In South Korea, Particulate matter (PM) has become one of the major threats to public health and safety across the country. Urban forests have been considered as a possible contributor to mitigate the air pollutants in urban areas. However, there is lack of research on investigating the role of urban forests on mitigating PM. This study investigated on the relationship between urban forests and PM concentrations in Seoul, South Korea, by using urban forest data, PM measurements, satellite imagery, and meteorological data. The correlation between the size of urban forests and PM measurements within three concentric buffers of 1 km, 500 m, and 300 m in radius were analyzed. Overall PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations varied significantly with different seasons during the 2-year study period. Overall PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations tended to be reduced as the urban forest size increased. This tendency became less noticeable as smaller urban forest patches were predominant over larger patches in the buffers. Season-specific models were developed by using 30m-resolution satellite imageries of Landsat 8 and meteorological parameters for estimating PM concentrations. No noticeable correlations were found between the modeled PM concentrations and the Urban forest size showing the ualves of Pearson’s coefficient r of 0.08 to 0.23 for PM10 and -0.16 to 0.04 for PM2.5. In this study, the variations in PM measurements with the presence of high urban forests within buffers were investigated. Overall PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations were lower along the domains encompassing higher urban forests in elevation.

It was investigated the state information for the atmospheric conditions around Dang-jin industrial complex in Chungnam area may be polluted by the constructing steel industrial complex. It is aimed at characterization of the fine particulate matter and other air pollutants involved in it. Samples were collected two sites for monitoring point representing steel industrial complex and one site which is placed a remote and secluded from this industrial complex, and the concentration of PM10, heavy metals, and ion components were analyzed. As a results, PM10 average concentration was 64.6㎍/㎥ for the adjacent site before Hyundai Steel Company, 70.5㎍/㎥ in Bugok immigration settlement complex, and 56.5㎍/㎥ for Jeonggok-ri contrastive point. The distribution of heavy metals was detected as very low level for all sampling points. According to the result of statistical evaluation for the heavy metal analysis, variation range of Cu, Mn, Ca, Fe, and Mg were significant higher than others. Also, the seasonal concentration change trend of heavy metals was remarkable strong in spring and low in summer because of instable meteorological phenomena such as yellow dust happened in spring. Monthly changing pattern of a sulphate ion has kept unusually high level for summer period different other components. Relationship among PM10, heavy metal, and ion component were analyzed that high positive correlation coefficient for PM10 between Fe, Mn, Pb, Ca, Mg, Cd, Al in order and PM10 between NO3-, Cl- successively. Accordingly, it is suggested that a present atmospheric conditions of the surrounding area of Dang-jin steel industrial complex is considered to be good level. Although air pollutants in emissions from their complex were below the existing emission limit, it is regarded that the systematic and continuous research is needed to preserve clean air through atmospheric monitoring, source tracing research, and citizen's surveillance for the fine particulate matter.

2000년 춘계에 한국 농촌지역인 충남 서산에서 대기부유분진(SPM)과 곰팡이포자의 관계에 대해 조사하였다. 부유분진의 농도는 1차 황사기간(3월 23-24일)에 199.8μg m-3, 2차 황사기간(4월 7-9일)에 249.4μg m-3, 비황사기간(5월 12-6일)에 98.9μg m-3으로 각각 나타났다. 2회의 황사기간들간에 부유분진 농도는 차이를 보였지만 5μm 정도의 입경 크기를

Background: Small particles increase airway inflammation upon reaching the alveoli. Here, we investigated the protective or therapeutic effects of Salvia plebeia R. Br. (SP_R) extracts on airway inflammation. Methods and Results: To investigate the anti-inflammatory activity of SP_R extracts, we measured their inhibitory effect on the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) expression of inflammatory mediators, and immune cell infiltration in MH-S alveolar macrophage cells and in the ambient particulate matter (APM)-exposed airway inflammation mice model. The SP_R extracts inhibited the production of ROS and expression of IL-4, IL-10, IL-15, and IL-17A mRNA in APM-stimulated MH-S cells. Oral administration of SP_R extracts suppressed APM-induced inflammatory symptoms, such as high alveolar wall thickness, excess collagen fibers, decreased mRNA expression of chemokines (Ccr9, Ccl5, Ccr3), inflammatory cytokines (IL-15, TNF-α), and IL-4 Th2 cytokine in the lung. The SP_R extracts also inhibited ROS production, granulocyte (CD11b+Gr-1+) infiltration, IL-17A, TNF-α, macrophage inflammatory protein (Mip-2), and chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 1 (Cxcl-1) production in the airway. The specific compounds in the SR-R extracts that mediate the anti-inflammatory effects were identified. Conclusions: In this study, SP_R extracts effectively inhibited airway inflammatory responses, such as ROS production and granulocyte infiltration into the airway, by regulating the expression of chemokines and inflammatory cytokines.