跳至主要内容

Air Pollution Related to Traffic and Chronic Respiratory Diseases (Asthma and COPD) in Africa

Air pollution is an important environmental risk factor with global public health implications. Chronic respiratory diseases (CRD) are obvious effects of air pollution and the third reason of death in developing countries. In Africa, air pollution from road traffic is one of the main causes of poor air quality. In this review, the authors aimed to present the state of knowledge in Africa on the impact of external air pollution, particularly related to traffic, on chronic respiratory diseases and to propose strategies to fight this pollution.

In the review, the authors set out to systematically review existing published researches on traffic related to air pollution and CRD, particularly asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in Africa. And a literature search of PubMed, Scholar and LISSA databases, published journals, reference articles, published up to 31 December 2016, had been done by using a research strategy procedure. Texts were reviewed for inclusion. Studies were included if they met the following criteria: 1) the relationship between asthma or COPD with ambient air pollution related to road traffic was studied and 2) the population included people from Africa or lived in Africa. Articles written in English and French were included.

The results indicated that fifty-five articles were selected in this review, of which twenty-seven were on air pollution and CRD in Africa. The proximity of the residence or workplace to the traffic is associated with an increased risk of asthma with a dose-response relationship. The estimated prevalence of COPD varies between 2.7% and 38.5%. 

In conclusion, little research has been done on the effects of air pollution from cars on respiratory health in contrast to indoor air pollution, in particular that related to the combustion of biomass. Strategies to reduce traffic related to air pollution in African cities have been proposed in order to have a healthier ambient air.

Article by Fatou K. Sylla, et al, from Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD), Dakar, Senegal.

Full access: http://mrw.so/1zgy2q

Image by tokyofortwo, from Flickr-cc.

评论

发表评论

此博客中的热门博文

Incorporation of High-Altitude Balloon Experiment in High School Science Classrooms

High-altitude balloon is a balloon, filled usually with helium or hydrogen that ascends into an area called “near space” or stratosphere. The most common type of high-altitude balloons are weather balloons. Other purposes include use as a platform for experiments in the upper atmosphere. Modern balloons generally contain electronic equipment such as radio transmitters, cameras, or satellite navigation systems, such as GPS receivers. The mission of the High-Altitude Balloon Experiment (HABE) is to acquire supporting data, validate enabling technologies, and resolve critical acquisition, tracking, and pointing (ATP) and fire control issues in support of future space-based precision pointing experiments. The use of high-altitude balloons offers a relatively low-cost, low-vibration test platform, a recoverable and reusable payload, worldwide launch capability, and a 'near- space' emulation of the future space systems operational scenarios. More recently, several university...
1 条评论
阅读全文

Electron Spin and Proton Spin in the Hydrogen and Hydrogen-Like Atomic Systems

Read full paper at: http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=52202#.VIj7tMnQrzE Author(s) Stanisław Olszewski * Affiliation(s) Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland . ABSTRACT The mechanical angular momentum and magnetic moment of the electron and proton spin have been calculated semiclassically with the aid of the uncertainty principle for energy and time. The spin effects of both kinds of the elementary particles can be expressed in terms of similar formulae. The quantization of the spin motion has been done on the basis of the old quantum theory. It gives a quantum number n = 1/2 as the index of the spin state acceptable for both the electron and proton ...
发表评论
阅读全文

Fermented Brown Sugar Residue Prolongs the Caenorhabditis elegans Lifespan via DAF-16

Fermented brown sugar residue (FBSR) is generated in the course of purifying biomass ethanol from the yeast fermentation products of brown sugar. It contains abundant nutrition and is used in various industrial applications including as fertilizer and feed. Meanwhile, brown sugar has attracted attention as a health food and is thought to prevent cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, and brain stem diseases. Furthermore, polyphenol, contained in brown sugar, reduces oxidative stress and inhibits glucose absorption. DAF-16 is a transcription factor regulated downstream of the insulin signaling pathway and is one of the main factors contributing to aging and lifespan in C. elegans . Therefore, to determine the precise roles of the DAF-16 transcription factor in stress tolerance and life span, it is necessary to elucidate the signaling pathways involved in DAF-16 activation. This study was designed to elucidate the molecular mechanisms controlling the physiological stress toleran...
发表评论
阅读全文