During the months of June and July 2013, over the Euro–Mediterranean area, the ADRIMED (Aerosol Direct Radiative Impact on the regional climate in the Mediterranean region) project was dedicated to characterize the ozone and aerosol concentrations in the troposphere. It is first shown that this period was not highly polluted compared to previous summers in this region, with a moderate ozone production, no significant vegetation fire events and several precipitation periods scavenging the aerosol.

he health effects of suspended particulate matter (PM) may depend on its chemical composition. Associations between maternal exposure to chemical constituents of PM and newborn’s size have been little examined. The researchers aimed to investigate the associations of exposure to elemental constituents of PM with term low birth weight (LBW, weight

Short-term exposure to air pollution has adverse effects among patients with asthma, but whether long-term exposure to air pollution is a cause of adult-onset asthma is unclear. The researchers aimed to investigate the association between air pollution and adult onset asthma.

Ambient coarse, fine, and ultrafine particles have been associated with mortality and morbidity. Few studies have compared how various particle size fractions affect systemic biomarkers. The researchers examined changes of blood and urinary biomarkers following exposures to three particle sizes.

The purpose of this study is to characterize heavy metals in ambient PM10 (particles with aerodynamic diameter below 10 µm) and PM2.5 (particles with aerodynamic diameter below 2.5 µm) particles in a typical integrated iron and steel industry zone (HG) and a background site (ZWY) during February 2011 to January 2012 in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region, China. Twelve elements were measured to study their levels, size distribution and sources. At the two sampling sites, Fe was found as the dominated metal in the total detected metals in both particle sizes, followed by Zn and Pb.