BACKGROUND East-West comparison studies in Europe find higher prevalences of infectious airway diseases and lower prevalences of allergies in eastern areas. Pollution from sulphur dioxide (SO2) or total suspended particles (TSP) are discussed as causes of this difference. METHODS In four differently polluted areas of East Germany where pollution decreased dramatically between 1989 and 1995 cr...

Greenhouse gas emission limits are a major source of technical and policy uncertainty for electric power industry professionals. This paper tries to reduce some of this uncertainty by investigating the main forces that were responsible for the productivity gains made by the electric power sector with respect to SO2 emissions under the US SO2 cap and trade program. The SO2 cap and trade experien...

BACKGROUND Air pollution has been a serious public health threat worldwide. It has been linked to pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases but is also believed to contribute to air-pollution-mediated cardiometabolic disease such as diabetes. We investigated the relationship between type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) and air pollution in densely developed urban settings in South Korea, using national e...

In Erfurt, Germany, unfavorable geography and emissions from coal burning lead to very high ambient pollution (up to about 4000 micrograms/m3 SO2 in 1980-89). To assess possible health effects of these exposures, total daily mortality was obtained for this same period. A multivariate model was fitted, including corrections for long-term fluctuations, influenza epidemics, and meterology, before ...

Five-year data of SO2, PM10, NO, NO2, O3 and CO levels recorded at two air pollution monitoring stations in the city of Salamanca were analysed using a HJ-Biplot Simultaneous Representation analysis method in order to determine the possible relationships among the different pollutants and to gain insight into the temporal evolution of pollution in this city. Use of this statistical method prove...

OBJECTIVES Outdoor air pollution has consistently been shown to predict mortality. The finding that this association is stronger in infants than in children or adults raises the question whether air pollution could also be related to pregnancy outcomes--such as birthweight and stillbirth. The association between outdoor air pollution and stillbirths and low birthweight in the Czech Republic, wh...

A permanent improvement in ambient air quality in the Urban Area of Katowice over recent years could have resulted in a decreased risk of air pollution-related daily mortality. Our study investigates the risk associated with the levels of PM10 and SO2, obtained seven years apart (time-series analyses in 1994-95 and 200102). For both periods the acute mortality risk depends more on SO2 than on P...

BACKGROUND This study investigates the effects and mechanism of sulfur dioxide (SO2) inhalation and exercise on rat myocardial collagen fiber. MATERIAL AND METHODS The rats were randomly divided into 4 groups: a control group (RG), an exercise group (EG), an SO2 pollution group (SRG), and an SO2 pollution and exercise group (SEG). Body weight, cardiac index, and left ventricular index in each g...

Background: Recent studies have indicated long-term effects on mortality of particulate and sulphur dioxide (SO2) pollution, but uncertainties remain over the size of any effects, potential latency and generalisability. Methods: A small area study was performed across electoral wards in Great Britain of mean annual black smoke (BS) and SO2 concentrations (from 1966) and subsequent all-cause and...

BACKGROUND A number of epidemiological studies have been conducted to research the adverse effects of air pollution on mortality and morbidity. Hypertension is the most important risk factor for cardiovascular mortality. However, few previous studies have examined the relationship between gaseous air pollution and morbidity for hypertension. METHODS Daily data on emergency hospital visits (EH...