Chapter 12 Health economics of air pollution

More important than ever, our communities are confronted with a variety of risks in all domains of activities but especially in health, the environment, disease progression, contagion effects, industrial growth, transportation, as well as occupational safety and health administration. 7 million early deaths each year worldwide with an associated annual economic cost of more than US$3.5 trillion invested by governments worldwide. To reduce healthcare costs, governments and supranational institutions and organizations have spent a huge amount of resources in setting up a nexus of regulations and international coordination, establishing air pollution monitoring networks, regularly reporting air quality information and the respective air quality indices, and communicating to people how polluted the air is. All these initiatives are effective if the expected benefits exceed the cost of their operation. This chapter looks at projections of the cost of air pollution, the impact on human health, and the resultant mortality and morbidity. Both values for the economy and cost of welfare from early deaths and pain and suffering are computed. Additional influences such as biodiversity and other health impacts (e.g., the direct effects of exposure to NO2) cannot be considered as there are still insufficient data, though indoor air pollution is one of the sources of many early deaths. In this chapter, air pollution both indoor and outdoor and its high health and economic outcomes on human beings are discussed and recent research questions and methodologies are explained and examined

spotlight europe 2008/07, June 2008: Hello Neighbours! A new EU policy from Morrocco to Azerbaijan

The European Neighbourhood Policy seeks to have a formative influence on the geopolitical area around the EU, as does the new Mediterranean Union - which, in the rather clumsy language used in Brussels, is now called "Barcelona Process: Union for the Mediterranean." Nicolas Sarkozy will officially unveil the plans for the new Union on 13 July. This presents an opportunity to change the nature of the EU's relationship with the whole of its immediate neighbourhood

Katie Refuses to Settle

This is an audio narrative created for the Institute of Applied Creativity for Transformation\u27s Driven initiative. The narratives are a culmination of three years of applied creative immersion and application of the seven key creative competencies. In the series, students discuss those competencies as they relate to their passion, purpose and possibility

spotlight europe 2008/07, Juni 2008: Hallo Nachbar! Für eine neue EU-Politik von Marokko bis Aserbaidschan = Hello Neighbours! A new EU policy from Morrocco to Azerbaijan

Die Europäische Nachbarschaftspolitik zielt auf die Gestaltung des geopo-litischen Umfeldes ebenso wie die neue Mittelmeerunion - im Brüsseler Jargon beschwerlich "Barcelona-Prozess: Union für das Mittelmeer" ge-nannt. Am 13. Juli will Nicolas Sarkozy die neue Union offiziell aus der Taufe heben. Das sollte der Anlass sein, um die Beziehungen zu Europas direktem Umfeld neu zu gestalten

Effects of Mineralocorticoid Receptor Blockade and Statins on Kidney Injury Marker 1 (KIM-1) in Female Rats Receiving L-NAME and Angiotensin II

Kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1) is a biomarker of renal injury and a predictor of cardiovascular disease. Aldosterone, via activation of the mineralocorticoid receptor, is linked to cardiac and renal injury. However, the impact of mineralocorticoid receptor activation and blockade on KIM-1 is uncertain. We investigated whether renal KIM-1 is increased in a cardiorenal injury model induced by L-NAME/ANG II, and whether mineralocorticoid receptor blockade prevents the increase in KIM-1. Since statin use is associated with lower aldosterone, we also investigated whether administering eiSther a lipophilic statin (simvastatin) or a hydrophilic statin (pravastatin) prevents the increase in renal KIM-1. Female Wistar rats (8–10 week old), consuming a high salt diet (1.6% Na+), were randomized to the following conditions for 14 days: control; L-NAME (0.2 mg/mL in drinking water)/ANG II (225 ug/kg/day on days 12–14); L-NAME/ANG II + eplerenone (100 mg/kg/day p.o.); L-NAME/ANG II + pravastatin (20 mg/kg/day p.o.); L-NAME/ANG II + simvastatin (20 mg/kg/day p.o.). Groups treated with L-NAME/ANG II had significantly higher blood pressure, plasma and urine aldosterone, cardiac injury/stroke composite score, and renal KIM-1 than the control group. Both eplerenone and simvastatin reduced 24-h urinary KIM-1 (p = 0.0046, p = 0.031, respectively) and renal KIM-1 immunostaining (p = 0.004, p = 0.037, respectively). Eplerenone also reduced renal KIM-1 mRNA expression (p = 0.012) and cardiac injury/stroke composite score (p = 0.04). Pravastatin did not affect these damage markers. The 24-h urinary KIM-1, renal KIM-1 immunostaining, and renal KIM-1 mRNA expression correlated with cardiac injury/stroke composite score (p < 0.0001, Spearman ranked correlation = 0.69, 0.66, 0.59, respectively). In conclusion, L-NAME/ANG II increases renal KIM-1 and both eplerenone and simvastatin blunt this increase in renal KIM-1