The objective of this study was to evaluate Extremely Low Frequency Magnetic Fields (ELF-MFs) exposure level of housewives and the relation of residential environments with ELF-MFs exposure level in home. ELF-MFs measurements were performed for 58 housewives include 31 working women. Twenty-four hours personal MF exposure levels of housewives were slightly higher than working women as an arithmetic mean. However the median of 24 hours personal exposure levels for working women were significantly higher than housewives (p<0.05). The median of personal exposure levels due to the activity at home, working women were higher than housewives significantly (p<0.05). As a results of correlation of residential environments, such as their living environments, total income, type of water supply pipes, and distance from power line with ELF-MFs exposure level in home was different from the type of residence (p<0.05). This study could be informed as guidance for ELF-MFs exposure analysis in residential environment.

The indoor level of phthalates in children-facilities was assessed in this study. The samples of house dust were collected at various children's facilities (40 day-care houses, 42 child-care centers, 44 kindergartens, and 42 indoor playgrounds) in summer (Jul~Sep, 2007) and winter (Jan~Feb, 2008) periods, and analyzed by GC-MS. The DEHP was detected in almost every sample (detection rate : 99%) and the detection rate of DnBP and BBzP was more than 80%. The average concentrations of DEHP, DEP, DnBP, and BBzP in house dust were 388 ㎍/g dust, 37㎍/g dust, 108㎍/g dust and 349㎍/g dust, respectively. The relationship between construction period and DEHP level was statistically significant. But, other factors such as flooring material, construction period and water leakage were not statistically significant relationship with phthalates levels. The Phthalate levels were similar or more higher than other the European country.

A study is conducted to improve the suction performance of suction devices which are used to remove polluted air generated by welding or machining process at a spacious working place in industries. Air-curtain is applied around the suction inlet not only to prevent absorbing fresh air from the downstream region but also to improve the suction performance from the upstream region. Four different type air-curtain devices, such as forward, sideward, 45^° backward and fully backward, are adopted. Suction effect was investigated depending on the mass flowrate blowing to generate air-curtain. Suction condition is selected to 110,000 Reynolds number which has been widely used on typical suction devices, and a width of blowing passage is chosen to 10% of suction duct diameter. Comparing the computed results, the 45^° backward air-curtain method was superior to others. When the blowing mass flowrate was 42% of the suction mass flowrate, the suction region was improved to 38% compared to that of without air-curtain.

The importance of managing the exposure to radiation for radiological technologist is becoming more conspicuous as modern medical care increases the number of hospital exams involving radiation and as work of radiological technologists expand and increase in areas using advanced medical equipment for diagnosis and treatment purposes involving radiation. Measurements for individual exposure dose to radiation can differ according to the equipment and facilities in the work environment and the average number of exposures an individual is involved in. Therefore, systematic and reasonable controls on the exposure dose to radiation can be attained from core data. Shallow dose/Deep dose measurements were taken according to the year of the measurement, the technologist’s occupation post, gender, department, and age over a five year period from January 1, 2003 to December 31, 2007 using a sample of radiological technologists from ten general hospitals throughout S. Korea. When comparing individual exposure dose of each radiological technologist, there was no significant difference in the mean exposure dose according to the year the measurement was taken (p>0.05). Mean exposure dose for Deep/Shallow according to gender showed that men received significantly higher exposure dose than women (p<0.001). Mean exposure dose for Deep/Shallow according to age showed an increase in exposure dose as age decreases, however, it was not statistically significant (p>0.05). According to occupation post, technologists working in nuclear medicine received significantly higher dose than other occupation posts (p<0.001). The results of individual exposure dose were under the dose limits in accordance to all nuclear regulations. Furthermore, since stochastic effects may occur with long-term exposure to low level radiation, individual exposure dose data was thoroughly managed and the principle of As Low as Reasonably Achievable (ALARA) was implemented when establishing the design of this study.

Exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) can produce adverse health effects. Various indoor and outdoor combustion sources make NO₂ the most ubiquitous pollutant in the indoor environment. Indoor air quality can be affected by indoor sources, ventilation, decay and outdoor levels. Although technologies exist to measure these factors, direct measurements are often difficult. In the present paper, we used a mass balance model and regression analysis, penetration factor (ventilation rate divided by the sum of ventilation rate and deposition constant) and source strength factor (source strength divided by the sum of ventilation rate and deposition constant) were calculated using multiple indoor and outdoor measurements with 10 houses. Subsequently, mean contributions of indoor and outdoor sources were 28.86% and 81.09%, respectively, suggesting that both indoor and outdoor sources had contributions to indoor concentrations of NO₂.

The numbers of deaths attributed by tobacco smoking have remarkably increased, reflecting the smoking patterns of previous decades. Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke increases the prevalence of both upper and lower respiratory tract illnesses. Self-reports of direct and indirect smoking may not always be reliable in questionnaire method used epidemiology. A number of biochemical makers have been used to validate claims of indirect smoking among which the most widely used specific markers has been the nicotine metabolite cotinine. This study was conducted to evaluate the cotinine levels to determine smoking status. Biomoitoring to assess the validity of questionnaire method found that sensitivity and specificity coefficients of around 100% and 100% in direct smokers. On the other hand, sensitivity and specificity coefficients were 56.74% and 47.26%, respectively. This results suggest that indirect smoking status should be assessed by biomonitoring such as cotinine levels.