Abstract
Indoor air quality (IAQ) is recognized as a byproduct of industrialization that took place in the 20th century. The great attention to IAQ has been gained since 1980s, and led to numerous research studies that have mainly made in the developed countries. As the development of residential environment in Korea enters in the process of qualitative growth, IAQ has viewed as one of the core issues in the society, and research in relation to IAQ has been implemented until now in the fields of engineering and medical science. It is widely known that the sources and effects of indoor air pollution have been various, and IAQ research with multidisciplinary approaches is required. Nevertheless, few research embedded into a socio-behavioral approach to identifying interventive measures of residents and analyzing their choices is made. The purpose of this study is to examine the use of an interactive measure of residents in apartments that is air purification with phytoncide available in the market, and to investigate their self-reported effects of the air purifying substance on sick building syndrome symptoms. This study utilizes a field experiment design with pre-test and post-test, and the experiment is conducted in a natural field setting. A total of 87 test subjects from 32 households with already sick building syndrome are drawn via internet, and the participation is solely voluntary. The participants receive and use the air purifying substance, and are asked to use it continuously for two weeks and identify their self-reported symptoms of before- and after-use. The research findings indicate that air purification using phytoncide is effective to alleviate their symptoms in relation to sick building syndrome. Also it is noted that the participants report that the use of the air purification causes the positive impacts on their daily life. Further research is needed that compares the group with only humidifier and evaluates the mid-term and long-term use of the air purification and its effects.
