Tourists more likely to be suspicious of local service providers when a destination has heavy air pollution, according to new study

Posted on July 16, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

A new study from Queen Mary University of London has found that levels of air pollution influence how tourists interact with local service providers.

The research, Tourists and Air Pollution: How and Why Air Pollution Magnifies Tourists’ Suspicion of Service Providers, was published in the Journal of Travel Research.

Service providers include hospitality outlets such as bars and restaurants, accommodation, transport and sightseeing services as well as shopping and entertainment. The research found that tourists were more likely to be suspicious of these providers when they visited destinations with high levels of air pollution.

Air pollution shapes emotions
The study also found that tourists’ emotional states are shaped by air pollution on arrival, where heavy air pollution at a destination can lead tourists to experience more pessimistic feelings.

60 per cent of respondents reported that they had a negative mood when describing their feelings and experiences in destinations with high levels of pollution. More than 40 per cent reported engaging with coping techniques including buying masks and increasing indoor activities.

The study also shows that air pollution is just as important as weather and climate when it comes to evaluating tourist destinations.

Long-haul travellers less likely to be impacted by air pollution

Tourists visiting long-haul destinations were less affected by air pollution and were generally found to be more intent on taking full advantage of their visits rather than shorten or cancel activities due to poor air quality. However these tourists may not realise that their psychological states and responses are shaped by pollution levels on arrival.

Dr Yuansi Hou, Senior Lecturer in Marketing at Queen Mary said: “Next time, when you visit a destination, if you find yourself more likely to be dissatisfied with and suspicious of the local services, it could be due to the poor air quality around you.”

via HSS – Tourists more likely to be suspicious of local service providers when a destination has heavy air pollution, according to new study – Queen Mary University of London

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Air Quality Advisory declared for Northeast Ohio

Posted on July 15, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

The Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency declared an Air Quality Advisory for Northeast Ohio.

The advisory for ground-level ozone is in effect throughout the entire day on Monday.

Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Portage and Summit Counties are affected by the advisory.

According to NOACA, air quality levels will be “unhealthy for sensitive groups” during this period.

“Sensitive Groups” include children, the elderly, and those with breathing difficulties, according to NOACA.

Here are NOACA’s recommendations for reducing air pollution:

Driving Less: bike, walk, use transit, work from home, combine trips
Don’t Idle: turn off your engine
Refill your tank after sunset
wait to mow

via Air Quality Advisory declared for Northeast Ohio

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Billions of air pollution particles found in hearts of city dwellers

Posted on July 13, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

Exclusive: Study shows associated damage to critical pumping muscles, even in children

The hearts of young city dwellers contain billions of toxic air pollution particles, research has revealed.

Even in the study’s youngest subject, who was three, damage could be seen in the cells of the organ’s critical pumping muscles that contained the tiny particles. The study suggests these iron-rich particles, produced by vehicles and industry, could be the underlying cause of the long-established statistical link between dirty air and heart disease.

The scientists said the abundance of the nanoparticles might represent a serious public health concern and that particle air pollution must be reduced urgently. More than 90% of the world’s population lives with toxic air, according to the World Health Organization, which has declared the issue a global “public health emergency”.

The scientists acknowledged some uncertainties in their research, but Prof Barbara Maher, of Lancaster University, said: “This is a preliminary study in a way, but the findings and implications were too important not to get the information out there.”

Maher and colleagues found in 2016 that the same nanoparticles were present in human brains and were associated with Alzheimers-like damage, another disease linked to air pollution.

While all ages were affected, Maher said she was particularly concerned about children.

“For really young people, the evidence is now of very early-stage damage both in the heart and the brain,” she said. “We have a likely candidate [particle] able to access both organs, with the pathological evidence to show damage is happening.”

A recent comprehensive review concluded that air pollution may be damaging every organ and virtually every cell in the human body, as tiny particles are inhaled, move into the blood stream and are transported around the body. Much of the evidence of harm, from diabetes to reduced intelligence to increased miscarriages, is epidemiological, as harmful experiments on people are unethical. But one study in 2018 found air pollution particles in the placentas of women who had given birth.

The new research is the first direct evidence that iron-rich nanoparticles may cause heart disease. Tiny particles were already known from laboratory tests to be seriously damaging to human cells and to be a significant component of roadside air pollution.

Maher said: “Putting an abundance of iron-rich nanoparticles right into the sub-cellular components of the heart’s muscle tissue, that’s not where you want them to be sitting. They are inside the mitochondria, which are damaged and appear abnormal. Mitochondria are your energy source, making sure your heart pumps effectively.”

Mark Miller, an expert on the cardiovascular effects of air pollution, from the University of Edinburgh but not part of the research, said: “While there are some uncertainties from the study, it highlights how important it is to better understand the way particles in air pollution may cause harm to different areas of the body.

“More effort is needed to reduce particle emissions from vehicles, especially to remove the number of vehicles on the road by encouraging people to walk and cycle for short journeys.”

The research, peer reviewed and published in the journal Environmental Research, analysed heart tissue taken from 63 young people who had died in road traffic accidents but had not suffered chest trauma. They lived in Mexico City, which has high air pollution, and had an average age of 25.

The research was conducted in two main parts: calculating the number of iron-rich nanoparticles present; and looking at their location within the tissue and the associated damage. The number of particles found was between 2bn and 22bn per gram of dried tissue; and their presence was two to 10 times higher in the Mexico City residents than in nine control subjects who had lived in less polluted places.

The medical scientists in the team reported that “exposure to [nanoparticles] appears to be directly associated with early and significant cardiac damage”.

Maher said the results were relevant for all countries: “There is absolutely no reason to expect this would be different in any other city.” Based on previous work, she said, the particles were also likely to carry additional contaminants. “We can imagine these nanoparticles come loaded with a toxic mix.”

Iron-rich nanoparticles begin as molten droplets produced by the combustion of fuel and then cool rapidly into spheres with fused surfaces. The particles in the heart tissue had these characteristics, rather than small iron-rich magnetite crystals that are known to occur naturally in at least one organ, the brain.

The technique used to locate the nanoparticles in the heart tissue could not be used to measure their composition. Instead, the scientists separated the particles from the tissues to determine their composition and magnetic content, and then used the average size and magnetism of the particles to estimate the total number.

They said they would like to confirm the particles’ composition in situ within the cells, but that would require the use of expensive equipment and Maher said they had received no funding for the work. “We are having to do this on a shoestring. It is madness.”

via Billions of air pollution particles found in hearts of city dwellers | Society | The Guardian

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Study finds association between air pollution, coronary atherosclerosis in Chinese population

Posted on July 12, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

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Spatial Distribution of Estimated Annual Pollution Concentrations in 2015 in China: A, Concentration of particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) per 1 × 1 km2. B, Concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) per 1 × 1 km2. JAMA Netw Open. 2019;2(6):e196553. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.6553

New research from the University at Buffalo provides pathophysiologic evidence of the effect of air pollution on cardiovascular disease in China. The findings also suggests that China may need to revise its standard for one type of pollutant.

Researchers found that long-term exposure to particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide, as well as proximity to vehicular traffic, were associated with severity of coronary artery calcium, or the buildup of plaque in the artery walls. The study was conducted on 8,867 Chinese adults aged 25 to 92.

The findings, published in JAMA Open Network, are significant because, while similar studies have been conducted in the U.S. and Europe, this one is the first to investigate the connection between air pollution and coronary artery calcium in China. The country has focused more recently on reducing the extremely high levels of air pollution that exist in some regions, particularly northern China.

“This study may provide evidence that coronary atherosclerosis is a pathological pathway through which air pollution exposure increases risk of death from coronary heart disease,” said the paper’s first author, Meng Wang, assistant professor of epidemiology and environmental health in UB’s School of Public Health and Health Professions.

“This finding should contribute to an understanding of air pollutant effects worldwide, providing both much-needed, locally generated data and supportive evidence to inform the air pollution standard setting process on a global scale,” added Wang, Ph.D., who is also a faculty member in the UB RENEW (Research and Education in eNergy, Environment and Water) Institute.

Atherosclerosis refers to the build-up of plaque, or fatty deposits, in the artery walls, which, over time, restricts blood flow through the arteries. This can cause a blood clot resulting in a heart attack or stroke.

“Atherosclerosis is a lifelong process. As such, the effects of air pollution exposure on atherosclerosis are likely to be chronic,” Wang explained.

If an association between this condition and air pollution were established, Wang added, it could provide an opportunity for local-level efforts to control people’s exposure to pollution before it becomes harmful to health.

The study centered on levels of nitrogen dioxide and PM2.5, or fine particulate matter. PM2.5 are super tiny particles that can easily be inhaled, causing serious health problems, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The study also looked at proximity to traffic and used nitrogen dioxide as a more precise indicator of vehicular emissions. It showed that the risk of a higher coronary artery calcium score increased by 24.5 percent for every 20 micrograms per cubic meter of air increase in nitrogen dioxide.

Air pollution remains a significant issue in China. In 2015, more than 95 percent of the Chinese population was exposed to concentrations of PM2.5 and nitrogen dioxide greater than the minimum level of the study, according to Wang.

“Since more than 40 percent of all deaths are attributable to cardiovascular disease, the potential contribution of air pollutants to cardiovascular disease in China is very large,” he said.

Improving air quality to the Chinese national standards of 35 and 40 micrograms per cubic meter of air for PM2.5 and nitrogen dioxide, respectively, may help people live longer, Wang said.

Still, the effect of nitrogen dioxide exposure on coronary artery calcium persisted even when researchers restricted their analysis to concentrations below 40 micrograms per cubic meter of air.

“This suggests that the current air pollution standard may need to be re-evaluated,” Wang said.

via Study finds association between air pollution, coronary atherosclerosis in Chinese population

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Pollution warning over car tyre and brake dust

Posted on July 11, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

Dust from car brakes and tyres will still pollute city air even when the vehicle fleet has gone all-electric, a report has warned.

Fragments of microplastics from tyres, road surfaces and brakes will also flow into rivers, and ultimately into the sea, government advisers say.

Ministers say they want to pass standards to improve tyres and brakes.

But critics say they need to go further by developing policies to lure people out of private cars.

The government’s Air Quality Expert Group said particles from brake wear, tyre wear and road surface wear directly contribute to well over half of particle pollution from road transport.

They warn: “No legislation is currently in place specifically to limit or reduce [these] particles.

“So while legislation has driven down emissions of particles from exhausts, the non-exhaust proportion of road traffic emissions has increased.”

They say the percentage of pollutants will get proportionally higher as vehicle exhausts are cleaned up more.

Environment Minister Thérèse Coffey said : “The documents published today make clear that it is not just fumes from car exhaust pipes that have a detrimental impact on human health but also the tiny particles that are released from their brakes and tyres.

“Emissions from car exhausts have been decreasing through development of cleaner technologies – and there is now a need for the car industry to find innovative ways to address the challenges of air pollution from other sources”.

Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said: “The industry is committed to improving air quality and has already all but eliminated particulate matter from tailpipe emissions.

“Brake, tyre and road wear is a recognised challenge as emissions from these sources are not easy to measure.”

Transport options

The document chimes with a recent report warning that electric cars won’t offer a complete solution to mobility.

It said even self-driving electric cars would produce pollution and congest the roads.

The key was to reduce the use of cars by getting people on to less-polluting forms of transport, said Prof Jillian Anable, one of the authors of the report.

She said: “For many years ministers have adopted the principle of trying to meet demand by increasing road space. They need to reduce demand instead.”

The UK transport department said it was spending £6bn on buses, walking and cycling – and £50bn on roads.

Supporters of electric cars say the report may be flawed because when you lift your throttle foot in an electric vehicle, the car slows itself and there is less need to brake.

via Pollution warning over car tyre and brake dust – BBC News

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Air quality plummets as wildfire smoke hits Alaska’s most populous cities

Posted on July 10, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

Smoke and soot from central Alaska wildfires have afflicted the subarctic city of Fairbanks with some of the world’s worst air pollution in recent days, forcing many residents indoors and prompting one hospital to set up a “clean air shelter.”

Fine particulate matter carried by smoke into the Fairbanks North Star Borough over the past two weeks has been measured at concentrations as high as more than double the minimum level deemed hazardous to human health, borough air quality manager Nick Czarnecki said.

The hazardous threshold was exceeded again on Tuesday in the Fairbanks suburb of North Pole, the borough reported.

The problem is mostly linked to two fires burning since June 21 on either side of the Fairbanks borough – Alaska’s second-most populous metropolitan area, totalling some 97,000 residents.

The Shovel Creek and Nugget fires, both sparked by lightning strikes, have scorched nearly 20,000 acres (8,094 hectares) of timber and brush combined, fire authorities said.

Farther north, the massive Hess Creek blaze, also sparked by lightning, has raged across nearly 173,000 acres (70,000 hectares) of remote timber and grasslands, making it the largest U.S. wildfire so far this year, according to fire command spokeswoman Sarah Wheeler.

Thick smoke drifting into Fairbanks has prompted air quality alerts warning that outdoor exertion is dangerous to health and urging the elderly, the very young and individuals with respiratory problems to limit their exposure by staying indoors.

That restriction has proved difficult for some because few homes in Fairbanks, a city just 200 miles (322 km) south of the Arctic Circle by road, are equipped with air conditioning, and a heat wave in the region has driven temperatures into the 80s and 90s Fahrenheit.

Fairbanks Memorial Hospital has opened a round-the-clock clean-air room where members of the public can find respite from the pollution. A Fairbanks auto shop was also giving away breathing masks to help residents cope.

“All the HEPA filters and everything are sold out in town, and the smoke is terrible,” Pearson Auto employee Michelle Pippin said.

A similar but somewhat less dire predicament faced residents of Alaska’s largest city, Anchorage, about 350 miles (560 km) to the south, where smoke from a major fire raging for the past month in the neighbouring Kenai National Wildlife Refuge has caused unhealthy air.

The Swan Lake blaze has charred nearly 97,000 acres (39,200 hectares) of the Kenai Peninsula since it was triggered by lightning on June 5.

Anchorage has also baked in unusually high temperatures, with three of its hottest days on record posted during the past week, including the city’s first-ever 90-degree Fahrenheit (32 Celsius) reading on July Fourth.

The record heat has only added to the general misery index in Alaska, where the National Interagency Fire Center reports about 40 large wildfires have burned more than 810,000 acres (32,780 hectares) across the state.

Wildfires have consumed more than 1 million acres (404,685 hectares) in all so far this year, but that pales in comparison with the record 6.5 million acres (2.6 million hectares) that went up in flames across Alaska in 2004.

via Air quality plummets as wildfire smoke hits Alaska’s most populous cities – Reuters

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Air pollution ages your lungs and increases your risk of COPD, study says

Posted on July 9, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

Air pollution does a lot more damage to our lungs than scientists realized, according to a new study in Monday’s European Respiratory Journal. Researchers found it ages lungs more quickly and putting us at higher risk of COPD.Your lung function declines as a part of natural aging, but this study found that exposure to particulate matter pollution ages your lungs even faster — and the more pollution you’re exposed to, the quicker your lungs age.

The study found that for each additional 5 micrograms per cubic meter of particle pollution a person was exposed to on average annually, the lungs showed an equivalent of two years of aging, and a real reduction in lung function.

 

Particle pollution is the mix of solid and liquid droplets in the air, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. It can come in the form of dirt, dust, soot or smoke. It comes from coal- and natural gas-fired plants, cars, agriculture, unpaved roads and construction sites.

For people living with air that has more than 10 micrograms per cubic meter of particle pollution, the situation was much worse. Among that group in the most polluted areas, the number of COPD cases was four times higher than if a person lived with smokers, and half that of people who had been smokers. COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, is a term used to describe lung diseases that block airflow and make it difficult to breathe. It’s the third leading cause of death in the world. Although many with COPD smoked at one point in their lives, it can also be genetic, and it can be caused by a person’s environment.

Researchers came to their conclusions using data from the UK Biobank. It surveyed more than 300,000 people and participants were given tests to determine their actual lung function. The study went on between 2006 and 2010. The researchers then conducted multiple tests to see how long-term exposure to higher levels of air pollution was linked to the changes in how people could breath. They factored for people’s occupations that may expose them to pollution and to people’s exposure to cigarette smoke.

They think air pollution has this impact because it causes inflammation in the lungs, which narrows airways and makes it harder to breathe. Air pollution also increases the risk of heart disease, strokes and lung cancer.

The test results were even worse for people living in low-income households.

“Air pollution had approximately twice the impact on lung function decline and three times the increased COPD risk on lower-income participants compared to higher-income participants who had the same air pollution exposure,” said study author Anna Hansell, a professor of environmental epidemiology in the Centre for Environmental Health and Sustainability at the University of Leicester. She thinks this pollution may impact this population because it faces several obstacles that harm their health, including poorer housing conditions, worse diets and more limited access to health care. Much more research is needed, she said.

The number of COPD cases is expected to increase dramatically in the next 10 years, and the rising levels of pollution, made worse by the climate crisis, will likely play a large role in that.

 

In the United States, earlier studies have shown that an increasing number of Americans, 141.1 million — 4 in 10 — live in counties that have air with unhealthy levels of particle pollution or ozone.

President Donald Trump made a pledge in his 2017 State of the Union address to “promote clean air and water,” but his administration has reversed or proposed rollbacks to major air pollution protections, emissions standards and drilling and extraction regulations.

via Air pollution ages your lungs and increases your risk of COPD, study says – CNN

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Air pollution in Birmingham ‘shortens lives of children by half a year’

Posted on July 8, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

City one of five required by government to set up a clean air zone to tackle nitrogen dioxide and PM2.5s

Primary school children who grow up in Birmingham could lose half a year of their lives due to illegal levels of air pollution in the city, a new report warns.

The study examines levels of nitrogen dioxide and particulate pollution (PM2.5) in the city and calculates that an eight-year-old child could die up to seven months early if exposed over their lifetimes to toxic air. The loss of life expectancy is worse in Birmingham than some other major cities in the UK including Manchester, researchers found.

Birmingham is one of five cities required by the government to set up a clean air zone to reduce toxic air, as part of plans to tackle the illegal levels of pollution in 38 out of 43 areas of the country.

But in Birmingham and Leeds the start date of January next year has been postponed because of government delays in providing vehicle-checking software.

On Monday research commissioned by UK100 – a network of local leaders across the country – for the first time examines the burden air pollution places on mortality in major cities.

The report, carried out by Kings College London, said the health cost of the city’s toxic air was £470m every year.

The study examined NO2 and PM2.5, two of the leading causes of poor health from air pollution, in the city’s 10 constituencies. It found that air pollution had the greatest impact in the most deprived areas, and that men are more likely to be affected than women. In Erdington, up to 91 deaths are attributable annually to air pollution, compared with up to 59 in Edgbaston and 57 in Hall Green.

More than half of children in Birmingham live in the top 10% of the most deprived areas of the country, and about 8,000 children in the city are growing up in the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods in the UK, according to a report by the Children’s Society.

Waseem Zaffar, cabinet member for transport and environment on the city council, said the results were shocking.

“They demonstrate the sheer scale of the major public health crisis we are dealing with in Birmingham today,” he said.

“One life cut short by poor air quality is one too many, so this is exactly why the city is taking forward measures such as the clean air zone and why we continue to work with other cities across the country to tackle this problem together, but we also need strong leadership on this issue at a national government level.”

Sue Huyton, coordinator of the Clean Air Parent’s network, said action was needed now.

“It’s awful that children living in the UK are breathing air that may shorten their lives. As a parent, you want to do everything you can for your children, but when it comes to air pollution you can feel helpless – that’s why those in power must step up.

“We need the government and Birmingham city council to take ambitious action to tackle the toxic air in this city, and we need them to do it now.”

Air pollution has been identified by Public Health England as the largest environmental risk to public health in the UK. Evidence shows that it can cause or worsen a range of lung and heart conditions including asthma, chronic bronchitis, chronic heart disease and stroke. Research suggests air pollution caused by NO2 and PM2.5 could cause 36,000 deaths per year.

Polly Billington, director of UK100, said the report should be a wake-up call to policy makers.

“We need to tackle this invisible killer which is cutting the lives of children and causing health misery for thousands of adults. By working together, local councils and central government can put in place ambitious and inclusive clean air zones to tackle the most polluting sources of dirty air and let us breathe freely.”

The government has been forced by the courts to improve its plans to clean up the air, after losing legal action taken by environmental lawyers Client Earth.

A government spokesperson said: “We are aware of concerns over delays and are carrying out work to develop key components of the system to support the Charging Clean Air Zones for January 2020.”

via Air pollution in Birmingham ‘shortens lives of children by half a year’ | Environment | The Guardian

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