A ir quality in many cities, especially in the rapidly growing capitals of developing countries, has deteriorated to such an extent that it is having a significant respiratory impact upon susceptible individuals. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that over 600 million people are now being exposed to sulfur dioxide concentrations far in excess of what could be considered inoffensive,...

Overview In the 1998-99 school year, U.S. K-12 public schools provided instruction to over 46 million students. An estimated 70% of all school buildings have indoor air quality (IAQ) problems, leading to an unhealthy environment. Because children breathe a greater volume of air relative to their body weight compared to adults, they may be more sensitive to indoor air pollution. Additionally, oc...

Chronic physical or emotional stress is known to impair the immune system, a link that may explain some of the health disparities found among different socioeconomic groups. Researchers have also found that living in poor, urban communities or near highways is linked to a greater risk of developing childhood asthma and other breathing problems. A new study now reveals that psychosocial stressor...

Poor indoor air quality has been implicated in the increase in allergic and respiratory diseases seen in industrialized countries in recent decades. Although air pollution in the workplace is well studied, much less is known about the consequences of poor air quality in homes. In an attempt to halt or slow down the increase in allergic and respiratory diseases, the European Federation of Allerg...

Health impact assessment has become important in the development of air quality policies and in finding the relationships between pollutants concentration and health effects. In our work we presented a novel index able to evaluate the effects on the human exposure caused by ambient air pollution in urban areas. The index is able to link both health risk factors and pollutants levels. The indexe...

BACKGROUND Recently, we showed that outdoor air pollution exposure from traffic and industry is associated with an increased risk of skin aging in Caucasian women. In China, indoor air pollution exposure caused by the use of solid fuels like coal is a major health problem and might also increase the risk of skin aging in Chinese women. OBJECTIVE As cooking with solid fuels is a major source o...

The Fogarty International Training and Research Program in Environmental and Occupational Health at UC Berkeley concentrates on two major environmental health issues in the Indian subcontinent: arsenic in drinking water in West Bengal, India, and indoor air pollution in India and Nepal. Local trainees and researchers have had the opportunity to work on related research. Concerning arsenic in dr...

INTRODUCTION Despite the close link between tuberculosis (TB) and poverty, most mathematical models of TB have not addressed underlying social and structural determinants. OBJECTIVE To review studies employing mathematical modelling to evaluate the epidemiological impact of the structural determinants of TB. METHODS We systematically searched PubMed and personal libraries to identify eligib...

Magnetite in mixture with metallic iron in indoor dust samples was examined using several magnetic analyses, thermomagnetic curves of the magnetic susceptibility and the induced magnetization vs. temperature, hysteresis loops, and first-order reversal curves. The study of the magnetic properties was supplemented by the analysis of chemical elements and electron microscopic observation. The meta...

During the 1970s the building industry witnessed a focus on energy-conserving building materials sparked by oil-price increases; during the 1980s attention to building materials that reduced or omitted pollutants became important as a result of the "Sick Building Syndrome" or indoor air pollution. Now, in the 1990s, we are engaged with a more comprehensive definition of environmental materials ...