An odor is referred to or described as an unpleasant smell that creates a disagreeable atmosphere and may impinge on the quality of life of people. Most of the odors that stimulate the human sense of smell and engender feelings of discomfort and disgust are odors mixed with various chemicals substances. Among designated odor substances, acetaldehyde, propionaldehyde, butyraldehyde, n-valeraldehyde, and iso-valeraldehyde may cause an irritating and sour sensation and give rise to headache, dizziness, vomiting, and unconsciousness. These aldehyde substances are mainly discharged in high concentrations from food chemicals, petrochemicals, and printing industry sources. The odor control technologies applied to prevent odors from aldehydes are absorption, adsorption, as well as biological methods and combustion methods. The threshold concentrations of aldehydes are low so that odors can be easily experienced even at very low concentrations. It is not easy to control aldehydes due to their particular physicochemical properties and because aging and poor management of the odor prevention technology is usually only available. In this study, trends with regard to research efforts on the development of technology that is effective in treating aldehydes were summarized.

The purpose of this study was to introduce strategies and projects through which local government can play a role in mitigating damage to health when addressing the health challenge posed by radon (222Rn). We first compared and analyzed naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) in the soil of relatively high (Geumsan) and low (Boryeong) concentration areas of indoor radon (222Rn) to understand the factors influencing concentrations. Mortality rates linked to lung cancer in the areas were also compared and analyzed in the study (T-test). We selected two key priority research studies and four key strategies based on status analysis and a review of domestic and international policy trends in relation to radon (222Rn). As a result of comparing the radium and thorium in the soil with indoor radon concentrations, Geumsan had a higher mean concentration of indoor radon (222Rn = 182.8 Bq/m3) and recorded a higher concentration of radium (226Ra = 48.4 Bq/kg) than Boryeong (226Ra = 43.9 Bq/kg). These findings show that Geumsan, which had a high concentration of radium (226Ra), revealed a high concentration of radon (222Rn), a radioactive decay material of radium (226Ra), demonstrating that the concentration of indoor radon (222Rn) can vary according to geological and soil characteristics. The age standardized mortality from lung cancer per 100,000 people was 31.6 in Geumsan and 27.3 in Boryeong (p < 0.05). These findings show that there is likely an association between the concentration of indoor radon (222Rn) and mortality from lung cancer. Two key priority research studies include a survey on factors influencing exposure to radon (222Rn) in local environments and preparation of a potential map of radon (222Rn). Four key strategies include “management of exposure factors regarding radon (222Rn),” “environmental health services provided to protect radon (222Rn) exposure,” “management of technical support measures for radon (222Rn),” and “disclosure regarding the risk of radon (222Rn) exposure (risk communication).”

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of temperature and humidity on the measured Particulate Matter (PM) concentrations recorded by PMS5003T, a low-cost light scattering type measuring tool. A regression analysis was performed on the ratio of PM concentrations measured by the light scattering method and the beta-ray absorption method according to temperature and humidity in an outdoor environment. As the temperature decreased, the PM concentration ratio increased, and this tendency intensified below 0oC. As the humidity increased, the PM concentration ratio increased, but the effect was less than the temperature effect. The coefficients of determination for temperature and humidity were R2 = 0.325 and 0.003, respectively, and the effects of temperature and humidity on the measured values w ere formulated and compensated for. As a result of the compensation, R2, relative precision, accuracy and RMSE improved from 0.927 to 0.958, from 91.183% to 96.651%, from 31.383% to 74.058%, and from 13.517 μg/m³ to 6.690 μg/m³, respectively. Finally, results from this study indicate that the reliability of the low-cost light scattering type PM sensor can be improved by applying the temperature and humidity compensation method.

In this study, indoor air quality indices (IAQI-C and IAQI-E) were developed for child care centers and elderly care centers based on health effects, and compared to the air quality index (CAI) for outdoor atmosphere. In addition, composite indices that integrate individual indices for each pollutant were developed to quickly and conveniently recognize the current air quality. Among all data, 71.2% and 35.6% belonged to the grades 'Good' and 'Moderate' for child care centers and elderly care centers, respectively. This assessment is more stringent than the CAI's criteria.

Odor is a type of sensory pollution that can stimulate the human sense of smell when it occurs, causing discomfort and making it difficult to create a pleasant environment. For this reason, there is a high possibility of complaints regarding odors if odors occur in pigsties near residential properties, and the number of such complaints is also increasing. In addition, odors emanating from pigsties around military installations can cause physical and psychological harm, not only to the soldiers living in these type of facilities but also to the families belonging to military personnel living there as well. Because the concentration of odors varies due to diverse factors such as temperature, humidity, wind direction, wind speed, and interaction between causative materials, predicting odors based on only one factor is not proper or appropriate. Therefore, in this work, we sought to construct models that are based on several regression techniques of machine learning using data collected in field. And we selected and utilized the model that has the highest-accuracy in order to notify and warn residents of odors in advance. In this work, 3672 data items were used to train and test the model. The several machine learning algorithms to build the models are polynomial regression, ridge regression, K-nearest neighbor regression (KNN Regression), and random forest. Comparing the performance of models based on each algorithm, the study found that KNN Regression was the most suitable model, and the result obtained from KNN regression was significant.

Airborne bacteria are expected to float in the mushroom cultivation house, as it is a special environment with high humidity and high temperatures. Their concentration and diversity in the indoor air of the cultivation house could effect the health of farmers and the quality of mushrooms. To examine whether microbiota of airborne bacteria change from year to year, we measured the indoor temperature, humidity, and airborne bacterial concentration from mushroom cultivation houses located in six regions in Korea from 2020 to 2021, and isolated and identified airborne bacteria. The surveyed data were compared and the bacterial diversity of the 1st year and the 2nd year were determined. Based on the average temperature and humidity data surveyed, it can be seen that the temperature and humidity environment in the cultivation houses is such that bacteria can easily reproduce. It was observed that the temperature inside the cultivation houses tends to be higher or lower depending on the season and correlates with the temperature outside the cultivation houses. In the first year survey, 32 species of 20 genera were identified, and in the second year survey, bacteria belonging to 29 species of 22 genera were identified. Among them, the most detected species were all species belonging to the genus Bacillus. There were only three species (Bacillus altitudinis, Brevibacterium frigoritolerans, and Staphylococcus epidermidis) that were continuously isolated in common. Our results showed that the species of floating bacteria greatly vary from year to year even for the same cultivation houses.

The issue surrounding the problem of air pollution arising from rapid industrialization is one that is being continuously raised for discussion among the public, and concerns about indoor air quality have emerged both at home and abroad due to the longer periods of time spent indoors in modern times. Various studies are being conducted to solve this problem, and photocatalysts are also being studied as a solution. Accordingly, this research sought to verify the performance of reducing indoor pollutants by applying photocatalysts to building materials. As a result of evaluating the indoor pollutant reduction performance, it was confirmed that acetaldehyde was reduced by about 31%, toluene 29%, and total volatile compounds by 11%, and adhesion strength, an important factor regarding finishing material, was also enhanced 1.3 times or more based on Korean Industrial Standards. From these results, it is believed that indoor air pollution can be lowered to a certain extent through building materials using photocatalysts, and, therefore, research on long-term performance verification and evaluation methods should be continuously conducted and pursued in the future in relation to photocatalysts.

In this study, the types of thermal breakers applied to structures to prevent thermal bridges were identified. Condensation prevention performance was evaluated for apartment houses with standard floor structures to which a thermal breaker was applied. In addition, the effect of thermal cross-blocking was compared by calculating the total heat and equivalent U-value through the wall. (1) As a result of the evaluation of anti-condensation performance, when “가” grade insulation was applied, the surface temperature increased by about 1K due to the application of the thermal breaker. The TDR value increased by about 0.06 to 0.07. When "나" grade insulation was applied, the minimum surface temperature increased by about 1K, and the TDR value increased by about 0.05~0.06. (2) As a result of the evaluation of total heat and U-equivalent, it was possible to reduce the total heat by 38.5~44.9% and U-equivalent by 38.5~45.0% for the "가" grade insulation to which the thermal breaker was applied. In addition, the "나" grade insulation to which the thermal breaker was applied can reduce total heat by 38.9 to 43.6%, and reduce the Uequivalent by 38.9 to 43.7%.

High concentrations of fine particles are increasingly being detected due to inflows from abroad and local emission sources in Korea. As most people spend about 90% of their time indoors, the use of indoor air cleaners has grown significantly as they are now thought to be essential items. In this study, the noise, power consumption, and clean air delivery rate (CADR) of commercial air cleaners were analyzed according to the structural shape of the air cleaners. Analyses were performed based on the experimental results of 249 cases for air cleaners certified by Korea Air Cleaning Association. The air cleaners with front inlet and upper outlet air flow direction, which currently account for the highest market share, were found to have the highest noise per CADR (dB(A)/(m3/min)). On the other hand, the air cleaners with the inlet and outlet air flow in the same horizontal direction were found to have lowest noise per CADR than other structures.

This study was designed to verify what effect the use of a natural ventilation system can have on improving indoor air quality with regard to radon in various concentration ranges in an apartment house. The results show that both high (2~3 times higher than 148 m3) and low (similar to 148 Bq/m3) levels of indoor radon concentrations can be reduced close to and/or below the Korean IAQ guideline within 6 hours when the natural ventilation system is operated at approximately an air change rate of 0.5. In the case of an air change rate of 0.3, however, the indoor radon levels cannot meet the national guidelines and the reduction effect was insufficient with regard to various radon concentrations. Typically, the air change rate of a natural ventilation system is affected by meteorological factors such as temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, pressure. Its effectiveness varies according to such factors, for that reason, the reduction effects on radon did not increase proportionally with the ventilation time in this study.

In this study, the removal performance of high-concentration H2S and complex odors was evaluated for bio-filters installed in sewage treatment plants and manure treatment plants. The amount of odor generation according to temperature was found to be higher in summer than in spring. It was found that the longer the empty bed retention time of the bio-filter, the higher the odor removal efficiency. Therefore, in order to effectively remove odors, it is necessary to maintain a sufficiently long residence time when designing a bio-filter. In addition, a case in which a bio-filter and a wet pre-treatment system were combined to remove high-concentration odors was studied. The result showed that the wet pre-treatment was effective in removing high-concentration odors. In particular, most of the hydrogen sulfide could be adequately removed by wet pre-treatment.

The electrochemical type gas sensor has the advantage of being easy to use due its small size, and it is also relatively inexpensive. However, its output can easily vary depending on temperature and humidity conditions. Therefore, it is important to ascertain the exact output characteristics of a sensor according to the measuring environment in order to improve measurement accuracy for any set of given conditions. The purpose of this study is to obtain basic information about the output characteristics of a sensor that is used both indoor and outdoor according to the variation in temperature and humidity conditions in order to improve the accuracy of the sensor. To achieve this result, a calibration curve was made using ammonia standard gas and the calibration factor was calculated using the calibration curve and the measuring accuracy was confirmed with regard to the ammonia sensor. Based on the test results, the variation of the sensor output value was large in relation to temperature and humidity variation. It was found that the output value from the sensor at higher temperature and humidity conditions was also higher. However, the measuring accuracy of the sensor could be improved by more than 10% by applying the calibration factor and an average accuracy of more than 97% could be achieved. It is anticipated that the result of this study can be used as basic data to obtain more accurate results using electrochemical sensors for a given set of temperature and humidity conditions, and therefore, it can also be considered that the reliability and applicability of electrochemical sensors can be improved.

Indoor air quality management is essential for a healthy life. However, it is difficult to perceive, detect, and monitor the level of indoor air pollution and this means that it is possible to be exposed to more pollution indoors than outdoors. In this study, in order to derive effective indoor air quality management measures, public perceptions and behavioral characteristics regarding indoor particulate matter and air quality management methods were investigated through a survey of 1,000 people. Based on the survey, it was found that most of the respondents had a negative perception of the indoor air quality of their residence, and natural ventilation was the most used method for indoor air quality management. Although the frequency of use of air quality management devices such as air purifiers and mechanical ventilation systems was relatively low, their effect regarding air quality management was positively perceived. In particular, the results of survey indicated that respondents of families which included members with fragile health engaged in more active behavior regarding in indoor air quality management than those respondents whose family members had no health issues and that the former have used air quality management devices more frequently. Therefore, it is necessary to develop proper guidelines to encourage more people to actively participate in improving indoor air quality.