Special Issue "Integrated Effects of Air Pollutions and Climate Change on Human Health"

A special issue of Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Epidemiology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Shanshan Li
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Guest Editor
Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University 553 St Kilda Road, Melbourne, VIC 3004, Australia
Interests: child health; environmental epidemiology; quantitative analysis; spatiotemporal modelling; global health and sustainable development
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Yuming Guo
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Interests: environmental epidemiology; biostatistics; global environmental change; air pollution; climate change; residential environment; remote sensing modelling; infectious disease modelling
Dr. Gongbo Chen
E-Mail
Guest Editor
Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
Interests: environmental epidemiology and statistics; satellite-based prediction of air quality; health risk assessment; ambient temperature and health

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As humans interact with the environment consistently, a clean environment is essential for human health and well-being. Nowadays, the adverse health effects of various environmental factors, including environmental pollution and climate change, are increasingly of global concern. The complex associations between environmental exposures and various health outcomes and their biological mechanisms are far from clear. Research in multiple fields is urgently needed to help understand the effects of exposure to environmental hazards on people’s health. These studies will provide support for new policies addressing the impact of the environment on health.

The subject areas of this special issue include, but are not limited to:

epidemiological studies on air pollution and climate change and health,

epidemiological studies on the effects of elements in the living environment (e.g., residential greenness, night light, etc.) on health,

new methods for air quality monitoring and exposure assessment,

studies on the health burden of air pollution and climate change.

Dr. Shanshan Li
Prof. Dr. Yuming Guo
Dr. Gongbo Chen
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Air pollution
  • Climate change
  • Public health
  • Environmental exposure
  • Epidemiology
  • Biostatistics

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

Article
Large-Scale Spraying of Roads with Water Contributes to, Rather Than Prevents, Air Pollution
Toxics 2021, 9(6), 122; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics9060122 - 28 May 2021
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Abstract
Spraying roads with water on a large scale in Chinese cities is one of the supplementary precaution or mitigation actions implemented to control severe air pollution events or heavy haze-fog events in which the mechanisms causing them are not yet fully understood. These [...] Read more.
Spraying roads with water on a large scale in Chinese cities is one of the supplementary precaution or mitigation actions implemented to control severe air pollution events or heavy haze-fog events in which the mechanisms causing them are not yet fully understood. These air pollution events were usually characterized by higher air humidity. Therefore, there may be a link between this action and air pollution. In the present study, the impact of water spraying on the PM2.5 concentration and humidity in air was assessed by measuring chemical composition of the water, undertaking a simulated water spraying experiment, measuring residues and analyzing relevant data. We discovered that spraying large quantities of tap or river water on the roads leads to increased PM2.5 concentration and humidity, and that daily continuous spraying produces a cumulative effect on air pollution. Spraying the same amount of water produces greater increases in humidity and PM2.5 concentration during cool autumn and winter than during hot summer. Our results demonstrate that spraying roads with water increases, rather than decreases, the concentration of PM2.5 and thus is a new source of anthropogenic aerosol and air pollution. The higher vapor content and resultant humidity most likely create unfavorable meteorological conditions for the dispersion of air pollution in autumn and winter with low temperature. Full article
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Article
Short-Term Exposure to Ambient Air Pollution and Increased Emergency Room Visits for Skin Diseases in Beijing, China
Toxics 2021, 9(5), 108; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics9050108 - 12 May 2021
Viewed by 556
Abstract
Skin diseases have become a global concern. This study aims to evaluate the associations between ambient air pollution and emergency room visits for skin diseases under the background of improving air quality in China. Based on 45,094 cases from a general hospital and [...] Read more.
Skin diseases have become a global concern. This study aims to evaluate the associations between ambient air pollution and emergency room visits for skin diseases under the background of improving air quality in China. Based on 45,094 cases from a general hospital and fixed-site monitoring environmental data from 2014–2019 in Beijing, China, this study used generalized additive models with quasi-Poisson regression to estimate the exposure–health associations at lag 0–1 to lag 0–7. PM2.5 and NO2 exposure were associated with increased emergency room visits for total skin diseases (ICD10: L00-L99). Positive associations of PM2.5, PM10, O3 and NO2 with dermatitis/eczema (ICD-10: L20–30), as well as SO2 and NO2 with urticaria (ICD-10: L50) visits were also found. For instance, a 10 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 was associated with increases of 0.7% (95%CI: 0.2%, 1.2%) in total skin diseases visits at lag 0–5 and 1.1% (95%CI: 0.6%, 1.7%) in dermatitis/eczema visits at lag 0–1, respectively. For PM2.5, PM10 and CO, stronger annual associations were typically observed in the high-pollution (2014) and low-pollution (2018/2019) years. For instance, a 10 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 at lag 0–5 was associated with increases of 1.8% (95%CI: 1.0%, 2.6%) and 2.3% (95%CI: 0.4%, 4.3%) in total skin disease visits in 2014 and 2018, respectively. Our study emphasizes the necessity of controlling the potential health hazard of air pollutants on skin, although significant achievements in air quality control have been made in China. Full article
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