The decline in vitamin D status among older people is probably due to decreased synthesis of vitamin D by sun-exposed skin and/or decreased outdoor activity. The authors examined the association between outdoor leisure physical activity and serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1988-1994) (n = 15,148 aged >/=20 years). The mean 25-hydroxyvitami...

The restorative potential of green outdoor environments for children in preschool settings was investigated by measuring the attention of children playing in settings with different environmental features. Eleven preschools with outdoor environments typical for the Stockholm area were assessed using the outdoor play environment categories (OPEC) and the fraction of visible sky from play structu...

The last 15 years have seen electric wheelchairs evolve from slow, indoor-only devices to vehicles that are also useful for outdoor trips of several miles . But while wheelchairs with good outdoor performance are now commercially available, the evolution of the indoor/outdoor wheelchair is by no means complete . There remain important issues of safety, reliability, durability and performance wh...

The functional group (FG) composition of urban residential outdoor, indoor, and personal fine particle (PM2.5) samples is presented and used to provide insights relevant to organic PM2.5 exposure. PM2.5 samples (48 h) were collected during the Relationship of Indoor, Outdoor, and Personal Air (RIOPA) study at 219 non-smoking homes (once or twice) in Los Angeles County, CA, Elizabeth, NJ, and Ho...

The aim of this study was to assess the respiratory effects of outdoor air pollution after correcting for allergy and indoor air quality. The respiratory health survey targeted 1,129 schoolchildren, 9 yrs of age, attending schools in Krakow located in city areas differing in outdoor air pollution levels. Chronic phlegm as a unique symptom was related neither to allergy nor to indoor variables, ...

OBJECTIVES Our study sought to examine associations between the content of outdoor advertising and neighborhood ethnic/racial and socioeconomic composition to see whether particular communities disproportionately host harmful content. METHODS We constructed a spatial database of photographs taken from June 2012 until December 2012 in 7 identically zoned communities in Los Angeles, California,...

OBJECTIVES Mean blood pressure varies moderately with outdoor air temperature in many western populations. Substantial uncertainty exists, however, about the strength of the relationship in other populations and its relevance to age, adiposity, medical treatment, climate and housing conditions. METHODS To investigate the relationship of blood pressure with season and outdoor temperature, we a...

Fourteen volatile organic compounds (VOCs)-twelve hydrocarbons and two organochlorine compounds-were monitored both outdoors and indoors for three years at one site in Rome. Results showed that 118 out of 168 indoor seasonal mean values were higher than the corresponding outdoor concentrations. The most relevant source of outdoor hydrocarbons was automotive exhaust emissions. Due to the enforce...

Traffic emissions and tobacco smoke are considered two main sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in indoor and outdoor air. In this study, the impact of these sources on the level of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and on the distribution of 15 PAHs regarded as priority pollutants by the US-EPA on PM2.5 were evaluated and compared. Outdoor and indoor PM2.5 samples were collected d...

During summer 1991, we collected indoor, outdoor, and personal ozone concentration data as well as time-activity data in State College, Pennsylvania. These concentrations were measured for 23 children and their homes using passive ozone samplers. Outdoor concentrations were also measured at a stationary ambient monitoring site. Results from this pilot study demonstrate that fixed-site ambient m...