Levels and Health Risk Assessment of PM₁₀ Aerosol in Brno, Czech Republic

Abstract

SUMMARYObjective: The main effort of this work was to evaluate the situation of the atmosphere in selected regions of Brno during the years 2009-2013 and to estimate health risks which might come up due to the increased concentrations of airborne particulate matter.Methods: PM 10 samples were collected in four areas varying in degree of automobile traffic using automatic and gravimetric sampling methods. PM 10 concentrations were assessed using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Health risks were estimated based on calculation of relative risks and population for four health endpoints. The selected health outcomes were premature mortality, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, and chronic bronchitis.Results: The highest PM 10 concentrations were measured in two regions with high traffic loads T1, T2 and background region B2. The values were 34.33 ± 11.52 µg•m −3 in 2010, 34.87 ± 12.03 µg•m −3 in 2013 and 34.52 ± 8.81 µg•m −3 in 2009, respectively. The highest correlation was between T1 and T2 having Spearman's correlation coefficient 0.888 followed by T1-B1 pair with coefficient 0.886. For all health outcomes, the highest health effect of PM (E) was determined for T2 site in 2010 which was 48 ± 14, 49 ± 21, 44 ± 19 and 24 ± 10 for premature mortality, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, and chronic bronchitis, respectively.Conclusion: The concentrations are highly correlated, especially in traffic regions. The annual concentrations did not exceed the legislation limit but 24-hours limit was exceeded more than two times in several cases. The highest number of cases with a given health outcome was estimated in traffic regions especially for cardiovascular disease and premature mortality.

Temporal Trend of PM10 and Associated Human Health Risk over the Past Decade in Cluj-Napoca City, Romania

“…Numerous studies reported the level of PM in cities all over the world [1,[30][31][32][33]. Human health risk assessment studies regarding PM 10 and toxic elements in PM 10 were also carried out in several cities [34][35][36][37][38][39]. These studies revealed that although PM concentrations do not exceed air quality standards, the health impacts associated to air pollution exposure are still important [40].…”

Particulate Matter and Premature Mortality: A Bayesian Meta-Analysis

“…The 36 published papers came from various countries; six were from India [ 4 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ], three from the USA [ 29 , 30 , 31 ], 14 from China [ 19 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 ] and one each from Korea [ 45 ], Czech Republic [ 46 ], Canada [ 47 ], France [ 48 ], Yugoslavia [ 49 ], Japan [ 18 ] and Sweden [ 50 ]. There were four global studies [ 1 , 51 , 52 , 53 ] and two studies from the Asian region [ 54 , 55 ] ( Table 1 and Table 2 , Figure 2 ).…”

Experimental Study on Spray Breakup in Turbulent Atomization Using a Spiral Nozzle

“…Last but not least, scrubbing systems have widely been recognized in separation of particulate matter [8][9][10][11][12], the release of which is due mostly to various combustion processes [13][14][15] and, for example, comminution technologies [16,17]. This is very important due to associated health and environmental concerns [18,19]. Comparing the ability to remove particulate and gaseous pollutants, gas scrubbers have lower efficiency in one cleaning cycle but are able to treat a significantly higher amount of polluted air compared to, for example, air filtration or membrane contactors [20][21][22][23].…”