Fine Particulate Matter in Urban Environments: A Trigger of Respiratory Symptoms in Sensitive Children

Abstract

The overall objective of this research was to study children’s respiratory illness levels in Targoviste (Romania) in relationship to the outdoor concentrations of airborne particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter below 2.5 µm (PM2.5). We monitored and analysed the PM2.5 concentrations according to a complex experimental protocol. The health trial was conducted over three months (October–December 2015) and required the active cooperation of the children’s parents to monitor carefully the respiratory symptoms of the child, i.e., coughing, rhinorrhoea, wheezing, and fever, as well as their outdoor program. We selected the most sensitive children (n = 25; age: 2–10 years) with perturbed respiratory health, i.e., wheezing, asthma, and associated symptoms. The estimated average PM2.5 doses were 0.8–14.5 µg·day−1 for weekdays, and 0.4–6.6 µg·day−1 for the weekend. The frequency and duration of the symptoms decreased with increasing age. The 4- to 5-year old children recorded the longest duration of symptoms, except for rhinorrhoea, which suggested that this age interval is the most vulnerable to exogenous trigger agents (p < 0.01) compared to the other age groups. PM2.5 air pollution was found to have a direct positive correlation with the number of wheezing episodes (r = 0.87; p < 0.01) in November 2015. Monitoring of wheezing occurrences in the absence of fever can provide a reliable assessment of the air pollution effect on the exacerbation of asthma and respiratory disorders in sensitive children.

A Review of Airborne Particulate Matter Effects on Young Children’s Respiratory Symptoms and Diseases

“…Multiple factors, including air pollution, are contributing to increased asthma morbidity. Recent studies performed in two Romanian cities indicated that the prevalence of asthma in children is increasing at a rate of 8-11% per year [19].…”

Evaluating the Air Pollution Impact Using Environmental Monitoring, Dispersion Modeling and Volunteered Geographic Information Systems

“…Consequently, various microenvironments are occurring at city level making difficult the conventional measurements of air quality in view of insuring a global covering of the city at spatial level. Thus, the forecasting of potential pollution episodes in a specific microenvironment and their associated health effects are also problematic [10]. One solution could be the integration of VGI component by encouraging the citizens to contribute with quasi-empirical georeferenced data e.g., GPS tracks, heart rates, street pictures, physical symptoms, respiratory events, visual observations of emissions.…”

“…On the other hand, PM 2.5 forecasting accuracy is dependent on the availability and precision of the meteorological data, inventory of emissions, and chemical reaction schemes required to configure optimally the model running conditions. The forecasting of a pollution episode requires supplemental details about PM 2.5 constituents, or potential emission source to elaborate proper recommendations to the public in relation to possible health effects or to support effective measures to reduce emissions, which contributed to the episode [10].…”

Improving the Protection of Children Against Air Pollution Threats in Romania � The RokidAIR Project Approach and Future Perspectives

“…In the RokidAIR webbased GIS, the georeferenced layers allowed the spatiotemporal characterization of vulnerable areas in each city through the application of geospatial analysis. Medical database and receptor database were supplemented with specific information to identify the CAs that are under a major PM 2.5 impact [17,26]. The subsequent ranking of the CAs allowed the selection of the locations for the deployment of the micro-stations in Phase II.…”