Asthma disease as cause of admission to hospitals due to exposure to ambient oxidants in Mashhad, Iran

Nowadays, asthma is one of the most common chronic respiratory diseases, worldwide. Many reports have emphasized the correlation between the short-term exposure to the ambient air pollutants and acute respiratory diseases, especially among children with asthmatic symptoms. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between the exposure to three atmospheric antioxidants (NO2, SO2, and O3) and hospital admission due to asthmatic disease (HAAD) in the city of Mashhad, Iran. The concentrations of atmospheric antioxidants were obtained from the real-time monitoring stations located in the city. The collected data were employed for developing predictive models in the AirQ software. In order to investigate the association between short-term exposure to air pollutants and HAAD, the study participants were categorized into two age groups: less than 15 and from 15 to 64Â years old. The results indicated that in people less than 15Â years increase in NO2 (attributable proportion (AP)Â =Â 3.775%, 95% CI 0.897--6.883%), SO2 (APÂ =Â 3.649%, 95% CI 1.295--5.937%), and O3 (APÂ =Â 0.554%,95% CI 0.00--3.321) results in increase in HAAD. While for those aged between 15 and 64Â years, the AP was 4.192% (95% CI 0.450--7.662%) for NO2; 0.0% (95% CI 0.00--1.687%) for SO2; and 0.236% (95% CI 0.00--1.216%) for O3. The number of asthmatic cases who were less than 15Â years admitted to the hospitals during the study period was higher than that of those within the age groups between 15 and 64Â years as a consequence of exposure to NO2 (101 vs. 75), SO2 (98 vs. 0), and O3 (15 vs. 3), respectively. To the best of our knowledge, the AirQ model has not been applied before to estimate the effect of atmospheric antioxidant exposure on hospital admission because of asthma disease. Eventually, this model is proposed to be applicable for other cities around the world

Estimating national dioxins and furans emissions, major sources, intake doses, and temporal trends in Iran from 1990-2010

Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDD) and dibenzofurans (PCDFs) are highly toxic persistent organic pollutants (POPs), which can cause various health outcomes, such as cancer. As a part of the National and Sub-national Burden of Disease Study (NASBOD), we aimed to estimate dioxins and furans national emissions, identify their main sources, estimate daily intake doses, and assess their trend from 1990-2010 in Iran.; The Toolkit for Identification and Quantification of Releases of Dioxins, Furans and Other Unintentional POPs, which is developed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP 2013), was used to estimate the emissions of PCDD/PCDFs from several sources into the air, water, land, residue, and other products. The daily intake doses were estimated using a linear regression of estimated emissions by UNEP Toolkit and average intake doses in other countries. Finally, the trend of PCDD/PCDFs emissions and daily intake doses were explored from 1990-2010.; The total emissions were estimated as 960 g Toxic Equivalents (g TEQ) for 1990 and 1957 g TEQ for 2010 (18.2 and 26.8 g TEQ per million capita, respectively). The estimations suggest that albeit contribution of open burning to PCDD/PCDFs emissions has been declining from 1990 to 2010, it remained the major source of emissions in Iran contributing to about 45.8% out of total emissions in 1990 to 35.7% in 2010. We further found that PCDD/PCDFs are mostly emitted into the ambient air, followed by residue, land, products, and water. The daily intake doses were estimated to be 3.1 and 5.4 pg TEQ/kg bw/day for 1990 and 2010, respectively. We estimated an increasing trend for PCDD/PCDFs emissions and intake doses in Iran from 1990-2010.; The high levels of emissions, intake doses, and their increasing trend in Iran may pose a substantial health risk to the Iranian population. Further studies with more rigorous methods are recommended but this should not circumvent taking appropriate policy actions against these pollutants. Currently, Iran has no standard for dioxins and furans. Adaptation of the World Health Organization recommended guidelines might be an appropriate starting point to control dioxins and furans emissions