Tracking air pollution and CO emissions in 13,189 urban areas worldwide using large geospatial datasets.

Air pollution and climate change are urgent global concerns, with urban areas contributing heavily to both air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions. Here we calculate fine particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone concentrations and fossil-fuel carbon dioxide emissions per capita in 13,189 urban areas worldwide from 2005 to 2019 and analyze correlations between trends for these pollutants, leveraging recently-developed global datasets. Globally, we found significant increases in ozone (+6%) and small, non-significant changes in fine particulate matter (+0%), nitrogen dioxide (-1%), and fossil-fuel carbon dioxide emissions (+4%).

A health impact assessment of progress towards urban nature targets in the 96 C40 cities.

Background: Urban greenspaces (eg, parks and trees) and blue spaces (eg, rivers and coasts) improve climate regulation and human health. In 2021, the mayors of 31 cities in the C40 Climate Leadership Group set 2030 targets for the percentage of urban greenspace and population with nearby natural (green or blue) space. We quantified annual all-cause mortality reductions from progress towards these targets for C40's 96 member cities.

TROPOMI Satellite Data Reshape NO Air Pollution Land-Use Regression Modeling Capabilities in the United States.

Nitrogen dioxide (NO) pollution is associated with adverse health effects, but its spatial variability between ground monitors is poorly characterized. NO column observations from the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) have unprecedented spatial resolution and high accuracy over the globe. Land-use regression (LUR) models predict surface-level NO with relevance for epidemiological and environmental justice studies.

Global Burden of Disease from Environmental Factors.

Estimation of the disease burden attributable to environmental factors is a powerful tool for prioritizing environmental and pollution management and public health actions around the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) began estimating the environmental disease burden in 2000, which has formed the basis for the modern estimation approach conducted in the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factor (GBD) study. In 2021, environmental and occupational risk factors in the GBD were responsible for 18.

Prenatal exposure to air pollution and maternal and fetal thyroid function: a systematic review of the epidemiological evidence.

Background: Exposure to ambient air pollution is a top risk factor contributing to the global burden of disease. Pregnant persons and their developing fetuses are particularly susceptible to adverse health outcomes associated with air pollution exposures. During pregnancy, the thyroid plays a critical role in fetal development, producing thyroid hormones that are associated with brain development.

Air pollution impacts from warehousing in the United States uncovered with satellite data.

Regulators, environmental advocates, and community groups in the United States (U.S.) are concerned about air pollution associated with the proliferating e-commerce and warehousing industries.

Improving consistency in estimating future health burdens from environmental risk factors: Case study for ambient air pollution.

Future changes in exposure to risk factors should impact mortality rates and population. However, studies commonly use mortality rates and population projections developed exogenously to the health impact assessment model used to quantify future health burdens attributable to environmental risks that are therefore invariant to projected exposure levels. This impacts the robustness of many future health burden estimates for environmental risk factors.

Increasing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Ambient Air Pollution-Attributable Morbidity and Mortality in the United States.

Background: Ambient nitrogen dioxide () and fine particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter () threaten public health in the US, and systemic racism has led to modern-day disparities in the distribution and associated health impacts of these pollutants.

Objectives: Many studies on environmental injustices related to ambient air pollution focus only on disparities in pollutant concentrations or provide only an assessment of pollution or health disparities at a snapshot in time. In this study, we compare injustices in and health burdens, considering health impacts across the entire US; document changing disparities in these health burdens over time (2010-2019); and evaluate how more stringent air quality standards would reduce disparities in health impacts associated with these pollutants.

Tracking Progress Toward Urban Nature Targets Using Landcover and Vegetation Indices: A Global Study for the 96 C40 Cities.

Access to urban natural space, including blue and greenspace, is associated with improved health. In 2021, the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group set 2030 Urban Nature Declaration (UND) targets: "Quality Total Cover" (30% green area within each city) and "Equitable Spatial Distribution" (70% of the population living close to natural space). We evaluate progress toward these targets in the 96 C40 cities using globally available, high-resolution data sets for landcover and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI).

Public Health Benefits From Improved Identification of Severe Air Pollution Events With Geostationary Satellite Data.

Despite improvements in ambient air quality in the US in recent decades, many people still experience unhealthy levels of pollution. At present, national-level alert-day identification relies predominately on surface monitor networks and forecasters. Satellite-based estimates of surface air quality have rapidly advanced and have the capability to inform exposure-reducing actions to protect public health.

All-Cause NO-Attributable Mortality Burden and Associated Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the United States.

Nitrogen dioxide (NO) is a regulated pollutant that is associated with numerous health impacts. Recent advances in epidemiology indicate high confidence linking NO exposure with increased mortality, an association that recent studies suggest persists even at concentrations below regulatory thresholds. While large disparities in NO exposure among population subgroups have been reported, U.

Ethnoracial Disparities in Nitrogen Dioxide Pollution in the United States: Comparing Data Sets from Satellites, Models, and Monitors.

In the United States (U.S.), studies on nitrogen dioxide (NO) trends and pollution-attributable health effects have historically used measurements from in situ monitors, which have limited geographical coverage and leave 66% of urban areas unmonitored.

Reversal of trends in global fine particulate matter air pollution.

Ambient fine particulate matter (PM) is the world's leading environmental health risk factor. Quantification is needed of regional contributions to changes in global PM exposure. Here we interpret satellite-derived PM estimates over 1998-2019 and find a reversal of previous growth in global PM air pollution, which is quantitatively attributed to contributions from 13 regions.

Nowcasting Applications of Geostationary Satellite Hourly Surface PM Data.

The mass concentration of fine particulate matter (PM; diameters less than 2.5 μm) estimated from geostationary satellite aerosol optical depth (AOD) data can supplement the network of ground monitors with high temporal (hourly) resolution. Estimates of PM over the United States (US) were derived from NOAA's operational geostationary satellites Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) AOD data using a geographically weighted regression with hourly and daily temporal resolution.

Unified real-time environmental-epidemiological data for multiscale modeling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

An impressive number of COVID-19 data catalogs exist. However, none are fully optimized for data science applications. Inconsistent naming and data conventions, uneven quality control, and lack of alignment between disease data and potential predictors pose barriers to robust modeling and analysis.

Inequitable Exposures to U.S. Coal Power Plant-Related : 22 Years and Counting.

Background: Emissions from coal power plants have decreased over recent decades due to regulations and economics affecting costs of providing electricity generated by coal vis-à-vis its alternatives. These changes have improved regional air quality, but questions remain about whether benefits have accrued equitably across population groups.

Objectives: We aimed to quantify nationwide long-term changes in exposure to particulate matter (PM) with an aerodynamic diameter () associated with coal power plant emissions.

A Source Apportionment and Emission Scenario Assessment of PM- and O-Related Health Impacts in G20 Countries.

Exposure to air pollution is a leading risk factor for premature death globally; however, the complexity of its formation and the diversity of its sources can make it difficult to address. The Group of Twenty (G20) countries are a collection of the world's largest and most influential economies and are uniquely poised to take action to reduce the global health burden associated with air pollution. We present a framework capable of simultaneously identifying regional and sectoral sources of the health impacts associated with two air pollutants, fine particulate matter (PM) and ozone (O) in G20 countries; this framework is also used to assess the health impacts associated with emission reductions.

Global trends in ozone concentration and attributable mortality for urban, peri-urban, and rural areas between 2000 and 2019: a modelling study.

Background: Data on long-term trends of ozone exposure and attributable mortality across urban-rural catchment areas worldwide are scarce, especially for low-income and middle-income countries. This study aims to estimate trends in ozone concentrations and attributable mortality for urban-rural catchment areas worldwide.

Methods: In this modelling study, we used a health impact function to estimate ozone concentrations and ozone-attributable chronic respiratory disease mortality for urban areas worldwide, and their surrounding peri-urban, peri-rural, and rural areas.

Disparities in Air Pollutants Across Racial, Ethnic, and Poverty Groups at US Public Schools.

We investigate socioeconomic disparities in air quality at public schools in the contiguous US using high resolution estimates of fine particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen dioxide (NO) concentrations. We find that schools with higher proportions of people of color (POC) and students eligible for the federal free or reduced lunch program, a proxy for poverty level, are associated with higher pollutant concentrations. For example, we find that the median annual NO concentration for White students, nationally, was 7.

Trends in urban air pollution over the last two decades: A global perspective.

Ground-level ozone (O), fine particles (PM), and nitrogen dioxide (NO) are the most harmful urban air pollutants regarding human health effects. Here, we aimed at assessing trends in concurrent exposure of global urban population to O, PM, and NO between 2000 and 2019. PM, NO, and O mean concentrations and summertime mean of the daily maximum 8-h values (O MDA8) were analyzed (Mann-Kendall test) using data from a global reanalysis, covering 13,160 urban areas, and a ground-based monitoring network (Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report), collating surface O observations at nearly 10,000 stations worldwide.

Sources of ambient PM exposure in 96 global cities.

To improve air quality, knowledge of the sources and locations of air pollutant emissions is critical. However, for many global cities, no previous estimates exist of how much exposure to fine particulate matter (PM), the largest environmental cause of mortality, is caused by emissions within the city vs. outside its boundaries.