Hiukkasfoorumi, Fine Particle Forum

 Air pollutants from traffic are associated with increased asthma severity levels in pregnant asthmatic women, according to a new study.

Sulfur dioxide is as antagonist of greenhouse gases less effective than previously assumed. It forms sulfate aerosol particles in the air, which reflect sunlight, and as so-called cloud condensation nuclei influence the chemical processes within clouds. Therefore, sulfate aerosol particles help to cool the earth, making them an important factor in climate models.

Joonas Koivisto will defend his doctoral dissertation in Physics on 23 May 2013 at the Faculty of Science, University of Helsinki. The title of the dissertation is “Source specific risk assessment of indoor aerosol particles”.

It may be the 21st century, but nearly half the world's population still cooks and heats with open fires or primitive stoves that burn wood, animal dung, charcoal and other polluting solid fuels. The article in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology describes impressive progress being made to remedy that situation and the obstacles that remain.

Mortality from all causes was higher among individuals with greater exposure to PM_2.5 in survivors of hospital admission for ACS in England and Wales. Despite higher exposure to PM_2.5 among those from more deprived areas, such exposure was a minor contribution to the socioeconomic inequalities in prognosis following ACS.

Exposure to traffic pollution and noise can in the long run lead to atherosclerosis, according to a German study which for the first time explored the links between the two. 

New Current Intelligence Bulletin issued by CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reports the results of research in which various types of carbon nanotubes/carbon nanofibers can cause pulmonary fibrosis, inflammatory effects, and granulomas in laboratory animals exposed to them by inhalation.

 After years of scientific uncertainty and speculation, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill show exactly how trees help create one of society's predominant environmental and health concerns: air pollution.

 New research from the University of Southampton has found that working or travelling on an underground railway for a sustained period of time could have health implications.