Evaluation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) attributed to atmospheric O3, NO2, and SO2 using Air Q Model (2011-2012 year).

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an important disease worldwide characterized by chronically poor airflow. The economic burden of COPD on any society can be enormous if not managed. We applied the approach proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) using the AirQ2.2.3 software developed by the WHO European Center for Environment and Health on air pollutants in Tabriz (Iran) (2011-2012 year). A 1h average of concentrations of ozone (O3), daily average concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) were used to assess human exposure and health effect in terms of attributable proportion of the health outcome and annual number of excess cases of Hospital Admissions for COPD (HA COPD). The results of this study showed that 2% (95% CI: 0.8-3.1%) of HA COPD were attributed to O3 concentrations over 10 µg/m(3). In addition, 0.7 % (95% CI: 0.1-1.8%) and 0.5% (95% CI: 0-1%) of HA COPD were attributed to NO2 and SO2 concentrations over 10 µg/m(3) respectively. In this study, we have shown that O3, NO2 and SO2 have a significant impact on COPD hospitalization. Given these results the policy decisions are needed in order to reduce the chronic pulmonary diseases caused by air pollution and furthermore better quantification studies are recommended.

Utilization of Activated Carbon Catalyzed Ozonation (ACCO) For Removal of Ciprofloxacin and Vancomycin from Hospital Wastewater.

Background: Hospital wastewater is considered by health and environmental researchers due to the presence of various hazardous chemical contaminants such as residual of antibiotics and other drugs. The conventional treatment processes are not able to complete removal of them, and could lead to the entry of these compounds into the environment. Then, we aimed to analyze and evaluate the removal of ciprofloxacin and vancomycin antibiotics from hospital wastewater. Methods: The effect of antibiotic concentration and reaction time was investigated on the performance of single ozonation (SOZ) and activated carbon catalyzed ozonation (ACCO). In addition, COD and BOD of the effluent, antibiotics degradation kinetics and mathematical modeling were determined. Solid phase extraction columns (SPE) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) methods were used to extract and measure the intended antibiotics, respectively. Results: The results of this study showed that degradation of both antibiotics follow pseudo-first order kinetic. SOZ was able to eliminate 6 mg/L of vancomycin and ciprofloxacin within 45 and 65 min, respectively. Due to the synergistic effect of activated carbon on ozonation, ACCO significantly reduced the degradation time to 20 and 25 minutes, respectively. BOD/COD ratio at the outlet of ACCO process increases from 0.2 in raw wastewater to 0.4 in treated wastewater, which could be appropriate for biological treatment. Conclusion: ACCO could be considered an efficient process for degradation of antibiotics in hospital wastewater.

Associations between short term exposure to ambient particulate matter from dust storm and anthropogenic sources and inflammatory biomarkers in healthy young adults.

This study examined the association between particulate matter from anthropogenic and natural sources and inflammatory biomarkers, including hs-CRP, IL-6, sTNF-RII, and WBCs, in two groups of healthy young subjects. We followed up subjects of two panels (16 to 22 years old), including 22 subjects selected from the urban area (Tehran city) with high-level pollution background and 22 subjects selected from the rural area (Ahmadabad) with low-level pollution background. In each group, we collected 4 times blood samples in various air pollution conditions, In the subjects of the urban group, there was a substantial difference (p < 0.05) between inversion days and cold season control days, and between dust storm days and warm season control days for concentrations of hs-CRP, IL-6, and WBCs biomarkers. In the subjects of the rural group, a significant difference could be detected in the concentration of hs-CRP, IL-6, and WBCs biomarkers (p < 0.05) between inversion days and cold season control days, and between dust storm and warm control days. We found that the difference in concentrations of hs-CRP, IL-6, and WBCs biomarkers between dust storm days and warm control conditions in the rural group were higher than the difference in inversion and cold control conditions, which can be attributed to low background air pollution in the rural area. In the urban area, the health effect of anthropogenic sources of PM is higher than the dust storm condition, which can be attributed to the stronger effect of anthropogenic pollution effect.