Mortality and morbidity costs of road traffic-based air pollution in Turkey

COVID 19 is undeniably one of the deadliest diseases that humanity has ever seen. It continues to affect the lives and livelihood of people appallingly across the world. Maximum discussions focus towards the apprehension of catching the infection, dwelling in homes, overpopulated nursing homes and shut down of all kinds. But, here let’s discuss the positive side of COVID 19 pandemic.As COVID 19 has spread its influence all over the world, affected countries have either announced lockdown or have implemented severe restrictions in their respective countries. Because of this, everyone dwells in their homes. Thus, exercising social distancing and functioning from home. All of the above is directed at restricting the transmission of coronavirus and expectantly ostracising the fatality from COVID 19. These transformations have also brought about some unanticipated emanations; some good things have come out of the pandemic as well. Positive effects of COVID 19 are seen on reduced road traffic, and road traffic accidents lowered levels of air pollution which has to lead to lowered heart attack rates and rejuvenating environment. Crime rates have fallen, and expenses are reduced in most places. Community action, communication amongst families, behaviour, sanitation, hygiene, online and distance education has positively impacted by COVID 19 pandemic. COVID 19 despite a bane for humans, can be thought of a boon for living beings. The habitats and elements have been purified with the stringent use of petrochemical products. To breathe fresh air and to consume purified water is a boon by itself. Now, it is time for humans to lead a caring life to every bounty bestowed on them by Nature. This thoughtful and considerate life will give hope for a healthy, stress-free life.

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Analysis on the Effect of the Mobility of Combustion Vehicles in the Environment of Cities and the Improvement in Air Pollution in Europe: A Vision for the Awareness of Citizens and Policy Makers

Land ◽

10.3390/land10020184 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 184

Author(s):

Javier Cárcel-Carrasco ◽

Manuel Pascual-Guillamón ◽

Fidel Salas-Vicente

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Road Traffic ◽

Urban Environments ◽

Transport Systems ◽

Sustainable Transport ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Indirect Measure ◽

Large Cities ◽

Combustion Gases ◽

Short Time

Today, the design and remodeling of urban environments is being sought in order to achieve green, healthy, and sustainable cities. The effect of air pollution in cities due to vehicle combustion gases is an important part of the problem. Due to the indirect effect caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, political powers in Europe have imposed confinement measures for citizens by imposing movement restrictions in large cities. This indirect measure has given us a laboratory to show how the reduction in vehicle circulation affects in a short time the levels of air pollution in cities. Therefore, this article analyzes the effect in different European cities such as Milan, Prague, Madrid, Paris, and London. These cities have been chosen due to their large amount of daily road traffic that generates high levels of pollution; therefore, it can clearly show the fall in these pollutants in the air in the analyzed period. The results shown through this study indicate that the reduction in combustion vehicles greatly affects the levels of pollution in different cities. In these periods of confinement, there was an improvement in air quality where pollutant values dropped to 80% compared to the previous year. This should serve to raise awareness among citizens and political powers to adopt measures that induce sustainable transport systems.

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Epidemiology and Treatment Outcomes of Head Injury in Bangladesh: Perspective from the Largest Tertiary Care Hospital

Indian Journal of Neurotrauma ◽

10.1055/s-0040-1718780 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Sukriti Das ◽

Bipin Chaurasia ◽

Dipankar Ghosh ◽

Asit Chandra Sarker

Keyword(s):

Head Injury ◽

Road Traffic ◽

Head Injuries ◽

Skull Fracture ◽

Tertiary Care ◽

Acute Subdural Hematoma ◽

Care Hospital ◽

Female Ratio ◽

Mortality And Morbidity ◽

The Government

Abstract Background Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity. Economic impact is much worse in developing countries like Bangladesh, as victims are frequently male, productive, and breadwinners of the families. Objectives The objective of our study was to highlight the etiological pattern and distribution of varieties of head injuries in Bangladesh and give recommendations regarding how this problem can be solved or reduce to some extent at least. Methods From January 2017 to December 2019, a total of 14,552 patients presenting with head injury at emergency got admitted in Neurosurgery department of Dhaka Medical College and Hospital and were included in this study. Results The most common age group was 21 to 30 years (36%: 5,239) with a male-to-female ratio of 2.6:1. Injury was mostly caused by road traffic accident (RTA [58.3%: 8,484]), followed by fall (25%: 3,638) and history of assault (15.3%: 2,226). The common varieties of head injury were: acute extradural hematoma (AEDH [42.30%: 1,987]), skull fracture either linear or depressed (28.86%: 1,347), acute subdural hematoma (ASDH [12.30%: 574]), brain contusion (10.2%: 476), and others (6.04%: 282). Conclusion RTA is the commonest cause of TBI, and among them motor bike accident is the severe most form of TBI. AEDH is the commonest variety of head injuries. Proper steps taken by the Government, vehicle owners, and drivers, and proper referral system and prompt management in the hospital can reduce the mortality and morbidity from TBI in Bangladesh.

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Long-term exposure to ambient air pollution and road traffic noise and asthma incidence in adults: The Danish Nurse cohort

Environment International ◽

10.1016/j.envint.2021.106464 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 152 ◽

pp. 106464 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Shuo Liu ◽

Youn-Hee Lim ◽

Marie Pedersen ◽

Jeanette T. Jørgensen ◽

Heresh Amini ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Road Traffic ◽

Traffic Noise ◽

Ambient Air ◽

Ambient Air Pollution ◽

Road Traffic Noise ◽

Asthma Incidence

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MULTI-CITY STUDIES IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND: THE IMPACT OF AIR POLLUTION ON DAILY MORTALITY AND MORBIDITY

Epidemiology ◽

10.1097/00001648-200407000-00129 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 15 (4) ◽

pp. S54 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Rod Simpson ◽

Gail Williams ◽

Adrian Barnett ◽

Anne Neller ◽

Trudi Best ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

New Zealand ◽

Daily Mortality ◽

Mortality And Morbidity ◽

The Impact

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Mortality and morbidity due to exposure to outdoor air pollution in Mashhad metropolis, Iran. The AirQ model approach

Environmental Research ◽

10.1016/j.envres.2016.07.039 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 151 ◽

pp. 451-457 ◽

Cited By ~ 77

Author(s):

Mohammad Miri ◽

Zahra Derakhshan ◽

Ahmad Allahabadi ◽

Ehsan Ahmadi ◽

Gea Oliveri Conti ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Outdoor Air ◽

Mortality And Morbidity ◽

Outdoor Air Pollution ◽

Model Approach

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Air pollution in an urban street canyon: Novel insights from highly resolved traffic information and meteorology

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-15830 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Laura Ehrnsperger ◽

Otto Klemm

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Temporal Dynamics ◽

Road Traffic ◽

Ambient Air ◽

Ambient Air Pollution ◽

Traffic Information ◽

Pollutant Emission ◽

Urban Site ◽

Gasoline Vehicles ◽

Agricultural Areas

Ambient air pollution caused by fine particulate matter (PM) and trace gases is a pressing topic as it affects the vast majority of the world's population, especially in densely populated urban environments. The main sources of ambient air pollution in cities are road traffic, industries and domestic heating. Alongside nitrogen oxides (NOx) and PM, ammonia (NH3) is also a relevant air pollutant due to its role as a precursor of particulate ammonium (NH4+). To examine the temporal patterns and sources of air pollutants, this study used fast-response air quality measurements in combination with highly resolved traffic information in M&#252;nster, NW Germany. The temporal dynamics of NOx and the particle number concentration (PN10) were similar to the diurnal and weekly courses of the traffic density. On very short timescales, the real-world peak ratios of NOx and PM&#160;&#8804;&#160;10&#160;&#181;m diameter (PM10) exceeded the predicted pollutant emission ratios of the Handbook for Emission Factors for Road Transport (HBEFA) by a factor of 6.4 and 2.0, respectively. A relative importance model revealed that light-duty vehicles (LDVs) are the major relative contributor to PN10 (38&#160;%) despite their low abundance (4&#160;%) in the local vehicle fleet.&#160; Diesel and gasoline vehicles contributed similarly to the concentrations of PM10 and PN10, while the impact of gasoline vehicles on the PM1 concentration was greater than that of diesel vehicles by a factor of 4.4. The most recent emission class Euro&#160;6 had the highest influence on PM10. Meteorological parameters explained a large portion of the variations in PM10 and PM1, while meteorology had only a minor influence on PN10. We also studied the short-term temporal dynamics of urban NH3 concentrations, the role of road traffic and agriculture as NH3 sources and the importance of ammonia for secondary particle formation (SPF). The NH3 mixing ratio was rather high (mean:&#160;17&#160;ppb) compared to other urban areas and showed distinct diurnal maxima around 10 a.m. and 9&#160;p.m. The main source for ammonia in M&#252;nster was agriculture, but road traffic also contributed through local emissions from vehicle catalysts. NH3 from surrounding agricultural areas accumulated in the nocturnal boundary layer and contributed to SPF in the city center. The size-resolved chemical composition of inorganic ions in PM10 was dominated by NH4+ (8.7&#160;&#181;g&#160;m-3), followed by NO3- (3.9&#160;&#181;g&#160;m-3), SO42- (1.6&#160;&#181;g&#160;m-3) and Cl- (1.3&#160;&#181;g&#160;m-3). Particles in the accumulation range (diameter: 0.1&#160;&#8211;&#160;1&#160;&#181;m) showed the highest inorganic ion concentrations. The ammonium neutralization index J (111&#160;%) indicated an excess of NH4+ leading to mostly alkaline PM. High ammonia emissions from surrounding agricultural areas combined with large amounts of NOx from road traffic play a crucial role for SPF in M&#252;nster. Our results further indicate that replacing fossil-fuelled LDVs with electrical vehicles would greatly reduce the PN10 concentrations at this urban site.

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How low-cost air pollution sensors could make homes smarter?

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-9113 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Hamid Omidvarborna ◽

Prashant Kumar

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Indoor Air ◽

Air Pollutants ◽

Indoor Air Pollution ◽

Prediction Models ◽

Disease Risk ◽

Low Cost ◽

Mortality And Morbidity ◽

Spatio Temporal ◽

Indoor Air Pollutants

The majority of people spend most of their time indoors, where they are exposed to indoor air pollutants. Indoor air pollution is ranked among the top ten largest global burden of a disease risk factor as well as the top five environmental public health risks, which could result in mortality and morbidity worldwide. The spent time in indoor environments has been recently elevated due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak when the public are advised to stay in their place for longer hours per day to protect lives. This opens an opportunity to low-cost air pollution sensors in the real-time Spatio-temporal mapping of IAQ and monitors their concentration/exposure levels indoors. However, the optimum selection of low-cost sensors (LCSs) for certain indoor application is challenging due to diversity in the air pollution sensing device technologies. Making affordable sensing units composed of individual sensors capable of measuring indoor environmental parameters and pollutant concentration for indoor applications requires a diverse scientific and engineering knowledge, which is not yet established. The study aims to gather all these methodologies and technologies in one place, where it allows transforming typical homes into smart homes by specifically focusing on IAQ. This approach addresses the following questions: 1) which and what sensors are suitable for indoor networked application by considering their specifications and limitation, 2) where to deploy sensors to better capture Spatio-temporal mapping of indoor air pollutants, while the operation is optimum, 3) how to treat the collected data from the sensor network and make them ready for the subsequent analysis and 4) how to feed data to prediction models, and which models are best suited for indoors.

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Epidemiology of Fatal Injuries reported in the mortuary of a tertiary care hospital

International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health ◽

10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20190182 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 633

Author(s):

Subrat Kumar Pradhan ◽

Himansu Prasad Acharya ◽

Rudra Prasanna Mishra ◽

Jay Kumar Panda ◽

Durga Madhab Satapathy ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Traffic Accidents ◽

Road Traffic ◽

Adult Population ◽

Tertiary Care ◽

Public Health Problem ◽

Care Hospital ◽

Age Group ◽

Microsoft Excel ◽

Mortality And Morbidity ◽

Fatal Injuries

Background: Injuries are an increasingly recognized global, preventable public health problem and are an important cause of mortality and morbidity in adult population. The major causes of injury related deaths may be intentional and unintentional. The major unintentional or “accidental” causes are road traffic accidents (RTAs), falls and drowning whereas the leading intentional causes are suicide and homicide. A robust Surveillance System for Injury Mortality is almost non-existent in our country due to which the data for the same is not available and haphazard. Keeping these factors in mind, the following study was under taken to identify the various epidemiological factors related to fatal injury cases.Methods: A record based retrospective study was conducted in the Department of Community Medicine, VSSIMAR, Burla, Odisha. The data were collected from the autopsy reports preserved at the Dept of FM & T, VSSIMSAR. Variables like age, sex, number of injury cause of death, place of death etc. were collected. Data were entered in Microsoft Excel and analysed using proportions and percentages.Results: The age group 25-44 years recorded the maximum number of deaths (37.49%). Males suffered the highest casualty accounting for 61.85% of deaths. Unintentional fatal injuries constituted 63.58% of deaths. The most number of fatal injuries resulting in deaths were RTAs (36.41%).Conclusions: The age group 25-44 years recorded maximum deaths. Males were the major death victims. RTAs constituted maximum of deaths among unintentional fatal injuries. Homicidal injuries constituted maximum of deaths due to intentional fatal injuries.

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Behavioural changes in urban mobility in Barcelona due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions

10.31219/osf.io/urvn8 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Corinna Peters

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Public Transport ◽

Road Traffic ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Urban Transport ◽

Policy Implications ◽

Transport Sector ◽

Urban Mobility ◽

The City

This study assesses changes in mobility behaviour in the City of Barcelona due the COVID‐19pandemic and its impact on air pollution and GHG emissions. Urban transport is an important sourceof global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Improving urban mobility patterns is therefore crucial formitigating climate change. This study combines quantitative survey data and official governmentdata with in‐depth interviews with public administration officials of the City. Data illustrates thatBarcelona has experienced an unprecedented reduction in mobility during the lockdown (a 90%drop) and mobility remained at comparatively low levels throughout the year 2020. Most remarkableis the decrease in the use of public transport in 2020 compared to pre‐pandemic levels, whereas roadtraffic has decreased to a lesser extent and cycling surged at times to levels up to 60% higher thanpre‐pandemic levels. These changes in mobility have led to a radical and historic reduction in airpollution, with NO2 and PM10 concentration complying with WHO guidelines in 2020. Reductions inGHG emissions for Barcelona’s transport sector are estimated at almost 250.000 t CO2eq in 2020 (7%of the City’s overall annual emissions). The study derives policy implications aimed at achieving along‐term shift towards climate‐friendlier, low‐emission transport in Barcelona, namely how torecover lost demand in public transport and seize the opportunity that the crisis brings for reform byfurther reducing road traffic and establishing a 'cycling culture' in Barcelona, as already achieved inother European cities.

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