The subject of this study was to assess the efficacy of the air cleaners provided by the Czech Power Company CEZ, J.S.C., and the foundation Social and Therapeutic Help Fund, Prague, to selected children's homes within the framework of the project "Clean air for flooded Moravia". The study was conducted in a children's home in Ostrava-Hrabová. It was concluded that the air cleaners represent an effective mean for improving indoor air quality.

• MeSH
• Residence Characteristics * MeSH
• Child MeSH
• Air Conditioning instrumentation   MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Air Microbiology MeSH
• Air Pollution, Indoor * MeSH
• Check Tag
• Child MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH

Air pollution and climate change have a significant impact on human health and well-being and contribute to the onset and aggravation of allergic rhinitis and asthma among other chronic respiratory diseases. In Westernized countries, households have experienced a process of increasing insulation and individuals tend to spend most of their time indoors. These sequelae implicate a high exposure to indoor allergens (house dust mites, pets, molds, etc), tobacco smoke, and other pollutants, which have an impact on respiratory health. Outdoor air pollution derived from traffic and other human activities not only has a direct negative effect on human health but also enhances the allergenicity of some plants and contributes to global warming. Climate change modifies the availability and distribution of plant- and fungal-derived allergens and increases the frequency of extreme climate events. This review summarizes the effects of indoor air pollution, outdoor air pollution, and subsequent climate change on asthma and allergic rhinitis in children and adults and addresses the policy adjustments and lifestyle changes required to mitigate their deleterious effects.

• Keywords
• allergic rhinitis, asthma, climate change., environment, pollution,
• MeSH
• Allergens MeSH
• Rhinitis, Allergic * epidemiology   etiology   MeSH
• Asthma * epidemiology   etiology   MeSH
• Child MeSH
• Adult MeSH
• Climate Change MeSH
• Air Pollutants * adverse effects   MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Air Pollution * adverse effects   MeSH
• Air Pollution, Indoor * adverse effects   MeSH
• Check Tag
• Child MeSH
• Adult MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
• Review MeSH
• Names of Substances
• Allergens MeSH
• Air Pollutants * MeSH

Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were studied to determine occurrence, levels and spatial distribution in the marine atmosphere and surface seawater during cruises in the German Bight and the wider North Sea in spring and summer 2009-2010. In general, the concentrations found in air are similar to, or below, the levels at coastal or near-coastal sites in Europe. Hexachlorobenzene and α-hexachlorocyclohexane (α-HCH) were close to phase equilibrium, whereas net atmospheric deposition was observed for γ-HCH. The results suggest that declining trends of HCH in seawater have been continuing for γ-HCH but have somewhat levelled off for α-HCH. Dieldrin displayed a close to phase equilibrium in nearly all the sampling sites, except in the central southwestern part of the North Sea. Here atmospheric deposition dominates the air-sea exchange. This region, close to the English coast, showed remarkably increased surface seawater concentrations. This observation depended neither on riverine input nor on the elevated abundances of dieldrin in the air masses of central England. A net depositional flux of p,p'-DDE into the North Sea was indicated by both its abundance in the marine atmosphere and the changes in metabolite pattern observed in the surface water from the coast towards the open sea. The long-term trends show that the atmospheric concentrations of DDT and its metabolites are not declining. Riverine input is a major source of PCBs in the German Bight and the wider North Sea. Atmospheric deposition of the lower molecular weight PCBs (PCB28 and PCB52) was indicated as a major source for surface seawater pollution.

• Keywords
• Air-sea exchange, North Sea, Organochlorine pesticides, Polychlorinated biphenyls,
• MeSH
• Atmosphere chemistry   MeSH
• Hydrocarbons, Chlorinated analysis   MeSH
• Air Pollutants analysis   MeSH
• Environmental Monitoring * MeSH
• Seawater chemistry   MeSH
• Pesticides analysis   MeSH
• Polychlorinated Biphenyls analysis   MeSH
• Air analysis   MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Geographicals
• England MeSH
• North Sea MeSH
• Names of Substances
• Hydrocarbons, Chlorinated MeSH
• Air Pollutants MeSH
• Pesticides MeSH
• Polychlorinated Biphenyls MeSH

BACKGROUND: The epidemiological evidence on the interaction between heat and ambient air pollution on mortality is still inconsistent. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the interaction between heat and ambient air pollution on daily mortality in a large dataset of 620 cities from 36 countries. METHODS: We used daily data on all-cause mortality, air temperature, particulate matter ≤ 10 μm (PM10), PM ≤ 2.5 μm (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and ozone (O3) from 620 cities in 36 countries in the period 1995-2020. We restricted the analysis to the six consecutive warmest months in each city. City-specific data were analysed with over-dispersed Poisson regression models, followed by a multilevel random-effects meta-analysis. The joint association between air temperature and air pollutants was modelled with product terms between non-linear functions for air temperature and linear functions for air pollutants. RESULTS: We analyzed 22,630,598 deaths. An increase in mean temperature from the 75th to the 99th percentile of city-specific distributions was associated with an average 8.9 % (95 % confidence interval: 7.1 %, 10.7 %) mortality increment, ranging between 5.3 % (3.8 %, 6.9 %) and 12.8 % (8.7 %, 17.0 %), when daily PM10 was equal to 10 or 90 μg/m3, respectively. Corresponding estimates when daily O3 concentrations were 40 or 160 μg/m3 were 2.9 % (1.1 %, 4.7 %) and 12.5 % (6.9 %, 18.5 %), respectively. Similarly, a 10 μg/m3 increment in PM10 was associated with a 0.54 % (0.10 %, 0.98 %) and 1.21 % (0.69 %, 1.72 %) increase in mortality when daily air temperature was set to the 1st and 99th city-specific percentiles, respectively. Corresponding mortality estimate for O3 across these temperature percentiles were 0.00 % (-0.44 %, 0.44 %) and 0.53 % (0.38 %, 0.68 %). Similar effect modification results, although slightly weaker, were found for PM2.5 and NO2. CONCLUSIONS: Suggestive evidence of effect modification between air temperature and air pollutants on mortality during the warm period was found in a global dataset of 620 cities.

• Keywords
• Air pollution, Air temperature, Effect modification, Epidemiology, Mortality,
• MeSH
• Air Pollutants * adverse effects   analysis   MeSH
• Nitrogen Dioxide adverse effects   analysis   MeSH
• Particulate Matter adverse effects   analysis   MeSH
• Cities MeSH
• Hot Temperature MeSH
• Environmental Exposure adverse effects   analysis   MeSH
• Air Pollution * adverse effects   analysis   MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Meta-Analysis MeSH
• Geographicals
• Cities MeSH
• Names of Substances
• Air Pollutants * MeSH
• Nitrogen Dioxide MeSH
• Particulate Matter MeSH

Assessment of the impact that air contaminants have on health is difficult as this is a complex mixture of substances that varies depending on the time and place. There are many studies on the association between air pollution and increased morbidity and mortality. Before the effect of polluted air is manifested at the level of the organs, an impact can be observed at the molecular level. These include some new biomarkers, like a shortening of the mean telomere length in DNA, dysregulation of gene expression caused by microRNA levels or a variation in the copy number of mitochondrial DNA. These changes may predispose individuals to premature development of age-related diseases and consequently to shortening of life. The common attribute, shared by changes at the molecular level and the development of diseases, is the presence of oxidative stress.

• Keywords
• Outdoor air pollution, aging, exposure, oxidative stress, particulate matter,
• MeSH
• Air Pollutants * analysis   toxicity   MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• MicroRNAs * MeSH
• Particulate Matter analysis   MeSH
• Aging MeSH
• Air Pollution * adverse effects   analysis   MeSH
• Check Tag
• Humans MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Review MeSH
• Names of Substances
• Air Pollutants * MeSH
• MicroRNAs * MeSH
• Particulate Matter MeSH

Much effort has been made to standardise sampling procedures, laboratory analysis, data analysis, etc. for semi volatile organic contaminants (SVOCs). Yet there are some unresolved issues in regards to comparing measurements from one of the most commonly used passive samplers (PAS), the polyurethane foam (PUF) disk PAS (PUF-PAS), between monitoring networks or different studies. One such issue is that there is no universal means to derive a sampling rate (Rs) or to calculate air concentrations (Cair) from PUF-PAS measurements for SVOCs. Cair was calculated from PUF-PAS measurements from a long-term monitoring program at a site in central Europe applying current understanding of passive sampling theory coupled with a consideration for the sampling of particle associated compounds. Cair were assessed against concurrent active air sampler (AAS) measurements. Use of "site-based/sampler-specific" variables: Rs, calculated using a site calibration, provided similar results for most gas-phase SVOCs to air concentrations derived using "default" values (commonly accepted Rs). Individual monthly PUF-PAS-derived air concentrations for the majority of the target compounds were significantly different (Wilcoxon signed-rank (WSR) test; p < 0.05) to AAS regardless of the input values (site/sampler based or default) used to calculate them. However, annual average PUF-PAS-derived air concentrations were within the same order of magnitude as AAS measurements except for the particle-phase polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Underestimation of PUF-derived air concentrations for particle-phase PAHs was attributed to a potential overestimation of the particle infiltration into the PUF-PAS chamber and underestimation of the particle bound fraction of PAHs.

• Keywords
• Air monitoring, Data comparability, Data interpretation, Passive sampling, Semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs),
• MeSH
• Calibration MeSH
• Air Pollutants chemistry   MeSH
• Environmental Monitoring instrumentation   methods   MeSH
• Uncertainty MeSH
• Polyurethanes chemistry   MeSH
• Volatile Organic Compounds chemistry   MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Geographicals
• Europe MeSH
• Names of Substances
• Air Pollutants MeSH
• polyurethane foam MeSH Browser
• Polyurethanes MeSH
• Volatile Organic Compounds MeSH

Exposure of cell cultures at air-liquid interface (ALI), mimicking i.e. human lung surface, is believed to be one of the most realistic means to model toxicity of complex mixtures of pollutants on human health. The complexity of the close cooperation of "emissions source" and toxicology groups and of the instrumentation are among the limiting factors of ALI. In this work, the concepts of ALI exposure and real-world emissions monitoring using portable emissions monitoring systems (PEMS) are combined into a portable emissions or air toxicity system, for field deployment, including operation in moving vehicles. Cell cultures grown on 6 mm inserts are placed in an airtight 17x13x9 cm exposure box, where the sample is symmetrically distributed into 8 wells of a standard Transwell 24-well holder at 25 cm3/min/insert. In a 40x35x45 cm inner dimensions incubator, sample and control air are conditioned to 5 % CO2, 37 °C and >85 % humidity and drawn through 2-4 exposure boxes. Characterization with silver nanoparticles revealed 50 % particle losses at 15 nm and deposition rate of approximately 1.5 % at both 10 and 21 nm mean diameter. The system has undergone an extensive field validation, including 4 h of exposure and 2 h transport in a vehicle each day for 5 days, 5-day operation outside in vans and tents at -7 to +32 °C, long transport and test on a heavy-duty truck, during which cells were exposed to the diluted exhaust from the truck, this being the first known use of ALI exposure chamber as PEMS. The portable exposure chamber, along with a field-deployable auxiliary mobile base including a small laminar flow box, additional incubator and freezer, can be easily used to study the toxicity of various emissions, effluents and polluted air, aiming for a more relevant toxicity measure than chemical composition alone.

• Keywords
• Air-liquid interface, Mobile laboratory, Mobile sources, Polluted air, Toxicity,
• MeSH
• Air Pollutants * toxicity   analysis   MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Environmental Monitoring * methods   MeSH
• Toxicity Tests methods   MeSH
• Vehicle Emissions analysis   toxicity   MeSH
• Air Pollution MeSH
• Check Tag
• Humans MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Names of Substances
• Air Pollutants * MeSH
• Vehicle Emissions MeSH

Organic compounds like flame retardants (FRs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are consistently found in both indoor and outdoor environments. There are many possible matrices for measurement of these compounds (e.g. indoor dust, air - passive and active air samples), but all methods have limitations, like the heterogeneous distribution of indoor dust, or noisy active air samplers. We used filters from building-wide heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) units to evaluate levels of PAHs, PCBs, OCPs and NFRs in indoor and outdoor environments, and to evaluate whether this method is feasible for screening semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs) in indoor and near-building outdoor environments. Detectable levels of FRs, PCBs, OCPs and PAHs were found, demonstrating that HVAC filters do collect SVOCs, with generally higher levels of PAHs in the incoming air filters and higher levels of PCBs, OCPs and FRs in the outgoing air filters. Levels of FRs, PCBs and OCPs in outgoing air were comparable to those measured using conventional active air sampling in the same building. The advantages of using HVAC filters are (1) integrated and homogeneous samples, as the whole building is sampled over typically a long timescale (months), and (2) samples are easy and cheap to collect and do not require prior deployment of samplers. The key disadvantage is that HVAC filters are not designed for analytical chemistry and thus the filter materials can have variable or unknown gas sorption and particle capture, and can have strong matrix effects during analysis.

• MeSH
• Air Conditioning MeSH
• Air Pollutants * analysis   MeSH
• Environmental Monitoring MeSH
• Polychlorinated Biphenyls * analysis   MeSH
• Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons * analysis   MeSH
• Flame Retardants * analysis   MeSH
• Volatile Organic Compounds * analysis   MeSH
• Air Filters * MeSH
• Air Pollution, Indoor * analysis   MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Names of Substances
• Air Pollutants * MeSH
• Polychlorinated Biphenyls * MeSH
• Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons * MeSH
• Flame Retardants * MeSH
• Volatile Organic Compounds * MeSH

Air quality in the Moravian-Silesian Region and especially in the Ostrava agglomeration represents a very important factor influencing the environment and health of the local population. The area has been burdend for more than two centuries with rapid development of the mining industry and related metallurgical and chemical production. As a result, hundreds of tons of pollutants have progressively been released into the atmosphere. Some of them have been gradually eliminated from the environment; others, such as some heavy metals, remain locally present and burden the local landscape. Ultrafine particles (UFPs; diameter less than 100 nm) are ubiquitous in urban air and an acknowledged risk to human health. Therefore, recurrent situations when statutory limits for airborne dust and selected chemical pollutants are exceeded require more detailed research focused on the sources, paths of propagation, chemical composition and morphology of ultrafine aerosol (UFA). In order to comply with these objectives measurements were carried out directly in production halls and the vicinity of industrial technologies with expected high UFA emission. In line with global trends, focus is increasingly placed on solid aerosols with particle sizes below 1 µm and, where appropriate, on nanoparticles. This is mainly due to a much greater penetration of these particles into an organism and a subsequent initiation of some serious diseases.

• Keywords
• airborne dust, nanoparticles in the air, particle number concentration, scanning electron microscopy, ultrafine aerosol,
• MeSH
• Aerosols analysis   MeSH
• Air Pollutants analysis   MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Microscopy, Electron, Scanning MeSH
• Environmental Monitoring methods   MeSH
• Nanoparticles analysis   MeSH
• Dust MeSH
• Industry MeSH
• Particle Size * MeSH
• Air Pollution analysis   MeSH
• Check Tag
• Humans MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Geographicals
• Czech Republic MeSH
• Names of Substances
• Aerosols MeSH
• Air Pollutants MeSH
• Dust MeSH

The indoor air quality (IAQ) was investigated in sixty-four primary school buildings in five Central European countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Poland, and Slovenia). The concentration of volatile organic compounds, aldehydes, PM2.5 mass, carbon dioxide, radon, as well as physical parameters were investigated during the heating period of 2017/2018. Significant differences were identified for the majority of the investigated IAQ parameters across the countries. The median indoor/outdoor ratios varied considerably. A comprehensive evaluation of IAQ in terms of potential health effects and comfort perception was performed. Hazard quotient values were below the threshold value of 1 with one exception. In contrast, 31% of the school buildings were characterized by hazard index values higher than 1. The maximum cumulative ratio approach highlighted that the concern for non-carcinogenic health effects was either low or the health risk was driven by more substances. The median excess lifetime cancer risk values exceeded the acceptable value of 1 × 10-6 in the case of radon and formaldehyde. PM2.5 mass concentration values exceeded the 24 h and annual guideline values set by the World Health Organization in 56 and 85% of the cases, respectively. About 80% of the schools could not manage to comply with the recommended concentration value for carbon dioxide (1000 ppm).

• Keywords
• InAirQ, children, environmental health, health risk assessment, indoor air, monitoring campaign,
• MeSH
• Air Pollutants * analysis   MeSH
• Environmental Monitoring MeSH
• Schools MeSH
• Air Pollution, Indoor * analysis   MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
• Geographicals
• Europe MeSH
• Names of Substances
• Air Pollutants * MeSH