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Exposure to air pollution during prenatal or neonatal periods is associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) according to epidemiology studies. Furthermore, prenatal exposure to valproic acid (VPA) has also been found to be associated with an increased prevalence of ASD. To assess the association between simultaneous exposure to VPA and air pollutants, seven exposure groups of rats were included in current study (PM 2.5 and gaseous pollutants exposed - high dose of VPA (PGE-high); PM 2.5 and gaseous pollutants exposed - low dose of VPA (PGE-low); gaseous pollutants only exposed - high dose of VPA (GE-high); gaseous pollutants only exposed - low dose of VPA (GE-low); clean air exposed - high dose of VPA (CAE-high); clean air exposed - low dose of VPA (CAE-low) and clean air exposed (CAE)). The pollution-exposed rats were exposed to air pollutants from embryonic day (E0) to postnatal day 42 (PND42). In all the induced groups, decreased oxidative stress biomarkers, decreased oxytocin receptor (OXTR) levels, and increased the expression of interleukin 6 (IL-6), interleukin 1β (IL-1β), and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) were found. The volumes of the cerebellum, hippocampus, striatum, and prefrontal decreased in all induced groups in comparison to CAE. Additionally, increased numerical density of glial cells and decreased of numerical density of neurons were found in all induced groups. Results show that simultaneous exposure to air pollution and VPA can cause ASD-related behavioral deficits and air pollution reinforced the mechanism of inducing ASD ̉s in VPA-induced rat model of autism., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Clean air is considered as a basic need for human health. However, air pollution is a significant threat to health in developed and developing countries. The aim of this study was to estimate the health effects attributed to PM 2.5 pollutants in the air of Ardabil in 2018 (using Air Q + model). Raw data related to particles were collected from the Department of Environment and processed in Excel software and converted into an input file of the Air Q + model, and in the final stage, by considering appropriate epidemiological parameters and combining these data with air quality data, it was possible to estimate the health effects of air pollution. The results showed that the average annual concentrations of PM 2.5 and PM 10 were 15.47 and 30.94 in the study year, respectively. The total number of deaths due to ALRI, COPD, lung cancer, IHD, and stroke deaths on average during the study period were estimated to be 73, 11, 7, 15, and 14 deaths, respectively, which include 14.62, 15.78, 4.9, 12.43, and 11.6% of deaths due to ALRI, COPD, lung cancer, IHD, and stroke deaths, respectively. In conditions of concentration above 5 µg/m 3 , attributed proportion, total number of attributed cases and number of attributed cases per 100,000 population (with moderate relative risk and confidence interval of 95%) for cardiovascular diseases have been estimated to be 0.95% 103 people and 42.19 people. Also, the attributed proportion, the total number of attributable cases, and the number of attributable cases per 100,000 population (with moderate relative risk and confidence of 95%) for the admission of respiratory diseases have been estimated at 97.1%, 68 persons and 3 persons, respectively. Our results suggest that particle exposure even at low concentrations is associated with an increased risk of overall mortality and specific cause mortality and hospital admissions for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Short-term exposures to air pollution have been associated with various adverse health effects. In this study, we investigated the associations between ambient air pollutants with the number of hospital admissions and mortality from cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). This time series study was conducted in Tehran for the years 2014-2017 (1220 day). We collected the ambient air pollutant concentration data from the regulatory monitoring stations. The health data were obtained from the Ministry of Health and Medical Education. A distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) was used for the analyses. Total CVDs and ischemic heart disease (IHD) admissions were associated with CO for each 1 mg/m 3 increase at lags of 6 and 7 days. Also, there was a positive association between total CVDs (RR 1.01; 1.001 to 1.03), IHD (RR 1.04; 1.006 to 1.07), and cerebrovascular diseases (RR 1.03; 1.005 to 1.07) mortality with SO 2 at a lag of 4 days. PM 2.5 and PM 10 were associated with cerebrovascular disease admissions in females aged 16-65 years and 16 years and younger for each 10 µg/m 3 increase, respectively. Short-term exposure to SO 2 , NO 2 , and CO was associated with hospital admissions and mortality for CVDs, IHD, cerebrovascular diseases, and other cardiovascular diseases at different lags. Moreover, females were more affected by ambient air pollutants than males in terms of their burden of CVDs. Therefore, identifying the likely harmful effects of pollutants given their current concentrations requires the planning and implementation of strategies to reduce air pollution., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This study aimed to assess the carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks of in-vehicle exposure in Tehran, Iran to formaldehyde and acetaldehyde for different models of taxis, and to explore the effects of city zone, taxi vehicle type, the taxi's age (<1, 1-5, 5-10), fuel type (gasoline, CNG, and LPG), and refueling activities on the estimated health risks based on previously measured concentrations. The overall and age-specific carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks of these compounds for taxi drivers and passengers were estimated separately using Monte Carlo simulations. Three scenarios of exposure frequency were defined for taxis commuting in different zones of city: Restricted Traffic Zone (RTZ) and Odd-Even Zone (OEZ) as two plans to reduce air pollution, and no-restriction zone (NRZ). The carcinogenic risks for drivers and passengers, the average risks of formaldehyde and acetaldehyde for most cases were above the 1 × 10 -4 . The health risks were greater in Restricted Traffic Zone (RTZ) and Odd-Even Zone (OEZ) in comparison to no-restriction zone (NRZ). The carcinogenic risk from formaldehyde exposures were higher than those for acetaldehyde in all cases. Taxis fueled with LPG showed lower cancer risks for both acetaldehyde and formaldehyde. Refueling increased the carcinogenic risk from both compounds. For non-carcinogenic risks from acetaldehyde, the average hazard ratios for both drivers and passengers were >1, indicating a non-negligible risk. Cancer and non-cancer risks for the taxi drivers were greater than the passengers given the higher time of occupancy. The present study showed that transportation in taxis can impose significant long-term health risks to both passengers and drivers. Development and investment in cleaner choices for public transportations are required., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

There is a compelling need for apportionment of pollutants' sources to facilitate their reduction through proper management plans. The present study was designed to determine the contribution of each possible source of total suspended particles in Ahvaz's ambient air using positive matrix factorization (PMF), chemical mass balance (CMB), and the SPECIATE database. The sampling program undertaken followed EPA's guidelines and finally resulted in 74 samples. The concentration of 33 elemental and 10 ionic species were measured during a whole year. Three modeling approaches were applied: PMF, the integrated use of PMF and CMB, and the integrated use of the SPECIATE database and CMB. Six sources were derived by PMF: crustal dust (30.6%), industrial and mining activities (25.4%), motor vehicles (23.4%), marine aerosols (11.5%), secondary inorganic aerosols (5.7%), and road dust (3.4%). The contributions of sources from PMF-CMB approach were crustal dust (32.9%), industrial and mining activities (20.9%), motor vehicles (19.7%), marine aerosols (11.1%), secondary inorganic aerosols (9.2%), and road dust (9.36%). Seven sources were derived by SPECIATE-CMB approach: crustal dust (23.2%), industrial and mining activities (20.1%), motor vehicles (17.5%), marine aerosols (12.4%), secondary inorganic aerosols (4.8%), road dust (5.3%), and "nondetermined sources" factor (16.7%). Despite the different contributions of sources, there is a noticeable consistency between the results of these approaches. Furthermore, because of the approved performance of combined receptor models in previous studies and the presence of sufficient data on the number of species and samples, the results of the PMF-CMB approach are possibly the most realistic among those of the three applied approaches.