Air Quality Atmosphere and Health最新文献

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a decrease in outdoor activities but an increase in indoor ones. Does this situation cause changes in pollution patterns? The objective of this study was to compare heavy metal contamination in indoor and outdoor dust in homes in the city of Mérida, Yucatán. Dust was collected in 51 homes on the weekends of May 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic when there was a lockdown. Three hundred ninety-six samples were obtained (203 indoors and 193 outdoors on the sidewalk). Heavy metal concentrations were measured in triplicate with a portable XRF Genius 7000 spectrometer from Skyray Instruments. The contamination factor was calculated using a local (decile 1) and a global background value. To identify whether there were differences in indoor and outdoor heavy metal concentrations, mixed linear models were used, and the statistical inference was made using hypothesis tests. The risk to human health was evaluated using the USEPA methodology. Using decile one as background, the contamination factor's median showed moderate contamination for Lead (Pb), Manganese (Mn), Iron (Fe), Calcium (Ca), Strontium (Sr), and Yttrium (Y) indoors and outdoors. Using world concentrations as background, higher Ca, Sr, and Y concentrations were found outdoors, while Copper (Cu), Pb, Titanium (Ti), and Zinc (Zn) concentrations were higher indoors. Pb represented a risk of developing health problems for children inside homes. These studies help design public policies to reduce urban emissions and pollution, implement dust and risk management programs, and conduct citizen cleaning campaigns.

An improved level of urbanization may slow the problem of environmental degradation and achieve green economic development. This study examined the use of the panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) model in discussing the relationship between economic growth, urbanization, energy consumption, and carbon emissions based on annual data from 30 Chinese provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) for the period of 2000–2019. Meanwhile, the short- and long-term dynamics of urbanization, economic growth, and carbon emissions are better captured by using impulse response function tools. The PVAR model is able to perfectly solve the problem of endogeneity between variables, which has been mostly ignored in the energy environment literature. The results of the study are as follows. First, urbanization has the strongest impact on carbon emissions in the eastern region and a weaker impact on other regions. The impact of economic growth on environmental quality lessens gradually from the western and north-eastern regions to the central region and then the eastern region, with a clear regional gradient. Second, the causal relationships between urbanization and carbon emissions and between energy consumption and carbon emissions are unidirectional and significant only in the eastern region. All four regions have a unidirectional causal relationship between economic growth and carbon emissions. Unidirectional causality between urbanization and economic growth exists in the eastern, western, and north-eastern regions. Third, the impulse response results show that urbanization has more short-term than long-term effects on carbon emissions in the eastern region, both long- and short-term effects in the west and north-east, and only short-term effects in the central region. Economic growth and energy consumption in the central and north-eastern regions improve environmental quality in the short term until the third lag period, which shows the beginning of deteriorating environmental quality.

Industrial coagglomeration (ICA) is an important factor affecting the regional air environment. The atmospheric environmental efficiency (AEE) of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration (YRDUA) from 2012 to 2020 was evaluated based on the hybrid-dynamic DEA model. And the industrial coagglomeration (ICA) was calculated by the location entropy model. Then, nonlinear relationships between ICA and AEE were measured based on the threshold regression model. Spatial correlation characteristics of AEE were furtherly measured based on Moran’s I, and the spatial impact of ICA on AEE was revealed through the spatial Durbin model. The results showed that the impact of ICA on AEE in the YRDUA during the study period presented a U-shaped single threshold effect, and the ICA effectively improved AEE after crossing the threshold value. The AEE of YRDUA had significant spatial correlation and dependence, and each city showed four local agglomeration characteristics of “high-high,” “high-low,” “low-low,” and not significant. ICA had an enhancement effect on the local AEE while having a negative effect on the surrounding AEE. The four control variables of economic development, industrial structure, scientific and technological level, and openness improved AEE to varying degrees and produced positive spatial spillover effects. Carbon emissions inhibited AEE and produced negative effects. Suggestions include speeding up the transformation of energy supply mode, replacing material consumption with the input of service elements, promoting the two-way free flow of innovation factors, increasing the application of clean energy and energy-saving technologies, and relying on intelligent manufacturing to break through the boundaries of enterprise resources, could be solutions to optimize the relationship between ICA and AEE.

Graphical Abstract

This study investigates the potential health impacts of PM_2.5-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the ambient air of automobile workshops in four different districts of Benin City. A total of 180 representative samples were collected from artisans’ workshops in both wet (April to November) and dry (December to March) seasons using the Apex2IS Casella standard pump for a period of 1 year. The PM_2.5 was screened through a polyurethane foam (PUF) and collected on a quartz filter. The resultant PM_2.5-bound PAHs were extracted and analysed using gas chromatography equipped with a flame ionisation detector (GC-FID). The results revealed that the annual average concentration of the total PAHs bound to PM_2.5 for NW, NE, SE, and SW zones were 519.51 (638.78), 109.16 (169.16), 158.89 (178.40), and 77.65 (89.60) ng/m³ for both wet and dry seasons. The average toxicity equivalence quotient (TEQ) of atmospheric PAHs in PM_2.5 for Benin City was 75.71 ± 70.54 ngm^-3. The incremental lifetime cancer risk for 8-hour TWA exposure obtained for PM_2.5-bound atmospheric PAHs for children (4.45 × 10^-6 and 3.48 × 10^-6) and infants (1.05 × 10^-6 and 8.17 × 10^-7) were to be within the acceptable risk level (10^-6). In contrast, for adults they were not within the acceptable risk level ((3.58 × 10^-5 and 2.80 × 10^-5) for both dry and wet seasons. The authors conclude that the lungs of the people living within the north-west district are likely being damaged and they recommend the implementation of measures to reduce exposure to PM_2.5-bound PAHs in the workplace.

The present study investigated the temporal variability of surface O₃ and its (NO, NO₂ and CO) precursors at the proximity of a busy trafficked crossroad located in urban Tunis, Tunisia. It was performed during January to December, 2016. The results revealed that the diurnal profiles of selected precursors were characterized by maxima at traffic-peak hours linked to the effect of automobile traffic being a close source. At traffic-peak hours, the decrease of O₃ concentration levels is due to the oxidation reaction of NO into NO₂. Based on the diurnal profile per each month, the duration of O₃ accumulation was shown close to five hours, with higher accumulation rates in the summer season (2.4 to 3 ppb/h) and also in March (3 ppb/h). The lower accumulation ones were, however, observed in the other months (1.1 to 1.9 ppb/h). The O₃ excess pronounced from the 10^th March to the 1^st April, 2016 was due to the effect of the persistence of a Rex-type blocking anticyclone over Central Europe. Compared to extremely stable conditions occurring in hot seasons (summer and autumn), the recorded moderate stable conditions during such Rex was categorized by a marked deviation between day-night intercepts (41% against 23%). This could be attributed to the cumulative effect of the biogenic VOCs and the seasonal excess of CO interfering in the photochemical cycle. It, therefore, implies that the study site is CO and VOC-sensitive.

Traffic emissions are a major source of ambient air pollution, and exposure to these emissions has been linked to numerous adverse health effects. Our study investigated the reduction of traffic emissions in downtown Tianjin, China, and assessed its health benefits. Based on the vehicle emission inventory, The Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling System (ADMS) was adopted for simulating the dispersion of traffic-related air pollutants including primary fine particulate matter (PM_2.5), and carbon monoxide (CO). The Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program (BenMAP) was then used to quantify the benefits of emission reductions with respect to cardiovascular disease and respiratory disease. We found a downward trend in PM_2.5 and CO concentrations from 2015 to 2019 (PM_2.5: 17.8 to 10.5μg/m³, CO: 2.3 to 1.3mg/m³). Furthermore, in line with the reduction of average annual PM_2.5 and CO attributable to traffic emissions during 2016–2019 compared with 2015, the accumulative deaths from the two diseases mentioned above in these years decreased by 156 and 961 respectively. Our study constructs an integrated framework combining emission inventories, air quality modeling, and population health benefits, which can be used for further health effects of related air quality improvement.

Temporal change in heat and cold-related burden of mortality needs to be investigated in Iran. In this study, the burden between 2015 and 2022 was compared with 2008–2014 in eight cities of Kurdistan which is located to the west of Iran. The overall dose–response association between temperature and mortality by different years (i.e., interaction effect between year and temperature) was assessed using bivariate response surface model and the framework of generalized additive model (GAM). The cumulative dose–response as well as lag-response associations in the two periods was compared by a time-varying distributed lag non-linear model. The associations were pooled using a two-stage regression model in which average temperature and temperature range were adjusted to control for the heterogenicity between cities. The attributable fraction (AF) and number (AN) were estimated in each city to ease the interpretation. Compared to 2008–2014, heat and extreme heat caused more mortality than cold and extreme cold in 2015–2022; the relative risk (RR) values of heat in second period were significantly higher than first period, and the cumulative RR of the extreme heat was 1.56 (%95 CI: 1.23–1.98) and 0.88 (%95 CI: 0.66–1.18) in second and first periods, respectively. Also, the cumulative RR of extreme cold was 1.01 (0.87, 1.17) and 0.89 (0.76, 1.05) in second and first periods, respectively. In second period, the extreme heat values approximately caused a minimum of 100 deaths in Marivan and a maximum of 400 in Sanandaj. The AF in Baneh, Kamyaran, and Sanandaj was significantly higher than other cities. All subgroups’ people were at risk of heat-related mortality in second period, and the cold had no significant impact in the period. Heat-related mortality was increased in recent years while cold had no significant impact. The results highlight the need for an adaptation or preventive strategy of heat-related mortality in the regions.

Graphical Abstract

Internal combustion engines are one of the major factors of global warming and greenhouse gasses, as they emit harmful emissions such as CO₂, CO, HC, and NO_x. Therefore, the regulations on CO₂ and other exhaust emissions for vehicles are gradually being tightened. In this study, exhaust emissions of the spark ignition engine are measured by using the portable emissions measurement system and compact exhaust gas analyzer for the vehicle used in tests carried out according to Real Driving Emission procedures to reach sustainable environmental future. The effects of the ambient temperature (AT) at the start of the engine and the time from starting the engine of the vehicle to the moment of first departure on the exhaust emissions released along the test route were investigated. By increasing the first idle time (IT), reductions in CO, THC, and NO_x emissions during the test route are approximately found as 23%, 45%, and 66.5%, respectively. Better emission values are achieved during the test with the effect of increasing the AT. In the tests carried out along the determined route, it has been observed that increasing the first IT of the engine and the AT that the vehicle is waiting for reduces the emission values.

Indoor and outdoor PM_2.5 samples were collected in three residential areas near a ferromanganese smelter using GilAir300 plus at 2.75 L/min, and the elemental composition was analysed using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectroscopy. A health risk assessment was conducted to determine the probability of developing carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic effects for four age groups. The hazard quotient (HQ) for manganese was >1 both indoors and outdoors for the four age groups in all residential areas, indicating a risk of developing non-carcinogenic health effects. The HQs of Cr (VI) displayed a similar trend for all age groups; it was >1 in all residential areas except for outdoor environments at New Sicelo. The highest HQ (25.6) was found indoors at Old Sicelo for the 21–35 age group whereas the minimum (8.3) was found indoors at Noldick for the 36–65+ age group. When using the overall concentrations, the HQ was >1 only for Mn and the highest values were recorded at Noldick. The cancer risks for chromium (VI), cobalt, and cadmium were above the upper limit of 1 × 10⁻⁴ and the lower limit of 1 × 10⁻⁶ when considering indoor and outdoor concentrations. When considering the overall concentrations, the cancer risk for cobalt was >1 × 10⁻⁶ and that of chromium (VI) was >1 × 10⁻⁴. Urgent intervention is required, particularly given the negative health effects associated with Mn exposure.

Graphical abstract