Effect of smoke-free legislation on respiratory health services use in children with asthma: a population-based open cohort study in Ontario, Canada

ObjectiveThis study will add to existing literature by examining the impact of smoke-free legislation in outdoor areas among children with asthma. We aimed to examine the effect of the 2015 Smoke-Free Ontario Act (SFOA) amendment, which prohibited smoking on patios, playgrounds and sports fields, on health services use (HSU) rates in children with asthma.MethodsWe conducted a population-based open cohort study using health administrative data from the province of Ontario, Canada. Each year, all Ontario residents aged 0–18 years with physician diagnosed asthma were included in the study. Annual rates of HSU (emergency department (ED) visits, hospitalisations and physician office visits) for asthma and asthma-related conditions (eg, bronchitis, allergic rhinitis, influenza and pneumonia) were calculated. Interrupted time-series analysis, accounting for seasonality, was used to estimate changes in HSU following the 2015 SFOA.ResultsThe study population ranged from 618 957 individuals in 2010 to 498 812 in 2018. An estimated average increase in ED visits for asthma in infants aged 0–1 years of 0.42 per 100 individuals (95% CI: 0.09 to 0.75) and a 57% relative increase corresponding to the 2015 SFOA was observed. A significant decrease in ED visits for asthma-related conditions of 0.19 per 100 individuals (95% CI: −0.37 to –0.01) and a 22% relative decrease corresponding to the 2015 SFOA was observed.ConclusionBased on the observed positive effect of restricting smoking on patios, playgrounds and sports fields on respiratory morbidity in children with asthma, other jurisdictions globally should consider implementing similar smoke-free policies.

School yard biodiversity determines short-term recovery of disturbed skin microbiota in children

The planting and conservation of biodiverse habitat in urban contexts has been proposed as a public health intervention aimed at reducing the prevalence of non-communicable diseases via microbiome rewilding (Mills et al. 2017; Mills et al. 2019). However, our understanding of the effect of urban biodiversity interventions on the human microbiota remains limited, especially on the skin (Hui et al. 2019; Roslund et al. 2020) and in the context of permanent green spaces (Lehtimaki et al. 2018; Selway et al. 2020). Here, we test the short-term response of experimentally disturbed bacterial communities on the skin of healthy children exposed to different school environments, either a classroom, a sports field, or a biodiverse forest, to understand how exposures to different types of biodiversity may influence skin microbiota. Children exposed to the forest had significantly increased skin microbiota diversity when compared to pre-exposure, an effect that increased over three days suggesting long-term effects. The microbiota on children exposed to the forest had the largest structural and compositional community change compared to children exposed to sports fields, which in turn was larger than those who remained in classrooms. Children exposed to sports fields and forests also acquired new core bacteria after exposure to green spaces, potentially buffering against disturbances to the skin microbiotas diversity, while individuals who remained in the classroom lost microbes throughout the experiment. Overall, we conclude that urban green spaces can have an enriching influence on the diversity of skin microbiota, including core members shared between all children. These findings have important implications for the design and construction of new school yards and public spaces with respect to biodiversity, health, and human microbiota.

Turf’s Dirty Little Secret

Greenhouse gas emissions from sports fields may be scoring points for climate change.

Theorizing University Rankings by Comparison: Systematic and historical analogies with arts and sports

In this paper we lay down a comparative framework for theorizing university rankings, which can be used and further extended by scholars interested in advancing research on rankings. In so doing, we contextualize the analysis of university rankings within a broader sociology of rankings. We identify two dimensions along which such contextualization could be done: (a) systematic, referring to the comparison of university rankings with rankings in other fields and focusing on how university rankings can be informed by insights from other empirical settings; and (b) historical, which concerns long-term trajectories, rather than just the past few years. We argue that analogical theorizing is one promising strategy for doing this, and to illustrate its potential, we bring insights from the arts and sports fields into the study of university rankings. This approach, we argue, can benefit both our understanding of university rankings and rankings more generally.

Revitalization of an amateur sports field with emerald grass

With the increasing popularization of football (soccer), new technologies have arrived in Brazil that assist in the maintenance of sports fields, making it possible to increase the quality of turfgrass in both professional and amateur fields. Thus, the revitalization process has become fundamental in sports fields installed with emerald grass to improve game performance and turfgrass development. The objective of this study was to revitalize an amateur sports field in the interior of São Paulo state, Brazil, planted with emerald grass. The conditions of the field were initially assessed and a set of revitalization procedures were carried out from November 2019 to March 2020 to improve turfgrass quality, including: chemical analysis of the soil and liming; mowing of the grass and disposal of clippings; soil decompaction through aeration with solid tines; application of sand (top dressing); pest and weed control; planting of new sod; fertilization and maintenance. Technical training with employees was also conducted for subsequent field maintenance. All tested operations were essential and necessary to improve the aesthetics and quality of the amateur sports field, so that the turfgrass could be revitalized and ready for use in soccer matches.