Website on air quality launched; asthma sufferers to benefit

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Respro® UK Ltd

Asthma sufferers will now be able to monitor which areas to avoid during days of dust storms through the http://www.adairquality.ae website. The website provides real time data on air quality in the emirate.

Dust storms can trigger asthmatic attacks if one is not prepared. While asthma is chronic, by properly monitoring and managing it, people can enjoy a good quality of life.

Asthma sufferers can experience recurring episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness and coughing, particularly at night or in the early morning.

In the UAE, asthmatics need to be aware of and try to avoid allergens, like dust mites in humid areas, and particulate matter in the air such as dust, smoke or smog from sandstorms. Air quality scientists call this PM10, or particulate matter smaller than 10 microns, which is approximately the thickness of a human hair.

To ensure that the community has access to important air quality information, the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) has developed a website where data from EAD’s 20 air quality monitoring stations are transmitted live, 24 hours a day.

The data collected allows EAD to monitor and measure five major air pollutants — particle pollution (also known as particulate matter), nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide and ground-level ozone.

The data from each station represents accurate measurements for the respective surrounding area.

Air quality status is highlighted through six clearly-defined levels of health concern — good, moderate, unhealthy for sensitive groups, unhealthy, very unhealthy and hazardous.

“One of our strategic priorities at EAD is to ensure that the emirate’s air is clean,” said Shaikha Ahmed Al Hosani, acting director of Environmental Monitoring and Analysis Division, at EAD’s Environmental Quality Sector.

“Our research indicates that the key cause of poor air quality in Abu Dhabi is due to a natural cause; desert dust storms. So, while keeping an eye on these dust storms, we are also controlling and regulating industrial air discharges,” said Al Hosani.

“If you have a respiratory problem and on the days when dust storms are severe, it is advised that you avoid areas classified as ‘Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups’ or above by staying indoors and continue to take your regular medication,” said Dr. Khaled Al Jaberi, manager of Non-Communicable Disease at the Health Authority – Abu Dhabi (HAAD).

via Website on air quality launched; asthma sufferers to benefit.

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From coal to cars, EU states fail to combat air pollution

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Respro® UK Ltd

Economic heavyweights France and Germany continue to violate limits of one of Europe’s most common urban pollutants, nitrogen oxides, despite their legal obligations to clean up the air.

At the same time, France, Poland, Romania and the United Kingdom have sought to exempt dozens of coal-fired energy stations from the EU’s pollution regulations for large-combustion plants, allowing the heavy polluters to continue operating at least until the end of 2015.

Health and environmental groups say such examples of timid regulation and uneven enforcement of laws undermine efforts to cut some of Europe’s most pernicious emissions, including nitrogen oxides, or NOx, which affect local as well as trans-European air quality.

Spotty compliance with the rules comes despite a generation of EU efforts to reduce levels of NOx, sulphur dioxide (SO2), mercury and carbon emissions in road transport, industry, energy production, aviation and shipping.

Reports released ahead of the EU’s Green Week, which runs through 7 June, have exposed widespread breaches of pollution laws and their costly effects on healthcare and human lifespans, with some studies saying that bad air causes as many as 500,000 premature deaths per year in the EU – 0.1% of the bloc’s population.

continue reading From coal to cars, EU states fail to combat air pollution | EurActiv.

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Help us to tackle air pollution in your area

Posted on June 2, 2013 by Respro® UK Ltd

The air in your neighbourhood could be harming your health. You can take action now.

To get you started, we’ve developed some resources which set out all the basic facts about air pollution in London and what you can do about it.

1) The Healthy Air film. It takes only three minutes to get informed.

via Help us to tackle air pollution in your area | HealthyAir.

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Particulate matter emissions: Trimmers and chainsaws are worse than highway traffic

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Respro® UK Ltd

Motorway maintenance workers are exposed to various harmful emissions. Surprisingly, motorised hand-held tools such as strimmers (string trimmers) and chainsaws, rather than motorway traffic, are responsible for the highest emissions of particulate matter.

These are the conclusions of a study supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).

The study was conducted between May 2010 and February 2012 by researchers working with Michael Riediker at the Institute for Work and Health in Lausanne. They accompanied 18 maintenance workers on 50 working days during tasks such as clearing snow, mending crash barriers, cleaning drains, cutting wood or mowing grass on the motorway central reservation. They measured the levels of air pollution, particulates and noise to which workers were exposed during each activity. The result compared to the average population, maintenance workers are exposed to between three and eight times higher particulate levels. In addition, noise levels often exceed the critical level of 85 decibels.

“Real belchers”

Surprisingly, motorway traffic is not the main source of noise and pollutants. More than 50 percent of airborne particulates are emitted by strimmers and chainsaws. “The small combustion engines which the workers carry on their backs use petrol with oil additives. This makes them real belchers,” says Reto Meier, the lead author of the study. The quickest way to reduce particulate levels, therefore, is to improve the engines in these machines. This is primarily a challenge for the manufacturers, but Meier adds that employers can also play a role by considering emission levels when purchasing equipment.

Hearing protection

Maintenance workers are exposed to the highest noise levels when using pneumatic drills. But the use of strimmers or chainsaws and the traffic during maintenance work in tunnels also give rise to noise levels of 90 decibels or more. Researchers noticed that workers wear hearing protection reliably when they are the cause of the noise, but often fail to do so when the noise is caused by their colleagues or by the traffic. “To prevent damage to the ears, protection should be worn whenever possible,” says Meier.

via Particulate matter emissions: Trimmers and chainsaws are worse than highway traffic.

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Code Orange air pollution alert issued for Friday in New Jersey

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Respro® UK Ltd

NewJerseyA Code Orange air quality alert was issued for Friday for Hunterdon and all the other counties in New Jersey.

It means that that air pollution concentrations in the region may reach the “unhealthy” level for certain groups of people, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Sensitive groups include children, people suffering from asthma, heart disease or other lung diseases, and the elderly.

“The effects of air pollution can be minimized by avoiding strenuous activity or exercise outdoors,” DEP said. For more information, visit airnow.gov.

The bad air is in part because of the heat wave, the first of the season, which started today. High temperatures are forecast to be around 92 in the Flemington area Friday, but the humidity will result in heat indexes making it feel warmer, the National Weather Service said;

It’s expected that Friday will have the hottest temperatures of the heat wave; current forecasts are for highs to only peak at around 89 on Saturday and 87 on Sunday, when there will be clouds around and a chance of showers and thunderstorms.

via Code Orange air pollution alert issued for Friday in New Jersey | NJ.com.

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Air pollution can worsen any pre-existing lung condition

Posted on May 30, 2013 by Respro® UK Ltd

High levels of air pollution can increase asthma, respiratory infections, lung cancer and even death, and heat makes it worse, a U.S. researcher says.

Dr. Jonathan Weissler, director of the James M. Collins Center for Biomedical Research at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, said the combination of sunlight and heat essentially bakes the atmosphere and the various airborne chemical compounds.

This chemical concoction mixes with naturally occurring nitrogen oxides in the air to create smog, or ground-level ozone, Weissler said.

“Oxides of nitrogen and sulfur, smoke and ozone are irritants of the airways and can worsen any pre-existing lung condition,” Weissler said in a statement. “People with chronic lung disease should try to minimize their time outdoors when air quality becomes extremely poor.”

Dallas/Fort Worth has consistently ranked among the nation’s list of cities with poor air quality, Weissler said. The 2012 State of the Air Report, released in late April by the American Lung Association, ranked the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex 12th worst among 232 U.S. cities for ozone-related air pollution — the most hazardous type of pollution to health.

Los Angeles tops the list, followed by six other California areas: Visalia, Bakersfield, Fresno, Hanford, Sacramento and San Diego.

via Air pollution can worsen any pre-existing lung condition – UPI.com.

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Traffic air pollution turns good cholesterol bad

Posted on May 30, 2013 by Respro® UK Ltd

Exposure to diesel exhaust may render friendly, cholesterol-fighting molecules incapable of performing their important job. A new study suggests that the traffic air pollutant may prevent good cholesterol from battling the bad, artery-clogging cholesterol that promotes heart attack and stroke.

The study’s team included environmental health scientists led by Michael E. Rosenfeld at the UW School of Public Health and heart disease specialist Jesus Araujo and his colleagues in the Division of Cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Their paper, published in the June issue of Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, is the first to report that exposure to traffic sources of air pollution — diesel exhaust from combustion engines — can alter the protective nature of normal high-density lipoprotein, or HDL, and set in motion biological mechanisms that lead to cardiovascular disease.

continue reading Traffic air pollution turns good cholesterol bad | UW Today.

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Cheap coal ‘threatens UK pollution targets’

Posted on May 30, 2013 by Respro® UK Ltd

Coal on the global market is so cheap that it threatens government attempts to tackle climate change, the chairman of the Environment Agency has warned.

Lord Smith says the UK’s share of electricity generated by coal is up to a third – the highest since 1996.

Unless this trend is curbed, he says, the UK will miss its targets on curbing climate change and sulphur pollution.

The price of coal has been driven down by the dash for shale gas in the US.

Gas is much less polluting than coal, so carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have fallen in the US. But European power generators have gobbled up the resulting cheap coal, driving carbon emissions up in several nations.

The EU’s statistical agency Eurostat estimates that from 2011 to 2012, CO2 emissions increased by 3.9% in the UK. The rise is most likely to be due to increased coal burning.

UK emissions of sulphur, which is damaging to health, have risen when they are supposed to be falling.

Lord Smith urges the government to commit to long-term targets to remove almost all carbon pollution from electricity generation by 2030. MPs are due to vote on this issue next week.

via BBC News – Cheap coal ‘threatens UK pollution targets’.

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