Can the Indian national ambient air quality standard protect against the hazardous constituents of PM?

Globally, exposure to ambient fine particulate matter (PM) pollution claims ∼9 million lives, yearly, and a quarter of this deaths occurs in India. Regulation of PM pollution in India is based on compliance with its National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) of 40 μg/m, which is eight times the revised global air quality guideline (AQG) of 5 μg/m. But, whether the NAAQS provides adequate protection against the hazardous components in PM is still not clear.

Season, not lockdown, improved air quality during COVID-19 State of Emergency in Nigeria.

Globally, ambient air pollution claims ~9 million lives yearly, prompting researchers to investigate changes in air quality. Of special interest is the impact of COVID-19 lockdown. Many studies reported substantial improvements in air quality during lockdowns compared with pre-lockdown or as compared with baseline values.

Burn to kill: Wood ash a silent killer in Africa.

Aside the emissions, burning of wood in traditional cookstoves (TCs) also generates substantial amount of ash containing hazardous pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and toxic metals. But, their concentrations in the ash, particularly in Africa where over 70% of the population utilize TCs, remain unknown. Here, we determined concentrations of sixteen PAHs and eleven heavy metals in ashes from twelve different African TCs, comprising six three-stone fires (TSFs) and six built-in-place cookstoves (BIPCs), burning common African wood species under real world situation.

Burden of disease at the same limit of exposure to airborne polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons varies significantly across countries depending on the gap in longevity.

Atmospheric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) disproportionately affect human health across the globe, and differential exposure is believed to drive the unequal health burden. Therefore, this study assessed and compared the burden of disease, in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), at the same level (or limit) of exposure to atmospheric PAHs in nine countries. We calculated the DALYs per person-year per ng/m of benzo[a]pyrene from ten cancers and thirty-four non-cancer adverse outcomes using published toxicity information and country-specific disease severity.