In many countries emissions of particulate matter from urban sources, such as traffic and domestic wood burning, can lead to high episodic concentrations. Though it is important for air quality management and exposure studies to understand the individual source contributions to these concentrations, the complexity of the urban environment does not always allow a clear separation of sources when...

A review of the literature reveals considerable evidence to support the suggestion that vegetative surfaces remove particulate matter from the atmosphere. Preliminary observations of the leaf surfaces of an important urban tree indicate the presence of numerous particulate contaminants. In view of the medical importance of fine particles in urban atmospheres, it is important to assess the effic...

BACKGROUND Exposure to traffic-related particulate matter (PM) has been associated with adverse respiratory health outcomes in children. Diesel exhaust particles (DEPs) are a local driver of urban fine PM [aerodynamic diameter < or = 2.5 microm (PM(2.5))]; however, evidence linking ambient DEP exposure to acute respiratory symptoms is relatively sparse, and susceptibilities of urban and asthmat...

The US Environmental Protection Agency is currently assessing the need for a National Ambient Air Quality Standard for the coarse fraction of particulate material (PMCF), specifically, the fraction of particulate matter between 2.5 and 10 μm in aerodynamic equivalent diameter. EPA is primarily relying on epidemiological studies that examine the possible health effects of PMCF to reach a decisio...

Fine airborne respirable particulates less than 10 micrometer (PM10) are considered one of the top environmental public health concerns, since they contain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) which are among the major carcinogenic compounds found in urban air. The objective of this study is to assess the genotoxicity of the ambient PM10 collected at 11 urban sites in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. T...

In this paper, we take the urban road network as the object, a further study on the method of traffic signal self organization under the condition of traffic state identification and local congestion. In the urban road traffic state identification study, according to the need of traffic signal control, respectively from qualitative and quantitative point of view, the urban road traffic state is...

The incidence of allergic respiratory diseases and bronchial asthma appears to be increasing worldwide, and people living in urban areas more frequently experience these conditions than those living in rural areas. One of the several causes of the rise in morbidity associated with allergic respiratory diseases is the increased presence of outdoor air pollutants resulting from more intense energ...

BACKGROUND Oxidative potential (OP) has been suggested to be a more health-relevant metric than particulate matter (PM) mass. Land use regression (LUR) models can estimate long-term exposure to air pollution in epidemiological studies, but few have been developed for OP. OBJECTIVES We aimed to characterize the spatial contrasts of two OP methods and to develop and evaluate LUR models to asses...