The role of high humidity on extreme-temperature-related mortality in central China
AbstractThe evidence of non-optimum ambient temperature and humidity-related mortality is widely reported. However, the joint effects of high humidity and extreme temperatures on mortality remain to understand. We collected mortality data and meteorological variables for 91 counties in central China, from 2017 to 2020. A traditional time-series model with a distributed lag non-linear model was first employed to estimate the location-specific associations between extreme temperatures or high humidity and extreme temperatures and mortality. Then, we conducted a meta-analysis to pool the county-specific estimated effect value...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - August 14, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Magnetotropism: a tropic response of Candida guillemondii by the effect of the oscillating magnetic field of extremely low frequency
AbstractExtremely low frequency oscillating magnetic field (OMF-ELF) can stimulate the growth of pathogenic fungi. This work aims to assess the tropic response of a dimorphic pathogenic strainCandida guilliermondii by the effect of OMF-ELF. The pathogenic strainC. guilliermondii was isolated from an indoor environment and a brewing strainSaccharomyces cerevisiae was used as a positive control. OMF-ELF of 3 mT of 60 Hz for 2 h was applied to the cultures of both strains. After treatment, images were taken every 30 min for 24 h using Digital Image Processing (DIP) to determine the superficial growth rate of both strains and ...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - August 14, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Dynamic changes in the characteristics of fine particles and their oxidative potential in the city of Taj (Agra, India): the untold story of fireworks display
AbstractThe dithiothreitol (DTT) assay was used to investigate the oxidative potential (OP) of atmospheric fine particles (PM2.5) during fireworks (Diwali) at Agra, India. The 12-h mean PM2.5 was reported to be 263 ±151 μg m−3 during the study period. Increased levels of gaseous pollutants (NOx, SO2, CO, and O3) and metals Ba, Pb, Cu, Fe, Mg, K, Al, and Mn were also observed during fireworks. The results showed that the typical diurnal pattern of trace gases was observed, except their overall concentrations remained elevated during peak hours of the fireworks activity. The highest value of OP of PM was detected on the ...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - August 11, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Measurement of size-segregated airborne particulate bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and health risk assessment: a case study in Aksaray atmosphere, Turkey
AbstractPolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were measured in size-segregated particulate matters (PMs) in a range of 0.43 to 10.0 μm, categorized into two as fine particles (0.43 μm<d< 2.1 μm) and coarse particles (2.1 μm<d< 10.0 μm), during summer and winter seasons in an urban atmosphere of Aksaray, Turkey. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate size distribution, temporal variation, and related health risks of PAHs. During the winter season, concentrations of PAHs in the sampling site were almost ten times higher than in summer, and approximately 85% of the PAHs belonged to the fine PM...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - August 10, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Assessing air pollution exposure misclassification using high-resolution PM2.5 concentration model and human mobility data
This study explores exposure measurement errors associated with ignoring human mobility and its impact on exposure-health effect estimates. Using a random forest classification model, this study examines the impact of a variety of factors on potential measurement errors in personal exposure to outdoor PM2.5. Mobility data at the individual level was combined with hourly PM2.5 surfaces at the neighborhood level to estimate and compare residence-based and mobility-based exposures for 100,784 Los Angeles County residents. The results show that exposure measurement errors increase for individuals with high mobility levels. Sig...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - August 8, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Recent developments in high-resolution wind field modeling in complex terrain for dispersion simulations using GRAMM-SCI
AbstractThe rather complex terrain in Austria requires that wind fields with sub-kilometer resolutions have to be generated prior to any kind of dispersion modeling due to the large demand on computation times required by non-hydrostatic prognostic mesoscale models. Proper modeling of highly resolved flows in Alpine regions is still a matter of research, and no harmonized methodology is available at the moment. In order to harmonize the meteorological input for dispersion modeling at the regional level, authorities in Austria aim at providing so-called wind-field libraries for a certain reference year for all stakeholders ...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - August 8, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Respiratory deposition dose of PM2.5 and PM10 during night and day periods at an urban environment
In this study, PM2.5 and PM10 day-night monitoring campaigns during the cold season were carried out in Bragan ça, Portugal. The multiple-path particle dosimetry (MPPD) model was used to quantify total and regional depositions in the human respiratory tract for four different age groups: infant (3 months), child (9 years), adult (21 years) and elderly (65 years). The results showed that concentrations for b oth PM fractions were higher during the night, a period marked by the burning of biomass for residential heating. Regional deposition fractions (DF) for PM2.5 were in the ranges 17 –38% (head), 4–14% (tracheobronch...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - August 8, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
A review on the formation and remediations of polychlorinated dibenzo p-dioxins and dibenzo-furans (PCDD/Fs) during thermal processes with a focus on MSW process
AbstractPolychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzo-furans (PCDD/Fs) are notorious pollutants classified as persistent organic pollutants (POPs), which even at trace levels can bio-accumulate in the environment and have negative effects on organisms. Due to their adverse health effects, countries around the globe have introduced stringent emission standards to reduce the formation of PCDD/Fs. Using data in the literature over the past two decades (2001 to 2023), this review discussed the PCDD/F emissions from incineration facilities, E-waste recycling, iron sintering, secondary metal smelting plants, and crematories. ...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - August 7, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Air and soil concentrations of persistent organic pollutants in Bursa (T ürkiye) and Yurimaguas (Peru): air-soil exchange and gas-phase flux
AbstractThe study of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in different environments has helped to understand the behavior and distribution of these pollutants worldwide. Many developed and developing countries have extensive data on the presence of these pollutants, especially in ambient air and soil. However, the simultaneous measurement of air and soil is less frequent, despite offering the opportunity to characterize air-soil exchange. Moreover, such measurements in upper-middle-income countries such as Turkey are very limited and null in Peru. Both countries also offer unique opportunities to characterize the air-soil ...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - August 7, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Volatile organic compound concentrations under two different ventilation structures and their health risks in the adhesive tape manufacturing workplace
AbstractExposure to the high volatile organic compounds (VOCs) concentration in the workplaces where solvents are used is an essential point for worker ’s health. However, the VOCs in the indoor air of an adhesive tape production facilities that use large amounts of solvents and the health risk of the toxic compounds have not been sufficiently investigated to this date. VOC samples were collected in the morning and afternoon times of day in the i ndoor air of workplaces of an adhesive tape production facility at 9 different points under two different central ventilation conditions. Carbon dioxide, humidity, temperature, ...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - August 5, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Age-specific lobar and regional deposition of size-segregated particulate in a glass city of India and their health impact
AbstractIn the glass industrial city Firozabad, real-time monitoring (mass as well as number) of size-segregated particulate matter (PM) was done by a GRIMM portable aerosol spectrometer at two different sites to know about the deposition of size-segregated PM in the human respiratory tract. The average mass concentrations of PMs were recorded as PM10 (184.68 μg/m−3), PM2.5 (54.48 μg/m−3), and PM1.0 (31.02 μg/m−3). PM number concentrations were found as PM10 (18.64 μg/m−3), PM2.5 (496.22 μg/m−3), and PM1.0 (1105.87 μg/m−3). The concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5 exceeded the National Ambient Air Quality Sta...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - July 29, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
ASTGC: Attention-based Spatio-temporal Fusion Graph Convolution Model for Fine-grained Air Quality Analysis
AbstractThe deployment of air quality monitoring stations is limited in number and unevenly distributed, resulting in a limited number of collected samples, so fine-grained analysis of air quality is a challenging task. To solve the problem, a spatio-temporal fusion graph convolution network method based on an attention mechanism named ASTGC is proposed in this paper. The ASTGC divides the observation data and various influencing factors of monitoring stations and target locations into dynamic temporal features and static spatial features. Different models are used to model them separately, and then fuse them to achieve th...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - July 27, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Spatiotemporal characteristics and influencing factors of Air pollutants over port cities of the Yangtze River Delta
This study analyzed the spatiotemporal characteristics and influencing factors of three air pollutants—PM2.5, NO2, and SO2—over coastal port cities (CPCs) and inland port cities (IPCs) in YRD from 2015 to 2020. The concentrations of air pollutants vary across geographic locations (low in the south/east and high in the north/west) and seasons (low in summer and high in winter). IPCs show higher pollutant concentration s than CPCs. The PM2.5, NO2, and SO2 concentrations over port cities in the YRD declined by 41.48%, 18.68%, and 64.8% from 2015 to 2020; CPCs have reduced more PM2.5 and NO2 than IPCs, while IPCs have redu...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - July 22, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Micromorphology of size-segregated aerosols and their airway deposition in public transport commuters
AbstractCommuters ’ exposure to size-segregated fine particulates in four public transport microenvironments was assessed in the Kolkata megacity of India. Personal exposure to PM2.5 and PM1 varied from 130.8& 112.1 μg m−3 in air-conditioned (AC) buses, followed by 158.5 μg m−3 & 134.3 μg m−3 in non-AC buses, 187.1 μg m−3 & 150.8 μg m−3 in non-AC cars, to 242.2 μg m−3 & 199.6 μg m−3 in 3-wheeler auto rickshaws, respectively. The exposure ratio for PM1/PM2.5 was comparable in all transport modes (0.64 to 0.94, 0.83 ± 0.07). The micromorphology of fine particulates, studied by scann...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - July 20, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
The air pollution mitigation effect of tourism development and its formation mechanism: new insights from BMA and SEM approaches
AbstractTourism development makes significant contributions to the modern economic system, while simultaneously generating profound environmental externalities. However, the effects and mechanisms by which tourism development affects air pollution are still unclear, possibly due to model uncertainty arising from the complexity of air pollution sources. Therefore, based on a novel combined empirical strategy and high-quality multi-source datasets of 284 Chinese cities, this paper uncovers whether and how tourism development can affect air pollution in the context of “government, enterprise, and public” pluralistic envir...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - July 18, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
