Respro® Bulletin Board

Australian bush fires cause air pollution spike across Wellington region

Posted on January 3, 2020 by Respro® UK Ltd

Wellington’s air pollution levels are spiking as some of the worst bush fires in history rage across the Tasman.

Air currents are carrying smoke and pollutants from Australia, up the west coast of the South Island, and then across the middle of the country, putting one centre above the national standard.

Air pollution is measured in micrograms per cubic metre of air (ug/cm3). A PM10 particle is less than 10 microns in diameter, or one-fifth of the diameter of human hair, and are easily inhaled and absorbed into the lungs.

The national standard – the level of pollution deemed safe in New Zealand – is 50 micrograms per cubic metre.

The hourly average spiked to 52 at the Birch Lane station in the Hutt Valley around 3am on Friday morning – above the national standard for human safety – but dropped below again by 5am.

It reached 39.4ug/cm3 at the Willis St monitoring station at 8am on Friday, and levels reached 46.3ug/cm3 at the Wainuiomata bowling club station.

At high levels the particles can cause significant health effects, especially in the elderly, infants, those with asthma and other respiratory diseases, and people with other chronic diseases such as heart disease.

Senior lecturer in applied environmental chemistry at Massey University, Nick Kim, said air quality in Wellington was generally pretty good, mostly due to the high winds moving things along.

Kim said the main concern was the particle matter, as gases like CO2 or SO2 being swept across from Australia posed a low risk from that distance.

He would be surprised if this event exceeded the national standard of 50ug, but the bush fires would likely continue to create a “secondary imprint” on New Zealand’s levels.

While the increased particle matter meant most people had no cause for alarm, it held the potential to harm people already suffering from respiratory illness, Kim said.

“We are absolutely going to see many more of these events.”

The levels didn’t pose a high enough risk to warrant action at this point, but constant monitoring was necessary.

via Australian bush fires cause air pollution spike across Wellington region | Stuff.co.nz

Posted in Air Quality, Australia & Oceania | Tagged Air Pollution, Australia, bushfire, New Zealand, PM10, Wellington, wildfires | 3 Comments

Canberra experiences worst air quality on record as bushfire smoke from south coast sets in

Posted on January 2, 2020 by Respro® UK Ltd

Canberra experiences worst air quality on record as bushfire smoke from south coast sets in
Residents of Australia’s capital are told to stay indoors and brace for more smog in the coming days

Canberra has experienced its worst air quality on record, as bushfire smoke became trapped by atmospheric conditions and residents were told to stay indoors and brace for more smog in the coming days.

The ACT’s acting chief health officer, Dr Paul Dugdale, said the smoke was the worst since the 2003 bushfires and was “certainly the worst” since air quality monitoring started in the city 15 years ago.

Air quality index readings in Canberra city were at 3,463 on Wednesday afternoon, according to the ACT Health website. Ratings of more than 200 are considered hazardous. The suburb of Monash showed levels at 4,650 and Florey was at 3,508.

An ACT health spokesperson said the AQI reading for fine particles peaked at 7700 at 1am on Wednesday at the Monash monitoring site.

The Canberra-based University of NSW climate scientist Dr Sophie Lewis was out in the city with her two-year-old daughter and said the conditions were “like nothing I have experienced before”. She was planning to leave the city.

“It’s permeating everything. It is the fine particulates that get through everything. This is the worst it has been,” she said.

“Last night it started to blow in and you do start to feel quite anxious and stressed. Smoke just makes us all panic.”

Families and children visiting Questacon, the National Science and Technology Centre, had a look of shock, said Lewis, with many people wearing masks and checking phone apps for air quality and fire updates.

She said a pattern in recent weeks had been for the smoke from bushfires burning to the east to arrive on cooler sea breezes in the evening.

On Tuesday night and Wednesday, a phenomenon known as a “temperature inversion” had caused warmer air above to trap the smoke, making conditions especially bad.

On Wednesday morning Dugdale said 12 people had gone to Canberra hospital with smoke-related illnesses in the previous 24 hours.

Dugdale said it was not the time for people to start any new year fitness resolutions and they should stay indoors instead.

“This is an exceptional time for Canberra – usually our air quality is among the best in the world,” he said.

The ACT’s health directorate also issued fresh advice on Wednesday, saying all Canberrans should “avoid physical activity outside”.

The public was advised to stay indoors with windows and doors closed and to turn evaporative air conditioners off.

The “extremely thick” smog was forecast to linger for several days, with conditions expected to remain poor, and temperatures on Saturday forecast to climb to 42C.

A statement said: “We also strongly advise people who are sensitive to smoke, especially those with pre-existing heart and lung conditions, to take extra care during these conditions.

“People who are sensitive to smoke and air pollution can be more vulnerable to heat-related illness as well, so staying hydrated and cool is important.

“People who are able to do so, are also encouraged to check on others who they think might need extra help, to see that they are okay.”

In NSW on Wednesday, the air quality index was at very high hazardous levels of 2,300 around Goulburn, caused by smoke from nearby bushfires.

Hazardous conditions were also detected in regions of Sydney’s south-west (352), and in the central tablelands (394) and southwest slopes (360).

via Canberra experiences worst air quality on record as bushfire smoke from south coast sets in | Environment | The Guardian

Posted in Air Quality, Australia & Oceania | Tagged Air Pollution, Australia, bushfire, Canberra | Leave a comment

How Afghan officials are tackling Kabul’s ‘hazardous’ pollution

Posted on December 30, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

Afghan officials have begun cracking down on local businesses thought to be the main contributors to air pollution in the capital to battle a crisis that has reached “hazardous” levels.

The owners of wedding halls, public baths, and property management offices were also warned to stop burning scrap tyres and plastics – commonly done to provide heating in places of business, Leila Samani, a spokeswoman for Afghanistan’s National Environmental Protection Agency told the dpa news agency on Monday.

She also called on residents to reduce the use of coal – used to warm homes – and repair their old cars.

Three wedding halls and two property management offices were shut down as a senior delegation from the police, municipality and environmental agency started operating on Sunday evening.

Another 28 businesses have been identified for closure this week, according to Samani.

Many residents cite poverty and lack of electricity as the primary cause of pollution, which will be impossible to solve without cheaper gas and electricity.

Kabul is ranked as one of the worst-polluted cities in the world.

Seasonal air pollution is a major cause of disease in Kabul, and environmental activists have launched a campaign in which they distribute face masks.

Many people, especially children, suffer from respiratory infections caused by breathing polluted air.

“Kabul air is not breathable,” tweeted Shaharzad Akbar, the chairperson of Afghanistan’s Human Rights Commission.

“I feel constantly exhausted and low in energy, my son coughs at night and we don’t dare to go out for a walk.”

via How Afghan officials are tackling Kabul’s ‘hazardous’ pollution | Afghanistan News | Al Jazeera

Posted in Air Quality, Middle East | Tagged Afghanistan, Air Pollution, Kabul | Leave a comment

Revealed: microplastic pollution is raining down on city dwellers

Posted on December 29, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

Exclusive: London has highest level yet recorded but health impacts of breathing particles are unknown

Microplastic pollution is raining down on city dwellers, with research revealing that London has the highest levels yet recorded.

The health impacts of breathing or consuming the tiny plastic particles are unknown, and experts say urgent research is needed to assess the risks.

Only four cities have been assessed to date but all had microplastic pollution in the air. Scientists believe every city will be contaminated, as sources of microplastic such as clothing and packaging are found everywhere.

Recent research shows the whole planet appears to be contaminated with microplastic pollution. Scientists have found the particles everywhere they look, from Arctic snow and mountain soils, to many rivers and the deepest oceans. Other work indicates particles can be blown across the world.

The level of microplastic discovered in the London air surprised scientists. “We found a high abundance of microplastics, much higher than what has previously been reported,” said Stephanie Wrightfrom Kings College London, who led the research. “But any city around the world is going to be somewhat similar.”

“I find it of concern – that is why I am working on it,” she said. “The biggest concern is we don’t really know much at all. I want to find out if it is safe or not.”

About 335m tonnes of new plastic is produced each year and much leaks into the environment. The research, published in the journal Environment International, collected the microplastics falling onto the roof of a nine-storey building in central London. This ensured that only microplastic from the atmosphere was collected.

They were found in all eight samples, with deposition rates ranging from 575 to 1,008 pieces per sq metre per day, and 15 different plastics were identified. Most microplastics were fibres made of acrylic, most likely from clothing. Just 8% of the microplastics were particles, and these were mostly polystyrene and polyethylene, both commonly used in food packaging.

The rate of microplastic deposition measured in London is 20 times higher than in Dongguan, China, seven times higher than in Paris, France and nearly three times higher than Hamburg, Germany. The researchers do not know the reason for the variation, but differences in experimental methods are likely to be partly responsible.

The microplastic particles in London were between 0.02mm and 0.5mm. These are large enough to be deposited on to the airways when inhaled and would be swallowed in saliva. Smaller particles that can get into the lungs and bloodstream represent the greatest potential health hazard. These were seen in the samples but their composition could not be identified with current technology.

The serious health damage caused by the pollution particles emitted by traffic and industry are well known. A comprehensive global review earlier in 2019 concluded that air pollution may be damaging every organ and virtually every cell in the human body.

But the potential health impacts of inhaling plastic particles from the air, or consuming them via food and water, are unknown. People eat at least 50,000 microplastic particles per year, according to one study.

Plastics can carry toxic chemicals and harbour harmful microbes, and the limited research done to date has shown harm to some marine creatures. The only assessment of microplastic in human lungs, published in 1998, found inhaled fibres were present in cancerous lung specimens.

“These studies showing just how much plastic is in the air are a wake-up call,” said Steve Allen, at the EcoLab research institute near Toulouse, France, and whose own work has shown microplastic air pollution in remote mountain areas. “The [London research] is a very well done study showing incredibly high numbers of airborne microplastics.

“Currently we have very little knowledge on what effect this airborne pollution will have on humans,” he said. “But with what we do know it is pretty scary to think we are breathing it in. We need urgent research.”

Johnny Gasperi, at the Université Paris-Est, said the research shows a widespread contamination of the air by microplastics. He said the London study showed that microplastic deposition did not depend on the strength or direction of the wind, suggesting the city itself was the most likely source.

Melanie Bergmann, at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany, said more research on the potential health effects of microplastic pollution was very important. “We do not currently know what proportion of inhaled microplastics actually penetrates the deep lung,” she said.

The European commission’s chief scientific advisers said in a report in April: “The evidence [on the environmental and health risks of microplastics] provides grounds for genuine concern and for precaution to be exercised.”

Microplastics are also found in drinking water and in August an assessment by the World Health Organization found no evidence to date of harm but said more research was needed.

Cutting microplastic pollution requires changing how plastic is used and disposed of, said Wright: “You can’t clean it up, so it is about stopping it at source.” Allen said: “This is not a problem that is going to go away anytime soon.”

via Revealed: microplastic pollution is raining down on city dwellers | Environment | The Guardian

Posted in Air Quality, Europe, London, Research on Air Pollution in the UK, UK | Tagged Air Pollution, London, microplastic, Research, UK | Leave a comment

Tehran air pollution forces week-long school closure

Posted on December 24, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

Schools in Iran’s Tehran province have been ordered shut until Friday due to severe air pollution, authorities announced, extending their closure to a full week.

Tehran city was cloaked by thick toxic smog for a third successive day on Monday that blanketed out landmarks like Milad Tower and the snow-capped Alborz mountains.

“All of Tehran province’s schools… except Firuzkuh and Damavand counties are closed for the week due to increasing air pollution,” governor Mohsen Bandpey told reporters.

He added that forecasts indicated stable weather and “increasing pollutant density” across urban areas.

Average airborne concentration of the finest and most hazardous particles (PM2.5) was at 147 microgrammes per cubic metre in the 24 hours to midday Monday, according to government website air.tehran.ir.

That is close to six times the World Health Organization’s recommended maximum of 25 microgrammes per square metre.

Pollution worsens in Tehran during winter, when cold air and a lack of wind traps hazardous smog over the capital for days on end, a phenomenon known as thermal inversion.

Schools in northern Alborz province were also closed for the week, state news agency IRNA quoted the deputy governor as saying.

The measure aims to stop pollution-belching buses from traversing the city while also keeping vulnerable youngsters indoors.

Iranian media and officials have however slammed the school closures as a limited measure to address the problem.

Shutting schools on Saturday and Sunday had evidently “not helped to improve Tehran’s air quality”, Donya-e Eqtesad daily wrote, calling it the “minimum necessary measure” the authorities could take.

Iran’s judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi said the “roots” of the problem must be addressed.

Tehran’s mayor Pirouz Hanachi called for industries using the fuel oil mazout and gasoline to be targeted.

The sprawling capital is one of the world’s most polluted cities.

According to a World Bank report last year, most of the pollution in the city of eight million is caused by heavy duty vehicles, motorbikes, refineries and power plants.

via Tehran air pollution forces week-long school closure – France 24

Posted in Air Quality, Iran, Middle East | Tagged Air Pollution, Iran, Tehran | Leave a comment

Pollution league tables for UK urban areas reveal the expected and unexpected

Posted on December 20, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

The Bedfordshire town of Luton has come bottom of a league table of predicted city-wide air pollution concentrations among UK cities, according to new analysis by the Universities of Birmingham and Lancaster.

The Bedfordshire town of Luton has come bottom of a league table of predicted city-wide air pollution concentrations among UK cities, according to new analysis by the Universities of Birmingham and Lancaster.

Although Luton’s air pollution emissions are about as expected for its population, the town’s compactness limits dispersal of pollution, meaning it drops to last place among the 146 most populous UK places in terms of predicted air pollution concentrations.

At the other end of the scale, Milton Keynes and Stoke on Trent fare much better than expected, for their respective sizes, with average-to-poor emissions of air pollution mitigated substantially by better dispersal of pollution into less compact city spaces.

The new study, published in Environmental Research Letters, was carried out by researchers in the Birmingham Institute for Forest Research and colleagues in Lancaster University’s Environment Centre. The team used government statistics to build relationships between a city’s population, built-up area, air pollution released, and expected city-wide pollution concentrations.

The resulting relationships predict what emissions and concentrations are expected for an urban area of any population in the UK.

The team then compared the 146 most populous urban areas across the UK with their predictions to find which settlements were performing relatively better or worse than expected.

The league table for emissions measures how efficiently a city moves people and heats homes compared to the UK average for its population-size. The league table for city-wide concentrations shows how the area of a city modifies the effect of its emissions to give better- or worse-than-expected pollution concentrations across the urban area.

The study looked at a range of air pollutants but focused on traffic-generated nitrogen oxides, which are a major health concern in cities. The relationship converting government emissions statistics into city-wide pollutant concentrations was shown to be consistent with that derived for other cities from satellite measurements.

Key findings included:

Many cities across the Midlands are performing worse than expected, both in terms of emissions and expected concentrations; both Royal Leamington Spa and Coventry start poor in terms of emissions and slide further, towards the bottom of the league, when considering expected concentrations of city-wide pollution

Other cities performing worse than expected include Crawley, Cardiff and Stevenage

London is just outside the top 20 for emissions, i.e. doing much better than expected for its size, but is only mid-table for city-wide pollution concentrations

Weybridge, Aldershot and Macclesfield, in England, along with Livingston in Scotland, benefit greatly from having space to disperse their pollutants, as do Milton Keynes and Stoke-on-Trent

Lead author Professor Rob MacKenzie of the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research explains: “What we’re interested in is not just how much pollution is produced, but how much is in the air. Our new study shows how effective the particular urban form of a city – its layout and the types of building – is in dispersing the pollution.

“For example, Milton Keynes is at the top of our list, doing much better than we would expect with the biggest gap between the amount of pollution produced and the concentrations in the air we breathe. The town’s middling rank for emissions reflects personal transport choices and the town’s traffic management; it’s much better-than-expected performance for concentrations reflects the way the city is laid out, with its distinctive mix of grids and roundabouts, and the inclusion of parks and green spaces, which all contribute to this overall effect.

“In contrast, we have Luton right down at the bottom. This is a more densely populated urban area doesn’t gain much benefit from its compactness in terms of emissions and its compactness works against dispersion of pollution resulting in worse-than-expected city-wide concentrations.”

Dr Duncan Whyatt of Lancaster Environment Centre added: “London appears right in the middle of our pollution concentration table, having done well in terms of lower emissions for its size. The lower-than-expected emissions may be to do with the intense concentration of effort in moving high volumes of people through and around the city. Its well-developed public infrastructure, means that, for its size, it produces less pollution emissions than, say, Birmingham, which is still very heavily car-dependent.”

This study offers valuable insights for urban planners who can start to take a closer look at the cities that do particularly well for pollution dispersal and analyse what elements should be prioritised to improve overall air quality in future city design.

“Using this type of analysis will help planners make those important decisions that find the right balance between spreading out urban development and providing sufficient green spaces, but also managing emissions by transporting people efficiently and heating homes efficiently,” says Professor MacKenzie.

via Pollution league tables for UK urban areas reveal the expected and unexpected

Posted in Air Quality, Europe, London, Research on Air Pollution in the UK, UK | Tagged Air Pollution, Luton, Research, UK, uk air quality | Leave a comment

Air pollution soars in Thai capital, authorities issue warning

Posted on December 20, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

Authorities in Thailand’s capital warned people to wear face masks or stay indoors on Thursday after choking air pollution returned to Bangkok following months of clear air in one of the world’s top tourist destinations.

The national Pollution Control Department issued the warning as the amount of hazardous dust particles known as PM 2.5 exceeded the safe level in three areas around the capital.

PM 2.5 is a mixture of liquid droplets and solid particles that can include dust, soot and smoke, one of the main measures of the Air Quality Index (AQI).

Thursday morning’s AQI was 170, according to airvisual.com, which measures levels in cities worldwide.

The AQI is considered “unhealthy” when the level is above 150, meaning there is an “increased likelihood of adverse effects and aggravation to the heart and lungs among the general public”, according to airvisual.com.

No cause was given for the deterioration in the air quality, which tends to get worse in the dry season from December to April.

Residents in the city of about 10 million complained about the air quality and problems such as asthma and allergies.

“Something is wrong with my health because I’m suffocating as I breathe,” said Pitak Meesopa, a 58-year-old minibus driver who said that in the past year he had been suffering with an allergy and had to wear a mask frequently.

“My eyes are always in pain and itchy,” he said.Air pollution forced the closure of some schools in Bangkok earlier this year and Thailand’s northern provinces, including Chiang Mai, were hit by dangerous levels of dust particles in April.

via Air pollution soars in Thai capital, authorities issue warning – Reuters

Posted in Air Quality, Asia, Thailand | Tagged Air Pollution, Bangkok, PM2.5, Thailand | Leave a comment

Depression and suicide linked to air pollution in new global study

Posted on December 19, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

Cutting toxic air might prevent millions of people getting depression, research suggests

People living with air pollution have higher rates of depression and suicide, a systematic review of global data has found.

Cutting air pollution around the world to the EU’s legal limit could prevent millions of people becoming depressed, the research suggests. This assumes that exposure to toxic air is causing these cases of depression. Scientists believe this is likely but is difficult to prove beyond doubt.

The particle pollution analysed in the study is produced by burning fossil fuels in vehicles, homes and industry. The researchers said the new evidence further strengthened calls to tackle what the World Health Organization calls the “silent public health emergency” of dirty air.

“We’ve shown that air pollution could be causing substantial harm to our mental health, making the case for cleaning up the air we breathe even more urgent,” said Isobel Braithwaite, at University College London (UCL), who led the research.

Meeting the EU limit could make a big difference, she said. “You could prevent about 15% of depression, assuming there is a causal relationship. It would be a very large impact, because depression is a very common disease and is increasing.” More than 264 million people have depression, according to the WHO.

“We know that the finest particulates from dirty air can reach the brain via both the bloodstream and the nose, and that air pollution has been implicated in increased [brain] inflammation, damage to nerve cells and to changes in stress hormone production, which have been linked to poor mental health,” Braithwaite said.

Joseph Hayes, also at UCL and part of the research team, said: “The evidence is highly suggestive that air pollution itself increases the risk of adverse mental health outcomes.”

The research, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, used strict quality criteria to select and pool research data from 16 countries published up to 2017. This revealed a strong statistical link between toxic air and depression and suicide. This is supported by more recent research, including studies that linked air pollution with “extremely high mortality” in people with mental disorders and a quadrupled risk of depression in teenagers.

Other research indicates that air pollution causes a “huge” reduction in intelligence and is linked to dementia. A comprehensive global review earlier in 2019 concluded that air pollution may be damaging every organ and virtually every cell in the human body.

The data analysed in the new research linked depression with air pollution particles smaller than 2.5 micrometres (equivalent to 0.0025 millimetres and known as PM2.5). People exposed to an increase of 10 micrograms per cubic metre (µg/m³⁾ in the level of PM2.5 for a year or more had a 10% higher risk of getting depression. Levels of PM2.5 in cities range from as high as 114µg/m³ in Delhi, India, to just 6µg/m³ in Ottawa, Canada.

In UK cities in 2017, the average PM2.5 level was 13µg/m³. The researchers estimated that lowering this to the WHO recommended limit of 10µg/m³could reduce depression in city dwellers by about 2.5%.

The available data on suicide risk was for particles ranging up to 10 micrometres (PM10). The researchers found a short-term effect, with a 10µg/m³ increase over three days raising the risk of suicide by 2%.

Scientists say small increases in risk can still result in harm to many people because more than 90% of the global population lives with air pollution above WHO-recommended levels. “This is something everyone is exposed to, so at the population level it is potentially concerning,” said Braithwaite.

The results show strong correlations, but research that would prove a causal link is difficult because ethical experiments cannot deliberately expose people to harm. The studies analysed took account of many factors that might affect mental health, including home location, income, education, smoking, employment and obesity. But they were not able to separate the potential impact of noise, which often occurs alongside air pollution and is known to have psychological effects.

“This is a comprehensive review over a 40-year period,” said Ioannis Bakolis, at King’s College London, not part of the research team. “Although the studies included were from different parts of the world – eg China, the US, Germany – and varied in sample size, study design and measures of depression, the reported associations were very similar.”

But he said the evidence remained limited and more research was needed. In particular, understanding the impact of pollution reduction on mental health would give policymakers further evidence of the benefits of action.

“We all need to do what we can to reduce our own contribution to air pollution, whether that is walking or cycling,” said Braithwaite. “But we also need to be thinking about system change, meaning [government] policies that help reduce overall air pollution levels.” The researchers said walking, cycling and more green spaces not only cut air pollution but also improved mental health.

In the UK and Republic of Ireland, the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-TALK. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14.