Wintertime Air Quality across the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal: Concentration, Composition, and Sources of Fine and Coarse Particulate Matter.

The Kathmandu Valley in Nepal experiences poor air quality, especially in the dry winter season. In this study, we investigated the concentration, chemical composition, and sources of fine and coarse particulate matter (PM, PM, and PM) at three sites within or near the Kathmandu Valley during the winter of 2018 as part of the second Nepal Ambient Monitoring and Source Testing Experiment (NAMaSTE 2). Daily PM concentrations were very high throughout the study period, ranging 72-149 μg m at the urban Ratnapark site in Kathmandu, 88-161 μg m at the suburban Lalitpur site, and 40-74 μg m at rural Dhulikhel on the eastern rim of the Kathmandu Valley.

Particulate Matter and Risk of Hospital Admission in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal: A Case-Crossover Study.

Air pollution is known to lead to a substantial health burden, but the majority of evidence is based on data from North America and Europe. Despite rising pollution levels, very limited information is available for South Asia. We investigated the impact of particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to 10 μm (PM10) on hospitalization, by cause and subpopulation, in the Kathmandu Valley, an understudied and rapidly urbanizing region in Nepal.

Modeling the intraurban variation in nitrogen dioxide in urban areas in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal.

Background: With growing urbanization, traffic has become one of the main sources of air pollution in Nepal. Understanding the impact of air pollution on health requires estimation of exposure. Land use regression (LUR) modeling is widely used to investigate intraurban variation in air pollution for Western cities, but LUR models are relatively scarce in developing countries.

The state of scientific evidence on air pollution and human health in Nepal.

Air pollution has been linked to acute and chronic health effects. However, the majority of evidence is based in North America and Europe, with a growing number of studies in Asia and Latin America. Nepal is one of the many South Asian countries where little such research has been conducted.

Exposure to airborne particulate matter in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal.

Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, has severe air pollution, although few studies examine air pollution and health in this region. To the best of our knowledge, no previous studies in Nepal used time-activity diaries or conducted personal monitoring of individuals' exposures. We investigated personal exposure of particulate matter (PM) with aerodynamic diameter ≤2.