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Background: Recent epidemiological studies investigating the modifying effect of air temperature in ozone-mortality associations lack consensus as how to adjust for nonlinear and lagged temperature effect in addition to including an interaction term. Methods: We evaluated the influence of temperature confounding control on temperature-stratified ozone-mortality risks in a time series setting in eight European cities and 86 US cities, respectively. To investigate potential residual confounding, we additionally incorporated next day's ozone in models with differing temperature control. Results: Using only a categorical variable for temperature or only controlling nonlinear effect of low temperatures yielded highly significant ozone effects at high temperatures but also significant residual confounding in both regions. Adjustment for nonlinear effect of temperature, especially high temperatures, substantially reduced ozone effects at high temperatures and residual confounding. Conclusions: Inadequate control for confounding by air temperature leads to residual confounding and an overestimation of the temperature-modifying effect in studies of ozone-related mortality. © 2018 The Authors. Published by Wolters Kluwer Health

http://www.ttl.fi/en/ publications/ Electronic_publications/Nanosafety_in_europe_2015-2025/Documents/nanosafety_2015-2025.pdf

Nanotechnology will be one of the key technological drivers in building an innovation European Union (EU) based on smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Nanotechnology has also been identified as the key-enabling technology (KET) for the EU. Nanotechnology has rapidly promoted the development a new generation of smart and innovative products and processes that are nanoenabled, and have created a tremendous growth potential for a large number of industry sectors. It is important that this development continues so that all the useful properties of engineered nanomaterials (ENM) can be fully utilized in a number of nanotechnology applications. The marked benefits brought about by ENM and nanotechnology applications have also created some concerns of their possible effects on human health and safety and environmental burden. A few observations on some potentially harmful effects of ENM have in some cases overshadowed the dramatic benefits of these materials and their nanotechnology applications. However, the real concern, rather than observations on some hazards of exposure to ENM, is the lack of systematic studies on hazards of or exposure to ENM. Hence, the true importance of this document is the identification of the knowledge gaps related to ENM safety, and directing the future research on ENM to enable the alleviation of the uncertainty, the real source of potential concerns associated with ENM and nanotechnology. This document on the strategic priorities of nanosafety research during 2015-2025 has been produced as a joint effort of the European NanoSafety Cluster, a forum incorporating FP6 and FP7 funded nanosafety research projects. It also includes several nanosafety research projects, that have been funded by different EU Member States It identifies four major areas of research would greatly benefit our current understanding of ENM features, exposure to them, hazard mechanisms of ENM, as well as their risk assessment and management. Hence, the strategic vision on the future directions of European nanosafety research presented in this document may have a major impact on the future nanosafety research within and outside the European Union, and consequently, on the success of nanotechnologies

Estimating within-city variability in air pollution concentrations is important. Land use regression (LUR) models are able to explain such small-scale within-city variations. Transparency in LUR model development methods is important to facilitate comparison of methods between different studies. We therefore developed LUR models in a standardized way in 36 study areas in Europe for the ESCAPE (European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects) project.Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) were measured with Ogawa passive samplers at 40 or 80 sites in each of the 36 study areas. The spatial variation in each area was explained by LUR modelling. Centrally and locally available Geographic Information System (GIS) variables were used as potential predictors. A leave-one out cross-validation procedure was used to evaluate the model performance.There was substantial contrast in annual average NO2 and NOx concentrations within the study areas. The model explained variances (R2) of the LUR models ranged from 55% to 92% (median 82%) for NO2 and from 49% to 91% (median 78%) for NOx. For most areas the cross-validation R2 was less than 10% lower than the model R2. Small-scale traffic and population/household density were the most common predictors. The magnitude of the explained variance depended on the contrast in measured concentrations as well as availability of GIS predictors, especially traffic intensity data were important. In an additional evaluation, models in which local traffic intensity was not offered had 10% lower R2 compared to models in the same areas in which these variables were offered.Within the ESCAPE project it was possible to develop LUR models that explained a large fraction of the spatial variance in measured annual average NO2 and NOx concentrations. These LUR models are being used to estimate outdoor concentrations at the home addresses of participants in over 30 cohort studies. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

In spring 2010 the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull erupted high loads of pyroclastic material into the atmosphere. The eruption cloud reached heights between 4 and 7 km. The volcanic ash advisory centre London, the responsible institution for making forecasts of ash coming to Europe, decided the complete shut down of the air traffic over wide parts of Europe for a sequence of days. From April 13th to 20th there was a stable high pressure system over the Atlantic Ocean. Thus, a rather constant air flow from north-west to south-east prevailed over Europe in the upper and middle troposphere. Due to that the volcanic ash was transported from Iceland over the UK to Central Europe. Furthermore, the weather conditions were sunny, dry, and stable, preventing the ash from being mixed throughout the atmosphere or from being washed out by precipitation. These weather conditions led not only to long range ash transport but also to high PM10 concentrations in the boundary layer from other sources. Thus the question arises whether the volcanic ash contributed to the high PM10 levels near ground or if the reason for the high PM10 concentrations measured by the ground based stations has to be found elsewhere. The aim of this paper is to give a review of some of the findings of the ground based measurements, model calculations, and remote sensing in Central Europe during the volcanic event two years ago, with focus on Germany, France, and Great Britain. A large variety of modelling results on the dispersion of the Eyjafjallajokull plume over Europe can be found in the recent literature. They all showed that the ash plume reached the air space over Central Europe and these findings compare rather nicely to satellite pictures, Lidar measurements, and measurements from aircrafts. In the present paper as an example EURAD and Chimere model simulations will be presented. With regard to lidar and satellite measurements, we will concentrate on the findings by the German Weather Service, the Met Office and of the volcanic ash advisory centre in Great Britain. As an example for the ground based measurements, we will show the findings of Germany and France. To figure out whether and to what extend the elevated PM10 concentrations are influenced by the transported volcanic ash the PM10 samples were analysed for heavy metals, chloride, nitrate, sulphate, and ammonium. The composition was compared with the one of the erupted material as measured by Óskarsson (2010). An additional indicator for volcanic material is the occurrence of elevated SO2 concentrations and of unusual particle shapes that can be detected by scanning electron microscope analyses. The results of the ground based observations in Germany and France are quite similar. There was volcanic ash that reached the surface, especially at the Black Forest as well as in the Alsace region (Colette et al., 2011, LUBW, 2010), where part of the sampled particles have the same chemical composition than the erupted material. Thus about 25 µg/m3 of the PM10 can be ascribed to volcanic ash there, in good agreement with long-range transport modelling studies. Nevertheless in other places, for example in North Rhine-Westphalia (LANUV), the volcanic ash fraction contributed merely about 5 µg/m3 to the PM10 burden in the latter regions. This shows that a combination of all existing methods and a close collaboration should be used to predict the impact of future events.

The ESCAPE study (European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects) investigates relationships between long-term exposure to outdoor air pollution and health using cohort studies across Europe. This paper analyses the spatial variation of PM2.5, PM2.5 absorbance, PM10 and PMcoarse concentrations between and within 20 study areas across Europe.We measured NO2, NOx, PM2.5, PM2.5 absorbance and PM10 between October 2008 and April 2011 using standardized methods. PMcoarse was determined as the difference between PM10 and PM2.5. In each of the twenty study areas, we selected twenty PM monitoring sites to represent the variability in important air quality predictors, including population density, traffic intensity and altitude. Each site was monitored over three 14-day periods spread over a year, using Harvard impactors. Results for each site were averaged after correcting for temporal variation using data obtained from a reference site, which was operated year-round.Substantial concentration differences were observed between and within study areas. Concentrations for all components were higher in Southern Europe than in Western and Northern Europe, but the pattern differed per component with the highest average PM2.5 concentrations found in Turin and the highest PMcoarse in Heraklion. Street/urban background concentration ratios for PMcoarse (mean ratio 1.42) were as large as for PM2.5 absorbance (mean ratio 1.38) and higher than those for PM2.5 (1.14) and PM10 (1.23), documenting the importance of non-tailpipe emissions. Correlations between components varied between areas, but were generally high between NO2 and PM2.5 absorbance (average R2 = 0.80). Correlations between PM2.5 and PMcoarse were lower (average R2 = 0.39). Despite high correlations, concentration ratios between components varied, e.g. the NO2/PM2.5 ratio varied between 0.67 and 3.06.In conclusion, substantial variability was found in spatial patterns of PM2.5, PM2.5 absorbance, PM10 and PMcoarse. The highly standardized measurement of particle concentrations across Europe will contribute to a consistent assessment of health effects across Europe. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.

During the last few years, research on toxicologically relevant properties of engineered nanoparticles has increased tremendously. A number of international research projects and additional activities are ongoing in the EU and the US, nourishing the expectation that more relevant technical and toxicological data will be published. Their widespread use allows for potential exposure to engineered nanoparticles during the whole lifecycle of a variety of products. When looking at possible exposure routes for manufactured Nanoparticles, inhalation, dermal and oral exposure are the most obvious, depending on the type of product in which Nanoparticles are used. This review shows that (1) Nanoparticles can deposit in the respiratory tract after inhalation. For a number of nanoparticles, oxidative stress-related inflammatory reactions have been observed. Tumour-related effects have only been observed in rats, and might be related to overload conditions. There are also a few reports that indicate uptake of nanoparticles in the brain via the olfactory epithelium. Nanoparticle translocation into the systemic circulation may occur after inhalation but conflicting evidence is present on the extent of translocation. These findings urge the need for additional studies to further elucidate these findings and to characterize the physiological impact. (2) There is currently little evidence from skin penetration studies that dermal applications of metal oxide nanoparticles used in sunscreens lead to systemic exposure. However, the question has been raised whether the usual testing with healthy, intact skin will be sufficient. (3) Uptake of nanoparticles in the gastrointestinal tract after oral uptake is a known phenomenon, of which use is intentionally made in the design of food and pharmacological components. Finally, this review indicates that only few specific nanoparticles have been investigated in a limited number of test systems and extrapolation of this data to other materials is not possible. Air pollution studies have generated indirect evidence for the role of combustion derived nanoparticles (CDNP) in driving adverse health effects in susceptible groups. Experimental studies with some bulk nanoparticles (carbon black, titanium dioxide, iron oxides) that have been used for decades suggest various adverse effects. However, engineered nanomaterials with new chemical and physical properties are being produced constantly and the toxicity of these is unknown. Therefore, despite the existing database on nanoparticles, no blanket statements about human toxicity can be given at this time. In addition, limited ecotoxicological data for nanomaterials precludes a systematic assessment of the impact of Nanoparticles on ecosystems.