Regional and seasonal drivers of metals and PAHs concentrations in road dust and their health implications in the Czech Republic.

While car exhaust emissions in the EU are clearly decreasing, the future of non-exhaust emissions looks more pessimistic. The relative importance of the latter is thus expected to increase in terms of air quality and human health. The aim of the study was to assess regional and seasonal differences in the chemical composition of road dust across the Czech Republic and the health impact of its resuspension, with special respect to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and metals.

Indoor air quality and the associated health risk in primary school buildings in Central Europe - The InAirQ study.

The indoor air quality (IAQ) was investigated in sixty-four primary school buildings in five Central European countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Poland, and Slovenia). The concentration of volatile organic compounds, aldehydes, PM mass, carbon dioxide, radon, as well as physical parameters were investigated during the heating period of 2017/2018. Significant differences were identified for the majority of the investigated IAQ parameters across the countries.

Asthma Exacerbations and Symptom Variability in Children Due to Short-term Ambient Air Pollution Changes in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

Aim: The Ostrava region suffers from high levels of air pollution during winter inversions. We investigated the association between short-term elevations of air pollutant concentrations and worsening of respiratory problems, use of asthma medication and restriction of daily activities in asthmatic patients in Ostrava.

Methods: One-hundred and forty-seven child and adolescent patients (aged 6-18 years) with a confirmed diagnosis of mild to moderate persistent asthma were included in the study.

Methodological aspects of in vitro assessment of bio-accessible risk element pool in urban particulate matter.

In vitro tests simulating the elements release from inhaled urban particulate matter (PM) with artificial lung fluids (Gamble's and Hatch's solutions) and simulated gastric and pancreatic solutions were applied for an estimation of hazardous element (As, Cd, Cr, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn) bio-accessibility in this material. An inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) were employed for the element determination in extracted solutions. The effect of the extraction agent used, extraction time, sample-to-extractant ratio, sample particle size and/or individual element properties was evaluated.

Toxicologically important trace elements and organic compounds investigated in size-fractionated urban particulate matter collected near the Prague highway.

Urban particulate matter was collected in the most exposed area of Prague, near a busy highway, in order to provide petrographic and chemical characterization useful for health impact assessment in that locality or other applications. Samples were collected from filters of the air conditioning system in two years, 2009 and 2010, and sieved into four grain-size fractions: 0.507-0.