Secondhand smoke (SHS) is one of major public health threats in morbidity and mortality. Several national and regional comprehensive smoke-free regulations have been implemented to prevent public health exposure, but not in Korea. The purpose of this manuscript was to review impacts of the national or regional smoke-free legislations on indoor air quality, health effects and smoking behaviors. Indoor air quality has been improved significantly after smoke free policy. Such improvement was measured by fine particulates and urinary cotinine. Respiratory and cardiovascular health effects were significantly improved after smoke free policy. This is an indirect evidence of association between secondhand smoke exposure and the health effects. Respiratory symptoms were improved as short as one month after smoke free policy. Smoke free policy was also associated with improved perception of danger of secondhand smoke. Reduction of smoking prevalence was also unexpected benefit of smoke free policy. As reviewed in this paper, smoke free policy can be beneficial to indoor air quality, health effects and smoking behaviors. Since Korea does not have comprehensive smoke free policy yet, it is strongly recommended to implement national comprehensive smoke free policy.

This study was carried out to evaluate the characteristics of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and aldehydes emission as a function of airtight time in new apartment. Sampling was undertaken at 34 new apartments located in 4 different cities of Korea from February to November 2005. The measurement data were collected every one hour from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. toward increasing airtight time in a day. The concentrations of VOCs and aldehydes were analysed by GC/MS and HPLC method, respectively. These methods showed good sensitivity, linearity, and repeatability. In this study, the most abundant compounds at new apartments appeared to be toluene, m,p-xylene, formaldehyde and acetone. Moreover, the concentration variations at a closed rooms progressively increased by airtight time of 5 hours. Airtight time of new apartment was a most important and affective factor which influenced concentration change.