Positive and negative side effects of economic activities—“externalities” in the language of economists—are universal in the energy sector. Coal-fired power plants not only produce electricity, but also CO2, which contributes to global warming, and local air pollutants such as sulfur dioxide (SO2), which have adverse health effects on the population living downwind of the smoke stacks. The stud...

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...

OBJECTIVE To determine the best statistical distribution of concentration data of major air pollutants in Shanghai. METHODS Four types of theoretic distributions (lognormal, gamma, Pearson V and extreme value) were chosen to fit daily average concentration data of PM10, SO2 and NO2 from June 1, 2000 to May 31, 2003 in Shanghai by using the maximum likelihood method. The fit results were evalu...

Background: Sulfur dioxide is one of the important pollutants that at the present time cause irreparable damage to environment and human health. The aim of present study was to study and comparison the effects of SO2 on respiratory and cardiovascular deaths in Bushehr city. Materials and Methods: This analytical study was conducted in Bushehr city during 2011. In the first stage data were colle...

OBJECTIVES A large body of evidence has documented that air pollutants have adverse effect on human health as well as on the environment. The aim of this study was to determine whether there was an association between outdoor concentrations of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and a daily number of hospital admissions due to cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in Novi Sad, Serbia among ...

This study examines the relationship of asthma emergency department (ED) visits to daily concentrations of ozone and other air pollutants in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. Data on ED visits with a presenting complaint of asthma (n = 1987) were abstracted for the period 1984-1992 (May-September). Air pollution variables included ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfate, and total sus...

EPA has established National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for six principal air pollutants or "criteria pollutants" that include carbon monoxide (CO), lead (Pb), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), particulate matter in two size ranges [less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) and less than 10 μm (PM10)], ozone, and sulfur dioxide (http://www.epa.gov/air/criteria.html). While associations have been identified bet...

COVID-19 is a huge tragedy for the world community. Everything in the world is affected due to this pandemic right from economy to resources where the economy of major countries of the world are facing recession and resources are surplus with no takers at all. The measures to contain COVID-19 pandemic include lockdown, social distancing, isolation, and home quarantine. Lockdown adopted by the d...

The city of Zarghan is located 25 km northeast of Shiraz, southern Iran. Zarghan is affected by numerous pollution sources such as oil refinery, an industrial park, and Shiraz-Tehran highway. The numerous contaminating sources around Zarghan can cause serious local air pollution. Sulfur dioxide gas is an important index of air pollution in cities. Therefore, in order to control and manage Zargh...

BACKGROUND Air pollution constitutes a significant stimulus of asthma exacerbations; however, the impacts of exposure to major air pollutants on asthma-related hospital admissions and emergency room visits (ERVs) have not been fully determined. OBJECTIVE We sought to quantify the associations between short-term exposure to air pollutants [ozone (O3), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO...