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.

As concerns have been raised about health effects of children's products containing hazardous chemicals on children, the Korea Ministry of Environment announced 135 environmental hazardous substances in children’s products (EHSCP) which were subject to risk assessment. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the current status of EHSCP for management due to their various exposure routes and types. In this study, we investigated the exposure assessment of EHSCP as well as relevant policies implemented in domestic and foreign countries. Domestic and foreign cases of detection of EHSCP were reviewed in the literature and websites of related agencies. Due to the lack of reference values for child-specific toxicity of EHSCP, those for adults and regulatory status of EHSCP were also investigated and reviewed with literature. The related agencies of foreign countries provided 13 child-specific reference doses (RfDs), 76 RfDs, and 42 reference concentrations as toxicity reference values of the EHSCP. Among substances investigated in the studies to assess exposure of hazardous substances in children’s products by the Korea Ministry of Environment, 23 substances were included in 135 EHSCP. The same studies identified 9 substances which were excluded from the 135 EHSCP. For regulatory status for hazardous substances in children’s products, 44 substances (32.6 %) and 84 substances (62.2 %) of 135 EHSCP were under regulation in Korea and foreign countries, respectively. In the present study, we found that a list of 135 EHSCP should be revised to ensure children’s safety.

The aggregate risk assessment on xylene and ethylbenzene was carried out according to the guidance established newly in 2010 with the purpose of providing information for risk management. In human exposure assessment, the results indicated that lower ages were exposed more and that, in the interior space at home, the highest level of human exposure occurred via inhalation. At outdoor spaces, exposures via inhalation and drinking were less than 1%. In human health risk characterization, xylene showed HI(Hazard Index) < 1 in all ages. When reasonable maximum exposure(RME) was applied, HI for young children was 0.64. The HI of ethylbenzene was also below 1(0.02~0.04) in all ages, indicating no potential risk. From this study, it is considered that xylene need to be continous monitoring with interest because this substance may be more sensitive on young age group. In additon, to reduce the uncertainty of the risk assessment, the korean exposure factors on young age group such as infant, children had to be established as soon as possible.