OBJECTIVE To determine particulate matter smaller than 2.5 μm (PM(2.5)) levels at various hospitality and entertainment venues of Karachi, Pakistan. METHODS This was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted at various locations in Karachi, during July 2009. Sampling was performed at 20 enclosed public places, including hospitality (restaurants and cafés) and entertainment (snooker/billia...

The authors assessed the impacts of two different smoke-free laws on indoor air quality. They compared the indoor air quality of 10 hospitality venues in Lexington and Louisville, Kentucky, before and after the smoke-free laws went into effect. Real-time measurements of particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 microm or smaller (PM2.5) were made. One Lexington establishment was exclu...

Although studies have increasingly linked air pollution to specific health outcomes, less well understood is how public perceptions of air quality respond to changing pollutant levels. The growing availability of air pollution measurements and the proliferation of social media provide an opportunity to gauge public discussion of air quality conditions. In this paper, we consider particulate mat...

Escalating air pollution is contributing to increased cardiovascular health problems currently witnessed in the world. Cardiac diseases such as ischaemic heart disease and strokes account for 80% of ambient air pollution-related early deaths [1]. Additionally, it is estimated that about 3 million deaths and 85 million disability adjusted live years (DALYs) resulted from particulate matter of am...

In recent years, the rapid development of industrialization and urbanization has caused serious environmental pollution, especially particulate pollution. As the "Earth's kidneys," wetland plays a significant role in improving the environmental quality and adjusting the climate. To study how wetlands work in this aspect, from the early autumn of 2014 to 2015, we implemented a study to measure t...

The pollution status and characteristics of PAEs (phthalate esters) were investigated in indoor air of offices, and PAEs of both gas-phase and particulate-phase were detected in all the samples. The concentration (sum of the gas phase and the particulate phase) was 4748.24 ng/m3, ranging between 3070.09 and 6700.14 ng/m3. Diethyl phthalate, dibutyl phthalate, and di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate were...

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to examine the association between ambient air pollution and hospitalization for respiratory infections among children who were younger than 15 years in Toronto during a 4-year period (1998-2001). METHODS Exposures averaged during periods that varied from 1 to 7 days were used to assess the effects of air pollutants, including thoracic particulate matt...

air quality is a topic of crucial importance, because air pollution is one of the most important pollution problems in the world. in particular, predicting or detecting a future extreme air pollution episode or predicting the violation of an air quality standard, is of crucial interest in the field of pollution control. there have been a variety of attempts to reach this purpose both from the p...

Fine particulate matter air pollution plus ozone impairs vascular function and raises diastolic blood pressure. We aimed to determine the mechanism and air pollutant responsible. The effects of pollution on heart rate variability, blood pressure, biomarkers, and brachial flow-mediated dilatation were determined in 2 randomized, double-blind, crossover studies. In Ann Arbor, 50 subjects were exp...

Particulate air pollution has been shown to strongly suppress precipitation from convective clouds over land. New observations show that precipitation from similar polluted clouds over oceans is much less affected, because large sea salt nuclei override the precipitation suppression effect of the large number of small pollution nuclei. Raindrops initiated by the sea salt grow by collecting smal...