Reduced traffic during lockdown did not improve air quality in urban areas as much as expected

Posted on July 8, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

Two studies led by María Morales Suárez Varela, group leader of the CIBERESP at the University of Valencia and professor of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the academic institution, have evaluated the impact of mobility restrictions on air quality and polluting emissions, in Valencia and in three Italian cities. “The lockdown measures improved air quality in urban areas, but not as much as expected given the alleged contribution of traffic to ambient air pollution,” explains Morales. “The restrictive mobility measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 provided a unique opportunity to improve our understanding of the impact of mobility on air pollution in urban areas.”

In the first study, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, the research team studied whether there were significant differences in the concentration levels of suspended particles (PM10, PM2.5, NOx, NO2, NO and O3) between the restrictions period in 2020 and the same period in 2019. The findings showed that the lockdown measures were accompanied by a significant decrease in particle concentrations, even if there was variability in various areas of the city.

María Morales says, “The greatest reductions in the levels of PM10 and PM2.5 were observed for the Center of València, València Avenida de Francia and València Pista de Silla (all of the urban traffic type)”. These solid or liquid particles of dust, ash, soot, metallic particles, cement or pollen, dispersed in the atmosphere (with a diameter between 10 and 2.5 micrometers (µm), one thousandth of a millimeter), are the most important in urban pollution as they can penetrate deep into the lungs and therefore pose significant potential health risks.

Furthermore, she adds, “there was a statistically significant decrease in NOx, NO2 and NO concentrations at the seven air monitoring stations, as well as O3 levels during the blocking period.” In this case, it is a group of gases composed of nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), their combination (NOx) and ozone (O3) that are corrosive to the skin and the respiratory tract. Prolonged exposure considerably reduces lung function, inflames the airways, and can potentially cause irreversible changes in lung tissue. In addition, it can affect the immune system and lead to less resistance to respiratory infections.

The other study evaluated the effects of the emissions that decreased during the COVID-19 period on air quality in three Italian cities, Florence, Pisa and Lucca, comparing the concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, NO2 and O3. “In this case we did not find significant reductions in the levels of suspended particles during the blocking period, except at a monitoring station in a high traffic area, which is considered a hot spot due to the consistently high levels recorded all over Tuscany,” the authors explain.

On the other hand, the work reveals that the reduction in NO2 pollution levels, consistent with other studies, was statistically significant in all air monitoring stations in the cities used in this study, which shows a relevant relationship with the traffic volume. Finally, for the levels of O3 pollutants, the researchers did not observe a significant reduction during the blocking period.

“The lockdown measures improved air quality in urban areas, but not as much as expected given the alleged contribution of traffic to ambient air pollution. It must be considered, by the authorities, that the environmental response varies according to the dominant source of emission and the specific meteorological conditions, so it would be necessary to adopt holistic control measures to improve air quality in urban environments,” adds Morales. “We believe that our results must be taken into account by policy makers to implement effective policies to counteract air pollution and place human health at the center of urban planning.”

Exposure to ambient air pollution is one of the greatest health risks worldwide. It is estimated to be responsible for around 4.2 million deaths worldwide each year due to many diseases such as heart disease, stroke, acute and chronic respiratory diseases and lung cancer.

Reduced traffic during lockdown did not improve air quality in urban areas as much as expected
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Study is first to show that air pollutants increase risk of painful periods for women

Posted on July 7, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

Dysmenorrhea, that is, frequent severe and painful cramps during menstruation from abnormal contractions of the uterus, is the most common of all gynecological disorders. It affects between 16-91% of girls and women of reproductive age, of whom 2%-29% have symptoms severe enough to restrict their daily activity. Now, for the first time, researchers from China Medical University Hospital in Taiwan have shown that long-term exposure to air pollutants such as nitrogen and carbon oxides and fine particulate matter greatly raises the risk of developing dysmenorrhea. Based on long-term data on air quality and public health from national databases, they show that the risk to develop dysmenorrhea over a period of 13 years (2000-2013) was up to 33 times higher among Taiwanese women and girls who lived in areas with the highest levels of air pollutants compared to their peers exposed to lower levels of pollutants. These results were recently published in the open access journal Frontiers in Public Health.

A common debilitating disorder with no known cure

Dysmenorrhea can be due to hormonal imbalances or to underlying gynecological conditions such as endometriosis, pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy, or tumors in the pelvic cavity. Symptoms are often life-long: they include cramps and pain in the lower abdomen, pain in the lower back and legs, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, fainting, weakness, fatigue, and headaches. In addition to reducing quality of life, dysmenorrhea also has a major socioeconomic impact, as females with dysmenorrhea may be temporarily unable to work, attend school, or engage in leisure activities. Dysmenorrhea has no known cure, but its symptoms may be managed with anti-inflammatory drugs and hormonal contraceptives.

“Research has already shown that women who smoke or drink alcohol during their periods, or who are overweight, or have their first period very young, run a greater risk of dysmenorrhea. Women who have never been pregnant are likewise known to be at greater risk. But here we demonstrate for the first time another important risk factor for developing dysmenorrhea: air quality, in particular long-term exposure to pollution. We don’t yet know the underlying mechanism, but emotional stress in women exposed to air pollutants, or higher average levels of the hormone-like prostaglandins in their body, might be part of the answer,” says one of the authors, Prof Chung Y. Hsu at the College of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.

The authors, led by Prof Chia-Hung Kao, the Director of the department of nuclear medicine and the Center for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) at China Medical University, studied de-identified health measures from a total of 296,078 women and girls (approximately 1.3% of the total population) between 16-55 years old. These data came from Taiwan’s Longitudinal Health Insurance Database starting 2000 (LHID 2000), a representative subsample from Taiwan’s nation-wide health insurance database.

The study sample exclusively included women and girls without any recorded history of dysmenorrhea before 2000. The authors looked for a long-term association between the risk of dysmenorrhea and air quality, in particular the mean exposure over the years to air pollutants – nitrogen oxide (NOx), nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), and particles smaller than 2.5 μm in diameter (‘PM2.5’) – obtained from the ‘Taiwan Air Quality Monitoring Database’ (TAQMD) of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Air pollutants are an important new risk factor

They found that from 2000- to 2013, 4.2% of women and girls in the studied sample were diagnosed with dysmenorrhea for the first time. As was expected from previous studies, younger women, women of lower incomes, and living in more urbanized areas tended to have a higher risk of developing dysmenorrhea over the study period. But importantly, the ‘hazard ratio’ (that is, the age- and year-specific risk) of developing dysmenorrhea increased by 16.7 to 33.1 fold for women and girls from the 25% of areas with the highest yearly exposure to air pollutants, compared to those from the 25% of areas with the lowest exposure. NOx, NO, NO2, CO, and PM2.5 levels each contributed separately to the increased risk, but the greatest individual effect was from long-term exposure to high PM2.5.

“Our results study demonstrate the major impact of the quality of air on human health in general, here specifically on the risk of dysmenorrhea in women and girls. This is a clear illustration of the need to for actions by governmental agencies and citizens to reduce air pollution, in order to improve human health,” concludes Prof Hsu.

Study is first to show that air pollutants increase risk of painful periods for women | EurekAlert! Science News
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Air pollution ‘may affect the health of your baby’

Posted on July 6, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

Air pollution can affect the development of unborn babies in the womb.

Air pollution affects the thyroid, according to scientists from the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country, as small particles like nitrogen dioxide and carbon can impact the levels of thyroxine, a key thyroid hormone.

Thyroid hormones are essential for regulating foetal growth and metabolism, and play an important role in neurological development.

“In this work, we specifically analysed the effect of maternal exposure to these fine particles and to nitrogen dioxide during pregnancy and the link existing with thyroxine levels in newborn babies,” explained Amaia Irizar-Loibide, a researcher in the UPV/EHU’s Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health.

“We have been monitoring on a weekly basis, as the development of the foetus varies greatly from one week to the next. So, we tried to conduct the most detailed research possible in order to find out which the most sensitive weeks of pregnancy are.”

Strangely, the scientists found that air pollution affects thyroxine in different ways at different stages of pregnancy – with it lowering levels in the early stages, but raising it later when carrying a baby.

“The results obtained in this study have revealed the direct relationship between exposure to fine particles during pregnancy and the level of thyroxine in newborns,” Irizar-Loibide stated. “However, we have not observed a clear link with exposure to nitrogen dioxide.

“What we have seen in this work is that exposure during the first months of pregnancy has a direct influence on the balance of thyroid hormones. These babies tend to have a lower level of thyroxine.

“As the pregnancy progresses, we found that this relationship gradually diminishes, i.e. the mother’s exposure gradually becomes less important.

“In late pregnancy, however, this link becomes apparent again, but displays an opposite effect: as the concentration of these fine particles increases, we have seen that the level of thyroid hormones also increases, which has the opposite effect on the balance.”

As the UPV/EHU team are unclear as to the biological mechanism behind these changes, they now want to conduct further research into the topic.

“We need to continue to investigate whether exposure during pregnancy affects not only thyroid hormones, but also other aspects such as neuropsychological development, growth, obesity, etc.,” Irizar-Lobide added.

Air pollution ‘may affect the health of your baby’
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You Might Want To Mask Up: Fireworks Cause Spikes In Air Pollution

Posted on July 5, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

Many people will flock to Fourth of July celebrations this weekend, eager to raise a toast beneath the year’s most spectacular aerial displays now that pandemic restrictions have been lifted.

But some might want to keep those N95 masks handy if they’re getting close to fireworks, especially those set off in backyard displays. The chemical compounds and reactions that make all those colorful lights shine and explode come with a toxic stew of air pollutants.

For the short term at least, those with respiratory illnesses like asthma and COPD should keep their distance. And pyrotechnics are not too great for the planet either.

“They’re really bad for air quality,” said Lelia Hawkins, “at least in the short term.”

Hawkins, an associate professor of chemistry at Harvey Mudd College, said some of the most polluting elements are the metals used to create the brilliant colors.

Red, white, and blue are produced by metal salts like strontium, magnesium, copper, lead, and barium. Lithium gets you pink, while sodium salts create yellows. The resulting smoke and greenhouse gas emissions include carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen. Particulate matter, such as PM 2.5 and black carbon or soot, is emitted with any type of combustion. But with fireworks, that smoke also includes toxic metals.

“Metals are really what makes the fireworks interesting and exciting for people because that’s what we’re getting the colors from,” said Pallavi Pant, who has studied the air pollution impact of fireworks for the past decade and is now senior scientist at the Health Effects Institute. “When a lot of these fireworks are in the air, we get these huge spikes in air pollution, including particles, and within these particles are tiny metal particles.”

Pant said there isn’t a lot of research into either the short-term or long-term health impact of fireworks. But she noted that those who have respiratory illnesses like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, can experience aggravated symptoms.

She says the effects are short term, and the air quality goes back to normal levels within a day or two.

“The biggest impacts are when people are exposed to air pollutants over long periods of time,” she said.

Still, Pant said people who live with asthma should avoid getting close to fireworks, especially those set off by individuals in backyards or parks, and wearing N95 masks may help.

“If possible, be upwind of the fireworks,” she said, “and try to protect children because they breathe in the most air pollutants.”

Air quality does go back to normal within several hours in some cases, Pant said.

“A lot of the attention on the health side has focused primarily on burns and injuries, because that’s what people think about when it comes to the dangers of fireworks,” she said. “But unfortunately, much, much less attention on air quality.”

The pollutants can also filter down into rivers and streams, causing enhanced levels of metals that could affect aquatic life and water quality.

You Might Want To Mask Up: Fireworks Cause Spikes In Air Pollution | 90.5 WESA
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Air pollution in pregnancy increases asthma risk in unborn child

Posted on July 2, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

Exposure to high levels of air pollution during pregnancy might increase the chance of the unborn child eventually developing asthma, researchers have said.

A team from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York carried out a study which involved 376 mothers and their babies who lived in the Boston metropolitan area.

The researchers wanted to look at how air pollution might impact the pregnancy and the child once it is eventually born.

In the UK, it is believed that one in 12 people have asthma which causes the airways to narrow and swell, sometimes making it harder to breathe.

During the trial each participating woman had their daily exposure to ultra-fine particles  associated with pollution measured.

The research team found evidence of more particles among the females who lived near busy roads which had higher volumes of traffic.

Three years later the same women were visited so the researchers could find out which of the children born to the women involved in the study had developed asthma.

In total, 18 per cent of the children born to mothers who were exposed to high levels of ultra-fine particle air pollution developed asthma. The findings also suggested that female babies were more prone to develop the breathing condition when compared to the boys.

The research team say this is the first time exposure to air pollution during pregnancy has been linked to asthma post birth.

Speaking to the MailOnline, lead researcher Dr Rosalind Wright, said: “This research is an important early step in building the evidence base that can lead to better monitoring of exposure to ultra fine particles in the United States and ultimately to regulation.

“As we advance methods for measuring these tiny particles, we hope for replication of these findings, both within different geographic areas across the United States as well as globally.

“Childhood asthma remains a global epidemic that is likely to grow with the anticipated rise in particulate air pollution exposures due to effects of climate change.”

Air pollution in pregnancy increases asthma risk in unborn child
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Air pollution: Study links black carbon with premature deaths

Posted on July 1, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

Black carbon has a significant adverse effect on human health and can lead to premature death, according to a new study, which could help improve the estimation of the future air pollution mortality burden.

The Indo-Gangetic plain is exposed to black carbon with serious implications on regional climate and human health, but the health effects in terms of mortality due to black carbon aerosol exposure have never been evaluated in India, the study explains.

Scientist R K Mall led a team of other scientists, including Nidhi Singh, Alaa Mhawish, Tirthankar Banerjee, Santu Ghosh, R S Singh from the Department of Science & Technology-Mahamana Centre of Excellence in Climate Change Research (MCECCR) at Banaras Hindu University, which conducted the research.

The team explored individual as well as the cumulative impact of black carbon aerosol, fine (PM 2.5), and coarse (PM 10) particulates, and trace gases SO2 (sulphur dioxide), NO2 (nitrogen dioxide), O3 (trioxygen) on premature mortality in Varanasi. Their research and findings were published recently in the journal Atmospheric Environment.

“The study could also help estimate the future burden of mortality associated with air pollutants considering the present association and incorporating a growing population rate. This will help government and policy-makers for better planning to mitigate the adversity associated with changing climate-air pollution-health nexus,” the department of science and technology said in a statement.

A typical urban pollution hotspot in the central Indo-Gangetic plain experiences a very high aerosol loading and trace gas concentrations throughout the year due to prevalence of a subsidence zone. Also, such centres have observed decadal increasing trends both in aerosol optical depth and black carbon aerosols.

The scientists from MCECCR, supported by the climate change programme of the department of science and technology, utilised daily all-cause mortality and ambient air quality from 2009 to 2016 to clearly establish a significant impact of black carbon aerosols, NO2 and, PM2.5 exposure on mortality, a statement from the DST said.

The inclusion of co-pollutants (NO2 and PM 2.5) in the multi-pollutant model increased the individual mortality risks for black carbon aerosols, the statement added.

The statement explained that the effect of pollutants was more prominent for males in the age group of 5-44, and in the winters. The scientists found that the adverse effect of air pollutants was not limited to the day of exposure but can extend as high as up to five days (something known as the lag effect).

The researchers further showed that mortality rises linearly with an increase in air pollutant level and shows an adverse impact at higher levels.

The inclusion of black carbon as a potential health hazard inspires and provides a background for more epidemiological studies to provide evidence of health effects of air pollutants from different parts of India, the DST added.

via https://lifestyle.livemint.com/smart-living/environment/air-pollution-study-links-black-carbon-with-premature-deaths-111625065713685.html

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Vehicles cause one-third of Mumbai’s air pollution: Study

Posted on June 30, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

Automobiles have become the biggest contributor to Mumbai’s deteriorating air quality, a study by System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research has revealed. The share of PM2.5 vehicular emission was 30.5 per cent in 2019-20, up from 16 per cent in 2016-17, said SAFAR. The findings underscore the need for scrapping of old vehicles, promoting those powered by electricity and boosting mass transit systems.

Maharashtra’s Economy Survey report for 2020-21 said Mumbai accounted for 10.3 per cent of the state’s vehicle registrations. The city’s vehicle density is now over 2,000 vehicles per km, an indicator of more traffic congestion and worsening air pollution in future. Mumbai has about 40 lakh vehicles with 11.6 lakh private cars and 24 lakh two-wheelers. 

Air has suspended particulate matter of different sizes and PM 2.5 has a diameter not more than 2.5 micrometers (fine particles). It is small enough to invade the lungs.

The SAFAR study says industries and power sector contribute about 18 per cent towards PM2.5 emission, followed by 15 per cent from residential cooking in households and slums.

Dr Gufran Beig, senior scientist & founder project director at SAFAR, said, “Transport sector has shown a drastic increase over five years as a sector contributing to PM2.5 pollution in Mumbai. This is a combination of both an increase in the number of vehicles in Mumbai and more stagnation at traffic junctions leading to congestion.”

Compared to Delhi, Dr Beig said, the adoption of CNG is very less in Mumbai. “Majority of the vehicles continue to be petrol and diesel,” he said.

Anumita Roy Chowdhury, executive director-research and advocacy, Central for Science and Environment, bemoaned: “The city has not been able to leverage its overall public transport system both in terms of metro and suburban rail etc. to reduce the dependence on private vehicles.” 

Sudhir Srivastava, former MPCB chairman, said a parallel large-scale source assessment exercise is being done by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute. “Once it is published, we will compare the analysis to improve the city’s air quality.”

Dr Sanjeev Mehta, a pulmonologist, said, “Vehicles are literally blowing poison into our lungs. A few international studies have shown that lung functional analysis of people living within 1 km of main roads had much lower lung capacity than those living near arterial roads. Conducting a similar study in major cities like Mumbai will throw frightening results.”

Mumbai: Fire services fee passed on to owners; BJP smells a scam
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Research connects air pollution to worst Taiwanese drought in nearly 60 years

Posted on June 25, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

A new study co-published by researchers at the University at Albany and National Central University (NCU) has linked air pollution to the worst drought that Taiwan has experienced in more than a half-century.

The study, published in the Journal of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, analyzed 13 years’ worth of satellite and surface data to better understand how aerosols (air pollution) impact cloud lifecycle and precipitation during the autumn months over northern Taiwan. Their findings suggest that increasing levels of air pollution are indirectly reducing the amount of rainfall.

Data was analyzed from 2005 to 2017 on airborne particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers. As aerosol concentrations rose, cloud droplets became smaller and more numerous, with drizzles occurring less frequently. “Polluted days,” defined as being in the 80th percentile or higher of the region’s average daily aerosol concentrations, saw about 6.8 millimeters less of average rainfall than “clean days” in the fixed cloud water content.

Taiwan is usually among the wettest places in the world, but with diminishing plum rain and typhoon seasons, it is facing its worst drought in 56 years. Many reservoirs are now at less than 20 percent capacity, some as low as 10 percent. These conditions are not only detrimental to the people living there, but also the global electronics sector, which relies heavily on the island for semiconductor manufacturing.

“These drought conditions are impacting people’s daily lives and industrial production,” said Qilong Min, a research associate at UAlbany’s Atmospheric Sciences Research Center (ASRC) and study co-author. “Scientists are trying to understand the linkage of the drought and other environmental factors. We’re looking closely at one of those environmental factors—aerosols in the atmosphere. Our analysis is showing a clear linkage that when air pollution is higher, it results in a decrease in the characteristics of rain droplets and frequency of drizzle events.”

The U.S.-Taiwan partnership

This research is part of the ongoing U.S.-Taiwan Partnership for International Research and Education (PIRE) project.

Announced by U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, the 5-year, $4.5 million project’s goal is to advance research in early warning detection and disaster response of major storms. The program is led by UAlbany in partnership with several universities and disaster and weather forecast agencies in both the United States and Taiwan, including NCU.

Before the pandemic, dozens of students from participating institutions were offered travel and living expenses to study abroad and complete summer-long research internships under the mentorship of PIRE faculty at partnering institutions.

Lead study author Ying-Chieh Chen, a recent graduate of NCU’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences, was among the first cohort of the PIRE program in the summer of 2017. She studied at UAlbany for two months under the mentorship of Min, focusing on the aerosol impacts on cloud lifecycle and precipitation distribution in northern Taiwan through radiative and microphysical effects.

Chen wrote her thesis on the topic and has since earned her master’s degree. Following her summer exchange, she telecommunicated with Min during a three-year research process before publishing findings in late March.

“Through the PIRE project, I was grateful for the opportunity to work closely with a number of professional research professionals to better explore the relationship between aerosol-cloud precipitation interactions,” Chen said. “Our findings offer important insight into the environmental factors of one of the worst recorded droughts in Taiwan’s history.”

The study included more than a half dozen researchers from ASRC and NCU. They plan to continue exploring this topic with new cohorts of PIRE exchange students once the program resumes.

Research connects air pollution to worst Taiwanese drought in nearly 60 years
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