BACKGROUND In time-series studies of the health effects of urban air pollutants, decisions must be made about how to characterize pollutant levels within the airshed. METHODS Emergency department visits for pediatric asthma exacerbations were collected from Atlanta hospitals. Concentrations of carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter less than 10 microns in...

[5]) show that exposure to particulate matter(or PM, which is a complex mixture of extremely small particles and liquid droplets in the air) have various short-term and long-term health effects, e.g.: 1. associations between daily average ambient PM concentrations and corresponding cardiopulmonary mortality, morbidity, and functional impairments; 2. significant association between PM10(particul...

Particulate matter derived from various sources of fuel combustion contains minor to trace amounts of Fe-oxides that can be detected by magnetic measurements. These magnetic particulates can be used as proxies for particulate pollution, since oxide contents are often larger in amounts and may have distinctive magnetic properties, compared to most types of natural dusts. Magnetic particulates ra...

The aim of the current study was to establish the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) ligand expression profile in human airway epithelial cells exposed to either particulate matter (PM) with an aerodynamic diameter <2.5 microm (PM(2.5)) or its components and the involvement of EGFR ligands in PM(2.5)-provoked airway inflammation. EGFR ligand mRNA and protein expression were studied in a hu...

Recent studies have shown that particulate air pollution is a risk factor for hospitalization for heart and lung disease; however, little is known about what subpopulations are most sensitive to this pollutant. We analyzed Medicare hospital admissions for heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorders (COPD) and pneumonia in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, between 1985 and 1994. We exam...

Since the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993, there has been an increasing need to monitor environmental health trends that may be related to the rapid industrialization of the United States/Mexico border. We studied two counties on the California/Baja California border to obtain baseline data on trends in childhood asthma hospitalizations and two pollutants that aggrava...

We examined the hypothesis that ambient particulate matter with a diameter of <10 microm (PM(10))-induced lung inflammation is amplified by latent adenovirus infection. Inflammatory mediator expression in response to PM(10) exposure was compared between adenovirus E1A-transfected A549 alveolar epithelial cells and cells transfected with control plasmid. Messenger RNA was measured by the RNase p...

Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is estimated to be a major contributor to indoor PM concentration and human exposures to fine particulate matter of 2.5 microns or smaller (PM2.5). The Stochastic Human Exposure and Dose Simulation for Particulate Matter (SHEDS-PM) model developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency estimates distributions of outdoor and indoor PM2.5 exposure for a specif...

In order to address the health risks and climate impacts associated with pollution from cooking on biomass fires, researchers have focused on designing new cookstoves that improve cooking performance and reduce harmful emissions, specifically particulate matter (PM). One method for improving cooking performance and reducing emissions is using air injection to increase turbulence of unburned gas...

The objectives of this study were (1) to evaluate how acute mortality responds to changes in particulate and ozone (O(3)) pollution levels, (2) to identify vulnerable population groups by age and cause of death, and (3) to address the problem of interaction between the effects of O(3) and particulate pollution. Time-series of daily mortality counts, air pollution, and air temperature were obtai...