration of hydrogen sulfide was $0.13{\sim}0.66\;ppb$ in the ambient air. Also, concentrations of hydrogen sulfide ($151{\sim}358\;ppm$) were the highest value in odorous sulfur compounds from landfill stacks. In case of VOC, toluene was obtained the highest out of volatile organic compounds. It was found that the concentrations of hydrogen sulfide near the landfill was higher than that inside city such as Seoul although it was located in a rural area. The result was due to the effect of hydrogen sulfide emitted from landfill stacks.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.17 no.E2
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• pp.61-70
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• 2001

In recent years there have been growing interests in the potential environmental effects of global climate change. Of specific interests is the role that climate change may play in altering natural volatile organic compound.(NVOC) emissions from trees and the subsequent impact of this perturbation on air quality and ozone formation. A novel vegetation enclosure chamber method was designed and constructed of Tedlar in order to estimate more accurate and precise NVOC emission rates of either small whole plants or the branches of large trees. The enclosure chamber was initially tested in the laboratory and also successfully evaluated in the field. Overall precision for this enclosure was estimated as RSD<10%(n=9). The overall errors associated with the enclosure method in a laboratory system might be relatively small (say<$\pm$15%); however, they might be rather large(say$\pm$40%) in a field-based system. Two consecutive samples were collected on each sampling day from the two pine species during the test period. Slash pine studies showed that the absolute percentage difference between the first and second samples varied from 0.33 to 29%. The percent differences between consecutive emission for loblolly pines varied from 0.74 to 24.2%.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.143-149
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• 2019

To develop flexible adsorbents for compact volatile organic compound (VOC) air purifiers, flexible as-spun zeolite fibers are prepared by an electrospinning method, and then zeolite particles are exposed as active sites for VOC (toluene) adsorption on the surface of the fibers by a thermal surface partial etching process. The breakthrough curves for the adsorption and temperature programmed desorption (TPD) curves of toluene over the flexible zeolite fibers is investigated as a function of the thermal etching temperature by gas chromatography (GC), and the adsorption/desorption characteristics improves with an increase in the thermal surface etching temperature. The effect of acidity on the flexible zeolite fibers for the removal of toluene is investigated as a function of the $SiO_2/Al_2O_3$ ratios of zeolites. The acidity of the flexible zeolite fibers with different $SiO_2/Al_2O_3$ ratios is measured by ammonia-temperature-programmed desorption ($NH_3-TPD$), and the adsorption/desorption characteristics are investigated by GC. The results of the toluene adsorption/desorption experiments confirm that a higher $SiO_2/Al_2O_3$ ratio of the flexible zeolite fibers creates a better toluene adsorption/desorption performance.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.39-49
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• 2007

In this study, the performance characteristics of solid phase microextraction (SPME) were investigated for three major odorous groups that consist of 10 individual compounds ([1] volatile organic compounds (VOC): benzene, toluene, p-xylene and styrene, [2] reduced sulfur compounds (RSC): hydrogen sulfide, methyl mercaptan, dimethylsulfide (DMS), dimethyldisulfide (DMDS), and carbon disulfide, and [3] amine: trimethylamine (TMA)). For the purpose of a comparative analysis, two types of SPME fiber ([1] polidimethylsiloxane/divinilbenzene (P/D) and [2] $Carboxen^{TM}$/polidimethylsiloxane (C/P)) were test ε d against each other for a series of standards prepared at different concentration levels (100, 200, and 500 ppb). To compare the analytical performance of each fiber, all standards were analyzed for the acquisition of calibration data sets for each compound. The results of P/D fiber generally showed that its calibration slope increased as a function of molecular weight across different VOCs; however, those of C/P fiber showed a fairly reversed trend. Besides, we confirmed that the application of SPME is limited to many sulfur compounds; only two compounds (DMS and DMDS) are sensitive enough to draw calibration results out of SPME. The calibration data for RSC show generally enhanced slop values for C/P relative to P/D fiber. However, in the case of TMA, we were not able to find a notable difference in their performance.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.532-536
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• 2010

A study on the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and low molecular weight (LMW) amount which is contained within bisphenol A polycarbonate (PC) was performed by the solvent extraction with ketone type solvents (acetone, butanone, pentanone). The LMW amount of untreated PC was 2.6 wt%, but the values of treated samples with acetone and pentanone were 0.96 and 1.53 wt%, respectively. Acetone is a more effective solvent than pentanone on the LMW extraction. Methylene chloride (MC) and toluene were certified and quantified by GC-Mass experiments, and the quantitative results indicated the fact that the pentanone was the effective solvent on VOC extraction. Focused on the change of VOCs and LMW amount, the use of co-solvent might be more useful, and the experimental results of co-solvent extraction showed that the optimum condition was 50 : 50 volume percent.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.136-143
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• 2013

In this study, both transient behaviors of a biofilter system with improved design and a conventional biofilter were observed to perform the treatment of waste air containing malodor and volatile organic compound (VOC). Their behaviors of removal efficiency and treated concentration of malodor and VOC were compared each other. During 1st~7th stages of improved biofilter system operation it was observed that the order of treated ethanol concentration at each sampling port was switched due to the difference of microbe-population-distribution in spite of the difference of biofilter effective height. However, at 8th stage of its operation, the order of treated ethanol concentration at each sampling port was consistent to the order of biofilter effective height at each sampling port. The same was applied to the case of hydrogen sulfide, even though the difference of switched treated-hydrogen sulfide-concentrations was less than that of switched treated-ethanol-concentrations. The ethanol-removal efficiency of the biofilter system with improved design was ca. 96%, which was greater by 2% than that of the conventional biofilter. The transient behavior of treated hydrogen sulfide concentration of both biofilters were similar to each other. However, the concentration of hydrogen sulfide treated by the biofilter system with improved design was observed lower than that by the conventional biofilter. The hydrogen sulfide-removal efficiency of the biofilter system with improved design was higher by ca. 2% than that of the conventional biofilter. Therefore, the hydrogen sulfide-removal efficiency of the biofilter system with improved design was observed to be enhanced by the same as its ethanol-removal efficiency.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.25-35
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• 2024

Background: There are concerns about the health effects of various environmental pollution exposures among residents living near coal-fired power plants (CFPP). Objectives: This study attempted to compare the concentrations of heavy metals in blood and urine and those of urinary volatile organic compound (VOC) metabolites according to the residential separation distance. Methods: Participants in the study totaled 334 people who have lived for more than 10 years in areas within 10 km of a CFPP. The separation distance was analyzed in quartiles by dividing it into Q1 (88 people), Q2 (89 people), Q3 (89 people), and Q4 (68 people). We explained the purpose of this study to the participants and collected blood and urine after obtaining signatures on a participation agreement. Results: The study participants were 102 males (30.5%) and 232 females (69.5%), with an average age of 71. The average length of residence and distance were 43.8 years and 4,800 meters. The geometric mean concentrations of Pb, Cd, and Hg in blood and As and Cd in urine were respective 1.35 ㎍/dL, 1.43 ㎍/L, 3.16 ㎍/L. They were 167.88 ㎍/g for creatinine and 1.58 ㎍/g creatinine. The metabolite concentrations of VOCs were 50.67 ㎍/g creatinine in t, t-muconic acid (t, t-MA), 10.73 ㎍/g creatinine in benzyl mercapturic acid, 317.05 ㎍/g creatinine in phenylglyoxylic acid, 123.55 ㎍/g creatinine in methylhippuric acid, and 190.82 ㎍/g creatinine in mandelic acid. The concentration of Pb in the blood and Cd and t, t-MA in the urine of residents within affected area of the CFPP showed statistically significant differences among distance groups. Conclusions: The concentration of urinary VOCs metabolites, especially t, t-MA, differed according to the distance groups of residents within the affected area of CFPP (p<0.05).

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.819-825
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• 2000

The physico-chemical characteristics and the combustion activities of a waste automotive catalyst were carried out in this study. The physico-chemical characteristics of waste automotive catalyst was examined by EA(Elemental analysis), ICP-AES (Inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrophotometer), and XRD(X-ray diffraction) analysis. Carbon deposit amount was higher in front brick than rear brick of catalyst, and increased with mileage. The content of Pt. Pd and Rh in waste automotive catalyst was different from the car manufacturing company. The combustion activities of waste automotive catalyst were investigated for acetaldehyde as a model VOC in a fixed bed reactor at atmospheric pressure. The catalytic activity of rear brick for acetaldehyde combustion was better than front brick of waste automotive catalyst. The catalytic activity of waste automotive catalyst for acetaldehyde combustion decreased with mileage. The linear relationship between catalytic activity and mileage was negative and has a very excellent correlation. Finally, the waste automotive catalyst has a good catalytic activity for acetaldehyde combustion. and can be used to control of small emission source.