Objectives: Electronic cigarettes (ECs) have recently become popular around the world, and their safety is being widely discussed in the scientific literature. Previous studies have examined the chemicals in e-liquids and vapour, and demonstrated that the aerosol from ECs can contain toxic chemicals that are harmful to health. However, little is known about the potential adverse health effects of passive exposure to EC vapour. The aim of this paper is to summarise and review all studies that have examined potential adverse health effects of passive exposure from inhaling EC vapour. Specifically, our research objectives were to describe 1) the absolute impact of passive exposure from inhaling vapour when compared with background, and 2) the relative impact of passive exposure from inhaling vapour when compared with passive exposure from inhaling conventional cigarette smoke.
Methods:A systematic review was conducted to identify articles published from 1996 to 10 September 2015 from Embase, Ovid MEDLINE and PreMEDLINE. Papers eligible for inclusion had to be written in English, study health effects from passive exposure to EC vapour in animals or humans, test or analyse the EC vapour directly or in the ambient air (with an inference made about passive or second-hand vapour exposure). The review was conducted using the PRISMA guidelines for reporting on systematic reviews. We identified 312 studies, and 16 were relevant for inclusion in our review.Results: A variety of study designs were used to investigate potential health risks from passive exposure to EC vapour. These included direct exposure studies involving humans and animals, and indirect exposure studies using volunteer EC users or smoking machines. The majority of studies determined that passive exposure to EC vapour may pose a health risk to bystanders. All papers encountered a number of limitations.
Objective: To examine the sequence of environmental and entomological events prior to a substantial increase in Ross River virus (RRV) and Barmah Forest virus (BFV) notifications with a view to informing future public health response.Methods: Rainfall, tidal, mosquito and human arboviral notification data were analysed to determine the temporality of events.Results: Following two extremely dry years, there was a substantial increase in the abundance of mosquitoes along coastal New South Wales (NSW) two weeks after a significant rainfall event and high tides in February 2020. Subsequently, RRV and BFV notifications in north east NSW began to increase eight and nine weeks respectively after the high rainfall, with RRV notifications peaking 12 weeks after the high rainfall.Conclusions: Mosquito bite avoidance messaging should be instigated within two weeks of high summer rainfall, especially after an extended dry period.Implications for public health: Intense summertime rain events, which are expected to increase in frequency in south-east Australia with climate change, can lead to significant increases in arboviral disease. These events need to be recognised by public health practitioners to facilitate timely public health response. This has taken on added importance since the emergence of Japanese encephalitis virus in southeastern Australia in 2022.
The NSW (New South Wales) Climate Change Policy Framework, launched by the NSW Government in 2016, recognises that climate change presents risks to health and wellbeing. Risks to health and wellbeing come from direct impacts of extreme weather events, and from indirect impacts through effects on air, water, food and ecosystems. Responding to these challenges offers an opportunity to protect and promote health by enhancing environmental amenities, and building adaptive capacity and resilience in populations and systems. To develop policy that effectively protects and promotes health in the face of climate change in NSW it is necessary to define the expected impacts of climate change on health and wellbeing in NSW.
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