Air pollution from traffic increases odds of hospital readmission for asthma

Posted on April 24, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

Higher exposure to traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) dramatically increases the odds of readmission to the hospital for asthma — but only for white children, according to a new Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center study.

The study shows that white children exposed to high levels of TRAP are three times more likely to be readmitted for asthma than white children with low TRAP exposure. Levels of TRAP exposure were not associated with increased risk of readmission of black children, despite their having overall higher rates of asthma readmission than white children.

The study is published in The Journal of Pediatrics.

“Although black children in our study had a higher rate of asthma readmission overall, TRAP exposure was not a discernible factor for these children. This suggests that other factors such as social stress or other environmental factors may be particularly relevant in this population,” says Nicholas Newman, DO, a pediatrician at Cincinnati Children’s and lead author of the study.

“For example, caregivers of black children reported significantly higher rates of psychological distress and were more likely to live in poorer housing conditions, with visible cockroaches or holes or cracks in the walls. These other factors may mask or overwhelm the impact of TRAP in black children.”

The researchers studied 758 children between the ages of 1 and 16 admitted to Cincinnati Children’s for asthma or wheezing. Fifty-eight percent were black and 32 percent white. Nineteen percent of all children were readmitted within the 12-month period.

TRAP is a complex mixture of chemicals and particles. In urban areas, diesel exhaust particles make up a substantial portion of particles, whose size is linked to their potential for causing health problems. These very small particles have greater potential to be inhaled into the lung, where they can cause swelling that blocks airways.

Exposure to TRAP in this study was estimated using a previously developed model that sampled ambient air at 27 sites in the Cincinnati area between 2001 and 2006. This model was used to estimate exposure for children enrolled in the study based on their home address.

Asthma is the most common chronic disease in children, affecting approximately 7.1 million children in the United States. The estimated annual cost of childhood asthma due to environmental factors, including air pollution is $2.2 billion.

“This study adds to the evidence that TRAP exposure worsens the health of children with asthma,” says Robert Kahn, MD, MPH, associate director of general and community pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s and senior author of the study. “We hope that this study can inform public policy. It may also suggest ways to personalize patient care based on environmental risks.”

via Air pollution from traffic increases odds of hospital readmission for asthma — ScienceDaily.

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Researchers raise alarm about air pollution levels in Haiti

Posted on April 24, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

Air pollution in the island nation of Haiti can reach levels considered hazardous by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to recent findings by Tufts researchers.

The researchers—associate professor Mary Davis and Ann Rappaport in the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning—say that air pollution levels put people at higher risk for respiratory illnesses, including lung cancer and heart disease.

For their study, Davis and Rappaport monitored the levels of particulates produced by combustion in Haiti’s two largest cities, Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haïtien, for a week in May 2013. “Concentrations of particulates around Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haïtien are higher than levels observed elsewhere in the developing world, with the exception of India and China,” says Davis.

In the affluent Pétionville suburb of Port-au-Prince, they found air quality that would be considered a moderate health concern, according to EPA guidelines. But during morning rush hour in Port-au-Prince, Davis and Rappaport recorded particulate concentrations that consistently exceeded levels the EPA would deem hazardous. In Cap-Haïtien, the levels were even higher.

In contrast to China, where high levels of air pollution are associated with unregulated industrial sources, in Haiti the sources are generally residential and commercial. Diesel generators are an alternative or a backup for the unreliable electricity grid, trash burning is widely practiced, charcoal and other biomass are frequently used for cooking, and traffic is congested in population centers. These conditions may have been exacerbated by the earthquake that struck Port-au-Prince in 2010, and exposures may have increased. “The worst readings are near heavy traffic areas and often where displaced people are living in camps,” says Davis.

The filter on the air-quality monitor they used would blacken in just 30 minutes in Port-au-Prince, Davis says. That compares to the 10 to 20 hours it took to blacken filters when she studied U.S. diesel trucking terminals as part of an earlier air pollution study.

The research, though limited in the data it gathered over a short period of time, is a real wake-up call, the researchers say. It gives strong indications that similar unhealthy air conditions likely exist in other developing nations with inadequate infrastructure, especially those where natural disasters have increased dependence on pollution-promoting sources of heat, energy and transportation.

Davis and Rappaport hope their study will spur further research in Haiti and other developing countries.

via Researchers raise alarm about air pollution levels in Haiti.

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Air pollution deaths in south Essex revealed

Posted on April 24, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

AIR pollution kills 375 people a year in south Essex with many more having years shaved of their lives, health experts estimate.

Councils are considering lowering speed limits and urging people to reduce car use as new figures from Public Health England laid bare the impact of car emissions and industry on people’s lives.

People with asthma were warned to stay indoors after smog settled over the area for several days earlier this month.

Dr Andrea Atherton, director of public health for Southend Council and Thurrock Council, said: “This report clearly shows that particulate air pollution continues to have a significant effect on health and reducing concentrations of this pollutant would lead to significant gains for public health.”

For the first time, the report estimates the number of deaths in each local authority area attributable to long-term exposure to air pollution.

They are calculated by modelling annual average concentrations of man-made particles less than 2.5 microns in diameter, known as PM2.5.

Southend had the worst figures, with 115 deaths and 1,022 years of life lost, but Dr Atherton blames this on the borough’s higher overall death rate, caused by an ageing population.

Basildon and Thurrock both had higher concentrations of particulate air pollution, which could be dust, ash or soot.

Thurrock, which contains the M25, the Dartford Crossing, the A13, Tilbury Power Station, Tilbury Docks, the new DP World superport and many heavy industrial areas, had to declare 15 air quality management areas, where it may not meet national standards.

Each area has an action plan detailing how it will improve.

Rochford District Council declared an air quality management area at Rawreth Industrial Estate and nearby streets in June 2010.

It was revoked last March as resurfacing of the estate roads, reorganising and resurfacing of certain sites to reduce the levels of vehicle contamination had helped improve air quality.

As a new town industry is largely separate from residential areas in Basildon, so road traffic emissions are the principal source of air pollution.

A spokesman said: “The challenge for us is to ensure that as the borough evolves, developments are carefully planned to maintain separation of the people from known areas of poorer air quality.

“Furthermore, while we have not had to declare any air quality management areas in Basildon, we are continuously striving to seek improvements through initiatives like the introduction of reduced speeds on the major feeder roads into town, which is a good example of a common sense measure.”

via Air pollution deaths in south Essex revealed (From Echo).

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Respro® Masks FAQ: How to fit a Respro® mask?

Posted on April 23, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

For more FAQ,  see Respro® Mask FAQ

All Respro® products are available from our website respro.com

Respro® will ship your order to anywhere on the planet free of charge.

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Will Pennsylvania’s Proposed Anti-Smog Regs Actually Create New Pollution Hot Spots?

Posted on April 23, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

Some people claim that the Clean Air Act has its roots in Pennsylvania, where in 1948, a single smog event left 20 people dead and 6,000 others ill in the town of Donora. It was the worst air pollution disaster in U.S. history, tragically demonstrating to the nation that industrial air pollution isn’t just unpleasant, it’s potentially deadly. Almost 70 years later, Pennsylvania still struggles with poor air quality throughout its industrial regions.

In May 2012 the EPA found that 17 counties in the state were out of compliance with the most recent (2008) National Ambient Air Quality Standards, or NAAQS. Those standards set the ground-level ozone limit at 0.075 parts per million averaged over eight hours. But areas in the southeast and southwest of the state, around Pittsburgh and Philadelphia routinely exceed these limits, endangering the health of the young, the elderly, and anyone with a respiratory condition.

Now, Governor Tom Corbett’s administration has proposed new regulations designed to bring the state’s air quality up to national standards, but environmental groups warn that the proposed new rules are far too lax to make meaningful improvements in public health.

While ozone high up in the atmosphere protects the planet from harmful radiation, ground level ozone is the main component of smog. Ground level ozone forms when sunlight catalyzes reactions between nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOC). NOx pollution is emitted during combustion from vehicles and industrial sources like power plants and cement kilns.

The Sierra Club, the American Lung Association, the Clean Air Council, and other groups say that under the new emission limits, the state’s biggest emitters, coal-fired power plants would be allowed to release more than 130,000 tons of smog-causing nitrogen oxides annually. That’s 40 percent more than they do now. Coal-fired power plants are responsible for about one-quarter of smog-causing pollutants in the state.

“The proposed pollution limits are actually higher than the current rates of pollution at many plants — as much as four times higher in some cases,” said Kim Teplitzky, Deputy Press Secretary for the Sierra Club. “Failing to require coal plants to use the pollution controls they already have puts a significantly more expensive burden on other industries that will have to install and operate new controls.”

Ryan Knapick, a staff attorney with the Clean Air Council explained that one of the biggest flaws with the new regulations is that the Department for Environmental Protection based the new limits on Reasonably Available Control Technology (RACT) that is inferior to technology that is already being used at many power plants in the state, making the rule much less stringent than it could be.

Part of the problem is also that Corbett’s plan doesn’t require that individual facilities meet the standards, just that the power-plant operators comply “on average” across their facilities. This means that certain areas could still experience hazardous smog even if the problem is no longer visible in official numbers.

“Under this rule, you can just say you’re having trouble meeting the standard and then you are allowed to comply based on emissions across all of your power plants on a thirty-day rolling average,” said Knapick. “You could run one part of your operation very strictly and then not bother on another facility. This could create really dangerous pollution hot spots in the state.”

“There are some groups whose stated goal is to put coal-fired generators out of business. To those groups, there would be no standard stringent enough,” Jacob Smeltz President of the Electric Power Generation Association told Newsworks. “What we try to do is strike an appropriate balance.”

The state pollution control plan is open for public comment until June 30.

via Will Pennsylvania’s Proposed Anti-Smog Regs Actually Create New Pollution Hot Spots? | ThinkProgress.

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‘Le Smog’ from Paris threatens London air quality as emissions forecast to drift north

Posted on April 23, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

Paris was today urged to clean up its dirty air — to stop Londoners having to breathe it in.

Environmental experts from King’s College London predicted emissions from the French capital were due to drift northwards and across the Channel yesterday to hit London.

Pollution from other northern European countries also blights the South-East around a dozen times a year, depending on wind direction.

Easter Monday was due to have been one of these days, according to the Environmental Research Group at King’s.

It warned polluted air would “dip into Central France and travel over Paris before arriving in the South-East”, adding that levels of emissions from the French capital recorded on Sunday suggested “widespread” pollution across London and Sussex.

It will take several days to analyse readings from monitors located from London to the South Coast to confirm Parisian pollution had reached our shores. Pollution from other European cities including Brussels and Amsterdam could affect air quality in the South-East, the group added, though it stressed fumes from London also at times reach the Continent.

Bob Neill, the Conservatives’ vice-chairman for local government, said Paris was lagging behind London in addressing pollution problems. “There is no reason why Londoners should have to breathe in their fumes.They should clean up their dirty air,” he said.

Mr Neill,  MP for Bromley and Chislehurst, added: “We have made real strides here with the Boris bike scheme and low emission zone.” Freak weather recently saw Saharan sand fall on the capital. A Commons committee is to look at London’s air quality.

via ‘Le Smog’ from Paris threatens London air quality as emissions forecast to drift north – London – News – London Evening Standard.

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Bill de Blasio Announces ‘Sweeping Update’ to NYC’s Air Pollution Code

Posted on April 23, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

In celebration of Earth Day, Mayor Bill de Blasio decided to make the five boroughs a little greener.

Mr. de Blasio today announced “the most sweeping update to New York City’s Air Pollution Control Code since 1975,” according to his office, with a “focus on pollution sources that currently have little or no emission control requirements.”

“[T]he air today in New York City is cleaner than it’s been in more than 50 years. And we’re going to work to make it better still. And for that reason, I’m proud to announce today that we’ll be updating and strengthening the city’s air pollution control code,” Mr. de Blasio said in a speech today, according to a transcript.

“This is the way we keep our air clean, and there’s more we can do to keep our air clean. And we’re devoted to doing it. We’re going to work with our friends in the City Council to make the law stronger. It is the best tool we have to ensure that every possible form of pollution of the air is addressed, and addressed stringently,” he continued. “We’re going to make sure we do that.”

The City Council will hold a hearing tomorrow on Intro 271, codifying the revisions to the Air Code. According to a memo in support of the bill, authored by Councilman Donovan Richards, the legislation would “introduce new requirements to limit emissions from certain unregulated sectors, while promoting the adoption of cost-effective air pollution controls.”

The bill specifically targets commercial char broilers, outdoor boilers, mobile food trucks and fire places, which will be required “to use only natural gas or renewable fuels in order to reduce the amount of pollutants.”

Though the bill only has a handful of sponsors so far, Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito is fully on board.

“For years, New York City has been at the forefront of sustainable and responsible environmental practices,” she said in a statement released by the mayor’s office. “These reforms continue that trend by protecting our air, our water, and our city’s residents from harmful emissions.”

view the full announcement Bill de Blasio Announces ‘Sweeping Update’ to NYC’s Air Pollution Code | New York Observer.

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Toronto can do more to reduce premature deaths from air pollution

Posted on April 22, 2014 by Respro® UK Ltd

Torontonians can breathe a little easier today on the subject of air pollution. Canada’s largest city, once nicknamed The Big Smoke, has shown a striking improvement in air quality — saving lives and reducing hospitalizations.

But Canada’s largest city can do even better. Cars and trucks remain the primary local source of contaminants assailing residents’ lungs, underlining the importance of expanding healthier alternatives for moving about, including public transit.

That’s the upshot of a new study, called Path to Healthier Air, from Toronto Public Health.

The report found premature deaths as a result of air pollution have dropped by 23 per cent over the past decade, with a 41 per cent plunge in annual hospitalizations. Unfortunately this still leaves about 1,300 people dying too soon each year in Toronto due to unhealthy air, along with 3,550 hospitalizations. In addition to that, thousands of work and school days are still lost annually by people struggling to cope with conditions such as chronic bronchitis and asthma.

Gains made since 2004 result from the closing of Ontario’s coal-fired power plants, especially Lakeview in neighbouring Mississauga, the study’s authors say. They also credit more stringent vehicle emission standards; low-sulfur fuels, and the province’s Drive Clean program. Moreover benefits delivered by these initiatives could be improved still further with a bit of determination and political will.

About half the air pollution causing respiratory distress in Toronto drifts here from outside the city, including from the United States. There’s not much to be done about that. But traffic accounts for the bulk of locally generated contaminants and steps can be taken to reduce its impact.

Pollution from vehicles travelling Toronto’s routinely-jammed streets and expressways contributes to about 280 premature deaths and 1,090 hospitalizations each year — a significant portion of the total. Furthermore, that burden isn’t shared equally, with residents living near major thoroughfares exposed to considerably more toxins and health risks.

Heavy trucks are the worst culprits. Researchers noted that big transports represented just 1.5 per cent of the vehicles on Canada’s streets in 2009 but accounted for more than half the amount of some key pollutants. It’s not just due to a big rig’s massive engine. These vehicles tend to have a long working life, so older models are often on the road well after more stringent emission standards have been imposed on newer trucks.

As reported by the Star’s Debra Black, health officials want provincial money urgently allocated to public transit so that more Toronto drivers will be tempted to leave their cars at home. “The debate on transportation is also about our health,” Medical Officer of Health Dr. David McKeown rightly points out.

The city’s Board of Health is to consider other useful recommendations next Monday including development of an “urban freight strategy.” This would involve working with industry and environmental experts to find ways of lessening the harm done by trucks. For example, by promoting off-peak deliveries so that big rigs spend less time idling in gridlocked traffic.

Authors of the report also note that low-cost, highly effective mobile air monitoring equipment is being developed. Once this technology is fully available it could be usefully deployed at the neighbourhood level investigating local concerns and tracking air quality changes. To that end, public health staff is recommending that municipalities and the province explore joint purchase and use of advanced mobile monitoring equipment.

All these proposals, big and small, make sense. Solid progress has been made to clear the air in Toronto. But that’s no reason to be complacent — not with 1,300 people in this city still dying too soon from inhaling pollutants. Let’s give that smoke a little more scrubbing.

via Toronto can do more to reduce premature deaths from air pollution: Editorial | Toronto Star.

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