- The book describes the effects of air pollutants, from the indoor and outdoor spaces, on the human physiology. Air pollutants can influence inflammation biomarkers, can influence the pathogenesis of chronic cough, can influence reactive oxygen species (ROS) and can induce autonomic nervous system interactions that modulate cardiac oxidative stress and cardiac electrophysiological changes, can participate in the onset and exacerbation of upper respiratory and cardio-vascular diseases, can lead to the exacerbation of asthma and allergic diseases. The book also presents how the urban environment can influence and modify the impact of various pollutants on human health.
- One of the greatest environmental problems is air pollution. This book provides an overview on air pollution as well as its impact on human health. Beginning with the assessment of what the minimum risk that can be estimated from a study is and trying to find a link between pollution and human health, the book describes the effects of air pollutants on human physiology. Air pollutants can influence inflammation biomarkers, can influence the pathogenesis of chronic cough, can influence reactive oxygen species (ROS) and can induce autonomic nervous system interactions that modulate cardiac oxidative stress and cardiac electrophysiological changes, can have impact on morbidity and mortality related to the cardio-vascular system, can participate in the onset and exacerbation of upper respiratory diseases, can lead to the exacerbation of asthma and allergic diseases. Multiple ways of assessing the relation between environment and human health were described. For example, the Neural Network approach was used to model the relations between the environment, meteorological data and health effects and to investigate cardio-respiratory hospitalisations. Possible air pollutants were investigated in outdoor spaces as well as in indoor spaces like residential homes or primary schools. The book also presents how the urban environment can influence and modify the impact of various pollutants on human health. Specific pollution situations are described in different cities like Moscow, São Paulo, Rijeka, Bucharest, Lisbon, Mexico, Trabzon-Turkey as well as in different countries like Japan, China, Korea, Israel, South Africa, Brazil, Chile and Poland and the pollutants involved were: particulate matter, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, ozone, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, benz(a)pyrene, asbestos, allergens, and biological contaminants. Several chapters present how indoor air quality may affect the health of children and elderly people. One study presents the relation between odor perception and air pollution and the fact that different aspects of odor perception are altered to varying degrees. The book is the result of the effort of many experts, from many countries and from different parts of the world and it shows that the interest in environmental health is growing.