S.I.V. Sousa

Health effects of ozone focusing on childhood asthma: what is now known--a review from an epidemiological point of view.

Protecting the health of children and the environment is an essential objective for the health policies of any modern society, being also crucial for a sustainable development, according to the World Health Organization. Evaluating the risk of developing childhood asthma is one of the four priority issues identified by the European Commission, according to the European Union Environment and Health Action Plan. Accordingly, this review aimed to update information concerning the effects of exposure to ozone on childhood asthma, thus helping in the development of strategies for further research. Studies have been demonstrating strong associations between the exposure to ozone and asthma. However, the complexity of exposure patterns, the changes in the vulnerability of children at various stages of development, and the practical limitations of research, lead to a still incomplete understanding of the ozone impact on the health of children. Difficulties on the interpretation of epidemiological studies to evaluate chronic effects are mainly due to an absence of studies designed specifically to address this question and to inherent limitations in characterizing exposure. The more rigorous studies provided new evidences for chronic effects of ozone on small airway function and possibly on asthma, but substantial uncertainties remain.

Short-term effects of air pollution on respiratory morbidity at Rio de Janeiro--Part II: health assessment.

The effects of air pollution on health have been studied worldwide. Given that air pollution triggers oxidative stress and inflammation, it is plausible that high levels of air pollutants cause higher number of hospitalisations. This study aimed to assess the impact of air pollution on the emergency hospitalisation for respiratory disease in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The study was divided in two parts: Part I specifically addressing the air pollution assessment and Part II addressing the health assessment. Accordingly, this Part II aimed to estimate the association between the concentrations of PM₁₀, SO₂ and CO observed in Rio de Janeiro and the number of emergency hospitalisations at a central hospital due to respiratory diseases. The pollutant concentrations were measured at two different sites in Rio de Janeiro, but the excess relative risks were calculated based on the concentrations observed at one of the sites, where limits were generally exceeded more frequently, between September 2000 and December 2005. A time series analysis was performed using the number of hospitalisations, divided in three categories (children until 1 year old, children aged between 1 and 5 years old and elderly with 65 years old or more) as independent variable, the concentrations of pollutants as dependent variables and temperature, relative humidity, long term trend, and seasonality as confounders. Data were analysed using generalised additive models with smoothing for some of the dependent variables. Results showed an excess risk of hospitalisation for respiratory disease higher than 2% per 10 μg m⁻³ increase in PM₁₀ concentrations for children under 5 years old, of 2% per 10 μg m⁻³ increase in SO₂ for elderly above 65 years old and around 0.1% per 10 μg m⁻³ increase in CO for children under 1 year and elderly. Other studies have found associations that are in agreement with the results achieved in this study. The study suggests that the ambient levels of air pollutants experienced in Rio de Janeiro between 2000 and 2005 were linked to the number of hospitalisations for respiratory diseases among children and elderly.

Ozone exposure and its influence on the worsening of childhood asthma.

Background:u2002 It is well documented that high levels of many airborne pollutants can adversely affect many systems of the human body. The aim of this study was to evaluate the specific impact of ozone (O3) on the worsening of childhood asthma, comparing children living at regions with high and low O3 concentrations (reference site) without the confounding effects of other pollutants.

Spirometric tests to assess the prevalence of childhood asthma at Portuguese rural areas: influence of exposure to high ozone levels.

The study here reported aimed to: i) evaluate the prevalence of childhood asthma at a Portuguese rural area with high ozone concentrations through lung function tests, validating the previously estimated one assessed through questionnaires (similar to those of the ISAAC); ii) compare the achieved prevalence with the one reported at an unexposed area (with low ozone concentrations), aiming to evaluate the influence of exposure to high ozone levels; and iii) determine potential risk factors. Ninety-five of the original 478 children that completed the questionnaires, mentioned to have at least one of asthma symptoms (wheeze, dyspnea or cough) and were therefore evaluated by spirometry. FEV(1) was in average 89.7% for asthmatics and 102.8% for non-asthmatics. For the studied sample the risk was higher for girls with a tendency to be higher from 8 to 10 years old. Lifetime prevalence of childhood asthma at the exposed area was 9.2%. Children living at the exposed area had 3 times higher risk of having asthma than those living at the unexposed area. Considering that ozone concentrations were the main difference between both areas, it can be suggested that ozone pollution increased asthma prevalence. Nevertheless, it should be remarked that further studies should be done to confirm these results.

Identification of Regions with High Ozone Concentrations Aiming the Impact Assessment on Childhood Asthma

ABSTRACT High concentrations of near-surface ozone are known to have negative impacts on human health, especially among risk groups such as persons with respiratory problems, children, and the elderly. The aim of this work was to identify regions with high ozone concentrations and very low concentrations of other pollutants, where further studies will be performed regarding the specific impact of ozone on childhood asthma. For that, the concentrations of ozone and of its precursors at remote areas were assessed and compared with those observed at an urban area influenced by traffic. Measurements using passive samplers were compared with those performed with continuous monitors and it was possible to conclude that measurements with passive samplers had satisfactory reproducibility and precision. For O3, the comparison of both methods showed a maximum absolute difference of +4.10 μ g.m−3 and relative differences lower than −8.8%. The maximum absolute difference for NO2 was +5.2 μ g.m−3 and the relative differences were greater than 12% only for very low concentrations (2–3 μ g.m−3). Comparing with one urban site, the results obtained at remote sites showed significantly lower concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (12 to 20 times) and volatile organic compounds (2 to 8 times) and greater ozone concentrations (2 to 3 times). It was inferred that the lower concentrations of nitrogen dioxide were the main reason for the greater ozone concentrations found at the remote sites. The remote areas studied showed very high ozone concentrations and very low concentrations of other pollutants, being an adequate zone to perform further studies regarding the specific impact of ozone on childhood asthma without the confounding effects of other pollutants.

The activity-based methodology to assess ship emissions - A review

Several studies tried to estimate atmospheric emissions with origin in the maritime sector, concluding that it contributed to the global anthropogenic emissions through the emission of pollutants that have a strong impact on hu health and also on climate change. Thus, this paper aimed to review published studies since 2010 that used activity-based methodology to estimate ship emissions, to provide a summary of the available input data. After exclusions, 26 articles were analysed and the main information were scanned and registered, namely technical information about ships, ships activity and movement information, engines, fuels, load and emission factors. The larger part of studies calculating in-port ship emissions concluded that the majority was emitted during hotelling and most of the authors allocating emissions by ship type concluded that containerships were the main pollutant emitters. To obtain technical information about ships the combined use of data from Lloyds Register of Shipping database with other sources such as port authoritys databases, engine manufactures and ship-owners seemed the best approach. The use of AIS data has been growing in recent years and seems to be the best method to report activities and movements of ships. To predict ship powers the Hollenbach (1998) method which estimates propelling power as a function of instantaneous speed based on total resistance and use of load balancing schemes for multi-engine installations seemed to be the best practices for more accurate ship emission estimations. For emission factors improvement, new on-board measurement campaigns or studies should be undertaken. Regardless of the effort that has been performed in the last years to obtain more accurate shipping emission inventories, more precise input data (technical information about ships, engines, load and emission factors) should be obtained to improve the methodology to develop global and universally accepted emission inventories for an effective environmental policy plan.

Assessment of shipping emissions on four ports of Portugal

In the last few years, ship emissions have attracted growing attention in the scientific community. The main reason is the constant increase of marine emissions over the last twenty years due to the intensification of port traffic. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate ship emissions (PM10, PM2.5, NOx, SO2, CO, CO2, N2O CH4, NMVOC, and HC) through the activity-based methodology in four of the main ports of Portugal (Leixões, Setúbal, Sines and Viana do Castelo) during 2013 and 2014. The analysis was performed according to ship types (bulk carrier, container, general cargo, passenger, Ro-Ro cargo, tanker and others) and operational modes (manoeuvring, hotelling and during cruising). Results indicated that tankers were the largest emitters in two of the four analysed ports. Regarding cruising emissions, container ships were the largest emitters. . CO2, NOx and SO2 estimated emissions represented more than 95% of the cruising and in-port emissions. Results were also compared with the total national emissions reported by the Portuguese Environment Agency, and if the in-port emissions estimated in the present study would have been taken into account to these totals, emissions of NOx and SO2 would increase 15% and 24% in 2013 and 16% and 28% in 2014. Summing up ships seem to be an important source of air pollution, mainly regarding NOx and SO2.

Indoor Air at an Urban Nursery in Porto, Portugal¿Weekday/Weekend Behaviour

Non-communicable disease epidemic: epidemiology in action (EuroEpi 2013 and NordicEpi 2013) Aarhus, Denmark from 11 August to 14 August 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013 Jørn Olsen, Ellen Aagaard Nøhr, Reimar Wernich Thomsen, Henrik Støvring Modern societies are increasingly challenged by the frequency of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as mental disorders, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease, cancer, COPD, and arthritis. These conditions affect large proportions of the population and lead to premature mortality and loss of healthy life, which later will lead to less productive societies and loss of European socio-economic development. Both incidence and prevalence of these NCDs increase with age, which translates into the challenge only mounting over the coming decades. At the same time injuries and infections remain important, because their risk is increased with NCDs. While this has been a European reality for at least threedecades, similar patterns are beginning to appear in many other parts of the world. Type 2 diabetes for example is a disease reaching near-Western prevalences in China and India. It is therefore reasonable to ask, what epidemiologists on a global scale can learn from the European experiences when trying to identify causes and risk factors for NCDs. Also when searching for costeffective interventions for NCD prevention and treatment at an individual and at a societal level. To address this challenge, many different and crossdisciplinary viewpoints needs to be embraced. There is urgent need for input from risk factor epidemiology, clinical sciences,—omics research, psychology and behavioral research, consumer studies, and statistics, while maintaining a public health perspective to identify credible action strategies. Proper use of European experiences might mean that something good could come out of past failures and mistakes. With this setting in mind, the EuroEpi 2013 and NordicEpi 2013 are held in Aarhus, Denmark, August 11–14, 2013, with a program with a dual focus on cutting edge methodological developments for the study of causal effects and effect modifiers, and with corresponding presentations of current applications and challenges when using these techniques. As an integrated part of the congress the NordicEpi focus on register-based epidemiologic research in Nordic countries. On the first day of the congress six pre-congress courses are offered with a very distinguished panel of senior epidemiologists. During the congress nine special symposia are held, of which one is dedicated to the overall theme of the congress. All parts of the congress are open to all interested. The congress had received 668 abstracts at the end of the deadline from 561 presenters. Interestingly more than 100 abstracts came from outside Europe (Table 1). 153 abstracts were selected for oral presentation in one of the 18 contributed sessions, while 491 were accepted for poster presentation. Topics of the submitted abstracts were broad, ranging from disease specific themes over exposures to methods and public health (Table 2). Table 2 Author-chosen topics of submitted abstracts, EuroEpi and NordicEpi 2013

Bioactive Nano-Filters to Control Legionella on Indoor Air

Several factors affect the indoor air quality, among which ventilation, human occupancy, cleaning products, equipment and material; they might induce the presence of aerosols (or bioaerosols in the presence of biological components) nitrogen oxides, ozone, carbon monoxide and dioxide, volatile organic compounds, radon and microorganisms. Microbiological pollution involves hundreds of bacteria and fungi species that grow indoors under specific conditions of temperature and humidity. Exposure to microbial contaminants is clinically associated with allergies, asthma, immune responses and respiratory infections, such as Legionnaires Disease and Pontiac Feaver, which are due to contamination by Legionella pneumophila. Legionnaires Disease has increased over the past decade, because of the use of central air conditioning. In places such as homes, kindergartens, nursing homes and hospitals, indoor air pollution affects population groups that are particularly vulnerable because of their health status or age, making indoor air pollution a public health issue of high importance. Therefore, the implementation of preventive measures, as the application of air filters, is fundamental. Currently, High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters are the most used to capture microorganisms in ventilation, filtration and air conditioning systems; nevertheless, as they are not completely secure, new filters should be developed. This work aims to present how the efficiency of a textile nanostructure in a non-woven material based on synthetic textiles (high hydrophobic fibers) incorporating appropriate biocides to control Legionella pneumophila, is going to be measured. These bioactive structures, to be used in ventilation systems, as well as in respiratory protective equipment, will reduce the growth of microorganisms in the air through bactericidal or bacteriostatic action. The filter nanostructure should have good air permeability, since it has to guarantee minimum flows of fresh air for air exchange as well as acceptable indoor air quality.

Prediction of the next day maximum ozone concentration using multiple linear and principal component regressions

Prediction of ground-level ozone concentrations is very important due to the negative impacts of this pollutant on human health and environment. Multiple linear regression (MLR) and principal component (PCR) regression were used as statistical models for the forecasting of ozone concentrations. The aim of this study was to predict the next day maximum ozone concentration. The studies were performed considering separately the year 2002 and the respective four trimesters. A subset of the last 10 and 30 days was used, respectively, for each trimester and for the year to validate the models. The predictor variables were inferred by the analysis of the linear correlation with ozone. For that, maxima hourly values for ozone, ratio of nitrogen dioxide and nitrogen monoxide, temperature, wind velocity and the minima hourly values for carbon monoxide and relative humidity were used. The main results achieved were: i) the performance indexes obtained for validation datasets were usually higher with PCR; ii) the number of principal components considered to develop the PCR was dependent of the dataset considered; iii) the PCR is more robust than MLR because collinearity effects are accounted with the first approach; iv) PCR model is shown to be a useful tool to provide protection for the public, through the use of early warnings for the population.