The score up to now on air pollution: air pollution does threaten human health.
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Air Pollution↗
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A new model for investigating the mortality effects of multiple air pollutants in air pollution mortality time-series studies.
Because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulates air pollutants independently, the majority of time-series studies on air pollution and mortality have focused on estimating the adverse health effects of a single pollutant. However, due to the sometimes high correlation between air pollutants, the results from studies that focus on a single air pollutant can be difficult to interpret. In addition, the high correlation between air pollutants can produce problems of interpretation for the standard method of investigating the adverse health effects due to multiple air pollutants. The standard method involves simultaneously including the multiple air pollutants in a single statistical model. Because of this, the development of new models to concurrently estimate the adverse health effects of multiple air pollutants has recently been identified as an important area of future research. In this article, a new model for disentangling the joint effects of multiple air pollutants in air pollution mortality time-series studies is introduced. This new model uses the time-series data to assign each air pollutant a weight that indicates the pollutant's contribution to the air pollution mixture that affects mortality and to estimate the effect of this air pollution mixture on mortality. This model offers an improvement in statistical estimation precision over the standard method. It also avoids problems of interpretation that can occur if the standard method is used. This new model is then illustrated by applying it to time-series data from two U.S. counties.
Air Pollutants↗
Brain inflammation and Alzheimer's-like pathology in individuals exposed to severe air pollution.
Air pollution is a complex mixture of gases (e.g., ozone), particulate matter, and organic compounds present in outdoor and indoor air. Dogs exposed to severe air pollution exhibit chronic inflammation and acceleration of Alzheimer's-like pathology, suggesting that the brain is adversely affected by pollutants. We investigated whether residency in cities with high levels of air pollution is associated with human brain inflammation. Expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX2), an inflammatory mediator, and accumulation of the 42-amino acid form of beta-amyloid (Abeta42), a cause of neuronal dysfunction, were measured in autopsy brain tissues of cognitively and neurologically intact lifelong residents of cities having low (n:9) or high (n:10) levels of air pollution. Genomic DNA apurinic/apyrimidinic sites, nuclear factor-kappaB activation and apolipoprotein E genotype were also evaluated. Residents of cities with severe air pollution had significantly higher COX2 expression in frontal cortex and hippocampus and greater neuronal and astrocytic accumulation of Abeta42 compared to residents in low air pollution cities. Increased COX2 expression and Abeta42 accumulation were also observed in the olfactory bulb. These findings suggest that exposure to severe air pollution is associated with brain inflammation and Abeta42 accumulation, two causes of neuronal dysfunction that precede the appearance of neuritic plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease.
Adult↗
Identifying and managing adverse environmental health effects: 2. Outdoor air pollution.
Air pollution contributes to preventable illness and death. Subgroups of patients who appear to be more sensitive to the effects of air pollution include young children, the elderly and people with existing chronic cardiac and respiratory disease such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma. It is unclear whether air pollution contributes to the development of asthma, but it does trigger asthma episodes. Physicians are in a position to identify patients at particular risk of health effects from air pollution exposure and to suggest timely and appropriate actions that these patients can take to protect themselves. A simple tool that uses the CH2OPD2 mnemonic (Community, Home, Hobbies, Occupation, Personal habits, Diet and Drugs) can help physicians take patients' environmental exposure histories to assess those who may be at risk. As public health advocates, physicians contribute to the primary prevention of illness and death related to air pollution in the population. In this article we review the origins of air pollutants, the pathophysiology of health effects, the burden of illness and the clinical implications of smog exposure using the illustrative case of an adolescent patient with asthma.
Adolescent↗
Flue gas treatability studies: a tool for techno-economic control of industrial air pollution.
Air pollution problems in developing countries have gained larger fraction in the last decade especially due to non functioning and non implementation of effective air pollution control devices in industries. In industrial wastewater management, adequate treatability studies are conducted to arrive at a techno-economic treatment option. However no such studies were done for reducing air pollution or emission from industries until now in India. Little information was available about such studies in other countries. This article provides information about a novel technique known as flue gas treatability studies and to undertake such studies, a pilot scale system is installed in Air Pollution Control Division of M/s National Environmental Engineering research Institute, NEERI, Nagpur-20, India. This study is a tool for techno-economic selection of air pollution control systems specially for small/medium scale industrial emissions.
Air Pollutants↗
[Chronic pharyngolaryngitis in air-polluted areas: air pollution and smoking].
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Air Pollution↗
A European perspective on hazardous air pollutants.
Air pollution is considered to be a major threat to human health. Protection of human health from adverse effects of air pollutants and elimination or reduction of exposure to hazardous air pollutants was therefore the major consideration of the World Health Organization to establish the Air Quality Guidelines for Europe. The 2nd edition of the WHO guidelines has recently been published. In establishing pollutant levels below which exposure does not constitute a significant public health risk, the guidelines provide information for regulatory authorities on a national or international level to set standards or limit values for air pollutants. The guidelines also form a basis for the development of risk management or risk abatement strategies. During the recent revision of the WHO Air Quality Guidelines for Europe, DG Environment of the European Commission developed a Framework Directive on Air Quality (96/62/EC) and a number of Daughter Directives dealing with individual pollutants. It was agreed that the European Commission should use the WHO Air Quality Guidelines as starting point for deriving limit values for a number of major air pollutants in the European Union. This paper describes the revision of the WHO guidelines and addresses the differences between guidelines and legally binding standards as for instance the limit values established by the EU.
Air↗
An update on air pollution.
Air pollution is associated with adverse health effects. Much of the recent literature, which is the focus of this review, has concentrated on identifying individuals at risk and on the health effects of mixed pollutants. For indoor air, new analyses continue to support the notion that the risk of residential radon exposure is low and that environmental tobacco smoke may cause respiratory symptoms and dysfunction in adults, especially asthmatic adults, as well as in children. For outdoor air, the long-term effects of ozone exposure remain unclear, despite evidence of inflammation and small airway dysfunction after acute exposure. Ozone may increase the sensitivity of asthmatic patients to allergens. Increased morbidity in association with increasing particulate matter levels gives coherence to the argument that the relationship between particulate matter and mortality is causal. However, other investigators note the tight associations among outdoor pollutants and consider particulate matter a marker of air pollution levels.
Adult↗
Hispanic environmental health: ambient and indoor air pollution.
Air pollution has serious deleterious effects on health and is a public health matter of the utmost importance. The National Coalition of Hispanic Health and Human Services Organizations (COSSMHO) believes that reducing exposure to air pollution is a priority issue for the Hispanic community because 80% of Hispanics (compared with 65% of non-Hispanic blacks and 57% of non-Hispanic whites) live in nonattainment areas--areas that fail to meet the Environmental Protection Agency ambient air quality standard. Although Hispanics in general live as long as or longer than non-Hispanic whites, what morbidity data are available reveal that the quality of that life is severely impaired by a variety of chronic conditions, such as asthma. This makes environmental health a pressing matter for Hispanic communities, particularly in the area of air pollution. Action items are included.
Adolescent↗
[Health effects of air pollutants].
Air pollutants can exhibit both acute and chronic effects. Acute effects mainly occur during smog situations in industrial areas when atmospheric concentrations of hazardous substances are extremely high. This leads to an increase of morbidity and mortality especially in old and ill people. Chronic effects are the consequence of a longlasting exposition to low doses of noxious substances. Epidemiological studies have shown that frequency of respiratory diseases is higher in air polluted areas; this effect is particularly evident in smokers. Biological monitoring is used to determine the individual heavy metal burden. Lead is a danger especially for the developing central nervous system. Cadmium accumulates in the renal cortex during lifetime and may cause disturbances of renal function if a certain concentration is reached. The risk groups for heavy metals are young children and pregnant women in the case of lead and old people in the case of cadmium, respectively. Lung cancer incidence is higher in large cities than in rural areas. Carcinogenicity of city smog extracts was proved in vitro and in vivo. These findings suggest that urban air pollution may play a role as a causal factor in respiratory cancer.
Air Pollutants↗
The link between symptoms of office building occupants and in-office air pollution: the Indoor Air Pollution Index.
The lack of an effective indoor air quality (IAQ) metric causes communication concerns among building tenants (the public), building managers (decision-makers), and IAQ investigators (engineers). The Indoor Air Pollution Index (IAPI) is developed for office buildings to bridge this communication discord. The index, simple and easily understood, employs the range of pollutant concentrations and concentrations in the subject building to estimate a unitless single number, the IAPI, between 0 (lowest pollution level and best IAQ) and ten (highest pollution level and worst IAQ). The index provides a relative measure of indoor air pollution for office buildings and ranks office indoor air pollution relative to the index distribution of the US office building population. Furthermore, the index associates well with occupant symptoms, percentage of occupants with persistent symptoms. A tree-structured method is utilized in conjunction with the arithmetic mean as the aggregation function. The hierarchical structure of the method renders not only one index value, but also several sub-index values that are critical in the study of an office air environment. The use of the IAPI for IAQ management is illustrated with an example. The decomposition of the index leads to the ranking of sampled pollutants by their relative contribution to the index and the identification of dominant pollutant(s). This information can be applied to design an effective strategy for reducing in-office air pollution.
Air Pollution, Indoor↗
Athletic performance and urban air pollution.
Air pollution may affect athletic performance. In Los Angeles, contaminants include carbon monoxide, ozone, peroxyacetylnitrate (PAN) and nitrogen oxides, whereas in older European cities, such as Sarajevo, "reducing smog" of sulfur dioxide is the main hazard. The carbon monoxide and ozone levels expected in Los Angeles this summer could affect the athletes' performance in endurance events at the Olympic Games. Carbon monoxide may also impair psychomotor abilities, and PAN causes visual disturbances. The only likely physiologic consequence from reducing smog is an increase in the workload of the respiratory system and thus a decrease in endurance performance. While carbon monoxide has been blamed for myocardial infarctions, nitrogen oxides for pulmonary edema and sulfur dioxide for deaths due to respiratory failure, the only illnesses that are likely to be more frequent than usual among young athletes exposed to high levels of these pollutants are upper respiratory tract infections. Therapeutic tactics include the avoidance of pollution, the administration of oxygen, vitamin C and vitamin E, and general reassurance.
Adaptation, Physiological↗
[Environmental illnesses, illnesses of the 21st century. Respiratory tract pathology and indoor air pollution].
Air pollution becomes a major concern in the 21st century. There is of course a relation between outdoor pollution and pollution in the building where we live and work. Indoor pollution, nevertheless is characterized by a higher concentration of several pollutants. This article is a short review of the main chemical and biological substances present in the indoor environment which may impair the lung health.
Air Pollution, Indoor↗
Chrysosporium species as fungal air pollutants.
Air filters utilized in monitoring industrial air pollutants were analyzed for the presence of airborne fungi. The genera of fungi isolated were essentially those isolated in other areas of the United States; however, Chrysosporium species, unreported in previous airborne surveys, were found in significant numbers. Thirty-six genera of fungi were recovered over a one-year period. Aspergillus and Chrysosporium were isolated most frequently from the filter samples examined.
Air Pollution↗
Criteria air pollutants and toxic air pollutants.
This review presents a brief overview of the health effects and exposures of two criteria pollutants--ozone and particulate matter--and two toxic air pollutants--benzene and formaldehyde. These pollutants were selected from the six criteria pollutants and from the 189 toxic air pollutants on the basis of their prevalence in the United States, their physicochemical behavior, and the magnitude of their potential health threat. The health effects data included in this review primarily include results from epidemiologic studies; however, some findings from animal studies are also discussed when no other information is available. Health effects findings for each pollutant are related in this review to corresponding information about outdoor, indoor, and personal exposures and pollutant sources.
Air Pollutants↗
Interactions between particulate air pollution and temperature in air pollution mortality time series studies.
In many community time series studies on the effect of particulate air pollution on mortality, particulate air pollution is modeled additively. In this study, we investigated the interaction between daily particulate air pollution and daily mean temperature in Cook County, Illinois and Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, using data for the period 1987-1994. This was done through the use of joint particulate air pollution-temperature response surfaces and by stratifying the effect of particulate air pollution on mortality by temperature. Evidence that the effect of particulate air pollution on mortality may depend on temperature is found. However, the results were sensitive to the number of degrees of freedom used in the confounder adjustments, the particulate air pollution exposure measure, and how the effects of temperature on mortality are modeled. The results were less sensitive to the estimation method used--generalized linear models and natural cubic splines or generalized additive models and smoothing splines. The results of this study suggest that in community particulate air pollution mortality time series studies the possibility of an interaction between daily particulate air pollution and daily mean temperature should be considered.
Aged↗
[Effects of air pollutants on pulmonary function and bronchial reactivity in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease].
Exposure to polluted air can cause respiratory symptoms in subjects with airflow limitation. Twelve COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) patients with mild to moderate obstructive ventilatory defects were exposed on separate occasions to fresh ambient air and polluted air collected from the Lin-Sun S. Road tunnel in Taipei City. Concentrations of SO2 and NO2 were 85-121 ppb and 449-502 ppb, respectively, and were 4-fold and 10-fold, respectively, higher than those of out-door air in the city. Twenty healthy adult volunteers served as the control group. Maximal expiratory flow-volume determination, respiratory resistance (Rrs) and methacholine bronchial challenges were completed before and after inhalation of polluted air for 20 minutes. No difference in FVC (forced vital capacity), FEV1 (1 second forced expiratory volume), Rrs and bronchial reactivity was noted for normal subjects after inhaling polluted air and ambient air. For patients with COPD, there was a small but significant decrease in FEV1 after exposure. The elevation in Rrs was prominent, and there was also a significant increase in bronchial sensitivity to methacholine (decrease in cumulative provocation dose, DA) in positive responders. We conclude that short-term exposures to moderate polluted air can affect lung function and increase bronchial sensitivity to methacholine in COPD patients.
Aged↗
[Database of air pollution and air quality indicators for the principal Italian cities: the ITARIA-WHO project].
This paper presents air quality data collected in eight Italian cities (Turin, Genoa, Milan, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Naples, Palermo) during the period 1994-98. Storage and analysis of data have been performed by the ITARIA collaborative group in the framework of a national study promoted by ECEH-WHO, aimed at evaluating the health impact of urban air pollution. Methods used to compare data from different networks are described. A slight reduction in the annual mean concentrations of NO2, SO2 and CO over the period under study was observed. However, for most of the cities, national and European air quality standards are frequently exceeded also in 1998, particularly for ozone pollution.
Air Pollutants↗