Health and economic burden of wildland fires PM2.5-related pollution in Portugal - A longitudinal study

Portugal has been affected by wildland fires that destroy thousands of hectares of forest, causing damage to the environment and to the exposed populations. This study aims to assess the influence of wildland fire emissions on air quality, its effect on population health and the related costs, between 2015 and 2018 in Portugal. The cause-specific mortality due to PM2.5 was calculated considering the exposure for five endpoints in adults, twelve age groups for adults and considering children under five years old. The contribution of wildfire emissions to PM2.5 concentrations in Portugal was assessed through EMEP-MSC/W model. Results showed that the average annual fire emissions of PM2.5, CO, CH4, CO2 and NO2 a significant and continuous increase was observed during the first three years (2015, 2016 and 2017) for all pollutants, followed by a decrease in 2018, with values lower than those observed in 2015. Regarding the long-term exposure to PM2.5 emitted by fires a total of 32, 93, 189 and 31 deaths, corresponding to a cost of 59, 174, 360 and 60 million EUR in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018, respectively, were estimated. On the other hand, in the first three years an increase in years of life lost (YLL) values of 496, 1608 and 3092 was observed, corresponding to a cost of 16, 54 and 105 million EUR, respectively, followed by a decrease in 2018 with a YLL of 480, corresponding to a cost of 17 Meuro

The microenvironmental modelling approach to assess children's exposure to air pollution – A review

Exposures to a wide spectrum of air pollutants were associated to several effects on children's health. Exposure assessment can be used to establish where and how air pollutants' exposures occur. However, a realistic estimation of children's exposures to air pollution is usually a great ethics challenge, especially for young children, because they cannot intentionally be exposed to contaminants and according to Helsinki declaration, they are not old enough to make a decision on their participation. Additionally, using adult surrogates introduces bias, since time-space-activity patterns are different from those of children. From all the different available approaches for exposure assessment, the microenvironmental (ME) modelling (indirect approach, where personal exposures are estimated or predicted from microenvironment measurements combined with time-activity data) seemed to be the best to assess children's exposure to air pollution as it takes into account the varying levels of pollution to which an individual is exposed during the course of the day, it is faster and less expensive. Thus, this review aimed to explore the use of the ME modelling approach methodology to assess children's exposure to air pollution. To meet this goal, a total of 152 articles, published since 2002, were identified and titles and abstracts were scanned for relevance. After exclusions, 26 articles were fully reviewed and main characteristics were detailed, namely: (i) study design and outcomes, including location, study population, calendar time, pollutants analysed and purpose; and (ii) data collection, including time-activity patterns (methods of collection, record time and key elements) and pollution measurements (microenvironments, methods of collection and duration and time resolution). The reviewed studies were from different parts of the world, confirming the worldwide application, and mostly cross-sectional. Longitudinal studies were also found enhancing the applicability of this approach. The application of this methodology on children is different from that on adults because of data collection, namely the methods used for collecting time-activity patterns must be different and the time-activity patterns are itself different, which leads to select different microenvironments to the data collection of pollutants' concentrations. The most used methods to gather information on time-activity patterns were questionnaires and diaries, and the main microenvironments considered were home and school (indoors and outdoors). Although the ME modelling approach in studies to assess children's exposure to air pollution is highly encouraged, a validation process is needed, due to the uncertainties associated with the application of this approach