Summary of the first Brazilian Symposium on Human Biometeorology.

This brief background highlights Brazil as a 'climate-health hotspot', i.e. a country where climate affects local populations negatively through multiple pathways (Di Napoli et al.

A first approach to human biometeorology research in Brazil: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

This systematic review aims to give an overview of the diversity of research areas related to human biometeorology in Brazil. The main focus of this paper addresses research trends, represented by published papers with national and international authorship, main contributions and shortcomings, as well as challenges and prospects of research in this area of study. An extensive literature search was conducted in the Scopus, Web of Science, and Science Direct databases so as to identify relevant publication output up to July 2021 related to the research area.

Air pollution and its impact on the concentration of airborne fungi in the megacity of São Paulo, Brazil.

In the context of megacities in an urban environment, air quality is an important issue, due to the direct correlation to population's health. The biomonitoring of pollutants can indicate subtle environmental alterations, for that, anemophilous fungi can be monitored for changes in atmospheric conditions related to pollution. In the present study, the concentration of fungi and bacteria in the atmosphere was measured during a specific vehicle fleet reduction in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, from May 24 to 30, 2018, using impactor air samplers.

Survival and ice nucleation activity of Pseudomonas syringae strains exposed to simulated high-altitude atmospheric conditions.

Pseudomonas syringae produces highly efficient biological ice nuclei (IN) that were proposed to influence precipitation by freezing water in clouds. This bacterium may be capable of dispersing through the atmosphere, having been reported in rain, snow, and cloud water samples. This study assesses its survival and maintenance of IN activity under stressing conditions present at high altitudes, such as UV radiation within clouds.

Biomarkers as indicators of fungal biomass in the atmosphere of São Paulo, Brazil.

The biogenic aerosol contribution to atmospheric particulate matter (PM) mass concentration is usually neglected due to the difficulty in identifying its components, although it can be significant. In the Metropolitan Area of São Paulo (MASP)-Brazil, several studies have been performed to identify sources for PM, revealing vehicular emissions and soil re-suspension as the main identified sources. The organic fraction has been related primarily to biomass burning (BB) and fuel combustion, although there is significant presence of green areas in the city which render biogenic emissions as an additional source of organic carbon (OC).

Environmental heat exposure and cognitive performance in older adults: a controlled trial.

Thermal stress has a negative effect on the cognitive performance of military personnel and industry workers exposed to extreme environments. However, no studies have investigated the effects of environmental thermal stress on the cognitive functions of older adults. We carried out a controlled trial with 68 healthy older adults (mean age 73.

Atmospheric conditions, lunar phases, and childbirth: a multivariate analysis.

Our objective was to assess extrinsic influences upon childbirth. In a cohort of 1,826 days containing 17,417 childbirths among them 13,252 spontaneous labor admissions, we studied the influence of environment upon the high incidence of labor (defined by 75th percentile or higher), analyzed by logistic regression. The predictors of high labor admission included increases in outdoor temperature (odds ratio: 1.

Statistical analysis aiming at predicting respiratory tract disease hospital admissions from environmental variables in the city of São Paulo.

This study is aimed at creating a stochastic model, named Brazilian Climate and Health Model (BCHM), through Poisson regression, in order to predict the occurrence of hospital respiratory admissions (for children under thirteen years of age) as a function of air pollutants, meteorological variables, and thermal comfort indices (effective temperatures, ET). The data used in this study were obtained from the city of São Paulo, Brazil, between 1997 and 2000. The respiratory tract diseases were divided into three categories: URI (Upper Respiratory tract diseases), LRI (Lower Respiratory tract diseases), and IP (Influenza and Pneumonia).

Indoor and outdoor atmospheric fungal spores in the São Paulo metropolitan area (Brazil): species and numeric concentrations.

The aim of this study was to estimate the indoor and outdoor concentrations of fungal spores in the Metropolitan Area of Sao Paulo (MASP), collected at different sites in winter/spring and summer seasons. The techniques adopted included cultivation (samples collected with impactors) and microscopic enumeration (samples collected with impingers). The overall results showed total concentrations of fungal spores as high as 36,000 per cubic meter, with a large proportion of non culturable spores (around 91% of the total).

[Air pollution and emergency room visits due to pneumonia and influenza in São Paulo, Brazil].

Objective: A time series was developed to investigate the effect of air pollution levels on morbidity due to respiratory diseases such as pneumonia and influenza among elderly people from 1996 to 1998.

Methods: Daily data on emergency room visits was collected at the university clinics hospital in São Paulo, Brazil. Daily levels of CO, NO2, O3, SO2 and PM10 were obtained from the State Environmental Agency.