[en] Nowadays, the human health is closely related to quality of indoor air. This article analyzes the main types of pollution to indoor air and their harms to human health, and on this basis, it sets forth the prevention measures comprehensively and proposes advices to normalize industry standards. (paper)

[en] Fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) concentrations are highly variable indoors, with evidence for exposure disparities. Real-time monitoring coupled with novel statistical approaches can better characterize drivers of elevated PM_2.5 indoors. We collected real-time PM_2.5 data in 71 homes in an urban community of Greater Boston, Massachusetts using Alphasense OPC-N2 monitors. We estimated indoor PM_2.5 concentrations of non-ambient origin using mass balance principles, and investigated their associations with indoor source activities at the 0.50 to 0.95 exposure quantiles using mixed effects quantile regressions, overall and by homeownership. On average, the majority of indoor PM_2.5 concentrations were of non-ambient origin (≥77%), with a higher proportion at increasing quantiles of the exposure distribution. Major source predictors of non-ambient PM_2.5 concentrations at the upper quantile (0.95) were cooking (1.4–23 μg/m³) and smoking (15 μg/m³, only among renters), with concentrations also increasing with range hood use (3.6 μg/m³) and during the heating season (5.6 μg/m³). Across quantiles, renters in multifamily housing experienced a higher proportion of PM_2.5 concentrations from non-ambient sources than homeowners in single- and multifamily housing. Renters also more frequently reported cooking, smoking, spray air freshener use, and second-hand smoke exposure, and lived in units with higher air exchange rate and building density. Accounting for these factors explained observed PM_2.5 exposure disparities by homeownership, particularly in the upper exposure quantiles. Our results suggest that renters in multifamily housing may experience higher PM_2.5 exposures due to a combination of behavioral and building factors that are amenable to intervention.

[en] Adults born either extremely preterm (EP, 2499 g). We compared self-reported adverse respiratory health outcomes in young adults born EP/ELBW with controls following smoke exposure from the 2019/2020 wildfires in the Australian state of Victoria, and explored if any effects were mediated by airway obstruction, reflected in the forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV₁).

[en] Currently, air quality information in a region becomes an important thing to know. Some efforts have been conducted to show air quality in certain region. One of the efforts that has been done is information regarding air quality in several big cities in Indonesia which can be seen in the official website of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry that have several weaknesses. One of the problems to be overcome in this research is visualization of air quality data that is monitored at one point only in which that point is the placement location of air quality monitoring station. Because of that, we need an application that can display a map of air pollution distribution using the spatial interpolation method. The solution offered is the depiction of air quality by using heatmap on the map. The method used to produce heatmap with smooth result is natural cubic spline interpolation method. The production of heatmap uses API which is provided by Google Maps. The final result obtained is the map view with the coloration in the form of color gradation in accordance with the air quality value that is obtained. (paper)

[en] Beijing Haze has been phenomenal, especially for winter, and widely considered a result of the increasing anthropogenic emissions of atmospheric pollutants in the region. Since 2013, the pollutant emissions have been reduced with the help of a series of emission-control actions. However, severe haze events still occurred frequently in Beijing in recent winters, e.g., those of 2015 and 2016, implying that other factors such as meteorological conditions and interannual climate variability have also played an important role in forming the haze. Based on homogenized station observations, atmospheric circulation reanalysis and anthropogenic emissions data for the period 1980–2017, this paper attempts to quantify the relative importance of anthropogenic emissions and climatic conditions to the frequency and intensity of Beijing Haze in winter. It is found that the frequency (number) of hazy days exhibits large interannual variability and little trend, and its variations were mainly controlled by climate variability, with a correlation coefficient of 0.77. On the other hand, the intensity of haze displays strong interannual variability and a significant increasing trend during 1980–2012 and a notable decreasing trend during 2012–2017. The multiple linear regression model suggests that about half of the total variance of the haze intensity is explained by climate variability (mainly for interannual variations), and another half by the changing emissions (mainly for the trends). (letter)

[en] One of the concerns of the air pollution studies is to compute the concentrations of one or more pollutants' species in space and time in relation to the independent variables, for instance emissions into the atmosphere, meteorological factors and parameters. One of the most significant statistical disciplines developed for the applied sciences and many other disciplines for the last few decades is the extreme value theory (EVT). This study assesses the use of extreme value distributions of the two-parameter Gumbel, two and three-parameter Weibull, Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) and two and three-parameter Generalized Pareto Distribution (GPD) on the maximum concentration of daily PM10 data recorded in the year 2010 - 2012 in Pasir Gudang, Johor; Bukit Rambai, Melaka; and Nilai, Negeri Sembilan. Parameters for all distributions are estimated using the Method of Moments (MOM) and Maximum Likelihood Estimator (MLE). Six performance indicators namely; the accuracy measures which include predictive accuracy (PA), Coefficient of Determination (R2), Index of Agreement (IA) and error measures that consist of Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and Normalized Absolute Error (NAE) are used to find the goodness-of-fit of the distribution. The best distribution is selected based on the highest accuracy measures and the smallest error measures. The results showed that the GEV is the best fit for daily maximum concentration for PM10 for all monitoring stations. The analysis also demonstrates that the estimated numbers of days in which the concentration of PM10 exceeded the Malaysian Ambient Air Quality Guidelines (MAAQG) of 150 mg/ m"3 are between 1/2 and 11/2 days. (author)

[en] The method of separate power plant contribution assessment to harmful substances concentration in city atmosphere near ground is proposed. The methodic is based on careful simultaneous measuring of the concentration of specific substances under different meteorological conditions and wide range of changing of enterprise work-load on the one hand, and strict control for enterprise technological regime - on the other hand. (author)

[en] Whether indoor air pollution from solid fuel use is associated with cognitive function remains unclear.

[en] Highlights: • We extend the Green Solow model theoretically, and characterize the spatial spillover effects of pollution emission. • China’s urban pollution emission is featured by club convergence via estimation of empirical equations of pollution emission • China’s urban pollution emission can be divided into three clubs: the low-, medium- and high-pollution clubs. • The high-pollution club converges fastest, followed by low-pollution club, and medium-pollution club converges slowest. We explore China's pollution emission convergence through theoretical deduction and empirical test using a spatial Green Solow model. First, the extended theoretical analysis results show that an economy will pass the inflection point of Environmental Kuznets Curve when growth rate of pollution reduction technology exceeds that of output, which supports the existence of pollution emission convergence. Secondly, estimation results of a dynamic spatial panel data model show that China's urban pollution emission has convergence properties in which club convergence will come true first. Thirdly, China's low-pollution urban cluster has entered a benign pattern of pollution prevention; the medium-pollution club characterized by pollution transfer shows beggar-thy-neighbor effects; while the high-pollution club with a typical positive feedback mechanism of pollution still faces risks of escalating pollution. Hence, the government should pay great attention to pollution prevention of the medium- and high-pollution clubs by strengthening regional coordination and accelerating industrial upgrading, which promotes the shift of pollution prevention from club convergence to absolute convergence and provides an environmental guarantee for high-quality development.

[en] Accurate and precise estimates of ambient air temperatures that can capture fine-scale within-day variability are necessary for studies of air temperature and health.