Carbon monoxide alarm ownership and maintenance in patients attending the Emergency Departments: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning is a significant public health issue, with domestic exposure often linked to poor appliance maintenance and a lack of CO alarms. Despite known risks, CO alarm ownership remains low, particularly among lower socio-economic and ethnic minority groups. This study assessed CO alarm prevalence, characteristics, and maintenance among Emergency Department (ED) patients in the UK.

Assessment of long-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution: An exposure framework.

Background: Exposure to ambient air pollution is associated with morbidity and mortality, making it an important public health concern. Emissions from motorized traffic are a common source of air pollution but evaluating the contribution of traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) emissions to health risks is challenging because it is difficult to disentangle the contribution of individual air pollution sources to exposure contrasts in an epidemiological study.

Objective: This paper describes a new framework to identify whether air pollution differences reflect contrasts in TRAP exposures.

Short-Term Nitrogen Dioxide Exposure and Emergency Hospital Admissions for Asthma in Children: A Case-Crossover Analysis in England.

Background: There is an increasing body of evidence associating short-term ambient nitrogen dioxide (NO) exposure with asthma-related hospital admissions in children. However, most studies have relied on temporally resolved exposure information, potentially ignoring the spatial variability of NO. We aimed to investigate how daily NO estimates from a highly resolved spatio-temporal model are associated with the risk of emergency hospital admission for asthma in children in England.

Association between exposure to multiple air pollutants, transportation noise and cause-specific mortality in adults in Switzerland.

Background: Long-term exposure to air pollution and noise is detrimental to health; but studies that evaluated both remain limited. This study explores associations with natural and cause-specific mortality for a range of air pollutants and transportation noise.

Methods: Over 4 million adults in Switzerland were followed from 2000 to 2014.

Comparison of traditional Cox regression and causal modeling to investigate the association between long-term air pollution exposure and natural-cause mortality within European cohorts.

Most studies investigating the health effects of long-term exposure to air pollution used traditional regression models, although causal inference approaches have been proposed as alternative. However, few studies have applied causal models and comparisons with traditional methods are sparse. We therefore compared the associations between natural-cause mortality and exposure to fine particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen dioxide (NO) using traditional Cox and causal models in a large multicenter cohort setting.

Screening patients for unintentional carbon monoxide exposure in the Emergency Department: a cross-sectional multi-centre study.

Background: Low-level exposure to carbon monoxide (CO) is a significant health concern but is difficult to diagnose. This main study aim was to establish the prevalence of low-level CO poisoning in Emergency Department (ED) patients.

Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study of patients with symptoms of CO exposure was conducted in four UK EDs between December 2018 and March 2020.

Cross-sectional study of carbon monoxide alarm use in patients attending the emergency department: a multicentre survey protocol.

Introduction: The most common place for unintentional, non-fire-related carbon monoxide (CO) exposure to occur is in the home, but this is preventable if CO producing sources are properly maintained and CO alarms/detectors are in use. It is estimated that less than half of all homes have a CO alarm, but there is variation across countries, housing types and different demographic and socioeconomic groups. The purpose of this study is to provide up-to-date data on the use of CO alarms by surveying attendees to emergency departments using an online anonymous questionnaire.

Long-term exposure to low ambient air pollution concentrations and mortality among 28 million people: results from seven large European cohorts within the ELAPSE project.

Background: Long-term exposure to ambient air pollution has been associated with premature mortality, but associations at concentrations lower than current annual limit values are uncertain. We analysed associations between low-level air pollution and mortality within the multicentre study Effects of Low-Level Air Pollution: A Study in Europe (ELAPSE).

Methods: In this multicentre longitudinal study, we analysed seven population-based cohorts of adults (age ≥30 years) within ELAPSE, from Belgium, Denmark, England, the Netherlands, Norway, Rome (Italy), and Switzerland (enrolled in 2000-11; follow-up until 2011-17).

Long-term exposure to low-level air pollution and incidence of asthma: the ELAPSE project.

Background: Long-term exposure to ambient air pollution has been linked to childhood-onset asthma, although evidence is still insufficient. Within the multicentre project Effects of Low-Level Air Pollution: A Study in Europe (ELAPSE), we examined the associations of long-term exposures to particulate matter with a diameter <2.5 µm (PM), nitrogen dioxide (NO) and black carbon (BC) with asthma incidence in adults.

Long-term exposure to low-level air pollution and incidence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: The ELAPSE project.

Background: Air pollution has been suggested as a risk factor for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but evidence is sparse and inconsistent.

Objectives: We examined the association between long-term exposure to low-level air pollution and COPD incidence.

Methods: Within the 'Effects of Low-Level Air Pollution: A Study in Europe' (ELAPSE) study, we pooled data from three cohorts, from Denmark and Sweden, with information on COPD hospital discharge diagnoses.

The impact of measurement error in modeled ambient particles exposures on health effect estimates in multilevel analysis: A simulation study.

Unlabelled: Various spatiotemporal models have been proposed for predicting ambient particulate exposure for inclusion in epidemiological analyses. We investigated the effect of measurement error in the prediction of particulate matter with diameter <10 µm (PM) and <2.5 µm (PM) concentrations on the estimation of health effects.

Comparing the performance of air pollution models for nitrogen dioxide and ozone in the context of a multilevel epidemiological analysis.

Unlabelled: Using modeled air pollutant predictions as exposure variables in epidemiological analyses can produce bias in health effect estimation. We used statistical simulation to estimate these biases and compare different air pollution models for London.

Methods: Our simulations were based on a sample of 1,000 small geographical areas within London, United Kingdom.

Intensive care admissions and outcomes associated with short-term exposure to ambient air pollution: a time series analysis.

Purpose: Short-term exposure to outdoor air pollution has been positively associated with numerous measures of acute morbidity and mortality, most consistently as excess cardiorespiratory disease associated with fine particulate matter (PM), particularly in vulnerable populations. It is unknown if the critically ill, a vulnerable population with high levels of cardiorespiratory disease, is affected by air pollution.

Methods: We performed a time series analysis of emergency cardiorespiratory, stroke and sepsis intensive care (ICU) admissions for the years 2008-2016, using data from the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society Adult Patient Database (ANZICS-APD).

Measurement error in a multi-level analysis of air pollution and health: a simulation study.

Background: Spatio-temporal models are increasingly being used to predict exposure to ambient outdoor air pollution at high spatial resolution for inclusion in epidemiological analyses of air pollution and health. Measurement error in these predictions can nevertheless have impacts on health effect estimation. Using statistical simulation we aim to investigate the effects of such error within a multi-level model analysis of long and short-term pollutant exposure and health.

Are noise and air pollution related to the incidence of dementia? A cohort study in London, England.

Objective: To investigate whether the incidence of dementia is related to residential levels of air and noise pollution in London.

Design: Retrospective cohort study using primary care data.

Setting: 75 Greater London practices.

Global estimates of mortality associated with long-term exposure to outdoor fine particulate matter.

Exposure to ambient fine particulate matter (PM) is a major global health concern. Quantitative estimates of attributable mortality are based on disease-specific hazard ratio models that incorporate risk information from multiple PM sources (outdoor and indoor air pollution from use of solid fuels and secondhand and active smoking), requiring assumptions about equivalent exposure and toxicity. We relax these contentious assumptions by constructing a PM-mortality hazard ratio function based only on cohort studies of outdoor air pollution that covers the global exposure range.

Long-term Concentrations of Nitrogen Dioxide and Mortality: A Meta-analysis of Cohort Studies.

Background: Concentrations of outdoor nitrogen dioxide (NO2) have been associated with increased mortality. Hazard ratios (HRs) from cohort studies are used to assess population health impact and burden. We undertook meta-analyses to derive concentration-response functions suitable for such evaluations and assessed their sensitivity to study selection based upon cohort characteristics.

Differential health effects of short-term exposure to source-specific particles in London, U.K.

Background: There is ample evidence of adverse associations between short-term exposure to ambient particle mass concentrations and health but little is known about the relative contribution from various sources.

Methods: We used air particle composition and number networks in London between 2011 and 2012 to derive six source-related factors for PM and four factors for size distributions of ultrafine particles (NSD). We assessed the associations of these factors, at pre-specified lags, with daily total, cardiovascular (CVD) and respiratory mortality and hospitalizations using Poisson regression.

Myocardial infarction, ST-elevation and non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction and modelled daily pollution concentrations: a case-crossover analysis of MINAP data.

Objectives: To investigate associations between daily concentrations of air pollution and myocardial infarction (MI), ST-elevation MI (STEMI) and non-ST-elevation MI (NSTEMI).

Methods: Modelled daily ground-level gaseous, total and speciated particulate pollutant concentrations and ground-level daily mean temperature, all at 5 km×5 km horizontal resolution, were linked to 202 550 STEMI and 322 198 NSTEMI events recorded on the England and Wales Myocardial Ischaemia National Audit Project (MINAP) database. The study period was 2003-2010.