It has long been appreciated that fine particulate air pollution contributes to the pathology of respiratory disease and cancer.1,2 The more elusive link to cardiovascular disease, however, has been recognized only in the last decade. Epidemiological1–5 and experimental laboratory6 evidence has been mounting that supports the postulate that elevated concentrations of particulate air pollution c...

Like traffic jams and cell phones, particulate air pollution is a reality of modern living. Whether it’s from cigarette smoking, industrial emissions, or the burning of wood and dung for fuel, fine particulate matter (PM2.5) has been strongly linked to cardiovascular disease, inflammation, lung cancer, and other lung diseases. As part of the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) 2010 collaborati...

In tunnel construction, workers exposed to dust from blasting, gases, diesel exhausts, and oil mist have shown higher risk for pulmonary diseases. A clear mechanism to explain how these pollutants determine diseases is lacking, and alveolar epithelium's capacity to ingest inhaled fine particles is not well characterized. The objective of this study was to assess the genotoxic effect exerted by ...

Erratum: “An Integrated Risk Function for Estimating the Global Burden of Disease Attributable to Ambient Fine Particulate Matter Exposure” In “An Integrated Risk Function for Estimating the Global Burden of Disease Attributable to Ambient Fine Particulate Matter Exposure” by Burnett et al. [Environ Health Perspect 122:397–403 (2014); http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1307049], the authors omitted ...

Particulate matter contamination is known to become wet and therefore ionically conductive and corrosive if the humidity in the environment rises above the deliquescence relative humidity (DRH) of the particulate matter. In wet condition, particulate matter can electrically bridge closely spaced features on printed circuit boards (PCBs), leading to their electrical failure. Failures attributed ...

Satellite sensors have provided new datasets for monitoring regional and urban air quality. Satellite sensors provide comprehensive geospatial information on air quality with both qualitative imagery and quantitative data, such as aerosol optical depth. Yet there has been limited application of these new datasets in the study of air pollutant sources relevant to public policy. One promising app...

Building activities generate coarse (PM10≤10μm), fine (PM2.5≤2.5μm) and ultrafine particles (<100nm) making it necessary to understand both the exposure levels of operatives on site and the dispersion of ultrafine particles into the surrounding environment. This study investigates the release of particulate matter, including ultrafine particles, during the mixing of fresh concrete (incorporatin...

INTRODUCTION Current regulations for atmospheric particulate matter include PM10 and PM2.5 mass concentration. Fine particulates (those below 1000 nm) are not included in the regulatory limits. These particles contribute significantly to particle number concentration (PNC), but little to particle mass concentration. It is widely hypothesised that number concentrations of fine particles are bett...

BACKGROUND In recent years (2000-2007), ambient levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) have continued to decline as a result of interventions, but the decline has been at a slower rate than previous years (1980-2000). Whether these more recent and slower declines of PM2.5 levels continue to improve life expectancy and whether they benefit all populations equally is unknown. METHODS We asse...

[1] Waliguan Observatory (WO) is a land-based Global AtmosphereWatch baseline station on the Tibetan Plateau. Size-resolved ionic aerosols (NH4 , Na, K, Ca, Mg, SO4 2 , Cl , NO3 CO3 2 , formate, acetate and oxalate), organic aerosols, black carbon and gaseous HNO3 and SO2 were measured during an intensive fall-winter field experiment. The observational data were analyzed with a focus on the par...