Overall health impacts of a potential increase in cycle commuting in Stockholm, Sweden

Aims: To estimate the overall health impact of transferring commuting trips from car to bicycle. Methods: In this study registry information on the location of home and work for residents in Stockholm County was used to obtain the shortest travel route on a network of bicycle paths and roads. Current modes of travel to work were based on travel survey data. The relation between duration of cycling and distance cycled was established as a basis for selecting the number of individuals that normally would drive a car to work, but have a distance to work that they could bicycle within 30 minutes. The change in traffic flows was estimated by a transport model (LuTrans) and effects on road traffic injuries and fatalities were estimated by using national hospital injury data. Effects on air pollution concentrations were modelled using dispersion models. Results: Within the scenario, 111,000 commuters would shift from car to bicycle. On average the increased physical activity reduced the one-year mortality risk by 12% among the additional bicyclists. Including the number of years lost due to morbidity, the total number of disability adjusted life-years gained was 696. The amount of disability adjusted life-years gained in the general population due to reduced air pollution exposure was 471. The number of disability adjusted life-years lost by traffic injuries was 176. Also including air pollution effects among bicyclists, the net benefit was 939 disability adjusted life-years per year. Conclusions: Large health benefits were estimated by transferring commuting by car to bicycle.

Ambiguous Air Pollution Effects of China’s COVID-19 Lock-down

Reductions in ambient pollution have been suggested as a "silver lining" to the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyze China's pollution monitor data and account for the large annual improvements in air quality following the Lunar New Year, which essentially coincided with lock-downs. With the exception of nitrogen dioxide, China's air quality improvements in 2020 are smaller than we should expect near the pandemic's epicenter, Hubei province. We see smaller improvements in sulfur dioxide than expected, while ozone concentrations roughly doubled in Hubei. Similar patterns are found for the six provinces neighboring Hubei. We conclude that COVID-19 had ambiguous impacts on China's air quality.

Short-Term Effects of Air Pollution on Cardiovascular Hospitalizations in the Pisan Longitudinal Study

Air pollution effects on cardiovascular hospitalizations in small urban/suburban areas have been scantly investigated. Such effects were assessed among the participants in the analytical epidemiological survey carried out in Pisa and Cascina, Tuscany, Italy (2009–2011). Cardiovascular hospitalizations from 1585 subjects were followed up (2011–2015). Daily mean pollutant concentrations were estimated through random forests at 1 km (particulate matter: PM10, 2011–2015; PM2.5, 2013–2015) and 200 m (PM10, PM2.5, NO2, O3, 2013–2015) resolutions. Exposure effects were estimated using the case-crossover design and conditional logistic regression (odds ratio—OR—and 95% confidence interval—CI—for 10 μg/m3 increase; lag 0–6). During the period 2011–2015 (137 hospitalizations), a significant effect at lag 0 was observed for PM10 (OR = 1.137, CI: 1.023–1.264) at 1 km resolution. During the period 2013–2015 (69 hospitalizations), significant effects at lag 0 were observed for PM10 (OR = 1.268, CI: 1.085–1.483) and PM2.5 (OR = 1.273, CI: 1.053–1.540) at 1 km resolution, as well as for PM10 (OR = 1.365, CI: 1.103–1.690), PM2.5 (OR = 1.264, CI: 1.006–1.589) and NO2 (OR = 1.477, CI: 1.058–2.061) at 200 m resolution; significant effects were observed up to lag 2. Larger ORs were observed in males and in subjects reporting pre-existent cardiovascular/respiratory diseases. Combining analytical and routine epidemiological data with high-resolution pollutant estimates provides new insights on acute cardiovascular effects in the general population and in potentially susceptible subgroups living in small urban/suburban areas.

New Normal Role in PM2.5 Reduction in Bangkok

The world has been exposed to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) since late 2019. A global pandemic has shifted health concerns from air pollution effects to novel coronavirus disease, similarly to those in Bangkok. Although Bangkokians have experienced severe PM2.5 conditions since the last quarter of 2017, the related agencies have failed to elucidate the crisis. This has been because the fundamental air quality management is focused on controlling emissions. The Thai government has sluggishly determined the situations that lead to the inability to clean up its air. How are air pollution and disease linked? This article points to the importance of source management. The lockdown measures revealed reduced traffic rate and PM2.5 concentrations. Such a close relationship has shed insights of the consequences of working from home (WFH). The link between disease and air pollution includes (i) WFH regulation is one specific way to prevent the transmission of disease, (ii) this guideline decreases traffic congestion in an urban city which is one path of diminished pollution discharge and (iii) then noticeably followed by PM2.5 reductions. Again, the magnitude of source control is crucial. Reducing pollutions from traffic by means of WFH has illustrated this accomplishment. In the midst of this crisis, moving to a new normal role supports remaining protected from both air pollution and the pandemic. Nevertheless, the sustainability of transportation control in an overcrowded city like Bangkok should be considered as a vital pathway to tackle air pollution.

Air pollution, mortality, at-risk population, new entry and life expectancy of the frail elderly in three U.S. cities

We present the findings of a new time-series model that estimates short-term health effects of particulate matter and ozone, as applied to three U.S. cities. The model is based on observed fluctuations of daily death counts and estimates the corresponding daily subpopulations at-risk of imminent death; it also shows that virtually all elderly deaths are preceded by a brief period of extreme frailty. We augment previous research by allowing new entrants to this at-risk population to be influenced by the environment, rather than be random. The mean frail subpopulations in the three cities, each containing between 3000 and 5000 daily observations on mortality, pollution, and temperature, are estimated to be about 0.1% of those aged 65 or more, and their life expectancies in this frail status are about one week. We find losses in life expectancy due to air pollution and temperature to be at most one day. Air pollution effects on new entrants into the frail population tend to exceed those on mortality. Our results provide context to the many time-series studies that have found significant short-term relationships between air quality and survival, and they suggest that benefits of air quality improvement should be based on increased life expectancy rather than estimated numbers of excess deaths.