Air Pollution

Exposure to pollution from passing coal trains led to an increase in the estimated number of deaths, hospitalizations and asthma cases in a San Francisco Bay Area region, according to results published in Environmental Research.

Endoscopists are exposed to dangerous levels of air pollutants when performing smoke-producing gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures — “comparable to smoking a cigarette” during a single procedure, according to researchers.

Healio has compiled the most-read news in pulmonology posted in April.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has finalized standards lowering mercury and toxic metal emissions, as well as carbon pollution from power plants, according to a press release from the agency.

Climate change has resulted in higher pollution levels, more wildfires and warmer temperatures, all of which come together and increase the risk for asthma, according to a paper published in Frontiers in Science.

Air pollution accentuates the relationship between poor mental health and premature mortality from heart disease in the United States, researchers reported at ESC Preventive Cardiology 2024.

Implementing the recent stronger standard for fine particulate pollution revealed that 131 million Americans breathe unhealthy, polluted air where they live, according to a press release from the American Lung Association.

Elevated exposure levels to nitrogen dioxide and fine particulate matter over 5 years raised the odds for COVID-19, according to results published in Respiratory Medicine.

WASHINGTON — There were no significant associations between prenatal exposure to ambient particulate matter and atopic disease, according to a study presented at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Annual Meeting.

Asthma-related ED visit rates rose with exposure to local fine particulate matter, coarse particulate matter and sulfur dioxide, according to results published in American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.