Overproduction of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species can result from exposure to environmental pollutants, such as ionising and nonionising radiation, ultraviolet radiation, elevated concentrations of ozone, nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide, cigarette smoke, asbestos, particulate matter, pesticides, dioxins and furans, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and many other compounds present in the ...

The rapid screening and sensitive monitoring of environmental pollutants, such as pesticides, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), explosives, and toxins, is indeed essential to ensure environmental quality, and therefore, human health. Until recently, the quantification of most contaminants has been limited to the traditional chromato‐ graphic and spectr...

Air pollutants, such as particulate matter with a diameter ≤2.5 microns (PM2.5) and ozone (O3), are known to exacerbate asthma and other respiratory diseases. An integrated surveillance system that tracks such air pollutants and associated disease incidence can assist in risk assessment, healthcare preparedness and public awareness. However, the implementation of such an integrated environmenta...

Laccase (benzenediol : oxygen oxidoreductases; E.C. 1.10.3.2) a copper oxidase enzyme is capable of oxidizing phenolic and non-phenolic lignin related compounds as well as highly recalcitrant environmental pollutants such as aromatic amines. Their broad substrate specificity makes laccases highly suitable for diverse applications such as pulp bleaching, textile dye bleaching and bioremediation,...

In the modern society, people are exposed to various pollutants during their lifetime. Worldwide, the status of children's health has changed in recent decades. Some studies have attempted to identify the causes of these changes and whether they relate to pollutant exposure; however, such attempts have faced major challenges because human life is complex, involving many social and environmental...

Complications of vascular diseases, including atherosclerosis, are the number one cause of death in Western societies. Dysfunction of endothelial cells is a critical underlying cause of the pathology of atherosclerosis. Lipid rafts, and especially caveolae, are enriched in endothelial cells, and down-regulation of the caveolin-1 gene may provide protection against the development of atheroscler...

During the last decades research all over the world has highlighted the deleterious effects of pollution on respiratory health of adults and children. Nevertheless, air pollution still represents a significant threat to health. Children are more sensitive than adults to pollutants for several factors: increased respiration relative to body size; physiologic immaturity of respiratory and immunol...

Breast cancer incidence is higher in urban areas and industrialized countries, rather than in less developed ones [1]. The etiology is probably multifactorial and lifestyle and environmental factors account for 73% of cases [2]. The present study analyzes the eventual relationship between environmental pollutants exposure and population density and the risk of developing breast cancer. It conce...

Exposures to environmental pollutants during windows of developmental vulnerability in early life can cause disease and death in infancy and childhood as well as chronic, non-communicable diseases that may manifest at any point across the life span. Patterns of pollution and pollution-related disease change as countries move through economic development. Environmental pollution is now recognize...