Apart from industry, traffic and private households, the agricultural sector is a considerable contributor to emissions of particulate matter (PM). Agricultural activities such as plant and animal production on both farm sites and fields cause PM emissions. Although a reduction of PM emissions is observed for Europe, an increasing proportion of primary PM10 emissions originates from agriculture...

Nature-based solutions have been identified by the European Union as being critical for the enhancement of environmental qualities in cities, where urban and peri-urban forests play a key role in air quality amelioration through pollutant removal. A remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) approach was applied to the Metropolitan City (MC) of Rome to assess the seasonal particulat...

BACKGROUND Air pollution is associated with asthma exacerbations. We examined the associations of exposure to ambient particulate matter (PM10) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) with the risk of wheezing in preschool children, and assessed whether these associations were modified by tobacco smoke exposure. METHODS This study was embedded in the Generation R Study, a population-based prospective coho...

The indoor and outdoor particulate concentration and its chemical composition in six monitoring stations and selected residential dwellings were studied in May 2010 in Kathmandu valley. The six stations were strategically located to measure the air quality of the valley viz. -urban roadside, urban hospital, urban residential, urban background and valley background. Particulate concentration was...

BACKGROUND Ambient particulate matter (PM) air pollution exposure has been associated with increases in QT interval duration (QT). However, innate susceptibility to PM-associated QT prolongation has not been characterized. OBJECTIVE To characterize genetic susceptibility to PM-associated QT prolongation in a multi-racial/ethnic, genome-wide association study (GWAS). METHODS Using repeated e...

Platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) and its receptor system regulate mesenchymal cell proliferation. We recently reported that emission-source fly-ash particles and asbestos fibers induce the PDGF alpha-receptor through a macrophage-dependent pathway, and upregulation of this receptor greatly enhances the mitogenic response of lung myofibroblasts to PDGF (Lindroos and colleagues, Am. J. Respi...

Recent studies suggest that stress can amplify the harm of air pollution. We examined whether experience of racism and exposure to particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of less than 2.5 µm and 10 µm (PM2.5 and PM10) had a synergistic influence on ethnic differences in asthma and lung function across adolescence. Analyses using multilevel models showed lower forced expiratory volume (F...

OBJECTIVE To analyze the association between daily mortality from different causes and acute exposure to particulate matter less than 10 microns in aerodynamic diameter (PM10), in Bogota, Colombia. MATERIALS AND METHODS A time-series ecological study was conducted from 1998 to 2006. The association between mortality (due to different causes) and exposure was analyzed using single and distribu...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the modification effect of socioeconomic status (SES) on the association between acute exposure to particulate matter less than 10 microns in aerodynamic diameter (PM10) and mortality in Bogota, Colombia. MATERIALS AND METHODS A time-series ecological study was conducted (1998-2006). The localities of the cities were stratified using principal components analysis, creati...

Nowadays application of webcam becomes more and more popular. Thus webcams are being developed to have better resolution but lower cost. This has motivated us to evaluate the suitability of using webcam for indoor air quality monitoring. This monitoring involved determining the concentration of particulate matter with diameter less than 10 micron (PM10). An algorithm was developed to convert mu...