Air Quality Atmosphere and Health最新文献

Air pollution represents a critical global health challenge, especially in densely populated urban areas of developing countries such as Pakistan, where it ranks among the top five most affected Asian nations. Despite its significance, data on the health impacts of gaseous pollutants (O₃, NO, NO₂, HNO₃, and SO₂) are scant due to economic constraints and inadequate measurement infrastructure. This pioneering study is the first to quantitatively assess the morbidity risks associated with exposure to these pollutants in Karachi, a megacity in Pakistan, utilizing a robust cross-sectional design. We collected 400 air quality samples over four distinct seasons, correlating these with health data from over 12,000 hospital admissions for respiratory issues. Our results reveal significant associations between ozone exposure and a range of pulmonary diseases—including asthma, tuberculosis, and shortness of breath—across both genders. Specifically, sulfur dioxide (SO₂) exposure was linked to increased shortness of breath in males, while exposure to nitric acid was more likely to cause COPD in males than in females. Additionally, nitrogen oxides (HNO₃) were primarily associated with asthma in males. These associations were particularly pronounced in the 0–50 age group, suggesting a demographic at greater risk. These findings not only corroborate the global body of research on the health implications of urban air pollution but also provide critical new insights into the severe impacts within Karachi. The evidence presented underscores the urgent need for enhanced air pollution control policies and public health strategies tailored to the needs of rapidly urbanizing areas in Pakistan.

Asthma exacerbations are a leading cause of emergency department (ED) visits in children. Outdoor exposures such as air pollutants and meteorological factors have been associated with risk of asthma exacerbations. We evaluated the association between ambient temperature, relative humidity, and air quality on pediatric asthma-related ED visits in Montréal, Canada. In this retrospective study, we included children ≤ 17 years presenting with asthma to two pediatric EDs between January 1, 2017 and December 31st, 2020. Temperature and relative humidity data were obtained daily for Montréal through Weather Source™ and the Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) through Environment Canada. We evaluated the association between environmental exposures and the incidence of asthma-related ED visits using a quasi-Poisson regression analysis, adjusting for seasonality. We examined 21 201 asthma-related ED visits. Increased temperature was associated with an increased number of asthma-related ED visits. Compared to the reference decile (2.8 to 7.5⁰C), the strongest association with incident ED visits was for a temperature of 15.8 to 19.3⁰C, associated with a 37% increase in the number of asthma-related ED visits (IRR = 1.37, 95% CI 1.22, 1.54). Current day relative humidity, AQHI, and changes of the exposure levels over the previous 1 to 7 days did not have an effect on asthma-related ED visits. Adjusting for seasonality, higher temperatures were associated with an increased number of asthma-related ED visits among children while humidity and air quality were not. At a population level, this can inform hospitals of upcoming trends in ED visits.

The Air quality in university dormitories influences the learning efficiency and health of students. This study aims to evaluate the degree of influencing factors on NH₃ concentration in non-newly constructed university dormitories. On-site monitoring was conducted in 136 dormitories between winter in 2021 and summer in 2022 in Shanghai. Five factors, including indoor temperature, indoor humidity, room ventilation, dormitory toilet, and cooking conditions, were identified as objects of the study. A typical student dormitory, consisting of a toilet, a storage room and a main room, was chosen to conduct orthogonal experiments. Results are as follows: The average NH₃ concentration in dormitories was 0.59 mg/m³. 48% of the concentration levels exceeded the limits (0.20 mg/m³) specified in the Standards for indoor air quality (GB/T18883-2022). The range sizes of indoor temperature, indoor humidity, room ventilation, toilet, and cooking conditions were 0.01, 0.74, 1.01, 0.05, and 0.52 respectively, and the respective square sum of deviations were 0.000, 0.274, 0.510, 0.001, and 0.135. Consequently, the order of impact on NH₃ concentration ranks as follows: room ventilation > indoor humidity > cooking conditions > toilet > indoor temperature. The optimal environmental conditions for achieving the lowest NH₃ concentration in dormitory are found to be: ventilation (with fully open windows), low temperature (18 °C), low humidity (50%), absent cooking, and no usage of the toilet. These findings can trigger attention to NH₃ pollution in dormitories, leading to more effective advice for controlling NH₃ concentration in dormitories of non-newly constructed university and reducing its effects on students’ health.

Agricultural and rural carbon (ARC) emissions are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions in China and have profound implications for implementing the rural revitalization strategy. This study takes Shandong Province, a leading agricultural province in China, as a case study to explore the relationship between ARC emissions and their influencing factors. It employs the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) model to decompose changes in ARC emissions from 2000 to 2021, analyzing the contributions of factors such as agricultural production efficiency and agricultural industrial structure. The study then expands the indicator system and applies feature selection methods to identify the main influencing factors. It establishes Bayes model averaging (BMA), STIRPAT-Ridge regression and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) models to evaluate their performance in modeling historical ARC emissions. Finally, the study makes prospective forecasts of ARC emissions in Shandong Province from 2022 to 2050 under low, medium and high speed development scenarios. The findings show that from 2000 to 2021, ARC emission intensity decreased by 71.86% in Shandong. Key factors like agricultural production efficiency and agricultural industrial structure exhibited emission reduction effects. Agricultural production efficiency, electricity consumption, agricultural economic level, and transportation travel positively impact ARC emissions, with agricultural production efficiency and electricity consumption as the dominant factors. Under the development high-speed scenario, ARC emissions are projected to peak around 2030. Reducing carbon emissions intensity, improving resource use efficiency and maintaining steady economic growth are crucial for controlling future ARC emissions and achieving sustainable development in Shandong Province.

The motorcycle taxi drivers of Bangkok and adjacent provinces in Thailand may have been heavily exposed to ambient air pollution and the impact of this on their lungs has been neither documented nor studied. In this study, we recruited a total of 343 motorcycle taxi drivers in Bangkok and adjacent provinces in Thailand and their lung function parameters were analyzed using spirometry in May and June 2022. Of these, 153 participants were selected and their exposure to respirable dust during working was measured by personal air sampling. Respirable dust concentrations collected with personal air sampling suggested that motorcycle taxi drivers working at workstations where they were exposed to respirable dust at high concentrations tended to have a low percent predicted FEV₁. Twelve% and 7.3% of motorcycle taxi drivers recruited in this study had the symptoms of chronic bronchitis and acute bronchitis, respectively. These results suggested that some motorcycle taxi drivers around Bangkok and adjacent provinces had a high risk of occupational exposure to ambient air pollution. The government needs to establish a medical check-up system for motorcycle taxi drivers to monitor their health status.

The precise predicting of air temperature has a significant influence in many sectors such as agriculture, industry, modeling environmental processes. In this work, to predict the mean daily time series air temperature in Muğla city (AT_m), Turkey, initially, five different layer structures of Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) deep learning-based neural network models through the seq2seq regression forecast module are developed. Then, based on performance evaluation metrics, an optimal DL-based layer network structure designed is chosen to hybridize with the wavelet transform (WT) algorithm (i.e., WT-DNN model) to enhance the estimation capability. In this direction, among potential meteorological variables considered, the average daily sunshine duration (SSD) (hours), total global solar radiation (TGSR) (kw. hour/m²), and total global insolation intensity (TGSI) (watt/m²) from Jan 2014 to Dec 2019 are picked as the most effective input variables through correlation analysis to predict AT_m. To thwart overfitting and underfitting problems, different algorithm tuning along with trial-and-error procedures through diverse types of hyper-parameters are performed. Consistent with the performance evaluation standards, comparison plots, and Total Learnable Parameters (TLP) value, the state-of-the-art and unique proposed hybrid WT-(LSTM × GRU) model (i.e., hybrid WT with the coupled version of LSTM and GRU models via Multiplication layer ((times))) is confirmed as the best model developed. This hybrid model under the ideal hyper-parameters resulted in an R² = 0.94, an RMSE = 0.56 (^°C), an MBE = -0.5 (^°C), AICc = -382.01, and a running time of 376 (s) in 2000 iterations. Nonetheless, the standard single LSTM layer network model as benchmark model resulted in an R² = 0.63, an RMSE = 4.69 (^°C), an MBE = -0.89 (^°C), AICc = 1021.8, and a running time of 186 (s) in 2000 iterations.

Despite the implementation of stringent pollution control measures, surface ozone (O₃) pollution remains a significant issue in the North China Plain (NCP) in recent years. Here we examined long-term changes in surface O₃ concentrations during 2015–2021 in the NCP. The mean summer maximum daily 8-hour average ozone concentration exhibited an annual increase of 12.77 µg m^− 3 (p < 0.01) from 2015 to 2019, followed by a decline from 174 µg m^− 3 in 2019 to 157 µg m^− 3 in 2021. Subsequently, satellite-based formaldehyde (HCHO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) columns were used to track volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides (NO_x) emissions to evaluate the causes of O₃ changes. Results showed that the increase of HCHO column and the sharp decline of NO₂ column have indeed led to no decrease in O₃ concentration and even contributed to O₃ enhancement in most areas in 2015–2019. However, the sharp decline of HCHO and NO₂ columns contributed to the decline of O₃ concentration since 2020. The HCHO/NO₂ values showed a transitional regime ranging from 4.23 to 5.05 and the O₃ sensitivities were predominantly VOC-limited and transitional regimes in 2019–2021, varying among different mega-city clusters. The HCHO/NO₂ increased from 2.62 ± 2.41 in 2015 to 2.99 ± 3.49 in 2019 but decreased since then, facilitating O₃ formation regime transition from NO_x-limited to transitional (or from transitional to VOC-limited) regimes, which contributed to the decline in O₃ levels. The study determined that the optimal ratio of HCHO to NO₂ for reducing O₃ concentration is 4.66 for the NCP.

As Lhasa experiences accelerated urbanization and increased pollutant emission intensity, controlling ozone pollution becomes more challenging due to increased photochemical reactions—a problem exacerbated by the city’s already high solar UV radiation and background ozone levels. In order to reveals the intricacies of ozone formation, this study conducted direct ozone production rate (OPR) measurements in Lhasa in June 2021, comparing them to findings in Beijing in similar climatic conditions. Despite lower NO_x levels, Lhasa exhibited a higher OPR with reduced variations (12.8 ± 6.0 ppbv h^-1) due to stronger UVR and OH reactivity (VOC-k_OH) influenced by oxidized volatile organic compounds when compared to Beijing (9.4 ± 11.0 ppbv h^-1). When adjusting for comparable UVR conditions, Lhasa demonstrated a less pronounced NO turning point in OPR compared to Beijing. Lhasa’s unique bridge-shaped VOC-k_OH diel variation favored daytime peroxy radical production, pushing the NO turning point higher from morning to noon, resulting in a NO_x-limited regime except in the early morning. Furthermore, the accumulation of OVOCs in the Lhasa River valley, coupled with rapid photochemical production despite relatively low VOCs emissions, explained the elevated VOC-k_OH levels. This suggests that OVOCs and, consequently, O₃ pollution could worsen with future VOCs emission increases, possibly triggered by factors like rapid warming and local afforestation initiatives. Our findings highlight the complex and sensitive nature of O₃ pollution in Lhasa and other Tibetan Plateau cities, emphasizing the need for continued monitoring and in-depth research to develop effective control strategies.

Bioaerosols, airborne biological particles, are present ubiquitously in nature. When inhaled, ingested, or exposed to the skin, can pose various health risks. Bioaerosols sampling is crucial for educational institutes in view of high occupancy, long exposure duration and proximity between occupants. A comprehensive study was designed to determine size-segregated bioaerosols concentration, size-wise deposition fraction, and the dose inhaled by the exposed population. The bacterial and fungal bioaerosols concentrations were measured at 4 locations viz. undergraduate laboratory (IN 1), Molecular Biotechnology and Bioinformatics Laboratory (IN 2), college nursery (OUT 1) and open cafeteria (OUT 2). Sampling was conducted using a 6-stage viable Andersen cascade impactor and culturable bioaerosols were counted by colony counting method. The highest average concentrations of bacterial and fungal bioaerosols were found in IN 1 and OUT 1. The bioaerosols concentration was influenced by a complex interplay of factors, majorly including ventilation, footfall, occupancy, and surrounding vegetation. The size distribution analysis showed that a significant portion was in the respirable size range (< 4.5 μm), capable of reaching the lower respiratory tract and causing potential health issues. The dosimetry modelling further assisted in predicting the bioaerosols dose deposition in different regions of the human respiratory tract. Subsequently, to discern the connection between bioaerosols exposure and respiratory ailments, bioaerosols exposure awareness and health survey was conducted for individuals in the vicinity of sampling locations. The knowledge garnered from the study can make the basis for the health risk assessment due to bioaerosols exposure in educational environments to appraise potential health hazards.

Graphical Abstract

The selection of plant species has been accepted as a crucial factor when developing roadside greenbelts which act as a cost-effective and eco-friendly passive method for the reduction of traffic related particle pollution. Plants growing alongside roads are mostly affected because they are primary recipients to different pollutants and show varied sensitivity and tolerance. Taking this into account, young leaves of eight kinds of common roadside plants (Ligustrum lucidum, Prunus cerasifera, Photinia fraseri, Photinia serratifolia, Nandina domestica, Paeonia suffruticosa Andr., Nerium oleander, and Eriobotrya japonica) in central China were collected and their air pollution tolerance index (APTI) was calculated by assessing four biochemical parameters i.e., relative water content, total chlorophyll content, ascorbic acid, leaf extract pH. The results demonstrated that young leaves of N. oleander and L. lucidum showed higher APTI value (8.90–9.45 and 8.73 to 9.17 respectively) in the three tested springtime month and were the most tolerant species, while young leaves of E. japonica kept to be sensitive (with the APTI value around 5.72 to 8.29) during the whole spring. In addition, inconsistent with previous studies, relative water content other than ascorbic acid was found to be more crucial for young leaves of test plants to be more tolerant to particle pollution in relatively dry condition in spring (r = 0.996 at p < 0.01 level). At last, except significant impact on the capture of PM_2.5, the tolerance of young leaves has limited impacts on their ability to reduce other size fine particle such as TSP and PM₁₀. In summary, N. oleander and L. lucidum are recommended to be used as particle sink when developing urban green belt, and E. japonica is more suitable as a bio-monitor of air quality.