Air pollution and population health: a global challenge

Chen, Bingheng; Kan, Haidong

doi:10.1007/s12199-007-0018-5

Cited by 248 publications

(164 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…The results guide public health policies and preventive care (94,(98)(99)(100) . They also help comparing environmental hazards in different areas or countries to promote actions that may reduce their effects (101) . The information collected by the international or governmental agencies are available for public consulting (102) .…”

Section: Environment Monitoring Toolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is dry eye an environmental disease?

Alves¹,

Novaes²,

Morraye³

et al. 2014

Arquivos Brasileiros De Oftalmologia

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Previous studies have revealed that eye contact with either air pollutants or adverse indoor and/or outdoor environmental conditions can affect tear film composition and ocular surface components. These effects are mediated by selective binding of the environmental agents to ocular surface membrane receptors, leading to activation of pro inflammatory signaling pathways. The aim of the current review was to examine the published evidence associated with environmental factors and ocular surface disease and dry eye. Specifically, the reader will appreciate why it is possible to refer to them as mediators of Environmental Dry Eye Disease (EDED), a singular clinical entity inside DED context, directly caused by pollutants and/ or adverse climatic conditions. The indicators and clinical findings are described along with EDE differential diagnosis in its acute and the chronic phases. Based on strong existing evidence of clinical reports and epidemiological observations regarding DED and environmental factors we conclude that there is a straight cause-and-effect relationship between ambient stresses and DED. International standards and web-based tools are described for monitoring worldwide environmental conditions referring localities and populations susceptible to EDED. This information is beneficial to health providers to pinpoint the individuals and predisposed groups afflicted with DED. Such insights may not only improve the understanding and treatment of DED but also help to identify the contributing factors and lower the frequency and progression of EDED. of DED has been studied and confirmed in animal models of human DED (13)(14)(15) . KeywordsAs indicated, a healthy and pain-free ocular surface depends on identifying and eliminating factors that cause ambient humidity, airflow and purity, and temperature to intolerable levels. Such an undertaking is needed to preserve tear film qualities commensurate with ocular surface health. This is essential to sustain sufficient corneal refractive power, visual acuity, and ocular comfort (5,16,17) . A desiccating environment can lead to increase in tear film evaporation and/or decline in its turn over and clearance. These initial events lead to exposure of the ocular surface to hazardous environmental elements that trigger or exacerbate EDED symptoms. Clinical findings have shown that increased numbers of people are affected by EDED because of exposure to environmental factors ( Figure 2).Our purpose herein is to provide a critical appraisal of the clinical and epidemiological evidence indicating that DED is influenced by environmental factors. Secondly, we delineate EDED as a single clinical entity with a unique set of symptoms and clinical findings different from that of either DED or other diseases, such as Sjögren's syndrome, diabetes mellitus or drug induced, allergic conjunctivitis, toxic or irritative conjunctivitis, and actinic keratitis. Moreover, we will describe standard tools used to monitor environmental conditions and discuss their relevance in EDED ep...

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Section: Environment Monitoring Toolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is dry eye an environmental disease?

Alves¹,

Novaes²,

Morraye³

et al. 2014

Arquivos Brasileiros De Oftalmologia

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Air pollution is one of the major environmental issues in metropolitan areas because of its adverse effects on human health (e.g., Chen and Kann, 2008;Rückerl et al, 2011;Lelieveld et al, 2015). Strong emissions, e.g., from traffic, industry or heating, can drastically decrease air quality, in particular when the emitted pollutants are captured below an inversion and when meteorological conditions prevent an exchange of polluted and clean air.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mixing layer height as an indicator for urban air quality?

Geiß

Wiegner²,

Bonn

et al. 2017

Atmos. Meas. Tech.

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Abstract. The mixing layer height (MLH) is a measure for the vertical turbulent exchange within the boundary layer, which is one of the controlling factors for the dilution of pollutants emitted near the ground. Based on continuous MLH measurements with a Vaisala CL51 ceilometer and measurements from an air quality network, the relationship between MLH and near-surface pollutant concentrations has been investigated. In this context the uncertainty of the MLH retrievals and the representativeness of ground-based in situ measurements are crucial. We have investigated this topic by using data from the BAERLIN2014 campaign in Berlin, Germany, conducted from June to August 2014. To derive the MLH, three versions of the proprietary software BL-VIEW and a novel approach COBOLT were compared. It was found that the overall agreement is reasonable if mean diurnal cycles are considered. The main advantage of COBOLT is the continuous detection of the MLH with a temporal resolution of 10 min and a lower number of cases when the residual layer is misinterpreted as mixing layer. We have calculated correlations between MLH as derived from the different retrievals and concentrations of pollutants (PM 10 , O 3 and NO x ) for different locations in the metropolitan area of Berlin. It was found that the correlations with PM 10 are quite different for different sites without showing a clear pattern, whereas the correlation with NO x seems to depend on the vicinity of emission sources in main roads. In the case of ozone as a secondary pollutant, a clear correlation was found. We conclude that the effects of the heterogeneity of the emission sources, chemical processing and mixing during transport exceed the differences due to different MLH retrievals. Moreover, it seems to be unrealistic to find correlations between MLH and near-surface pollutant concentrations representative for a city like Berlin (flat terrain), in particular when traffic emissions are dominant. Nevertheless it is worthwhile to use advanced MLH retrievals for ceilometer data, for example as input to dispersion models and for the validation of chemical transport models.

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“…Credit: tingimage / Alamy Stock Photo reductions achieved in developed countries. After decades of effort in management of air pollution control, air pollutant levels in most developed countries have been decreasing dramatically whereas in many developing countries, as well as countries in transition, although air pollution levels have been slightly decreasing or have remained stable, they are still higher than those in developed countries 11 . In addition, control technologies for PM 2.5 emissions in coal-fired units are highly effective in the United States, Europe and China, but have low penetration rate in India.…”

Section: Small and Badmentioning

confidence: 99%