Reduction of Solar UV Radiation Due to Urban High-Rise Buildings--A Coupled Modelling Study

Sunshine duration and risks of schizophrenia hospitalizations in main urban area: Do built environments modify the association?

BACKGROUND

Although studies have explored the relationship between sunshine duration and schizophrenia, the evidence was ambiguous. Different built environments may alter the effect of sunlight on schizophrenia, thus the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of built environments on the sunshine duration-schizophrenia association.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Daily schizophrenia hospitalizations data during 2017-2020 in Hefei's main urban area, China, and corresponding meteorological factors as well as ambient pollutants were collected. The impact of sunshine duration on schizophrenia admissions in urban areas was investigated using a generalized additive model combined with a distributed lagged nonlinear model. Additionally, the various modifying effects of different Building Density, Building Height, Normalized Vegetation Index, and Nighttime Light were also explored between sunshine duration and schizophrenia.

RESULTS

We observed that inadequate sunshine duration (<5.3 h) was associated with an increase in schizophrenia hospital admissions, with a maximum relative risk of 1.382 (95 % confidence interval (CI): 1.069-1.786) at 2.9 h. In turn, adequate sunshine duration reduced the risk of schizophrenia hospitalizations. Subgroup analyses indicated females and old patients were particularly vulnerable. In the case of insufficient sunshine duration, significant positive effects were noticed on schizophrenia risk at High-Building Density and High-Nighttime Light. Higher NDVI as well as Building Height were found to be associated with lower risks of schizophrenia.

CONCLUSIONS

Given that sunshine duration in various built environments might lead to distinct effects on schizophrenia hospitalizations. Our findings assist in identifying vulnerable populations that reside in particular areas, thus suggesting policymakers provide advice to mitigate the onset of schizophrenia by allocating healthcare resources rationally and avoiding adverse exposures to vulnerable populations timely.

Research Progress on the Role of Vitamin D in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that can lead to severe social behavioral difficulties, which mainly manifests as social communication and interaction disorders; narrow interests; and repetitive, stereotyped behaviors. In recent years, the prevalence of ASD has increased annually, and it has evolved from a rare disease to one with a high incidence among childhood developmental disorders. The pathogenesis of ASD is considered to be the interaction of genetic and environmental factors. There is increasing evidence that vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy and early childhood can lead to the occurrence of ASD. Studies have demonstrated that vitamin D intervention can significantly improve the symptoms of ASD, but the underlying mechanism is still unclear. Therefore, exploring the neuroprotective mechanism of vitamin D against ASD is a huge challenge currently being worked on by current basic and clinical researchers, a task which is of great significance for the clinical promotion and optimization of vitamin D in the treatment of ASD. To further clarify the relationship between vitamin D and ASD, this review summarizes the correlation between vitamin D level and ASD, the effects of vitamin D supplementation on ASD, the possible mechanism of vitamin D involved in ASD, and insights from ASD animal models.

Possibilities to estimate the personal UV radiation exposure from ambient UV radiation measurements

People are exposed to solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) throughout their entire lives. Exposure to UVR is vital but also poses serious risks. The quantification of human UVR exposure is a complex issue. Personal UVR exposure is related to ambient UVR as well as to a variety of factors such as the orientation of the exposed anatomical site with respect to the sun and the duration of exposure. This is mainly determined by personal behaviour. A variety of efforts have been made in the past to measure or model the personal UVR exposure of people and often personal UVR exposure has been expressed as the percentage of ambient UVR. On the other hand, ambient UVR is being monitored at a variety of places and measurements are available even online. This suggests that both the knowledge of personal UVR exposure and measurements of ambient UVR is required. In this paper, a summary on the different methods, which use ambient UVR measurements to estimate personal UVR exposure of people, as well as a few examples, are given. Advantages and disadvantages will be discussed as well as possibilities and limitations. This also includes an overview of appropriate terminology, units and basic statistic parameters to describe personal UVR exposure.

Sun exposure as a strategy for acquiring vitamin D in developing countries of tropical region: Challenges & way forward

Adopting sun exposure as a low-cost sustainable strategy in tropical countries needs critical analysis for its feasibility and inclusion in national policy. This review explores the opportunities and challenges associated with sun exposure in tropical countries and discusses potential strategies that may be adopted for promoting sun exposure. For this, two strands of evidence were reviewed; trials on sun exposure, analysed for risk of bias and, the environmental factors that influence acquisition of vitamin D from sun exposure in the context of on-going ecological and nutritional transition. Compilation of data from available databases in terms of deficiency, per cent rural population, status of fortification, air pollution, ultraviolet index, skin reflectance and skin cancer prevalence were done. In the context of environmental and lifestyle-related challenges, opportunities go hand-in-hand in terms of built environment, variability in air pollution and personal factors such as skin pigmentation, precursor availability and general nutritional status. Contextual policy decisions should consider urban and rural development planning, control of air pollution, targeted guidelines for indigenous and immigrant population and use of space technology in educating general population for balanced sun exposure as essential components for a sustainable strategy. Important opportunities exist for tropical countries to develop sun exposure as a strategy for acquiring vitamin D and these need to be explored.

A Comparison of Solar Ultraviolet Radiation Exposure in Urban Canyons in Venice, Italy and Johannesburg, South Africa

Urban environments can have high-risk spaces that can provide excess personal sun exposure, such as urban or street canyons, and the spaces between buildings, among others. In these urban spaces, sun exposure can be high or low depending on several factors. Polysulphone film (PSF) was used to assess possible daily solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) exposure in urban canyons in Venice, Italy and, for the first time in Africa, in Johannesburg, South Africa. The photodegradation of PSF upon solar exposure was monitored at a wavelength of 330 nm by ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry, and the resultant change was converted to standard erythemal dose (SED) units (1 SED = 100 J m^-2 ). Mean daily ambient solar UVR exposure measured for Venice and Johannesburg ranged between 20-28 SED and 33-43 SED, respectively. Canyon-located PSF exposures were lower in Venice (1-9 SED) than those in Johannesburg (9-39 SED), depending mainly on the sky view factor and orientation to the sun. There was large variation in solar UVR exposure levels in different urban canyons. These preliminary results should be bolstered with additional studies for a better understanding of excess personal exposure risk in urban areas, especially in Africa.

Vitamin D Deficiency and Autism Spectrum Disorder

Vitamin D is a neurosteroid hormone crucially involved in neurodevelopment. Neural cell proliferation, neurotransmission, oxidative stress and immune function represent the main mechanisms mediated by vitamin D in the Central Nervous System. Therefore, its deficiency during pregnancy and early childhood may significantly impact on a developing brain, leading to possible adverse neuropsychological outcomes including Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Significant vitamin D deficiency is described within children affected by ASD and in pregnant mothers whose offspring will later develop ASD, suggesting a possible role of the hormone as a contributing risk factor in the etiopathogenesis of ASD. We reviewed the actual literature on the potential contributing role of prenatal and early postnatal vitamin D deficiency in ASD etiopathogenesis, at both genetic and environmental levels, and the possible effect of vitamin D supplementation in autistic children. Conflicting but promising results emerged on the topic. Further Randomized Controlled Trials studies carried out during pregnancy and early infancy are necessary for better understanding the possible contribution of vitamin D deficiency in the etiopathogenesis of autism and the potential efficacy of the hormone supplementation in the improvement of ASD core symptoms.

Impact of high latitude, urban living and ethnicity on 25-hydroxyvitamin D status: A need for multidisciplinary action?

The effects of urban living on health are becoming increasingly important, due to an increasing global population residing in urban areas. Concomitantly, due to immigration, there is a growing number of ethnic minority individuals (African, Asian or Middle Eastern descent) living in westernised Higher Latitude Countries (HLC) (e.g. Europe, Canada, New Zealand). Of concern is the fact that there is already a clear vitamin D deficiency epidemic in HLC, a problem which is likely to grow as the ethnic minority population in these countries increases. This is because 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) status of ethnic groups is significantly lower compared to native populations. Environmental factors contribute to a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in HLC, particularly during the winter months when there is no sunlight of appropriate wavelength for vitamin D synthesis via the skin. Also, climatic factors such as cloud cover may reduce vitamin D status even in the summer. This may be further worsened by factors related to urban living, including air pollution, which reduces UVB exposure to the skin, and less occupational sun exposure (may vary by individual HLC). Tall building height may reduce sun exposure by making areas more shaded. In addition, there are ethnicity-specific factors which further worsen vitamin D status in HLC urban dwellers, such as low dietary intake of vitamin D from foods, lower production of vitamin D in the skin due to increased melanin and reduced skin exposure to UVB due to cultural dress style and sun avoidance. A multidisciplinary approach applying knowledge from engineering, skin photobiology, nutrition, town planning and social science is required to prevent vitamin D deficiency in urban areas. Such an approach could include reduction of air pollution, modification of sun exposure advice to emphasise spending time each day in non-shaded urban areas (e.g. parks, away from tall buildings), and advice to ethnic minority groups to increase sun exposure, take vitamin D supplements and/or increase consumption of vitamin D rich foods in a way that is safe and culturally acceptable. This review hopes to stimulate further research to assess the impact of high latitude, urban environment and ethnicity on the risk of vitamin D deficiency.

Effects of ultraviolet radiation on metabolic rate and fitness of Aedes albopictus and Culex pipiens mosquitoes

Natural and anthropogenic changes (e.g., land use change, pollution) will alter many environmental factors in the coming years, including the amount of solar radiation reaching the earth's surface. Alterations in solar radiation exposure is likely to impact the ecologies of many living organisms, including invertebrates that inhabit aquatic habitats. In this study, we assessed the effect of UV-B radiation on the metabolic rates and fitness (survival, development time, body size) of Aedes albopictus and Culex pipiens mosquitoes and the activity of their microbial food resources in experimental aquatic microcosms. We exposed single-species cohorts of newly hatched Ae. albopictus and Cx. pipiens larvae and a control treatment with no larvae to three UV-B conditions that mimicked those in full-sun and shade in the field and to a control condition with no UV-B radiation. Our results indicated that UV-B radiation affected the metabolic rates of both Ae. albopictus and Cx. pipiens larvae, with significantly higher rates found in full-sun compared to shade and no-UV conditions, 8 and 15 days after exposure began. Ae. albopictus and Cx. pipiens survival was also affected by UV-B radiation condition, with significantly lower survival in full-sun compared to shade and no UV-B conditions. Microbial metabolic rates were consistently significantly lower in full-sun compared to shade and no-UV conditions, especially at 8 days of exposure. These results show that UV-B radiation at levels found in open spaces showed strong and important impacts on the metabolic rates and survival of Ae. albopictus and Cx. pipiens larvae. Decreased survival of Ae. albopictus and Cx. pipiens with higher UV-B radiation levels may be caused by both direct exposure to radiation as well as the indirect effects of reduced microbial food, resulting in greater metabolic demands and stress. Negative impacts of UV-B radiation on the survival of Ae. albopictus and Cx. pipiens are likely to have important implications for the distribution and abundance of these mosquitoes, and the transmission of pathogens that these two broadly distributed mosquitoes vector.

Aerosol pollution and its potential impacts on outdoor human thermal sensation: East Asian perspectives

Aerosols affect the insolation at ground and thus the Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD, a measure of aerosol pollution) plays an important role on the variation of the Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) at locations with different aerosol climatology. The aerosol effects upon PET were studied for the first time at four East Asian cities by coupling a radiative transfer model and a human thermal comfort model which were previously well evaluated. Evident with the MODIS and AERONET AOD observations, the aerosol pollution at Beijing and Seoul was higher than at Chiayi (Taiwan) and Hong Kong. Based on the AERONET data, with background AOD levels the selected temperate cities had similar clear-sky PET values especially during summertime, due to their locations at similar latitudes. This also applied to the sub-tropical cities. Increase in the AOD level to the seasonal average one led to an increase in diffuse solar radiation and in turn an increase in PET for people living in all the cities. However, the heavy aerosol loading environment in Beijing and Seoul in summertime (AODs > 3.0 in episodic situations) reduced the total radiative flux and thus PET values in the cities. On the contrary, relatively lower episodic AOD levels in Chiayi and Hong Kong led to strong diffuse and still strong direct radiative fluxes and resulted in higher PET values, relative to those with seasonal averaged AOD levels. People tended to feel from "hot" to "very hot" during summertime when the AOD reached their average levels from the background level. This implies that in future aerosol effects add further burden to the thermal environment apart from the effects of greenhouse gas-induced global warming. Understanding the interaction between ambient aerosols and outdoor thermal environment is an important first step for effective mitigation measures such as urban greening to reduce the risk of human heat stress. It is also critical to make cities more attractive and enhancing to human well-being to achieve enhancing sustainable urbanization as one of the principal goals for the Nature-based Solutions.

Vitamin D and autism, what's new?

An increasing amount of evidence points to the possibility that gestational and early childhood vitamin D deficiency [25(OH)D < 40 ng/ml] cause some cases of autism. Vitamin D is metabolized into a seco-steroid hormone that regulates about 3% of the 26,000 genes in the coding human genome. It is also a neurosteroid that is active in brain development, having effects on cellular proliferation, differentiation, calcium signaling, neurotrophic and neuroprotective actions; it also appears to have an effect on neurotransmission and synaptic plasticity. Children who are, or who are destined to become, autistic have lower 25(OH)D levels at 3 months of gestation, at birth and at age 8 compared to their unaffected siblings. Two open label trials found high dose vitamin D improves the core symptoms of autism in about 75% of autistic children. A few of the improvements were remarkable. The vitamin D doses used in these children were 300 IU/KG/day up to a maximum of 5000 IU/day (highest final 25(OH)D level reached was 45 ng/ml). The other study used 150,000 IU/month IM as well as 400 IU/day [highest final 25(OH)D level was 52 ng/ml]. These two open label trials were recently confirmed with a randomized controlled trial (RCT) using 300 IU/kg/day with a maximum of 5000 IU/day and resulted in effects similar to the two open label studies. In terms of prevention, a recent small study showed vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy (5000 IU/day) and during infancy and early childhood (1000 IU/day) significantly reduced the expected incidence of autism in mothers who already had one autistic child from 20% to 5%. Vitamin D is safe; for example, over the last 15 years, Poison Control reports there have been approximately 15,000 cases of vitamin D overdose. However only three of these 15,000 people developed clinical toxicity and no one died. Given those facts, practitioners might consider treating autism with 300 IU/kg/day, and seek to prevent autism by supplementing pregnant and lactating women (5000 IU/day) and infants and young children (150 IU/kg/day) checking 25(OH)D levels every 3 months. These doses will increase 25(OH)D blood levels to those recommended by the Endocrine Society. As the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends vitamin D supplementation during infancy and childhood, pediatricians and family practitioners should evaluate the current evidence on autism and vitamin D and act accordingly.