An Evaluation of Risk Ratios on Physical and Mental Health Correlations due to Increases in Ambient Nitrogen Oxide (NO_x) Concentrations

Nitrogen oxides (NOx) are gaseous pollutants contributing to pollution in their primary form and are also involved in reactions forming ground-level ozone and fine particulate matter. Thus, NOx is of great interest for targeted pollution reduction because of this cascade effect. Primary emissions originate from fossil fuel combustion making NOx a common outdoor and indoor air pollutant. Numerous studies documenting the observed physical health impacts of NOx were reviewed and, where available, were summarized using risk ratios. More recently, the literature has shifted to focus on the mental health implications of NOx exposure, and a review of the current literature found five main categories of mental health-related conditions with respect to NOx exposure: common mental health disorders, sleep, anxiety, depression, and suicide. All the physical and mental health effects with available risk ratios were organized in order of increasing risk. Mental health concerns emerged as those most influenced by NOx exposure, with physical health impacts, such as asthma, only beginning to surface as the fourth highest risk. Mental health conditions occupied seven of the top ten highest risk health ailments. The results summarized in this narrative review show that there are clear positive correlations between NOx and negative physical and mental health manifestations, thus strengthening the argument in support of the reduction in ambient NOx levels

Development of a simple and affordable method of measuring ammonia volatilization from land applied manures

Quantifying ammonia (NH3) flux following fertilizer and manure nitrogen (N) application is crucial to develop sound management practices. Traditional methods used for obtaining these measures are either expensive, inefficient, or inaccurate. The objective of this study is to develop a method using a passive dosimeter and a semi-open static chamber to provide an economical and simple solution to measure NH3 loss following nitrogen application. Dosimeter tubes were commercially developed to measure ammonia exposure, providing a time-weighted-average. In this study,chicken manure was applied to short grass and the ppm h reading obtained using the dositube ammonia method (DAM) was calibrated against a reference measure of NH3 loss (kg N ha-1) using a wind tunnel and acid trap method. A calibration was developed (Estimated Total Loss (kg N ha-1) = (0.217Dw) - (0.034D) + 0.71) which requires the dositube (D) to be read every 24 h and placed at a height of 0.15 m in the Dositube chamber, with wind speed (w, m s-1) measured at a height of 0.3 m and averaged over the coinciding time period. This calibration may also be applied where dositubes are read every 48 h; however, 24 h periods are recommended to achieve the greatest accuracy.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author