Critical meteorological factors affecting daily particulate concentrations during winter for Utah's urbanized Salt Lake Valley are examined on the basis of forty years of data. In a typical winter, the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 microns (PM2.5) is exceeded during 6 multi-day events comprising 18 winter days. Multi-day epi...

Several studies in North American cities have reported associations between air pollution and respiratory symptoms. Replicating these studies in cities with very different population and weather characteristics is a useful way of addressing uncertainties and strengthening inferences of causality. To this end we examined the responses of three different panels to particulate matter (PM) air poll...

OBJECTIVE To describe changes in prevalence of child undernutrition in Northeastern Brazil in two successive time periods, identifying, in each period, the major factors responsible for these changes. METHODS Data analyzed are from probabilistic samples of underfives from three Demographic Health Surveys carried out in 1986 (n=1,302), 1996 (n=1,108), and 2006 (n=950). Identification of factor...

Researchers have theorized that social and psychosocial factors increase vulnerability to the deleterious health effects of environmental hazards. We used baseline examination data (2000-2002) from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. Participants were 45-84 years of age and free of clinical cardiovascular disease at enrollment (n = 6814). The modifying role of social and psychosocial fac...

BACKGROUND Prenatal exposures to stress and physical toxins influence children's respiratory health, although few studies consider these factors together. OBJECTIVES We sought to concurrently examine the effects of prenatal community-level psychosocial (exposure to community violence [ECV]) and physical (air pollution) stressors on repeated wheeze in 708 urban children followed to age 2 years...

Building on a unique exposure assessment project in New York, New York, we examined the relationship of particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 μm and nitrogen dioxide with birth weight, restricting the population to term births to nonsmokers, along with other restrictions, to isolate the potential impact of air pollution on growth. We included 252,967 births in 2008-2010 ide...

Since the last revision of the national particulate standards, there has been a profusion of epidemiologic research showing associations between particulates and health effects--mortality in particular. Supported by this research, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency promulgated a national standard for particulate matter [less than/equal to] 2.5 microm in aerodynamic diameter (PM(2.5)). Nev...

OBJECTIVES We investigated the association between particulate matter less than 10 µm in aerodynamic diameter (PM₁₀) exposure and non-accidental mortality in Asian populations by meta-analysis, using both time-series and case-crossover analysis. METHODS Among the 819 published studies searched from PubMed and EMBASE using key words related to PM₁₀ exposure and non-accidental mortality in Asia...

OBJECTIVES Cohort studies of associations between air pollution and health have used exposure prediction approaches to estimate individual-level concentrations. A common prediction method used in Korean cohort studies is ordinary kriging. In this study, performance of ordinary kriging models for long-term particulate matter less than or equal to 10 μm in diameter (PM10) concentrations in seven ...

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...