Air Pollution and Children’s Health

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Air Quality and Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2022) | Viewed by 3663

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Medicine, European University Cyprus, Egkomi 2404, Cyprus
Interests: health risk assessment; occupational health & safety; public health; air pollution; process safety
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
School of Medicine, European University of Cyprus, Nicosia 2404, Cyprus
Interests: epidemiology; infection control and prevention; health technology assessment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The objective of this Special Issue is to provide a discussion of air quality and children’s health. The World Health Organization has suggested that exposure to air pollution is an overlooked health emergency for children around the world. Children are exposed to air pollution both outdoors and indoors and are at greater risk from inhaled pollutants than adults due to their unique activity patterns and behavior, their natural biological defenses being less developed, as well as the fact that they are particularly susceptible during development. Increasing pollution, e.g., heavy metals, endocrine disrupting chemicals, microplastics, black carbon, and allergens are distributed in aerosol particulate matters from different sources, leading to health risk to exposure children. However, the toxicity mechanism, the assessment of the associated risk to children, and the main sources are still far from being understood. Identifying additional toxic air contaminants that might differentially impact children, assessing health risk effectively and tracing the sources, can help to develop new regulations to reduce exposure and mitigate risks in a timely and effective manner.

This Special Issue will consider all “Impacts of Air Pollution on Children’s Health”.

Dr. Marco Dettori
Dr. Christos D. Argyropoulos
Dr. Zoi Dorothea Pana
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • air pollution
  • children health
  • air particle matter
  • epidemiology
  • developing countries
  • vehicle emissions
  • indoor air
  • exposure
  • health risk assessment
  • aerosol
  • toxicity
  • sand and dust storm (SDS)
  • organic/metal chemicals in particles

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

16 pages, 1958 KiB  
Article
Pollution Indexing and Health Risk Assessment of Heavy-Metals-Laden Indoor and Outdoor Dust in Elementary School Environments in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
by Modhi O. Alotaibi, Lamia A. Albedair, Nahaa M. Alotaibi, Mudawi M. Elobeid, Hamed A. Al-Swadi, Zafer Alasmary and Munir Ahmad
Atmosphere 2022, 13(3), 464; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13030464 - 13 Mar 2022
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2812
Abstract
The prevalence of potentially toxic heavy metals (HMs)-bearing dust in the environment is posing serious health risks to humans. Therefore, the occurrence of HMs in indoor and outdoor dust samples of elementary school’s environment in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, were reported, and associated potential [...] Read more.
The prevalence of potentially toxic heavy metals (HMs)-bearing dust in the environment is posing serious health risks to humans. Therefore, the occurrence of HMs in indoor and outdoor dust samples of elementary school’s environment in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, were reported, and associated potential human health risks were estimated in this study. Dust samples were collected from outdoor and indoor environments from eighteen elementary schools using a soft plastic brush. The mean concentrations of Cd, Co, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn in collected indoor dust samples were much higher (0.08, 3.45, 59.20, 15.20, 4.99, and 94.10 mg kg−1, respectively) than that of outdoor dust samples (0.07, 3.07, 42.20, 13.60, 4.57, and 62.40 mg kg−1, respectively), due to fans operation, opened windows, and resuspension of dust by children’s activities. The values of estimated enrichment factor revealed that both the outdoor and indoor dusts were moderately contaminated with Zn and Cu, while highly contaminated with Cd and Pb. However, the estimated potential ecological risks associated with HMs were lower. Health risks (non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic) calculations exhibited no potential risks of HMs in the schools’ dust toward children. However, health risks for children were determined in the following order: up to 6 years > 6–12 years > adults. Therefore, assessing the potential health risks posed by HM-contaminated dust in school environments is necessary to avoid any possible children’s health concerns. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Air Pollution and Children’s Health)
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