Plastic pollution in marine surface waters is prone to high spatial and temporal variability. As a result increases in pollution over time are hard to detect. Selecting areas, based on variable oceanographic and climatological drivers, rather than distance-based approaches, is proposed as a means to better understand the dynamics of this confounding variability in coastal environments. A pilot ...

We investigated the issue of noise pollution in the Bidboland gas refineryby noise measurement and surveys. The Bidboland gas refinery has several process units.The sound pressure levels were measured at several places, such as units of 200, 300,400, 500, boiler, powerhouse area, cooling towers pumps, and maintenance area, and thecorresponding noise maps were produced by using sound plan softwa...

BACKGROUND It is commonly assumed that low socioeconomic levels are associated with greater exposure to pollution, but this is not necessarily valid. Our goal was to examine how individual socioeconomic characteristics are associated with exposure levels in a Spanish region included in the INfancia y Medio Ambiente (INMA) cohort. METHODS The study population comprised 430 pregnant women from ...

This study concerns the effects of urban air pollution on the nasopharyngeal epithelium, with the aim of evaluating the possible harmful activity of levels of atmospheric pollution which are not currently considered to be dangerous. Over a 3 month period, 10 lambs kept in a zone characterized by numerous vehicles were sacrificed at regular intervals, and their nasopharyngeal mucosa was examined...

Background and Purpose—Long-term air pollution effects on stroke incidence have not been examined extensively. We investigated the associations between ambient pollution and the incidence of stroke, as well as stroke subtypes, in a northern Canadian city surrounded by energy-sector pollution sources. Methods—Stroke data from an administrative database from 2003 through 2007 were used to estimat...

Urban centers in Latin American often face high levels of air pollution as a result of economic and industrial growth. Decisions with regard to industry, transportation, and development will affect air pollution and health both in the short term and in the far future through climate change. We investigated the pollution health consequences of modest changes in fossil fuel use for three case stu...

BACKGROUND Recent studies have observed positive associations between outdoor air pollution and emergency department (ED) visits for asthma. However, few have examined the possible confounding influence of aeroallergens, or reported findings among very young children. METHODS A time stratified case-crossover design was used to examine 57,912 ED asthma visits among individuals two years of age...

The aim of this study was to determine whether long-term air pollution exposure is associated with clinical phenotype in alpha(1)-antitrypsin deficiency. In total, 304 PiZZ subjects underwent full lung function testing and quantitative high-resolution computed tomography to identify the presence and severity of the disease. Mean annual air pollutant data for 2006 was matched to the location of ...

Daily and seasonal fluctuations in mortality have been positively and significantly associated with ambient concentrations of atmospheric pollution and meteorological variables such as temperature and barometric pressure. However, much less is known about the health risk from atmospheric pollutants in the context of frequently occurring weather patterns. The objective of this study is to assess...