Global Environmentalism and the World-System: A Cross-National Analysis of Air Pollution

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 276-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Andrew Mejia
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
World System ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Ambient Air Pollution ◽  
Environmental Regime ◽  
Pollution Levels ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
The World ◽  
National Analysis ◽  
The Relationship

Ambient air pollution represents a global health crisis, leading to 7 million annual deaths worldwide. The rise of a “global environmental regime” manifests in the widespread adoption of environmental policies and laws to reduce ambient air pollution, but debate remains whether they have any effect. Scholars argue that the relationship between the global environmental regime and air pollution depends on the penetration of the global environmental regime. In this analysis, I argue that the relationship between the global environmental regime and air pollution levels is contingent on a country’s position in the world-system. Using fixed effects panel analyses of 144 countries from 1990 to 2010, I find embeddedness in the global environmental regime does predict lower national air pollution levels. This effect, however, is smaller in semi-peripheral and peripheral countries. These findings contribute to an emerging body of scholarship integrating world society and world systems approaches in the study of the environment.

Abstract P043: Does The Severity of Coronary Artery Disease Explain The Increased Risk of Death and Myocardial Infarction From Ambient Air Pollution Exposure?

Circulation ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 125 (suppl_10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Somjot S Brar ◽  
Denise Le ◽  
Sumit Khandhar ◽  
Dong Chang ◽  
Lindsay Short ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Coronary Artery ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Ambient Air Pollution ◽  
Left Main ◽  
Left Main Disease ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Artery Disease ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Road Distance

BACKGROUND: Ambient air pollution from traffic increases cardiovascular morbidity and mortality and is associated with coronary artery calcification. Whether this increased risk is mediated by severity of coronary artery disease (CAD) remains unknown. METHODS: In this pilot study, the relationship between living near a major roadway and multivessel CAD confirmed by invasive coronary angiographic was explored. Subjects undergoing coronary angiography in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in 2009-10 were randomly selected. Investigators blinded to the exposure status reviewed coronary angiograms. Subjects were categorized as having: absence of or non-obstructive CAD, 1-vessel, 2-vessel, or 3-vessel CAD based upon the number of major epicardial vessels with > 70% stenoses. The distance from each subject's residence to the nearest major road was calculated in meters. Multivariate logistic regression was used to explore the relationship between severity of CAD and distance to major roadway. RESULTS: There were 642 subjects undergoing coronary angiography. The mean age (SD) was 64 years (12) and 36% were female. In multivariate analysis log-road distance was a predictor of multivessel CAD, odds ratio (OR) = 0.85 (95%CI, 0.75-0.98; p=0. 02) after adjusting for age, gender, hypertension, and diabetes, and smoking status. Other predictors of multivessel CAD included from the multivariate logist model were: male gender (OR, 3.00, 95% CI, 2.06-4.39; p<0.001), diabetes (OR, 2.49; 95% CI, 1.75-3.54; p<0.001), and hypertension 2.58; 95%CI, 1.28-5.21; p=0.008). The most severe form of CAD, >50% stenosis of the left main artery, was observed in 6.6% of the cohort. In a multivariate model, age (P = 0.002) and diabetes (P = 0.002) were significant predictors of severe left main disease; there was a trend for log-road distance (OR, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.67-1.02; P = 0.079) with left main disease. CONCLUSIONS: Multivessel CAD was strongly associated with traditional risk factors. After adjusting for these factors, living near a major roadway was also a predictor. This study demonstrates the feasibility of exploring the association between angiographic CAD and traffic pollution. Additional studies are needed to better understand the mechanisms underlying the increase in adverse cardiovascular events from air pollution.

scholarly journals The Relationship Between Air Pollution and All-Cause Mortality in Singapore

Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ho ◽  
Zheng ◽  
Cheong ◽  
En ◽  
Pek ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Health Hazard ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Ambient Air Pollution ◽  
World Population ◽  
Distributed Lag ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
All Cause Mortality ◽  
Unit Increase ◽  
The Relationship

Ambient air pollution is a risk factor for both acute and chronic diseases and poses serious health threats to the world population. We aim to study the relationship between air pollution and all-cause mortality in the context of a city-state exposed to the Southeast Asian haze problem. The primary exposure was ambient air pollution, as measured by the Pollutants Standards Index (PSI). The outcome of interest was all-cause mortality from 2010–2015. A time-stratified case-crossover design was performed. A conditional Poisson regression model, including environmental variables such as PSI, temperature, wind speed, and rainfall, was fitted to the daily count of deaths to estimate the incidence rate ratio (IRR) of mortality per unit increase in PSI, accounting for overdispersion and autocorrelation. To account for intermediate exposure effects (maximum lag of 10 days), a distributed lag non-linear model was used. There were 105,504 deaths during the study period. Increment in PSI was significantly associated with an increased risk of mortality. The adjusted IRR of mortality per the 10-unit increase in PSI was 1.01 (95%CI = 1.00–1.01). The lag effect was stronger when PSI was in the unhealthy range compared to the good and moderate ranges. At lag = 7 days, PSI appeared to have an adverse effect on mortality, although the effect was not significant. These findings provide evidence on the general health hazard of exposure to air pollution and can potentially guide public health policies in the region.

scholarly journals Air pollution is not ‘the new smoking’: comparing the disease burden of air pollution and smoking across the globe, 1990–2017

2019 ◽  
pp. tobaccocontrol-2019-055181
Author(s):  
Wayne Gao ◽  
Mattia Sanna ◽  
Marita Hefler ◽  
Chi Pang Wen
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Tobacco Use ◽  
Disease Burden ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Ambient Air Pollution ◽  
Director General ◽  
Online Data ◽  
Life Years ◽  
The World ◽  
Global Burden Of Diseases

Air pollution has been labelled the ‘new smoking’, with news articles bearing titles such as ‘If You Live in a Big City You Already Smoke Every Day’ and ‘The Air Is So Bad in These Cities, You May As Well Be Smoking’. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, highlighted this attention-catching comparison, saying, ‘The world has turned the corner on tobacco. Now it must do the same for the ‘new tobacco’ – the toxic air that billions breathe every day’ and ‘Globally, with smoking on the decline, air pollution now causes more deaths annually than tobacco’ at the First Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health in 2018. The suggestion that the world has turned the corner on tobacco control and the reference to air pollution as the ‘new smoking’ raise a number of concerns. We generate outputs from GBD Compare (the online data visualisation tool of the Global Burden of Diseases and Injuries (GBD) Study) to demonstrate historical disease burden trends in terms of disability-adjusted life years and age-standardised mortality attributable to air pollution and tobacco use from 1990 to 2017 across the globe. We find that the disease burden caused by ambient air pollution declined significantly faster than the burden caused by tobacco use. We conclude that the world is still far from turning the corner on the tobacco endemic. Further, the suggestion that air pollution is as bad as actual smoking is not only inaccurate but also potentially dangerous to public health.

scholarly journals Decline of Ambient Air Pollution Levels and Improved Respiratory Health in Swiss Children

2005 ◽  
Vol 113 (11) ◽  
pp. 1632-1637 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy Bayer-Oglesby ◽  
Leticia Grize ◽  
Markus Gassner ◽  
Kathy Takken-Sahli ◽  
Felix H. Sennhauser ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Respiratory Health ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Ambient Air Pollution ◽  
Pollution Levels

scholarly journals Effects of AIR pollution on cardiopuLmonary disEaSe in urban and peri-urban reSidents in Beijing: protocol for the AIRLESS study

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (24) ◽  
pp. 15775-15792
Author(s):  
Yiqun Han ◽  
Wu Chen ◽  
Lia Chatzidiakou ◽  
Anika Krause ◽  
Li Yan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Personal Exposure ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Ambient Air Pollution ◽  
Urban Residents ◽  
Cardiopulmonary Disease ◽  
Pollution Levels ◽  
Large Scale Field

Abstract. Beijing, as a representative megacity in China, is experiencing some of the most severe air pollution episodes in the world, and its fast urbanization has led to substantial urban and peri-urban disparities in both health status and air quality. Uncertainties remain regarding the possible causal links between individual air pollutants and health outcomes, with spatial comparative investigations of these links lacking, particularly in developing megacities. In light of this challenge, Effects of AIR pollution on cardiopuLmonary disEaSe in urban and peri-urban reSidents in Beijing (AIRLESS) was initiated, with the aim of addressing the complex issue of relating multi-pollutant exposure to cardiopulmonary outcomes. This paper presents the novel methodological framework employed in the project, namely (1) the deployment of two panel studies from established cohorts in urban and peri-urban Beijing, with different exposure settings regarding pollution levels and diverse sources; (2) the collection of detailed measurements and biomarkers of participants from a nested case (hypertensive) and control (healthy) study setting; (3) the assessment of indoor and personal exposure to multiple gaseous pollutants and particulate matter at unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution with validated novel sensor technologies; (4) the assessment of ambient air pollution levels in a large-scale field campaign, particularly the chemical composition of particulate matter. Preliminary results showed that there is a large difference between ambient and personal air pollution levels, and the differences varied between seasons and locations. These large differences were reflected on the different health responses between the two panels.

Time series regression to identifying the relationship between air pollution and health in Vietnam

2020 ◽  
Vol 04 (04) ◽  
pp. 40-52
Author(s):  
Thuy Linh Nguyen ◽  
◽  
Tu Le ◽  
Thi Kim Ngan Nguyen ◽  
Thi Bich Lien Nguyen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Time Series ◽  
Hospital Admissions ◽  
Environmental Epidemiology ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Outcome Data ◽  
Ambient Air Pollution ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Time Series Regression ◽  
Pollution Levels

Time series has been widely used in environmental epidemiology; especially in identifying the short-term associations between ambient air pollution and health outcomes. For both exposure and outcome, data are available at regular time intervals (daily hospital admissions and pollution levels) to explore short-term associations between them. In this article, we described main steps to conduct time series regression and highlighted some key ideas when applying this technique. A sample data was used to investigate short-term association between PM10 and daily hospital admission among children in Hanoi between 2008 and 2016. This analysis was conducted with R software. Keywords: time series, air pollution, short-term effect

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