Indoor and outdoor air pollution and childhood asthma

Air pollution has been one of the first environmental problems to be addressed by the EU and for this reason clean air is considered essential to good health. Information availability and understanding of the air quality issue is essential part of tackling it with efficiency. Having the latter in mind, the Municipality of Thessaloniki has considered relative environmental actions as an important priority and made significant efforts to include them in its short-term and long-term, already developed, strategies. Through these strategies the Municipality became partner in three important EU funded projects that are dealing with indoor and outdoor air pollution monitoring actions, namely CUTLER, AIRTHINGS, and LIFE SMART IN'AIR. The successful implementation of these projects will add to the knowledge of indoor and outdoor air quality in the City of Thessaloniki, whereas, at the same time, will improve the resilience of the city and the well being of its citizens.

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A systematic review of the evidence of outdoor air pollution on asthma hospital visits in children and adolescents in South Asia – a call for data

Wellcome Open Research ◽

10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16991.1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

pp. 174

Author(s):

Sowmya Malamardi ◽

Katrina A. Lambert ◽

Mehak Batra ◽

Rachel Tham ◽

Mahesh Padukudru Anand ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Air Pollution ◽

South Asia ◽

Childhood Asthma ◽

Hospital Treatment ◽

Childhood And Adolescence ◽

Outdoor Air ◽

Qualitative Synthesis ◽

Outdoor Air Pollution ◽

The Impact

Background: Outdoor air pollution and childhood asthma are increasing problems in South Asian countries. However, little is known about the associations between levels of air pollution and severe childhood asthma requiring hospital treatment in these regions. Methods: We undertook a systematic review to assess the evidence between outdoor air pollution exposure and childhood and adolescent asthma hospitalization in South Asia. MEDLINE, Web of Science, Google Scholar, CINAHL, Embase, Scopus, ProQuest Central databases were searched for peer-reviewed papers, and examination of reference lists was conducted for additional studies. We identified all the literature published in English up to January 2021 for the study population comprised of children aged less than 19 years. The search strategy was designed to identify all the studies and screen them as per the inclusion criteria. The method of qualitative synthesis using the standard tool determined the comprehensiveness of the assessment of bias. Results: Of the original 367 studies screened three studies were ultimately included from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and a narrative synthesis was conducted. Although studies reported adverse effects of outdoor pollution on asthma hospitalizations, limitations in exposure assessments, varying definitions of asthma hospitalizations and limited data analysis were identified. Conclusions: There is currently limited evidence that can provide meaningful risk estimates of the impact of outdoor air pollution on asthma hospitalizations during childhood and adolescence. Studies with comparable outcome definitions, appropriate exposure assessments and study designs are needed to inform future public and environmental health policy. PROSPERO registration: CRD42020156714 (28/04/2020)

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