Since people spend more than 85% of their time indoors, understanding indoor aerosol behavior is important in order to protect human health against aerosol exposure. In this article, exposure, behavior, and control technologies for indoor aerosols are addressed. Previous studies conducted in Korea during the period from 2004 to 2016 were reviewed. Most studies were focused on field surveys of PM10 concentration in public facilities regulated by law. More fundamental studies are needed in order to control indoor aerosols effectively due to the fact that Korea has different building structures and lifestyles compared with western countries.

The number of children who use day-care centers is increasing. Most indoor air quality (IAQ) management has been based on daily average pollutant concentrations measured once a year. A more comprehensive management of IAQ is needed to protect children’s health from air pollutants in day-care centers. In this study, we investigated the weekly variation of air pollutant concentrations in a nursing room of a day-care center located at the roadside for a week in June of 2014. Average concentrations of CO2, PM10, black carbon, and total surface area of lungdeposited particles during nursing time of the day-care center were 510 ppm, 27.8 μg/m3, 1.87 μg/m3, and 30.6 μm2/cm3, respectively, with a similar diurnal pattern shown on weekdays.

Recent industrial developments have increased the use of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). Odors (e.g., are hydrogen sulfide, mercaptan- type, amine- type and other irritating pungent gaseous or volatile substances)., which are disgusting and disgusting to humans. Currently, regenerative thermal oxidation (RTO), regenerative catalytic oxidation (RCO), Carbon Adsorption Tower, etc. are used for their control to remove VOCs. In this experiment, we report the use of silicon carbide (SiC) for the control of four common VOCs called BTEX (i.e., benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and, xylene (BTEX))., which is a representative material of VOCs, was removed by using silicon carbide (SiC). The heating SiC was heated be tween 400oC and 700oC in a microwave,. As a result, we observed the removal efficiency of BTEX from 10 ppm to 50 ppm was. At 400oC and 500oC, 0.6~60.3% and 11~64.7% the removal efficiency were achieved, with exponential increase at the temperature from 500oC. At 600oC, it showed more than 69.0~100% removal efficiency of most BTEX materials. Finally, At 700oC, it was confirmed that all BTEX materials were completely removed.

This study was designed to assess the odor characteristics of paprika with metal oxide gas sensors. Non-decayed paprika and decayed paprika were assessed by sensor array system comprising 10 kinds of sensors. Three representative sensors were selected from among the 10. Selection was based on a correlation analysis between sensors from the results of the sensor array assessment on non-decayed paprika. It was found that the odor variation characteristics of paprika can be assessed by metal oxide gas sensors and that the odor variation characteristics of paprika are different depending on the type of gas sensors. The odor characteristics of paprika were different according to the color, the presence or absence of decay, the location of decay, the type of sensor, and the passage of time. Regardless of decay, the sensor response value of orange paprika was the highest, with the 2611 sensor yielding the highest response value. The SB-AQ1 sensor could not identify the difference in odor characteristics depending on the location of decay, while detection was possible by both SB-41 and 2611 sensors.

In order to reduce odor and methane emission from the landfill, open biocovers and a closed biofilter were applied to the landfill site. Three biocovers and the biofilter are suitable for relatively small-sized landfills with facilities that cannot resource methane into recovery due to small volumes of methane emission. Biocover-1 consists only of the soil of the landfill site while biocover-2 is mixed with the earthworm casts and artificial soil (perlite). The biofilter formed a bio-layer by adding mixed food waste compost as packing material of biocover-2. The removal efficiency decreased over time on biocover-1. However, biocover-2 and the biofilter showed stable odor removal efficiency. The rates of methane removal efficiency were in order of biofilter (94.9%)>, biocover-1(42.3%)>, and biocover-2 (37.0%). The methane removal efficiency over time in biocover-1 was gradually decreased. However, drastic efficiency decline was observed in biocover-2 due to the hardening process. As a result of overturning the surface soil where the hardening process was observed, methane removal efficiency increased again. The biofilter showed stable methane removal efficiency without degradation. The estimate methane oxidation rate in biocover- 1 was an average of 10.4%. Biocover-2 showed an efficiency of 46.3% after 25 days of forming biocover. However, due to hardening process efficiency dropped to 4.6%. After overturn of the surface soil, the rate subsequently increased to 17.9%, with an evaluated average of 12.5%.

With increasing public awareness regarding radon, this study has been conducted with the aim of providing more accurate information about radon to the public. We investigated the radon emissions from gypsum boards, which are known to emit relatively higher levels of radon among the building materials available on the market. Radon emissions were measured over three weeks using the closed chamber method with nuclear track detectors. For ceiling materials, the arithmetic mean of the radon emissions was 43.8 ± 42.2 Bq/m3 (geometric mean: 28.9 ± 5.6), 156.2 ± 150.5 mBq/m2/h per unit area (geometric mean, 103.1 ± 2.7) and 21.1 ± 19.9 mBq/kg/h per unit mass (geometric mean: 14.4 ± 2.6). Regarding the wall materials, the arithmetic mean of radon emissions was 24.1 ± 24.0 Bq/m3 (geometric mean: 15.6 ± 2.6), 133.3 ± 143.4 mBq/m2/h per unit area (geometric mean, 76.8 ± 3.0) and 13.0 ± 10.4 mBq/kg/h per unit mass (geometric mean, 9.5 ± 2.3). According to the results of this study, higher radon concentrations and emissions were detected in the ceiling materials than in the wall materials, but these values were lower than those previously measured in building materials.

This study was conducted to investigate the actual condition of fine particles (PM2.5) pollution and to verify the necessity of managing PM2.5 in the indoor environment of public use facilities in Gyeonggi-do. As a result, it was found that PM2.5 concentrations measured for 24 hours ranged from 15.9 to 113.5 μg/m3 and averaged 42.5 μg/ m3, and for 6 hours, ranged from 20.4 to 167.1 μg/m3 and averaged 65.6 μg/m3. Average concentration was highest in subway stations, followed by nursery schools and indoor parking lots. 49 of the 55 sites investigated exceeded the 24hr-PM2.5 standard specified in WHO guidelines (25 μg/m3). The ratio of PM2.5 to PM10 was 70.2% for 24hr and 70.7% for 6hr on average. This means that PM2.5 tends to account for a large proportion of the total particulate pollution in the indoor environment, and that it is essential to control fine particulate matter in order to reduce total particulate matter in the indoor environment. In addition, it was found that the time to be sampled and total sampling time are one of important factors which affect PM2.5 concentration in indoor air quality; therefore, I think that it is necessary to concretely specify the time to be sampled and maximum range of total sampling time in the test method of PM2.5. Recently, regulations on PM2.5 in indoor environments have been strengthened in other countries due to its high risk to human health; however, there is currently no enforceable regulation in Korea. Given that PM2.5 is more harmful to human health than PM10, it is urgently necessary to establish proper policies and regulations to control PM2.5 in indoor environments.

The changes in the aroma and spoilage odor emitted from eleven ‘Hongro’ apples during ten weeks’ storage were investigated using six types of metal oxide semiconductor gas sensor arrays. The gas sensors used in the evaluation were sensitive to apple-emitted aroma or spoilage odor, and a high reproducibility of 5% relative standard deviation or less was confirmed. Significantly, the change in apple-emitted aroma or spoilage odor was easily distinguished by the optimal gas sensor and a significant correlation (r=0.992) between decay rate and sensitivity change was observed. The results of a principal component analysis of the signal patterns obtained by data standardization using the optimal gas sensor showed a clear classification between decayed sampler groups and undecayed sampler groups.

In this study, the distribution of each facility group, the pollution level of local municipalities and the status of self-measurement were investigated and analyzed using data provided by the Ministry of Environment. It was found that most of the workplaces to be managed are facilities of sensitive class, indoor parking lots and largescale stores. The results of the survey on the total pollution level by facility group showed that the rate of contamination was the highest in the facilities where there are many sensitive users, including the subway station and the underground shopping malls. Through self-measurement, in the case of fine particle matter, it was found that it was present in amounts of 51.71 μg/m3, 50.72 μg/m3, 44.47 μg/m3 and 54.44 μg/m3 in medical institutions, day care centers, elderly care facilities and postnatal care centers, respectively. Also, there were facilities exceeding the standard in the medical institutions. However, most of the pollutants in the facilities surveyed by the municipality are higher than the self-measured concentrations, so it is necessary to examine the cause of such pollution.

Information about time spent in microenvironments plays a critical role in exposure assessment of the person concerned, considering that personal exposure relies on the characterization of time-activity patterns of the population at risk as human activities impact the timing, location, and level of personal pollutant exposure. The purpose of this paper was to present the time-activity patterns of Korean adults from a population-based study, and to determine the time spent each day in microenvironments. The population-based study collected time-activity data of about 46,000 adults for two consecutive days on weekdays (n=28,152) and weekends (n=18,800). The mean times spent at one’s own house, workplace or school, other’s house house, restaurant or bar, other places, and transportation related to the whole sample of 28,152 people were 14.90 hrs (62.08%), 4.28 hrs (17.81%), 0.24 hrs (1.01%), 0.51 hrs (2.14%), 2.45 hrs (10.21%), and 1.62 hrs (6.74%) on weekdays, respectively. Looking at the total time spent indoors by adults in different countries, the following four countries were ranked as follows, from lowest to highest: USA > Canada > Korea > Hong Kong. Due to cultural, socioeconomic and climatic differences, it may not be appropriate to directly apply statistical data of other countries to the Korean situation. This paper provides information on how the proportion of persons in different locations changes by time of day, on weekdays and weekends. Here, we can see that over 90% of respondents were in a residence from about 11 PM to 5 AM, and the largest proportion of respondents in workplaces or schools and other places is found between 8 AM and 5 PM.

It is very important to treat infected livestock carcasses safely and quickly. In this study, the degradation characteristics and odor generation characteristics of carcasses were investigated during the treatment of swine carcasses using the anaerobic burial composting method. While the carcasses were decomposed, the temperature remained high, at 40~55°C on average, and most of the carcasses were decomposed rapidly. The major odorcontributing substances in the buried composting method are sulfuric odor substances such as H2S, CH3SH, dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS), and the odor contribution of these substances is 93~99%. Among them, CH3SH, which accounts for about 56~89% of odor contribution, was the most representative indicator substance. Despite the anaerobic digestion process, the methane concentration in the digestion process was as low as 0.5~0.8% at the burial point of the carcass. The odor and methane produced during the decomposition of the carcasses decreased considerably during the discharge to the surface layer through the buried layer consisting of compost. These results suggest that anaerobic high temperature burial composting is one of the most useful methods to treat carcasses of infected livestock.