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Information on time spent in microenvironments has a critical role for personal exposure to environmental pollutants. Unlike several large-scale studies in Western countries, no comprehensive research on time-activity patterns for exposure assessment has been conducted in Korea. We investigated determinants of residential indoor and transportation times of individuals over 10-years old in the Korean population. The population-based study collected time-activity patterns of 31,634 Koreans for two consecutive days. The residential indoor and transportation times were collected for a weekday and a weekend day. The impact of sociodemographic factors on time-activity was assessed using multiple linear regression models. The residential indoor times were 14.23 h for the weekday and 16.13 h for the weekend and shorter than those in Western countries. The transportation times were 1.75 h for the weekday and 1.68 h for the weekend day. The most significant factors in residential indoor time were employment status, age, monthly income, and gender for the weekday and employment status and gender for the weekend day. The factors in transportation were gender, employment status, and monthly income for the weekday and gender, employment status, age, and marriage status for the weekend day. Determinants of the time-activity pattern need to be taken into account in exposure assessment, epidemiological analyses, and exposure simulations, as well as in the development of preventive strategies. As Korean population activity patterns are substantially different from those in Western countries such as USA, Germany, and UK, this information could be critical for exposure assessment in Korea and other Asian countries.

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BackgroundStudying human health in areas with industrial contamination is a serious and complex issue. In recent years, attention has increasingly focused on the health implications of large industrial complexes. A variety of potential toxic chemicals have been produced during manufacturing processes and activities in industrial complexes in South Korea. A large number of dyeing industries gathered together in Daegu dyeing industrial complex. The residents near the industrial complex could be often exposed to volatile organic compounds. This study aimed to evaluate VOCs levels in the ambient air of DDIC, to assess the impact on human health risks, and to find more convincing evidences to prove these VOCs emitted from DDIC.MethodsAccording to deterministic risk assessment, inhalation was the most important route. Residential indoor, outdoor and personal exposure air VOCs were measured by passive samplers in exposed area and controlled area in different seasons. Satisfaction with ambient environments and self-reported diseases were also obtained by questionnaire survey. The VOCs concentrations in exposed area and controlled area was compared by t-test. The relationships among every VOC were tested by correlation. The values of hazard quotient (HQ) and life cancer risk were estimated.ResultsThe concentrations of measured VOCs were presented, moreover, the variety of concentrations according the distances from the residential settings to the industrial complex site in exposed area. The residential indoor, outdoor, and personal exposure concentrations of toluene, DMF and chloroform in exposed area were significantly higher than the corresponding concentrations in controlled area both in summer and autumn. Toluene, DMF, chloroform and MEK had significantly positive correlations with each other in indoor and outdoor, and even in personal exposure. The HQ for DMF exceeded 1, and the life cancer risk of chloroform was greater than 10− 4 in exposed area. The prevalence of respiratory diseases, anaphylactic diseases and cardiovascular diseases in exposed area were significantly higher than in controlled area.ConclusionsThis study showed that adverse cancer and non-cancer health effects may occur by VOCs emitted from DDIC, and some risk managements are needed. Moreover, this study provides a convenient preliminarily method for pollutants source characteristics.

Indoor air quality can be affected by indoor sources, ventilation, decay and outdoor levels. Although technologies exist to measure these factors, direct measurements are often difficult. The purpose of this study was to develop an alternative method to characterize indoor environmental factors by multiple indoor and outdoor measurements. Daily indoor and outdoor NO2 concentrations were measured for 30 consecutive days in 28 houses in Brisbane, Australia, and for 21 consecutive days in 37 houses in Seoul, Korea. Using a mass balance model and regression analysis, penetration factor (ventilation rate divided by the sum of ventilation rate and deposition constant) and source strength factor (source strength divided by the sum of ventilation rate and deposition constant) were calculated using multiple indoor and outdoor measurements. Subsequently, the ventilation rate and NO2 source strength were estimated. Geometric means of ventilation rate were 1.44 air change per hour (ACH) in Brisbane, assuming a residential NO2 deposition constant of 1.05/h, and 1.36 ACH in Seoul, with the measured residential NO2 deposition constant of 0.94/h. Source strengths of NO2 were 15.8 +/- 18.2 and 44.7 +/- 38.1 microg/m3/h in Brisbane and Seoul, respectively. In conclusion, indoor environmental factors were effectively characterized by this method using multiple indoor and outdoor measurements.

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