Impacts on air dose rates after the Fukushima accident over the North Pacific from 19 March 2011 to 2 September 2015.

A fleet of thirteen in-service global container ships continuously measured the air dose rates over the North Pacific after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS) accident. The results showed that the elevated air dose rates over the Port of Tokyo and the FDNPS emissions are significantly correlated (log(emission fluxes) = 54.98 x (air dose rates) (R = 0.95, P-value<0.01), and they are also significantly correlated with the Tsukuba deposition fluxes (log(deposition fluxes) = 0.47 + 30.98 (air dose rates) (R = 0.91, P-value<0.01). These results demonstrate the direct impact of the FDNPS emissions on the depositions of radionuclides and the air dose rates over the Port of Tokyo. Over the North Pacific, the correlation equations are log(emission fluxes) = -2.72 + 202.36 x (air dose rates over the northwestern Pacific) (R = 0.40, P-value<0.01), and log(emission fluxes) = -0.55 + 80.19 x (air dose rates over the northeastern Pacific) (R = 0.29, P-value = 0.0424). These results indicate that the resuspension of the deposited radionuclides have become a dominant source in the transport of radionuclides across the North Pacific. Model simulations show underestimated air dose rates during the periods of 22-25 March 2011 and 27-30 March 2011 indicating the lack of mechanisms, such as the resuspension of radionuclides, in the model.

An association between air pollution and daily most frequently visits of eighteen outpatient diseases in an industrial city.

Toxic effects of air pollutants were individually identified in various organs of the body. However, the concurrent occurrences and the connection of diseases in multiple organs arise from air pollution has not been concurrently studied before. Here we hypothesize that there exist connected health effects arise from air pollution when diseases in various organs were considered together. We used medical data from hospital outpatient visits for various organs in the body with a disease-air pollution model that represents each of the diseases as a function of the environmental factors. Our results show that elevated air pollution risks (above 40%) concurrently occurred in diseases of spondylosis, cerebrovascular, pneumonia, accidents, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), influenza, osteoarthritis (OA), asthma, peptic ulcer disease (PUD), cancer, heart, hypertensive, diabetes, kidney, and rheumatism. Air pollutants that were associated with elevated health risks are particular matters with diameters equal or less than 2.5 µm (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3), particular matters with diameters equal or less than 10 µm (PM10), carbon monoxide (CO), and nitrogen oxide (NO). Concurrent occurrences of diseases in various organs indicate that the immune system tries to connectively defend the body from persistent and rising air pollution.

Association between Daily Hospital Outpatient Visits for Accidents and Daily Ambient Air Temperatures in an Industrial City.

An accident is an unwanted hazard to a person. However, accidents occur. In this work, we search for correlations between daily accident rates and environmental factors. To study daily hospital outpatients who were admitted for accidents during a 5-year period, 2007-2011, we analyzed data regarding 168,366 outpatients using univariate regression models; we also used multivariable regression models to account for confounding factors. Our analysis indicates that the number of male outpatients admitted for accidents was approximately 1.31 to 1.47 times the number of female outpatients (P < 0.0001). Of the 12 parameters (regarding air pollution and meteorology) considered, only daily temperature exhibited consistent and significant correlations with the daily number of hospital outpatient visits for accidents throughout the 5-year analysis period. The univariate regression models indicate that older people (greater than 66 years old) had the fewest accidents per 1-degree increase in temperature, followed by young people (0-15 years old). Middle-aged people (16-65 years old) were the group of outpatients that were more prone to accidents, with an increase in accident rates of 0.8-1.2 accidents per degree increase in temperature. The multivariable regression models also reveal that the temperature variation was the dominant factor in determining the daily number of outpatient visits for accidents. Our further multivariable model analysis of temperature with respect to air pollution variables show that, through the increases in emissions and concentrations of CO, photochemical O3 production and NO2 loss in the ambient air, increases in vehicular emissions are associated with increases in temperatures. As such, increases in hospital visits for accidents are related to vehicular emissions and usage. This finding is consistent with clinical experience which shows about 60% to 80% of accidents are related to traffic, followed by accidents occurred in work place.

How change of public transportation usage reveals fear of the SARS virus in a city.

The outbreaks of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic in 2003 resulted in unprecedented impacts on people's daily life. One of the most significant impacts to people is the fear of contacting the SARS virus while engaging daily routine activity. Here we use data from daily underground ridership in Taipei City and daily reported new SARS cases in Taiwan to model the dynamics of the public fear of the SARS virus during the wax and wane of the SARS period. We found that for each reported new SARS case there is an immediate loss of about 1200 underground ridership (the fresh fear). These daily loss rates dissipate to the following days with an e-folding time of about 28 days, reflecting the public perception on the risk of contacting SARS virus when traveling with the underground system (the residual fear). About 50% of daily ridership was lost during the peak of the 2003 SARS period, compared with the loss of 80% daily ridership during the closure of the underground system after Typhoon Nari, the loss of 50-70% ridership due to the closure of the governmental offices and schools during typhoon periods, and the loss of 60% daily ridership during Chinese New Year holidays.

An association between air pollution and daily outpatient visits for respiratory disease in a heavy industry area.

In this work we used daily outpatient data from the Landseed Hospital in a heavily industrial area in northern Taiwan to study the associations between daily outpatient visits and air pollution in the context of a heavily polluted atmospheric environment in Chung-Li area during the period 2007-2011. We test the normality of each data set, control for the confounding factors, and calculate correlation coefficient between the outpatient visits and air pollution and meteorology, and use multiple linear regression analysis to seek significance of these associations. Our results show that temperature and relative humidity tend to be negatively associated with respiratory diseases. NO and [Formula: see text] are two main air pollutants that are positively associated with respiratory diseases, followed by [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], CO, and [Formula: see text]. Young outpatients (age 0-15 years) are most sensitive to changing air pollution and meteorology factors, followed by the eldest (age [Formula: see text]66 years) and age 16-65 years of outpatients. Outpatients for COPD diseases are most sensitive to air pollution and meteorology factors, followed by allergic rhinitis, asthma, and pneumonia diseases. In the context of sex difference to air pollution and meteorological factors, male outpatients are more sensitive than female outpatients in the 16-65 age groups, while female outpatients are more sensitive than male outpatients in the young 0-15 age groups and in the eldest age groups. In total, female outpatients are more sensitive to air pollution and meteorological factors than male outpatients.