Risk perception of air pollution and behavioral responses: a mapping review of research studies during 2000 –2021
AbstractAir pollution is a key threat to human and ecosystem health. Successfully addressing this problem requires among other measures the active involvement of the population, depending on adequate public awareness and knowledge. This paper reviewed studies on perceptions of outdoor air pollution and behavioral responses in order to synthesize the state-of-the art in this research field and identify key research gaps. Three bibliographic databases were queried for studies published between 2000 and 2021 using standardized search terms. Of 2,616 titles and abstracts screened, 242 articles met the inclusion criteria. Our r...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - February 19, 2024 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Effects of combined exposure to air pollutants during pregnancy on OVA-induced asthma in offspring and its sensitive window
This study aimed to investigate the impact of prenatal combined exposure to air pollutants on asthma development in offspring mice and to delineate the sensitive exposure windows. Pregnant ICR mice were exposed to air compound pollutants or clean air at gestational day (GD) 1 –6, 7–12, 13–18, and 1–18, respectively. Offspring mice aged 2–4 weeks received sensitization and challenge with ovalbumin (OVA) or normal saline. Pups were examined for features of asthma such as airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR), pulmonary inflammation, mucus secretion, OVA-specific immun oglobulin (Ig) E levels, and cytokines levels. Asthm...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - February 17, 2024 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Gender-differentiated impact of PM2.5 exposure on respiratory and cardiovascular mortality: a review
This study aims to assess whether gender analysis in the association of PM2.5 on respiratory and cardiovascular mortality shows a different impact on women than men around diverse regions of the world. We conducted a scoping review of the Web of Science database citations for epidemiological studies published between June 2020 and October 2021. The articles that met our inclusion criteria were grouped into three categories based on gender-induced effects to compare the registered risks between men and women. Of 956 articles identified, 36 published were eligible. The regions with the most gender analysis studies were Asia ...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - February 16, 2024 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Mobile measurements and street-level modelling to assess outdoor and indoor personal exposure to air pollution in urban environment
This study aims to compare estimates based on a high-resolution model and actual measurements. The considered modelling system, ATMO-Street, consists of a three-layer outdoor model operating at an hourly rate with a spatial resolution of approximately 10 m. The considered measurements were made by 38 candidate citizens carrying, for 1 week, portable devices, including an AE51 aethalometer and an Antilope low-cost sensor system developed at the Scientific Institute of Public Service (ISSeP). Their data were aggregated to match the model time and s pace resolutions. The zone of interest is the city of Liège in Belgium du...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - February 15, 2024 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Spatiotemporal estimation of hourly PM2.5 using AOD derived from geostationary satellite Fengyun-4A and machine learning models for Greater Bangkok
This study used four individual machine learning (ML) models (random forest, adaptive boosting, gradient boosting, and extreme gradient boosting), and a stacked ensemble model (SEM) for PM2.5 estimation over Greater Bangkok (GBK) during the dry season for 2018 –2022. Aerosol optical depth (AOD) from Fengyun-4A satellite was used as the main predictor variable. The other predictor variables include meteorological variables, fire hotspots, vegetation index, terrain elevation, and population density. Surface PM2.5 from 17 air quality monitoring stations was used for model development and evaluation. Satellite AOD aligns rea...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - February 10, 2024 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Assessment of PM2.5-associated mortality burden among the elderly: Insights into demographic, socio-economic, and geographic factors
This study fills a knowledge gap by examining the health consequences of varying PM2.5 levels and explored the complex interplay between demographic, socio-economic, and geographic factors in relation to PM2.5-related mortality. (Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health)
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - February 10, 2024 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Effect of indoor and outdoor emission sources on the chemical compositions of PM2.5 and PM0.1 in residential and school buildings
This study therefore aims to investigate the chemical compositions of indoor and outdoor PM2.5 and PM0.1 in residential and school buildings in Vietnam during different seasons and the effects of emission sources on particle characteristics. The results show that the concentration of indoor PM2.5 in the residential house was higher than that outdoors, and the indoor-to-outdoor ratios (I/O) exceeded 1, indicating the contribution of indoor sources. The peak concentration of indoor particles was observed during the incense burning days, whereas a higher indoor organic carbon concentration may be due to cooking activities. A ...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - February 9, 2024 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Testing the validity of pollution haven and pollution halo hypotheses in BRICMT countries by Fourier Bootstrap AARDL method and Fourier Bootstrap Toda-Yamamoto causality approach
AbstractIt is useful to analyze the factors, polluting the livable environment, whose sustainability and protection are vital to all living things, and to take the necessary precautions promptly. Within this scope, the effects of foreign trade and investments on environmental pollution in BRICMT (Brazil, Russia, India, China, Mexico, and Turkey) countries were analyzed with the Fourier Kwiatkowski–Phillips–Schmidt–Shin (KPSS) stationarity test, Fourier Bootstrap augumented autoregressive distributive lag (AARDL) method, and Fourier Bootstrap Toda-Yamamoto causality test for the peri od 1980–2021 in this study. Ac...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - February 9, 2024 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Modeling the air quality impact of aircraft emissions: is area or volume the appropriate source characterization in AERMOD?
AbstractModeling dispersion of aircraft emissions is challenging because aircraft are mobile sources with varying emissions rates at different elevations depending on the operating mode. Aircraft emissions during landing and take-off cycle (LTO) influence air quality in and around the airport, and depending on the number of aircraft operations and location of the airport, this influence may be significant. AERMOD (v22112) incorporates a variety of conventional source types to characterize the intended emissions source, leaving the question of which conventional source type(s) best characterizes aircraft activities across t...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - February 7, 2024 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Potential reductions in fine particulate matter and premature mortality following implementation of air pollution controls on coal-fired power plants in India
AbstractCoal-fired power plants (CFPPs) account for > 70% of electricity generation in India, but < 5% of facilities have installed technologies for sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOX) removal. Emissions of these pollutants lead to the formation of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and an increased risk of premature mortality for exposed populations. Here, we use a nested version of the GEOS-Chem global chemical transport model (0.5 ° × 0.625° resolution) for India to estimate reductions in PM2.5 concentrations that could have been achieved by implementing existing emission control technolog...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - February 6, 2024 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
A cautious note advocating the use of ensembles of models and driving data in modeling of regional ozone burdens
AbstractWe investigate the performance of two widely used chemistry-transport models (CTMs) with different chemical mechanisms in reproducing the ambient maximum daily 8-h average ozone (MDA8 O\(_{3}\)) burden over Central Europe. We explore a base case setup with boundary conditions (BC) for meteorology from the ERA-Interim reanalysis and chemical BC from CAM-Chem as well as effects of alterations in these BC based on global model fields. Our results show that changes in meteorological BC strongly affect the correlation with observations but only marginally affect the model biases, while changes in chemical BC increase mo...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - February 5, 2024 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Outdoor trends and indoor investigations of volatile organic compounds in two high schools of southern Italy
AbstractVolatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a class of ubiquitous substances that are present in outdoor and indoor air. They are emitted by a wide range of sources and can penetrate and accumulate specifically in indoor environments. Concern is growing among the scientific community regarding the potential health impacts of exposure to a high concentration of VOCs in indoor spaces. Due to their still-developing respiratory and immune systems, children may be the most fragile subjects in this regard, and therefore, the study of indoor air quality in schools is of the utmost importance. In this work, the concentrations of...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - February 3, 2024 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Occurrence of polychlorinated biphenyls in indoor dust of different buildings in Bushehr port, Iran
This study is the first report on the levels of PCBs in the indoor dust of Bushehr port, Iran. PCBs were evaluated in 30 dust samples collected from homes, offices, and stores. A total of 10 PCB congeners were found in dust samples. The mean levels of PCBs in homes, offices, and stores were 3.46, 0.51, and 1.28 ng/g, respectively. PCB52 and 31 in homes with values of 0.78 and 0.31 ng/g had the highest levels of PCB congeners. Also, no significant difference was detected among the PCB contents of buildings with different applications in Bushehr. Furthermore, PCBs in indoor dust showed acceptable cancer r isk (CR) for dif...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - February 1, 2024 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Change in rate of healthcare encounters for respiratory infection from air pollution exposure after improved vehicle emissions standards in New York State
AbstractThe introduction of Tier 3 light-duty vehicles with reduced emissions began in New York State (NYS) in 2017, with required compliance by 2025. We hypothesized that improved air quality during the early implementation of Tier 3 (2017 –2019) would result in reduced rates of hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) visits for respiratory infection associated with increased PM2.5 compared to 2014 –2016 (pre-Tier 3). Using data on adult patients hospitalized or having an ED visit for influenza, upper respiratory infection, culture-negative pneumonia, or respiratory bacterial infection, living within 15 miles o...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - January 31, 2024 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Characterization of microbial communities in urban subway: connotation for indoor environment quality and public health
In this study, high-throughput sequencing was utilized to identify the microbiota obtained from the Metropolitan Transport of Shanghai (MTS) during the spring and summer. A diverse range of microbiota, especially pathogens, and models for mapping diversity and environmental variables were analyzed using the metagenomic techniques. The results indicate that bacteria accounted for 95.26% of the categorized genes in the 108 aerosol samples analyzed during the spring and summer, with the remaining 4.73% attributed to eukaryotes, viruses, and archaea. We successfully identified 86 microorganisms that align with the National Mic...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - January 30, 2024 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
