Using the 2008 Beijing Olympics as their laboratory, University of Southern California (USC) researchers and colleagues have found biological evidence that even a short-term reduction in air pollution exposure improves one’s cardiovascular health. The results of their study appear this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the most widely circulated medical journal in ...
The Department of Health's Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollution has issued a new paper on the links between air pollution and asthma. In the paper the Committee considers that for a small group of people who suffer from asthma and live near busy roads, exposure to traffic generated air pollutants, largely from trucks, may have played a small part in causing their disease. This ...
Nine out of 10 people globally live in places with poor air quality. A recent report from the World Health Organisation (WHO) blames a worldwide air pollution crisis for being a major factor in millions of deaths per year. Air pollution has become a growing concern in the past few years, with an increasing number of acute air pollution episodes in many cities worldwide. As a result, data on air ...
Evidence that carbonaceous particles may be translocated into the placenta during pregnancy has been reported by researchers from Queen Mary University of London at the European Respiratory Society congress. The study, undertaken with permission of five women who gave birth to healthy babies, isolated and screened 3500 placental macrophages and observed 60 cells which contained 72 particles. ...
On 9th April The Sunday Times reported that employers have been told they are legally obliged to protect their staff from diesel fumes — and could be sued if workers develop cancer later in life. Read the full article here. Employers who want to assess risk to employees can use AQMesh to take round-the-clock readings of a range of measurements including key pollutants NO2 and PM2.5. The ...
Particulate matter (PM) is described by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets found in the air. Some of these particles, such as dust, dirt, soot or smoke, are large or dark enough to be seen with the naked eye, but others are so small they can only be detected using powerful instruments. Because PM is so small, it can be inhaled ...
Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded funding to eight organizations throughout the United States to protect public health by reducing exposure to indoor pollutants, such as radon, and environmental asthma triggers commonly found in homes, schools, offices and other large buildings. Through a competitive grant process, EPA is providing $4.5 million in funds to ensure ...
New evidence blames traffic-related pollution for increasing the risk of allergy and atopic diseases among children by more than fifty percent. What's more, the closer children live to roads, the higher their risk. '[Children] living very close to a major road are likely to be exposed not only to a higher amount of traffic-derived particles and gases but also to a more freshly emitted aerosols ...
People exposed to fine particle (PM2.5) and ozone pollution are at increased risk of suffering out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, according to a recent Finnish study. Cardiac arrest is more likely within 24 hours after exposure to PM2.5 and up to several days after exposure to ozone. Previous studies have already linked air pollution with sudden events causing cardiac (heart) arrest, when the ...
In new estimates released today, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that in 2012 around 7 million people died - one in eight of total global deaths as a result of air pollution exposure. This finding more than doubles previous estimates and confirms that air pollution is now the world's largest single environmental health risk. Reducing air pollution could save millions of lives. In ...
Research grants aim to gather comprehensive community wide data on human health impacts. As part of the Science to Achieve Results (STAR) research grants program, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded $7 million to fund cumulative human health risk assessment research. Scientists around the country will study a combination of harmful factors affecting human health, including ...
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today released a user-friendly document to help risk assessors understand how children are exposed to pollution. The document, titled “Highlights of the Child-Specific Exposure Factors Handbook,” serves as a quick-reference guide to the more comprehensive “Child-Specific Exposure Factors Handbook,” published by EPA in 2008. It will serve as an ...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released a user-friendly document to help risk assessors understand how children are exposed to pollution. The document, titled “Highlights of the Child-Specific Exposure Factors Handbook,” serves as a quick-reference guide to the more comprehensive “Child-Specific Exposure Factors Handbook,” published by EPA in 2008. It will serve as an additional ...
EPA's Human Health Research Program launched a new Web site on the latest information on its research to protect public health. The program's science looks at such questions as why some people are more sensitive to pollution and how exposure to chemicals affects people's health. The site is designed for the general public as well as for the scientific community. 'The best decisions are informed ...
The leadership of the Healthy Air Campaign is moving to environmental law advocacy group ClientEarth. The organisation has been a partner of the campaign since it was launched in July 2011 and has a strong track record of advocacy for clean air. The move coincides with the launch of a new campaign website: www.healthyair.org.uk The new website includes more information on the health impacts of ...
Over the course of five years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is awarding $25 million to the Health Effects Institute (HEI) to help address the latest challenges to improving air quality and protecting health. With the funding, HEI will develop the next generation of tools and scientific information to examine the combined effects of air pollution exposures on people’s ...
A strong link between long-term exposure to vehicle pollution and deaths from heart disease and lung cancer has been found in a study of over a million individuals. The researchers say their results are relevant to European policymaking relating to air quality. Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) are both air pollutants emitted by vehicles and are found in higher ...
A new study claims that pregnant women’s likelihood of experiencing miscarriage can be increased by 50 per cent due to air pollution impact. Chinese researchers led by professor Liqiang Zhang of Beijing Normal University carried out an investigation to find out if the possibility of an existing link between air pollution and miscarriage existed. The team found that making a huge effort ...
CERC are partners in a new 5-year air quality (AQ) & health project that will develop a real-time, urban AQ modelling system capable of analysing and forecasting pollution levels in Hong Kong down to individual street level. PRAISE-HK (Personalised Real-time Air quality Information System for Exposure – Hong Kong) is being led by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology with ...
Exposure to environmental noise levels above recommended levels results in 1169 cases of dementia, 788 strokes and 542 heart attacks every year in the UK alone, new research suggests. Valuing a year of healthy life at £60 000 (€74 002) means that these health impacts together have a ‘cost’ of £1.09 billion (€1.34 billion), the study’s authors conclude. ...