Childbirth: Air Pollution Tied to Birth Defects

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Respro® UK Ltd

Exposure in the first two months of pregnancy to air pollution from traffic sharply increases the risk for birth defects, a new study has found.

Researchers used data from two large studies carried out in eight counties in the San Joaquin Valley in California. One has tracked birth defects since 1997, and the other has recorded concentrations of nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and particulate matter at 20 locations in the valley since the 1970s. The results are posted online in The American Journal of Epidemiology.

Setting aside defects attributable to other known causes, there were 849 cases of birth defects. The researchers adjusted for smoking, maternal age and other variables, and compared these cases with 853 healthy control subjects.

They found that a mother living in areas with the highest levels of carbon monoxide or nitrogen oxide concentrations (the top 25 percent) was almost twice as likely to give birth to a child with neural tube defects — severe and often fatal defects of the brain and spinal cord— as one living in areas with the lowest concentrations.

The lead author, Amy M. Padula, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford, acknowledged that in looking at many variables, some associations were likely to turn up by chance.

“These results need to be taken in context,” she said. “More studies are needed to affirm these associations before we make any clinical recommendations to pregnant women.”

via Childbirth: Air Pollution Tied to Birth Defects – NYTimes.com.

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Poor air quality leads to 3,400 deaths a year in Ireland

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Respro® UK Ltd

Poor air quality contributes up to 3,400 premature deaths and costs Ireland up to €6.3 billion a year, An Taisce has revealed.

According to The National Trust for Ireland, Irish people are suffering unnecessarily high levels of asthma, bronchitis and other respiratory conditions.

noThe Trust has written to Phil Hogan TD the Minister of the Environment and James Reilly TD the Minister of Health asking them to use Ireland’s EU Presidency to deliver better air quality for Europe.

“The figures for Europe as a whole are frightening”, according to James Nix, Policy Director with An Taisce:

“420,000 premature deaths and up to €790 billion in economic costs due to poor air quality”.

“We’re fully familiar with the consequences of weak legislation and poor regulation in the financial sector; when it comes to protecting people from air pollution – particularly the very young and elderly – the fallout is even more stark”, noted James Nix.

The high financial burden for Ireland of €6.3 billion annually, is due to days lost in work and education, as well as the direct health costs.

Traffic is the main culprit says An Taisce, which says Ireland needs to focus on reducing pollutants from diesel cars, buses and trucks.

While progress has been made, Ireland remains in ongoing breach of EU law because of traffic-induced nitrogen oxides (NOx), which are implicated in asthma and other respiratory conditions.

An Taisce is advocating that Ireland avoids long-term breach of EU law on NOx.

It says that a failure to tackle traffic-derived air pollution over time will cost Ireland dearly in the longer run.

via Poor air quality leads to 3,400 deaths a year in Ireland – Independent.ie.

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Dangers of air pollution worse than previously thought, UN health agency warns

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Respro® UK Ltd

The dangers posed by air pollution are far larger than previously thought, the United Nations World Health Organization WHO has announced, as it renewed its call for rapid global action in reducing what it described as one of “the greatest hazards to human health.”

The warning came at the latest meeting of the UN Environment Programme’s UNEP Climate and Clean Air Coalition CCAC, held in Paris, France, over the weekend, where health advocates were told that indoor air pollution had become the leading risk factor for “burden of disease” in South Asia while it was ranked second in Eastern, Central and Western Sub-Saharan Africa and third in Southeast Asia.

“The estimations we have now tell us there are 3.5 million premature deaths every year caused by household air pollution, and 3.3 million death every year caused by outdoor air pollution,” Dr. Maria Neira, the WHO’s Director of Public Health and Environment, told the CCAC meeting.

Ground-level ozone pollution was estimated to cause an additionally 200,000 premature deaths every year, the agency said in a press release, which notes that “burden of disease” is a calculation based on years of life lost combined with years lived at less than full health.

“Air pollution is becoming one of the biggest health issues we have in front of us at the moment,” Dr. Neira said.

The CCAC, whose partners include Member States and civil society health advocates, targets so-called short-lived climate pollutants, or SLCPs, as major culprits in the damage to health, as well as the cause of crop loss and climate change.

SLCPs that are harmful to human health are released through numerous sources ranging from diesel engine exhaust and smoke and soot from inefficient cook stoves to leakage and flaring from oil and natural gas production and emissions from solid waste disposal.

Pointing to cook stoves, for example, the UN health agency stated that many of those appliances emit carbon monoxide and other pollutants at levels up to 100 times higher than recommended limits.

In a press statement marking the meeting, UNEP noted that fast action on SLCPs could “dramatically” reduce the number of annual deaths from air pollution. Efforts to lower black carbon emissions from heavy-duty vehicles and engines were receiving “particularly strong attention” from the CCAC.

In addition, it added that the CCAC had already launched efforts to reduce black carbon and other pollutants from brick production through the adoption of modern technologies, which can lower the emission of pollutants by 10 to 50 per cent, while efforts to distribute clean cook stoves were already underway in Bangladesh.

via United Nations News Centre – Dangers of air pollution worse than previously thought, UN health agency warns.

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FAQ: How to fit a Respro® mask?

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Respro® UK Ltd

For more FAQ,  see Respro® Mask FAQ

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‘Councils must unite to tackle air pollution’

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Respro® UK Ltd

OXFORDSHIRE’S local authorities should work together more to help tackle the city’s unique air pollution problems, it has been claimed.

It has emerged that Oxford has consistently failed to meet its target for reducing nitrogen dioxide, which is caused by diesel vehicles.

Oxford City Council, which is responsible for monitoring pollution, says measurements in the city centre have failed, since 2005, to go below the target of 40ug/m3 – or micrograms per cubic metre of air.

In 2009 measurements in the city centre were 50ug/m3 and in 2011, the last year for which figures are available, it had climbed to 61ug/m3.

But the city council has said Oxford has met all its targets for other pollutants such as carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide.

Green city councillor Elise Benjamin said: “I’m not surprised the city has failed to meet its target.

“Because Oxford is effectively in a bowl we get air pollution hanging here, so for that reason we have to take extra measures.

“Both the city council and Oxfordshire County Council have to work together by being more proactive in getting people out of their cars.”

She suggested a park and ride system for deliveries coming into Oxford and more work to get people to leave their cars behind when going to work or school.

One of the areas where there is concern about pollution is at the Wolvercote roundabout.

When the last detailed assessment was carried out in 2008 there were three sites near the Wolvercote and Cutteslowe roundabouts which exceeded the Government-set target for nitrogen dioxide, and another one which was close to exceeding it.

continue reading ‘Councils must unite to tackle air pollution’ (From Oxford Mail).

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Air policy review one of four ‘key’ EU priorities

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Respro® UK Ltd

Environment commissioner Janez Potočnik announces that the review of air quality policy is one of the EU’s key environmental initiatives for 2013 and 2014

The EU’s review of its air quality policy is one of four key environmental initiatives for the European Commission in 2013 and 2014, environment commissioner Janez Potočnik has announced.

In front of various national legislators in Europe as part of the EU Committee for European Affairs and the Committee for Sustainable Development in Paris on Wednesday March 3, Mr Potočnik outlined Europe’s environmental priorities for the next two years.

Janez Potočnik was speaking in Paris this weekOne of these priorities is the EU’s ‘Year of Air’ in 2013, which will see a report on European air quality policy issued in September 2013 following a public consultation earlier this year.Mr Potočnik emphasised that tackling air pollution in Europe through improved legislation was key to economic growth as well as improving the health of European citizens.“In Europe, each year, 400,000 people die prematurely because of air pollution,” he said. “This situation needs to change. One should not forget that air pollution also affects businesses and public budgets due to lost working days as well as the cost of health care on pollution-related diseases.”

continue reading Air policy review one of four ‘key’ EU priorities | AirQualityNews.

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Two Major Air Pollutants Increase in China

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Respro® UK Ltd

In the first three months of this year, levels of two major air pollutants increased by almost 30 percent here in the Chinese capital, over the same period in 2012, according to a report on Wednesday by a Chinese news organization.

The pollutants — nitrous dioxide and particulate matter that is between 2.5 and 10 micrometers in diameter, called PM 10 — appeared to have surged sharply in January, showing levels 47 percent higher than the same month last year, according to the report by The Economic Observer, a respected Chinese newspaper. The report cited as its source Chen Tian, the head of the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau.

A third pollutant, sulfur dioxide, decreased slightly over the same three-month period.

Mr. Chen said the main reason for the increase in two pollutants was high levels of emissions. Citing Mr. Chen, the report said “the emissions created by those living and producing in the city far exceed what the environment can take.”

The report said the environmental bureau had concluded that the increases in the two pollutants had been also partly due to topography and weather conditions. Beijing recently had its highest levels of relative humidity in a decade, and surface wind speeds were the lowest in 10 years, which together resulted in a lower-temperature inversion layer that trapped pollutants, the report said.

Cities in northern China have been grappling this winter with record levels of air pollution, which have stirred fear and anger among many Chinese. In January, the Beijing municipal government recorded jaw-dropping concentrations of particulate matter measuring 2.5 micrometers in diameter or smaller, called PM 2.5. The highest concentrations were recorded at nearly 1,000 micrograms per cubic meter, which was on par with some severely polluted days in industrial London during the mid-20th century.

Beijing resembled an airport smokers’ lounge in mid-January, and some foreigners called the persistent and omnipresent smog an “airpocalypse.”

continue reading Two Major Air Pollutants Increase in China – NYTimes.com.

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Shanghai to halt cement production when air pollution bad

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Respro® UK Ltd

Shanghai’s municipal government has announced that it will stop cement production when air pollution reaches ‘heavy’ or greater levels. The plan may affect at least three cement plants in the Shanghai area. The move follows a similar plan in Beijing that was introduced in 2012.

According to the plan, emergency measures will be taken when the PM2.5 air quality index rises above 200µg/m3 for 18 hours and looks likely to continue. PM2.5 refers to the measurements of particulate matter smaller than 2.5μm and the World Health Organization considers the safe daily level to be 25µg/m3. The average density of PM2.5 in Shanghai for the first three months of 2013 was 73 µg/m3. China’s daily limit is 75µg/m3 and its yearly limit 35µg/m3.

Other emergency measures include alerting the public, restricting production in highly-polluting industries and reducing the number of vehicles on the roads. In addition power plants will be required to use high-quality coal to reduce pollution, vehicles transporting construction materials and waste will be ordered off the roads and any construction work causing dust will be shut down.

via Shanghai to halt cement production when air pollution bad – Cement industry news from Global Cement.

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