Identifying the spatial effects and driving factors of urban PM2.5 pollution in China

Exploring exactly where air pollution comes from, and identifying the key factors that influence it, can provide a scientific basis for the rational formulation and effective implementation of air pollution policies in China. Based on the data from 2001 to 2012 covering PM_2.5 concentrations in 285 Chinese cities, we use dynamic spatial panel models to empirically analyze the key driving factors of this air pollution. Results show that China’s urban smog demonstrates both obvious global spatial autocorrelation and local spatial agglomeration. There is a significant inverted “U-shaped” curve between economic development level and air pollution, and most cities are in the phase in which pollution is increasing in conjunction with improvements to the economy. Due to a rapid increase in population in built up areas, a high-proportion of secondary industry, a coal-dominated energy structure and increasing traffic intensity, China’s smog problem is becoming more and more serious. FDI probably will not play a future role in mitigating the air pollution. Central heating in winter in northern China further aggravates local smog to a certain extent. Because China’s haze pollution presents path-dependent characteristics and spatial spillover effects in the time dimension and in the space dimension respectively, so smog alleviation policies should be implemented based both on the strategies of maximizing effort and regional joint prevention and control.     

烟雾加气管内滴入PPE 诱发非均质性肺气肿模型

目的:探讨烟雾与弹性蛋白酶(PPE)联合应用在兔阻塞性肺气肿模型形成过程中对肺组织X线、动脉血气、肺组织形态学结构的影响以及如何在较短时间内诱发出类似于人类疾病的非均质性肺气肿模型。方法:将40只小白兔随机分为吸烟组、注酶组、联合组及对照组4组,分别给予单纯香烟熏吸、气管内注入猪胰弹性蛋白酶、烟熏加气管内注入弹性蛋白酶及单纯气管内注入生理盐水作为对照组。7周后分别进行肺组织X线、动脉血气和肺组织形态学检查。结果:注酶组和联合组的平均肺泡数(Na)、肺泡隔面密度(Ds)及PaO2减少,PaCO2、肺总容积(TLC)和肺泡直径(Da)增加,与对照组比较,差异有显著性(P<0.05)。注酶组和联合组大鼠平均肺泡数(MAN)与正常对照组大鼠相比明显减少(P<0.05),平均肺泡面积(MAA)、平均内衬间隔(Lm)明显大于正常对照组(P<0.05),而吸烟组与正常对照组无统计学差异(P>0.05)。结论:烟雾可强化弹性蛋白酶在诱发肺气肿模型过程中的作用,二者联合应用可加快兔肺气肿模型的诱导过程。     

Biological effects of cigarette smoke, wood smoke, and the smoke from plastics: The use of electron spin resonance

This review compares and contrasts the chemistry of cigarette smoke, wood smoke, and the smoke from plastics and building materials that is inhaled by persons trapped in fires. Cigarette smoke produces cancer, emphysema, and other diseases after a delay of years. Acute exposure to smoke in a fire can produce a loss of lung function and death after a delay of days or weeks. Tobacco smoke and the smoke inhaled in a burning building have some similarities from a chemical viewpoint. For example, both contain high concentrations of CO and other combustion products. In addition, both contain high concentrations of free radicals, and our laboratory has studied these free radicals, largely by electron spin resonance (ESR) methods, for about 15 years. This article reviews what is known about the radicals present in these different types of smokes and soots and tars and summarizes the evidence that suggests these radicals could be involved in cigarette-induced pathology and smoke-inhalation deaths. The combustion of all organic materials produces radicals, but (with the exception of the smoke from perfluoropolymers) the radicals that are detected by ESR methods (and thus the radicals that would reach the lungs) are not those that arise in the combustion process. Rather they arise from chemical reactions that occur in the smoke itself. Thus, a knowledge of the chemistry of the smoke is necessary to understand the nature of the radicals formed. Even materials as similar as cigarettes and wood (cellulose) produce smoke that contains radicals with very different lifetimes and chemical characteristics, and mechanistic rationales for this are discussed. Cigarette tar contains a semiquinone radical that is infinitely stable and can be directly observed by ESR. Aqueous extracts of cigarette tar, which contain this radical, reduce oxygen to superoxide and thus produce both hydrogen peroxide and the hydroxyl radical. These solutions both oxidize alpha-1-proteinase inhibitor (a1PI) and nick DNA. Because of the potential role of radicals in smoke-inhalation injury, we suggest that antioxidant therapy (such as use of an inhaler for persons brought out of a burning building) might prove efficacious.