In order to reduce odor and methane emission from the landfill, open biocovers and a closed biofilter were applied to the landfill site. Three biocovers and the biofilter are suitable for relatively small-sized landfills with facilities that cannot resource methane into recovery due to small volumes of methane emission. Biocover-1 consists only of the soil of the landfill site while biocover-2 is mixed with the earthworm casts and artificial soil (perlite). The biofilter formed a bio-layer by adding mixed food waste compost as packing material of biocover-2. The removal efficiency decreased over time on biocover-1. However, biocover-2 and the biofilter showed stable odor removal efficiency. The rates of methane removal efficiency were in order of biofilter (94.9%)>, biocover-1(42.3%)>, and biocover-2 (37.0%). The methane removal efficiency over time in biocover-1 was gradually decreased. However, drastic efficiency decline was observed in biocover-2 due to the hardening process. As a result of overturning the surface soil where the hardening process was observed, methane removal efficiency increased again. The biofilter showed stable methane removal efficiency without degradation. The estimate methane oxidation rate in biocover- 1 was an average of 10.4%. Biocover-2 showed an efficiency of 46.3% after 25 days of forming biocover. However, due to hardening process efficiency dropped to 4.6%. After overturn of the surface soil, the rate subsequently increased to 17.9%, with an evaluated average of 12.5%.

Carcasses of pigs were trench buried using either general soil or mature compost as a cover material and the malodorous substances discharged were observed about a year. With the soil burial method, the speed of decay was shown to be dominantly affected by the ambient air temperature. However the compost burial method’s decaying process took place quickly, even ambient air temperature was dropped; it holds the temperature of 40oC or higher. With the compost burial method, there was a period where, the temperature inside the pig carcasses and the temperature of cover-material layer were strongly reversed. From this discovery, level of decay process could be speculated. With the soil burial method there was a trend when malodorous substances concentration was high, the level of concentration in the cover soil was also tends to be high. However, the compost burial method had different result. When malodorous substances concentration was high the level of concentration in the compost cover layer was observed to be lower. This indicates compost burial method shown to intercept and absorb malodorous substances. Furthermore, the compost burial method appears to be able to contribute to deactivate the pathogens by quickly decompose the carcasses at a high temperature.

Volatile organic compounds(VOCs) detected frequently in the indoor air of child-care centers causes neurological disorders, lung, eyes, and bronchial irritation, and acute and chronic toxicity. In this study, the distributions of carcinogenic VOCs detected in child-care centers were characterized and a health risk assessment of the VOCs was performed, which can provide the necessary information for drawing up safety plans with respect to the concerned materials. The sampling of sites in day-care centers was undertaken two times: in the morning (10:00~12:00), and afternoon(16:00~20:00)-at 23 daycare centers located in Seoul, Korea from April, 2012 to July, 2012. The overall average concentrations of individual VOCs were benzene(1.61 μg/m3) > carbon tetrachloride (0.78 μg/m3) > chloroform(0.67 μg/m3) in order. Indoor/outdoor(I/O) ratios of benzene, carbon tetrachloride, chloroform were 1.33, 1.09, 1.72, respectively. Benzene and carbon tetrachloride are thought to be more strongly associated with outdoor sources as compared to chloroform. Spearman correlation of benzene, carbon tetrachloride between indoor and outdoor concentration showed statistically significant levels(p < 0.05). The linear correlations for benzene, styrene, and carbon tetrachloride were tested. A significant correlation was observed only for carbon tetrachloride, accounting for 83 % of the variance. The risk assessment of the carcinogenic VOCs for teachers, infants, and children showed that none of the targeted VOCs posed a serious risk.

Building materials are composed of very complex chemical compounds. The aims of this paper are to investigate the emission concentrations of indoor pollutants from new apartment house and the emission variation patterns during 75 days. The average value of total volatile organic compounds(TVOCs) concentration was 3,768 ㎍/㎥ in five new apartments. Major VOCs included toluene, ethylbenzene, m,p-xylene and o-xylene. The average concentrations of each compound were measured as : benzene(58㎍/㎥), toluene (793㎍/㎥), ethylbenzene(438㎍/㎥), styrene(79㎍/㎥), m,p-xylene(1,210㎍/㎥), o-xylene(364㎍/㎥). The results indicated that the major VOCs from the new apartment were affected by building products such as on aromatic hydrocarbon compounds. TVOCs emission are characterized as high emission level at initial time (12,856㎍/㎥) and decreased through time. After a lapse of 75 days in sample house, TVOCs concentration decreased in about 20 times as compared with the initial concentration. The TVOCs emission profiles strongly depended on the generation mode and the concentration of the VOCs in building material.

The use of natural paint for the application to walls and furnishings is now increasing to improve indoor air quality, thereby the natural paint could be a significant source of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) in indoor environments. Recent studies have shown that gas-phase reactions between terpenes and ozone can generate sub-micron size particles and toxic volatile organic compounds such as aldehydes and ketones. In this research, we have studied the formation of particles and secondary organic compounds during the reaction of ozone with terpenes emitted from commercial natural paint. The paint applied onto stainless steel was dried and oxidized in a teflon chamber. Two monoterpenes (α- and β-pinenes) were identified by FTIR and GC/MS. Several tests were performed to evaluate the effects of ozone concentration on particle formation. Increased ozone levels significantly affect the increase of particle number concentration (monitored with SMPS), which results in the increase of particle counts ranging from 8,000 to 70,000 particles/㎤. Gas-phase products such as formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acetone + acrolein, and propionaldehyde were identified during the terpene/ozone reactions by HPLC. These compounds are potential hazardous chemical compounds having harmful health effects to animals and plants. The results obtained from this study provide an insight on the adverse effect of eco-friendly natural product on indoor air quality (IAQ).