Urban air pollution and health inequities: a workshop report.

Over the past three decades, an array of legislation with attendant regulations has been implemented to enhance the quality of the environment and thereby improve the public's health. Despite the many beneficial changes that have followed, there remains a disproportionately higher prevalence of harmful environmental exposures, particularly air pollution, for certain populations. These populations most often reside in urban settings, have low socioeconomic status, and include a large proportion of ethnic minorities. The disparities between racial/ethnic minority and/or low-income populations in cities and the general population in terms of environmental exposures and related health risks have prompted the "environmental justice" or "environmental equity" movement, which strives to create cleaner environments for the most polluted communities. Achieving cleaner environments will require interventions based on scientific data specific to the populations at risk; however, research in this area has been relatively limited. To assess the current scientific information on urban air pollution and its health impacts and to help set the agenda for immediate intervention and future research, the American Lung Association organized an invited workshop on Urban Air Pollution and Health Inequities held 22-24 October 1999 in Washington, DC. This report builds on literature reviews and summarizes the discussions of working groups charged with addressing key areas relevant to air pollution and health effects in urban environments. An overview was provided of the state of the science for health impacts of air pollution and technologies available for air quality monitoring and exposure assessment. The working groups then prioritized research needs to address the knowledge gaps and developed recommendations for community interventions and public policy to begin to remedy the exposure and health inequities

Proceedings of Abstracts 12th International Conference on Air Quality Science and Application

© 2020 The Author(s). This an open access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Final Published versio

Reflexões sobre o primeiro Simpósio Brasileiro de Biometeorologia Humana

Uma recente revisão sistemática da literatura revelou várias deficiências e lacunas de conhecimento na pesquisa na área de Biometeorologia realizada no Brasil. Tal fato estimulou um grupo de pesquisadores da área a fomentar iniciativas de pesquisa em temas e regiões ainda pouco exploradas no país. Motivado por isso, o grupo organizou o primeiro Simpósio Brasileiro de Biometeorologia Humana entre 4 e 8 de julho de 2022, em Natal (RN). Este artigo visa resumir os principais estudos apresentados no simpósio e destacar algumas ideias a serem seguidas em biometeorologia humana em futuras iniciativas de pesquisa.A current systematic literature review has stated several deficiencies and knowledge gaps in biometeorology research conducted in Brazil. This finding encouraged a group of local professionals in the field to foster research initiatives in topics and regions yet unexplored in the country. Motivated by that, the group organized the first Brazilian Symposium on Human Biometeorology between July 4 and 8, 2022, in Natal (RN), northeastern Brazil. This paper aims to summarize the main studies presented at the symposium and highlight a few ideas that could be pursued next in human biometeorology in future research initiatives

Air Pollution Meteorology

Although air pollution is usually linked with human activities, natural processes may also lead to major concentrations of hazardous substances in the low atmosphere. Pollutant levels may be reduced when emissions can be controlled. However, the impact of meteorological variables on the concentrations measured may be noticeable, and these variables cannot be controlled. This book is devoted to the influence of meteorological processes on the pollutant concentrations recorded in the low atmosphere. Measurements, cycles, statistical procedures, as well as specific variables such as the synoptic pattern, temperature inversion, or the calculation of back-trajectories, are considered in the studies included in this book to highlight the relationship between air pollution and meteorological variables. In addition, the state of the art of this subject following meteorological scales, from micro to macro-scale, is presented. Consequently, this book focuses on applied science and seeks to further current knowledge of what contribution meteorological processes make to the concentrations measured in order to achieve greater control over air pollution

Confronting Grand Challenges in environmental fluid mechanics

Environmental fluid mechanics underlies a wealth of natural, industrial and, by extension, societal challenges. In the coming decades, as we strive towards a more sustainable planet, there are a wide range of grand challenge problems that need to be tackled, ranging from fundamental advances in understanding and modeling of stratified turbulence and consequent mixing, to applied studies of pollution transport in the ocean, atmosphere and urban environments. A workshop was organized in the Les Houches School of Physics in France in January 2019 with the objective of gathering leading figures in the field to produce a road map for the scientific community. Five subject areas were addressed: multiphase flow, stratified flow, ocean transport, atmospheric and urban transport, and weather and climate prediction. This article summarizes the discussions and outcomes of the meeting, with the intent of providing a resource for the community going forward

Influence of the Natural and Built Environment on Personal Exposure to Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5) in Cyclists Using City Designated Bicycle Routes

Urban cyclists are exposed to many traffic-related air pollutants including particulate matter (PM) that may increase vulnerability to health effects. This study investigates second-by-second personal exposure to PM2.5 (fine particulate matter that is 2.5 microns in diameter and less) along bicycle commuting paths, and assesses elements of the natural and built environment for the relative importance of these factors in understanding the variability in PM2.5 personal exposure. Urban cyclists were carrying high resolution PM2.5 monitors (placed in a backpack) in combination with portable GPS trackers to provide a spatial identity to each one-second pollutant measurement. The results of this study indicate that daily averages of PM2.5 concentrations from all bicycle routes were weakly correlated with meteorological variables, however, a strong influence of regional levels of PM2.5 was observed. Geospatial analysis of PM2.5 personal exposure concentrations showed a considerable variation within routes, correlated with land use (with lower concentrations in parks and higher in industrial areas) and clustered at four areas: busiest bridge, heavily trafficked road segments, the downtown urban core, and two construction sites. This study has found many incidences of personal exposure to PM2.5 exceeding the provincial guidelines for healthy activity (e.g., very poor (PM2.5 \u3e 91 μg/m3) pollution concentrations are clustered in three regions: approaching the bridge in the west part of the city; the downtown urban core; and two under construction spots), which suggests behavioural and infrastructure modifications in balancing the health benefits of cycling with the environmental exposure to air pollutants

Impact of urban form on concentration of air pollutants within street canyons at pedestrian level

Recent estimates published by WHO reported that in 2018 air pollution caused eight million premature deaths worldwide. The same report highlighted that outdoor air pollution was responsible for 4.2 million deaths. This implies that further efforts and mitigations are needed to reduce individuals’ exposure to harmful air pollutants. In this respect, governments around the world developed and published a number of air quality plans and frameworks. However, they either ignored or paid less attention to microclimate and urban form attributes and their impact on air pollution concentrations or dispersion in urban spaces, particularly within urban street canyons. Considering the above, this study postulates that there is a correlation between urban form and air quality. Therefore, the core focus of this thesis is to investigate this relationship in greater depth and to propose a set of recommendations that can create a desirable microclimate within various urban street canyons capable of mitigating air pollution concentrations and thereby reducing its negative impact on human health. This thesis employs a variety of methods, including fieldwork, computational modelling, and correlation analysis, to measure the influence of various street canyon configurations on the concentration of air pollution. The findings of this study confirmed several correlations between air pollution concentrations and urban form within street canyons. This study generated new knowledge on air pollution and microclimate behaviour within various street canyons. It provided recommendations for 30 distinct urban street canyon configurations in order to increase dispersion and protect pedestrians from harmful levels of air pollution. It also offered much needed knowledge and recommendations for urban designers and planners to consider to make informed design decisions to encourage greater dispersion of air pollution within various urban street canyons, particularly in areas with high pedestrian traffic to reduce and limit public exposure to harmful air pollution

Proceedings of Abstracts 10th International Conference on Air Quality Science and Application

This 10th International Conference in Air Quality - Science and Application is being held in the elegant and vibrant city of Milan, Italy. Our local hosts are ARIANET and ARPA Lombardia both of whom play a leading role in assessing and managing air pollution in the area. The meeting builds upon the series that began at the University of Hertfordshire, UK in July 1996. Subsequent meetings have been held at the Technical University of Madrid, Spain (1999), Loutraki, Greece (2001), Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic (2003), Valencia, Spain (2005), Cyprus (2007), Istanbul, Turkey (2009) Athens, Greece (2012) and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany (2014). Over the last two decades controls to limit air pollution have increased but the problem of poor air quality persists in all cities of the world. Consequently, the issue of the quality of air that we breathe remains at the forefront of societal concerns and continues to demand the attention of scientists and policy makers to reduce health impacts and to achieve sustainable development. Although urbanisation is growing in terms of population, transport, energy consumption and utilities, science has shown that impact from air pollution in cities is not restricted to local scales but depends on contributions from regional and global scales including interactions with climate change. Despite improvements in technology, users still demand robust management and assessment tools to formulate effective control policies and strategies for reducing the health impact of air pollution. The topics of papers presented at the conference reflect the diversity of scales, processes and interactions affecting air pollution and its impact on health and the environment. As usual, the conference is stimulating cross-fertilisation of ideas and cooperation between the different air pollution science and user communities. In particular, there is greater involvement of city, regional and global air pollution, climate change, users and health communities at the meeting. This international conference brings together scientists, users and policy makers from across the globe to discuss the latest scientific advances in our understanding of air pollution and its impacts on our health and environment. In addition to the scientific advances, the conference will also seek to highlight applications and developments in management strategies and assessment tools for policy and decision makers. This volume presents a collection of abstracts of papers presented at the Conference. The main themes covered in the Conference include: Air quality and impact on regional to global scales Development/application/evaluation of air quality and related models Environmental and health impact resulting from air pollution Measurement of air pollutants and process studies Source apportionment and emission models/inventories Urban meteorology Special session: Air quality impacts of the increasing use of biomass fuels Special session: Air quality management for policy support and decisions Special session: Air pollution meteorology from local to global scales Special session: Climate change and human health Special Session: Modelling and measuring non-exhaust emissions from traffic Special session: Transport related air pollution - PM and its impact on cities and across EuropeFinal Published versio