OBJECTIVE To identify the awareness regarding noise pollution and its adverse effects on human health in the people of urban areas of Karachi. STUDY DESIGN Cross-sectional survey. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY Urban areas of Karachi, from September to October 2012. METHODOLOGY A survey was conducted with 50 selected subjects of urban areas of Karachi with their informed consent. The questio...

An alternative normalization method was developed for evaluating atmospheric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) pollution level when using tree bark as a passive sampling medium. Perylene (PER), which mainly stems from natural biogenic processes, was proposed as a "natural internal compound" (NIC) of atmospheric PAHs accumulation processes from air into the bark, and a concentration ratio ...

The Tibetan Plateau is described as the "Roof of the World" averaging over 4000 m above sea level; it is remote, isolated, and presumed to be a pristine region. In order to study the history of atmospheric mercury (Hg) pollution and its spatial variation across the Plateau, lakes were chosen from three areas forming a north to south transect. Sediment cores were taken from three sites in each a...

The present study evaluated the genotoxic effects of the atmospheric air on Tradescantia pallida var. purpurea in urban areas with different intensities of vehicular traffic and in riparian forest fragments in the Sinos River Basin (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), considering the influence of climatic conditions prevailing in these environments. Bimonthly, from May 2012 to March 2013, cuttings with...

1 Atmospheric metallic and arsenic pollution at an offshore drilling platform in the Bo Sea: A health risk assessment for the workers Hong Xu, Suqin Han, Xiaohui Bi, Zhijing Zhao, Lei Zhang, Wenjie Yang, Min Zhang, Jing Chen, Jianhui Wu, To investigate the ambient metal pollution at the offshore drilling platform in the Bo Sea, which few studies have focused on, PM2.5samples were collected and ...

In the short commentary by Fang Cao and Yan-Lin Zhang, the authors suggest that tightening nonfossil emissions control may serve as a potential opportunity for fine particulate matter (PM with the particle size smaller than 2.5 μm or PM2.5) mitigation in China (1). Cao and Zhang state that “Guo et al.’s. . .important new finding fails to consider particles emitted by nonfossil sources (e.g., bi...

More than 80% of people living in urban areas who monitor air pollution are exposed to air quality levels that exceed limits defined by the World Health Organization (WHO). Although all regions of the world are affected, populations in low-income cities are the most impacted. According to average annual levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5, ambient particles with aerodynamic diameter of 2.5...

Benzene (C6H6) and toluene (C7H8) are toxic to humans and the environment. They are also important precursors of ground-level ozone and secondary organic aerosols and contribute substantially to severe air pollution in urban areas in China. Discrepancies exist between different bottom-up inventories for benzene and toluene emissions in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) and Hong Kong (HK), which are e...

Assessment of air quality has been traditionally conducted by ground based monitoring, and more recently by manned aircrafts and satellites. However, performing fast, comprehensive data collection near pollution sources is not always feasible due to the complexity of sites, moving sources or physical barriers. Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) equipped with different sensors have been intro...