Pollutants and climatic conditions related to the smoking rate

Smoking is considered a coping behavior for stress. On the other hand, pollutants and climatic conditions are environmental stressors that can have a negative impact on health. Therefore, there may be a link between regional smoking rate and air pollution and climatic conditions. To clarify the relationship between the regional smoking rate in Japan and the environmental conditions such as photochemical oxidants concentration, ambient temperature and relative humidity, multiple regression analysis was performed. Correlation analysis showed that the ambient temperature and relative humidity and photochemical oxidants are negatively correlated with smoking rate. Stepwise multiple regression analysis with smoking rate as the objective variable, the ambient temperature and relative humidity and photochemical oxidants as explanatory variables, revealed that the ambient temperature and relative humidity and photochemical oxidants are significant independent variables. The above results suggest that ambient temperature, relative humidity and photochemical oxidants in the region may be related to smoking rate in the region.

Pollutants and climatic conditions related to the formation of photochemical oxidants

Solar radiation produces harmful compounds such as atmospheric oxidants and pharmaceutical intermediates through photochemical reactions. To clarify the variables related to the formation of photochemical oxidants, hourly data of air pollutants and climatic conditions in the Tokyo region of Japan from late May to early June 2020 were analyzed. Air pollutants, NO, NO2, CO, SO2, NMHCs and CH4, were significantly lower in 2020 than those in 2019. It seems to indicate that Japan's economic activity was suppressed by the COVID-19 emergency. Photochemical oxidants and NO were significantly higher during the day than at night. It shows the photochemical reaction is progressing during the day. Stepwise linear regression analysis revealed that relative humidity, ambient temperature, NO, CO, wind speed and NMHCs (non-methane hydrocarbons) were significant independent variables for photochemical oxidants formation.

Association of short term exposure to Asian dust with increased blood pressure

Air pollution causes hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and mortality. Asian dust (AD) reportedly induces asthma or acute myocardial infarction along with air pollution, but its impact on blood pressure (BP) is unknown. We investigated the association between short-term AD exposure and BP fluctuations in 300,952 individuals whose BP was measured during April 2005–March 2015 and divided them into AD and non-AD groups based on visitation for AD-related events. AD’s occurrence, air pollutants’ concentration (suspended particulate matter, SO2, NO2, photochemical oxidants), and meteorological variables (mean ambient temperature, relative humidity) were obtained from a monitoring station; AD events correlated with decreased visibility (< 10 km). We observed 61 AD days, with 3897 participants undergoing medical check-ups. Short-term AD exposure at lag day-0 was significantly associated with higher systolic BP (SBP), diastolic BP (DBP), and pulse rate (PR) risk (β = 1.85, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.35–2.35 for SBP, β = 2.24, 95% CI 1.88–2.61 for DBP, β = 0.52, 95% CI 0.14–0.91 for PR) using multi-pollutant model. Population-attributable fractions exposed to AD were 11.5% for those with elevated SBP (SBP ≥ 120 mmHg) and 23.7% for those with hypertension (SBP ≥ 140 mmHg or DBP ≥ 90 mmHg). This study showed a strong association between short-term AD exposure and increased SBP and DBP.

Environmental Impacts Evaluation of Sorbitol Production from Glucose

A life cycle assessment (LCA) has been performed on sorbitol production from glucose, which aims to quantify and evaluate the environmental impacts that produced from the process. SuperPro Designer software was employed to perform the process simulation, while SimaPro was used to quantify the LCA.Potency of global warming, acidification, eutrophication, photochemical oxidants creation, abiotic depletion, and ozone layer depletion were evaluated. A gate-to-gate LCA study of sorbitol production showed that global warming potential (GWP) had the largest impact to environment with the value of 3.551 kg CO2 eq/kg sorbitol. Glucose and electricity consumption were known as two major contributors to GWP, and hydrogen reactor was the main consumer of electricity. The use of glucose were responsible for more than 50% of total environmentalimpact in each category. Performing heat integration in sorbitol processing is highly recommended for gate-togate system to reduce energy demand, thus decreasing the environmental impacts. Therefore, this LCA study may be applied to perform a sustainable improvement on sorbitol production process.Keywords: sorbitol; life cycle assessment; global warming potential