Ambient air pollution in urban and industrial areas in Greece was a serious environmental problem which was connected with rapid urbanization of cities, anarchic housing development without basic infrastructures and increases of motor vehicle fleet in urban regions. Especially Athens, witnessed severe air pollution problems in the decades 1960s‘-1970s‘ and the formation of the infamous brown-ye...

Although maternal and infant mortality has been reduced in China over the past several years, the country is still facing big challenges in reproductive health (Fang and Kaufmann 2008). In 2001, the prevalence of birth defects reported in China was higher than that in most developed One possible contributor to the reproductive health burden in China may be environmental pollution. The most popu...

Outdoor air pollution has been recently classified as a class I human carcinogen by the World Health Organization (WHO). Cumulative evidence from across the globe shows that polluted air is associated with increased risk of lung, head and neck, and nasopharyngeal cancers--all of which affect the upper aerodigestive tract. Importantly, these cancers have been previously linked to smoking. In thi...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE There have been no multicity studies on the acute effects of air pollution on stroke mortality in China. This study was undertaken to examine the associations between daily stroke mortality and outdoor air pollution (particulate matter <10 μm in aerodynamic diameter, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide) in 8 Chinese cities. METHODS We used Poisson regression models wit...

This study assessed the public's health risk awareness of urban air pollution triggered by three megacities in China, and the data are the responses from a sample size of 3868 megacity inhabitants from Shanghai, Nanchang and Wuhan. Descriptive analyses were used to summarize the respondents' demographics, perceived health risks from air pollution and sources of health-related knowledge on urban...

One-year-old seedlings of silver birch (Betula pendula Roth.) were grown in pots filled with a soil substrate that originated from an area polluted by a phosphate fertiliser factory and characterised by a high soil Al level and low Ca/Al ratio or with a substrate from an area regarded as free from toxic pollution. In addition the effect of fertilisation with a mixture of nutrients was evaluated...

Recent studies investigating the adverse health effects of air pollution indicate that effects exist around and below the current national and international air quality guidelines and standards. However, the difficult methodological issues involved, and the diversity of analytical techniques so far applied, hinder direct between-study comparability and the drawing of clear conclusions. The APHE...

Average temperatures worldwide are expected to continue to rise. At the same time, major cities in developing countries are becoming increasingly populated and polluted. Governments are tasked with the problem of overheating and air quality in residential buildings. This paper presents the development of a model, which is able to estimate the occupant exposure to extreme temperatures and high a...

This work presents results of studies on secondary school adolescents inhabiting two regions of Warsaw: Sródmiescie district (Downtown) and Miedzylesie (Wawer district - Vicinity), conducted in 2006. These two districts significantly differ according to air pollution, which is much higher in Downtown than in Vicinity. The sample consists of 219 boys and 225 girls aged 13-16 years. The measureme...

OBJECTIVE Air pollution can promote airway inflammation, posing significant health risks for children with chronic respiratory problems. However, it is unknown whether this process is reversible, so that limiting pollution will benefit these children. We measured the short-term response of allergic asthmatic children exposed to a real-life reduction in outdoor air pollution by using noninvasive...