Wildfire smoke reaches Michigan; North State air hazardous to breathe

Posted on September 15, 2020 by Respro® UK Ltd
The EPA’s AirNow air quality map shows unhealthy (red), to very unhealthy (purple), to hazardous (maroon) pollution levels in the Western United States. Air pollution in Redding dropped from very unhealthy to unhealthy levels around 10:30 a.m. Monday. 

Smoke from wildfires in the western United States has spread east, raising pollution levels as far as the Great Lakes region, according to the National Weather Service.

In California’s North State, pollution levels are unhealthy to very unhealthy, and the hazy skies will be around for most of the week. What’s more, an air quality advisory is in effect for the entire state of Oregon through Thursday.

Redding’s levels dropped into the high unhealthy range Monday morning, according to the EPA’s AirNow air quality index (AQI).

Conditions could worsen again if the smoke thickens, according to a Shasta County air quality advisory.

Some areas of the county may see more smoke and pollution than other areas depending on how close they are to wildfires, and depending on current weather conditions, Shasta County Air Quality Management District officials said.

Air pollution levels in Mount Shasta and Yreka also were considered very unhealthy on Monday, a range sustained daily since Friday, according to Air Now.

Right now, “we have really crappy air,” Siskiyou County air pollution control office Jim Smith said. “In places, it has been very hazardous since the Red Salmon Fire started.”

People should avoid areas with active fires throughout the North State, like Happy Camp, Smith said.

California wildfires: Critical fire weather forecast for area of North Complex; fire now 26% contained

Light winds every day this week, and gusty winds predicted Thursday, may move the smoke, according to a forecast from the National Weather Service in Sacramento.

“The bad news for Redding is it will be southerly winds (during the day), pushing smoke from the August Complex north,” NWS meteorologist Cory Mueller said.

At night, winds going south will likely push smoke from fires in Oregon and Northern California over Mount Shasta and into Shasta County, Mueller said.

Strong wind gusts predicted Thursday, together with dry fuels, could spread current fires and enable the start and spread of new ones, according to Monday’s NWS forecast.

Until the smoke clears and air quality improves, people with respiratory or heart disease, the elderly, pregnant women and children should reduce their time, and avoid when possible, going outside, the advisory said. Everyone else should limit prolonged exertion. When possible:

Limit exercise and outdoor activities.

Remain indoors with the windows and doors closed.

Turn on an air conditioner with a recirculation setting, such as in a vehicle.

The Shasta County Air Quality Management District operates air quality monitors in Anderson and Redding that read pollution levels in the area.

Siskiyou County has permanent monitors in Yreka and Mount Shasta.

Both counties have numerous portable sensors positioned throughout their areas.

As of Saturday afternoon, wildfire smoke reached as far east as Michigan, according to satellite imagery taken by NWS meteorologists in Maryland and posted on Twitter. 

Wildfire smoke reaches Michigan; North State air hazardous to breathe
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Excessive air pollution registered in 14 Serbian cities in 2019

Posted on September 14, 2020 by Respro® UK Ltd

Last year the air was excessively polluted in 14 cities in Serbia, compared to just ten cities in 2018. Air pollution was recorded in Belgrade, Niš, Novi Sad, Bor, Pančevo, Smederevo, Kosjerić, Užice, Valjevo, Kraljevo, Zaječar, Požarevac, Subotica, and Beočin.

The annual report on the state of air quality in Serbia, prepared by the Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) according to results from the state and local network of measuring stations, revealed breaches of the defined limits and tolerated values, mostly for particulate matter PM2.5 and PM10.

The biggest pollutants are PM10 and PM2.5, which are the most dangerous to human health

They are considered to be the most dangerous air pollutants for human health because they can penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream.

In accordance with the Law on Air Protection, starting from the prescribed limit and tolerated values and based on the measurement results, SEPA determines three categories of air quality. If it’s in the first category, it is declared clean. The second is moderately polluted and the third one is excessively polluted air.

The target values for heavy metals – arsenic, cadmium and nickel, were exceeded in Bor

In Novi Sad, Užice, Požarevac and Zaječar, the air was excessively polluted due to the presence of PM10, and in Pančevo and Beočin due to PM2.5. The main polluters are coal-fired power plants, individual furnaces, road traffic and the industry PM2.5 and PM10 particles both caused excessive air pollution in Belgrade, Niš, Smederevo, Kosjerić, Valjevo, Kraljevo and Subotica, the report reads.

The content of heavy metals arsenic, cadmium and nickel inside PM10 particles exceeded the target values ​​in Bor.

The main emitters of air pollutants in 2019 were the production of electricity and heat in thermal power plants and heating plants, heating plants with a capacity under 50 MW, individual furnaces, road traffic and industrial plants, the report reads.

Excessive air pollution registered in 14 Serbian cities in 2019
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Cutting air pollution in Europe’s cities would improve health of poor, says watchdog

Posted on September 8, 2020 by Respro® UK Ltd

European Environment Agency calls for strong action to protect most vulnerable in society

Cutting air pollution and improving green spaces in cities would immediately improve the health of the poorest people in society, a report from Europe’s environmental watchdog has found.

Environmental factors inflict greater damage on the health of those in poverty, who already suffer a disproportionately greater burden of disease, than on the better-off, according to the European Environment Agency. Measures that reduce air pollution and give people greater access to parks and similar amenities are well within the reach of governments.

“Strong action is needed to protect the most vulnerable in our society, as poverty often goes together with living in poor environmental conditions and poor health,” said Hans Bruyninckx, the executive director of the EEA. “Addressing these connections has to be part of an integrated approach towards a more sustainable and inclusive Europe.”

Poor people are more likely to live in areas with high air pollution, which causes 400,000 premature deaths in Europe each year, and noise pollution, which contributes to 12,000 premature deaths a year and raises stress levels. They are also likely to have less access to green and “blue” spaces – such as riversides, lakes and coastal areas – which an increasing body of work shows are important for good physical and mental health.

The EEA found that countries with less social inequality and cleaner environments also showed improved health, with Norway and Iceland showing the lowest level – 9% – of deaths attributable to environmental factors, while in Albania the proportion was more than one in five, and in Bosnia and Herzegovina more than one in four.

Heatwaves, made more frequent by the climate crisis, are another environmental factor leading to deaths, but other emerging problems are also having an impact. Antibiotics found in sewage can spread antimicrobial resistance, as can the overuse of antibiotics in intensive farming, and infections from multi-drug-resistant bacteria cause 25,000 deaths in the EU each year.

The coronavirus crisis has underscored how people’s health is affected by their access to clean air and green spaces, with research suggesting possible links between air pollution and worse outcomes for those who catch the virus. The EEA said it was examining the potential links.

Stella Kyriakides, the EU commissioner for health and food safety, said: “Covid-19 has been yet another wake-up call, making us acutely aware of the relationship between our ecosystems and our health, and the need to face the facts – the way we live, consume and produce is detrimental to the climate and impacts negatively on our health.”

The toll on people’s health of poor environmental quality has often been ignored, even while governments have recognised the impact of related issues such as obesity, said Catherine Ganzleben, author of the EEA report published on Tuesday. Air pollution leads to the premature death of 400,000 people a year in Europe, but governments have failed to take the measures needed – from regulations on vehicle emissions to better public transport, cycle lanes and pedestrian planning – to improve it.

“We need to move away from the single-issue approach, and from the purely environmental perspective,” Ganzleben told the Guardian. “Much of the burden of disease falls on the most vulnerable, and we need to acknowledge and tackle that by looking at people’s overall wellbeing and the links between environment, health and wealth in an integrated fashion.”

Improving people’s health can also in turn have a beneficial impact on the environment, according to Ganzleben. Obesity is a leading cause of ill-health, and eating less meat and more fruit and vegetables can help people with weight loss. Such a change of diet would also improve the environment, as intensive agriculture for meat production gives rise to ammonia, which contributes to the particulate matter that is the most harmful form of air pollution, as well as producing large quantities of greenhouse gases that intensify the climate crisis.

Cutting air pollution in Europe’s cities would improve health of poor, says watchdog | Environment | The Guardian
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Pollination: Air pollution renders flower odors unattractive to moths

Posted on September 7, 2020 by Respro® UK Ltd

A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, and the University of Virginia, USA, has studied the impact of high ozone air pollution on the chemical communication between flowers and pollinators. They showed that tobacco hawkmoths lost attraction to the scent of their preferred flowers when that scent had been altered by ozone. This oxidizing pollutant thus disturbs the interaction between a plant and its pollinator, a relationship that has evolved over millions of years. However, when given the chance, hawkmoths quickly learn that an unpleasantly polluted scent may lead to nutritious nectar.

Pollination in the Anthropocene

Pollination is a critical ecosystem service, one that is performed mainly by insects. Flowers attract insects using floral scents, which are chemical signals that the pollinators can have an innate preference for. This preference is the result of the co-evolutionary relationship between flowers and their pollinators that has evolved over millions of years.

For about 20 years, the term “Anthropocene” has been used in the scientific community to refer to the geological epoch in which humans are responsible for many changes in biological and atmospheric processes. However, until recently, little has been known about the effects of anthropogenic climate change and atmospheric pollution on natural environmental odors that drive chemical communication between organisms.

A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and the University of Virginia has investigated whether human-driven ozone pollution in the air influences the attraction of a pollinating moth to the scent of one of their favorite flowers. Ozone is an oxidant, a highly reactive chemical and pollutant known to cause respiratory diseases in humans. Now, ozone is also thought to change the floral scents that flowers emit to attract their pollinators.

For their experiments, the scientists used the tobacco hawkmoth Manduca sexta. “The hawkmoth Manduca sexta is the perfect model for our study. Although it is highly attracted by flower odors, it also uses its visual system to locate flowers. Flowers that usually attract hawkmoth often share specific compounds in their blend and are visually very conspicuous due to their bright white color,” says study leader Markus Knaden, who heads a research group in the Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology at the Max Planck Institute.

The research team first determined the exact compositions of the flower odors — with and without increased ozone content — and the respective concentrations of individual odor components using gas chromatography. For the ozone-altered odors, the researchers used ozone concentrations that can be measured on hot days in the natural habitat of tobacco hawkmoths. They tested the responses of the moths in behavioral assays in a wind tunnel, allowing the insect to investigate both the original floral odor and to the ozone-altered floral odor.

“We were surprised, even shocked, that the innate attraction to the odor of tobacco flowers was completely lost in the presence of increased ozone levels,” said Knaden, describing what was observed during the experiments.

Tobacco hawkmoths are able to learn

The question remained whether ozone in the air would spoil the appetite of hungry and foraging tobacco hawkmoths, or whether it would prevent insects from finding their food source. Would insects be able to figure out that even polluted flower odors can offer rewards? To answer this question, researchers tested whether tobacco hawkmoths could learn to accept an initially unattractive scent as a food cue if they smelled it while simultaneously being offered a sugar solution reward. The researchers assessed several different ways in which the moth could learn to recognize flowers based on the ozone-altered floral scent. This was critical to relating these experiments to real-world learning. In the real world, a floral scent only becomes ozone-altered as it moves downwind of the flower and mixes with ozone. To see if moths could learn ozone-altered floral scents even when they are decoupled from the sugar reward at the flower, the researchers developed an experiment where the moth had to follow the ozone-altered odor to the flower, but were presented with the original scent at the flower containing the sugar reward.

“While we anticipated that Manduca sexta could learn new floral scents and hoped that they would be able to learn the polluted floral scent of their host flower, we were amazed to see that Manduca sexta could learn the polluted floral blend in a number of different ways, including learning a polluted scent that was decoupled from a sugar reward. This type of learning, which we were surprised to find in Manduca sexta, could be very important in insects’ ability to use learning to cope with their rapidly changing environments,” says first author Brynn Cook from the University of Virginia. What is especially noteworthy and pertinent about this kind of responsiveness to a changing environment is that it occurs in real time and not over evolutionary timescales.

Learning ability of Manduca sexta is not an all-clear

Although the study shows that tobacco hawkmoths can learn to rely on ozone-altered and initially unattractive plumes to recognize their flowers, air pollution still poses a serious risk to pollination and pollinators. “Learning may be key to insects recognizing their host plants in polluted environments, but one of the major questions remaining from our study is whether pollinators will be able to find their flowers in the first place. Without initially recognizing smells, will pollinators only have visual cues to help them locate host flowers in order to learn the pollution-altered floral scent? Another important aspect to consider is that other pollinators may not have the same facility to learn new smells that Manduca sexta has. Specialist pollinators, for instance, may not have that flexibility in learning. Our study is just a starting point. Field studies are going to be critical to understanding which flowers and insects are most affected by which pollutants, and likely why,” says Cook.

Air pollution and climate change have far-reaching consequences for our ecosystem; by no means have all of these been studied and understood. For example, we still know little about the impact of atmospheric changes on the chemical communication between plants and insects. Not only are plant odors altered, but also the sex pheromone female insects use to attract males. Atmospheric changes have the potential to cause alterations in pheromones that could lead to mating failure. Insect mortality has risen dramatically in recent years, and researchers worldwide are searching for the causes. Since 2020, the Max Planck Center next Generation Insect Chemical Ecology, a cooperation between the Max Planck Society and two Swedish universities in which the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and the co-authors of the study, Bill Hansson and Markus Knaden, play a major role, has been dedicated to this field of research.

Pollination: Air pollution renders flower odors unattractive to moths — ScienceDaily

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Asphalt found to be driving air pollution in urban areas on hot sunny days

Posted on September 3, 2020 by Respro® UK Ltd

Asphalt is used to surface more than 95% of all UK roads as well as footpaths, playgrounds, cycle ways and car parks

On hot sunny days, the surface of footpaths, roads, and playgrounds becomes a significant source of air pollution, scientists from Yale University have discovered.

Asphalt is used to surface more than 95 per cent of all UK roads as well as footpaths, playgrounds, cycle ways and car parks, according to the UK’s Asphalt Industry Alliance.

But evidence published in the journal Science Advances suggests that road and roofing asphalt emits hazardous pollutants – particularly during the summer months – which is driving urban air pollution across the country.

Hot, sunny days are worst

The Yale study collected fresh asphalt and heated it to between 40°C and 200°C. The hot asphalt emitted a “substantial and diverse mixtures of organic compounds” small enough to be breathed deep into human lungs, the team said.

The emissions level varied dramatically with temperature. Emissions doubled when the temperature increased from 40°C to 60°C, the temperature asphalt can hit during a hot summer.

Sunshine also had a dramatic impact. When the scientists exposed road asphalt to solar radiation, emissions jumped 300 per cent. “That’s important from the perspective of air quality, especially in hot, sunny summertime conditions,” said lead author Peeyush Khare.

Emissions were highest when the asphalt was fresh, but after about a week stabilised at a significant level, the scientists said.

The team now suspect asphalt is a significant contributor to air pollution in cities during the summer months. During LA’s summer, asphalt could produce more particulate emissions than petrol and diesel vehicles combined, they suggested.

EVs won’t solve the problem of air pollution

The findings will add to the growing body of evidence suggesting a switch to electric cars won’t completely solve the problem of urban air pollution. Earlier this year researchers from the University of Cambridge confirmed that brake dust is a major source of air pollution, and could be as bad as diesel in terms of its health impacts.

Climate change will make these problems worse. Like many other nations, the UK is already experiencing longer, hotter summers and meteorologists expect this trend to accelerate as greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. The Yale team warned the rising temperatures will mean asphalt pollution is likely to increase in the coming years.

Asphalt found to be driving air pollution in urban areas on hot sunny days
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Gut Health Linked To Air Quality, Unprecedented Study Shows

Posted on September 1, 2020 by Respro® UK Ltd

Most studies into gut health focus on the diet, but could the air we breathe upset our stomachs too? That’s the conclusion of a news study out of the University of Colorado, Boulder. Researchers say poor air quality can have an adverse effect on the human microbiome and ultimately worsen gut health.

The study in the journal Environment International is the first-of-its-kind to connect gut health with air quality.

“We know from previous research that air pollutants can have a whole host of adverse health effects,” says senior author Tanya Alderete in university release.

Alderete adds that those previous studies tie the effects of smog to Type 2 diabetes, inflammatory bowel diseases, and weight gain. “The takeaway from this paper is that some of those effects might be due to changes in the gut,” she says.

Ozone’s affect on gut health

The report reviews fecal samples of 101 young adults in Southern California, determining the DNA sequencing in each person’s genes. Air-monitoring stations were kept near the participants during the study to check on their exposure to levels of ozone, particulate matter, and nitrous oxide.

Researchers find ozone has the greatest impact on gut health, with an 11-percent variation between the adults. They add gender, ethnicity, and diet all have less of an impact on your microbiome than ozone changes. Those with higher exposure to this gaseous pollutant have less variety in their gut bacteria.

“This is important since lower (bacteria) diversity has been linked with obesity and type 2 diabetes,” warns Alderete.

The Colorado team says the infamous “brown cloud” in Denver also consists of ozone and other harmful materials. California, Texas, Illinois, Connecticut, Indiana, New Jersey, New York, and Wisconsin have been penalized for their high levels of ozone concentration. According to study authors, air pollution kills 8.8 million people globally each year; more than wars and smoking combined.

The air you breathe can alter your body

Researchers reveal 128 bacterial species that increase ozone exposure. Some species impact insulin, the hormone that delivers sugar into muscles for energy.

“Ozone is likely changing the environment of your gut to favor some bacteria over others, and that can have health consequences,” Alderete explains.

The study results are limited due in part to the small testing pool and the fact that each volunteer only provided one sample each. Alderete is now conducting a larger experiment with a bigger budget. That research will include 240 infants. The assistant professor of integrative physiology is hoping these results influence lawmakers and city planners to move community areas like parks away from busy roads and other areas with high levels of air pollution.

“A lot of work still needs to be done,” concludes Alderete, “but this adds to a growing body of literature showing that human exposure to air pollution can have lasting, harmful effects on human health.”

Gut Health Linked To Air Quality, Unprecedented Study Shows
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England’s pollution levels soared during August heatwave

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Respro® UK Ltd

King George II is said to have described the British summer as, “three fine days and a thunderstorm”. Today, in our climate changed times, a few hot days, a smog alert and flash flooding would be more accurate.

In August’s weeklong heatwave, strong sunlight caused a cocktail of air pollution to form over most of England, reaching level seven on the government’s 10-point warning system. This was mostly caused by ozone forming close to the ground but a plume of particle pollution from industry, traffic and agriculture also settled over the capital on the night of 11 August.

The London mayor posted warnings on electronic displays at bus stops and tube stations. Messages were sent via the AirAlert and other services in the south-east, but you had to visit specific websites to find the warnings from central government.

During the 2003 heatwave, ozone pollution was estimated to have led to between 423 and 769 deaths in England and Wales.

Simple precautions such as avoiding exercise in the second half of the day can help to reduce exposure.

Campaigners including Simon Birkett, the founder of the Clean Air in London group, have called for this type of advice to be fully integrated into heatwave warnings and weather forecasts.

England’s pollution levels soared during August heatwave | Environment | The Guardian
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Air pollution ‘linked’ to higher risk of children developing asthma

Posted on August 21, 2020 by Respro® UK Ltd

Fine air pollutants may contribute to the development of asthma and wheezing in children, according to a study by researchers in Denmark.

They found children exposed to higher levels of fine particles in the air – known as PM2.5 – were more likely to develop asthma and persistent wheezing than children who are not exposed.

Other risk factors were having parents with asthma, having a mother who smoked during pregnancy, or having parents with low education and low income.

The findings, published in the British Medical Journal, support emerging evidence that exposure to air pollution might influence the development of asthma, said the researchers.

They noted that PM2.5 could come from various sources, including power plants, motor vehicles and domestic heating.

The study authors highlighted that the particles – about 3% or less of the diameter of a human hair – could penetrate deep into the lungs and some may even enter the circulatory system.

Short term peak exposure to pollution has been associated with worsening of asthma, by they said the risks of long-term exposure and the timing of exposure for the onset of asthma was less clear.

In addition, the role of air pollution combined with other risk factors, such as socioeconomic status, on asthma was unclear, noted the researchers.

They assessed data on more than three million Danish children born from 1997 to 2014, of which 122,842 children were later identified as having asthma and persistent wheezing.

This information was then linked to detailed air pollutant measurements at the children’s home addresses, parental asthma, maternal smoking, parental education and income.

The researchers said they found higher levels of asthma and persistent wheezing in children of parents with asthma and in children of mothers who smoked during pregnancy.

In contrast, they noted that lower levels of asthma and persistent wheezing were found in children of parents with high educational attainment and high incomes.

According to the researchers, their findings “support emerging evidence that exposure to air pollution might influence the development of asthma”.

They stated: “The findings of this study suggest that children exposed to higher levels of PM2.5 are more likely to develop asthma and persistent wheezing than children who are not exposed.

“Other risk factors associated with these outcomes were parental asthma, parental education, and maternal smoking during pregnancy,” they added.

Air pollution ‘linked’ to higher risk of children developing asthma | Nursing Times
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