ATMOSPHERE POLLUTANTS

Citizen Science, Air Quality, and the Internet of Things

This chapter discusses the emergence of the Internet of Things, using a case study of a citizen science initiative, focusing in particular on issues involved in measuring air quality. The core of the citizen science initiative was formed by a world-wide network of early adaptors of the Internet of Things who, motivated by public health issues, set out to create widely available tools for air quality measuring. With these tools, they established a global, citizen-led, air quality measurement network. Besides highlighting a number of social and technological issues which are involve any such enterprise, this chapter engages with the discourse surrounding the use of IoT in collective sensing projects. Two questions are salient here. Firstly, can IoT technology be used in a citizen science context to monitor air quality? And secondly, does the construction of these devices lead to a successful mobilisation around issues of air quality?

A critical review of the literature on acrolein toxicity

A detailed literature review of human and animal toxicity studies of acrolein is presented, and information gaps identified that call for further investigation. Specific recommendations are suggested for additional short-/long-term studies, including chemical disposition and cytogenetic investigations. Two bibliographies are provided indicating the scope of the review: (1) literature actually cited and (2) literature examined but not included.

Possible effects on occupational lung cancer from smoking related changes in the mucus content of the lung

A number of recent epidemiological studies of lung cancer among occupations that expose workers to dusts or toxic aerosols have reported a larger prevalence of lung cancer among non-smoking than among smoking workers. One recent study using Beagle dogs has also reported significantly fewer respiratory tumors among animals exposed to radon, radon daughters, uranium dust and tobacco smoke than among animals exposed similarly except for tobacco smoke. The evidence is summarized here that the increased mucus in the lungs of smokers may help in the elimination of dust and toxic substances by facilitating migration of particles and aerosols and possibly also adding protection by thickening of the mucus layer. Recent developments in use of in vivo magnetometric measurements of dust content of workers' lungs in fact indicate that lungs of chronically exposed miners and millers contain less dust if they smoke than if they do not. The hypothesis that increasing mucus in the lung of exposed workers may protect them against lung disease now needs experimental verification in appropriate animal studies. If protective qualities of lung mucus are verified, means need to be explored that will increase mucus flow in non-smoking (and smoking) workers exposed to respiratory hazards.