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The purposes of this study were to elucidate the associations between exposure to particulate matter, gaseous pollutants, and road traffic noise and asthma prevalence and to determine the interaction between exposure to multiple pollutants and asthma in children. A total of 3,246 children were recruited from 11 kindergartens in New Taipei City, Taiwan. Land use regression (LUR) was used to establish predictive models for estimating individual exposure levels of particulate matter, gaseous pollutants, and the 24 h A-weighted equivalent sound pressure level (L Aeq,24). Multiple logistic regression was performed to test the associations between exposure to these environmental factors and asthma prevalence in children. Multiple-exposure models revealed that an interquartile-range (IQR) increase in PM 2.5 (1.17 μg/m3) and PM 10 (10.69 μg/m3) caused a 1.34-fold (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.05–1.70) and 1.17-fold (95% CI = 1.01–1.36) increase in risk of asthma prevalence in children after adjusting for L Aeq,24 and NO 2. Co-exposure to PM 2.5 , L Aeq,24 , and O 3 , SO 2 , or CO, as well as co-exposure to PM 10 , L Aeq,24 , and CO produced similar findings. Only exposure to one IQR of SO 2 (0.15 ppb) was observed a significant association (odds ratio = 1.16, 95% CI = 1.00–1.34) with the asthma prevalence in children after adjusting for PM 10 and L Aeq,24. Exposure to PM 2.5 , PM 10 , and SO 2 may be associated with a higher asthma prevalence in children, while other gaseous pollutants and road traffic noise did not demonstrate significant associations. The interaction of exposure to air pollutants and road traffic noise on asthma prevalence in children was not observed in this study. [Display omitted] • Exposure to PM 2.5 is associated with an increased prevalence of asthma in children. • PM 10 exposure has a positive association with the asthma prevalence in children. • Only SO 2 is one of four gaseous pollutants associated with children asthma. • Road traffic noise is not associated with the asthma prevalence in children. • Interaction between air pollutants and road traffic noise on asthma is not found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution is a serious environmental health problem that has been previously associated with neuropathological disorders. However, current experimental evidence mainly focuses on the adverse effects of a single air pollutant, ignoring the biological responses to the co-existence of these pollutants. In the present study, we co-exposed C57BL/6 J mice to PM 2.5 , SO 2 and NO 2 and explored their neurobehavior, histopathologic abnormalities, apoptosis-related protein expression and mitochondrial dysfunction. The results indicate that co-exposure to PM 2.5 , SO 2 and NO 2 impaired spatial learning and memory and caused abnormal expression of apoptosis-related genes (p53, bax and bcl-2). Additionally, these alterations were related to morphological changes in mitochondria, a reduction of ATP, the elevation of mitochondrial fission proteins and the downregulation of fusion proteins. These findings provide a basis for the understanding of mitochondrial abnormality-related neuropathological dysfunction in response to co-exposure to ambient air pollutants, which suggests an adaptive response to the frangibility of the central nerve system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Trace levels of three atmospheric nitroarenes (NPAHs) were determined. [•] We described the long-range transport of atmospheric NPAHs in East Asia. [•] NPAHs at a background site of Japan in winter probably largely come from China. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Indoor air pollution has traditionally received less attention than outdoors pollution despite indoors pollutant levels are typically twice higher, and people spend 80–90% of their life in increasing air-tight buildings. More than 5 million people die every year prematurely from illnesses attributable to poor indoor air quality, which also causes multi-millionaire losses due to reduced employee's productivity, material damages and increased health system expenses. Indoor air pollutants include particulate matter, biological pollutants and over 400 different chemical organic and inorganic compounds, whose concentrations are governed by several outdoor and indoor factors. Prevention of pollutant is not always technically feasible, so the implementation of cost-effective active abatement units is required. Up to date no single physical-chemical technology is capable of coping with all indoor air pollutants in a cost-effective manner. This problem requires the use of sequential technology configurations at the expenses of superior capital and operating costs. In addition, the performance of conventional physical-chemical technologies is still limited by the low concentrations, the diversity and the variability of pollutants in indoor environments. In this context, biotechnologies have emerged as a cost-effective and sustainable platform capable of coping with these limitations based on the biocatalytic action of plants, bacteria, fungi and microalgae. Indeed, biological-based purification systems can improve the energy efficiency of buildings, while providing additional aesthetic and psychological benefits. This review critically assessed the state-of-the-art of the indoor air pollution problem and prevention strategies, along with the recent advances in physical-chemical and biological technologies for indoor pollutants abatement. • A state-of-the-art review on the global problem of poor indoor air quality. • Typology, sources and health risks of the most common indoor pollutants are revised. • Measures for prevention and abatement of indoor pollutants are carefully examined. • Evaluation of the performance of traditional physical-chemical methods. • Assessment of innovative and sustainable systems based on biotechnologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing modern-day concern is fine dust air pollution that contains heavy metals and ammonium ions (NH 4 +) from industrial and agricultural waste sources, respectively. In the current study, the development of an innovative and effective technique for real-time, quantitative monitoring of toxic fine dust components using plasma emission spectroscopy is presented as a complement to emergency preparedness plans aimed at reducing dust pollution. A novel spark-induced plasma spectroscopic (SIPS) device that can control the frequency and magnitude of plasma was developed for the toxic pollutants in this work. SIPS utilizes an electrical discharge from a high voltage at a low current to produce plasma when the applied voltage is higher than the ambient voltage surrounding the electrodes. The detection limit of this setup was enhanced by a factor of 4.3 over laser-induced plasma spectroscopy (LIPS). This compact sensing device was used in combination with a new quantitative analytical method to measure the concentration of heavy metals and ammonia molecules in fine dust air pollution. By integrating the time-resolved plasma emission signals that were based on the plasma continuum decay time of each element, quantitative measurements of the minute changes in composition of 0.1 μg/m3 were conducted. The findings of this study could inspire future research on the use of SIPS for monitoring airborne fine dust pollutants with better sensitivity in real-time via a new quantitative analytical method. • SIPS device for quantitative monitoring of airborne toxic pollutants was developed. • Proposed sensing device can be utilized for measuring airborne toxic pollutants. • Concentrations of heavy metals and ammonia were differentiated as small as 0.1 μg/m3. • Overall detection limit showed a five-fold enhancement over LIPS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]