This study investigated 180 students’ indoor environmental awareness of rest spaces and measured the indoor and outdoor concentrations of PM10, TVOCs, and HCHO in 8 rest spaces from October 2019. 89.4% of the students responded that they use rest spaces at least once a day and most of the respondents are using rest spaces in the university. The largest number of students responded to the tight space as the main cause of air pollution in rest spaces. 62.1% of the students answered they experienced health symptoms from using rest spaces. Among them, 32.5% said they experienced irritation symptoms of eyes, neck, nose, and 12.1% answered that they experienced headaches. Indoor PM10, TVOCs, and HCHO levels did not exceed indoor air quality recommendations nor the maintenance standard for multi-use facilities. Indoor PM10, TVOCs, and HCHO levels did not exceed indoor air quality recommendations nor the maintenance standard for multi-use facilities. According to the type of rest space, concentrations of PM10, TVOCs, and HCHO were higher among the closed-type than open-type rest space. Even if the concentration of pollutants is less than the environmental standard, continuous exposure may cause negative health effects. In addition, considering that 62.1% of the respondents experienced health symptoms, it is deemed necessary to take measures to manage indoor environments in rest spaces and to develop measures to reduce pollutants.

In this study, we measured the concentration of total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs) in four different seasons from 2016 to 2017 in order to determine seasonal variation of indoor air quality in relation to public transportation modes (subways, trains, and express buses). The measurement was carried out both during rush hour when traffic was congested as well as during non-rush hour when traffic was not congested. Effects by season, degree of congestion, and characteristics of public transportation were analyzed on the basis of 295 items of data during the periods of congestion and 295 items of data during the periods of non-congestion. The average TVOCs concentration in winter was the highest with 226.4 μg/m 3 . The average TVOCs concentration on an express bus was the highest with a seasonal average of 142.3 μg/m 3 . The TVOCs concentration in the period of congested traffic was higher than in the period of non-congested traffic for all public transportation modes. For the average TVOCs concentration by season and transportation, there was no data that exceeded the guidelines regarding maintaining indoor air quality. However, 2.5% of all sample measured data (TVOCs) exceeded the guidelines regarding maintaining indoor air quality. Therefore, the continuous monitoring of public transport vehicles is required.

This study was undertaken to investigate the concentration of VOCs from newly built apartments in three cities (Suncheon, Yeosu, and Gwangyang) of Honam province in Korea. VOCs were sampled using canister and analyzed by GC/MSD. The result of the canister blank test showed that, most VOCs were not detected when 5 ppb was cleaned once and 10 ppb was cleaned with two times. In case of the replicate alalysis to check for the precision of GC/MSD, RSD values were found to be excellent at 6%. The upper floor of C apartment (25 pyong) showed the highest concentration of TVOCs at 3,235 ㎍/㎥. The average concentration of TVOCs was the highest in C apartment (25 pyong) as 1,833±1,217 ㎍/㎥. The average concentration of TVOCs in K (52 pyong) and S apartment (16 pyong) were 1,820±1,035 ㎍/㎥ and 498±71 ㎍/㎥, respectively. The I/O ratio of TVOCs were 8.99∼35.90 (mean : 25.99), 11.51∼35.43 (mean : 20.07) and 6.03∼7.90 (mean : 6.92) in K, C and S apartment, respectively. From these results, it is believed that the concentration of TVOCs was comparatively high in new apartment. Therefore, it is important to use low VOC emission materials to reduce the emission concentration of VOCs from in new apartment. It is hence necessary that a scientific study is performed to secure clean indoor air quality.

In this study, the TVOCs and odor active compounds emitted from 3 PVC and 5 natural wallpapers were analyzed. The emitted odor intensities and characteristics of the wallpapers were estimated using air dilution sensory and direct olfactory methods. The emissions of TVOCs were measured using the SPME-cryogenic emission test method, which was modified from the RAL-GZ 479 method, which is used in Germany to evaluate the quality of wallpapers. It was found that there was no significant correlation between the emissions of TVOCs and the odor concentration. However, a correlation (0.57) was found between the emitted VOCs and the odor concentration of the low molecular weight compounds, which have strong volatilities, ranging from n-C6 to n-C10. For all 8 wallpapers, vinegar like odor was commonly perceived, with acetic acid identified as the main odor active compound withinthe odor. Benzaldehyde and esters, such as ethyl acrylate and n-butyl acrylate, were identified as odor active compounds, which were expressed as having rubber like smells by the panelists. These results indicate that odor should be included as a domestic regulation for the pollutants emitted from building materials. The identification of odor active compounds emitted from building materials could be useful in the production of eco-environment products.

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.