This study investigated the psychological (perceived restorativeness, subjective vitality, mood, creativity) and physiological (salivary cortisol concentration) effects of short-term visits to urban ...nature environments. Seventy-seven participants visited three different types of urban areas; a built-up city centre (as a control environment), an urban park, and urban woodland located in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Our results show that the large urban park and extensively managed urban woodland had almost the same positive influence, but the overall perceived restorativeness was higher in the woodland after the experiment. The findings suggest that even short-term visits to nature areas have positive effects on perceived stress relief compared to built-up environment. The salivary cortisol level decreased in a similar fashion in all three urban environments during the experiment. The relations between psychological measures and physiological measures, as well as the influence of nature exposure on different groups of people, need to be studied further.
•Short-term visits to urban nature areas have positive effects on stress relief.•Urban park and urban woodland had rather similar positive influence on stress relief.•Urban woodland has a slightly stronger positive influence on stress relief.•Time spent in the city centre decreases positive feelings among the participants.•The salivary cortisol concentration decreases in all urban environments.
In this experiment we investigated how individual differences in orientation towards built vs. nature environment as well as noise sensitivity affect psychological and physiological restoration in a ...constructed urban park, urban woodland and city centre of Helsinki, Finland. The participants, 30–61-year-old healthy women (N = 83), visited each study site once. The experiment consisted of a 15-min viewing session, followed by a 30-min walking session in each environment. We measured restorative effects: perceived restorative outcomes, vitality, and blood pressure in these three environments. The data were analysed in SAS with a linear mixed model. We found significant differences between environments in psychological restorative effects, but not in blood pressure. The urban-nature orientedness, and to a lesser extent noise sensitivity, modified the effect of environment on restoration. In conclusion, individual characteristics affect psychological restoration provided by various urban environments. Varying needs of individuals should be taken into account in city planning.
•Urban-nature orientedness and noise sensitivity modify psychological restoration.•Woodland restored and energized the low-urban-oriented people the most.•Urban park and woodland had similar restorative effects on noise-sensitive people.•City centre did not restore the low-urban-oriented and noise-sensitive people.
Epidemiological studies have reported positive associations between the amount of green space in the living environment and mental and cardiovascular human health. In a search for effect mechanisms, ...field studies have found short-term visits to green environments to be associated with psychological stress relief. Less evidence is available on the effect of visits on cardiovascular physiology.
To evaluate whether visits to urban green environments, in comparison to visits to a built-up environment, lead to beneficial short-term changes in indicators of cardiovascular health.
Thirty-six adult female volunteers visited three different types of urban environments: an urban forest, an urban park, and a built-up city centre, in Helsinki, Finland. The visits consisted of 15min of sedentary viewing, and 30min of walking. During the visits, blood pressure and heart rate were measured, and electrocardiogram recorded for the determination of indicators of heart rate variability. In addition, levels of respirable ambient particles and environmental noise were monitored.
Visits to the green environments were associated with lower blood pressure (viewing period only), lower heart rate, and higher indices of heart rate variability standard deviation of normal-to-normal intervals (SDNN), high frequency power than visits to the city centre. In the green environments, heart rate decreased and SDNN increased during the visit. Associations between environment and indicators of cardiovascular health weakened slightly after inclusion of particulate air pollution and noise in the models.
Visits to urban green environments are associated with beneficial short-term changes in cardiovascular risk factors. This can be explained by psychological stress relief with contribution from reduced air pollution and noise exposure during the visits. Future research should evaluate the amount of exposure to green environments needed for longer-term benefits for cardiovascular health.
•Volunteers visited an urban forest, an urban park, and a built-up city centre.•Beneficial changes in cardiovascular physiology were observed in green environments.•This may be explained by stress relief and lower air pollution and noise exposure.
In many countries, some people living in the vicinity of wind power production areas report having symptoms that they intuitively associate with wind turbines. Recently public discussions have ...focused especially on wind turbine infrasound. However, scientific evidence supporting an association is lacking. The aim of this study was to assess the association between exposure to wind turbines and the prevalence of self-reported symptoms, diseases and medications.
A cross-sectional questionnaire study (n = 2,828) was conducted in the vicinity of five wind power production areas in Finland in 2015–2016. Each area had 3–16 turbines with a nominal power of 2.4–3.3 MW. The response rate was 50% (n = 1,411). Continuous and categorised (≤ 2.5, > 2.5–5, > 5–10 km) distance between the respondents’ home and the closest wind turbine was used to represent exposure to wind turbines. Wind turbine sound pressure level outdoors could be reliably modelled only for the closest distance zone where the yearly average was 34 dB and maximum 43 dB.
The data on symptoms (headache, nausea, dizziness, tinnitus, ear fullness, arrhythmia, fatigue, difficulties in falling asleep, waking up too early, anxiety, stress), diseases (hypertension, heart insufficiency, diabetes), and medications (analgesics for headache, joint/muscle pain and other pain, and medication for sleep disturbance, anxiety and depression, and hypertension) was obtained from the questionnaire. Logistic regression analyses were adjusted for age, sex, marital status, education, work situation, smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, body mass index, and hearing problems.
Annoyance and sleep disturbance due to wind turbine noise were inversely associated with the distance to the closest wind turbine. The prevalence of symptoms, diseases and medications was essentially the same in all distance categories. In multivariate regression modelling, the odds ratio estimates were generally close to unity and statistically non-significant. Beyond annoyance and sleep disturbance, there were no consistent associations between exposure to wind turbines and self-reported health problems. The results do not support the hypothesis that broadband sound or infrasound from wind turbines could cause the proposed health problems.
We studied the potential synergy between air pollution and meteorology and their impact on mortality in nine European cities with data from 2004 to 2010. We used daily series of Apparent Temperature ...(AT), measurements of particulate matter (PM
), ozone (O₃), and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and total non-accidental, cardiovascular, and respiratory deaths. We applied Poisson regression for city-specific analysis and random effects meta-analysis to combine city-specific results, separately for the warm and cold seasons. In the warm season, the percentage increase in all deaths from natural causes per °C increase in AT tended to be greater during high ozone days, although this was only significant for all ages when all causes were considered. On low ozone days, the increase in the total daily number of deaths was 1.84% (95% CI 0.87, 2.82), whilst it was 2.20% (95% CI 1.28, 3.13) in the high ozone days per 1 °C increase in AT. Interaction with PM
was significant for cardiovascular (CVD) causes of death for all ages (2.24% on low PM
days (95% CI 1.01, 3.47) whilst it is 2.63% (95% CI 1.57, 3.71) on high PM
days) and for ages 75+. In days with heat waves, no consistent pattern of interaction was observed. For the cold period, no evidence for synergy was found. In conclusion, some evidence of interactive effects between hot temperature and the levels of ozone and PM
was found, but no consistent synergy could be identified during the cold season.
Background: It is known that particulate air pollution affects cardiorespiratory health; however, it is unclear which particle size fractions and sources of particles are responsible for the health ...effects. Methods: Daily levels of nucleation (<0.03 μm), Aitken (0.03–0.1 μm), accumulation (0.1–0.29 μm), and coarse mode (2.5–10 μm) particles, particles with diameter <2.5 μm (PM2.5), and gaseous pollutants were measured at central outdoor measurement sites in Helsinki, Finland between 1998 and 2004. We determined the associations of particles with daily cardiorespiratory mortality and acute hospital admissions among the elderly (≥65 years). For the analyses we used Poisson generalized additive models and for the source apportionment of PM we used the EPA positive matrix factorization method. Results: There was a suggestion of an association of hospital admissions for arrhythmia with Aitken mode particles and PM from traffic. Otherwise few associations were observed between various sizes and types of particles and either cardiovascular admissions or mortality. In contrast, most particle fractions had positive associations with admissions for pneumonia and asthma-chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The strongest and most consistent associations were found for accumulation mode particles (3.1%; 95% confidence interval = 0.43–5.8 for pneumonia over the 5-day mean, and 3.8%; 1.3–6.3 for asthma-COPD at lag 0, for an interquartile increase in particles). We also found a positive association of respiratory mortality mainly with accumulation mode particles (5.1%; 1.2–9.0 at lag 0). Conclusions: All particle fractions including Aitken, accumulation, and coarse mode had especially adverse respiratory health effects among the elderly. Overall associations were stronger for respiratory than for cardiovascular outcomes.
Aim
There is growing interest in the health effects following exposure to ambient particles with a diameter <100 nm defined as ultrafine particles (UFPs), although studies so far have reported ...inconsistent results. We have undertaken a systematic review and meta-analysis for respiratory hospital admissions and emergency room visits following short-term exposure to UFPs.
Methods
We searched PubMed and the Web of Science for studies published up to March 2019 to update previous reviews. We applied fixed- and random-effects models, assessed heterogeneity between cities and explored possible effect modifiers.
Results
We identified nine publications, reporting effects from 15 cities, 11 of which were European. There was great variability in exposure assessment, outcome measures and the exposure lags considered. Our meta-analyses did not support UFP effects on respiratory morbidity across all ages. We found consistent statistically significant associations following lag 2 exposure during the warm period and in cities with mean daily UFP concentrations <6000 particles·cm
‒3
, which was approximately the median of the city-specific mean levels. Among children aged 0–14 years, a 10 000 particle·cm
‒3
increase in UFPs 2 or 3 days before was associated with a relative risk of 1.01 (95% CI 1.00–1.02) in respiratory hospital admissions.
Conclusions
Our study indicates UFP effects on respiratory health among children, and during the warm season across all ages at longer lags. The limited evidence and the large heterogeneity of previous reports call for future exposure assessment harmonisation and expanded research.
Background: Numerous studies have found that ambient air pollution has been associated with cardiovascular disease exacerbation. Objectives: Given previous findings, we hypothesized that particulate ...air pollution might induce systemic inflammation in myocardial infarction (MI) survivors, contributing to an increased vulnerability to elevated concentrations of ambient particles. Methods: A prospective longitudinal study of 1,003 MI survivors was performed in six European cities between May 2003 and July 2004. We compared repeated measurements of interleukin 6 (IL-6), fibrinogen, and C-reactive protein (CRP) with concurrent levels of air pollution. We collected hourly data on particle number concentrations (PNC), mass concentrations of particulate matter $(PM) < 10 \mu m (PM_{10}$) and $< 2.5 \mu m (PM_{2.5})$, gaseous pollutants, and meteorologic data at central monitoring sites in each city. City-specific confounder models were built for each blood marker separately, adjusting for meteorology and time-varying and time-invariant covariates. Data were analyzed with mixed-effects models. Results: Pooled results show an increase in IL-6 when concentrations of PNC were elevated 12-17 hr before blood withdrawal percent change of geometric mean, 2.7; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.0-4.6. Five day cumulative exposure to PM10was associated with increased fibrinogen concentrations (percent change of arithmetic mean, 0.6; 95% CI, 0.1-1.1). Results remained stable for smokers, diabetics, and patients with heart failure. No consistent associations were found for CRP. Conclusions: Results indicate an immediate response to PNC on the IL-6 level, possibly leading to the production of acute-phase proteins, as seen in increased fibrinogen levels. This might provide a link between air pollution and adverse cardiac events.
Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) has been previously associated with exposure to particulate air pollution. However, there is uncertainty about the agents and mechanisms that are involved. We ...aimed to determine the association of gases and particulates with OHCA, and differences in pollutant effects on OHCAs due to acute myocardial infarction (AMI) vs those due to other causes. Helsinki Emergency Medical Services provided data on OHCAs of cardiac origin (OHCA_Cardiac). Hospital and autopsy reports determined whether OHCAs were due to AMI (OHCA_MI) or other cardiac causes (OHCA_Other). Pollutant data was obtained from central ambient monitors. A case-crossover analysis determined odds ratios (ORs) for hourly lagged exposures (Lag 0-3) and daily lagged exposures (Lag 0d-3d), expressed per interquartile range of pollutant level. For OHCA_Cardiac, elevated ORs were found for PM(2.5) (Lag 0, 1.07; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.01-1.13) and ozone (O(3)) (Lag 2d, 1.18; CI: 1.03-1.35). For OHCA_MI, elevated ORs were found for PM(2.5) (Lag 0, 1.14; CI: 1.03-1.27; Lag 0d, 1.17; CI: 1.03-1.33), accumulation mode particulate (Acc) (Lag 0d, 1.19; CI: 1.04-1.35), NO (Lag 0d, 1.07; CI: 1.01-1.13), and ultrafine particulate (Lag 0d, 1.27; CI: 1.05-1.54). For OHCA_Other, elevated ORs were found only for O(3) (Lag 1d, 1.26; CI: 1.07-1.48; Lag 2d, 1.30; CI: 1.11-1.53). Results from two-pollutant models, with one of the pollutants either PM(2.5) or O(3), suggested that associations were primarily due to effects of PM(2.5) and O(3), rather than other pollutants. The results suggest that air pollution triggers OHCA via two distinct modes: one associated with particulates leading to AMI and one associated with O(3) involving etiologies other than AMI, for example, arrhythmias or respiratory insufficiency.
Oxidative potential (OP) has been suggested as a health-relevant measure of air pollution. Little information is available about OP spatial variation and the possibility to model its spatial ...variability. Our aim was to measure the spatial variation of OP within and between 10 European study areas. The second aim was to develop land use regression (LUR) models to explain the measured spatial variation.
OP was determined with the dithiothreitol (DTT) assay in ten European study areas. DTT of PM2.5 was measured at 16–40 sites per study area, divided over street, urban and regional background sites. Three two-week samples were taken per site in a one-year period in three different seasons. We developed study-area specific LUR models and a LUR model for all study areas combined to explain the spatial variation of OP.
Significant contrasts between study areas in OP were found. OP DTT levels were highest in southern Europe. DTT levels at street sites were on average 1.10 times higher than at urban background locations.
In 5 of the 10 study areas LUR models could be developed with a median R2 of 33%. A combined study area model explained 30% of the measured spatial variability. Overall, LUR models did not explain spatial variation well, possibly due to low levels of OP DTT and a lack of specific predictor variables.
•Oxidative potential (OP DTT) was measured in 10 European study areas.•OP DTT levels were the highest in southern and the lowest in northern Europe.•In 5 of the 10 study areas LUR models could be developed for OP DTT.
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