11
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
1 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      Ozone Pollution: A Major Health Hazard Worldwide

      review-article

      Read this article at

      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Oxides of nitrogen (NO x) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released into the atmosphere can react in the presence of solar irradiation, leading to ozone formation in the troposphere. Historically, before clean air regulations were implemented to control NO x and VOCs, ozone concentrations were high enough to exert acute effects such as eye and nose irritation, respiratory disease emergencies, and lung function impairment. At or above current regulatory standards, day-to-day variations in ozone concentrations have been positively associated with asthma incidence and daily non-accidental mortality rate. Emerging evidence has shown that both short-term and long-term exposures to ozone, at concentrations below the current regulatory standards, were associated with increased mortality due to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. The pathophysiology to support the epidemiologic associations between mortality and morbidity and ozone centers at the chemical and toxicological property of ozone as a strong oxidant, being able to induce oxidative damages to cells and the lining fluids of the airways, and immune-inflammatory responses within and beyond the lung. These new findings add substantially to the existing challenges in controlling ozone pollution. For example, in the United States in 2016, 90% of non-compliance to the national ambient air quality standards was due to ozone whereas only 10% was due to particulate matter and other regulated pollutants. Climate change, through creating atmospheric conditions favoring ozone formation, has been and will continue to increase ozone concentrations in many parts of world. Worldwide, ozone is responsible for several hundreds of thousands of premature deaths and tens of millions of asthma-related emergency room visits annually. To combat ozone pollution globally, more aggressive reductions in fossil fuel consumption are needed to cut NO x and VOCs as well as greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, preventive and therapeutic strategies are needed to alleviate the detrimental effects of ozone especially in more susceptible individuals. Interventional trials in humans are needed to evaluate the efficacy of antioxidants and ozone-scavenging compounds that have shown promising results in animal studies.

          Related collections

          Most cited references79

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: found
          • Article: not found

          A comparative risk assessment of burden of disease and injury attributable to 67 risk factors and risk factor clusters in 21 regions, 1990–2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010

          The Lancet, 380(9859), 2224-2260
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: not found

            Long-term ozone exposure and mortality.

            Although many studies have linked elevations in tropospheric ozone to adverse health outcomes, the effect of long-term exposure to ozone on air pollution-related mortality remains uncertain. We examined the potential contribution of exposure to ozone to the risk of death from cardiopulmonary causes and specifically to death from respiratory causes. Data from the study cohort of the American Cancer Society Cancer Prevention Study II were correlated with air-pollution data from 96 metropolitan statistical areas in the United States. Data were analyzed from 448,850 subjects, with 118,777 deaths in an 18-year follow-up period. Data on daily maximum ozone concentrations were obtained from April 1 to September 30 for the years 1977 through 2000. Data on concentrations of fine particulate matter (particles that are < or = 2.5 microm in aerodynamic diameter [PM(2.5)]) were obtained for the years 1999 and 2000. Associations between ozone concentrations and the risk of death were evaluated with the use of standard and multilevel Cox regression models. In single-pollutant models, increased concentrations of either PM(2.5) or ozone were significantly associated with an increased risk of death from cardiopulmonary causes. In two-pollutant models, PM(2.5) was associated with the risk of death from cardiovascular causes, whereas ozone was associated with the risk of death from respiratory causes. The estimated relative risk of death from respiratory causes that was associated with an increment in ozone concentration of 10 ppb was 1.040 (95% confidence interval, 1.010 to 1.067). The association of ozone with the risk of death from respiratory causes was insensitive to adjustment for confounders and to the type of statistical model used. In this large study, we were not able to detect an effect of ozone on the risk of death from cardiovascular causes when the concentration of PM(2.5) was taken into account. We did, however, demonstrate a significant increase in the risk of death from respiratory causes in association with an increase in ozone concentration. 2009 Massachusetts Medical Society
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: found
              Is Open Access

              Anthropogenic drivers of 2013–2017 trends in summer surface ozone in China

              Significance Drastic air pollution control in China since 2013 has achieved sharp decreases in fine particulate matter (PM2.5), but ozone pollution has not improved. After removing the effect of meteorological variability, we find that surface ozone has increased in megacity clusters of China, notably Beijing and Shanghai. The increasing trend cannot be simply explained by changes in anthropogenic precursor [NOx and volatile organic compound (VOC)] emissions, particularly in North China Plain (NCP). The most important cause of the increasing ozone in NCP appears to be the decrease in PM2.5, slowing down the sink of hydroperoxy radicals and thus speeding up ozone production. Decreasing ozone in the future will require a combination of NOx and VOC emission controls to overcome the effect of decreasing PM2.5.
                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                Front Immunol
                Front Immunol
                Front. Immunol.
                Frontiers in Immunology
                Frontiers Media S.A.
                1664-3224
                31 October 2019
                2019
                : 10
                : 2518
                Affiliations
                [1] 1Nicholas School of the Environment and Duke Global Health Institute, Duke University , Durham, NC, United States
                [2] 2Global Health Research Center, Duke Kunshan University , Kunshan, China
                [3] 3Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Health, Guangzhou Medical University , Guangzhou, China
                [4] 4State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment & Environmental Standards Institute, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences , Beijing, China
                [5] 5Center for Global Health, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University , Nanjing, China
                Author notes

                Edited by: Bernahrd Ryffel, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France

                Reviewed by: Juerg Hamacher, Lindenhofspital, Switzerland; Manoussa Ethel Fanny, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, United States; François Erard, University of Orléans, France

                *Correspondence: Junfeng (Jim) Zhang junfeng.zhang@ 123456duke.edu

                This article was submitted to Inflammation, a section of the journal Frontiers in Immunology

                Article
                10.3389/fimmu.2019.02518
                6834528
                31736954
                bb4af591-d0d1-4c33-9280-43e062572bfd
                Copyright © 2019 Zhang, Wei and Fang.

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

                History
                : 20 August 2019
                : 09 October 2019
                Page count
                Figures: 1, Tables: 0, Equations: 0, References: 85, Pages: 10, Words: 9089
                Funding
                Funded by: Innovative Research Group Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China 10.13039/100014718
                Categories
                Immunology
                Review

                Immunology
                ozone,climate change,air quality standards,cardiovascular health effects,respiratory health effects,mitigation strategies

                Comments

                Comment on this article