Bushfire Holsworthy: Smoky haze covers Sydney

Posted on April 18, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

SYDNEY residents with breathing difficulties are being warned to stay indoors as a thick haze blankets the city following backburning to contain a major blaze in Sydney’s southwest.

SYDNEY is being blanketed by a smoky haze as firefighters continue to backburn following a major blaze which threatened homes in Sydney’s southwest this week.

The fire currently burning within the Holsworthy Range and around Barden Ridge is now contained but crews will remain on scene throughout the day to monitor and consolidate containment lines around the fire.

Smoke from previous backburning operations is affecting the south west as well as the greater Sydney region and the Blue Mountains.

Liverpool and Chullora are the worst affected areas, recording a ‘poor’ air quality rating. Chullora also has poor visibility.

The haze has prompted a warning from NSW Health that children, older adults and people with heart and lung conditions are most susceptible to the effects of air pollution and excessive smoke.

“If you have asthma or a lung condition, reduce outdoor activities if smoke levels are high and if shortness of breath or coughing develops, take your reliever medicine or seek medical advice.

“Asthma sufferers need to follow their Asthma Action Plan and take their relieving medication where necessary. If symptoms get worse, seek medical advice.

TIPS TO STAY SAFE DURING BACKBURNING

* Keep doors and windows closed to prevent smoke from entering your home.

* Remove washing from clotheslines.

* Ensure pets have a protected area.

* If you’re driving through a smoky area, slow down, keep your windows up and turn your headlights on.

* Don’t call triple-0 just to report that it’s smoky. Save triple-0 for emerged

via Bushfire Holsworthy: Smoky haze covers Sydney

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Beijing issues yellow alert for air pollution

Posted on April 18, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

Beijing issued a yellow alert for air pollution Tuesday.

Yellow alert means the average daily air quality index (AQI) in the city will exceed 200 for at least two days.

Beijing will see its air moderately or seriously polluted from Tuesday night. Cold air and rain on Friday are expected to improve the air quality, according to Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau.

China National Environmental Monitoring Center said that the central and southern areas of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei would be affected.

Response measures including dust control in construction sites, suspension of construction work and heavy vehicle restrictions will be taken from Wednesday.

Under China’s four-tier warning system, red is the most severe, followed by orange, yellow and blue.

via Beijing issues yellow alert for air pollution – Xinhua | English.news.cn

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Over 95% of world’s population breathe dangerous air, study finds

Posted on April 17, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

More than 95% of the world’s population breathe unsafe air and the burden is falling hardest on the poorest communities, with the gap between the most polluted and least polluted countries rising rapidly, a comprehensive study of global air pollution has found. EURACTIV’s partner The Guardian reports.

Cities are home to an increasing majority of the world’s people, exposing billions to unsafe air, particularly in developing countries, but in rural areas the risk of indoor air pollution is often caused by burning solid fuels. One in three people worldwide faces the double whammy of unsafe air both indoors and out.

The report by the Health Effects Institute used new findings such as satellite data and better monitoring to estimate the numbers of people exposed to air polluted above the levels deemed safe by the World Health Organisation.

This exposure has made air pollution the fourth highest cause of death globally, after high blood pressure, diet and smoking, and the greatest environmental health risk.

Experts estimate that exposure to air pollution contributed to more than 6m deaths worldwide last year, playing a role in increasing the risk of stroke, heart attack, lung cancer and chronic lung disease. China and India accounted for more than half of the death toll.

Burning solid fuel such as coal or biomass in their homes for cooking or heating exposed 2.6 billion people to indoor air pollution in 2016, the report found. Indoor air pollution can also affect air quality in the surrounding area, with this effect contributing to one in four pollution deaths in India and nearly one in five in China.

Bob O’Keefe, vice-president of the institute, said the gap between the most polluted air on the planet and the least polluted was striking. While developed countries have made moves to clean up, many developing countries have fallen further behind while seeking economic growth.

He said there was now an 11-fold gap between the most polluted and least polluted areas, compared with a six-fold gap in 1990. “Air pollution control systems still lag behind economic development [in poorer nations],” he said.

But he added: “There are reasons for optimism, though there is a long way to go. China seems to be now moving pretty aggressively, for instance in cutting coal and on stronger controls. India has really begun to step up on indoor air pollution, for instance through the provision of LPG [liquefied petroleum gas] as a cooking fuel, and through electrification.”

The number of people exposed to indoor air pollution from burning solid fuels has fallen from an estimated 3.6 billion around the world in 1990 to about 2.4 billion today, despite a rising population.

Emissions from transport are a growing concern, however, as road traffic increases. Diesel fuel is a leading cause of air pollution in some rich countries, including the UK, but in poorer countries the often decrepit state of many vehicles means petrol-driven engines can be just as bad in their outputs, especially of the fine particulate matter blamed for millions of deaths a year.

O’Keefe said governments were under increasing pressure to deal with the problems through regulation and controls, and hailed internet access as having a significant impact.

“Social media has been very important, as a growing number of people have access to it and to data and discussions [on air pollution]. People now have the ability to worry about not just the food they eat and a roof over the head, but they have the means to discuss [issues] in public,” he said.

Tuesday’s report reinforces an increasing volume of data in recent years that has shown how air pollution is increasing and causing deaths.

More data has become available in the past decade from satellites and on-the-ground monitoring, while large-scale studies have revealed more of the health risks arising from breathing dirty air, which rarely kills people directly but is now known to contribute to other causes of death.

via Over 95% of world’s population breathe dangerous air, study finds – EURACTIV.com

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As air pollution in Swedish cities goes down, life expectancy goes up

Posted on April 16, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

New research has found that those living in the Swedish cities of Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö live on average one year longer today than 25 years ago, thanks to a decrease in the level of traffic pollution.

Carried out by researchers at the Department of Environmental Sciences and Analytical Chemistry (ACES), the team looked at results from measurement stations located in the center of each city which tracked the levels of nitrogen oxides, ozone and particles in the air from 1990 to 2015.

They found that concentrations of nitrogen oxides had fallen noticeably and by the same amount in all three cities, dropping from around 40 micrograms per cubic meter in 1990 to around 20 micrograms per cubic meter in 2015 in both Stockholm and Malmö, and from about 60 micrograms per cubic meter in 1990 to about 40 micrograms per cubic meters in 2015 in Gothenburg.

Though the team also observed different levels of particles across the cities and slightly higher ozone levels, study co-author Henrik Olstrup explained, “Overall… the air quality has improved in all three cities, which has led to improved public health, and it is estimated that life expectancy has increased by up to one year. This is mainly due to reduced levels of exhaust emissions from road traffic.”

How life expectancy was affected by this improvement was calculated based on the health risks of exposure to nitrogen oxides, ozone, and particles, the levels of pollution across the cities, and partly by using statistics on population size.

However, the team added that the longer life expectancy is mainly due to the decrease in nitrogen oxides, which are mainly associated with vehicle exhaust emissions, suggesting that a decrease in road traffic emissions has had the biggest effect on public health.

“The higher ozone levels give a relatively small effect on health, as opposed to reduced exhaust gas exposure. And for coarse particles, which mainly arise through road wear from studded tires, there are no clear changes in the levels during the period 1990 [to] 2015, which means that the impact on the expected life expectancy becomes insignificant,” added Olstrup.

Olstrup also explained that the average life expectancy in the three cities increased by approximately 4 to 5 years from 1990 to 2015, largely due to a reduced rate of smoking and more effective treatments for cardiovascular diseases.

He added that the reduction in air pollution exposure is expected to contribute up to 20 percent of this increase in life expectancy, which he described a very significant effect. “It shows that emission control measures can give major health benefits,” concluded Olstrup.

via As air pollution in Swedish cities goes down, life expectancy goes up | Inquirer News

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Brief exposure to tiny air pollution particles triggers childhood lung infections

Posted on April 13, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

Even the briefest increase in airborne fine particulate matter PM2.5, pollution-causing particles that are about 3 percent of the diameter of human hair, is associated with the development of acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) in young children, according to newly published research.

Increases in PM2.5 levels also led to increased doctor visits for these lung infections.

The groundbreaking study, “Short-Term Elevation of Fine Particulate Matter Air Pollution and Acute Lower Respiratory Infection,” is the largest to date on this health concern, involving more than 100,000 patients.

The research was undertaken by a team from Intermountain Healthcare, Brigham Young University, and the University of Utah, and is published online in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, an American Thoracic Society journal.

“The most important finding of this study is that infectious processes of respiratory disease may be influenced by particulate matter pollution at various levels,” said lead author Benjamin Horne, PhD, director of cardiovascular and genetic epidemiology at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City, Utah. “The exact biological implications of the study’s findings require further investigation.”

Dr. Horne and colleagues studied 146,397 individuals who were treated for ALRI between 1999 and 2016 at Intermountain Healthcare facilities throughout Utah’s Wasatch Front region.

The Wasatch Front is approximately 80 miles long and 10-20 miles wide, bordered on both sides by mountains. It consists primarily of suburbs, but also includes the cities of Salt Lake City, Ogden and Provo/Orem.

PM2.5 levels were estimated based on data from air quality monitoring stations along the Wasatch Front, where approximately 80% of Utah’s population resides. Measurements were also made at secondary locations. Short-term periods of PM2.5 elevation were matched with the timing of increases in healthcare visits for ALRI.

The primary aim of the study was to determine if there was an association between these fine particulates and ALRI in very young children, with a secondary objective of finding the same associations for older children, adolescents and adults.

The research team found ALRI associated with elevated levels of PM2.5 in both children and adults – even in newborns and toddlers up to age two, who represented 77% (112,467) of those who had an ALRI diagnosis.

Nearly 60% of U.S. children live in counties with PM2.5 concentrations above air quality standards.

This study was performed in a location where the average daily PM2.5 level is lower than places like Los Angeles and New York. Due to the topography of the region, though, air pollution may become trapped in the high mountain valleys of the Wasatch Front–especially during temperature inversions, which typically occur in the winter months.

When PM2.5 becomes trapped in the valleys, this often leads to sharp increases in PM2.5 to levels considered to be unhealthy (>35 micrograms per cubic meter, and at times approaching 100 ug/m3).

“In many places that have higher average PM2.5, the PM2.5 level does not vary as much as it does on the Wasatch Front, so it is not clear how this study’s findings may transfer to those locales where the air pollution exposure is higher over the long term, but short term spikes do not occur,” said Dr. Horne. “It may be, though, that long-term exposure to air pollution makes people more susceptible to ALRI on a routine basis, although additional studies will be required to test this hypothesis.”

Bronchiolitis, a condition in which small breathing tubes in the lungs called bronchioles become infected and clogged with mucus, is the most common acute lower respiratory infection in children.

Fifty to 90 percent of bronchiolitis cases are caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which is the most common cause of hospitalization in the first two years of life. Sixty-four percent of individuals studied had a diagnosis of bronchiolitis.

“Overall, it took about 2-3 weeks for the ALRI hospitalizations or clinic visits to occur in this study after the rapid rise in PM2.5 had been observed,” said Dr. Horne.

In an analysis of death rates among the study population, 17 children ages 0-2, nine children ages 3-17 and 81 adults (18+) died within 30 days of diagnosis with ALRI.

In theorizing about the connection between PM2.5 and ALRI, Dr. Horne said: “The air pollution itself may make the human body more susceptible to infection or may impair the body’s ability to fight off the infectious agents. It may be that PM2.5 causes damage to the airway so that a virus can successfully cause an infection or that PM2.5 impairs the immune response so that the body mounts a less effective response in fighting off the infection. This could lead to longer periods of ALRI symptoms or more severe symptoms requiring a higher intensity of medical care for the infected individual. It may also be that periods of acute increases in PM2.5 lead people to stay indoors more where they are in closer contact with others who carry infectious agents and can transmit the infection to them.”

Motor vehicles contribute about 48% of emissions that lead to the formation of fine particulates. Small industry and businesses such as gas stations and dry cleaners, as well as home heating, emit about 39% of all fine particulates. Large manufacturing accounts for 13% of fine particulates.

“The practical implications for prevention of ALRI and amelioration of symptoms include that when an acute increase in the level of PM2.5 occurs, people may be able to prevent infections or decrease ALRI symptom severity or duration by reducing their exposure to the air pollution,” said Dr. Horne. “Furthermore, a substantial elevation in PM2.5 may also serve as a nudge that reminds or alerts people to avoid areas and activities where other people may share an infection with them, to not touch their face with dirty hands, to be vigilant about washing their hands when reasonably possible or prudent, and to engage in other preventive behaviors that are known to reduce infection risk.”

via Brief exposure to tiny air pollution particles triggers childhood lung infections | EurekAlert! Science News

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Delhi to start monitoring pollen pollution

Posted on April 12, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

Delhi constantly struggles with air pollution arising from harmful gases and particulate matter. In addition, pollen grains of different plant species spread in the air during early winter and spring, affecting people suffering from respiratory diseases.

But now, a digital pollen count monitor for the public has been set up at Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute (VPCI) at Delhi University. The monitor was inaugurated by India’s Union Minister of Health, J.P. Nadda, on the occasion of the 69th Foundation Day of VPCI. The city’s pollen count will now be displayed at the hospital and the institute website so that people who are predisposed to pollen allergies can take preventive measures.

“While much effort is being made towards raising awareness on the impact of pollution on health, the effect of pollen on patients with respiratory problems is not being given much importance, even though it affects a significant number of patients. Apart from vehicular and industrial emissions, increased pollen levels in the atmosphere also trigger asthma and allergic reactions. Pollen grains, fungal spores, insect debris, dust mites and animal epithelium are also agents of pollution,” says Prof. Rajkumar, acting director of VPCI and Head of the Pulmonary Medicine Department and National Center of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology at the Institute.

He adds, “The pollen concentration starts increasing in the months of September, October, and November and starts declining in December. The pollen level again aggravates during spring season. The increase in pollen count leads to an increase in the number of patients suffering from respiratory problems. The digital display board at the institute will enable people with chronic allergies to be better prepared for a dusty or high-pollen day on the road. It will also help create awareness about pollen concentration in the air, which is one of the major reasons for repeated asthma attacks in patients.”

“Now people can check the pollen count display and take preventive measures such as taking anti-histamines or staying indoors and minimising health risk,” says Prof. Rajkumar.

Pollens are fine powder that comes from the stamen of flowering plants. They can trigger allergic reactions, such as a runny nose, sore throat, coughing, headaches and asthma. Pollen count monitors can be an indispensable resource to manage symptoms related to respiratory diseases in patients, experts say.

via Delhi to start monitoring pollen pollution | The Weather Channel

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Northern China ozone pollution getting worse: study

Posted on April 11, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

Concentrations of hazardous ground-level ozone have worsened in northern China despite country-wide efforts to tackle air pollution, according to a study published by Peking University on Tuesday.

Stringent winter restrictions on industry, transportation and coal consumption enabled smog-prone northern Chinese regions to meet politically crucial air quality targets for the 2013-2017 period.

But while concentrations of hazardous airborne particles known as PM2.5 fell, average daytime ozone levels jumped sharply, according to a study of pollution data in 33 northern cities by Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management and the Center for Statistical Science.

Also known as “sunburn for the lungs”, ozone is caused by the interaction of sunlight with nitrogen oxides and the vast amounts of uncontrolled volatile organic compounds (VOCs) produced by burning fossil fuels. Traffic congestion is a major cause.

Ozone is one of six components of China’s official air quality index, along with sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, PM2.5 and larger airborne particles known as PM10.

Ozone rose throughout the region, with concentrations up 40 percent or more in 10 northern cities from 2014 to 2017, the study said. Cuts in other forms of pollution are believed to have contributed to the rise.

“Regional declines in the amount of PM2.5 and PM10 have reduced the volume of floating particles and increased the strength of the sunlight required to produce ozone,” the paper said.

A study by Chinese researchers published last year identified ozone as a growing health risk that had caused a rise in deaths from strokes and heart disease.

“If you look at the public health impact … PM2.5 is responsible for more than a million premature deaths per year, whereas ozone is somewhere above 100,000,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, clean air campaigner with environment group Greenpeace.

“But last summer, ozone really spiked and it is deservedly going to get more attention,” he said, adding that China should set targets to cut nitrogen oxide and VOC emissions in its next air quality plan, due to be published later this year.

via Northern China ozone pollution getting worse: study

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SKorean baseball league postpones games over pollution

Posted on April 9, 2018 by Respro® UK Ltd

South Korea’s rapidly worsening air pollution has forced the country’s professional baseball league to postpone three games.

The Korea Baseball Organization on Friday postponed the games in capital Seoul and the nearby cities of Suwon and Incheon after the government issued alerts over high fine dust levels in the metropolitan area.

It’s the first time the league postponed games because of air pollution since the country began pro baseball in 1982. A KBO official said the games will be rescheduled later in the season. She didn’t want to be named, citing office rules.

As of 5:30 p.m. Friday, the fine dust concentration level was measured at 377 micrograms per cubic meter near Seoul’s Jamsil Stadium, where the Doosan Bears had been scheduled to host the NC Dinos before the game was postponed.

South Korea issues an advisory when the fine dust level reaches 150 micrograms per cubic meter and a warning if the level exceeds 300 micrograms per cubic meter.

South Korea in recent years has been experiencing an acute rise in air pollution that experts link to emission from the country’s increasing number of cars and also to China’s massive industrial activity.

In a meeting with top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi last week, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said China was partially responsible for South Korea’s pollution problem and called for Beijing’s cooperation in Seoul’s efforts to improve air quality.

via SKorean baseball league postpones games over pollution

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