EU aims at ‘zero pollution’ in air, water and soil by 2050

Posted on May 13, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

The European Commission on Wednesday (12 May) unveiled a plan to reduce pollution to levels that are no longer harmful to human health and natural ecosystems by 2050 – when the EU aims to become climate neutral.

Air pollution is considered the biggest environmental risk to human health in the EU. Every year, it causes 400,000 premature deaths, 48,000 cases of heart disease as well as 6.5 million cases of chronic sleep disturbance to noise.

“New green technologies already here can help reduce pollution and offer new business opportunities,” said the EU commissioner in charge of the Green Deal, Frans Timmermans, arguing that recovery funds can support this goal.

“Europe’s efforts to build back a cleaner, fairer, and more sustainable economy must likewise contribute to achieving the zero pollution ambition,” he added.

In its ‘zero pollution’ action plan, Brussels set out several targets for the next decade, including reducing the number of premature deaths caused by air pollution by 55 percent.

In 2022, the EU will propose to align its currently less stringent standards on air quality more closely to the World Health Organization.

There are currently 31 ongoing infringement procedures against 18 member states for failing to implement EU air quality rules at national level.

Last year, the commission concluded that a majority of member states were not on target to deliver their air-pollution reduction commitments for 2020 and 2030.

The EU executive also wants to improve seawater quality by halving plastic litter and reducing microplastics by 2030. This should also lead to having cleaner water from the tap all across Europe, it said.

There are currently 30 ongoing cases against 19 member states for breaching EU law on urban water waste, plus four covering drinking water law.

Aiming to boost soil quality, the EU commission committed to reducing by 50 percent nutrient losses and the use and risk of chemical pesticides – a target already included in its Fram to Fork strategy.

Meanwhile, the 27-members bloc also aims to significantly reduce waste generation and halve residual municipal waste in the next decade.

Brussels is currently reviewing EU waste laws to adapt them to the clean and circular economy principle.

The EU Commission will monitor progress of this action plan, and identify whether additional action is needed to reach targets, by 2025.

EU aims at ‘zero pollution’ in air, water and soil by 2050
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Air quality in Spain temporarily improved during first COVID-19 wave, prevented 150 premature deaths

Posted on May 12, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

Air quality in Spain temporarily improved during the first wave of COVID-19, largely as a result of mobility restrictions. Until recently, however, the effect of this improvement on the health of the population was poorly understood.

A new study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by the “la Caixa” Foundation, together with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS), has estimated that this improvement in air quality prevented around 150 premature deaths in Spain’s provincial capital cities.

Several analyses have estimated the mortality reduction from improved air quality during lockdown periods in China and Europe and found that a substantial number of premature deaths have been avoided.

The new study, published in Environmental Pollution, is the first to focus on Spain, specifically 47 provincial capitals. First, the researchers assessed changes in levels of air pollution–nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3)–during the lockdown period (57 days) and deconfinement period (42 days) of the first wave of COVID-19, which occurred between March and June 2020. The team then estimated the impact of these air quality changes on mortality at the population level.

“We used machine-learning techniques to take into account the influence of meteorological factors when quantifying the effect of lockdown on air quality levels,” he noted. “To estimate changes in mortality, we specifically fitted epidemiological models based on historical health and air pollution data in each provincial capital city.” – Hicham Achebak, Study Lead Author and Researcher, Centre for Demographic Studies, Barcelona Institute for Global Health

The authors found that NO2 levels decreased by 51% and 36% during the lockdown and deconfinement periods, respectively, during the first wave of COVID-19. The level of ozone decreased much less on average–by 1.1% and 0.6%, respectively–although it increased in some of the most populous cities.

Regarding the impact of the reduction in NO2 on premature mortality, the authors estimated that around 120 and 50 deaths were avoided during lockdown and deconfinement, respectively, for a total of approximately 170 premature deaths avoided. COVID-19 lockdowns led to “unprecedented reductions in NO2 concentrations, especially when the most stringent measures to reduce viral spread were applied, reaching up to 65% in some of the cities studied,” explained Hervé Petetin, researcher at BSC-CNS, who was responsible for the application of machine-learning techniques. Most of the NO2 emissions in cities come from vehicles, in particular those with diesel-powered engines.

In the case of ozone, the decrease was so small that no premature deaths could be attributed to it. In fact, the researchers estimated that premature mortality attributable to this pollutant increased by approximately 20 deaths during the study period. Carlos Pérez García-Pando, ICREA research professor, AXA professor and head of the BSC-CNS Atmospheric Composition Group, which participated in the study, explained: “Even though, on average, there was a small reduction in ozone during the study period, ozone levels increased in the most populous cities, especially Barcelona and Madrid.” He added:

“Ozone is a secondary pollutant that can increase when levels of nitrogen oxides decrease in environments that are saturated with this pollutant, such as large urban areas.” The study shows that “potential trade-offs between multiple pollutants should be taken into account when evaluating the health impacts of environmental exposures,” he concluded.

Joan Ballester , researcher at ISGlobal and coordinator of the study, commented: “The number of deaths prevented by improvements in air quality in Spain could be greater.” The researcher cited two main reasons for this assertion: “First, our study focused on provincial capitals, but there are other cities with high levels of air pollution. Second, we did not take into account reductions in fine particulate matter, which were relatively modest compared to the reductions in NO2 but most likely contributed to a further decrease in premature mortality.”

“These findings demonstrate the major short-term health benefits associated with reducing air pollution,” added Ballester. “With permanent reductions in emissions, the positive effects could be even greater.” In addition to reducing premature mortality, improvements in air quality “could reduce the disease burden of epidemics that cause respiratory infections such as COVID-19, since diseases caused by long-term exposure to air pollution are in turn risk factors for the severity and mortality of coronavirus infection,” concluded the researcher.

Air quality in Spain temporarily improved during first COVID-19 wave, prevented 150 premature deaths
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Farms’ air pollution contributes to almost 18K deaths in US annually: study

Posted on May 11, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

Farming-related pollution leads to nearly 18,000 deaths a year in the U.S., according to a new study published Monday.

Reduced air quality from the agriculture industry results in 17,900 deaths annually, with ammonia accounting for 69 percent of those deaths, researchers wrote in the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Many of the deaths occurred in California, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and the upper Midwest Corn Belt, researchers found, noting that about 80 percent of the deaths are related to pollution from animal agriculture. Such pollutants are much more loosely restricted under the Clean Air Act than comparable pollutants from sources such as vehicles and factories.

“We find that improvements in agricultural production, such as changing livestock feed practices to reduce the amount of excess protein ingested and therefore excreted as nitrogen, or using fertilizer amendments and inhibitors, can greatly reduce air quality–related health damages,” the study’s conclusion stated. “Implementing measures to reduce agricultural emissions across all producers could prevent 7,900 deaths per year (50% of total deaths from food production).”

Researchers wrote that the most substantial benefits could come from altering livestock waste management and fertilizer application procedures, projecting that 3,600 deaths a year could be prevented by producer-side interventions in only the top 10 percent of counties with high death rates from pollution.

The study also makes recommendations for demand-side interventions that could reduce risks, particularly reduced consumption of meat. Substitution of poultry in place of red meat could prevent more than 6,000 deaths a year, according to the study.

Environmentalists and sustainability advocates have frequently pointed to meat production as a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, with Microsoft founder Bill Gates saying in February that “all rich countries should move to 100% synthetic beef.”

Researchers in the report published Monday wrote, “Many of the food production solutions that could reduce air quality–related health damages, such as improving nitrogen use efficiency in crop and livestock production, or decreasing food loss and waste, are likely accompanied by other environmental benefits, such as decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, nutrient pollution, and undesirable land-use change.”

Farms’ air pollution contributes to almost 18K deaths in US annually: study | TheHill
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Systemic inequalities driving exposure to high indoor air pollution in London

Posted on May 10, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

Systemic inequalities mean that low-income households in London are more likely to be exposed to higher levels of indoor air pollution, according to a report by UCL researchers.

The biggest factors are the quality of housing and the characteristics of the surrounding environment, taking location and levels of outdoor air pollution into account—factors beyond occupants’ control.

Air pollution exposure is the greatest environmental health threat in the UK, with long-term exposures estimated to cause 28,000-36,000 premature deaths a year.

In the paper, published in Buildings and Cities, researchers used available data and models, assembling evidence to examine five factors explaining why lower socio-economic groups may be exposed to higher levels of indoor air pollution in their homes, focusing on London and the pollutants PM2.5, NOx and CO. These pollutants were selected as they are primarily produced by combustion processes, such as cooking or burning fuel, and are therefore found in most households.

The factors were: housing location and ambient outdoor levels of pollution; housing characteristics including ventilation properties and internal sources of pollution; occupant behaviours; time spent indoors; and underlying health conditions. London was the focus because housing there isn’t typically representative of the rest of the country, with a higher proportion of renters and flats as dwellings.

The team used a systems approach highlighting interactions and links between factors to show how they lead to systemic exposure inequalities, with lower income households having limited opportunities to improve their indoor air quality.

Lead author, Ph.D. candidate Lauren Ferguson, (UCL Energy Institute and UCL Institute for Environmental Design & Engineering) said: “This research highlights that exposure to indoor air pollution can lead to health inequalities depending on socio-economic status. Differences in housing quality and characteristics of the surrounding areas mean low-income households are likely to bear a disproportionate risk of elevated exposure to indoor air pollution.

“Poor quality housing can lead to a number of negative health effects and is therefore an area which should be targeted in order to address the growing health inequalities gap in the UK.”

Air pollution exposure is associated with health problems such as respiratory and cardiovascular complications, birth defects, childhood asthma cases and sudden infant deaths. Long term exposure to particulate matter (PM) has been linked to adult depression, although this needs more research.

Low socio-economic status (SES) groups are more likely to live in higher density flats and smaller dwellings and areas of London with higher levels of air pollution.

Whilst high density dwellings often have lower ventilation levels which can prevent some outdoor air pollution from getting in, this is not sufficient to offset living in an area of high outdoor pollution. Dwellings with low levels of ventilation prevent indoor air pollution from activities including cooking and smoking from escaping, and are more vulnerable to local pollution from neighbours’ cooking or smoking.

Levels of smoking are higher amongst low SES groups, with 25.5% of those in routine and manual occupations smoking regularly, compared with 15.7% in intermediate occupations and 10.2% in managerial and professional occupations. Low SES groups also report longer cooking durations, increasing exposure to pollution.

Low SES groups are more likely to spend less time outdoors, due to a variety of factors including higher levels of unemployment, fewer after-school clubs and little access to green spaces. This raises their susceptibility to developing health conditions from increased exposure to indoor air pollution.

They are at a higher risk of experiencing underlying health conditions, material deprivation and psychological stress, making them more susceptible to air pollution. Material deprivation includes lack of access to healthcare, poor diet—which is strongly linked to income class—and lack of physical activity, which is linked to spending more time indoors due to the factors mentioned above.

The paper builds on previous research in 2020 on how concentrations of indoor domestic air pollution may vary between SES groups. The researchers hope the findings will influence policy decisions regarding air pollution and housing in London, and call for action to improve housing quality, promote and support interventions to reduce exposure to outdoor air pollution and encourage behavioural change to minimise risk factors from smoking and spending large amounts of time indoors.

Systemic inequalities driving exposure to high indoor air pollution in London
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Fireplaces and stoves are bigger polluters than traffic

Posted on May 7, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

Increases in wood burning have offset gains in other areas, including cleaning up exhaust fumes

Fireplaces and stoves are now the largest single source of primary particle pollution in the UK, greater than traffic and industry. About 40% of the UK’s primary particle pollution comes from just 7% of homes that burn solid fuel. Will the new ban on sales of coal and wet wood in England help the problem or risk making it worse?

In 1950s Britain, replacing coal with so-called smokeless fuel (made from powered coal and industrial waste coke) was the main solution to our smogs. London’s particle pollution decreased by 66% in just 10 years. A similar ban was implemented in Dublin in 1990 and particle pollution decreased by 70% in one year.

These are dramatic improvements but after the ban the cities were still significantly polluted by solid fuel. In London the gradual rollout of gas central heating played an important role in continuing to improve air pollution through the 1970s.

But UK solid-fuel users mainly burn wood. Government estimates suggest increases in wood burning since 2005 have offset gains from other sectors, including cleaning up traffic exhaust.

Banning the sale of wet wood has not been tried before. According to the UK government, burning wet wood produces about four times as much particle pollution as dry wood. However, wet wood accounts for about only 20% of the total being burnt, limiting the potential impact of the ban.

The wood that people buy in garages or garden centres is not labelled as dry or wet. The ban will mean that sellers will now only sell dry wood – but the fear is that this could encourage people to believe they can burn more solid fuels at home, even if it is smokeless fuels and dry woods. Writing in Country Living, Emma-Louise Pritchard concludes that the new rules “mean that those of us with fires or wood-burning stoves in our homes can continue to light them with added peace of mind”.

The sale of fuels made from coffee grounds and olive waste may further encourage home burning. In Dublin, despite the coal ban, the marketing of wood and peat as green biofuels has contributed to solid-fuel heating remaining the biggest source of particle pollution in the city.

Several local councils, including Camden in north London, are clearer in their messaging. They have asked people not to heat their homes with any solid fuels.

Fireplaces and stoves are bigger polluters than traffic | Air pollution | The Guardian

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Air pollution linked to high blood pressure in children; other studies address air quality and the heart

Posted on May 5, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

A meta-analysis of 14 air pollution studies from around the world found that exposure to high levels of air pollutants during childhood increases the likelihood of high blood pressure in children and adolescents, and their risk for high blood pressure as adults. The study is published in a special issue on air pollution in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access journal of the American Heart Association.

Other studies look at: the effects of diesel exhaust on the muscle sympathetic nerve; the impact of pollutants on high blood pressure; rates of hospital readmission for heart failure among those exposed to high levels of ambient air pollution; and risk of stroke and heart attack after long-term exposure to high levels of particulate matter. The studies include health outcomes of people who were exposed to pollutants in the United States, China and Europe.

High blood pressure during childhood and adolescence is a risk factor for hypertension and heart disease in adulthood. Studies on air pollution and blood pressure in adolescents and children, however, have produced inconsistent conclusions. This systematic review and meta-analysis pooled information from 14 studies focused on the association between air pollution and blood pressure in youth. The large analysis included data for more than 350,000 children and adolescents (mean ages 5.4 to 12.7 years of age).

“Our analysis is the first to closely examine previous research to assess both the quality and magnitude of the associations between air pollution and blood pressure values among children and adolescents,” said lead study author Yao Lu, M.D., Ph.D., professor of the Clinical Research Center at the Third Xiangya Hospital at Central South University in Changsha, China, and professor in the department of life science and medicine at King’s College London. “The findings provide evidence of a positive association between short- and long-term exposure to certain environmental air pollutants and blood pressure in children and adolescents.”

The analysis included 14 studies published through September 6, 2020, exploring the impact of long-term exposure (?30 days) and/or short-term exposure (<30 days) of ambient air pollution on blood pressure levels of adolescents and/or children in China and/or countries in Europe.

The studies were divided into groups based upon length of exposure to air pollution and by composition of air pollutants, specifically nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter with diameter ?10 ?m or ?2.5 ?m. (The majority of research linking heart disease with particulate matter focuses on particle matter mass, which is categorized by aerodynamic diameter — ?m or PM.) Fine particles are defined as PM2.5 and larger; coarse particles are defined at PM10; and the concentrations of particulate matter are typically measured in their mass per volume of air (?g/m3).

The meta-analysis concluded:

– Short-term exposure to PM10 was significantly associated with elevated systolic blood pressure in youth (the top number on a blood pressure reading).

– Periods of long-term exposure to PM2.5, PM10 and nitrogen dioxide were also associated with elevated systolic blood pressure levels.

– Higher diastolic blood pressure levels (the bottom number on a blood pressure reading) were associated with long-term exposure to PM2.5 and PM10.

“To reduce the impact of environmental pollution on blood pressure in children and adolescents, efforts should be made to reduce their exposure to environmental pollutants,” said Lu. “Additionally, it is also very important to routinely measure blood pressure in children and adolescents, which can help us identify individuals with elevated blood pressure early.”

The results of the analysis are limited to the studies included, and they did not include data on possible interactions between different pollutants, therefore, the results are not generalizable to all populations. Additionally, the analysis included the most common and more widely studied pollutants vs. air pollutants confirmed to have heart health impact, of which there are fewer studies.

The study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China; Hunan Youth Talent Project; the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province; and the Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities of Central South University.

Story Source:

Materials provided by American Heart Association. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Air pollution linked to high blood pressure in children; other studies address air quality and the heart — ScienceDaily
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Air pollution spikes may impair older men’s thinking, study finds

Posted on May 4, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

Even short, temporary increases in airborne particles can damage brain health, research suggests

Temporary rises in air pollution may impair memory and thinking in older men, according to research that indicates even short-term spikes in airborne particles can be harmful to brain health.

Scientists found that the men’s cognitive performance fell following rises in air pollution during the month before testing, even when peak levels remained below safety thresholds for toxic air set by the World Health Organization and national regulators.

The findings build on growing evidence that exposure to fine particulate matter in the air, largely from road vehicles and industry, is harmful not only to the heart and lungs, but also to delicate neural tissues in the brain.

Researchers in the US and China compiled multiple cognitive test scores from nearly 1,000 men living in the Greater Boston area and checked them against local levels of PM2.5s – airborne particles smaller than 2.5 micrometres across. The men involved in the study were white and had an average age of 69.

Writing in Nature Aging, the scientists describe how higher levels of PM2.5s up to four weeks before testing were linked to poorer cognitive performance on tasks ranging from word memory to number recall and verbal fluency. The effect was clear even when concentrations of PM2.5s stayed below 10 micrograms per cubic metre, the WHO guideline level which is routinely breached in London and many other cities.

Intriguingly, the study found evidence that test scores were less affected by short-term rises in air pollution if the men were taking aspirin or other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, known as NSAIDs. “Our study indicates that short-term air pollution exposure may be related to short-term alterations in cognitive function and that NSAIDs may modify this relationship,” the authors write. According to one line of thinking, such painkillers may help by reducing inflammation that is triggered by fine particles getting into the brain.

While the WHO says levels of PM2.5s should not exceed an annual mean of 10 micrograms per cubic metre, the UK has adopted a higher limit of 25 micrograms per cubic metre. The government’s air quality index regards PM2.5 levels below 35 micrograms per cubic metre as “low”.

Last month, Philip Barlow, the inner south London coroner who concluded that air pollution was a cause of the death of nine-year-old Ella Kissi-Debrah, said the UK must adopt lower legally binding levels for particulate air pollution.

The impact of toxic air on respiratory and cardiovascular health is well-established and evidence for damage to the brain is mounting. Studies have linked air pollution to reduced intelligence and dementia. In February, work led by Prof Jamie Pearce at Edinburgh University found that exposure to air pollution in childhood was linked to poorer thinking skills in later life.

“The findings really stress the impact that air pollution is having on human health,” said Dr Joanne Ryan, head of biological neuropsychiatry and dementia research at Monash University in Melbourne, who was not involved in the latest work. “The importance of this study is that the findings align with a potential causal link of air pollution on brain function and they suggest that it is not just the very high levels of prolonged pollution that are concerning. The study found that even relatively low levels of air pollution can negatively impact cognitive function, and over possibly short periods of time.”

“This work confirms that there is a link between air pollution and how well the ageing brain works,” said Andrea Baccarelli, a senior author on the study and professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University in New York. “These shorter-term effects are reversible: when air pollution clears, our brain reboots and starts working back to its original level. However, multiple occurrences of these higher exposures cause permanent damage.

“Our findings do not suggest yet that all older people should be on anti-inflammatory drugs, because these are medications with side-effects we cannot take lightly,” he added. “More holistically, reducing inflammation through a healthy diet, such as more fruit, vegetables, and fibre, or having regular physical exercise, can go a long way not only to make us generally healthier but also to make us more resilient against environmental threats such as air pollution.”

Air pollution spikes may impair older men’s thinking, study finds | Air pollution | The Guardian
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Study links childhood air pollution exposure to poorer mental health

Posted on April 30, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

Research found that those who grow up amid heavy traffic pollution have higher rates of mental illness by age 18

Children and young people who grow up amid heavy traffic-related air pollution have higher rates of mental illness by the time they are 18, new research has found.

There is a link between exposure to nitrogen oxides and particulate matter in childhood and the development of disorders such as anxiety and depression, the academics said.

The findings are from a 25-year-long joint British/American study of 2,039 children – all twins – born in England and Wales during 1994 and 1995, whose mental health was assessed at 18.

“These results collectively suggest that youths persistently exposed to moderate levels of nitrogen oxide air pollution may experience greater overall liability to psychiatric illness by young adulthood”, the authors concluded.

The link between air pollution and risk of mental illness is “modest” but real, they added. The association was also “a liability independent of other individual, family and neighbourhood influences on mental health”, such as poverty and family history of mental disorder.

Dr Helen Fisher, the study’s co-author, said: “This study has demonstrated that children growing up in our biggest cities face a greater risk of mental illness due to higher levels of traffic.

“While we might like to think of our towns and cities as green and open spaces, it’s clear that there is a hidden danger that many will not have even considered.”

Fisher was the principal investigator of the study at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London, which also involved Duke University in the US.

Participants’ mental health was measured when they were 18 using an assessment of symptoms for ten common psychiatric disorders, such as ADHD, anxiety and alcohol dependence. That was used to calculate a measure of their mental health called the psychopathology factor or p-factor. Those with a higher p-factor score displayed more of those symptoms.

The researchers found that those who had the highest exposure to nitrogen oxides scored 2.62 points higher on the general psychopathology score than their peers in the bottom three quartiles. Those exposed to the most particulate matter scored 2.04 points more than their peers.

Andy Bell, deputy chief executive of the Centre for Mental Health thinktank, said: “We know from research that our mental health is determined by the lives we lead, the environments we’re in and our experiences from our early years onwards. A child’s mental health is influenced by many factors, including their home, school, community and neighbourhood.

“We know that poverty, racism, trauma and exclusion are major risks to mental health. As today’s research shows, our physical environment matters too, and making places safer, cleaner and healthier to live in will have lifelong benefits.”

Pollution has already been identified as an aggravating factor for poor heart and lung health and ailments of the central nervous system, and also as a risk for mental illness. Nine out of ten people worldwide are exposed to high levels of pollution, according to the World Health Organization.

Kevin McConway, emeritus professor of applied statistics at the Open University, said that while the study did show an association between traffic fumes and mental ill-heath, “what they can’t do is to show that it’s the high air pollution that actually causes the poorer mental health.”

Study links childhood air pollution exposure to poorer mental health | Air pollution | The Guardian
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