A methodological framework for estimating ambient PM particulate matter concentrations in the UK.

Scientific evidence sustains PM particles' inhalation may generate harmful impacts on human beings' health; therefore, their monitoring in ambient air is of paramount relevance in terms of public health. Due to the limited number of fixed stations within the air quality monitoring networks, development of methodological frameworks to model ambient air PM particles is primordial to providing additional information on PM exposure and its trends. In this sense, this work aims to offer a global easily-applicable tool to estimate ambient air PM as a function of meteorological conditions using a multivariate analysis.

Health risk assessment of the European inhabitants exposed to contaminated ambient particulate matter by potentially toxic elements.

PM-associated potential toxic elements (PTEs) can enter the respiratory system and cause health problems. In the current study, the health risk indices caused by PM inhalation by adults, children, and infants in 158 European cities between 2013 and 2019 were studied to determine if Europeans were adversely affected by carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic factors or not. The Mann-Kendall trend test examined PM's increasing or decreasing trend.

Assessment of the association between dust storms and COVID-19 infection rate in southwest Iran.

This study assesses a plausible correlation between a dust intrusion episode and a daily increase in COVID-19 cases. A surge in COVID-19 cases was observed a few days after a Middle East Dust (MED) event that peaked on 25 April 2020 in southwest Iran. To investigate potential causal factors for the spike in number of cases, cross-correlations between daily combined aerosol optical depths (AODs) and confirmed cases were computed for Khuzestan, Iran.