Recently, airborne fungi as indoor air pollutant have attention due to its health related problems such as asthma, rhinitis, sinusitis, atopy, pneumonia, building syndrome and etc.. However, it is considered that current laws and policies in Korea are not efficient to deal with these problems. Our research investigated influential factors and species distribution on the basis of previous research related to airborne fungi issue conduced in Korea by applying meta analysis technique. We selected 15 articles containing variables affecting fungi population such as outdoor air characteristics, temperature, location, and ventilation to evaluate significant factors. It was confirmed that airborne fungi level has partial correlation to those factors despite of limited sample size. It is required that the consistent and systematic research effort should be extended to characterize health effect caused by these fungi as well as to control them efficiently.

The objective of this study is to support an environmental policy related to the improved control of indoor airborne fungi in Korea. We reviewed 15 articles published in Korea to analyse the trend of airborne fungi level in indoor environment of various public facilities. The maximum mean concentrations of total airborne fungi in hospital and kindergarten were 1447 CFU/m3 and 1259 CFU/m3, respectively. We concluded that policy determination are urgently required to guide a proper management on airborne fungi in Korea.

This review presents the recent developments in electronic noses (E-noses). E-noses based on metal oxide semiconductors, conducting polymers, quartz crystal microbalance and electrochemical methods have been examined with regard to several aspects, from the basic principles to the application of new products, as olfactometry sensors. E-noses consist of an array of chemical sensors, and are currently employed in the analysis of odorous compounds as well as for common gas detection. Various data analyses have been employed to establish patterns of recognition and classification techniques. Future trends and areas of application for e-noses have also been introduced and are summarized within the text.

We review basic principles and recent applications of quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) for chemical sensors. QCM sensors have been currently employed in the analysis of odorous compounds as well as common gas detection. Various types of data analysis have been employed for the pattern recognition and classification techniques. Future trends and application areas of QCM sensors is also introduced and summarized in the text.