Beijing issues yellow alert for heavy air pollution

Posted on January 25, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

China’s capital Beijing has issued a yellow alert for heavy air pollution which took effect from Sunday, prompting officials to take a series of steps to contain the smog.

A series of measures will be taken from Sunday, including the suspension of a number of outdoor construction operations, and halting or restricting production by manufacturing companies, the municipal air pollution emergency response office said.

The capital’s air quality is expected to gradually improve on Tuesday, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Under China’s four-tier warning system for air pollution, red is the most severe followed by orange, yellow and blue.

The Chinese capital, which for over a decade has acquired notoriety for heavy pollution especially in winter, has reported a considerable improvement in the last few years.

Beijing reported a 53-per cent decrease in PM 2.5 density in the past five years, achieving the goal set for the city’s 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), according to local authorities.

The city’s PM 2.5 density was reduced by over a half in 2020 compared to that of 2015, giving the capital city the lowest density and sharpest decline in PM 2.5 within the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the nearby areas, data released by the Beijing Municipal People’s Congress said on Saturday.

The average concentration of PM 2.5 in the metropolis was 38 micrograms per cubic meter in 2020, a year-on-year decline of 9.5 per cent and the lowest measurement since the data was first collected in 2013.

The improved air quality marked a step closer to meeting the level-2 national standard for PM 2.5 control, which is 35 micrograms per cubic meter, it said.

The PM 2.5 reading is a gauge monitoring airborne particles of 2.5 microns or less in diameter, which can penetrate deep into people’s lungs.

Beijing also lowered its carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by over 23 per cent during the same period.

It plans to plant 10,000 hectares of trees in 2021 in a bid to raise the municipality’s forest coverage to about 45 per cent in the next five years.

Beijing issues yellow alert for heavy air pollution – The Economic Times
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Air pollution linked to increased mental health outpatient visits

Posted on January 22, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

More pollution in the air could be linked to higher rates of mental health service use, researchers at the Yale School of Public Health found in a new study.

The findings, which were recently published in the journal Environmental Research, stem from nearly six years of outpatient visits data collected at two major hospitals in Nanjing, China—a heavily polluted major city in China. After comparing the numbers with the amount of particulate matter found in the air every day, researchers discovered that visits were generally higher when the air quality was particularly poor.

More research is needed to fully understand why—and how—air quality impacts the rate at which mental health services are used. But according to YSPH Assistant Professor Sarah Lowe, Ph.D., who was the first author of the study, the findings underscore the need for further investments in mental health services when air pollution gets worse.

“Here, we show that particulate matter is having these more general effects, not just on symptoms but also on service use,” she said.

Air pollution is made up of many different components, from the carbon monoxide emitted by vehicles to the sulfur dioxide found around industrial plants. But Lowe and her collaborators decided to focus on particulate matter—small bits of soil, organic compounds and liquid—because it poses the biggest danger to human health. These micron-sized specks of dust can rip through lung tissue and even enter the bloodstream, through which they can influence mental health.

“These tiny particles not only have effects on the lungs, the heart and the brain,” said YSPH Assistant Professor Kai Chen, Ph.D., who worked on the study as its senior author, “but they also have effects on other organs of your body.”

And in Nanjing, the concentration of particulate matter exceeded China’s air-quality standards for almost one-fifth of all days the researchers observed. Its impact on psychological disorders could be clearly reflected in a subsequent uptick of visits to the city’s two hospitals, they found.

Notably, researchers found that this uptick was more pronounced for men and older populations. Lowe said this unequal distribution may be because of societal and behavioral differences across different parts of Chinese society, but more research is needed to truly find out why.

Still, this new study stands as one of the only articles dedicated to the link between particulate matter and the demand for specifically outpatient mental health services. Lowe and Chen hope their research spurs further investigation into the subject—and into the ways in which particulate matter impacts health.

“There could be other reasons that we simply couldn’t explore with the data we had,” Lowe explained.

For example, on a heavily polluted day, there might be fewer competing activities, such as outdoor social or sporting events, which may lead people to show up at their appointments. Or it could be that air pollution leads to increases in physical symptoms such as difficulty breathing, which could lead someone to seek out mental services for help.

“We don’t know that level of detail, and I think that would be a really interesting direction for future research,” she said.

Air pollution linked to increased mental health outpatient visits
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European cities with the highest mortality due to air pollution

Posted on January 21, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd


84% of the population in European cities is exposed to PM2.5 levels above the maximum recommended by the World Health Organization

A new study has for the first time estimated the mortality burden attributable to Air Pollution in 1,000 European cities

by ISGlobal Ranking

Posted in Air Quality, Europe, France, Health Effects of Air Pollution, Italy, Medical Studies, Poland, Spain | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

European cities with the lowest mortality due to air pollution

Posted on January 21, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

84% of the population in European cities is exposed to PM2.5 levels above the maximum recommended by the World Health Organization

A new study has for the first time estimated the mortality burden attributable to Air Pollution in 1,000 European cities

by ISGlobal Ranking

Posted in Air Quality, Europe, Medical Studies | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Limiting air pollution ‘could prevent 50,000 deaths in Europe’

Posted on January 20, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

World Health Organization estimates air pollution kills more than 7 million people each year

Limiting air pollution to levels recommended by the World Health Organization could prevent more than 50,000 deaths in Europe annually, according to research.

The WHO estimates air pollution kills more than 7 million people each year and is one of the leading causes of sickness and absence from work globally.

Cities, with their crowded streets and high energy use, are hotspots for illness and disease linked to air pollution.

The WHO recommends that fine particulate matter (PM2.5) not exceed 10 milligrams per cubic metre of air, averaged annually. For nitrous oxide (NO2), the threshold not to be exceeded is 40mg/m3.

Wednesday’s study, published in the Lancet Planetary Health journal, estimated the premature death burden due to these two pollutants in nearly 1,000 cities across Europe.

It found that reducing PM2.5 and NO2 to safe WHO levels could prevent 51,213 premature deaths each year.

Nearly 125,000 deaths annually could be saved if air pollution levels were reduced to the lowest recorded in the study, its authors said.

Mark Nieuwenhuijsen of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) said the research “proves that many cities are still not doing enough to tackle air pollution”.

“Levels above WHO guidelines are leading to unnecessary deaths,” he said.

Using city-specific data on air pollution models combined with mortality figures, the researchers formed a “mortality burden score” ranking individual cities from best to worst.

Deaths due to air pollution varied widely, with NO2 levels in Madrid, for example, responsible for 7% of annual deaths there. Cities in the Po Valley region of northern Italy, Poland, and the Czech Republic were the highest in mortality burden, with the Italian cities of Brescia, Bergamo and Vicenza all within the top five for PM2.5 concentrations.

Those with the lowest mortality burden included Tromso in Norway, Umea in Sweden and Oulu in Finland, as well as the Icelandic capital, Reykjavik.

On average, 84% of the population in cities studied were exposed to PM2.5 levels above the WHO guideline. Nine per cent were exposed to higher-than-recommended NO2 levels, the study found.

Sasha Khomenko, co-author of the study from ISGlobal, said it was important to implement local emissions reductions measures in light of the high variability in mortality linked to poor air.

“We need an urgent change from private motorised traffic to public and active transportation (and) a reduction of emissions from industry, airports and ports,” she said.

Khomenko also said a ban on domestic wood and coal burning would help heavily polluted cities in central Europe, and called for more trees and green spaces in urban areas.

Limiting air pollution ‘could prevent 50,000 deaths in Europe’ | Air pollution | The Guardian
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Acute Exposure to Air Pollution Can Trigger MI-Related Death

Posted on January 19, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

New data from China show that greater exposure to some forms of air pollution, even in the short term, is linked to an increased risk of dying from myocardial infarction.

The relationship was seen for particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of ≤ 2.5 µg (PM2.5) and ≤ 10 µg (PM10), as well as for nitrogen dioxide (NO2), Yuewei Liu, MD, PhD (Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China), and colleagues report in their paper published online today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Earlier studies have shown a connection between air pollution and more-chronic forms of heart disease, as well as for MI itself. This study takes a different angle, the researchers explain. “Because MI is a leading cause of death that accounts for over 30% of all deaths from ischemic heart diseases, it is of great importance to understand whether air pollutant exposures also trigger deaths from MI.”

Physicians who commented on the results for TCTMD said this is indeed a relevant question. Its answer, they said, confirms the long-held suspicion that air pollution—whether short- or long-term—is bad for cardiovascular health.

Jonathan D. Newman, MD, MPH (NYU Langone Health, New York, NY), drew attention to the fact that the biggest upswing in risk with particulate matter was actually seen among people with lower exposures. “That is relevant worldwide and to other populations that are less highly exposed to anthropogenic or fossil fuel combustion-related air pollution,” he said, adding, “There’s a significant risk even in the lower groups of exposure, which argues for the importance of control measures even for populations that are less highly exposed.”

Here, mean exposures of PM2.5 and PM10 were 63.4 and 100.4 µg/m3, respectively, on days when the MI deaths occurred (on control days, mean levels were slightly lower at 62.1 and 99.5 µg/m3). By comparison, Newman noted, the Environmental Protection Agency’s “gold standard is less than 12 µg/m3 in the United States” for PM2.5.

Robert Kloner, MD, PhD (Huntington Medical Research Institutes, Pasadena, CA), agreed that while the findings are confirmatory, this doesn’t mean they are uninteresting. What’s unique here is not only the primary endpoint but also the precision by which the time of exposure was captured, he said. Their design “is quite a sophisticated approach” that provides hints on mechanism, specifically oxidative stress, inflammation, thrombosis, and vascular dysfunction. His own research has shown, in animal models, that ultrafine particles delivered directly to the heart can impair function, irrespective of age and whether there’s preexisting cardiovascular disease.

“You don’t get atherosclerosis in 1 day,” stressed Kloner. “This really does point to the concept that air pollution can act as an acute trigger, as an acute risk factor, for death from heart attack.”

Pollution Close to Home

For their study, Liu and colleagues used a time-stratified, case-crossover design to look at 151,608 MI-related deaths that took place in China’s Hubei province from 2013 to 2018. Exposure to air pollution—particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, NO2, carbon monoxide, and ozone—was assessed based on each person’s home address, with data drawn from local air-quality monitoring stations.

They compared mean exposure on the day of death and the day prior with other weekdays in the same month, finding significant relationships between MI death risk for PM2.5, PM10, and NO2. With PM2.5 and PM10, the risk associated with exposure increased up until the breakpoints of 33.3 µg/m3 and 57.3 µg/m3, respectively, then flattened out, whereas relationship was nearly linear for NO2.

“These findings add to the understanding of acute adverse effects of air pollution on cardiovascular mortality and highlight the needs for either general population or policy practitioners to take effective measures in reducing air pollution exposures, especially for older adults and those with higher risk of MI occurrence,” the investigators conclude.

From Policy to Personal

Next steps may indeed come at the policy level, and now the world has had a glimpse of what positive changes can produce.

“One silver lining in the dark cloud of COVID-19 has been the singular impact of the pandemic on global air pollution emissions. Early in the pandemic, with complete cessation of road traffic and air travel in many parts of the world, there was a dramatic impact on air pollution levels,” Sanjay Rajagopalan, MD (University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH), and Jagat Narula, MD (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY), write in an accompanying editorial. “PM2.5 plummeted across the globe resulting in ‘blue sky days,’ allowing anyone to ponder a future free from air pollution.”

Newman said that there is a clear need for policies that shift away from fossil fuels, as well as evidence to support these broad interventions. But, as he and others addressed in a recent review on pollution’s cardiopulmonary impact, far less is known about “personal-level interventions,” like face masks or air filters, which could be studied in randomized controlled trials.

As of now, “I would wager that there’s little advice being given in regards to air pollution exposure and risk-mitigation strategies in routine clinical practice,” partly due to the need to address traditional risk factors during the limited time frame of an office visit, Newman said, adding that physicians may be stymied by a lack of knowledge on what to offer, particularly when evidence is absent.

Yet there is growing awareness, he added, and modern tools like smartphones might be leveraged to provide details on air quality for specific regions. Less obvious is how to apply this information. “There are always unintended consequences. For example, I think in general with physical activity, the benefits . . . outweigh for most people any potential added [risk] from air pollution, so you wouldn’t necessarily want to caution people not to exercise or do things outdoors,” he suggested, though this added risk might be more relevant for individuals with comorbidities or in situations, like forest fires, when pollution levels are particularly noxious.

For Kloner, the main advice is for patients to avoid polluted air when possible, especially if they live near a major highway or other potent source. “It will be interesting to see if during the COVID era maybe there are fewer problems with this, because people have been wearing masks. As masks become the norm, maybe we’ll see some changes,” he added. It’s also key that patients otherwise at high risk get the best preventive therapies.

The mounting evidence is consistent, Kloner concluded. “Every little bit of knowledge is helpful. And the arrows all point to one direction, which is: air pollution is bad for your heart.”

via Acute Exposure to Air Pollution Can Trigger MI-Related Death | tctmd.com

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Wildfires Caused Half Of Western America’s Pollution: Study

Posted on January 14, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

Even as pollution emissions declined from other sources including vehicle exhaust and power plants, the amount from fires increased sharply.

Wildfire smoke accounted for up to half of all health-damaging small particle air pollution in the western U.S. in recent years as warming temperatures fueled more destructive blazes, according to a study released Monday.

Even as pollution emissions declined from other sources including vehicle exhaust and power plants, the amount from fires increased sharply, said researchers at Stanford University and the University of California, San Diego.

The findings underscore the growing public health threat posed by climate change as it contributes to catastrophic wildfires such as those that charred huge areas of California and the Pacific Northwest in 2020. Nationwide, wildfires were the source of up to 25% of small particle pollution in some years, the researchers said. “From a climate perspective, wildfires should be the first things on our minds for many of us in the U.S.,” said Marshall Burke, an associate professor of earth system science at Stanford and lead author of the study.

“Most people do not see sea-level rise. Most people do not ever see hurricanes. Many, many people will see wildfire smoke from climate change,” Burke added. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers used satellite images of smoke plumes and government air quality data to model how much pollution was generated nationwide by fires from 2016 to 2018 compared to a decade earlier. Their results were in line with previous studies of smoke emissions across earlier time periods and more limited geographic areas.

Large wildfires churn out plumes of smoke thick with microscopic pollution particles that can drift hundreds or even thousands of miles. Driving the explosion in fires in recent years were warmer temperatures, drought and decades of aggressive fire fighting tactics that allowed forest fuels to accumulate.

Air pollution experts say that residents of the West Coast and Northern Rockies in particular should expect major smoke events from wildfires to become more frequent.

There’s little doubt air quality regulations helped decrease other sources of pollution even as wildfire smoke increased, said Loretta Mickley, an atmospheric chemist at Harvard University. But it’s difficult to separate how much of the increase in smoke pollution is driven by climate change versus the forest fuel buildup, she added.

Mickley and researchers from Colorado State University also cautioned that fires can vary significantly from year to year because of weather changes, making it hard to identify trends over relatively short periods such as the decade examined in the new study.

An AP analysis of data from government monitoring stations found that at least 38 million people in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana were exposed to unhealthy levels of wildfire smoke for at least five days in 2020. Major cities in Oregon suffered the highest pollution levels they had ever recorded.

Smoke particles from those wildfires were blamed for health problems ranging from difficulty breathing to a projected spike in premature deaths, according to health authorities and researchers.

Fires across the West emitted more than a million tons of particulate pollution in 2012, 2015 and 2017, and almost as much in 2018.

Scientists studying long-term health problems have found correlations between smoke exposure and decreased lung function, weakened immune systems and higher rates of flu.

The new study matches up with previous research documenting the increasing proportion of pollution that comes from wildfire smoke, said Dan Jaffe, a wildfire pollution expert at the University of Washington. Jaffe added that it also raises significant questions about how to better manage forests and the role that prescribed burns might play.

“We have been making tremendous progress on improving pollution in this country, but at the same time we have this other part of the puzzle that has not been under control,” Jaffe said. “We’re now at the point where we have to think about how to manage the planet a whole lot more carefully than we’ve done.”

Wildfires Caused Half Of Western America’s Pollution: Study | Seattle, WA Patch
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Kraków records third worst air pollution in the world as smog descends on Poland

Posted on January 13, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

The Polish city of Kraków registered the third worst air pollution in the world this morning, as Poland once again suffers from its annual winter smog problems. The country has Europe’s worst air, with pollutants causing tens of thousands of premature deaths annually.

According to the live ranking produced by IQAir, a Swiss air quality technology company, this morning Kraków was the city with the third worst air quality in the world, behind only Lahore in Pakistan and Delhi in India, reports Radio Eska. Warsaw was 13th on the list.

The European Air Quality Index – which is compiled by the European Environment Agency (EEA), an EU body, and uses slightly different methodology – also showed southern Poland as having the worst air on the continent this morning.

However, it found Silesia Province – especially the cities of Katowice and Bielsko-Biała – to have higher pollution levels (with the worst classification of “extremely poor”) than Kraków (which was “very poor”).

Poland, and in particular the south of the country, has been hit by poor air quality in recent days, with pollution indicators in many places far exceeding safe levels.

In Kraków this morning, pollutants were three times over the permissible maximum safe level. Figures in many surrounding towns and villages were even worse – the nearby village of Racławice was 11 times over the limit, reports Gazeta Wyborcza. Katowice was yesterday 2.5 times above safe levels.

Public transport was free yesterday in Kraków, after the city crossed an air pollution threshold at which the authorities drop fees for buses and trams in an effort to discourage people from using cars.

As well as vehicle exhausts, a major contributor to Poland’s smog is the widespread burning of dirty fuels – including coal, but also sometimes household waste – to heat homes. Incinerating rubbish is illegal, and in 2019 Kraków became the first city in Poland to ban the burning of coal and wood too.

The city also launched an app that allows residents to not only be updated on air quality, but also to report any houses they suspect of burning illegal materials (with brown smoke from chimneys often a giveaway). A geotagged photo can be submitted via the app.

As a result of such efforts – which have also included the use of drones to check what is being emitted from chimneys – the city has noted an improvement in air quality, although there are still a significant number of smoggy days.

As well as vehicle exhausts, a major contributor to Poland’s smog is the widespread burning of dirty fuels – including coal, but also sometimes household waste – to heat homes. Incinerating rubbish is illegal, and in 2019 Kraków became the first city in Poland to ban the burning of coal and wood too.

The city also launched an app that allows residents to not only be updated on air quality, but also to report any houses they suspect of burning illegal materials (with brown smoke from chimneys often a giveaway). A geotagged photo can be submitted via the app.

As a result of such efforts – which have also included the use of drones to check what is being emitted from chimneys – the city has noted an improvement in air quality, although there are still a significant number of smoggy days.

In November, a report by the EEA identified Poland as having the European Union’s most polluted air. Its data showed that pollution in almost all areas of the country exceed European air standards, and that air pollutants caused nearly 50,000 premature deaths in Poland in 2018.

Earlier in the year, a ranking by the Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) also found Poland to have the most polluted air in Europe. In 2018, the World Health Organisation found that 36 of the EU’s most polluted cities were in Poland.

To tackle this longstanding problem, the government in 2018 launched a “Clean Air” programme – theoretically one of the largest of its kind in Europe – which aimed to reduce smog by providing households with funds to replace old heaters and to improve insulation.

However, the initiative has not had the hoped-for impact. Poor implementation and resultant low take-up of the subsidies led the European Commission to consider withdrawing funding for the programme.

Poles living in rural communities had particular difficulties in accessing funds. In September, the climate ministry moved to close a loophole that had previously left many of the poorest households excluded from subsidies.

The same month, the ministry unveiled an updated energy strategy for the next two decades, which outlines a faster withdrawal from coal than previously planned. Soon after, a landmark agreement concluded between the government and mining unions pledged to close all coal mines by 2049.

A government scheme to subsidise the installation of solar panels in private homes has also been a success, with funds designated for the programme already running low.

This winter, Polish Smog Alert, a grassroots social movement, is again running a “See What You Breathe” campaign, during which giant “breathing” lung installations have been touring Polish towns and cities to show residents how much pollution they are inhaling on a daily basis.

Kraków records third worst air pollution in the world as smog descends on Poland

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