In the past decade researchers have developed a body of epidemiologic evidence showing increased daily cardiovascular mortality and morbidity associated with acute exposures to particulate air pollution. Associations have been found not only with cardiovascular deaths reported on death certificates but also with myocardial infarctions and ventricular fibrillation. Particulate air pollution expo...

Over the past decade, an increasing body of scientific evidence has accrued associating outdoor air pollution with certain types of cancer. Specifically, two major large prospective epidemiological studies first published in the early to mid-1990s and, in the case of one study, recently confirmed with a larger data base, found an association between exposure to particulate air pollution and lun...

BACKGROUND Adverse respiratory effects of particulate air pollution have been identified by epidemiological studies. We aimed to examine the health effects of ambient particulate air pollution from wood burning on school-age students in Christchurch, New Zealand, and to explore the utility of urine and exhaled breath condensate biomarkers of exposure in this population. METHODS A panel study ...

This paper describes an analysis of mortality among census areas in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. The number of deaths following days with high particulate air pollution were compared with deaths on matched unpolluted days. The possible role of population age structure, relative deprivation (estimated using the NZDep96 index) and local exposure to outdoor air pollution from household f...

Background: Air pollution is associated with adverse health effects in individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). It is uncertain if and how individuals with COPD differ from former smokers without airflow obstruction in their response to naturally occurring episodes of particulate air pollution. We hypothesized that episodic temperature inversions with high particulate matt...

The paper combines a new, large household-level data set with the two-stage hedonic estimation technique to derive new estimates of willingness-to-pay for reduced air pollution. The WTP estimates are found robust against functional-form specification. Marginal WTP estimates for a reduction in particulate pollution are found to be quite comparable with some previous estimates. Benefits of non-ma...

While time-series studies have consistently provided evidence for an effect of particulate air pollution on mortality, uncertainty remains as to the extent of the life-shortening implied by those associations. In this paper, the authors estimate the association between air pollution and mortality using different timescales of variation in the air pollution time series to gain further insight in...

BACKGROUND Air quality affects us all and is a rapidly growing concern in the 21st century. We spend the majority of our lives indoors and can be exposed to a number of pollutants smaller than 2.5 microns (particulate matter, PM2.5) resulting in detrimental health effects. Indoor air quality sensors have the potential to provide people with the information they need to understand their risk and...

BACKGROUND Daily variations in ambient particulate air pollution have been associated with respiratory mortality and morbidity. AIMS To assess the associations between urinary concentration of lung Clara cell protein CC16, a marker for lung damage, and daily variation in fine and ultrafine particulate air pollution. METHODS Spot urinary samples (n = 1249) were collected biweekly for six mon...