Association Between Road Traffic Noise and Incidence of Diabetes Mellitus and Hypertension in Toronto, Canada: A Population-Based Cohort Study

NO2 levels as a contributing factor to COVID-19 deaths: The first empirical estimate of threshold values

This study represents the first empirical estimation of threshold values between nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) concentrations and COVID-19-related deaths in France. The concentration of NO₂ linked to COVID-19-related deaths in three major French cities were determined using Artificial Neural Networks experiments and a Causal Direction from Dependency (D2C) algorithm. The aim of the study was to evaluate the potential effects of NO₂ in spreading the epidemic. The underlying hypothesis is that NO₂, as a precursor to secondary particulate matter formation, can foster COVID-19 and make the respiratory system more susceptible to this infection. Three different neural networks for the cities of Paris, Lyon and Marseille were built in this work, followed by the application of an innovative tool of cutting the signal from the inputs to the selected target. The results show that the threshold levels of NO₂ connected to COVID-19 range between 15.8 μg/m³ for Lyon, 21.8 μg/m³ for Marseille and 22.9 μg/m³ for Paris, which were significantly lower than the average annual concentration limit of 40 μg/m³ imposed by Directive 2008/50/EC of the European Parliament.

Significant impacts of COVID-19 lockdown on urban air pollution in Kolkata (India) and amelioration of environmental health

The fatal novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic disease smashes the normal tempo of global socio-economic and cultural livelihood. Most of the countries impose a lockdown system with social distancing measures to arrest the rapid transmission of this virus into the human body. The objective of this study is to examine the status of air quality during and pre-COVID-19 lockdown and to recommend some long-term sustainable environmental management plan. The pollution data like PM₁₀, PM_2.5, O₃, SO₂, NO₂ and CO have been obtained from State Pollution Control Board under Govt. of West Bengal. Similarly, various land surface temperature (LST) maps have been prepared using LANDSAT-8 OLI and LANDSAT-7 ETM + images of USGS. The maps of NO₂ and aerosol concentration over Indian subcontinent have been taken from ESA and NASA. The digital thematic maps and diagrams have been depicted by Grapher 13 and Arc GIS 10.3 platforms. The result shows that the pollutants like CO, NO₂ and SO₂ are significantly decreased, while the average level of O₃ has been slightly increased in 2020 during the lockdown due to close-down of all industrial and transport activities. Meanwhile, around 17.5% was the mean reduction of PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 during lockdown compared with previous years owing to complete stop of vehicles movement, burning of biomass and dust particles from the construction works. This study recommends some air pollution-tolerant plant species (in urban vacant spaces and roof tops) for long-term cohabitation among environment, society and development.

A review of current knowledge on Pollution, Cigarette Smoking and COVID-19 diffusion and their relationship with inflammation

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by the newly discovered coronavirus, Sars-Cov-2. This infection can cause mild to very severe respiratory and systemic illness mainly related with a cytokine storm. The epidemiology of COVID-19 is under continuous evolution, and studies are ongoing aiming at identifying the possible factors facilitating the diffusion of this infection. (www.actabiomedica.it)

Assessing nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels as a contributing factor to coronavirus (COVID-19) fatality

Nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) is an ambient trace-gas result of both natural and anthropogenic processes. Long-term exposure to NO₂ may cause a wide spectrum of severe health problems such as hypertension, diabetes, heart and cardiovascular diseases and even death. The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between long-term exposure to NO₂ and coronavirus fatality. The Sentinel-5P is used for mapping the tropospheric NO₂ distribution and the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis for evaluating the atmospheric capability to disperse the pollution. The spatial analysis has been conducted on a regional scale and combined with the number of death cases taken from 66 administrative regions in Italy, Spain, France and Germany. Results show that out of the 4443 fatality cases, 3487 (78%) were in five regions located in north Italy and central Spain. Additionally, the same five regions show the highest NO₂ concentrations combined with downwards airflow which prevent an efficient dispersion of air pollution. These results indicate that the long-term exposure to this pollutant may be one of the most important contributors to fatality caused by the COVID-19 virus in these regions and maybe across the whole world.

Association Between Road Traffic Noise and Incidence of Diabetes Mellitus and Hypertension in Toronto, Canada: A Population-Based Cohort Study

Background Exposure to road traffic noise has been linked to cardiometabolic complications, such as elevated blood pressure and glucose dysregulation. However, epidemiologic evidence linking road traffic noise to diabetes mellitus and hypertension remains scarce. We examined associations between road traffic noise and the incidence of diabetes mellitus and hypertension in Toronto, Canada. Methods and Results Using the Ontario Population Health and Environment Cohort, we conducted a retrospective, population-based cohort study of long-term residents of Toronto, aged 35 to 100 years, who were registered for provincial publicly funded health insurance, and were without a history of hypertension (n=701 174) or diabetes mellitus (n=914 607). Road traffic noise exposure levels were assessed by the equivalent continuous A-weighted sound pressure level (dBA) for the 24-hour day and the equivalent continuous A-weighted sound pressure level for the night (11 pm-7am). Noise exposures were assigned to subjects according to their annual residential postal codes during the 15-year follow-up. We used random-effect Cox proportional hazards models adjusting for personal and area-level characteristics. From 2001 to 2015, each interquartile range increase in the equivalent continuous A-weighted sound pressure level (dBA) for the 24-hour day (10.0 dBA) was associated with an 8% increase in incident diabetes mellitus (95% CI, 1.07-1.09) and a 2% increase in hypertension (95% CI, 1.01-1.03). We obtained similar estimates with the equivalent continuous A-weighted sound pressure level for the night (11 pm-7am). These results were robust to all sensitivity analyses conducted, including further adjusting for traffic-related air pollutants (ultrafine particles and nitrogen dioxide). For both hypertension and diabetes mellitus, we observed stronger associations with the equivalent continuous A-weighted sound pressure level (dBA) for the 24-hour day among women and younger adults (aged <60 years). Conclusions Long-term exposure to road traffic noise was associated with an increased incidence of diabetes mellitus and hypertension in Toronto.

COVID-19: air pollution remains low as people stay at home

Coronavirus diseases 2019 (COVID-19) is transmitted worldwide in over a very short time, as it was originated in late 2019 from Wuhan city, China. To reduce the possible effects due to COVID-19, some sort of lockdown activities have been applied in many countries. In this regard, the outcomes reported bonus benefits to the natural environment showing a significant decrease in air pollution worldwide due to COVID-19. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and European Space Agency (ESA) released air pollution data for Asian and European countries to assess the significant changes in air quality. The main objective of the study is to compare the air quality data released by international agencies before and after the novel coronavirus pandemic.

COVID-19: air pollution remains low as people stay at home

Coronavirus diseases 2019 (COVID-19) is transmitted worldwide in over a very short time, as it was originated in late 2019 from Wuhan city, China. To reduce the possible effects due to COVID-19, some sort of lockdown activities have been applied in many countries. In this regard, the outcomes reported bonus benefits to the natural environment showing a significant decrease in air pollution worldwide due to COVID-19. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and European Space Agency (ESA) released air pollution data for Asian and European countries to assess the significant changes in air quality. The main objective of the study is to compare the air quality data released by international agencies before and after the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Review of Geospatial Technology for Infectious Disease Surveillance: Use Case on COVID-19

This paper discusses on the increasing relevancy of geospatial technologies such as geographic information system (GIS) in the public health domain, particularly for the infectious disease surveillance and modelling strategies. Traditionally, the disease mapping tasks have faced many challenges—(1) authors rarely documented the evidence that were used to create map, (2) before evolution of GIS, many errors aroused in mapping tasks which were expanded extremely at global scales, and (3) there were no fidelity assessment of maps which resulted in inaccurate precision. This study on infectious diseases geo-surveillance is divided into four broad sections with emphasis on handling geographical and temporal issues to help in public health decision-making and planning policies: (1) geospatial mapping of diseases using its spatial and temporal information to understand their behaviour across geography; (2) the citizen’s involvement as volunteers in giving health and disease data to assess the critical situation for disease’s spread and prevention in neighbourhood effect; (3) scientific analysis of health-related behaviour using mathematical epidemiological and geo-statistical approaches with (4) capacity building program. To illustrate each theme, recent case studies are cited and case studies are performed on COVID-19 to demonstrate selected models.