The Impact of Bushfire Smoke on Cattle—A Review

In 2019–2020, a particularly bad bushfire season in Australia resulted in cattle being exposed to prolonged periods of smoke haze and reduced air quality. Bushfire smoke contains many harmful pollutants, and impacts on regions far from the fire front, with smoke haze persisting for weeks. Particulate matter (PM) is one of the major components of bushfire smoke known to have a negative impact on human health. However, little has been reported about the potential effects that bushfire smoke has on cattle exposed to smoke haze for extended periods. We explored the current literature to investigate evidence for likely effects on cattle from prolonged exposure to smoke generated from bushfires in Australia. We conducted a search for papers related to the impacts of smoke on cattle. Initial searching returned no relevant articles through either CAB Direct or PubMed databases, whilst Google Scholar provided a small number of results. The search was then expanded to look at two sub-questions: the type of pollution that is found in bushfire smoke, and the reported effects of both humans and cattle being exposed to these types of pollutants. The primary mechanism for damage due to bushfire smoke is due to small airborne particulate matter (PM). Although evidence demonstrates that PM from bushfire smoke has a measurable impact on both human mortality and cardiorespiratory morbidities, there is little evidence regarding the impact of chronic bushfire smoke exposure in cattle. We hypothesize that cattle are not severely affected by chronic exposure to smoke haze, as evidenced by the lack of reports. This may be because cattle do not tend to suffer from the co-morbidities that, in the human population, seem to be made worse by smoke and pollution. Further, small changes to background mortality rates or transient morbidity may also go unreported.

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The impact of climate factors on airborne particulate matter removal by plants

Journal of Cleaner Production ◽

10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.127559 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 127559

Author(s):

Rui Zhang ◽

Keming Ma

Keyword(s):

Particulate Matter ◽

Airborne Particulate Matter ◽

Climate Factors ◽

Airborne Particulate ◽

The Impact

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New evidence on the impact of sustained exposure to air pollution on life expectancy from China’s Huai River Policy

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1616784114 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 114 (39) ◽

pp. 10384-10389 ◽

Cited By ~ 161

Author(s):

Avraham Ebenstein ◽

Maoyong Fan ◽

Michael Greenstone ◽

Guojun He ◽

Maigeng Zhou

Keyword(s):

Particulate Matter ◽

Life Expectancy ◽

Airborne Particulate Matter ◽

Estimation Methods ◽

Regression Discontinuity Design ◽

Airborne Particulate ◽

Life Years ◽

Huai River ◽

The Impact ◽

New Evidence

This paper finds that a 10-μg/m3 increase in airborne particulate matter [particulate matter smaller than 10 μm (PM10)] reduces life expectancy by 0.64 years (95% confidence interval = 0.21–1.07). This estimate is derived from quasiexperimental variation in PM10 generated by China’s Huai River Policy, which provides free or heavily subsidized coal for indoor heating during the winter to cities north of the Huai River but not to those to the south. The findings are derived from a regression discontinuity design based on distance from the Huai River, and they are robust to using parametric and nonparametric estimation methods, different kernel types and bandwidth sizes, and adjustment for a rich set of demographic and behavioral covariates. Furthermore, the shorter lifespans are almost entirely caused by elevated rates of cardiorespiratory mortality, suggesting that PM10 is the causal factor. The estimates imply that bringing all of China into compliance with its Class I standards for PM10 would save 3.7 billion life-years.

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The Impact of Ambient Fine Particulate Matter on Consumer Expenditures

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12051855 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (5) ◽

pp. 1855

Author(s):

Hojin Jung

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Particulate Matter ◽

Power Plants ◽

Airborne Particulate Matter ◽

Ambient Air ◽

Ambient Air Pollution ◽

Significant Heterogeneity ◽

Airborne Particulate ◽

Consumer Expenditures ◽

The Impact

Airborne particulate matter suspended from industrial facilities, power plants, and automobiles is detrimental to health. Growing concerns about the increasing level of airborne particulate matter have led many industrialized nations to advocate for the transformation of the energy market and investment in sustainable energy products. At the other end, consumers have made individual adjustments and attempted to reduce the exposure to the particulate matter. In this paper, we focus on the effect of ambient air pollution on consumer expenditures based on scanner panel data on consumers’ debit and credit card transactions. A series of empirical analyses found robust evidence that the increased level of particulate matter led to considerable disruption in total consumer expenditures with significant heterogeneity across categories. Our findings suggest that consumers alter their spending behaviors in an attempt to reduce the risk of exposures to particulate matter. Such an estimated effect of air pollution is qualitatively different from those of other macroeconomic factors and provides important guidance for policy interventions and practical decisions aimed at sustaining economic growth.

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Dynamometric Investigation on Airborne Particulate Matter (PM) from Friction Materials for Automobile: Impact of Abrasive and Lubricant on PM Emission Factor

Lubricants ◽

10.3390/lubricants9120118 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (12) ◽

pp. 118

Author(s):

Sung-Hun Kim ◽

Mu Hyeok Jeong ◽

Jaegyeom Kim ◽

Wooyoung Shim ◽

Sung-Uk Kwon ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Particulate Matter ◽

Emission Factor ◽

Raw Materials ◽

Airborne Particulate Matter ◽

Surface Topology ◽

Airborne Particulate ◽

Temperature Dependent ◽

Friction Materials ◽

Urgent Task ◽

The Impact

Reduction of non-exhaust airborne particulate matter (PM), leading to adverse effects in respiratory system, is an urgent task. In this work, we evaluated the impact of raw materials in friction materials on PM emission due to brake wear for passenger vehicle. Time- and temperature-dependent measurements using dynamometer were made for low-steel friction materials with varied abrasives and lubricant(graphite). The brake emission factor (BEF) for graphite of varied sizes ranged from 6.48 to 7.23 mg/km/vehicle. The number concentration indicates that smaller graphite (10 μm) produces more nano-sized particles than larger size (700 μm) by >50%. Depending on abrasives, BEF was found to be varied as large as by three-times, ranging from 4.37 to 14.41 mg/km/vehicle. As hardness of abrasive increases (SiC > Al2O3 > ZrSiO4), higher BEF was obtained, suggesting that abrasive wear directly contributes to emissions, evidenced by surface topology. Temperature-dependent data imply that particle emission for SiC abrasive is initiated at lower speed in WLTC cycle, where disc temperature (Tdisc) is ~100 °C, than that for ZrSiO4 (Tdisc >120 °C). Analysis of wear debris suggests that larger micron-sized particles include fragmented Fe lumps from disc, whereas smaller particles are, in part, formed by combination of oxidation and aggregation of nano-sized particles into small lumps.

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Correlation between Coarse Airborne Particulate Matter and Mortality Rates of Malignant Neoplasm

Korean Journal of Health Promotion ◽

10.15384/kjhp.2016.16.4.215 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 16 (4) ◽

pp. 215

Author(s):

Kyung-Ho Park ◽

Ji-Hyun Kim ◽

Hong-Sun Yoon ◽

In-Hwa Kim ◽

In-Mok Choi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Particulate Matter ◽

Malignant Neoplasm ◽

Airborne Particulate Matter ◽

Mortality Rates ◽

Airborne Particulate

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Use of Chemical Signature to Trace the Impact of Emission Sources

10.21203/rs.3.rs-450504/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Angelo Cecinato ◽

Alessandro Bacaloni ◽

Paola Romagnoli ◽

Mattia Perilli ◽

Catia Balducci

Keyword(s):

Particulate Matter ◽

Organic Contaminants ◽

Airborne Particulate Matter ◽

Molecular Signature ◽

Particulate Emissions ◽

Airborne Particulate ◽

Organic Fraction ◽

Chemical Signature ◽

Source Markers ◽

The Impact

Abstract The composition of organic fraction associated to particulate emissions depends on their nature as well as on contour conditions. Therefore, many Authors have investigated the chemical signature of airborne particulate matter and dusts with the goal of identifying the pollution sources and assessing their impact on the environment and health. Usually, Authors use three complementary tools for this goal; they are specific source markers, concentration ratios of pairs of congeners, and percent distributions of homologues within a group. After the presentation of the state-of-the-art about non-polar aliphatic (alkanes and alkenes), aromatic (PAHs, Nitro-PAHs) and polar (fatty acids, organic halides, polysaccharides) compounds associated to emissions, this paper provides new information with regard to chemical signature non-polar fraction, suitable to trace the impact of sources on airborne particulate matter and settled dust. Non-polar organic fraction comprises short/medium-chain alkenes and alkanes (with carbon numbers ranging from 12 to 23), which display distinct relative abundances in petrol-derived exhausts, microorganism residues and high vegetation leaf debris. Meanwhile, long-chain alkanes associated to tobacco smoke show a peculiar iso/anteiso/normal homologues fingerprint as well as n-hentriacontane percentages higher than other emissions. Based on this particular alkane distribution, two indexes (ATSR and AICR) have tentatively identified and tested though comparing their rates in some sets of particulate samples. Until now, the study of molecular signature has overall limited to qualitative purposes and seldom exploited to achieve quantitative estimates of contributions of sources to air pollution. Future investigations will reach this goal through further clarifying the nature and behavior of organic contaminants associated to airborne and settled particulate matters.

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