Familiarity with the use of face coverings to reduce the risk of respiratory disease has increased during the coronavirus pandemic; however, recommendations for their use outside of the pandemic remains limited. Here, we develop a modeling framework to quantify the potential health benefits of wearing a face covering or respirator to mitigate exposure to particulate air pollution. This framework accounts

Previous research has noted that many factors greatly influence the spread of COVID-19. Contrary to explicit factors that are measurable, such as population density, number of medical staff, and the daily test rate, many factors are not directly observable, for instance, culture differences and attitudes toward the disease, which may introduce unobserved heterogeneity. Most contemporary COVID-19 related

The combination of air quality (AQ) data from satellites and low-cost sensor systems, along with output from AQ models, have the potential to augment high-quality, regulatory-grade data in countries with in situ monitoring networks and provide much needed AQ information in countries without them, including Low and Moderate Income Countries (LMICs). We demonstrate the potential of free and publicly-available

Mine wastes pollute the environment with metals and metalloids in toxic concentrations, causing problems for humans and wildlife. Microorganisms colonise and inhabit mine wastes, and can influence the environmental mobility of metals through metabolic activity, biogeochemical cycling and detoxification mechanisms. In this article we review the microbiology of the metals and metalloids most commonly

In assessments of cancer risk from atmospheric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), scientists and regulators rarely consider the complex mixture of emitted compounds and degradation products, and they often represent the entire mixture using a single emitted compound – benzo[a]pyrene. Here, we show that benzo[a]pyrene is a poor indicator of PAH risk distribution and management: nearly 90% of cancer

As anthropogenic emissions continue to decline and emissions from landscape (wild, prescribed, and agricultural) fires increase across the coming century, the relative importance of landscape-fire smoke on air quality and health in the United States (US) will increase. Landscape fires are a large source of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), which has known negative impacts on human health. The seasonal

Many of the respiratory pathogens show seasonal patterns and association with environmental factors. In this article, we conducted a cross-sectional analysis of the influence of environmental factors, including climate variability, along with development indicators on the differential global spread and fatality of COVID-19 during its early phase. Global climate data we used are monthly averaged gridded

Identifying the main environmental drivers of SARS-CoV-2 transmissibility in the population is crucial for understanding current and potential future outbursts of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. To address this problem, we concentrate on basic reproduction number R0, which is not sensitive to testing coverage and represents transmissibility in an absence of social distancing and in a completely

Climate change is a significant global health threat that is, underpinned by the existing issue of gender inequality. A scoping review was conducted to better understand the relationship between climate change and women's health. We found a notably higher proportion of existing studies focused on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Most of the studies included were published after 2010, with

Forest and vegetation fires, used as tools for agriculture and deforestation, are a major source of air pollutants and can cause serious air quality issues in many parts of Asia. Actions to reduce fire may offer considerable, yet largely unrecognized, options for rapid improvements in air quality. In this study, we used a combination of regional and global air quality models and observations to examine

No abstract is available for this article.

The purpose of this consensus document was to develop feasible, evidence-based occupational heat safety recommendations to protect the US workers that experience heat stress. Heat safety recommendations were created to protect worker health and to avoid productivity losses associated with occupational heat stress. Recommendations were tailored to be utilized by safety managers, industrial hygienists

No abstract is available for this article.

The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused more than 150 million cases of infection to date and poses a serious threat to global public health. In this study, global COVID-19 data were used to examine the dynamical variations from the perspectives of immunity and contact of 84 countries across the five climate regions: tropical, arid, temperate, and cold. A new approach named

The frequent occurrence of local COVID-19 today gives a strong necessity to better understand the effects of "source-case" distance and gathering places, which are often considered to be the key factors of the localized spatial clustering of an epidemic. In this study, the localized spatial clustering of COVID-19 cases, which originated in the Xinfadi market in Beijing from June–July 2020, was investigated

GLOBE Observer is a free citizen science mobile application compatible with iOS and Android operating systems. Citizen scientists armed with the GLOBE Observer App can report the mosquito larval habitats they identify using the Mosquito Habitat Mapper tool. This data can complement the climate, weather, and land cover data obtained from satellite measurements by scientists who develop risk models for

This study summarizes the results from fitting a Bayesian hierarchical spatiotemporal model to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases and deaths at the county level in the United States for the year 2020. Two models were created, one for cases and one for deaths, utilizing a scaled Besag, York, Mollié model with Type I spatial-temporal interaction. Each model accounts for 16 social vulnerability

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, was first identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. As the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths worldwide continues to increase rapidly, the prevention and control of COVID-19 remains urgent. This article aims to analyze COVID-19 from a geographical perspective, and this information can provide useful

The health impacts of climate change are substantial and represent a primary motivating factor to mitigate climate change. However, the health impacts in economic models that estimate the social cost of carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) have generally been made in isolation from health experts and have never been rigorously evaluated. Version 3.10 of the Framework for Uncertainty, Negotiation and Distribution

The effects of peat burning on organic-rich agricultural soils of the Mezzano Lowland (NE Italy) were evaluated on soil profiles variously affected by smoldering. Profiles were investigated for pH, electrical conductivity, bulk density, elemental and isotopic composition of distinct carbon (and nitrogen) fractions. The results suggest that the horizons affected by carbon loss lie at depths 10–70 cm

Air pollution from Amazon fires has adverse impacts on human health. The number of fires in the Amazon has increased in recent years, but whether this increase was driven by deforestation or climate has not been assessed. We analyzed relationships between fire, deforestation, and climate for the period 2003 to 2019 among selected states across the Brazilian Legal Amazon (BLA). A statistical model including

The role of meteorological and air quality factors in moderating the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and severity of COVID-19 is a critical topic as an opportunity for targeted intervention and relevant public health messaging. Studies conducted in early 2020 suggested that temperature, humidity, ultraviolet radiation, and other meteorological factors have an influence on the transmissibility and viral

Global air pollution and climate change are major threats to planetary health. These threats are strongly linked through the short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs); ozone (O3), aerosols, and methane (CH4). Understanding the impacts of ambitious SLCF mitigation in different source emission sectors on planetary health indicators can help prioritize international air pollution control strategies. A global

Spatial hot spots of COVID-19 infections and fatalities are observed at places exposed to high levels of air pollution across many countries. This study empirically investigates the relationship between exposure to air pollutants that is, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and particulate matter (SO2, NO2, and PM10) and COVID-19 infection at the smallest administrative level (ward) of Mumbai City in

Due to the specific hydrothermal conditions of dry-hot valleys, temperature changes caused by the development of large-scale hydropower projects may be more extreme than they are in other regions. In this study, we analyzed these temperature changes at four hydropower stations in both dry-hot and non-dry-hot valleys. Based on the calculated relative temperatures of the downstream river and the areas

Exposure to wildfire smoke increases the risk of respiratory and cardiovascular hospital admissions. Health impact assessments, used to inform decision-making processes, characterize the health impacts of environmental exposures by combining preexisting epidemiological concentration–response functions (CRFs) with estimates of exposure. These two key inputs influence the magnitude and uncertainty of

Wastewater monitoring for virus infections within communities can complement conventional clinical surveillance. Currently, most SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) clinical testing is voluntary and inconsistently available, except for a few occupational and educational settings, and therefore likely underrepresents actual population prevalence. Randomized testing on a regular

No abstract is available for this article.

Midstream oil and gas infrastructure comprises vast networks of gathering and transmission pipelines that connect upstream extraction to downstream consumption. In the United States (US), public policies and corporate decisions have prompted a wave of proposals for new gathering and transmission pipelines in recent years, raising the question: Who bears the burdens associated with the existing pipeline

Externalities, such as air pollution and increased occupational hazards, resulting from global trends in climate change, rapid industrialization, and rapidly increasing populations are raising global concerns about the associated health risks. The Global Environmental and Occupational Health Hub for Eastern Africa was established to address some of these problems at national and regional levels through

Optimizing allocation of vaccine, a highly scarce resource, is an urgent and critical issue during fighting against on-going COVID-19 epidemic. Prior studies suggested that vaccine should be prioritized by age and risk groups, but few of them have considered the spatial prioritization strategy. This study aims to examine the spatial heterogeneity of COVID-19 transmission in the city naturally, and

In this study, the variability and trends of the outdoor thermal discomfort index (DI) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) were analyzed over the 39-year period of 1980–2018. The hourly DI was estimated based on air temperature and relative humidity data obtained from the next-generation global reanalysis from the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and in-house high-resolution regional

Viral respiratory diseases (VRDs), such as influenza and COVID-19, are thought to spread faster during winter than during summer. It has been previously argued that cold and dry conditions are more conducive to the transmission of VRDs than warm and humid climates, although this relationship appears restricted to temperate regions and the causal relationship is not well understood. The severe acute

No abstract is available for this article.

The associations of multiple pollutants and cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity, and the spatial variations of these associations have not been nationally studied in Sweden. The main aim of this study was, thus, to spatially analyze the associations between ambient air pollution (black carbon, carbon monoxide, particulate matter (both <10 µm and <2.5 µm in diameter) and Sulfur oxides considered)

Exposure to ambient PM2.5 pollution has been linked to multiple adverse health effects. Additional effects have been identified in the literature and there is a need to understand its potential role in high prevalence diseases. In response to recent indications of PM2.5 as a risk factor for dementia, we examine the evidence by systematically reviewing the epidemiologic literature, in relation to exposure

New gridded climate datasets (GCDs) on spatially resolved modeled weather data have recently been released to explore the impacts of climate change. GCDs have been suggested as potential alternatives to weather station data in epidemiological assessments on health impacts of temperature and climate change. These can be particularly useful for assessment in regions that have remained understudied due

The human movement and economic activities have been drastically reduced due to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, leading to the sharp decreases of pollutant emissions and remarkable air quality improvement. Nevertheless, however, the changes of gaseous pollutant concentrations and health effects across China during the COVID-19 lockdown period remained poorly understood. Here, a random

From the heated debates over the airborne transmission of the novel coronavirus to the abrupt Earth system changes caused by the sudden lockdowns, the dire circumstances resulting from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have brought the field of GeoHealth to the forefront of visibility in science and policy. The pandemic has inadvertently provided an opportunity to study how human response

Alaskan wildfires have major ecological, social, and economic consequences, but associated health impacts remain unexplored. We estimated cardiorespiratory morbidity associated with wildfire smoke (WFS) fine particulate matter with a diameter less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) in three major population centers (Anchorage, Fairbanks, and the Matanuska-Susitna Valley) during the 2015–2019 wildfire seasons. To

Common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) have previously demonstrated exposure to phthalate esters. Phthalates and phthalate esters are commonly added to consumer goods to enhance desirable properties. As the amount of plastic marine debris increases, these chemicals can easily leach from these products into the surrounding environment. To evaluate demographic variability in exposure, eight

Bioaerosols have a major negative effect on air quality and on public health by causing the spread of diseases. This study evaluated the bioaerosol composition and variation in a semi-arid megacity of northwest China from October 2019 to January 2020 using an Andersen six-stage impactor sampler. The size distribution, diurnal variations of the concentrations of airborne bacteria, airborne fungi, and

Hepatitis‐A is a waterborne infectious disease transmitted by the eponymous hepatitis‐A virus (HAV). Due to the disease's sociodemographic and environmental characteristics, this study applied public census and remote sensing data to assess risk factors for hepatitis‐A transmission. Municipality‐level data were obtained for the state of Pará, Brazil. Generalized linear and nonlinear models were evaluated

Compound climate extremes, such as events with concurrent temperature and precipitation extremes, have significant impacts on the health of humans and ecosystems. This paper aims to analyze temporal and spatial characteristics of compound extremes of monthly temperature and precipitation, evaluate the performance of the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) models in simulating

The ongoing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID‐19) has posed a serious threat to human public health and global economy. Population mobility is an important factor that drives the spread of COVID‐19. This study aimed to quantitatively evaluate the impact of population flow on the spread of COVID‐19 from a spatiotemporal perspective. To this end, a case study was carried out in Hubei Province, which was

In 2013, Klity Creek became the site of Thailand's first legally required remediation, 15 years after the spill of lead (Pb)‐contaminated mine tailings into the creek. Even today, nature cannot attenuate Pb‐contaminated sediment, arguably due to either high geological background Pb or continuous leakage of Pb from the unlined tailing ponds, upstream of the creek. In this study, four lines of evidence

Air pollution exposure remains a leading public health problem in China. The use of chemical transport models to quantify the impacts of various emission changes on air quality is limited by their large computational demands. Machine learning models can emulate chemical transport models to provide computationally efficient predictions of outputs based on statistical associations with inputs. We developed

Wildfire smoke is a growing public health concern in the United States. Numerous studies have documented associations between ambient smoke exposure and severe patient outcomes for single‐fire seasons or limited geographic regions. However, there are few national‐scale health studies of wildfire smoke in the United States, few studies investigating Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admissions as an outcome

No abstract is available for this article.

Major wildfires starting in the summer of 2020 along the west coast of the US made PM2.5 concentrations in this region rank among the highest in the world. Washington was impacted both by active wildfires in the state and aged wood smoke transported from fires in Oregon and California. This study aims to estimate the magnitude and disproportionate spatial impacts of increased PM2.5 concentrations attributable

Extensive, severe wildfires, and wildfire‐induced smoke occurred across the western and central United States since August 2020. Wildfires resulting in the loss of habitats and emission of particulate matter and volatile organic compounds pose serious threatens to wildlife and human populations, especially for avian species, the respiratory system of which are sensitive to air pollutions. At the same

Every year, Northern Thailand faces haze pollution during the haze episode. The particulate matter (PM), including fine fraction (PM2.5), a coarse fraction (PM2.5–10), and 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), was measured in six provinces in upper north Thailand during the haze and non‐haze episodes in 2018. Eighty‐three percent of the PM2.5 measurements (21.8–194.0 µg/m3) during the haze episode

Although uncommon, nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) pulmonary infection in the Hawaiian Islands has a relatively high incidence and mortality compared to the mainland U.S. As a result, this study examines the possible geological and hydrological pathways by which NTM patients may become infected, including the environmental conditions that may favor growth and transport. Previously suggested infection

The intensification of heat stress reduces the labor capacity and hence poses a threat to socio‐economic development. The reliable projection of the changing climate and the development of sound adaptation strategies are thus desired for adapting to the decreasing labor productivity under climate change. In this study, an optimization modeling approach coupled with dynamical downscaling is proposed

No abstract is available for this article.

To control and prevent the risk of diabetes, diabetes studies have identified the need to better understand and evaluate the associations between influencing indicators and the prevalence of diabetes. One constraint has been that influencing indicators have been selected mainly based on subjective judgment and tested using traditional statistical modeling methods. We proposed a framework new to diabetes

We thank our peer reviewers for all of the hard work that they do

Global solid biofuel stove emissions strongly impact air quality, climate change, and human health. However, investigations of the impacts of global solid biofuel stove emissions on human health associated with PM2.5 (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ≤2.5 μm) and ozone (O3) are limited. Here, we quantify the impacts of global solid biofuel stove emissions on ambient PM2.5 and O3 air quality

Starting in January 2020, the novel coronavirus, now known as acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and the disease that it causes (COVID-19) has had significant impacts on human health, the environment, and the economy globally. The rapid lockdown that occurred as well as its well documented timing allows for an unprecedented opportunity to examine the impact of air pollution from densely

As of July 27, 2020, COVID-19 has caused 640,000 deaths worldwide and has had a major impact on people's productivity and lives. Analyzing the spatial distribution characteristics of COVID-19 cases and their relationships with meteorological and environmental factors might help enrich our knowledge of virus transmission and formulate reasonable epidemic prevention strategies. Taking the cumulative