Although monitoring of radon has been extensively implemented throughout South Korea, the risk assessment has been mainly limited to indoor environments such as schools, workplaces, and multi-use facilities, and evaluations have normally been performed separately. In this study, the differences in radon exposure according to two groups (< 1 and 1-6 years old) were evaluated considering various indoor and outdoor environments, timeactivity patterns, variations in radon concentrations, and dwelling type (single detached and apartment house) using Monte-Carlo simulation. The distribution and representative values of radon concentration by micro-environments were confirmed through the Anders-Darling test, and a uniform distribution was applied in case of uncertainty. The effective dose ranged from 1.81 ± 1.19 to 2.81 ± 3.02mSv/y. Comparing the levels recommended by EPA, WHO, and ICRP with the value of the 95th percentile of this study, it was found that the results for those dwelling in detached houses exceeded recommended levels. Infants that spend a lot of time in homes with relatively high levels of concentration of radon are assessed to be somewhat more vulnerable to radon exposure.

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.

In Korea, the chemical oxygen demand(CODsed) in freshwater sediments has been measured by the potassium permanganate method used for marine sediment because of the absence of authorized analytical method. However, this method has not been fully verified for the freshwater sediment. Therefore, the use or modification of the potassium permanganate method or the development of the new CODsed analytical method may be necessary. In this study, two modified CODsed analytical methods such as the modified potassium permanganate method for CODMn and the modified closed reflux method using potassium dichromate for CODCr were compared. In the preliminary experiment to estimate the capability of the two oxidants for glucose oxidation, CODMn and CODCr were about 70% and 100% of theoretical oxygen demand(ThOD), respectively, indicating that CODCr was very close to the ThOD. The effective titration ranges in CODMn and CODCr were 3.2 to 7.5 mL and 1.0 to 5.0 mL for glucose, 4.3 to 7.5 mL and 1.4 to 4.3 mL for lake sediment, and 2.5 to 5.8 mL and 3.6 to 4.5 mL for river sediment, respectively, within 10% errors. For estimating CODsed recovery(%) in glucose-spiked sediment after aging for 1 day, the mass balances of the CODMn and CODCr among glucose, sediments and glucose-spiked sediments were compared. The recoveries of CODMn and CODCr were 78% and 78% in glucose-spiked river sediments, 91% and 86% in glucose-spiked lake sediments, 97% and 104% in glucose-spiked sand, and 134% and 107% in glucose-spiked clay, respectively. In conclusion, both methods have high confidence levels in terms of analytical methodology but show significant different CODsed concentrations due to difference in the oxidation powers of the oxidants.