Korean Job Discussion Forums

ListenPlant · Joined: 17 Apr 2012

I have a little bit of a crisis and I thought I could get some good feedback here.

My whole life I have been very healthy, with the exception of having moderate to severe allergies as a kid (pollen, dog/cat dander, dust, and mold). But I grew out of them for the most part. In the states, I live in Vermont, grew up in the countryside with good water and good air.

In 2009, I went to do a year of teaching English in Suwon, South Korea. Over the year, I became increasingly sick as I worked my contract. I had short spurts of bronchitis, but the big concern was skin issues. After about 7 months, I developed bad eczema, on my hands, feet, legs and back, as well as a few patches of red lesions on my face. I saw many doctors who pretty much gave me steroid creams, which may have even made things worse in the long-term. When I finished my contract, I returned to Vermont countryside air, and my body healed itself within a few months.

My Korean apartment that year had a good deal of black mold in the closets and behind the walls. After talking to a doctor in the states, and doing some research of my own, I felt like it was pretty clear that that toxic black mold was the cause of my health problems.

However, I still enjoyed teaching and had made some good friends in Suwon, so I wanted to do another year at a different school, one that would promise me a newer, clean apartment. Mold-free.

So in 2011, I went back to Suwon for another year, in a nice clean apartment, confident that I would be healthy this time around. However, after about half a year, I again had health issues. The rashes returned to my face, and I had a little bit of hand and feet eczema. I also had some reoccurring rhinitis and shortness of breath. It certainly wasn�t as bad as the first year, but it was obviously very frustrating.

My hagwan and I reached an agreement to shorten my contract to 8 months and I�m now back in the states, where I quickly healed up again. It appears that the air pollution itself was the cause, and the black mold made it worse. I�ll add that in Korea, I didn�t rule out the possibility of food allergies, but I did my own self-tests of certain foods and it didn�t seem to be the issue.

Over those two years in Korea, I fell in love with teaching there, even through the health problems. I want to keep teaching in Korea, but I don�t want to be sick all the time.

I�ve been looking at the NASA Global air pollution map and it seems that Suwon does get hit pretty hard with China�s runoff air pollution.

I had always heard about how amazing Jeju�s air quality is (it�s hard to tell by this map).

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/health-sapping.html

Does anyone know which parts of Korea have the best air quality? As the southwest coast of Korea has some orange on the NASA map, I can�t imagine Jeju being drastically different. Any thoughts or resources would be really appreciated.

Yaya · Joined: 25 Feb 2003 Location: Seoul

Suwon is notorious for pollution given the many factories there. You should have done more research on that place.

Try the countryside and coasts. I hear Tongyeong is good as well as Yeosu.

Kimchifart · Joined: 15 Sep 2010

Squire · Joined: 26 Sep 2010 Location: Jeollanam-do

ListenPlant · Joined: 17 Apr 2012

ytide · Joined: 26 Jul 2009

Swampfox10mm · Joined: 24 Mar 2011

Color me shocked that Busan has worse air than Seoul?

Squire · Joined: 26 Sep 2010 Location: Jeollanam-do

PatrickGHBusan · Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 4:00 am Post subject:

ListenPlant · Joined: 17 Apr 2012

Thanks for the thoughts, I appreciate it.

I'm still curious about Jeju's air quality. It's very isolated, but I wonder if it sees a lot or any runoff air pollution from the Shanghai area.

sallymonster · Joined: 06 Feb 2010 Location: Seattle area

You might like Gangwon-do, particularly the coastal areas such as Sokcho, Gangneung, Donghae, and Samcheok.

ListenPlant · Joined: 17 Apr 2012

Swampfox10mm · Joined: 24 Mar 2011

PatrickGHBusan · Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 3:48 am Post subject:

Busan can be pretty dirty when it comes to streets but the city made vast improvements over the years. As for the air quality, I really had no idea because where we lived in Busan the air was not bad at all and each time we went to Seoul (pretty regular occurence) we noticed a significant decrease (at least we thought) of air quality.

Oh well.

schwa · Joined: 18 Jan 2003 Location: Yap

Somewhat subjective topic unless you study air quality maps, which I dont.

Re: Sokcho (long-time resident), the air seems pretty good. The sky is often sparkling blue. The sea air is fresh. The mountains buffer some inland air problems. There are no factories in the vicinity.

Today was hazy -- spring tends to be windy & after a typically dry winter that raises some dust. We usually get a handful of yellow dust events from China in the spring too.

I'd sure take the air here over Seoul. I like Seoul, but after a day or two there I start to feel grubby.