This study analyzed IoT-based indoor air quality monitoring data in a cooking room at a high school in Seoul. As a result of measuring the type and concentration change of cooking fumes generated during roasting, frying, and stir-fry, each cooking method showed a different pattern. Some cooking fumes were observed high during the distribution process, not during cooking, and it is necessary to observe and control indoor air quality during the entire process of cooking, storage, and distribution as well as various elements of cooking fumes. Through these results, we propose the addition of an IoT-based real-time indoor air quality monitoring system and ventilation facilities linked to it.

The importance of indoor air quality has significantly increased after the COVID-19 pandemic. This study analyzed the energy consumption of a ventilation system based on various operating methods considering indoor and outdoor conditions. From March to May 2024, experiments were conducted on ventilation systems installed in a hospital in Incheon, comparing the experimental and control groups. The results showed that using the bypass mode in the experimental group reduced total energy consumption by 25.34% compared to the control group. Additionally, utilizing the air-cleaner mode further reduced energy use. This study demonstrates that optimal use of bypass and air-cleaner modes can enhance energy efficiency. Further research is needed to verify long-term applicability under diverse conditions.

The Indoor Air Quality Control Act aims to regulate indoor air quality (IAQ) to safeguard public health and promote a comfortable living environment. This law encompasses multi-use facilities, newly constructed residential complexes, and public transportation vehicles. The law also involves mandating air quality standards, conducting periodic measurements, and transparent public reporting of results. Over time, the Indoor Air Quality Control Act has expanded to enforce stricter controls on building materials and enhance radon mitigation measures. In doing so, it embodies the principles of the Environmental Policy Basic Act and is supported by other laws, policies, and systems related to air quality management. In line with these efforts, local governments have been implementing IAQ initiatives tailored to regional needs, including consulting services and financial support. However, challenges persist in harmonizing management across diverse facilities due to overlapping responsibilities among laws and government bodies. Future recommendations emphasize integrated strategies and enhanced inter-agency coordination to address these gaps effectively, ensuring healthier indoor environments for all stakeholders.

This study aims to prepare bamboo-based activated carbons with surface modifications, focusing on carbon dioxide (CO2) capture in public indoor spaces. The surface of the activated carbon adsorbents was chemically modified through three steps: carbonization, steam activation, and chemical treatment using potassium hydroxide (KOH) and potassium sulfamate (KSO3NH2). The specific surface area and pore volume of the obtained adsorbent (BSAC-KN) were 1,246 m2/g and 0.74 cm3/g, respectively. The surface modification resulted in an adsorption capacity of up to 3.79 mmol-CO2/ g-AC for carbon dioxide. In addition, the expansion of the specific surface area and the enhanced physico-chemical interaction between the weak acidic CO2 molecules and the basic AC surface improved adsorption capacity.

Indoor air quality is a critical factor affecting health and quality of life, especially in spaces frequently used by sensitive populations such as adolescents. This study assessed the impact of garden ball installations and electrochemical fertilizer applications on indoor air quality in two youth centers, Center S and Center W, located in Bucheon, South Korea. PM2.5, PM10, and CO2 concentrations were monitored and analyzed based on the presence of garden balls and the use of electrochemical fertilizers. The results showed that spaces with garden balls (w/ G.B.) had significantly lower PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations compared to offices and spaces without garden balls (w/o G.B.). In Center W, the presence of garden balls alone improved air quality, highlighting the potential of vertical greening as a sustainable solution. In Center S, the application of electrochemical fertilizers during the “after + period” (when both garden balls and electrochemical fertilizers were applied) further enhanced particulate matter reduction, demonstrating the fertilizers’ ability to amplify plants’ air-purifying effects. This study provides empirical evidence that garden balls are an eco-friendly option for indoor air quality management. Combining electrochemical fertilizers with garden balls shows promise for enhancing air quality, offering a practical model for multi-use facilities such as youth centers.

Objectives: The main purpose of this study was to identify problems such as cooking fumes and lack of ventilation in school cafeterias and evaluate the improvement in the reduction of indoor pollutants in the cooking rooms through renovation. Methods: Three schools were selected for renovation and the spatial structures and air conditioning system of the cafeterias and cooking rooms wre investigated after renovation. The air conditioning systems were improved by the renovation work according to the characteristics of each school, and the concentration of indoor pollutants was measured and evaluated through CFD analysis. Results: The concentration of indoor pollutants in the cafeterias and cafe rooms was decreased after renovation. Conclusion: Air conditioning systems in the schools cafeterias and cooking rooms were improved in order to solve the problems of ventilation, and the indoor air quality improvement rate ranged from a minimum of 11% to a maximum of 40%. The renovation of cafeterias and cooking rooms was conducted to optimize the ventilation systems and this contributed to indoor air quality improvement by preventing the inflow of pollutants.

The objective of this study is to analyze the indoor air quality of multi-use facilities using an IoT-based monitoring and control system. Thise study aims to identify effective management strategies and propose policy improvements. This research focused on 50 multi-use facilities, including daycare centers, medical centers, and libraries. Data on PM10, PM2.5, CO2, temperature, and humidity were collected 24 hours a day from June 2019 to April 2020. The analysis included variations in indoor air quality by season, hour, and day of the week (including both weekdays and weekends). Additionally, ways to utilize IoT monitoring systems using big data were propsed. The reliability analysis of the IoT monitoring network showed an accuracy of 81.0% for PM10 and 76.1% for PM2.5. Indoor air quality varied significantly by season, with higher particulate matter levels in winter and spring, and slightly higher levels on weekends compared to weekdays. There was a positive correlation found between outdoor and indoor pollutant levels. Indoor air quality management in multi-use facilities requires season-specific strategies, particularly during the winter and spring. Furhtermore, enhanced management is necessary during weekends due to higher pollutant levels.

Passengers on public buses operating in the metropolitan area are exposed to the closed indoor air for minutes to hours. The indoor air quality of buses is mostly controlled through ceiling-mounted ventilation and filtration devices. A simulation study using a commercial code was conducted for fluid flow analysis to evaluate the potential effectiveness of an air purifier that can be inserted into bus windows to supply clean air from the outside to the inside. As a result of field measurements, the average CO2 concentration inside the bus during morning and evening rush hours ranged from 2,106±309 ppm to 3,308 ± 255 ppm depending on the number of passengers on board. This exceeded the Guideline for Public Transportation. The optimal installation position of an air purifier appeared to be the front side of the bus. In fact, even a low diffusing flow velocity of 0.5m/s was effective enough to maintain a low concentration of CO2 throughout the indoor space. Based on numerical analysis predictions with 45 passengers on board, the maximum CO2 concentration in the breathing zone was 2,203 ppm with the operation of an air purifier.

Vulnerable populations in healthcare facilities are more sensitive to exposure to indoor air pollutants, and therefore are more affected by such pollutants than the general population. This was the underlying reason why studies of indoor air pollutant concentration distribution and health risk assessment have been conducted targeting facilities, such as daycare centers, medical facilities, elderly care facilities, and postnatal care centers. However, previous studies have mainly focused on daycare and medical facilities for their research, and relatively speaking, studies conducted on the other venues are lacking. Therefore, this study aims to present the current status of indoor air quality and perform a health risk assessment in regard to Formaldehyde exposure at postnatal care centers and elderly care facilities. Here, the study focused on facilities that had undergone pollution level inspections from January 2017 to December 2021. A total of 81 postnatal care centers and 48 elderly care facilities were selected as the subject of the study. Then, the study utilized concentrations of five elements (CO2, HCHO, PM10, PM2.5, TBC) to determine the status of indoor air quality of both postnatal care centers and elderly care facilities. For health risk assessment, HCHO concentration was used. The investigation demonstrated that the yearly average concentration of the five elements stood within the indoor air quality maintenance standards, and the ratio of PM2.5 to PM10 in the two types of facilities was distributed as high as about 70%. In addition, the study showed that HCHO and TBC demonstrated a positive correlation when the relationship between indoor temperature and humidity with the five elements was examined. The health risk assessment showed that the cancer risk level of postnatal care center users stood below 10-6, below the level that is perceived as an acceptable risk. The cancer risk of workers from both postnatal care centers and elderly care facilities and elderly care facility users exceeded the acceptable risk level of 10-6, but was shown to be below 10-4, the maximum acceptable risk.

Air curtains, blowing air streams across a doorway, were installed in trial trains on subway line 7 in 2021 and they have been operated with dust collectors to improve the air quality of subway trains. In this study, we investigated the effects of air curtains on the indoor air quality in the trial subway trains. The concentrations of PM2.5 and carbon dioxide in the four selected cabins were measured in the morning hours (e.g., 7:30–11:30 am including the morning rush hour). The measurements were conducted on February 26, March 31, April 30, and May 14, 2021 and air curtain (AC)s and dust collector (DC)s in the four cabins were operated differently on those measuring days. All devices were turned off in the control cabin and only ACs, only DCs, and both the ACs and DCs were turned on in the other three cabins, respectively. The 4-h-averaged PM2.5 concentrations in the cabins, where only ACs and only DCs are turned on, are lower than in the control cabin by 18% and 26%, respectively. In addition, the joint operation of ACs and DCs can decrease the PM2.5 concentration by up to 42%. The time series of PM2.5 concentrations, measured on April 30, illustrate again that ACs block the intrusion of outside particulate matters. The 4-h-averaged carbon dioxide concentrations in the four cabins do not show monotonic differences between the cabins because of the generation of carbon dioxides inside the cabins. When the weights of individual cars and thus the numbers of passengers are similar between the cabins, the carbon dioxide concentrations in the ACs-operated cabins are higher than in the control cabin. This indicates that ACs can block the outward emission of carbon dioxides and maybe other indoor air pollutants as well.

Indoor air quality management is essential for a healthy life. However, it is difficult to perceive, detect, and monitor the level of indoor air pollution and this means that it is possible to be exposed to more pollution indoors than outdoors. In this study, in order to derive effective indoor air quality management measures, public perceptions and behavioral characteristics regarding indoor particulate matter and air quality management methods were investigated through a survey of 1,000 people. Based on the survey, it was found that most of the respondents had a negative perception of the indoor air quality of their residence, and natural ventilation was the most used method for indoor air quality management. Although the frequency of use of air quality management devices such as air purifiers and mechanical ventilation systems was relatively low, their effect regarding air quality management was positively perceived. In particular, the results of survey indicated that respondents of families which included members with fragile health engaged in more active behavior regarding in indoor air quality management than those respondents whose family members had no health issues and that the former have used air quality management devices more frequently. Therefore, it is necessary to develop proper guidelines to encourage more people to actively participate in improving indoor air quality.

This study was designed to verify what effect the use of a natural ventilation system can have on improving indoor air quality with regard to radon in various concentration ranges in an apartment house. The results show that both high (2~3 times higher than 148 m3) and low (similar to 148 Bq/m3) levels of indoor radon concentrations can be reduced close to and/or below the Korean IAQ guideline within 6 hours when the natural ventilation system is operated at approximately an air change rate of 0.5. In the case of an air change rate of 0.3, however, the indoor radon levels cannot meet the national guidelines and the reduction effect was insufficient with regard to various radon concentrations. Typically, the air change rate of a natural ventilation system is affected by meteorological factors such as temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, pressure. Its effectiveness varies according to such factors, for that reason, the reduction effects on radon did not increase proportionally with the ventilation time in this study.

The issue surrounding the problem of air pollution arising from rapid industrialization is one that is being continuously raised for discussion among the public, and concerns about indoor air quality have emerged both at home and abroad due to the longer periods of time spent indoors in modern times. Various studies are being conducted to solve this problem, and photocatalysts are also being studied as a solution. Accordingly, this research sought to verify the performance of reducing indoor pollutants by applying photocatalysts to building materials. As a result of evaluating the indoor pollutant reduction performance, it was confirmed that acetaldehyde was reduced by about 31%, toluene 29%, and total volatile compounds by 11%, and adhesion strength, an important factor regarding finishing material, was also enhanced 1.3 times or more based on Korean Industrial Standards. From these results, it is believed that indoor air pollution can be lowered to a certain extent through building materials using photocatalysts, and, therefore, research on long-term performance verification and evaluation methods should be continuously conducted and pursued in the future in relation to photocatalysts.

In this study, indoor air quality indices (IAQI-C and IAQI-E) were developed for child care centers and elderly care centers based on health effects, and compared to the air quality index (CAI) for outdoor atmosphere. In addition, composite indices that integrate individual indices for each pollutant were developed to quickly and conveniently recognize the current air quality. Among all data, 71.2% and 35.6% belonged to the grades 'Good' and 'Moderate' for child care centers and elderly care centers, respectively. This assessment is more stringent than the CAI's criteria.

This study was conducted to help manage total floating bacteria and fungi in the indoor air by studying the characteristics of total floating bacteria and fungi according to the indoor CO2 concentration of daycare centers. The sampling and analysis of samples was based on the indoor air quality process test method, and the result analysis was conducted using the SPSS statistical program to perform correlation and regression analysis. Correlation and regression results show that CO2 and total airborne bacteria showed positive relationships, but airborne mold did not show relevance. In addition, in order to identify factors affecting airborne mold, correlation analysis and regression analysis were performed regarding total airborne bacteria, PM10, PM2.5, HCHO, outdoor mold, I/O ratio, indoor temperature/ humidity, area per classroom and volume. The results showed that the factors affecting airborne mold were I/O ratio, outdoor airborne mold, and total airborne bacteria. Research results show that CO2 and total airborne bacteria can be reduced and controlled by natural ventilation, and in the case of airborne mold, mechanical forced ventilation such as hoods will be necessary due to the introduction of outdoor airborne mold. In addition, it is necessary to consider I/O ratio criteria in order to confirm effective indoor mold contamination, taking into account the effect of outdoor mold inflow.

In this paper, a survey on students’ perceptions of air pollution, particulate matter (PM) and indoor air quality (IAQ) in school classrooms was analyzed. A total of 174 students participated in the survey, where 127 and 47 participants were elementary school students and middle school students, respectively. The elementary school was located in a rural area of Korea, whereas the middle school was located in an urban area. The questionnaire of the survey was mainly composed of three parts: (1) students’ perceptions of air pollution, (2) students’ perceptions of IAQ in the classroom, and (3) students’ perceptions of how to improve IAQ in the classroom. Based on our study, the responses of the students for the given questionnaire showed an opposite tendency. The students in the rural area tended to have positive perceptions regarding IAQ in the classroom as well as air pollution, whereas the students in the urban area revealed negative perceptions for the same items. Our survey results can be used by school officials in order to maintain and improve IAQ in school classrooms based on the perceptions of the students.

National concerns about air pollution are growing. The importance of indoor air quality is emerging because people live in an indoor environment more than 90% of the day. In particular, the indoor air quality of schools needs to be managed as teenagers are vulnerable to environmental pollution. The government has designated the School Health Act in order to manage indoor air quality in schools. Air purifiers have been operated to improve indoor air quality in the classroom since 2018. In this study, we performed on-site evaluations in some classrooms, and then we proposed a plan for improving the air quality in the classroom. In this study, PM10, PM2.5, and CO2 in classrooms in Chungnam were measured to analyze the effect of air cleaner supply. A portable aerosol spectrometer (PAS, model 1.109, Grimm) and CO2 meter (TES 1370, TES) were used as measuring instruments. Schools A and B exceeded the recommended standards, while school C met the standards. The ratio of PM10, PM2.5 in classrooms A and B was 0.58 and 0.5, respectively. Correlation analysis was performed between indoor and outdoor pollutants to analyze the effects of particulate pollutants present in each classroom. First, the measured concentration of fine particles was classified according to/on the basis of factors that affect/influence the internal environment of the classroom. Then, fine dust concentrations measured at the same time as AQMS were classified with regard to the external factors. The gradients for each classroom were 1.57, 1.63, and 1.54, although there were differences in concentration, but they were relatively similar. It is necessary to develop and disseminate customized air purifiers considering the activity of the occupants of classrooms. It is important to consider the areas in which s tudents breathe when installing air purifiers in the classroom. In addition, follow-up management of air purifiers is an essential element. For efficient operation and management of indoor air quality, it is necessary to develop and disseminate standard manuals for air purifiers. It is proposed that an environmental manager should be deployed in schools to manage environmental issues. Standardization of air purifiers, management guidelines for standard manuals, and field support for environmental sheriffs should be established on a legal basis.

This study aimed to assess the pollution level in 13 crowded subway stations in an effort to understand the spatial and seasonal factors of Indoor Air Quality. The main measured items were particulate pollutants such as PM10 and PM2.5 and gaseous pollutants such as CO2, HCHO, Rn, TVOC, BTEX, and Styrene at concourses and platforms in the summer and winter periods. The influence of the draught created by the movement of the train was classified into lateral and island platforms, and the concentrations of PM by location (entrance, middle, and end) were statistically compared and analyzed. As a result, the concentrations of PM were confirmed high in the order of Platform > Concourse > Ambient air. In particular, in the case of platform PM10, the frequency exceeding the standard value (100 μg/m3) was 38.5% and the maximum concentration was 196.2 μg/m3. All gaseous pollutants were at lower levels than the standard, and the factors affecting CO2 and Rn were identified as the number of users and geological characteristics, respectively. The principal component analysis (PCA) demonstrated that PM was found to be a major indicator of the air quality management of subway stations. In particular, the concentrations at entrance and end areas in the lateral platform were about 1.4 times higher with regard to PM10 than in the middle area, and about 1.9 times higher with regard to PM2.5 due to the effect created by the draught produced by the movement of the train. Therefore, in order to manage PM in the platform area, a specialized management plan for places with particularly high PM concentration within the platform area is required. In addition, it is necessary to evaluate the effect created by the draught produced by train movement when selecting locations for measuring indoor air quality.