Early concerns regarding the health-related effects of air pollution originated from severe episodes in Meuse Valley, Belgium, in 1930; Donora, Pennsylvania, in 1948; and London, in 1952. Although the overall effects of these episodes continue to be debated, well-documented, episode-related increases in morbidity and mortality from cardiopulmonary causes provided dramatic evidence that extremel...

With China's significant role on pollution emissions and related health damage, deep and up-to-date understanding of China's air pollution policies is of worldwide relevance. Based on scientific evidence for the evolution of air pollution and the institutional background of environmental governance in China, we examine the development of air pollution control policies from the 1980s and onwards...

The London fog episode in 1952 was a sentinel event that indicated that short-term exposure to ambient air pollution could adversely influence the health of persons with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). A review of autopsy records indicated a doubling of cases with COPD as a major finding compared with other periods [1]. The association between greater levels of ambient air polluti...

air quality is a topic of crucial importance, because air pollution is one of the most important pollution problems in the world. in particular, predicting or detecting a future extreme air pollution episode or predicting the violation of an air quality standard, is of crucial interest in the field of pollution control. there have been a variety of attempts to reach this purpose both from the p...

A modeling analysis of a heavy air pollution episode occurred in Beijing X. An, T. Zhu, Z. Wang, C. Li, and Y. Wang State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, Center for Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China LAPC, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China Received: 17 July 2006 – Accepted: 2...

The concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM) and ozone in Beijing often exceed healthful levels in recent years, therefore China is to taking steps to improve Beijing’s air quality for the 2008 Olympic Games. In this paper, the Models-3 Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) Modeling System was used to investigate a heavy air pollution episode in Beijing during 3–7 April 2005 to obtain t...

Background: Air pollution is a serious threat to children health. Given that children spend over 80% of their time indoors, understanding transport of pollutants from outdoor to indoor environments is important for assessing the impact of exposure to outdoor pollution on children health. The most common advice given during a smoke pollution episode is to stay indoors. How well this works depend...