Search

Children exposed to violent war-like and repeated political violence often experience a continued threat to life and their sense of safety, as well as a disruption of daily functioning. The purpose of the study was to examine the psychological impact of exposure to Israeli occupation on Palestinian school children in the West Bank and Gaza, Palestine. We assessed the association between exposure to occupation and the severity of posttraumatic symptoms and the inter-relationship between posttraumatic symptoms, functional impairment, somatic complaints, and coping strategies in school children. Palestinian students (n = 2100) from grades 9-11 were screened from both the West Bank (n = 1235) and Gaza (n = 724) and responded to self-report questionnaires. Results showed that extensive exposure to violence was associated with higher levels of posttraumatic distress and more somatic complaints in both the West Bank and Gaza regions. More Gaza than West bank students reported symptoms meeting the criteria for PTSD, and more girls than boys in both groups reported somatic complaints. Thus, school-based screening can be an effective method for case identification of students showing PTSD symptoms as a result of exposure to political violence. (Contains 5 tables.)

This manuscript evaluates spatial and temporal variations of source contributions to ambient fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) in Israeli, Jordanian, and Palestinian cities. Twenty-four hour integrated PM 2.5 samples were collected every six days over a 1-year period (January to December 2007) in four cities in Israel (West Jerusalem, Eilat, Tel Aviv, and Haifa), four cities in Jordan (Amman, Aqaba, Rahma, and Zarka), and three cities in Palestine (Nablus, East Jerusalem, and Hebron). The PM 2.5 samples were analyzed for major chemical components, including organic carbon and elemental carbon, ions, and metals, and the results were used in a positive matrix factorization (PMF) model to estimate source contributions to PM 2.5 mass. Nine sources, including secondary sulfate, secondary nitrate, mobile, industrial lead sources, dust, construction dust, biomass burning, fuel oil combustion and sea salt, were identified across the sampling sites. Secondary sulfate was the dominant source, contributing 35% of the total PM 2.5 mass, and it showed relatively homogeneous temporal trends of daily source contribution in the study area. Mobile sources were found to be the second greatest contributor to PM 2.5 mass in the large metropolitan cities, such as Tel Aviv, Hebron, and West and East Jerusalem. Other sources (i.e. industrial lead sources, construction dust, and fuel oil combustion) were closely related to local emissions within individual cities. This study demonstrates how international cooperation can facilitate air pollution studies that address regional air pollution issues and the incremental differences across cities in a common airshed. It also provides a model to study air pollution in regions with limited air quality monitoring capacity that have persistent and emerging air quality problems, such as Africa, South Asia and Central America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Palestinian economy has dramatically deteriorated at all levels since the Al-Aqsa Intifada (uprising) began in 2000, resulting in an unprecedented catastrophe to the livelihoods of the Palestinians residing in the West Bank and Gaza. It was also marked by lack of household physical and financial access to food and health care, which placed children at increased risk of malnutrition and poor health. This prompted a significant increase in food aid from 2002 until the summer of 2003.Objectives: To assess the nutritional status of children 6 to 59 months of age after 1 year of food assistance.Methods: In the West Bank and Gaza, a nationally representative sample of children 6 to 59 months of age was randomly selected with a validated multistage clustered design, with the Health Survey 1999 sample used as the sampling frame. The sample was stratified according to governorate, place of residence (urban, nonurban, or refugee camp), locality, and size of locality (number of households). A cross-sectional survey of nutritional status was carried out. Data were collected by interviews with the primary caregivers of the children. Measurements were made of children's weight and height or length. Food-intake data were collected by the 24-hour food-recall method with the use of a booklet of photographs of foods commonly eaten in Palestine.Results: A total of 3,089 children were assessed, of whom 3.1% in the West Bank and 3.9% in the Gaza Strip were suffering from acute malnutrition; the prevalence of chronic malnutrition was 9.2% in the West Bank and 12.7% in the Gaza Strip (p = .02). Sex, refugee status, locality, and maternal education were not significantly associated with acute malnutrition by logistic regression analysis, whereas infants 6 to 23 months of age were significantly at risk. Calorie and protein intakes were generally lower than recommended dietary allowances.Conclusions: The prevalence rates of both acute and chronic malnutrition among children in the West Bank and Gaza are significantly higher than the national Palestinian averages. There is a need to establish nutritional surveillance systems to monitor the nutritional status of children in conflict areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A study of carbonaceous particulate matter (PM) was conducted in the Middle East at sites in Israel, Jordan, and Palestine. The sources and seasonal variation of organic carbon, as well as the contribution to fine aerosol (PM2.5) mass, were determined. Of the 11 sites studied, Nablus had the highest contribution of organic carbon (OC), 29%, and elemental carbon (EC), 19%, to total PM2.5 mass. The lowest concentrations of PM2.5 mass, OC, and EC were measured at southern desert sites, located in Aqaba, Eilat, and Rachma. The OC contribution to PM2.5 mass at these sites ranged between 9.4% and 16%, with mean annual PM2.5 mass concentrations ranging from 21 to 25ugm−3. These sites were also observed to have the highest OC to EC ratios (4.1–5.0), indicative of smaller contributions from primary combustion sources and/or a higher contribution of secondary organic aerosol. Biomass burning and vehicular emissions were found to be important sources of carbonaceous PM in this region at the non-southern desert sites, which together accounted for 30%–55% of the fine particle organic carbon at these sites. The fraction of measured OC unapportioned to primary sources (1.4μgCm−3 to 4.9μgCm−3; 30%–74%), which has been shown to be largely from secondary organic aerosol, is relatively constant at the sites examined in this study. This suggests that secondary organic aerosol is important in the Middle East during all seasons of the year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This manuscript presents results from an extensive, multi-country comparative monitoring study of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and its primary chemical components in Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian cities. This study represented the first time that researchers from these countries have worked together to examine spatial and temporal relationships for PM2.5 and its major components among the study sites. The findings indicated that total PM2.5 mass was relatively homogenous among many of the 11 sites as shown from strong between-site correlations. Mean annual concentrations ranged from 19.9 to 34.9 μg m−3 in Haifa and Amman, respectively, and exceeded accepted international air quality standards for annual PM2.5 mass. Similarity of total mass was largely driven by SO4 2− and crustal PM2.5 components. Despite the close proximity of the seven, well correlated sites with respect to PM2.5, there were pronounced differences among the cities for EC and, to a lesser degree, OC. EC, in particular, exhibited spatiotemporal trends that were indicative of strong local source contributions. Interestingly, there were moderate to strong EC correlations (r > 0.65) among the large metropolitan cities, West Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Amman. For these relatively large cities, (i.e., West Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Amman), EC sources from the fleet of buses and cars typical for many urban areas predominate and likely drive spatiotemporal EC distributions. As new airshed management strategies and public health interventions are implemented throughout the Middle East, our findings support regulatory strategies that target integrated regional and local control strategies to reduce PM2.5 mass and specific components suspected to drive adverse health effects of particulate matter exposure. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Carbonaceous aerosol concentrations and sources were compared during a yearlong study at two sites in East and West Jerusalem that were separated by a distance of approximately 4 km. One in six day 24-h PM2.5 elemental and organic carbon concentrations were measured, along with monthly average concentrations of particle-phase organic compound tracers for primary and secondary organic aerosol sources. Tracer compounds were used in a chemical mass balance (CMB) model to determine primary and secondary source contributions to organic carbon. The East Jerusalem sampling site at Al Quds University experienced higher concentrations of organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) compared to the West Jerusalem site at Hebrew University. The annual average concentrations of OC and EC at the East Jerusalem site were 5.20 and 2.19 μg m-3, respectively, and at the West Jerusalem site were 4.03 and 1.14 μg m-3, respectively. Concentrations and trends of secondary organic aerosol and vegetative detritus were similar at both sites, but large differences were observed in the concentrations of organic aerosol from fossil fuel combustion and biomass burning, which was the cause of the large differences in OC and EC concentrations observed at the two sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]