Air pollution greatest global threat to human health, says benchmark study

Posted on August 29, 2023 by Respro® UK Ltd

Air pollution is more dangerous to the health of the average person on planet Earth than smoking or alcohol, with the threat worsening in its global epicenter South Asia even as China fast improves, a study showed Tuesday.

Yet the level of funding set aside to confront the challenge is a fraction of the amount earmarked for fighting infectious diseases, said the research from the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC).

Its annual Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) report showed that fine particulate air pollution — which comes from vehicle and industrial emissions, wildfires and more — remains the “greatest external threat to public health.”

If the world were to permanently reduce these pollutants to meet the World Health Organization’s (WHO) guideline limit, the average person would add 2.3 years onto his or her life expectancy, according to the data, which has a 2021 cutoff.

Fine particulate matter is linked to lung disease, heart disease, strokes and cancer.

Tobacco use, by comparison, reduces global life expectancy by 2.2 years while child and maternal malnutrition is responsible for a reduction of 1.6 years.

Asia and Africa bear the greatest burden yet have some of the weakest infrastructure to deliver citizens timely, accurate data. They also receive tiny slices of an already small global philanthropic pie.

For example, the entire continent of Africa receives less than $300,000 to tackle air pollution.

“There is a profound disconnect with where air pollution is the worst and where we, collectively and globally, are deploying resources to fix the problem,” Christa Hasenkopf, director of air quality programs at EPIC, told AFP.

While there is an international financing partnership called the Global Fund that disburses $4 billion annually on HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, there is no equivalent for air pollution.

“Yet, air pollution shaves off more years from the average person’s life in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) and Cameroon than HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other health threats,” the report said.

– Bangladesh tops ranking –

Globally, South Asia is the worst impacted region. Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan are in order the top four most polluted countries in terms of annualized, population-weighted averages of fine particulate matter, which are detected by satellites and defined as particles with a diameter of 2.5 microns or less (PM2.5).

Air pollution concentrations are then fed into the AQLI metric which calculates their impact on life expectancy, based on peer-reviewed methods.

Residents of Bangladesh, where average PM2.5 levels were 74 micrograms per cubic meter, would gain 6.8 years of life if this were brought to WHO guidelines of 5 micrograms per cubic meter.

India’s capital Delhi meanwhile is the “most polluted megacity in the world” with annual average particulate pollution of 126.5 micrograms per cubic meter.

China, on the other hand, “has had remarkable progress in terms of its war on air pollution” which began in 2014, said Hasenkopf.

Its air pollution dropped 42.3 percent between 2013 and 2021. If the improvements are sustained, the average Chinese citizen will be able to live 2.2 years longer.

In the United States, legislative actions like the Clean Air Act helped reduce pollution by 64.9 percent since 1970, helping Americans gain 1.4 years of life expectancy.

But the growing threat of wildfires — linked to hotter temperatures and drier conditions due to climate change —  are causing pollution spikes from the western United States to Latin America and Southeast Asia.

For example, California’s historic wildfire season of 2021 saw Plumas County receive an average concentration of fine particulate matter more than five times over the WHO guideline.

North America’s story of air pollution improvements in recent decades is similar to Europe, but there remain stark differences between western and eastern Europe, with Bosnia the continent’s most polluted country.

Air pollution greatest global threat to human health, says benchmark study

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/air-pollution-greatest-global-threat-040436366.html

Posted in Africa, Air Quality, Asia, Australia & Oceania, Europe, Health Effects of Air Pollution, Latin America, Medical Studies, Middle East, USA & Canada, World News | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

As wildfires multiply, a new era of air pollution

Posted on August 23, 2023 by Respro® UK Ltd

From Quebec to British Columbia to Hawaii, North America is facing an extraordinary wildfire season — and regions both near and far have found themselves increasingly blighted by smoke exposure.

Here’s what you should know about air pollution from these blazes.

What we know

One of the defining aspects of smoke from wildfires is “particulate matter” — toxins that, in their numbers, can make smoke visible.

Particulate matter of 2.5 micron diameter, PM2.5, is “particularly dangerous for human health and emitted in really large quantities,” Rebecca Hornbrook, an atmospheric chemist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, who flies in planes through smoke for her research, told AFP.

“Typically if you are downwind of a wildfire, that’s the thing that’s causing the majority of the darkening of the sky and the lack of visibility,” she said, such as the shrouded skies seen in New York as a result of fires hundreds of miles away in Quebec earlier this year.

PM2.5 penetrates deep inside the lungs and potentially even the bloodstream.

The average American had already been exposed to 450 micrograms of smoke per cubic meter by early July, worse that the entirety of the years from 2006-2022, economist Marshall Burke at Stanford posted on X recently, citing calculations made by the university’s Environmental Change and Human Outcomes Lab.

Also of concern are invisible substances known as volatile organic compounds such as butane and benzene. These cause eye and throat irritation, while some are known carcinogens.

When VOCs mix with nitrogen oxides — which are produced by wildfires but also are abundant in urban areas from burning fossil fuels — they help form ozone which can exacerbate coughing, asthma, sore throat and difficulty breathing.

– What we don’t know –

Automobile ownership exploded after World War II, and in the decades since scientists have gained insights on how it impacts humans — from the onset of asthma in childhood to increased risk of heart attacks and even dementia later on in life.

That breadth of knowledge is lacking for wildfire smoke, explained Christopher Carlsten, director of the Air Pollution Exposure Laboratory at the University of British Columbia.

Based on the two dozen studies published “there seems to be a greater proportion of respiratory versus cardiovascular effects of smoke as compared to traffic pollution,” he told AFP.

The reason might be that nitric oxides are more prominent in traffic pollution.

Carlsten’s lab has begun conducting human experiments with wood smoke to gain more clarity.

Medical interventions exist, said Carlsten, who is also a physician, including inhaled steroids, non-steroid inflammatories, and air filters — but research is urgently needed to know how best to use them.

Will it spur action?

The warming planet also impacts our psychological wellbeing in myriad ways, Joshua Wertzel, chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s committee on climate change in mental health, told AFP.

One response is distress, “anger, grief, anxiety, in the face of the natural disasters they expect to come,” with these rates far higher in younger people than older.

Another is mental “acclimatization,” a byproduct of evolution that helps us cope with new stressors, but if we’re not careful can inure us to dangers, much like the proverbial frog in boiling water.

For Hornbrook, who is based in Colorado, what eastern North America experienced in 2023 is what the western side of the continent has already been dealing with for many years — and the global picture is only set to worsen given humanity’s appetite for burning fossil fuels.

While historic pollution regulations helped rein in emissions from cars and industry, climate action will be needed to tackle the wildfire scourge, she said.

“It gets frustrating knowing that we’ve been ringing the warning bell for years and years, and we’re now seeing what we’ve been warning about,” she said, but added there was still hope. “Maybe now people are actually starting to notice and we’ll see some change.”

As wildfires multiply, a new era of air pollution

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230822-as-wildfires-multiply-a-new-era-of-air-pollution

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Wildfires and farming activities may be top sources of air pollution linked to increased risk, cases of dementia

Posted on August 15, 2023 by Respro® UK Ltd

Wildfires and farming may pose threats to cognitive health, according to new research from the University of Michigan.

Increasingly, evidence shows exposure to air pollution makes the brain susceptible to dementia. And now the findings of Boya Zhang and Sara Adar, environmental epidemiology researchers in U-M’s School of Public Health, point to a strong likelihood that agriculture and wildfires, with their release of a range of harmful emissions at high concentrations, need to be more closely studied and monitored for their risks to public health, specifically dementia.

“We saw in our research that all airborne particles increased the risk of dementia but those generated by agricultural settings and wildfires seemed to be especially toxic for the brain,” said Adar, associate chair of the Department of Epidemiology in the School of Public Health. She currently leads several large cohort studies on the impacts of exposures on cognitive aging and dementia.

“Our findings indicate that lowering levels of particulate matter air pollution, even in a relatively clean country like the United States, may reduce the number of people developing dementia in late life,” Adar said.

Adar and Zhang’s paper, “Comparison of Particulate Air Pollution From Different Emission Sources and Incident Dementia in the U.S.,” appears in the JAMA Internal Medicine.

Zhang, a research fellow who focuses on the effects of air pollution on cardiopulmonary disease and cognitive aging, said, “This work suggests that particulate matter air pollution from agriculture and wildfires might be more neurotoxic compared with other sources. However, more research is needed to confirm these effects, especially for these two sources which have received less attention in prior research.”

“Given that the development of dementia could take a long time, this study mainly aimed to provide evidence for policymakers to reduce exposures to these sources of emissions,” Zhang said.

The findings come as unusually poor air quality is regularly triggering alerts in the U.S. The alerts are aimed at protecting the public from the unseen, swirling mix of microscopic toxins in air pollution, specifically fine particulate matter or PM2.5. It is one of the most concerning elements of air pollution.

At less than 2.5 microns in size, PM2.5 is less than the width of a human hair. Because it’s so small, it can enter the brain through the nose directly or cross the blood-brain barrier in other ways. PM2.5 is also known to affect the lungs, heart, and in emerging research, the brain and cognitive function.

“These findings are quite timely given the increasing frequency of wildfire smoke in our
communities,” Adar said. “Our data suggest that in addition to some of the more obvious health impacts of wildfire smoke like irritation to our throats and eyes along with breathing difficulties, high smoke days might also be taking a toll on our brains.”

The record number of air quality alerts in the U.S. this year are due in large part to smoke from wildfires burning in Canada since May. The effect of wildfire is not new in the U.S., especially given the fires in the western part of the country.

Adar, a long-time environmental epidemiologist, said that wildfire smoke is becoming a more widespread stressor with many cities experiencing 30-plus days each year impacted by smoke. Given the extremely high levels of exposure to the public, wildfires are thought to contribute up to 25% of fine particulate matter exposures over a year across the U.S. and as much as 50% in some western regions of the country, Adar said.

“While individual wildfires may be short-lived, these events are becoming more frequent in our communities due to warmer temperatures, drier conditions, and longer fire seasons. As we’ve seen, wildfire smoke can also travel very far distances,” Adar said.

Their findings are based on research into the development of dementia among nearly 30,000 adults from across the U.S. over an 18-year period. The data comes from the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally-representative collection of cohorts of older adults who have been followed since 1992. Pollution estimates in Adar and Zhang’s study were based on home addresses of participants. Participants have been interviewed biennially about their cognition, overall health, and health behaviors until death or loss of contact for the survey.

They observed that higher levels of particulate matter air pollution, especially from agriculture and wildfires, were associated with greater risks of dementia. The findings could not be explained by other factors such as individual, neighborhood, socioeconomic status, occupation, or hometown or region of the country.

“With the knowledge of which sources are more toxic than others, it may be possible to design interventions for specific sources as a more effective way to decrease the burden of dementia,” Zhang said.

Dementia is currently the seventh leading cause of death and one of the major causes of disability and dependency for older people, according to the World Health Organization.

The research specifically sought to test the hypothesis that a variation in emission sources could explain which are most toxic, but measuring the emissions with their distinct physical and chemical characteristics is challenging.

Past studies analyzing exposures to source specific fine particulate matter meant researchers mainly investigated relationships with the total mass of fine particulate matter in the air.

“In our study, we used a sophisticated prediction model that includes information about the chemical transformations and dispersion of pollution from different sources to estimate the levels of source-specific particulate matter air pollution at participants’ residential addresses,” Zhang said. “This approach is beneficial because it not only accounts for pollution directly emitted by a source but also pollution generated through reactions with other chemicals in the air.”

Since the average level of exposure to PM2.5 for the people studied was less than the National Ambient Air Quality Standard, this is not just an issue of extreme pollution events, the researchers say, though it’s clear that the air quality from wildfire events is worsening. This research suggests that it’s not just sending people with respiratory ailments to the hospitals but there may also be longer lasting effects to the body. With the changing climate, it’s likely that these threats to health will increase.

via https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-08-wildfires-farming-sources-air-pollution.html

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Air pollution linked to higher mental health service use by people with dementia

Posted on August 8, 2023 by Respro® UK Ltd

Cutting levels of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter might reduce demand in urban areas …and help free up resources in overstretched psychiatric services, suggest researchers

Exposure to relatively high levels of air pollution is linked to increased use of community mental health services by people with dementia, finds a large long term study focusing on a large area of London with heavy traffic and published in the open access journal BMJ Mental Health.

Cutting levels of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter might reduce demand in urban areas and help free up resources in overstretched psychiatric services, suggest the researchers.

An estimated 850,000 people are living with dementia in the UK, with the number projected to increase to 2 million by 2050, in tandem with the ageing of the population. Dementia is already the leading cause of death in the UK, note the researchers.

A good deal of research has focused on the effects of air pollution in older age, including its potential role in the speeding up of cognitive decline and dementia, they add.

But while air pollution has been linked to increased health service use by people with dementia, these studies have largely focused on hospital services, rather than community services, which is where most people with the condition are managed in the UK. 

To plug this knowledge gap, the researchers looked back at community mental health service use over 9 years by 5024 older people (65 and above) living in 4 boroughs of South London following their initial dementia diagnosis between 2008 and 2012. 

Over half (54%, 2718) had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, which is caused by plaque deposits and tangles in the brain; a fifth (20%,1022) had vascular dementia, which is caused by damage to blood vessels in the brain; and over a quarter (26.5%,1330) had other or unspecified dementia.

Quarterly published estimates of two major air pollutants—nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10)—covering the area around participants’ homes were linked with their anonymised mental health records for the period 2008-12.

Exposure to all air pollutants was highest in people with vascular dementia and lowest in those with Alzheimer’s disease.

The monitoring period was divided into three time points: up to 12 months; up to 5 years; and up to 9 years after diagnosis.

In the first year of monitoring, higher exposure to all air pollutants was associated with an increase in the use of community mental health services by people with dementia, after accounting for potentially influential factors. 

The higher the level of exposure, the greater the use of these services, particularly for exposure to NO2 . This was especially noticeable among those with vascular dementia.

Compared with those living in areas with the lowest levels of exposure to NO2, those living in areas with the highest level of exposure were 27% more likely to use these services.

And those exposed to the highest levels of very small particulate matter (PM2.5) were 33% more likely to use mental health services.

The associations between PM2.5 and more frequent mental health service use were still evident 5 and 9 years later for people with Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia, but were most noticeable for those with vascular dementia. 

During the study period the Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE) was used to measure brain function and the Health of the Nation Outcomes Scale (HoNOS65+) was used to measure physical health and social activity.

At all time points, exposure to NO2 was associated with higher HoNOS65+ scores, indicating poorer health and social functioning, including the capacity for routine activities of daily living, but not poorer cognition. Similar findings emerged for particulate matter.

Air pollution wasn’t associated with brain function as measured by MMSE results over the study period. But exposure to NO2  was associated with higher HoNOS65+ scores at all time points, indicating poorer health and social functioning, including the capacity for routine activities of daily living. Similar findings emerged for PM2.5. 

This is an observational study, and therefore no firm conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect. The researchers also acknowledge that they weren’t able to assess the impact of early life exposure to pollutants or fluctuations in exposure over the 9 years, or changes in exposure due to residential mobility or time away from home.

Nevertheless, based on their findings, they estimate that if the annual PM2.5 exposure in London (11.6 µg/m3 in 2019) fell to 5 µg/m3, as recommended by the World Health Organization, the number of community mental health service contacts by people with dementia could be reduced by 13% a year. 

Similarly, reducing annual levels of NO2 (39 µg/m3 in 2019) to the recommended limit of 10 µg/m3 could reduce annual mental health service contacts by 38%. 

These estimates are likely to apply to other large cities in high income countries with heavy diesel traffic, they suggest.

“Based on the evidence presented, we contend that air pollution could be considered an important population-level target to reduce mental health service use in people with dementia, particularly for those with vascular dementia,” they write. 

They add: “The reduction in air pollution and particularly NO2  through public health interventions such as the expansion of ultra-low emission zones could potentially improve functioning and disease trajectories for people with dementia.

“Reducing pollutant exposure might reduce the use of mental health services in people with dementia, freeing up resources in already considerably stretched psychiatric services.” 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/997622

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Extreme heat and air pollution doubles risk of a fatal heart attack, study finds

Posted on August 1, 2023 by Respro® UK Ltd

Hot weather and fine particulate matter – like the smoke from the Canadian wildfires – are independently hard on the body. Together, they’re even worse

Philadelphia endured its first heat warning of the summer last week, with temperatures reaching the upper 90s and the heat index making it feel even hotter. Earlier this summer, smoke from the Canadian wildfires lingered for several days, casting a haze over the skyline and making it difficult to breathe. 

Both conditions – extreme heat and air pollution – are independently known to make cardiovascular disease worse. But when they occur at the same time, they appear to be even more taxing on the heart. 

New research suggests that heat waves that are coupled with high levels of fine particulate pollution doubles the risk of dying of a heart attack. Women and older adults are particularly at risk, researchers found.

The study, published by the American Heart Association, analyzed 202,000 heart attack deaths in a Chinese province between 2015 and 2020. Researchers estimated that up to 2.8% of heart attack deaths may be attributed to the combination of extreme heat and fine particulate matter in the air.

Exposure to high heat stresses the cardiovascular system and makes the heart work harder, which can lead to an increased risk of heart attack, irregular heartbeat and heart failure. Particulate matter is easily inhaled and pushed deep into the lungs, where it can irritate the lungs and blood vessels around the heart, leading to similar heart problems. 

The researchers found that the risk of a fatal heart attack was 18% higher during two-day heat waves when the heat index was between 82.6 to 97.9 degrees, increasing with temperature and duration. And it was 74% during four-day heat waves when the heat index was between 94.8 and 109.4 degrees. The heat index captures the combined effect of temperature and humidity on the body. 

Cold spells also were linked to an increased risk of heart attack deaths, but cold days with high levels of fine particulate matter did not increase the risk to the extent that extreme heat and pollution did. Previous research has found that winter weather is more dangerous on the heart than summer weather, because cold temperatures can cause blood vessels to contract, increasing blood pressure and stress on the heart.

“Extreme temperature events are becoming more frequent, longer and more intense, and their adverse health effects have drawn growing concern,” said Dr. Yuewei Lieu, an epidemiologist at Sun Yat-sen University in China. “Another environmental issue worldwide is the presence of fine particulate matter in the air, which may interact synergistically with extreme temperatures to adversely affect cardiovascular health. Our findings provide evidence that reducing exposure to both extreme temperatures and fine particulate matter pollution may be useful to prevent premature deaths from heart attack, especially for women and older adults.” 

The American Heart Association stresses the importance of reducing exposure to air pollution and reversing the impact of poor air quality in order to improve cardiovascular health and reduce health inequities in historically marginalized communities.

Most heart attacks occur in people with other risk factors like old age, obesity, tobacco use, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, stress and an unhealthy diet. People at increased risk are advised to heed warnings about extreme heat and high levels of air pollution. 

The health effects of climate change and rising temperatures have been well-studied. They have been linked to increased seasonal allergies, congenital heart defects, risk of dementia and premature death from natural disasters and extreme weather events, including flash flooding, hurricanes, wildfires and drought, the Washington Post reported. 

Previous research has tied exposure to fine particulate matter — which are the result of fuel combustion from cars and wildfire smoke — to heart disease, stroke and other health issues. 

“Many people don’t recognize that this could be life threatening,” Dr. Sanjay Rajagopalan, chief of cardiovascular medicine at University Hospitals Harrington Heart and Vascular Institute, told AARP. “Being in an environment where temperatures are regulated is of the utmost importance.” 

There are plenty of ways for people to keep themselves safe and protected during heat waves or days with high levels of fine particulate matter in the air. Liu suggests staying inside when weather is extreme, using fans and air conditioners, staying hydrated and installing window blinds to keep indoor temperatures down. 

When air pollution is high, it’s important to use air purifiers in the house, wear a mask outdoors, stay clear of busy roadways when walking and choose less strenuous physical activities. People with respiratory illnesses or asthma should be especially cautious, as fine particulate matter has been linked to a higher risk of asthma attacks. 

https://www.phillyvoice.com/heart-attacks-hot-weather-air-pollution-study/

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Worse air quality in L.A. expected during heat wave. Why do high temperatures cause more smog?

Posted on July 19, 2023 by Respro® UK Ltd

The heat wave baking Southern California not only raises the risk of wildfires and heat-related illness but could bring another hardship: bad air quality.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District issued an air quality alert for inland areas of the South Coast Air Basin and the Coachella Valley because of elevated levels of ozone likely to cause poor air quality during the afternoon and early evening. The alert took effect Friday at 2 p.m. and continues until Tuesday at 8 p.m.

High temperatures often lead to more pollutants in the air — specifically ozone, the main pollutant during the summertime.

The AQMD has forecast good-to-moderate air quality for coastal regions and Orange County for Tuesday. Central and Southeast portions of Los Angeles County and Antelope Valley are projected to have moderate air quality, with ozone being the primary pollutant.

The air quality is expected to be unhealthy for sensitive groups in the San Gabriel Valley, Pomona, Walnut Valley, Santa Clarita Valley and the San Gabriel Mountains. That means pregnant women, children, older adults and people with heart or lung disease should avoid heavy outdoor exertion.

“It’s the high temperatures that increase the contents of ozone in the air, and we also have very weak winds, which allows the air to stagnate,” said National Weather Service meteorologist David Sweet. “All that ozone production occurs over the city and just sits there.”

Ozone is created in the presence of heat and sunlight through the interaction of oxides of nitrogen, which come from combustion, and volatile organic compounds, which result from consumer products such as deodorant, hairsprays and gasoline.

“There’s a lot of reactions that make ozone in the atmosphere, and most of those reactions get faster as temperatures go up,” said Scott Epstein, air quality assessment program supervisor for the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

Ozone air pollution can lead to problems with respiratory health, including asthma attacks, trouble breathing and lung damage. Older adults, children and people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or asthma could be more sensitive.

Air quality can fluctuate depending on weather and time of day. To mitigate pollution levels, people should should try to limit the use of gasoline-powered garden and lawn equipment until the evening, set their thermostats to a higher temperature, conserve electricity and try to delay the use of household chemicals and trips to the gas station until the evening.

Because ozone is at its worst during the afternoon and early evening hours, Epstein said, people can shift their activities to the morning when the air is cleaner. When the air quality is poor, people should also try to stay inside with the windows and doors closed and try to avoid house fans that bring the outside air indoors.

Southern California has been grappling with triple-digit high temperatures over the last week as a “heat dome” has trapped heat near Earth’s surface and kept the region warm, along with the rest of the Southwest and much of the globe.

Phoenix set a record Tuesday with its 19th straight day of at least 110-degree heat, standing alone among major U.S. cities. Night has offered little relief, as the city has also set local records with its streak of nine straight days of temperatures that never dropped below 90 as well as an overnight low of 95 on Monday.

The high pressure system behind the heat dome over Arizona and the Southwest is also preventing the cooling rains of monsoon season from reaching the area.

In Southern California, Tuesday was forecast to be the coolest day of the week due to weaker high pressure and strong onshore winds, according to the weather service. Temperatures were expected to drop by 2 to 4 degrees in most areas, cooler than normal near coastal regions and hotter than normal inland.

“We’re cooling down just a little bit,” Sweet said. “It’s going to go back up this weekend, but we’re not sure it’s going to be quite as warm as last weekend.”

It’s expected to warm back up Friday into Saturday, bringing temperatures just below heat warning levels. Interior regions could end up seeing heat advisories and warnings if temperatures climb high enough. Saturday is expected to be the warmest day, with high temperatures forecast to be 8 to 12 degrees above normal in the warmest areas.

Overnight high temperature records were broken Monday night into Tuesday morning in Lancaster and Palmdale, where it reached 86 and 84 degrees, respectively. The previous records were 82 and 79 degrees.

Downtown Los Angeles is forecast to see temperatures in the upper 70s to the 80s through Wednesday before climbing back into the mid 80s and 90 by Friday.

Antelope Valley will likely be the warmest area in the region, with projected highs between 96 and 104 through Wednesday and 99 and 108 degrees over the weekend.

About 38.5 million Californians live in communities with unhealthy levels of fine particles or smog, according to the American Lung Assn.’s annual “State of the Air” report, which has served as a national scorecard for the two major air pollutants since 2000.

Southern California tends to experience its worst air quality over the summer and also during wildfire season, Epstein said. There is fine particle pollution during the winter, but it’s not nearly to the same level as during warmer months.

Changes in ozone levels are driven by meteorology and emissions over longer periods of time, according to Epstein. Because temperatures are warmer due to climate change, the question is whether it’s possible to reduce emissions fast enough to counteract the heat.

“Before this heat wave, we had one of our cleanest several months in decades,” Epstein said. “After the heat wave, things started to look a bit more like a normal year.”

via https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-07-18/l-a-region-expected-to-see-worse-air-quality-during-heat-wave-why-do-high-temperatures-lead-to-pollution

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Air pollution associated with poor mental health

Posted on July 14, 2023 by Respro® UK Ltd

Air pollution is linked to poor mental health outcomes, as well as specific mental disorders, in a research review by the University of Cambridge.

The findings show that poor air quality, both indoors and outdoors, may lead to depression, anxiety, psychoses, and perhaps even neurocognitive disorders, such as dementia.

Children and adolescents exposed to air pollutants at critical stages in their mental development were at the highest risk of significant future mental health problems.

The findings, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, indicate that modifying exposure to poor indoor and outdoor air quality could impact rising levels of mental health disorders.

Air pollution and mental health are both significant global health challenges. The World Health Organization (WHO) state that air pollution is the single biggest environmental threat to human health, with an estimated that 4.2 million and 3.8 million premature deaths attributable to outdoor and indoor air pollution, respectively. Alongside the effects on cardiovascular and respiratory health, there is emerging evidence that exposure to air pollutants may lead to neurocognitive disorders and poor mental health.

The research aimed to conduct a rapid narrative review of existing research to assess the current understanding and highlight knowledge gaps where future research can address the intersection between mental health and levels of air pollution.

The researchers, who were part of the BioAirNet programme, looked at a broad range of pollutants, including bioaerosols- airborne particles which contain living organisms such as fungi, pollen or bacteria- heavy metal ions, inorganic particulate matter and gaseous pollutants. They examined how these air pollutants affected psychiatric, cognitive and neurodevelopmental pathways over a lifetime, from pregnancy and birth to adolescence and adulthood.

Evidence emerged that polluting air particles, including bioaerosols, are associated with poor mental health and specific mental health disorders such as depression, psychoses and anxiety. Air pollution exposure at key developmental periods for children and adolescents was observed to lead to more severe mental health outcomes later in life. In addition, long-term health conditions were observed to deteriorate with poor air quality, both indoors and outdoors.

Professor Kam Bhui from the psychiatry department at the University of Oxford said the research was ‘a vital public health priority’ as the world grapples with both air pollution and mental health challenges.

‘Our review shows that there is emerging evidence of links between poor air quality and poor mental health, as well as links to specific mental disorders. In particular, polluting air particles, including bioaerosols, have been implicated,’ Professor Bhui said.

Additional factors that increase the risk of air pollution affecting mental health include poor housing, overcrowding, poverty, a lack of green spaces, and a lack of access to support, carers or safe spaces.

Professor Bhui added: ‘We need more research to understand these webs of causation and to investigate a number of other critical knowledge gaps such as the mechanisms by which particles matter, and bioaerosols may cause and worsen health conditions. We need better ways to measure exposure to pollution and understand how climate change affects air pollution. We also call for more longitudinal studies to understand the effects on children and young people as they grow.’

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Air pollution-related deaths: exhaust fumes biggest killer in Europe, finds report

Posted on July 4, 2023 by Respro® UK Ltd

Air pollution is the largest environmental cause of death. The Barcelona Institute for Global Health has now estimated which sources contribute most to mortality.

Transport, domestic activities and agriculture are the main contributors to air pollution-related deaths in European cities, a new study by the Institute for Global Health in Barcelona found. 

The research centre analysed two of the main pollutants in the atmosphere, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particle matter (PM2.5). Emissions from vehicles lead to 50% of all NO2-related deaths, followed by industrial pollution and fumes generated by the energy sector.

Domestic activities such as the use of coal and gas-related heating systems, followed by agriculture, are the main contributors to PM2.5-related deaths.

Domestic activities accounted for more than 22% of all air pollution-related deaths in 857 cities included in the report.

“If we look at NO2 and PM2.5 combined, traffic remains the largest contributor to both poor air quality and associated mortality,” said Sasha Khomenko, ISGlobal researcher and the first author of the study.

However, the results varied from city to city, for example, in Lisbon, where air pollutants generated from agriculture are not a major issue, maritime pollution is of greater concern. 

Emissions from cruise and cargo ships are a big source of maritime traffic pollution which contributed to 10,116 air pollution-related deaths across Europe in 2022.

via https://www.euronews.com/2023/06/30/air-pollution-related-deaths-exhaust-fumes-biggest-killer-in-europe-finds-report

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