The goal of this study was to measure the indoor and outdoor fine and ultrafine particulate matter concentrations (PM10, PM1.0) of some houses in Yeosu and in S university in Asan from March to September 2018. PM10 concentration in indoor air in Yeosu area was 18.25 μg/m3, while for outdoor air it was 14.53 μg/m3. PM1.0 concentration in indoor air in the Asan area was 1.70 μg/m3, while for outdoor air it was 1.76 μg/m3, showing a similar trend. Heavy metal concentrations in the Yeosu region were the highest, at Mn 2.81 μg/m3, Cr 1.30 μg/ m3, and Ni 1.11 μg/m3 indoors. Outside, similar concentrations were found, at Cr 3.44 μg/m3, Mn, 2.60 μg/m3, and Ni 1.71 μg/m3. Our analysis of indoor and outdoor PM concentrations in the Asan region, which was carried out using the MOUDI (Micro-orifice Uniform Deposit Impactor) technique, found that PM concentration is related to each particle size concentration, as the concentration of 18 μm and 18-10 μm inside tends to increase by 3.2- 1.8 μm and 0.56-0.32 μm.

In this study, 102 residents in Gwangyang and Yeosu were evaluated for exposure to levels of urethral arsenic from April 2017 to June 2018. The geometric mean concentration of the urinary arsenic in the total studied was 154.30 μg/L, with the figure for the Gwangyang area being 201.18 μg/L and the figure for the Yeosu area being 200.21 μg/L, which signifies that there was no real difference between the two regions. The figures for males and females were 173.81 μg/L and 136.98 μg/L, respectively, indicating higher levels for males. In the case of males, the risk assessment of arsenic (As) showed that 0.54 does not exceed 1 and approximately 11.3% exceeded the reference value. For women, the number of hazardous materials did not exceed 1.41 and approximately 5.1% exceeded the reference value of the total arsenic exposure survey.

In this study, 40 residents of the Gwangyang and Yeosu areas were assessed for their level of exposure to heavy metals (As, Cd, Ni) from April 2017 to June 2018. The aim was to understand the differences in levels of indoor exposure to heavy metals (As, Cd, Ni), and a health risk assessment was conducted to determine whether there was any fatal cause from carcinogenic elements. The mean concentrations of PM10 particles indoors were As 0.24 μg/m3, Cd 0.07 μg/m3, and Ni 0.89 μg/m3. The health risk assessment for the arsenic, cadmium, and nickel in indoor air confirmed that the mean values exceeded the cancer risk tolerances specified by the U.S. EPA, for As (males 3.07 × 10−4, females 3.35 × 10−4), Cd (males 3.83 × 10−5, females 4.18 × 10−5), and Ni (males 6.36 × 10−5, females 6.95 × 10−5).

In this study, we measured the concentration of Particulate Matter(PM10), Formaldehyde(HCHO), and Total Bacteria Count (TBC) at two facilities: day care centers, and postnatal care centers located in the cities of Gyeonggi, Gangwon, Jeolla and Gyeongsang from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2015. PM10 concentration was similar to the day care centers and postnatal care centers. HCHO concentration was the highest in the postnatal care centers. TBC concentration was the highest in the day care centers. Comparing the different cities, PM10 concentration was the highest in Gyeonggi, HCHO concentration was the highest in Gyeonggi, and TBC concentration was the highest in Gyeonggi. As a result of HCHO's risk assessment, it was found that adults exceeded the carcinogenicity tolerance of 10−6 specified by the US EPA. This study is expected to be helpful in preventing damage to health from the contaminated indoor air at sensitive facilities, and can be used as basic data for indoor air quality management.

In this study, we measured the concentration of Particulate Matter (PM10), Formaldehyde (HCHO), and Total Bacteria Count (TBC) at three facilities: elderly care centers, day care centers, and postnatal care centers located in the cities of Seoul, Sejong, Daegu and Ulsan from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2015. PM10 concentration was the highest in the day care centers and HCHO concentration was the highest in the postnatal care centers. TBC concentration was the highest in the day care centers. Comparing the different cities, PM10 concentration was the highest in Sejong, HCHO concentration was the highest in Seoul, and TBC concentration was the highest in Daegu. This study is expected to be helpful in preventing damage to health from the contaminated indoor air at sensitive facilities, and can be used as basic data for indoor air quality management.

The purpose of this study is to illustrate the design of safety suits based on energy-harvesting technology, particularly targeting street cleaners who must work at night with high mobility. The design focuses on applying lightweight energyharvesting tools and illuminant into the wear. The design development reflects feedback from testers collected via survey constituting a key methodology. The development process has two main stages. Each stage uses a process of design prototyping, internal examination, test sampling, test wearing, and wearers’ feedback via survey that consists of questions on visibility, wearing convenience, and washability. The first stage results show the design of safety suits with energy-harvested LED illuminant inserted and the survey results collected from street cleaners dressed in 4 sample and 80 actual suits in total. Improved based on the first-stage survey results, the second stage designs the suits with detachable energy-harvested EL tape. From these 5 sample and 30 actual second-stage suits, the additional survey indicates that this second-stage design facilitates more visibility and convenience in washing and wearing than the first-stage design. Accordingly, one can expect that this new design can apply not only to safety suits for night workers but also to handicapped or outdoor sportswear applications in the future.

This study was conducted targeting 30 residents of Gwangyang industrial complex area from April to May 2017 to assess their level of exposure to VOCs and conduct a health risk assessment for individual exposure. The aim was to understand the difference in levels of indoor, outdoor and personal exposure to VOCs (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, m-xylene, p-xylene, o-xylene) and a health risk assessment was conducted to determine whether there was any fatal cause from carcinogenic or non-carcinogenic elements from a respiratory disease patients. In the case of benzene in the air, the geometric levels of the group are indoor, outdoor and personal exposure; on the CTE, RME condition and Monte-Carlo analysis, all subjects were seen to exceed the carcinogenicity tolerance of 10−6 specified by the US EPA. In the case of toluene, ethylbenzene, m-xylene, p-xylene, o-xylene on the CTE, RME condition and Monte-Carlo analysis, the non-carcinogenic standard of 1 was not exceeded.

This study was carried out to investigate the presence of a correlation between heavy metals in urine samples and upper airway diseases. For the study, 51 household residents of Gwangyang, both with and without upper airway disease, were targeted. Urine samples were collected from the subjects along with a questionnaire from April 24th to 27th, 2017. The heavy metals in the urine samples were preprocessed and analyzed using an inductively coupled plasma/mass spectrometer. The geometric mean concentration of urinary arsenic and cadmium was 138.66 μg/L and 0.75 μg/g creatinine among those with upper airway disease and 166.42 μg/L and 1.19 μg/ g creatinine among those without upper airway disease. This was not a statistically significant difference. The concentration of urinary arsenic and cadmium was found to be increased by 1.19 times (95% CI; 0.15-9.31) and 1.26 times (95% CI; 0.31-5.04) in household residents with upper airway diseases with more than 144.86 μg/L and 0.85 μg/g creatinine, respectively.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the concentration of airborne particulate matter and heavy metals in the houses of the respiratory tract disease patients and a control group of residents in the city of Gwangyang. The particulate matter was measured using a mini-volume air sampler and then weighed three times using a micro balance to calculate the weighted average value. The heavy metals in the particulate matter were extracted using a hot plate and analyzed using an inductively coupled plasma/mass spectrometer. The average concentration of particulate matter in the outdoor air (34.478 μm/m3) was higher than that in the indoor air (16.794 μm/m3), showing a statistically significant difference (p<0.001). The average concentration of copper, manganese and chromium in the indoor and outdoor air were higher in the houses of those in the study group than those of the control group. In addition, there was a generally high correlation between particulate matter in the outdoor air and heavy metals in the indoor and outdoor air concentration (p<0.05).

The objectives of this study were to investigate the effects of PM10 and O3 concentration on the symptoms of allergic diseases. The questionnaire was used to determine whether or not symptoms of allergic diseases were present from September to October 2012. The air pollution concentration data used was the corresponding point CEM (continuous emission monitoring) data. The average concentration of PM10 was 56.09 μg/m3 in the control area, and the concentration in the exposed area was 40.44 μg/m3. In the two areas, concentration of O3 was 28.73 ppb and 28.74 ppb, respectively. The total average concentrations of PM10 and O3 were 45.66 μg/m3 and 28.73 ppb in the Gwangyang area. The rate of asthma diagnosis was higher in the control area (9.6%) than in the exposed area (4.1%), but the rate of allergy eye disease was higher in the exposed area (23.9%) than in the control area (16.5%). There was a significant difference in the symptoms of some allergic diseases when the relative concentration of PM10 and O3 were high and low.

In this study, the distribution of each facility group, the pollution level of local municipalities and the status of self-measurement were investigated and analyzed using data provided by the Ministry of Environment. It was found that most of the workplaces to be managed are facilities of sensitive class, indoor parking lots and largescale stores. The results of the survey on the total pollution level by facility group showed that the rate of contamination was the highest in the facilities where there are many sensitive users, including the subway station and the underground shopping malls. Through self-measurement, in the case of fine particle matter, it was found that it was present in amounts of 51.71 μg/m3, 50.72 μg/m3, 44.47 μg/m3 and 54.44 μg/m3 in medical institutions, day care centers, elderly care facilities and postnatal care centers, respectively. Also, there were facilities exceeding the standard in the medical institutions. However, most of the pollutants in the facilities surveyed by the municipality are higher than the self-measured concentrations, so it is necessary to examine the cause of such pollution.

In this study, we analyzed the concentration of cadmium and mercury in urine and lead in blood from 668 residents in the exposed and compared areas in Gwangyang-si and Yeosu-si, from July 2013 to December 2015. According to the lifestyle (past smoking, current smoking, passive smoking, drinking and exercise), the concentration of cadmium in urine was higher in the compared areas than in the exposed areas in Gwangyang. However, the concentration of cadmium in urine according to the lifestyle except drinking was higher in the exposed areas than in the compared areas in Yeosu. According to the past smoking and current smoking, the concentration of mercury in urine was higher in the compared areas than in the exposed areas in Gwangyang, but the passive smoking, drinking and exercise showed similar concentration levels both in the exposed and compared areas in Gwangyang. The concentration of mercury in urine according to the past smoking and current smoking was higher in the exposed areas than in the compared areas in Yeosu, but the concentration of mercury in urine according to the drinking and exercise was lower in the exposed areas than in the compared areas in Yeosu. According to the past smoking, the concentration of lead in blood showed similar concentration levels in the exposed and compared areas in Gwangyang, but regarding current and passive smoking, it was higher in the compared areas than in the exposed areas in Gwangyang. Especially, the concentration of lead in blood according to the drinking in Gwangyang showed statistically significant difference (p<0.05). The concentration of lead in blood according to the lifestyle was higher in the compared areas than in the exposed areas in Yeosu.