A factor analysis study: Air pollution,meteorology, and hospital admissions for respiratory diseases

It is well known that air pollution exerts adverse effects on health and environment. Bal?kesir located in the Marmara region (Turkey) has serious air pollution problems produced by heating in the months of winter. In this study, the effect of exposure to air pollution on hospital admission for respiratory illnesses among children and adults was examined. Epidemiological data from records of hospitals, air pollutants and meteorological data were used. During July 2005–July 2007 period, there was a total of 280,426 hospital admissions for respiratory diseases. In a population-based analysis, 9 children were admitted for asthma, 17 children for acute bronchitis, and 20 children for lower respiratory diseases out of 100 children. There was a significant increase in the hospital admissions for respiratory diseases and air pollutants from October to March. It was concluded that children living in the city suffer from respiratory diseases such as asthma, pneumonia, and lower respiratory diseases. Three factors that account for approximately 90% of total variance of hospital admissions, air pollution, and meteorology were identified by means of principal component factor analysis.     

Multivariate imputation in cross-sectional analysis of health effects associated with air pollution

We demonstrate a recently developed spatial interpolation methodology in a study of the chronic effects of air pollution on respiratory morbidity. Our study uses data from the Ontario Health Study, a large survey of households in Ontario conducted for the province by Statistics Canada. The interpolation procedure imputes unobserved vectors of air pollution concentrations for individual Public Health Units, from those observed at a few fixed air pollution monitoring sites. We use logistic regression methods to assess the significance of air pollution levels based on the imputed values after modelling the relationship between binary health responses and assorted covariates such as measures of life style. Our findings prove negative; no significant relationship between chronic respiratory morbidity and air pollution is found. The imputation methodology is seen to be promising and might well be used in other such analyses.     

Health impacts of air pollution in China

•Impacts of air pollution on various body systems health in China were highlighted. •China’s actions to control air pollution and their effects were briefly introduced. •Challenges and perspectives of the health effects of air pollution are provided. The health effects of air pollution have attracted considerable attention in China. In this review, the status of air pollution in China is briefly presented. The impacts of air pollution on the health of the respiratory system, the circulatory system, the nervous system, the digestive system, the urinary system, pregnancy and life expectancy are highlighted. Additionally, China’s actions to control air pollution and their effects are briefly introduced. Finally, the challenges and perspectives of the health effects of air pollution are provided. We believe that this review will provide a promising perspective on the health impacts of air pollution in China, and further elicit more attention from governments and researchers worldwide.     

Investigating the impact of air pollution on AMI and COPD hospital admissions in the coastal city of Qingdao,China

• The impact of air pollution on AMI/COPD hospital admissions were examined. • Significant connection was found between air pollutants and AMI/COPD in Qingdao. • Nonlinearity exists between air pollution and AMI/COPD hospital admissions. Air pollution has been widely associated with adverse effects on the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. We investigated the relationship between acute myocardial infarction (AMI), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and air pollution exposure in the coastal city of Qingdao, China. Air pollution in this region is characterized by inland and oceanic transportation sources in addition to local emission. We examined the influence of PM_2.5, PM₁₀, NO₂, SO₂, CO and O₃ concentrations on hospital admissions for AMI and COPD from October 1, 2014, to September 30, 2018, in Qingdao using a Poisson generalized additive model (GAM). We found that PM_2.5, PM₁₀, NO₂, SO₂ and CO exhibited a significant short-term (lag 1 day) association with AMI in the single-pollutant model among older adults (>65 years old) and females, especially during the cold season (October to March). In contrast, only NO₂ and SO₂ had clear cumulative lag associations with COPD admission for females and those over 65 years old at lag 01 and lag 03, respectively. In the two-pollutant model, the exposure-response relationship fitted by the two-pollutant model did not change significantly. Our findings indicated that there is an inflection point between the concentration of certain air pollutants and the hospital admissions of AMI and COPD even under the linear assumption, indicative of the benefits of reducing air pollution vary with pollution levels. This study has important implications for the development of policy for air pollution control in Qingdao and the public health benefits of reducing air pollution levels.     

A Bayesian hierarchical model for assessing the impact of human activity on nitrogen dioxide concentrations in Europe

Ambient concentrations of many pollutants are associated with emissions due to human activity, such as road transport and other combustion sources. In this paper we consider air pollution as a multi-level phenomenon on a continental scale within a Bayesian hierarchical model. We examine different scales of variation in pollution concentrations ranging from large scale transboundary effects to more localised effects which are directly related to human activity. Specifically, in the first stage of the model, we isolate underlying patterns in pollution concentrations due to global factors such as underlying climate and topography, which are modelled together with spatial structure. At this stage measurements from monitoring sites located within rural areas are used which, as far as possible, are chosen to reflect background concentrations. Having isolated these global effects, in the second stage we assess the effects of human activity on pollution in urban areas. The proposed model was applied to concentrations of nitrogen dioxide measured throughout the EU for which significant increases are found to be associated with human activity in urban areas. The approach proposed here provides valuable information that could be used in performing health impact assessments and to inform policy.     

The effect of pollution on crime: Evidence from data on particulate matter and ozone

We estimate the effect of short-term air pollution exposure (PM_2.5 and ozone) on several categories of crime, with a particular emphasis on aggressive behavior. To identify this relationship, we combine detailed daily data on crime, air pollution, and weather for an eight-year period across the United States. Our primary identification strategy employs extremely high dimensional fixed effects and we perform a series of robustness checks to address confounding variation between temperature and air pollution. We find a robust positive effect of increased air pollution on violent crimes, and specifically assaults, but no relationship between increases in air pollution and property crimes. The effects are present in and out of the home, at levels well below Ambient Air Pollution Standards, and PM_2.5 effects are strongest at lower temperatures. The results suggest that a 10% reduction in daily PM_2.5 and ozone could save $1.4 billion in crime costs per year, a previously overlooked cost associated with pollution.     

邻苯二甲酸二乙基己酯(DEHP)污染及其毒性研究进展

邻苯二甲酸二乙基己酯(DEHP)作为重要的增塑剂被广泛应用于涂料、食品包装、医疗器材、儿童玩具等产品中。研究表明DEHP在水、土壤、空气等各个环境要素以及食物、饮用水中已被普遍检出,并对环境产生潜在的危害。本文通过分析国内外DEHP的环境暴露和毒性效应的研究成果,总结了DEHP在室外大气、室内空气、土壤、地表水、地下水、食品和饮用水中的污染现状,并对DEHP的替代产品进行总结;此外,本文深入探讨了DEHP对水生生物和陆生生物的生态毒性效应,以及对生殖发育、肝脏、呼吸系统和神经系统等的健康毒性效应。最后,结合DEHP在环境暴露调查和毒性效应研究方面的不足,指出需要进一步加强我国DEHP的环境暴露调查,制定相关环境基准值与标准限值,开展慢性生态毒性效应和人体健康毒性效应等方面的研究。     

多污染因子健康影响的区域性综合评价方法

本文介绍了一种多污染因子健康影响的区域性综合评价方法.运用该方法进行办北京市大气污染对居民健康影响的研究》不仅证明了大气污染对居民健康的影响,还将北京市城、近郊区划分为影响程度不等的四个区.四个区健康指标水平间的比较,证明划分结果是合理的.方法可用于区域性、多项观察指标的大气污染及其他经环境介质污染健康影响的评价.     

大气中黑碳的健康效应及机制研究进展

虽然人类社会不断进步发展,但大量工业和自然排放也导致了严重的空气污染。大气颗粒物是大气污染物的主要成分之一,黑碳是其中的重要组成成分,被国际癌症研究机构(IARC)归类为2B类致癌物。黑碳可以吸附其他致癌物质,会对环境和人体健康产生不利影响,因此黑碳暴露对人类的危害得到越来越多的重视。空气中黑碳的水平与心血管、呼吸和神经系统疾病的发生都有关系;黑碳主要通过引起氧化应激和炎症反应,诱发基因突变等一系列损伤。虽然现今对于黑碳健康效应的研究已取得了一些进展,但研究多数处于起步阶段,且仅针对黑碳本身进行单独研究,未来还需要加强开展对黑碳和其他污染物联合毒性效应及机制的研究。本综述主要针对近年来已开展的研究进行了总结归纳。     

An initial assessment of spatial relationships between respiratory cases,soil metal content,air quality and deprivation indicators in Glasgow,Scotland, UK: relevance to the environmental justice agenda

There is growing interest in links between poor health and socio-environmental inequalities (e.g. inferior housing, crime and industrial emissions) under the environmental justice agenda. The current project assessed associations between soil metal content, air pollution (NO₂/PM₁₀) and deprivation and health (respiratory case incidence) across Glasgow. This is the first time that both chemical land quality and air pollution have been assessed citywide in the context of deprivation and health for a major UK conurbation. Based on the dataset ‘averages’ for intermediate geography areas, generalised linear modelling of respiratory cases showed significant associations with overall soil metal concentration (p = 0.0367) and with deprivation (p < 0.0448). Of the individual soil metals, only nickel showed a significant relationship with respiratory cases (p = 0.0056). Whilst these associations could simply represent concordant lower soil metal concentrations and fewer respiratory cases in the rural versus the urban environment, they are interesting given (1) possible contributions from soil to air particulate loading and (2) known associations between airborne metals like nickel and health. This study also demonstrated a statistically significant correlation (?0.213; p < 0.05) between soil metal concentration and deprivation across Glasgow. This highlights the fact that despite numerous regeneration programmes, the legacy of environmental pollution remains in post-industrial areas of Glasgow many decades after heavy industry has declined. Further epidemiological investigations would be required to determine whether there are any causal links between soil quality and population health/well-being. However, the results of this study suggest that poor soil quality warrants greater consideration in future health and socio-environmental inequality assessments.     

Air pollution and children's respiratory health: A cohort analysis

This paper uses a large database of multiple birth cohorts to study relationships between air pollution exposure and non-infant children's respiratory health outcomes. We observe several years of early-life health treatments for hundreds of thousands of English children. Three distinct research designs account for potential socioeconomic, behavioral, seasonal, and economic confounders. We find that marginal increases in carbon monoxide and ground-level ozone are associated with statistically significant increases in children's contemporaneous respiratory treatments. We also find that carbon monoxide exposure over the previous year has an effect on children's health that goes above and beyond contemporaneous exposure alone.     

The role of primary and secondary air pollutants in atmospheric pollution: Athens urban area as a case study

The question to what extent primary and secondary air pollutants are relevant to atmospheric pollution and their effects on human health and the quality of the environment can be answered in a straight-forward manner: atmospheric processes, including oxidation procedures, particle formation and equilibria, determine the fate of primary emissions and, in most cases, the secondary products of these processes are the more important ones concerning their effects on human health and the quality of the environment. The formation of secondary products represents the critical property determining the establishment of certain air standards, rather than the actually emitted substance, although there are notable exceptions. In this paper, a review concerning transformation of primary pollutants as studied in the atmosphere of Athens is used to enlighten matters that may need further attention by the responsible authorities and stakeholders for the control and reduction of atmospheric pollution.     

Molecular and ecological characterisation of plant populations from limed and metal-contaminated sites in Northern Ontario (Canada): ISSR analysis of white birch (Betula papyrifera) populations

The Greater Sudbury region in Northern Ontario is known as one of Canada's most ecologically disturbed regions because of the effects of heavy metal pollution. The main objectives of the present study were to assess the effects of soil liming of sites contaminated with metals on species richness and abundance, forest health in general, and to determine the level of genetic variability in white birch populations from Northern Ontario. Shannon-Wiener diversity index and tree species richness values were higher in populations from limed and control sites compared to the unlimed areas. A significant improvement in forest population health (measured using a scale of 1 to 10) in limed sites over the unlimed areas was observed. Key results revealed no significant difference for metal content in white birch (Betula papyrifera) leaves from limed compared to unlimed sites. But higher levels of Al, Ca, Mg, Mn, Ni, Sr, and Zn in leaves compared to the bioavailable amount in soil were observed. The levels of genetic variability in white birch populations were moderate to high, ranging from 30% to 79% of polymorphic loci. A high level of genetic variability such as observed in the present study is usually associated with long term sustainability in plant populations. No association was found between metal accumulation in soil or plants and the levels of genetic variation.     

A flexible spatio-temporal model for air pollution with spatial and spatio-temporal covariates

The development of models that provide accurate spatio-temporal predictions of ambient air pollution at small spatial scales is of great importance for the assessment of potential health effects of air pollution. Here we present a spatio-temporal framework that predicts ambient air pollution by combining data from several different monitoring networks and deterministic air pollution model(s) with geographic information system covariates. The model presented in this paper has been implemented in an R package, SpatioTemporal, available on CRAN. The model is used by the EPA funded Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and Air Pollution (MESA Air) to produce estimates of ambient air pollution; MESA Air uses the estimates to investigate the relationship between chronic exposure to air pollution and cardiovascular disease. In this paper we use the model to predict long-term average concentrations of \(\text {NO}_{x}\) in the Los Angeles area during a 10 year period. Predictions are based on measurements from the EPA Air Quality System, MESA Air specific monitoring, and output from a source dispersion model for traffic related air pollution (Caline3QHCR). Accuracy in predicting long-term average concentrations is evaluated using an elaborate cross-validation setup that accounts for a sparse spatio-temporal sampling pattern in the data, and adjusts for temporal effects. The predictive ability of the model is good with cross-validated \(R^2\) of approximately \(0.7\) at subject sites. Replacing four geographic covariate indicators of traffic density with the Caline3QHCR dispersion model output resulted in very similar prediction accuracy from a more parsimonious and more interpretable model. Adding traffic-related geographic covariates to the model that included Caline3QHCR did not further improve the prediction accuracy.     

表观遗传学机制与空气污染的健康效应

空气污染是一个全球性的问题,并且具有深远的环境影响。暴露于空气污染会对人体健康产生许多不同的影响,理解空气污染的健康效应又是一个复杂命题,既要考虑不同类型的污染物同时也要考虑相关疾病的复杂性。然而越来越多的研究表明,表观遗传学在空气污染相关疾病的发生、发展中发挥着重要的作用。空气污染物可引起DNA甲基化、组蛋白修饰和miRNA表达等表观遗传学改变,这种改变往往发生在疾病产生的早期,因此相关研究不仅可以了解疾病的发病机制,而且还为疾病早期诊断和预防筛选可能的标志物。本文综述了表观遗传学的几种修饰方式和空气污染物造成不良健康损伤机制的一些研究进展。     

Health externalities of India's expansion of coal plants: Evidence from a national panel of 40,000 households

Coal power generation is expanding rapidly in India and other developing countries. In addition to consequences for climate change, present-day health externalities may also substantially increase the social cost of coal. Health consequences of air pollution have proven important in studies of developed countries, but, despite clear importance, similarly well-identified estimates are less available for developing countries, and no estimates exist for the important case of coal in India. We exploit panel data on Indian households, matched to local changes in exposure to coal plants. Increased exposure to coal plants is associated with worse respiratory health. Consistent with a causal mechanism, the effect is specific: no effect is seen on diarrhea or fever, and no effect on respiratory health is seen of new non-coal plants. Our result is not due to endogenous avoidance behavior, or to differential trends in determinants of respiratory health, either before the period studied or simultaneously.     

Discovery of emerging organic pollutants in the atmosphere through an omics approach

● We review the framework of discovering emerging pollutants through an omics approach. ● High-resolution MS can digitalize atmospheric samples to full-component data. ● Chemical features and databases can help to translate untargeted data to compounds. ● Biological effect-directed untargeted analyses consider both existence and toxicity. Ambient air pollution, containing numerous known and hitherto unknown compounds, is a major risk factor for public health. The discovery of harmful components is the prerequisite for pollution control; however, this raises a great challenge on recognizing previously unknown species. Here we systematically review the analytical techniques on air pollution in the framework of an omics approach, with a brief introduction on sample preparation and analysis, and in more detail, compounds prioritization and identification. Through high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS, typically coupled with chromatography), the complicated environmental matrix can be digitalized into “full-component” data. A key step to discover emerging compounds is the prioritization of compounds from massive data. Chemical fingerprints, suspect lists and biological effects are the most vital untargeted strategies for comprehensively screening critical and hazardous substances. Afterward, compressed data of compounds can be identified at various confidence levels according to exact mass and the derived molecular formula, MS libraries, and authentic standards. Such an omics approach on full-component data provides a paradigm for discovering emerging air pollutants; nonetheless, new technological advancements of instruments and databases are warranted for further tracking the environmental behaviors, hence to evaluate the health risk of key pollutants.     

The effects of air pollution on work loss and morbidity

The pending revision of U.S. air standards and the analytic requirements of Executive Order 12291 will force regulators to examine closely the data showing possible human health effects from air pollution. A number of studies have investigated the relationship between air pollution and human mortality using an epidemiological approach. This study uses a data set on individuals, the Health Interview Survey, conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, to examine the relationship between air pollution and various measures of morbidity. Regressions run with the total sample and a subsample of male nonsmokers indicate a statistically significant relationship between particulates and both work loss and restricted activity days. Further analysis considering alternative functional forms also indicates that the ambient level of particulates is still significantly related to the measure of morbidity.     

Do new health conditions support mortality–air pollution effects?

Epidemiological research underlying US air quality regulations documents significant associations between measures of fine particles and premature mortality. Recent studies examine potential mechanistic pathways, related to heart and lung functioning, that may contribute to the observed deaths. Our results support these pathophysiological analyses. We examine whether the onset of serious health conditions, consistent with disease pathways, is related to current and long-term exposure to particulate matter and ozone. Associations between air pollution and alternative indicators of health status are also evaluated. The 1996 wave of the Health and Retirement Study is used with a two-step estimator acknowledging limitations in our ability to measure individual exposures. The findings suggest significant current and long-term effects of particulates on new cases of heart attacks and angina, reinforcing the disease pathways identified in epidemiological studies. Long-term air pollution exposure is also a determinant of recently diagnosed chronic lung conditions and reports of shortness of breath.