Fine particulate matter air pollution and health implications for Nairobi, Kenya.

Background: Continuous ambient air quality monitoring in Kenya has been limited, resulting in a sparse data base on the health impacts of air pollution for the country. We have operated a centrally located monitor in Nairobi for measuring fine particulate matter (PM2.5), the pollutant that has demonstrated impact on health. Here, we describe the temporal levels and trends in PM2.5 data for Nairobi and evaluate associated health implications. Methods: We used a centrally located reference sensor, the beta attenuation monitor (BAM-1022), to measure hourly PM2.5 concentrations over a 3-year period (21 August 2019 to 20 August 2022). We used, at minimum, 75% of the daily hourly concentration to represent the 24-hour concentrations for a given calendar day. To estimate the deaths attributable to air pollution, we used the World Health Organization (WHO) AirQ+ tool with input as PM2.5 concentration data, local mortality statistics, and population sizes. Results: The daily (24-hour) mean (±SEM) PM2.5 concentration was 19. 2 ± 0.6 (µg/m3). Pollutant levels were lowest at 03:00 and, peaked at 20:00. Sundays had the lowest daily concentrations, which increased on Mondays and remained high through Saturdays. By season, the pollutant concentrations were lowest in April and highest in August. The mean annual concentration was 18.4 ± 7.1 (µg/m3), which was estimated to lead to between 400 and 1,400 premature deaths of the city's population in 2021 hence contributing 5%-8% of the 17,432 adult deaths excluding accidents when referenced to WHO recommended 2021 air quality guideline for annual thresholds of 5 µg/m3. Conclusion: Fine particulate matter air pollution in Nairobi showed daily, day-of-week, and seasonal fluctuations consistent with the anthropogenic source mix, particularly from motor vehicles. The long-term population exposure to PM2.5 was 3.7 times higher than the WHO annual guideline of 5 µg/m3 and estimated to lead to a substantial burden of attributable deaths. An updated regulation targeting measures to reduce vehicular emissions is recommended.

The GEOHealth Hub for Eastern Africa: Contributions and Lessons Learned.

Externalities, such as air pollution and increased occupational hazards, resulting from global trends in climate change, rapid industrialization, and rapidly increasing populations are raising global concerns about the associated health risks. The Global Environmental and Occupational Health Hub for Eastern Africa was established to address some of these problems at national and regional levels through focused training and applied research that would yield evidence supporting policies and investments to mitigate risks of increasing environmental threats throughout the Eastern African region. Emphasis has been placed on air pollution, a leading risk factor for global mortality, accounting for over 7 million premature deaths or 8.7% of the 2017 global mortality burden. Despite the enormous disease burden that air pollution causes, global investment in air pollution monitoring and research capacity building in low-middle and middle-income countries have been inadequate. This study outlines the activities the Hub has undertaken in planning for and carrying out its initial capacity building and building its primary research programs and identifies central lessons that can inform other large global research partnerships.

Assessing the impacts of climate change in cities and their adaptive capacity: Towards transformative approaches to climate change adaptation and poverty reduction in urban areas in a set of developing countries.

Many cities across the world are facing many problems climate change poses to their populations, communities and infrastructure. These vary from increased exposures to floods, to discomfort due to urban heat, depending on their geographical locations and settings. However, even though some cities have a greater ability to cope with climate change challenges, many struggle to do so, particularly in cities in developing countries. In addition, there is a shortage of international studies which examine the links between climate change adaptation and cities, and which at the same time draw some successful examples of good practice, which may assist future efforts. This paper is an attempt to address this information need. The aim of this paper is to analyse the extent to which cities in a sample of developing countries are attempting to pursue climate change adaptation and the problems which hinder this process. Its goal is to showcase examples of initiatives and good practice in transformative adaptation, which may be replicable elsewhere. To this purpose, the paper describes some trends related to climate change in a set of cities in developing countries across different continents, including one of the smallest capital cities (Georgetown, Guyana) and Shanghai, one the world's most populous cities. In particular, it analyses their degree of vulnerability, how they manage to cope with climate change impacts, and the policies being implemented to aid adaptation. It also suggests the use of transformative approaches which may be adopted, in order to assist them in their efforts towards investments in low-carbon and climate-resilient infrastructure, thereby maximizing investments in urban areas and trying to address their related poverty issues. This paper addresses a gap in the international literature on the problems many cities in developing countries face, in trying to adapt to a changing climate.