PSI slips into ‘unhealthy’ range

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

The Republic’s air quality worsened on Wednesday Oct 8 evening, as the three-hour Pollutants Standard Index PSI hit the ‘unhealthy’ range at 6pm with a 3-hour PSI reading of 102. The 3-hour PSI reading rose to 105 as of 7pm and stayed at 107 as of 9pm, The 24-hour PSI reading remained in the ‘moderate’ range at 79 to 90.

The National Environment Agency NEA noted that it was “slightly hazy” in the afternoon, and attributed this to smoke haze blown in from southern Sumatra by prevailing southerly winds. Singapore’s met agency detected 110 hotspots on the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Wednesday, up from about 100 the day before.

“The hazy conditions are expected to persist tonight,” NEA stated on its website.For Thursday, NEA forecast thundery showers in the afternoon, but said hazy conditions can be expected, as prevailing winds are expected to come from a southeasterly and southwesterly direction.

“The overall air quality for the next 24 hours is expected to be mainly in the high-end of ‘moderate’ range and low-end of the ‘unhealthy’ range,” NEA said.

via PSI slips into ‘unhealthy’ range – Channel NewsAsia.

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Respro® Masks on Channel 4 Gadget Man

Posted on October 8, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

Respro® Skins™ Masks were recently featured on Channel 4 Gadget Man

The Respro® ‘Skin’ is the Neoprene outer-shell of the mask. When the Skin is combined with a filter and valve assembly, you have the full Respro® mask ready to use.

The ‘Match Your Style’ Skins™ range allows you to feel ‘part’ rather than ‘apart’ from everyone else.

#matchyourstyle

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Air pollution slows growth of children’s lungs, says UK study

Posted on October 8, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

Medical experts are urging the government to take more effective action to clear the city’s air after a new study found that air pollution restricts the growth of children’s lungs.

The preliminary analysis of a six-year study done in Britain indicates that children exposed to nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter have slower lung growth.

Professor Frank Kelly, an environmental health expert at King’s College, London, said a child could lose as much as 165ml of lung volume under high-level exposure to nitrogen dioxide.

The professor said the impact of a smaller lung was lifelong and could “contribute to the development of chronic lung diseases such as asthma”.

Studies in Hong Kong have found similar results. Dr Alfred Tam Yat-cheung of the Hong Kong Society of Paediatric Respirology said that children living in polluted districts suffered from restricted lung growth, while girls had a more significant decline in lung volume than boys.

A weaker and smaller lung means children might have more difficulty doing exercise and a lower resistance to respiratory diseases, said Tam.

But the specifics of how pollutants restrict the development of lungs is still being studied. “Perhaps children have smaller lungs than adults, and therefore they inhale more air pollutants. However, this is still just speculation,” Kelly said.

Ruby Tse, 24, a long-term rhinitis patient, started to suffer from asthma three years ago when she was studying in the UK. The problem persisted when she returned to Hong Kong in 2012.

She says her health improves when she avoids crowded areas such as Mong Kok or Causeway Bay on heavily polluted days. She also exercises indoors to strengthen her respiratory system and has reduced her reliance on an asthma inhaler from six times to twice a day.

To improve lung function and build defences against pollution, medical experts recommended a diet rich in antioxidants, Vitamin C and E, and urged the government to take more action to improve air quality.

Undersecretary for the Environment Christine Loh Kung-wai said major steps were being taken, including the replacement of catalytic converters in minibuses and taxis, and the replacement of more than 80,000 diesel vehicles by 2019.

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Air pollution: ‘Heaven help us’

Posted on October 7, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

South Africa needs “magic and divine intervention” to win the war against air pollution in areas shared by industry and communities.

“Brace yourself, colleagues,” the Department of Environmental Affairs air-quality spokesman, Tsietsi Mahema, said at the annual air-quality governance lekgotla in Umhlanga, KwaZulu-Natal, yesterday.

He said the quality of air in the Vaal Triangle and on the Highveld was “bad news”.

“It doesn’t seem like we are winning the war. Next year’s news will be bad. Heaven help us,” he said.

Data from four of six monitoring stations showed that communities in the Vaal Triangle living near Eskom’s Lethabo power station, ArcelorMittal’s steelworks and the Sasol petro-chemicals plant were exposed to more airborne particles than allowed by South African standards or those set by the World Health Organisation.

Environmental Affairs Deputy Minister Barbara Thomson said: “The implication of this is that communities in air-pollution hot spots do not yet enjoy their constitutional right to air that is not harmful to their health and wellbeing.

“We intend to instal air-quality index billboards in these priority areas that will report the state of the air so that communities are kept informed,” she said.

Last month the report “Slow Poison: Air pollution, public health and failing government” accused the government of turning a blind eye to dangerous air pollution while several communities were inhaling toxic fumes.

But national air-quality officer Thulie Mdluli said yesterday that the report, by environmental justice organisation Ground Work, was inaccurate and that the government was dealing with non-compliance with the emissions policy.

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How air pollution caused Europe’s rivers to fill

Posted on October 7, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

Air pollution from Europe resulted in a 25 per cent increase in river flows in Poland and Germany during the late 20th century, a new study finds.

The researchers say their findings show how the impact of burning fossil fuels is not just limited to increasing temperatures.

Solar dimming

In the sixties and seventies, air quality across much of Europe was very poor. Coal power stations and inefficient cars belched out tiny particles, known as aerosols, into the atmosphere. These aerosols caused widespread health problems and contributed to the famous ‘pea-souper’ smogs in London.

This new piece of research, published in Nature Geoscience, finds that these aerosols also caused an increase in the amount of water flowing in rivers across Europe.

Some sources of aerosols are natural, such as volcanoes, plant vapours and chemicals released by tiny sea creatures. However, since the industrial revolution, humans have been emitting more and more aerosols through fossil fuel burning.

One type of aerosols, called sulphate aerosols, are emitted from cars and power stations. Once in the atmosphere, these aerosols affect the climate in two ways. They directly scatter sunlight and reflect it back out to space. They can also react with clouds in complex ways, causing the clouds to reflect more light back out to space. This process, known as ‘solar dimming’, reduces the amount of the sun’s energy that reaches the Earth’s surface.

River runoff

So what’s the link with how much water is in our rivers?

Less solar energy hitting the earth means water at the surface evaporates more slowly. That means less water evaporates, and more flows into rivers.

Evaporation requires energy from the sun, so if less of this energy is reaching the ground, less water will be evaporated. Solar dimming caused a reduction in evaporation, the researchers say, leaving more water to flow into rivers.

Heavily-polluted

As emissions of aerosols peaked at the end of the seventies, solar dimming had a substantial impact on the amount of water in Europe’s rivers, the researchers find.

For the most heavily-polluted regions, this impact was fairly large. The study estimates the impact on annual river flow was a 21 per cent increase in the Wisla in Poland and the Elbe in Germany. The largest impact was a slightly-astonishing 25 per cent increase in flow for the River Oder, which runs from the Czech Republic and into Poland and Germany.

To combat the pollution problem, governments across Europe passed clean air laws. Among other measures, these laws required sulphur levels in coal to be reduced. As aerosol emissions then decreased, so did river flows, the researchers find.

The research has implications for water availability in the future, the researchers say. River flows could reduce further as air quality improvements reduce aerosol emissions further still.

The study suggests emissions from fossil fuels have impacts beyond strengthening the greenhouse effect. Alongside increasing temperatures and changing rainfall patterns, changes in aerosols are another factor that will affect our water resources in the future.

via How air pollution caused Europe’s rivers to fill | Carbon Brief.

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Respro® Masks FAQ: These bendy nose things, how far should I bend them?

Posted on October 6, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

These bendy nose things, how far should I bend them?

The malleable nose clip deforms easily so that a good fit can be formed around the bridge of the nose. Continuous or exaggerated deformation will eventually cause failure in the metal – it will snap. Once a good fit has been found, it is best to maintain the shape, rather than folding it flat when storing it or when not in use.

For more FAQs,  go to Respro® Mask FAQ

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Air pollution: There is no ‘safe’ level

Posted on October 6, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

A new study by an Australian researcher underscores the fact that, when it comes to air pollution, there are no safe levels.

The research by Adrian Barnett, of theQueensland University of Technology, shows that the Australian government’s standards for key outdoor air pollutants are misleading, as many authorities wrongly assume them to be ‘safe’ thresholds for health.

But Barnett’s modeling shows that, if levels of those pollutants were all to rise to just below the government-set limit, it would result in 6,000 additional deaths and more then 20,000 hospital visits.

“I’ve found that increasing pollution levels to just below the NEPM standards would cause the deaths of an extra 6000 people each year – 2,600 in both Melbourne and Sydney and 800 in Brisbane,” said Professor Barnett, a health statistician with theInstitute of Health and Biomedical Innovation.

“The increase would hospitalise a further 20,700 people per year across those cities. “Study after study has shown there simply is no safe level of air pollution – health problems in the population rise in line with increases in average pollution levels,” Barnett said.

The World Health Organization has estimated outdoor air pollution causes 3.7 million deaths every year, 3000 of those in Australia.

“It’s understandable that the public could misinterpret the NEPM standards to mean anything below those levels is safe – but it’s inexcusable for authorities to use this safe-or-dangerous interpretation,” he added. “I have lost count of the number of government-commissioned environmental reports that have used this fallacy. This practice should have ended years ago.”

In a commentary published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, Professor Barnett cited recent environmental reports for the East-West road link in Melbourne and trains carrying coal in Queensland concluding that predicted pollution increases were ‘safe’ levels.

“Locals concerned about the potential health effects have found it difficult to get past the argument that the increases are below the standards and therefore everything is fine,” he said. “But any new project that increases air pollution will always mean an increase in illness.”

Professor Barnett is calling on Australian authorities to instead use thorough cost-benefit analyses of increased pollution levels in future environmental studies. He said the increased health problems could then be balanced against the economic and societal benefit of the new infrastructure or industry.

“Such cost-benefit analyses are not difficult to do and they will allow policy makers to make better-informed decisions based on the merits and costs of the project,” Professor Barnett said.

“Changes also need to be made to the National Environment Protection Measures (NEPM) documentation and web site to prominently state that the standards should not be used to judge whether individual projects are safe or dangerous.”

The health statistician has also recommended authorities better communicate the risks of air pollution to the public, including stating the estimated health impacts of existing pollution level categories.

“For example, the Victorian Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gives hourly updates on air quality for 16 sites across the state,” Professor Barnett said.

“This was clear during the recent fire at Morwell where the particulate matter numbers peaked at over 550 µg/m3.

“To help interpret the numbers, the Victorian EPA has categorized and colour-coded the results into five categories from “very good” to “very poor”.

“However, these categories still do not have enough meaning for lay people, particularly when people want to know if they should change their behaviour in order to reduce their exposure.”

Professor Barnett’s analysis of death rates in Morwell following the 45-day Hazelwood coal fire revealed the resulting pollution caused an estimated 15 per cent increase in the local death rate, which translates to 11 to 14 premature deaths.

via Air pollution: There is no ‘safe’ level | Summit County Citizens Voice.

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New study explains wintertime ozone pollution in Utah oil and gas fields

Posted on October 3, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

Chemicals released into the air by oil and gas exploration, extraction and related activities can spark reactions that lead to high levels of ozone in wintertime, high enough to exceed federal health standards, according to new NOAA-led research, published today in Nature.

The study comes at a time when new technologies are helping to accelerate oil and gas development in Utah’s Uintah Basin, elsewhere in the United States and in many other countries, and its findings may help air quality managers determine how to best minimize the impact of ozone pollution.

When ozone levels spike, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) experts recommend that people, especially those in sensitive groups — children, the elderly, and anyone with pre-existing respiratory conditions — limit time outdoors.

Winter ozone pollution is surprising because normally, the more intense sunlight of the summer season can spark the chemical reactions that create ozone pollution, said lead author Peter Edwards, a scientist with NOAA’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder at the time of the study, and now with University of York in England.

However, Edwards and his colleagues showed that in winter in northeastern Utah, levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) build high enough that they can trigger pollution-forming reactions themselves. In winter, warm air aloft can trap cold air below, creating an inversion that concentrates VOCs. The presence of snow increases light reflection and accelerates ozone production.

For instance, in 2013, ozone in Ouray, Utah, exceeded the national air quality standards 49 times during the winter season. By contrast, in the densely populated, urban area of Riverside, California, the standards were exceeded about half that amount that same year, but during the summer.

“So it’s the same starting ingredients, nitrogen oxides and VOCs, that form ozone in Riverside, but it’s a different spark in Utah in winter,” said coauthor Steven Brown, a scientist with NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. “Under wintertime conditions, the much higher VOCs in Utah break down to make carbonyl compounds, which set off the ozone production.”

The research is based on data collected in a series of wintertime studies in Uintah Basin led by James Roberts, of NOAA’s ESRL. “We encountered a range of conditions during the three winters, from snowy in 2013 and 2014, to virtually no snow in 2012,” said Roberts. “Oil and gas emissions of VOCs were high in all three years, but high ozone occurred only in the cold, snowy stagnant periods.”

Researchers from NOAA, CIRES, and other institutions made detailed measurements of ozone and the chemical ingredients, such as VOCs and nitrogen oxides, that “cook up” into the pollutant, and they used chemical models to better understand the chemistry behind the wintertime ozone formation.

“These studies in Utah have caused us to think about air pollution chemistry a little differently,” said coauthor Joost de Gouw, a researcher with CIRES working at NOAA ESRL. “Our findings could help state and local air quality managers who are faced with ozone episodes to design policies, and industry representatives to meet air quality standards in the regions where they operate.”

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth’s environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources.

via New study explains wintertime ozone pollution in Utah oil and gas fields.

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