Masri Shahir, Flores Leonel, Rea Jose, Wu Jun
Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Program in Public Health, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA.
Madison Park Neighborhood Association, GREEN-MPNA Programs, Santa Ana, CA 92707, USA.
Atmosphere (Basel). 2023 Feb;14(2). doi: 10.3390/atmos14020401. Epub 2023 Feb 19.
Air pollution is a major public health threat that is associated with asthma, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease and all-cause mortality. Among the most important acute air pollution events occurring each year are celebrations involving fireworks, such as the 4th of July holiday in the United States. In this community-engaged study, academic partners and residents collaborated to collect indoor and outdoor PM concentration measurements in the disadvantaged city of Santa Ana, California, using low-cost AtmoTube sensor devices before, during and after the July 4th firework celebration, while also examining July 4th data extracted from the PurpleAir sensor network across over a hundred other cities in southern California. Average outdoor PM concentrations on July 4th were found to be three-to-five times higher than baseline, with hourly concentrations exceeding 160 μg/m. Outdoor averages were roughly 30% to 100% higher than indoor levels. The most polluted cities exhibited 15-times higher PM levels compared with the least contaminated cities and were often those where household-level fireworks were legal for sale and use. Race/ethnicity was found to be the leading predictor of July 4th-related air pollution across three counties in southern California, with greater PM being associated with higher proportions of Hispanic residents and lower proportions of White residents. The findings from this study underscore the importance of environmental justice as it relates to firework-related air pollution exposure, and the critical role city- and county-level firework policies play in determining exposure.
空气污染是对公众健康的重大威胁，与哮喘、心血管疾病、呼吸系统疾病以及全因死亡率相关。每年发生的最重要的急性空气污染事件中，就包括涉及烟花燃放的庆祝活动，比如美国的独立日假期。在这项社区参与研究中，学术伙伴与居民合作，在加利福尼亚州圣安娜这个处境不利的城市，于7月4日烟花庆祝活动之前、期间和之后，使用低成本的AtmoTube传感器设备收集室内和室外的细颗粒物（PM）浓度测量数据，同时还研究了从南加州其他一百多个城市的PurpleAir传感器网络提取的7月4日数据。结果发现，7月4日的室外平均PM浓度比基线高出三到五倍，每小时浓度超过160微克/立方米。室外平均浓度比室内水平高出约30%至100%。污染最严重的城市的PM水平比污染最轻的城市高出15倍，而且往往是那些家庭级烟花销售和使用合法的城市。研究发现，种族/族裔是南加州三个县与7月4日相关空气污染的主要预测因素，更高的PM浓度与更高比例的西班牙裔居民以及更低比例的白人居民相关。这项研究的结果强调了环境正义在与烟花相关的空气污染暴露方面的重要性，以及市县两级烟花政策在决定暴露情况方面所起的关键作用。
