Reviews on Environmental Health

The goal of this paper is to compile recent data on the housing and health in old age, with special emphasis on geropsychological and gerontological studies. The authors first introduce their understanding of both housing and health. Second, theoretical models that are important to understand better the relation between housing- and health-related outcomes are incorporated into an analytic scheme. Third, data on objective and subjective aspects of housing in old age in relation to healthrelated outcomes are presented. Among the objective functional housing aspects are healthrelevant micro-environmental indicators like housing hazards and amenities, retrofitting and assistive devices, as well as meso- and macroenvironmental indicators like housing type, neighborhood conditions, or urban-rural differences. Relocation is a classic field in environmental gerontology in which drastic environmental change has been linked to health outcomes. Among subjective housing aspects are residential satisfaction, housing-related control beliefs, and meaning of home. Direct health-related outcomes, such as physical and mental diseases and functional limitations, as well as indirect health-related outcomes like satisfaction or well-being receive attention. We conclude with a discussion addressing the environment and health dynamics of aging in the future.

Materials which exceed the balance of their production and destruction lead to the deterioration in the environment. Plastic is one such material which poses a big threat to the environment. A huge amount of plastic is produced and dumped into the environment which does not readily degrade naturally. In this paper, we address the organization of a large body of literature published on the management of waste plastics being the most challenging issue of the modern world.

To address the issue of the management of waste plastics, there is a dire need to organize the literature published in this field. This paper presents a systematic literature review on plastic waste, its fate and biodegradation in the environment. The objective is to make conclusions on possible practical techniques to lessen the effects of plastic waste on the environment.

A systematic literature review protocol was followed for conducting the present study [Kitchenham B, Brereton OP, Budgen D, Turner M, Bailey J, Linkman S. Systematic literature reviews in software engineering – A systematic literature review. Inf Softw Technol 2009;51(1):7–15.]. A predefined set of book sections, conference proceedings and high-quality journal publications during the years 1999 to September 2017 were used for data collection.

One hundred and fifty-three primary studies are selected, based on predefined exclusion, inclusion and quality criteria. These studies will help to identify the fate of different waste plastics, their impact and management and the disposal techniques frequently used. The study also identifies a number of significant techniques and measures for the conversion of waste plastic materials into useful products.

Five fundamental strategies are used for the handling of plastic waste. These strategies include: recycling, depositing in landfill, incineration, microbial degradation and conversion into useful materials. All of these methods have their own limitations, due to which there is need to explore the studies for optimum solutions of the management of plastics waste.

Several systematic reviews have been conducted so far to examine the effect of air pollution on respiratory diseases, but there has not been a corresponding meta-analysis to estimate the effect sizes for wheeze-associated diseases/disorders, which is one of the leading causes of emergency department visits and hospitalizations for children worldwide. The aim of this review is to systematically evaluate the relationship between air pollution and risk of wheeze-associated disorders in children in Southeast Asia. We searched the relevant computerized databases (PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Scopus and Cochrane library) for indexed publications up to July 2018. Finally, eight studies were qualified for performing a random-effect meta-analysis to compute the pooled effect sizes. The results show that each increase of 10 μg/m³ in concentrations of PM_2.5, PM₁ was associated with 1–2% increase in risk of wheeze-associated disorders. Positive associations were found for PM₁₀, SO₂, NO₂, NO_x but no association was found for CO and O₃. We confirmed the strong effect of fine particulate matters on respiratory health and recommend an updated meta-analysis should be done when more studies are available.