Non-Fired Building Blocks Using Industrial Wastes

Bricks produced from traditional techniques and agricultural clay contribute considerably to the air pollutions in the world. Therefore, an urgent need to start using an environment-friendly alternative material/approach to save the fertile topsoil and conserve a clean environment. This research is aimed to produce non-fired bricks incorporating industrial solid waste from steel and power plants, including Fly ash and Ladle Furnace Slag (LFS), as a partial replacement of CEM I and lime. Induction Furnace Slag (IFS) is used as a partial/full replacement of natural fine aggregate (local sand) in the laboratory scale manufacturing process. The prepared building blocks conform to the minimum compressive strength requirement of 10.3 MPa per ASTM C62 and BDS 208 while the maximum compressive strength was 40.6 MPa. This highly promising performance pronounced the use of industrial waste materials in non-fired brick production to achieve a cleaner environment for a sustainable society. ournal of Engineering Science 12(3), 2021, 1-10

Estimate Lead and Cadmium contents of some archeological samples collected from ancient cities location (Cyrene and Abolonia) at Al - Gabal Al -Akhder Region, Libya

This study was carried out on archeological samples which collected from one of the most important ancient cities which located at eastern north side of Libya, these cities called (Cyrene and Abolonia Cyrene). Different samples were collected from the outside surface of the studied samples. The contents of lead (pb) and cadmium (Cd) were determined b using atomic absorption instrument. The results showed small variations for the studied metals between the studied samples. The concluded that the source of the detected metals are mainly due to the effects of air pollutions by the dust of machines and cars.

Balikpapan’s wind analysis to determine air quality monitoring point to support smart environment monitoring system

In this industrial era, air pollution become a concerning problem since it can cause some respiratory problems. One of the air pollutions was Sulphur dioxide which dilutes fast in atmospheric water vapor resulting in acid rain which can affect the organism. Thus, in this research, we study the probability of the receptor’s location according to wind direction, as the preliminary information on deciding monitoring point. The meteorological data were obtained from Balikpapan’s Agency for Meteorological, Climatological, and Geophysics. The wind data was then plotted using a wind rose plot program called WRPLOT. Afterward, the dominant wind speed and direction will then be analyzed using google earth to know which point will be affected by the pollution dispersion from the chimney in Balikpapan. The results show that wind in Balikpapan throughout 2020 mostly blew from Southwest to Northeast Direction. Thus, the most probable receptor locations were open green spaces with no settlement around. This will have less impact on human health. Nevertheless, further research can be conducted to know better the on-air dispersion model around the power plant, how the green plant will be suffered from this air pollution, and how this pollution will affect the workers around it.

The association between ambient air pollution and scarlet fever in Qingdao, China, 2014–2018: a quantitative analysis

Background We conducted a distributed lag non-linear time series analysis to quantify the association between air pollution and scarlet fever in Qingdao city during 2014–2018. Methods A distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) combined with a generalized additive mixed model (GAMM) was applied to quantify the distributed lag effects of air pollutions on scarlet fever, with daily incidence of scarlet fever as the dependent variable and air pollutions as the independent variable adjusted for potential confounders. Results A total of 6316 cases of scarlet fever were notified, and there were 376 days occurring air pollution during the study period. Scarlet fever was significantly associated with air pollutions at a lag of 7 days with different relative risk (RR) of air pollution degrees [1.172, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.038–1.323 in mild air pollution; 1.374, 95% CI 1.078–1.749 in moderate air pollution; 1.610, 95% CI 1.163–2.314 in severe air pollution; 1.887, 95% CI 1.163–3.061 in most severe air pollution]. Conclusions Our findings show that air pollution is positively associated with scarlet fever in Qingdao, and the risk of scarlet fever could be increased along with the degrees of air pollution. It contributes to developing strategies to prevent and reduce health impact from scarlet fever and other non-vaccine-preventable respiratory infectious diseases in air polluted areas.

Design of Smoke Detector for Smart Room Based on Arduino Uno

Smoke is one of the air pollutions that is very detrimental to the health of both the smoker himself and others around him. Inhaling other people's smoke is even more dangerous than inhaling your own smoke. Even the dangers that must be borne by passive smokers are three times greater than the dangers of active smokers. Smoke is also very detrimental to the health of patients in hospitals, especially patients who suffer from asthma. For people with asthma who have problems in the respiratory tract, asthma can recur at any time due to inhaling smoke. This research will develop a smart room that can detect smoke to maintain and protect the room from smoke that interferes with health. The tool to be developed uses an MQ2 sensor, LCD, exhaust fan, buzzer, and Arduino Uno microcontroller. Where an MQ2 sensor is needed to detect smoke around it, an LCD is needed to display the percentage of smoke, a microcontroller as a controller for all components, a buzzer is used as an alarm when the smoke level in the room is unhealthy, and the exhaust fan functions as a sucker for dirty air so that the smoke level in the room can be reduced.

People’s knowledge regarding impacts of air pollution on reproductive health: a self-reported study

Air pollution is a major challenge worldwide, particularly in the developing world. This study aimed to revelation people’s perceptions regarding the impacts of air pollution on reproductive health. This study was conducted among107 respondents and a google form was used to create a survey questionnaire. Purposive sampling has been used to select the respondents. A large number of respondents are male and aged less than 30 years. A large number of respondents are from the urban area and depends on Non-Government Job. A satisfactory number of the respondents know about air pollution. Both male and female respondents know smoke inhalation during pregnancy, damage reproductive organs of the male, birth defects due to air pollutions, and delayed brain development of the newborn baby. Most of the respondents gather their knowledge from television and social media. Asian J. Med. Biol. Res. 2021, 7 (2), 147-152

Exposure to Ambient Air Pollutions and Upper Respiratory Tract Infection in Zhengzhou City, China: A Approximate Five-Year Surveillance Study

Background: Studies indicated that air pollutions were associated with respiratory disease have with a lag exposure–response relationship, but not linear. However, few evidences in Zhengzhou, one of the most polluted cities for China.Method: Upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) outpatient visits in the hospital, meteorological parameters and air pollutions data were obtained from October 28, 2013 to May 1, 2018 and were used for evaluating the risk effects of the air pollutants with a distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM), including the stratified analysis of gender and age.Result: 475013 cases were included, with obvious seasonal fluctuations,higher in cool/cold and lower in warm. Every increase of 10μg/m3 of PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2 and CO showed similar impacts on URTI outpatient visits in different genders and age sub-groups,within 0 to15 days of lag. PM10, SO2 and NO2 had the strongest immediately risk at lag 0 [RRPM10: 1.0011, 95%CI (1.0002-1.0020); RRSO2: 1.0084, 95%CI (1.0039-1.0130); RRNO2: 1.0149, 95%CI: (1.0111-1.0188), respectively], while PM2.5 and CO got highest risk at lag 15 days [RRPM2.5: 1.0014, 95%CI (1.0003-1.0025); RRCO: 1.0002, 95%CI: (1.0001-1.0003), respectively]. In addition, calculating overall accumulated effects of each 10μg/m3 increase in PM10, SO2, NO2, and CO was greater in females than in males, as well as greater in the adolescents (aged 0-18 years) and elderly (aged ≥ 60 years) than in adults (aged 19-59 years), except CO was greater in the adolescents and adults than in the elderly. No significant cumulative effects were found in PM2.5. O3 levelwasno significant correlation withURTI outpatient visits throughout the lag period.Conclusions: Our results indicated that PM10, SO2, NO2 and CO had strong immediate and lag cumulative effects in the females, adolescents, and elderly. PM2.5 has lag effects but has no significant lag cumulative impact effects on gender and age.

Yearly and Daily Relationship Assessment between Air Pollution and Early-Stage COVID-19 Incidence: Evidence from 231 Countries and Regions

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused significantly changes in worldwide environmental and socioeconomics, especially in the early stage. Previous research has found that air pollution is potentially affected by these unprecedented changes and it affects COVID-19 infections. This study aims to explore the non-linear association between yearly and daily global air pollution and the confirmed cases of COVID-19. The concentrations of tropospheric air pollution (CO, NO2, O3, and SO2) and the daily confirmed cases between 23 January 2020 and 31 May 2020 were collected at the global scale. The yearly discrepancies of air pollutions and daily air pollution are associated with total and daily confirmed cases, respectively, based on the generalized additive model. We observed that there are significant spatially and temporally non-stationary variations between air pollution and confirmed cases of COVID-19. For the yearly assessment, the number of confirmed cases is associated with the positive fluctuation of CO, O3, and SO2 discrepancies, while the increasing NO2 discrepancies leads to the significant peak of confirmed cases variation. For the daily assessment, among the selected countries, positive linear or non-linear relationships are found between CO and SO2 concentrations and the daily confirmed cases, whereas NO2 concentrations are negatively correlated with the daily confirmed cases; variations in the ascending/declining associations are identified from the relationship of the O3-confirmed cases. The findings indicate that the non-linear relationships between global air pollution and the confirmed cases of COVID-19 are varied, which implicates the needs as well as the incorporation of our findings in the risk monitoring of public health on local, regional, and global scales.

Analysis of Particulate Matter Concentration Intercepted by Trees of a Latin-American Megacity

Urban areas with trees provide several ecosystem services to citizens. There is a growing interest in ecosystem services for the removal of air pollutants such as particulate matter. The objective of this paper is to show a study on the variation of intercepted particulate matter concentration (IPMC) by tree leaves in the megacity of Bogotá (Colombia). The relationship between IPMC and PM2.5 concentrations observed in air quality stations in two urban zones with different air pollutions was studied. Influences of climate and leaf morphology variables on IPMC were also analyzed. The species under study were Ligustrum-lucidum, Eucalyptus-ficifolia, Tecoma-stans, Callistemon-citrinus, Lafoensia-acuminata, and Quercus-humboldtii. The results showed that leaf IPMC decreased as the PM2.5 concentration increased. Species that best described this trend were Ligustrum-lucidum and Lafoensia-acuminata. These two species also showed the largest IPMC in their leaves. Indeed, species that showed the largest leaf area were those with the highest IPMC. On average, it was observed that for each 5.0 µg/m3 increase in PM2.5 concentration the IPMCs of the species Ligustrum-lucidum and Lafoensia-acuminata decreased by 33.6% and 23.1%, respectively. When wind speed increased, there was also an increase in PM2.5 concentrations and a reduction in the leaf IPMCs.