Abstract
In 2020, COVID-19 became a global pandemic; new vocabulary such as self-quarantine, social distancing, and temporary living facilities emerged in tandem with a rising interest for indoor isolation spaces. As a result, more than 80-90% were voluntarily or artificially trapped in an indoor space, essentially making indoor air quality a top priority. Since 2003, the Ministry of Environment in Korea implemented and imposed on local governments the indoor air quality management law as a statutory regulation to monitor and determine if the recommended standard range is exceeded; it measures, diagnoses, evaluates, and informs indoor air quality from sample households during a certain period and a certain number of times each year. Since 2000, many researchers have studied indoor air quality, but research on radon in new apartment buildings is somewhat insufficient. Since 2018, the dangers of domestic and foreign radon have been intensifying. From 2019, Korea was obliged to strengthen the recommendation standards for radon and to notify its measurements and diagnosis. For new apartment buildings with business plans approved after January 1, 2018, residents were provided with obligatory access to the measured and diagnosed indoor air quality. This study examines the administrative notices from 2017 to 2020 regarding the indoor air quality measurements and evaluations of new apartment buildings conducted by the Ministry of Environment. Actual radon measurement data for approximately 3,000 new apartment housing units scheduled to move in between June and October 2021 were analyzed and evaluated to determine how well the recommended radon standards set by the Ministry of Environment were followed. Additionally, achieving the goal of reducing radon from the current standard of 148Bq/m3 to 100Bq/m3 by 2024 was assessed.