Environment international
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Environment international · Sep 2019
ReviewEnvironmental, health, wellbeing, social and equity effects of urban green space interventions: A meta-narrative evidence synthesis.
As populations become increasingly urbanised, the preservation of urban green space (UGS) becomes paramount. UGS is not just dedicated recreational space such as public parks, but other types of informal green space are important, for example, street trees and roof gardens. Despite the potential from cross-sectional evidence, we know little about how to design new, or improve or promote existing UGS for health, wellbeing, social and environmental benefits, or known influencing factors such as physical activity. ⋯ Of the 6997 studies identified, 38 were included. There was strong evidence to support park-based (7/7 studies) and greenway/trail (3/3 studies) interventions employing a dual-approach (i.e. a physical change to the UGS and promotion/marketing programmes) particularly for park use and physical activity; strong evidence for the greening of vacant lots (4/4 studies) for health, wellbeing (e.g. reduction in stress) and social (e.g. reduction in crime, increased perceptions of safety) outcomes; strong evidence for the provision of urban street trees (3/4 studies) and green built interventions for storm water management (6/7 studies) for environmental outcomes (e.g. increased biodiversity, reduction in illegal dumping). Park-based or greenway/trail interventions that did not employ a dual-approach were largely ineffective (7/12 studies showed no significant intervention effect). Overall, the included studies have inherent biases owing to the largely non-randomized study designs employed. There was too little evidence to draw firm conclusions regarding the impact of UGS interventions on a range of equity indicators. LIMITATIONS; CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS OF KEY FINDINGS: UGS has an important role to play in creating a culture of health and wellbeing. Results from this study provide supportive evidence regarding the use of certain UGS interventions for health, social and environmental benefits. These findings should be interpreted in light of the heterogeneous nature of the evidence base, including diverging methods, target populations, settings and outcomes. We could draw little conclusions regarding the equity impact of UGS interventions. However, the true potential of UGS has not been realised as studies have typically under-evaluated UGS interventions by not taking account of the multifunctional nature of UGS. The findings have implications for policymakers, practitioners and researchers. For example, for policymakers the trajectory of evidence is generally towards a positive association between UGS and health, wellbeing, social and environmental outcomes, but any intervention must ensure that negative consequences of gentrification and unequal access are minimised.
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Environment international · Aug 2019
Which decreases in air pollution should be targeted to bring health and economic benefits and improve environmental justice?
Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure entails large health effects in many urban areas. Public measures aiming at decreasing air pollution are often designed without targeting an explicit health benefit. Our objective was to investigate the health and economic benefits and the social inequalities in exposure resulting from several scenarios of reduction of PM2.5 exposure, in order to support decisions about urban policies. ⋯ Reduction scenarios targeting only air pollution hotspots had little expected impact on population health. We provided estimates of the PM2.5 change required to reduce PM2.5-attributable mortality by one third or more. Our approach can help targeting air pollution reduction scenarios expected to entail significant benefits, and it could easily be transposed to other urban areas.
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Environment international · Jun 2019
Traffic related air pollution and the burden of childhood asthma in the contiguous United States in 2000 and 2010.
Asthma is one of the leading chronic airway diseases among children in the United States (US). Emerging evidence indicates that Traffic Related Air Pollution (TRAP), as opposed to ambient air pollution, leads to the onset of childhood asthma. We estimated the number of incident asthma cases among children attributable to TRAP in the contiguous US, for the years 2000 and 2010. ⋯ This is the first study to estimate the burden of incident childhood asthma attributable to TRAP at a national scale in the US. The attributable burden of childhood asthma dropped by 33% between 2000 and 2010. However, a significant proportion of cases can be prevented.
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Environment international · Jun 2019
Maternal exposure to fine particulate matter from a coal mine fire and birth outcomes in Victoria, Australia.
The Hazelwood coal mine fire was an unprecedented event in Australian history that resulted in the surrounding towns in regional Victoria being covered in plumes of smoke and ash for six weeks in 2014. Evidence concerning adverse reproductive impacts associated with maternal exposure to ambient air pollution is expanding. Gaps remain regarding the relative impact of acute changes in outdoor air quality lasting days to months, such as that resulting from coal mine fires. ⋯ Maternal exposure to fine particulate matter resulting from the 2014 Hazelwood coal mine fire did not appear to adversely effect fetal maturity. However, there was weak evidence of a trophic response among babies born to exposed mothers with gestational diabetes, a possible susceptibility that requires further exploration.
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Environment international · May 2019
Exposure to moderate air pollution and associations with lung function at school-age: A birth cohort study.
Adverse effects of higher air pollution levels before and after birth on subsequent lung function are often reported in the literature. We assessed whether low-to-moderate levels of air pollution during preschool-age impact upon lung function at school-age. ⋯ Our results suggest that exposure to higher NO2 levels, which are still much lower than WHO guideline limits, especially during the sensitive period of early lung development, may be associated with reduced lung function at school-age. These findings support the concept of age and dose-dependent pollution effects on lung function in healthy school-aged children and underline the importance of pollution reduction measures.