Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.1088/2752-5309/ace27b
Blean Girma, Bian Liu, Leah H Schinasi, Jane E Clougherty, Perry E Sheffield
Injury is a significant health burden for children and young adult and may be an increasing concern in a warming climate. Research reveals many impacts to children's health associated with hot weather and heatwave events, including a growing literature on the association between high ambient temperature and injury, which may vary by intent such as injury resulting from violence. However, little is known about how this association varies across different types of injury and subgroups of young people. We examined relationships between warm season ambient temperature and intentional and unintentional injury among children and young adults in New York City (NYC). Within a case-crossover design, our study observed injury-related emergency department (ED) visits from the New York Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System administrative dataset. Injuries were categorized as unintentional or intentional injuries during the warm season (May through September) in NYC from 2005 to 2011 among patients (0, 1-4, 5-9, 10-14, 15-19, 20-25 years old (y.o.)). Conditional logistic regression models with distributed lag non-linear functions were used to model the cumulative odds ratio (OR) injury-related ED visit over 0-5 lag days. Analyses were stratified by age group and sex to understand how associations vary across young people of different age and sex. There were a total of 572 535 injury-related ED visits. The largest effect of elevated temperature (daily minimum 77°F vs 48°F) was for unintentional injury among 5-9 y.o. (OR 1.32, 95% CI 1.23, 1.42) and for intentional injury among 20-25 y.o. (OR 1.54, 95% CI 1.28, 1.85). Further stratified analyses revealed that the highest risk of unintentional injury was among 5-9 y.o. males and 20-25 y.o. males for intentional injury. Our results suggest that high ambient temperatures are associated with higher odds of unintentional and intentional injuries among children. This work adds to a growing body of literature demonstrating the adverse impacts of heat on children, and suggests the need for messaging to parents and children about adopting adaptive strategies to prevent injuries when it is hot outside.
伤害是儿童和年轻人的一个重大健康负担，在气候变暖的情况下可能日益受到关注。研究揭示了与炎热天气和热浪事件相关的许多对儿童健康的影响，包括越来越多的关于高环境温度与伤害之间关系的文献，这种关系可能因意图而异，例如暴力造成的伤害。然而，对于这种关联在不同类型的损伤和年轻人亚群中是如何变化的，我们知之甚少。我们研究了温暖季节环境温度与纽约市儿童和年轻人有意和无意伤害之间的关系。在病例交叉设计中，我们的研究观察了来自纽约州规划和研究合作系统管理数据集的与伤害相关的急诊室(ED)就诊情况。在2005年至2011年纽约市温暖季节(5月至9月)的患者(0,1 - 4,5 - 9,10 - 14,15 - 19,20 -25岁)中，伤害被分类为无意或故意伤害。采用具有分布滞后非线性函数的条件logistic回归模型对0-5滞后天的累积优势比(OR)损伤相关急诊科就诊进行建模。分析按年龄组和性别分层，以了解不同年龄和性别的年轻人之间的关联是如何变化的。共有572 535次与伤害有关的急诊科就诊。升高温度(每日最低77°F vs 48°F)对5-9岁的意外伤害(OR 1.32, 95% CI 1.23, 1.42)和20-25岁的故意伤害(OR 1.54, 95% CI 1.28, 1.85)的影响最大。进一步的分层分析显示，意外伤害的最高风险是5-9岁的男性和20-25岁的男性故意伤害。我们的研究结果表明，高环境温度与儿童意外伤害和故意伤害的几率较高有关。这项工作增加了越来越多的文献，证明了高温对儿童的不利影响，并建议有必要向父母和孩子传达在室外炎热时采取适应性策略以防止受伤的信息。
{"title":"High ambient temperatures associations with children and young adult injury emergency department visits in NYC.","authors":"Blean Girma, Bian Liu, Leah H Schinasi, Jane E Clougherty, Perry E Sheffield","doi":"10.1088/2752-5309/ace27b","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5309/ace27b","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Injury is a significant health burden for children and young adult and may be an increasing concern in a warming climate. Research reveals many impacts to children's health associated with hot weather and heatwave events, including a growing literature on the association between high ambient temperature and injury, which may vary by intent such as injury resulting from violence. However, little is known about how this association varies across different types of injury and subgroups of young people. We examined relationships between warm season ambient temperature and intentional and unintentional injury among children and young adults in New York City (NYC). Within a case-crossover design, our study observed injury-related emergency department (ED) visits from the New York Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System administrative dataset. Injuries were categorized as unintentional or intentional injuries during the warm season (May through September) in NYC from 2005 to 2011 among patients (0, 1-4, 5-9, 10-14, 15-19, 20-25 years old (y.o.)). Conditional logistic regression models with distributed lag non-linear functions were used to model the cumulative odds ratio (OR) injury-related ED visit over 0-5 lag days. Analyses were stratified by age group and sex to understand how associations vary across young people of different age and sex. There were a total of 572 535 injury-related ED visits. The largest effect of elevated temperature (daily minimum 77°F vs 48°F) was for unintentional injury among 5-9 y.o. (OR 1.32, 95% CI 1.23, 1.42) and for intentional injury among 20-25 y.o. (OR 1.54, 95% CI 1.28, 1.85). Further stratified analyses revealed that the highest risk of unintentional injury was among 5-9 y.o. males and 20-25 y.o. males for intentional injury. Our results suggest that high ambient temperatures are associated with higher odds of unintentional and intentional injuries among children. This work adds to a growing body of literature demonstrating the adverse impacts of heat on children, and suggests the need for messaging to parents and children about adopting adaptive strategies to prevent injuries when it is hot outside.</p>","PeriodicalId":72938,"journal":{"name":"Environmental research, health : ERH","volume":"1 3","pages":"035004"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10336474/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9820462","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-17DOI: 10.1088/2752-5309/acf14e
Seulkee Heo, G. Byun, Sera Kim, Whanhee Lee, Jong-Tae Lee, Morag Bell
The prevalence of osteoporotic fracture is increasing globally due to rapid population growth and aging. Current evidence suggests adverse impacts of air pollution on bone mineral density loss and osteoporosis, but population-based evidence for the associations between fine particulate matter (particulate matter no larger than 2.5 μm in diameter [PM2.5]) and osteoporotic fracture is limited due to the small number of studies. This longitudinal study assessed the associations between long-term exposure to PM2.5 and osteoporotic fracture incidence in adults aged ⩾40 years, who enrolled in the National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort data in 2002–2019 in South Korea. A time-varying moving window of past exposures of PM2.5 up to ten past years was estimated for participants’ residential addresses using modeled PM2.5. We used Cox proportional hazard models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) of time-variant moving concentrations of PM2.5 exposure and osteoporotic fracture. The Cox models calculated HRs for an interquartile range (IQR) increase in PM2.5 exposure, adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, health behaviors, medications, disease history, income, and urbanicity. We assessed 161 831 participants over 993 104 person-year of follow-up. Results suggested linear and positive exposure-response associations for past PM2.5 exposure in the prior four years or more. The IQR increase in 5-year moving average PM2.5 was significantly associated with increased osteoporotic risk (HR = 1.079, 95% CI: 1.001, 1.164). The HRs were significant in women (1.102, 95% CI: 1.011, 1.200) and the subset of women aged 50–74 years (1.105, 95% CI: 1.005, 1.214) but not in men overall or by age groups. The association was not significantly different by income, physical activities, urbanicity, or diet. Overall, long-term PM2.5 exposure was associated with increased osteoporotic fracture risks in Korean adults, especially women.
{"title":"Associations between long-term exposure to fine particulate matter and osteoporotic fracture risks in South Korea","authors":"Seulkee Heo, G. Byun, Sera Kim, Whanhee Lee, Jong-Tae Lee, Morag Bell","doi":"10.1088/2752-5309/acf14e","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5309/acf14e","url":null,"abstract":"The prevalence of osteoporotic fracture is increasing globally due to rapid population growth and aging. Current evidence suggests adverse impacts of air pollution on bone mineral density loss and osteoporosis, but population-based evidence for the associations between fine particulate matter (particulate matter no larger than 2.5 μm in diameter [PM2.5]) and osteoporotic fracture is limited due to the small number of studies. This longitudinal study assessed the associations between long-term exposure to PM2.5 and osteoporotic fracture incidence in adults aged ⩾40 years, who enrolled in the National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort data in 2002–2019 in South Korea. A time-varying moving window of past exposures of PM2.5 up to ten past years was estimated for participants’ residential addresses using modeled PM2.5. We used Cox proportional hazard models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) of time-variant moving concentrations of PM2.5 exposure and osteoporotic fracture. The Cox models calculated HRs for an interquartile range (IQR) increase in PM2.5 exposure, adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, health behaviors, medications, disease history, income, and urbanicity. We assessed 161 831 participants over 993 104 person-year of follow-up. Results suggested linear and positive exposure-response associations for past PM2.5 exposure in the prior four years or more. The IQR increase in 5-year moving average PM2.5 was significantly associated with increased osteoporotic risk (HR = 1.079, 95% CI: 1.001, 1.164). The HRs were significant in women (1.102, 95% CI: 1.011, 1.200) and the subset of women aged 50–74 years (1.105, 95% CI: 1.005, 1.214) but not in men overall or by age groups. The association was not significantly different by income, physical activities, urbanicity, or diet. Overall, long-term PM2.5 exposure was associated with increased osteoporotic fracture risks in Korean adults, especially women.","PeriodicalId":72938,"journal":{"name":"Environmental research, health : ERH","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49566410","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-31DOI: 10.1088/2752-5309/ace4ea
Wuyue Yu, G. Thurston
With the widespread implementation of air pollution mitigation strategies for health and climate policy, there is an emerging interest in accountability studies to validate whether a reduction of air pollution exposure, in fact, produces the human health benefits estimated from past air pollution epidemiology. The closure of a coal coking plant provides an ideal ‘natural’ experiment opportunity to rigorously evaluate the health benefits of air pollution emissions reductions. In this study, we applied an interrupted time series model to test the hypothesis that the substantial reduction in air pollution induced by the closure of the Shenango, Inc. coke plant in Pittsburgh, PA during January, 2016 was followed by immediate and/or longer-term cumulative local cardiovascular health benefits. We observed a 90% decrease in nearby SO2 levels, as well as significant reductions in coal-related fine particulate matter constituents (sulfate and arsenic), after the closure. Statistically significant cardiovascular health benefits were documented in the local population, including a 42% immediate drop (95% CI: 33%, 51%) in cardiovascular emergency department (ED) visits from the pre-closure mean. A longer-term downward trend was also observed for overall emergency visits at −0.14 (95% CI: −0.17, −0.11) visits per week rate of decrease after the closure, vs. a rise of 0.17 (95% CI: 0.14, 0.20) visits per week before. Similarly, inpatient cardiovascular hospitalizations per year showed a decrease after closure (−27.97 [95% CI: −46.90, −9.04], as compared with a 5.09 [95% CI: −13.84, 24.02] average increase in cases/year over the prior three years). Our study provides clear evidence that this intervention lowering fossil fuel-associated air pollution benefited public health in both the short and longer term, while also providing validation of the past use of observational air pollution epidemiology effect estimates in policy analyses.
{"title":"An interrupted time series analysis of the cardiovascular health benefits of a coal coking operation closure","authors":"Wuyue Yu, G. Thurston","doi":"10.1088/2752-5309/ace4ea","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5309/ace4ea","url":null,"abstract":"With the widespread implementation of air pollution mitigation strategies for health and climate policy, there is an emerging interest in accountability studies to validate whether a reduction of air pollution exposure, in fact, produces the human health benefits estimated from past air pollution epidemiology. The closure of a coal coking plant provides an ideal ‘natural’ experiment opportunity to rigorously evaluate the health benefits of air pollution emissions reductions. In this study, we applied an interrupted time series model to test the hypothesis that the substantial reduction in air pollution induced by the closure of the Shenango, Inc. coke plant in Pittsburgh, PA during January, 2016 was followed by immediate and/or longer-term cumulative local cardiovascular health benefits. We observed a 90% decrease in nearby SO2 levels, as well as significant reductions in coal-related fine particulate matter constituents (sulfate and arsenic), after the closure. Statistically significant cardiovascular health benefits were documented in the local population, including a 42% immediate drop (95% CI: 33%, 51%) in cardiovascular emergency department (ED) visits from the pre-closure mean. A longer-term downward trend was also observed for overall emergency visits at −0.14 (95% CI: −0.17, −0.11) visits per week rate of decrease after the closure, vs. a rise of 0.17 (95% CI: 0.14, 0.20) visits per week before. Similarly, inpatient cardiovascular hospitalizations per year showed a decrease after closure (−27.97 [95% CI: −46.90, −9.04], as compared with a 5.09 [95% CI: −13.84, 24.02] average increase in cases/year over the prior three years). Our study provides clear evidence that this intervention lowering fossil fuel-associated air pollution benefited public health in both the short and longer term, while also providing validation of the past use of observational air pollution epidemiology effect estimates in policy analyses.","PeriodicalId":72938,"journal":{"name":"Environmental research, health : ERH","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49309660","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-26DOI: 10.1088/2752-5309/ace2e0
J. R. Khan, K. Bakar, M. S. Hossain
Child undernutrition is still a major public health concern in Bangladesh in spite of significant decline in the last few years. Climate change may impact the prevalence of undernutrition and its geographical variability through food security and recurring outbreaks of disease, as well as impede efforts to reduce the undernutrition burden. This study aims to evaluate rainfall and temperature associated with childhood malnutrition in Bangladesh. A spatial mixed effect logistic regression model was used to estimate the association between undernutrition (measured by the composite index of anthropometric failure) and residential area-level rainfall and temperatures, controlling for covariates and spatial effects of residential locations using national data from the 2017 to 2018 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey. Our findings indicate that an increase in rainfall was associated with increased odds of undernutrition [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 1.15, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.07–1.24], whereas an increase in temperature was associated with decreased odds of undernutrition (AOR 0.86, 95% CI 0.80–0.93). We also found statistically significant structured and unstructured spatial variations in undernutrition, indicating locational effects. Investing in infrastructure and education could be potential strategies for mitigating the negative effects of climate change. High-risk regions in terms of climatic change and malnutrition could be given priority for intervention implementation.
{"title":"Unveiling the link between rainfall, temperature, and childhood undernutrition in Bangladesh using spatial analysis","authors":"J. R. Khan, K. Bakar, M. S. Hossain","doi":"10.1088/2752-5309/ace2e0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5309/ace2e0","url":null,"abstract":"Child undernutrition is still a major public health concern in Bangladesh in spite of significant decline in the last few years. Climate change may impact the prevalence of undernutrition and its geographical variability through food security and recurring outbreaks of disease, as well as impede efforts to reduce the undernutrition burden. This study aims to evaluate rainfall and temperature associated with childhood malnutrition in Bangladesh. A spatial mixed effect logistic regression model was used to estimate the association between undernutrition (measured by the composite index of anthropometric failure) and residential area-level rainfall and temperatures, controlling for covariates and spatial effects of residential locations using national data from the 2017 to 2018 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey. Our findings indicate that an increase in rainfall was associated with increased odds of undernutrition [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 1.15, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.07–1.24], whereas an increase in temperature was associated with decreased odds of undernutrition (AOR 0.86, 95% CI 0.80–0.93). We also found statistically significant structured and unstructured spatial variations in undernutrition, indicating locational effects. Investing in infrastructure and education could be potential strategies for mitigating the negative effects of climate change. High-risk regions in terms of climatic change and malnutrition could be given priority for intervention implementation.","PeriodicalId":72938,"journal":{"name":"Environmental research, health : ERH","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45310309","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-11DOI: 10.1088/2752-5309/ace646
Nu Quy Linh Tran, Hieu K T Ngo, N. T. Tuong Vy, T. Dang, S. Nghiem, Huu Quyen Nguyen, D. Phung
Viet Nam is among the countries most threatened by and vulnerable to climate change and extreme weather events. However, research on the temperature-morbidity relationship at the national scale has been scarce. This study aimed to assess the impact of high temperatures on the risk of hospital admissions for all causes and heat-sensitive diseases across eight ecological regions in Vietnam. The study utilized a longitudinal dataset that included hospitalization and meteorological data from eight provinces representing eight regions in Vietnam. A time series analysis was applied using the generalized linear and distributed lag models with a quasi-Poisson family to examine the temperature-hospitalization association in each province. A random-effects meta-analysis was used to calculate the pooled estimate of risk for the national scale. The country-level pooled effects (%, [95% CI]) indicated that a 1 °C increase above the threshold temperature (19 °C) increased the hospitalization risk for all causes and infectious diseases by 0.8% [0.4%–1.2%] and 2.4% [1.02%–1.03%], respectively at lag 0–3 d. The effects of heat on respiratory diseases and mental health disorders were not significant. At the regional level, the association varied across eight regions, of which the Northern parts tended to have a higher risk than the Southern. This is among very few national-scale studies assessing hospitalization risk associated with high temperatures across eight ecological regions of Vietnam. These findings would be useful for developing evidence-based heat-health action plans.
{"title":"The association between high ambient temperature and risk of hospitalization: a time-series study in eight ecological regions in Vietnam","authors":"Nu Quy Linh Tran, Hieu K T Ngo, N. T. Tuong Vy, T. Dang, S. Nghiem, Huu Quyen Nguyen, D. Phung","doi":"10.1088/2752-5309/ace646","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5309/ace646","url":null,"abstract":"Viet Nam is among the countries most threatened by and vulnerable to climate change and extreme weather events. However, research on the temperature-morbidity relationship at the national scale has been scarce. This study aimed to assess the impact of high temperatures on the risk of hospital admissions for all causes and heat-sensitive diseases across eight ecological regions in Vietnam. The study utilized a longitudinal dataset that included hospitalization and meteorological data from eight provinces representing eight regions in Vietnam. A time series analysis was applied using the generalized linear and distributed lag models with a quasi-Poisson family to examine the temperature-hospitalization association in each province. A random-effects meta-analysis was used to calculate the pooled estimate of risk for the national scale. The country-level pooled effects (%, [95% CI]) indicated that a 1 °C increase above the threshold temperature (19 °C) increased the hospitalization risk for all causes and infectious diseases by 0.8% [0.4%–1.2%] and 2.4% [1.02%–1.03%], respectively at lag 0–3 d. The effects of heat on respiratory diseases and mental health disorders were not significant. At the regional level, the association varied across eight regions, of which the Northern parts tended to have a higher risk than the Southern. This is among very few national-scale studies assessing hospitalization risk associated with high temperatures across eight ecological regions of Vietnam. These findings would be useful for developing evidence-based heat-health action plans.","PeriodicalId":72938,"journal":{"name":"Environmental research, health : ERH","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49398383","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-10DOI: 10.1088/2752-5309/ace5ca
A. Clark-Ginsberg, A. Chandra
Mass migration driven by climate change-related shocks and stresses is already occurring. We argue for a need for resilient health systems to ensure migration is adaptive, not detrimental, to health. We make this argument for two reasons. First, without resilience, large and sudden population increases such as from migration may strain health systems. Second, while health system resilience-building efforts are occurring, these tend to focus on crises that are substantially different from climate change-related mass migration—most notably because migrants are not threats but instead people with resources and capacity as well as needs. Then, articulating a health system as a large and complex sociotechnical infrastructure, we outline three salient features of health systems resilient to climate change-related mass migration: rapid ability to shift and adapt, multi-stakeholder collaboration, and transformation. We conclude by suggesting the resources, which policymakers need for achieving health system resilience from this sociotechnical perspective.
{"title":"Climate change-related mass migration requires health system resilience","authors":"A. Clark-Ginsberg, A. Chandra","doi":"10.1088/2752-5309/ace5ca","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5309/ace5ca","url":null,"abstract":"Mass migration driven by climate change-related shocks and stresses is already occurring. We argue for a need for resilient health systems to ensure migration is adaptive, not detrimental, to health. We make this argument for two reasons. First, without resilience, large and sudden population increases such as from migration may strain health systems. Second, while health system resilience-building efforts are occurring, these tend to focus on crises that are substantially different from climate change-related mass migration—most notably because migrants are not threats but instead people with resources and capacity as well as needs. Then, articulating a health system as a large and complex sociotechnical infrastructure, we outline three salient features of health systems resilient to climate change-related mass migration: rapid ability to shift and adapt, multi-stakeholder collaboration, and transformation. We conclude by suggesting the resources, which policymakers need for achieving health system resilience from this sociotechnical perspective.","PeriodicalId":72938,"journal":{"name":"Environmental research, health : ERH","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45693095","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-10DOI: 10.1088/2752-5309/ace5cb
D. Mendoza, T. Benney, Casey S. Olson, E. Crosman, Shawn A Gonzales, Mamta Chaudhari, Corbin Anderson
To be successful, commitments to climate change and environmental policy will require critical changes in human behavior and one important example is driving and idling. Idling is defined as running a vehicle’s motor while not in motion. Idling studies have repeatedly demonstrated that this behavior is costly, harmful to human health, and highly polluting. However, with the onset of COVID-19, the use of drive-through services to provide food, pharmaceuticals, and medical testing has increased. To understand this phenomenon further, we worked cooperatively with our government partners to compare the concentrations of PM2.5 at three regulatory sensor locations with nearby drive-through COVID-19 testing sites during average to elevated pollution days. Salt Lake City, UT (USA), where this study was undertaken, has seen a dramatic rise in drive-through services since the onset of the pandemic and community concern is also high due to poor local air quality. More importantly, the Salt Lake Valley is home to one of the largest research grade air quality networks in the world. Fine particulate matter sensors were installed or already in place at or adjacent to COVID-19 testing sites in the area, and we used data from nearby Utah Division of Air Quality monitors to provide comparative PM2.5 concentrations. Due to their placement (e.g., further distance from large roads and other emitting sources), we found that testing sites showed lower PM2.5 concentrations during average air quality days despite increased idling rates. However, when urban pollution rates were elevated due to atmospheric inversions, extensive idling around testing sites led to hyper local PM2.5 concentrations or pollution hot spots. This suggests that idling has serious compounding effects in highly polluted urban areas and policies minimizing vehicle emissions from idling and congestion could conceivably curtail pollutant exposure in a range of settings.
{"title":"Pollution hot spots and the impact of drive-through COVID-19 testing sites on urban air quality","authors":"D. Mendoza, T. Benney, Casey S. Olson, E. Crosman, Shawn A Gonzales, Mamta Chaudhari, Corbin Anderson","doi":"10.1088/2752-5309/ace5cb","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5309/ace5cb","url":null,"abstract":"To be successful, commitments to climate change and environmental policy will require critical changes in human behavior and one important example is driving and idling. Idling is defined as running a vehicle’s motor while not in motion. Idling studies have repeatedly demonstrated that this behavior is costly, harmful to human health, and highly polluting. However, with the onset of COVID-19, the use of drive-through services to provide food, pharmaceuticals, and medical testing has increased. To understand this phenomenon further, we worked cooperatively with our government partners to compare the concentrations of PM2.5 at three regulatory sensor locations with nearby drive-through COVID-19 testing sites during average to elevated pollution days. Salt Lake City, UT (USA), where this study was undertaken, has seen a dramatic rise in drive-through services since the onset of the pandemic and community concern is also high due to poor local air quality. More importantly, the Salt Lake Valley is home to one of the largest research grade air quality networks in the world. Fine particulate matter sensors were installed or already in place at or adjacent to COVID-19 testing sites in the area, and we used data from nearby Utah Division of Air Quality monitors to provide comparative PM2.5 concentrations. Due to their placement (e.g., further distance from large roads and other emitting sources), we found that testing sites showed lower PM2.5 concentrations during average air quality days despite increased idling rates. However, when urban pollution rates were elevated due to atmospheric inversions, extensive idling around testing sites led to hyper local PM2.5 concentrations or pollution hot spots. This suggests that idling has serious compounding effects in highly polluted urban areas and policies minimizing vehicle emissions from idling and congestion could conceivably curtail pollutant exposure in a range of settings.","PeriodicalId":72938,"journal":{"name":"Environmental research, health : ERH","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49191999","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-10DOI: 10.1088/2752-5309/ace5c9
D. Green, N. Cooper, C. D. de Silva, Prateek Bahl, Shovon Bhattacharjee, Mohamed Mahmoud Abdelkareem Mahmoud, C. Doolan, R. MacIntyre
Over 20 years ago a report commissioned by the European Commission identified air quality in schools as a public health priority. Despite this concern, little action was taken in the following two decades. Over the last two years as classrooms were increasingly recognised as hotspots for the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, renewed interest and resources have been made available in response to this issue. Questions remain, however, over how best to achieve safer classroom air. Our analysis assessed a range of in situ interventions to remove particulate matter (PM2.5) and carbon dioxide from inside a populated classroom. Our approach used saline spray and volunteers’ exhalations as our source of PM2.5 and carbon dioxide to explore the ability of high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters, natural ventilation and a recirculating A/C unit to remove these air pollutants which collectively provided a novel set of data. For a total window opening of 1.86 m2 for a 181.7 m3 classroom with a HEPA filter with a 703m3/hr clean air delivery rate, our results confirmed that outdoor air was needed to purge the room to reduce carbon dioxide levels that otherwise rose to >1000 ppm in 12 min. Cross and natural ventilation reduced levels of PM2.5 and carbon dioxide very effectively—in under 5 and 10 min respectively during low levels of outside PM2.5. We conclude that natural ventilation supplemented with the use of HEPA filters is the most effective way to reliably improve indoor air quality year-round, balancing the need to have easy to enact approaches to reduce the buildup of PM2.5, airborne viruses and carbon dioxide. These results highlight an important knowledge gap. Without having localised real-time outdoor air pollution sensing, evidence-based decisions cannot be made about how often, and for how long, windows can safely remain open to purge classrooms in times of poor quality outdoor air.
{"title":"Demonstrating the most effective interventions to improve classroom air quality. What novel in situ tests of real-world conditions show is still missing in our guidance","authors":"D. Green, N. Cooper, C. D. de Silva, Prateek Bahl, Shovon Bhattacharjee, Mohamed Mahmoud Abdelkareem Mahmoud, C. Doolan, R. MacIntyre","doi":"10.1088/2752-5309/ace5c9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5309/ace5c9","url":null,"abstract":"Over 20 years ago a report commissioned by the European Commission identified air quality in schools as a public health priority. Despite this concern, little action was taken in the following two decades. Over the last two years as classrooms were increasingly recognised as hotspots for the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, renewed interest and resources have been made available in response to this issue. Questions remain, however, over how best to achieve safer classroom air. Our analysis assessed a range of in situ interventions to remove particulate matter (PM2.5) and carbon dioxide from inside a populated classroom. Our approach used saline spray and volunteers’ exhalations as our source of PM2.5 and carbon dioxide to explore the ability of high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters, natural ventilation and a recirculating A/C unit to remove these air pollutants which collectively provided a novel set of data. For a total window opening of 1.86 m2 for a 181.7 m3 classroom with a HEPA filter with a 703m3/hr clean air delivery rate, our results confirmed that outdoor air was needed to purge the room to reduce carbon dioxide levels that otherwise rose to >1000 ppm in 12 min. Cross and natural ventilation reduced levels of PM2.5 and carbon dioxide very effectively—in under 5 and 10 min respectively during low levels of outside PM2.5. We conclude that natural ventilation supplemented with the use of HEPA filters is the most effective way to reliably improve indoor air quality year-round, balancing the need to have easy to enact approaches to reduce the buildup of PM2.5, airborne viruses and carbon dioxide. These results highlight an important knowledge gap. Without having localised real-time outdoor air pollution sensing, evidence-based decisions cannot be made about how often, and for how long, windows can safely remain open to purge classrooms in times of poor quality outdoor air.","PeriodicalId":72938,"journal":{"name":"Environmental research, health : ERH","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46821011","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-03DOI: 10.1088/2752-5309/acdcb2
N. Johnson, M. Bell, Nicholas Perez, Robert Dubrow, N. Deziel
Background: Production of shale gas in the United States (US) increased more than 10-fold from 2008 to 2021, yielding greater quantities of hydrocarbon feedstocks and incentivizing expansion of petrochemical facilities. Steam crackers (SCs) convert hydrocarbon feedstocks into ethylene and propylene (the building blocks of plastics), while releasing toxic chemicals and greenhouse gases (GHGs). Analyses of environmental health and justice impacts of SCs are limited. Methods: We described SC operations, locations, and emissions, and evaluated sociodemographic characteristics of populations residing near SCs to better understand potential public health hazards and inform future studies. We summarized and described industry-reported emissions from the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxic Release Inventory and GHG Reporting Program. We compared population characteristics of US Census block groups ⩽5 km and >5 km from a steam cracker-containing facility (SCF) within the same county. Results: We identified 32 SCFs across five US states, with most in Texas and Louisiana. Toxic chemicals with the greatest reported cumulative air emissions in 1987–2019 were: ethylene, propylene, hydrochloric acid, benzene, n-hexane, 1,3-butadiene, ammonia, toluene, vinyl acetate, and methanol. Reported total annual GHG emissions were 4% higher in 2019 versus 2010, with total GHG emissions of >650 million metric tons (carbon dioxide equivalents) in 2010–2019. We found that 752 465 people live in census block groups ⩽5 km from an SCF, regardless of county. Compared to block groups >5 km away within the same county, block groups closer to SCFs had statistically significantly lower median incomes ($54 843 vs $67 866) and more vacant housing (15% vs 11%), and higher proportions of residents who were non-Hispanic Black (31% vs 19%) and unemployed (8% vs 6%). Conclusion: SCs emit substantial amounts of GHGs and toxic chemicals in locations with historically disadvantaged populations. Future research could further evaluate the accuracy of reported emissions, conduct monitoring in proximate communities, and assess population-level health impacts.
{"title":"Steam cracker facilities in the United States: operations, emissions, and sociodemographic patterns of surrounding populations","authors":"N. Johnson, M. Bell, Nicholas Perez, Robert Dubrow, N. Deziel","doi":"10.1088/2752-5309/acdcb2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5309/acdcb2","url":null,"abstract":"Background: Production of shale gas in the United States (US) increased more than 10-fold from 2008 to 2021, yielding greater quantities of hydrocarbon feedstocks and incentivizing expansion of petrochemical facilities. Steam crackers (SCs) convert hydrocarbon feedstocks into ethylene and propylene (the building blocks of plastics), while releasing toxic chemicals and greenhouse gases (GHGs). Analyses of environmental health and justice impacts of SCs are limited. Methods: We described SC operations, locations, and emissions, and evaluated sociodemographic characteristics of populations residing near SCs to better understand potential public health hazards and inform future studies. We summarized and described industry-reported emissions from the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxic Release Inventory and GHG Reporting Program. We compared population characteristics of US Census block groups ⩽5 km and >5 km from a steam cracker-containing facility (SCF) within the same county. Results: We identified 32 SCFs across five US states, with most in Texas and Louisiana. Toxic chemicals with the greatest reported cumulative air emissions in 1987–2019 were: ethylene, propylene, hydrochloric acid, benzene, n-hexane, 1,3-butadiene, ammonia, toluene, vinyl acetate, and methanol. Reported total annual GHG emissions were 4% higher in 2019 versus 2010, with total GHG emissions of >650 million metric tons (carbon dioxide equivalents) in 2010–2019. We found that 752 465 people live in census block groups ⩽5 km from an SCF, regardless of county. Compared to block groups >5 km away within the same county, block groups closer to SCFs had statistically significantly lower median incomes ($54 843 vs $67 866) and more vacant housing (15% vs 11%), and higher proportions of residents who were non-Hispanic Black (31% vs 19%) and unemployed (8% vs 6%). Conclusion: SCs emit substantial amounts of GHGs and toxic chemicals in locations with historically disadvantaged populations. Future research could further evaluate the accuracy of reported emissions, conduct monitoring in proximate communities, and assess population-level health impacts.","PeriodicalId":72938,"journal":{"name":"Environmental research, health : ERH","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45141949","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-28DOI: 10.1088/2752-5309/acdf10
M. Woeckel, A. Schneider, J. Cyrys, K. Wolf, C. Meisinger, M. Heier, A. Peters, S. Breitner
Ambient air temperature and temperature variability are supposed to influence blood pressure (BP); however, findings are inconsistent. We examined the effects of short-term changes in ambient temperature and temperature variability on systolic BP (SBP), diastolic BP (DBP), mean arterial pressure (MAP), and pulse pressure (PP) in a repeated-measures study. Repeated BP measurements were available for 3184 participants from the German population-based Cooperative Health Research in the Region of Augsburg (KORA) S4 survey (1999–2001) and two follow-up examinations (2006–08 and 2013–14). Daily meteorological data were obtained from fixed measurement stations including air temperature and diurnal temperature range (DTR). We used confounder-adjusted additive mixed models to examine immediate (same-day, lag 0), delayed (lag 1 to lag 4), and cumulative (up to lag 0–13) exposure effects. Decreases in air temperature were associated with increases in SBP, DBP, and MAP, while we observed no effects for PP at all. For example, a 1 °C decrease in the 14-day moving average (lag 0–13) mean air temperature was associated with a 0.54% [95% confidence interval [95%CI]: 0.41%;0.68%] increase in SBP. Furthermore, decreasing DTR was linked to increasing SBP, DBP, and MAP measures. In the sensitivity analyses, results were found to be robust. Examination of exposure–response functions according to season revealed, that associations for summer and winter can be considered linear, while we detected non-linear functions in spring and autumn. Furthermore, exposure–response functions also differed in the three different surveys. As BP levels influence the risk of cardiovascular mortality, our results show the importance of considering temperature and its variation as potential risk factors. As ongoing climate change affects temperature variability, it is important to understand how the body adapts to changing ambient temperatures.
{"title":"Ambient air temperature and temperature variability affecting blood pressure—a repeated-measures study in Augsburg, Germany","authors":"M. Woeckel, A. Schneider, J. Cyrys, K. Wolf, C. Meisinger, M. Heier, A. Peters, S. Breitner","doi":"10.1088/2752-5309/acdf10","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5309/acdf10","url":null,"abstract":"Ambient air temperature and temperature variability are supposed to influence blood pressure (BP); however, findings are inconsistent. We examined the effects of short-term changes in ambient temperature and temperature variability on systolic BP (SBP), diastolic BP (DBP), mean arterial pressure (MAP), and pulse pressure (PP) in a repeated-measures study. Repeated BP measurements were available for 3184 participants from the German population-based Cooperative Health Research in the Region of Augsburg (KORA) S4 survey (1999–2001) and two follow-up examinations (2006–08 and 2013–14). Daily meteorological data were obtained from fixed measurement stations including air temperature and diurnal temperature range (DTR). We used confounder-adjusted additive mixed models to examine immediate (same-day, lag 0), delayed (lag 1 to lag 4), and cumulative (up to lag 0–13) exposure effects. Decreases in air temperature were associated with increases in SBP, DBP, and MAP, while we observed no effects for PP at all. For example, a 1 °C decrease in the 14-day moving average (lag 0–13) mean air temperature was associated with a 0.54% [95% confidence interval [95%CI]: 0.41%;0.68%] increase in SBP. Furthermore, decreasing DTR was linked to increasing SBP, DBP, and MAP measures. In the sensitivity analyses, results were found to be robust. Examination of exposure–response functions according to season revealed, that associations for summer and winter can be considered linear, while we detected non-linear functions in spring and autumn. Furthermore, exposure–response functions also differed in the three different surveys. As BP levels influence the risk of cardiovascular mortality, our results show the importance of considering temperature and its variation as potential risk factors. As ongoing climate change affects temperature variability, it is important to understand how the body adapts to changing ambient temperatures.","PeriodicalId":72938,"journal":{"name":"Environmental research, health : ERH","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48685750","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：
京公网安备 11010802042870号