Mixture analysis identifies ozone as driving factor for child asthma symptoms.

Background: The natural distributions of ambient air pollutants are often correlated. Existing studies have found that exposures to various air pollutants are associated with elevated risks of asthma symptoms among children. However, most studies applied single-pollutant models, which cannot distinguish between causal effects and associations due to correlations with other measured or unmeasured pollutants.

Climate Change and Respiratory Health: Opportunities to Contribute to Environmental Justice: An Official American Thoracic Society Workshop Report.

Adverse environmental exposures worsened by our changing climate threaten respiratory health and exacerbate existing social inequities that further undermine environmental justice (EJ). EJ is the capacity of all people, regardless of sociodemographic characteristics, to minimize harmful exposures and live a healthy life. EJ is achieved through the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.

Associations of metal mixtures in early pregnancy with lung function and asthma in mid-childhood in Project Viva.

Whether fetal lung development may be vulnerable to gestational exposure to metals is unknown. We analyzed mother-child pairs in Project Viva, a prospective pre-birth cohort in eastern Massachusetts, USA. Concentrations of 11 essential and non-essential metals were measured in maternal first-trimester erythrocytes (~10 weeks).

Evaporative coolers and wildfire smoke exposure: a climate justice issue in hot, dry regions.

Low-income families in dry regions, including in the Southwestern United States, frequently cool their homes with evaporative ("swamp") coolers (ECs). While inexpensive and energy efficient compared to central air conditioners, ECs pull unfiltered outdoor air into the home, creating a health hazard to occupants when wildfire smoke and heat events coincide. A community-engaged research project to reduce wildfire smoke in homes was conducted in California's San Joaquin Valley in homes of Spanish-speaking agricultural workers.

Association of a cleaner-burning stove with blood pressure in adults in rural Malawi.

Background: Hypertension is a leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and its association with household air pollution (HAP) in sub-Saharan Africa is understudied.

Main Objective: To investigate the association between blood pressure (BP) and HAP exposure in a population-based cohort in rural Malawi.

Materials And Methods: In the Chikwawa district, the site of a previous randomized controlled trial of a cleaner-burning cookstove intervention (the Cooking and Pneumonia Study or CAPS), we recruited 1,481 randomly selected adults.

The Effect of Wildfires on Asthma and Allergies.

Climate change is a major driver of the frequency and severity of wildfires caused by extended periods of drought and hotter, drier weather superimposed on the legacy of fire suppression in the Mountain West of the United States. In recent years, increased wildfire smoke has negated the improvements in air quality made by clean energy transitions. Wildfire smoke is a complex mixture of gases and solids, a chief constituent of which is fine particulate matter (PM).

Measured air quality impacts after teaching parents about cooking ventilation with a video: a pilot study.

Background: Cooking-related emissions contribute to air pollutants in the home and may influence children's health outcomes.

Objective: In this pilot study, we investigate the effects of a cooking ventilation intervention in homes with gas stoves, including a video-based educational intervention and range hood replacement (when needed) in children's homes.

Methods: This was a pilot (n = 14), before-after trial (clinicaltrials.

Impacts from air pollution on respiratory disease outcomes: a meta-analysis.

Introduction: Air pollution is widely acknowledged as a significant factor in respiratory outcomes, including coughing, wheezing, emergency department (ED) visits, and even death. Although several literature reviews have confirmed the association between air pollution and respiratory outcomes, they often did not standardize associations across different studies and overlooked other increasingly impactful pollutants such as trace metals. Recognizing the importance of consistent comparison and emissions of non-exhaust particles from road traffic, this study aims to comprehensively evaluate the standardized effects of various criteria pollutants and trace metals on respiratory health.

Long-term air pollution exposure and the risk of primary graft dysfunction after lung transplantation.

Background: Primary graft dysfunction (PGD) contributes substantially to both short- and long-term mortality after lung transplantation, but the mechanisms that lead to PGD are not well understood. Exposure to ambient air pollutants is associated with adverse events during waitlisting for lung transplantation and chronic lung allograft dysfunction, but its association with PGD has not been studied. We hypothesized that long-term exposure of the lung donor and recipient to high levels of ambient air pollutants would increase the risk of PGD in lung transplant recipients.

Indoor Air Sources of Outdoor Air Pollution: Health Consequences, Policy, and Recommendations: An Official American Thoracic Society Workshop Report.

Indoor sources of air pollution worsen indoor and outdoor air quality. Thus, identifying and reducing indoor pollutant sources would decrease both indoor and outdoor air pollution, benefit public health, and help address the climate crisis. As outdoor sources come under regulatory control, unregulated indoor sources become a rising percentage of the problem.

Diesel exhaust and respiratory dust exposure in miners and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) mortality in DEMS II.

Background: Diesel exhaust and respirable dust exposures in the mining industry have not been studied in depth with respect to non-malignant respiratory disease including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), with most available evidence coming from other settings.

Objectives: To assess the relationship between occupational diesel exhaust and respirable dust exposures and COPD mortality, while addressing issues of survivor bias in exposed miners.

Methods: The study population consisted of 11,817 male workers from the Diesel Exhaust in Miners Study II, followed from 1947 to 2015, with 279 observed COPD deaths.

Exposure to ambient air pollutants and acute respiratory distress syndrome risk in sepsis.

Purpose: Exposures to ambient air pollutants may prime the lung enhancing risk of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in sepsis. Our objective was to determine the association of short-, medium-, and long-term pollutant exposures and ARDS risk in critically ill sepsis patients.

Methods: We analyzed a prospective cohort of 1858 critically ill patients with sepsis, and estimated short- (3 days), medium- (6 weeks), and long- (5 years) term exposures to ozone, nitrogen dioxide (NO), sulfur dioxide (SO), carbon monoxide (CO), particulate matter < 2.

Cognitive Development and Prenatal Air Pollution Exposure in the CHAMACOS Cohort.

Background: Because fine particulate matter [PM, with aerodynamic diameter ()] is a ubiquitous environmental exposure, small changes in cognition associated with exposure could have great societal costs. Prior studies have demonstrated a relationship between exposure and cognitive development in urban populations, but it is not known whether these effects are similar in rural populations and whether they persist into late childhood.

Objectives: In this study, we tested for associations between prenatal exposure and both full-scale and subscale measures of IQ among a longitudinal cohort at age 10.

Air Pollution and Atopic Dermatitis, from Molecular Mechanisms to Population-Level Evidence: A Review.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) has increased in prevalence to become the most common inflammatory skin condition globally, and geographic variation and migration studies suggest an important role for environmental triggers. Air pollution, especially due to industrialization and wildfires, may contribute to the development and exacerbation of AD. We provide a comprehensive, multidisciplinary review of existing molecular and epidemiologic studies on the associations of air pollutants and AD symptoms, prevalence, incidence, severity, and clinic visits.