FAQ: Do the filters need replacing, if so, how often?

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Respro® UK Ltd

Do the filters need replacing, if so, how often?

Yes the filters do need replacing.

1. The effective working life of the City™ filter depends on a number of factors, such as; the breathing rate of the user; ambient levels of pollution; the length of time the filter is actively working; hygiene levels. Taking these factors into account we recommend that the filter should be replaced every month or every 69 hours, whichever is sooner.

2. Replacement of the Sportsta™ filter should be carried out every month or when the filter becomes noticeably discoloured.

For more FAQ,  go to Respro® Mask FAQ

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Air pollution and noise pollution increase cardiovascular risk

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Respro® UK Ltd

Both fine-particle air pollution and noise pollution may increase a person’s risk of developing cardiovascular disease, according to German researchers who have conducted a large population study, in which both factors were considered simultaneously.

“Many studies have looked at air pollution, while others have looked at noise pollution,” said study leader Barbara Hoffmann, MD, MPH, a professor of environmental epidemiology at the IUF Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine in Germany. “This study looked at both at the same time and found that each form of pollution was independently associated with subclinical atherosclerosis.”

The research will be presented at ATS 2013.

“This study is important because it says that both air pollution and noise pollution represent important health problems,” said Dr. Philip Harber, a professor of public health at the University of Arizona who was not involved in the research. “In the past, some air pollution studies have been dismissed because critics said it was probably the noise pollution that caused the harm, and vice versa. Now we know that people who live near highways, for instance, are being harmed by air pollution and by noise pollution.”

continue reading Air pollution and noise pollution increase cardiovascular risk.

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Early-life traffic-related air pollution exposure linked to hyperactivity

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Respro® UK Ltd

Early-life exposure to traffic-related air pollution was significantly associated with higher hyperactivity scores at age 7, according to new research from the University of Cincinnati (UC) and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

The research is detailed in a study being published Tuesday, May 21, in Environmental Health Perspectives, a peer-reviewed open access journal published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), an institute within the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The research was conducted by faculty members from the UC College of Medicine’s Department of Environmental Health in collaboration with Cincinnati Children’s. Nicholas Newman, DO, director of the Pediatric Environmental Health and Lead Clinic at Cincinnati Children’s, was the study’s first author.

“There is increasing concern about the potential effects of traffic-related air pollution on the developing brain,” Newman says. “This impact is not fully understood due to limited epidemiological studies.

“To our knowledge, this is the largest prospective cohort with the longest follow-up investigating early life exposure to traffic-related air pollution and neurobehavioral outcomes at school age.” Scientists believe that early life exposures to a variety of toxic substances are important in the development of problems later in life.

continue reading Early-life traffic-related air pollution exposure linked to hyperactivity.

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Air pollution dangerous for smokers’ hearts

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Respro® UK Ltd

Research reveals that on days of high pollution, smokers are more likely to have a heart attack than non-smokers.

A study from the University of Dijon in Burgundy, France shows that when fine particles from air pollution exceed a certain level, there’s a marked increase in hospital admission for heart attack. This is even bigger for people who smoke.

This is one of the first studies to show that exposure to air pollution could be especially dangerous for smokers. The survey involved a group of 322 patients hospitalized for heart attack, of whom nearly half were smokers. The researchers compared the daily incidence of heart attack with the average daily concentrations in the air of particles smaller than 10 micrometers, known as PM10s. They also measured average levels of ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide.

Researchers included the ATMO index, widely used in France as a daily overall indicator of air quality. The index ranges from one to 10, where one indicates very good and 10 very poor. Air pollution levels in Dijon remained under four on the ATMO index 86 percent of the time. While the pollution level rose to six or higher only about 5 percent of the time, or about 18 days a year, heart attacks were 161 percent more likely to occur in the general population and 250 percent more likely in smokers during those high-pollution days. The findings showed that heart patients – and especially those who smoke – should be especially vigilant during episodes of environmental pollution.

via Air pollution dangerous for smokers’ hearts – NewsFix.ca.

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Airlines face fines for air pollution within the EU

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Respro® UK Ltd

The European Commission has confirmed that ten Chinese and Indian airlines are facing fines for failure to follow rules designed to reduce air pollution. China Air and India Air are among the ten airline companies that could be fined and excluded from airports within the European Union for failing to conform to the terms of the EU’s Emissions Trading System.

The Trading System is designed to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that is being released into the atmosphere, in a bid to reduce climate change. Airlines were only added to the ETS regime last year. This drew massive complaints from the US and China, which eventually suspended the ETS for non-EU airlines flying to and from the bloc. However, the EU has now made it clear that non-EU airlines will still have to pay for any pollution they produce when flying within the EU.

The airlines that have come under fire are accused of failing to provide data on their emissions. This data is required by all airlines flying within EU airspace as detailed in the European rules. The companies are also accused of not participating in the greenhouse gases permit system.

As the companies have not provided their emissions data it is not possible to know the exact amount of carbon dioxide that they released. However, the European Commission has estimated that the ten airlines released around the same amount of carbon dioxide as the burning of 130 rail-cars of coal would. This is the amount of the greenhouse gas created in European airspace alone.

The Chinese airlines could be fined a total of €2.4 million £2 million or more and the Indian airlines face total fines of €30,000 £25,000. Connie Hedegaard, the European Union’s commissioner for climate action, said: “It’s not so that when we make our European laws, then we say they count for everybody except for Chinese and Indians – and that is no different in the aviation sector. It shows how controversial and difficult it is to get to the adequately ambitious outcome we need in global aviation.”

via Airlines face fines for air pollution within the EU – May 17 2013 02:14 PM – Breaking News – Envirotech Online.

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Iran: Air pollution reaching deadly levels in Tehran

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Respro® UK Ltd

Air pollution in Tehran has reached such dangerous levels. The state-run news media has blame the sand storms in the western provinces.

In January this year, universities and government offices in Tehran were closed because of high air pollution. At the time, officials in Tehran called on residents to remain indoors or avoid downtown areas.

According to the World Health Organization’s 2011 report on air quality and health, three of Iran’s cities are among the world’s 10 most polluted cities.

A staggering 13,000 people die annually in Tehran as a result of air pollution, an official of the Iranian regime’s Health Ministry also admitted recently.

Tehran residents blame the regime’s production of poor-quality petrol for the pollution and complain that the same levels of pollution do not exist in other major cities like Isfahan, Arak, Tabriz, Mashhad, Karaj and Ahvaz.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday May 14, schools in the city of Boroujerd, east of Iran, were also closed down due to air pollution.

One government official said: “The amount of dust particles floating in the air in the city of Boroujerd is 13 times higher than normal.”

via Iran: Air pollution reaching deadly levels in Tehran.

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Why Air Pollution Is Bad For Your Kidneys

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Respro® UK Ltd

Long-term exposure to traffic pollution could be linked to kidney damage, according to a new study.

Scientists looked at the kidney function of 1,100 stroke patients at a hospital in Boston, Mass., half of whom lived within 1 kilometer (about two-thirds of a mile) of a major road and half of whom lived between 1 and 6 k.m. of a major road. They found the patients who lived closest to a road had the worst kidney function, and that the difference between the two groups was comparable to adding four years onto the kidneys of the group who lived closest to traffic pollution.

The study joins a wealth of research linking air pollution to a range of health problems. Long-term exposure to air pollution has been found to increase a person’s risk of heart attack and stroke — a finding that may help explain traffic pollution’s ties to kidney health, as the health of the two organs is often related. In addition to that, women’s exposure to high levels of traffic pollution in the first two months of pregnancy greatly increases the risk of severe birth defects in the unborn child. Traffic pollution has been cited as causing nearly 5,000 deaths per year in the United Kingdom, and in China, where the smog is so bad it often obscures Beijing buildings, air pollution exposure contributes to 1.2 million early deaths per year.

Despite the well-documented negative side effects of air pollution, it continues to be a pervasive problem in the U.S. In its recent State of the Air report, the American Lung Association found more than 40 percent of Americans live in areas where air pollution counts often reach dangerous levels.

And dirty air often disproportionately affects low-income people and minorities. Last year, a report found people living in poor neighborhoods breathe in more toxic particles from air pollution than people in wealthy neighborhoods, and a study of metro Atlanta, Ga. counties found areas with 75 to 100 percent minority populations contained more than twice the amount of pollution sources as areas that were mostly white. That means that low-income and minorities are more subject to the health effects of dirty air, too — in 2011, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, nearly one in four low-income Hispanic or Puerto-Rican children had been diagnosed with asthma, a condition exacerbated by air pollution, compared to about one in 13 middle-class or wealthy white children.

via Why Air Pollution Is Bad For Your Kidneys | ThinkProgress.

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New study says diesel emissions can increase risk of cancer three-fold

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Respro® UK Ltd

A landmark government health study released last week provides evidence that the diesel engine exhaust that pervades California highways could be causing cancer at a greater rate than previously known.

The study says miners exposed to diesel engine exhaust are three times more likely to contract lung cancer and die, and that a similar increased risk applies to people from smoggy, urban areas such as Southern California who live near freeways or commute to work.

The long-term study, carried out by the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, is described by scientists and advocacy groups as the most thorough study on the topic ever released. The study was published in the current edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The data will be examined by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, at the agency’s meeting in June to decide if diesel exhaust should be re-classified as a known carcinogen. Now, exhaust from diesel trucks, buses, portable generators and off-road construction equipment is classified as a “probable carcinogen.”

In California, studies of exposure to diesel exhaust along freeway corridors and inside cars on truck-congested freeways led the California Air Resources Board in 1998 to classify diesel particulate matter as a toxic air contaminant.

The latest ground-breaking study could lead to even tighter regulations on buses, trucks, locomotives, ships and other sources of black soot emitted into the air and breathed by 16 million Southern Californians.

continue reading New study says diesel emissions can increase risk of cancer three-fold – San Bernardino County Sun.

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