China is now confronting the intertwined challenges of air pollution and climate change. Given the high synergies between air pollution abatement and climate change mitigation, the Chinese government is actively promoting synergetic control of these two issues. The Synergetic Roadmap project was launched in 2021 to track and analyze the progress of synergetic control in China by developing and monitoring key indicators. The Synergetic Roadmap 2022 report is the first annual update, featuring 20 indicators across five aspects: synergetic governance system and practices, progress in structural transition, air pollution and associated weather-climate interactions, sources, sinks, and mitigation pathway of atmospheric composition, and health impacts and benefits of coordinated control. Compared to the comprehensive review presented in the 2021 report, the Synergetic Roadmap 2022 report places particular emphasis on progress in 2021 with highlights on actions in key sectors and the relevant milestones. These milestones include the proportion of non-fossil power generation capacity surpassing coal-fired capacity for the first time, a decline in the production of crude steel and cement after years of growth, and the surging penetration of electric vehicles. Additionally, in 2022, China issued the first national policy that synergizes abatements of pollution and carbon emissions, marking a new era for China's pollution-carbon co-control. These changes highlight China's efforts to reshape its energy, economic, and transportation structures to meet the demand for synergetic control and sustainable development. Consequently, the country has witnessed a slowdown in carbon emission growth, improved air quality, and increased health benefits in recent years.

Assessing the iron and steel industry's (ISI) impact on climate change and environmental health is vital, particularly in China, where this sector significantly influences air quality and CO2 emissions. There is a lack of comprehensive analyses that consider the environmental and health burdens of manufacturing processes for ISI enterprises. Here, we present an integrated emission inventory that encompasses air pollutants and CO2 emissions from 811 ISI enterprises and five key manufacturing processes in 2020. Our analysis shows that sintering is the primary source of air pollution in the ISI. It contributes 71% of SO2, 73% of NOx, and 54% of PM2.5 emissions. On the other hand, 81% of total CO2 emissions come from blast furnaces. Significantly, the contributions of ISI have resulted in an increase of 3.6 mu g m(-3) in national population-weighted PM2.5 concentration, causing approximately 59,035 premature deaths in 2020. Emissions from Hebei, Jiangsu, Shandong, Shanxi, and Inner Mongolia provinces contributed to 48% of PM2.5-related deaths in China. Moreover, the transportation of air pollutants across provincial borders highlights a concerning trend of environmental health inequality. Based on the research findings, it is crucial for ISI manufacturers to prioritize the removal of outdated production capacities and adopt energy-efficient and advanced techniques, along with ultra-low emission technologies. This is particularly important for those manufacturers with substantial environmental footprints. These transformative actions are essential in mitigating the environmental and health impacts in the affected regions. (c) 2023 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences, Harbin Institute of Technology, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences.

It is well recognized that carbon dioxide and air pollutants share similar emission sources so that synergetic policies on climate change mitigation and air pollution control can lead to remarkable co-benefits on greenhouse gas reduction, air quality improvement, and improved health. In the context of carbon peak, carbon neutrality, and clean air policies, this perspective tracks and analyzes the process of the synergetic governance of air pollution and climate change in China by developing and monitoring 18 indicators. The 18 indicators cover the following five aspects: air pollution and associated weather-climate conditions, progress in structural transition, sources, inks, and mitigation pathway of atmospheric composition, health impacts and benefits of coordinated control, and synergetic governance system and practices. By tracking the progress in each indicator, this perspective presents the major accomplishment of coordinated control, identifies the emerging challenges toward the synergetic governance, and provides policy recommendations for designing a synergetic roadmap of Carbon Neutrality and Clean Air for China.

The synergistic evaluation integrating air quality, human health, climate impact, and socioeconomic development is significant for green and low-carbon transition. Here, we quantified the contribution of pollutant emissions in 30 provinces (source) to PM2.5 concentration and related premature mortality in each 20 km grid (receptor) of China in 2020 by an integrated model for the first time. Further, we established a cross-province contribution matrix of health impact intensity (HII, PM2.5-related deaths per GDP). According to HII and CEI (carbon emission intensity, defined as CO2 emission per GDP) levels, 30 provinces were divided into 4 regions including LL, HL, LH and HH. In order to assess the synergy in air pollution and carbon emission, we established an index system consisting of ISEC-AC (index for synergistic assessment) and its two sub index: IHI (index for HII assessment), and ICE (index for CEI assessment). Results showed that the ISEC-AC was more easily influenced by IHI as the variance of IHI was much higher than that of ICE. Influenced by various factors, e.g., economic structure, population density, pollution transport, ISEC-AC exhibited substantial spatial heterogeneity. In general, the ISEC-AC of southeast provinces was higher than that of central and western, indicating the environmental and climate impact per GDP was relatively lower in southeast China. For provinces, ISEC-AC of SH and GD were ~ 16 times higher than NX. For regions, due to low carbon emission intensity and health impact intensity, ISEC-AC of LL was the highest with 176; followed by HL (128), LH (126) and HH (77). Further, we figured out the main control problems and then put forward targeted synergetic control suggestions for air pollution and carbon emission from the perspective of energy structure, industry structure and industry layout, which can provide insights into future green and low-carbon policy making in China and other countries.

To evaluate the effects of the various ozone (O3) control approaches on environmental health and health inequalities, 121 reduction scenarios for nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were developed, and their environmental health impacts were calculated. With the target of achieving the 90th percentile of the daily maximum 8 h mean O3 concentration (MDA8-90th) of 160 μg/m3 in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and its surroundings (“2 + 26” cities), three typical scenarios namely, High-NOx reduction ratio (HN, NOx/VOCs = 6:1), High-VOCs reduction ratio (HV, NOx/VOCs = 3:7), and Balanced reduction ratio (Balanced, NOx/VOCs = 1:1) were investigated. The results show that O3 formation is currently NOx-limited at the regional scale, while some developed cities are VOC-limited, indicating that NOx mitigation should be the core for achieving the targeted concentration (160 μg/m3) at the regional scale, whereas cities such as Beijing in the short term should focus on VOCs mitigation. The population-weighted O3 concentrations in the HN, Balanced, and HV scenarios were 159.19, 159.19, and 158.44 μg/m3, respectively. In addition, the O3-related premature mortality was 41,320 in “2 + 26” cities; control measures under HN, Balanced, and HV could potentially decrease O3-related premature deaths by 59.94 %, 60.25 %, and 71.48 %, respectively. The HV scenario has been found to be more advantageous in lowering the O3-related environmental health impacts than the HN and Balanced scenarios. It was further found that premature deaths avoided by the HN scenario were mainly concentrated in economically unadvanced regions, whereas those prevented by the HV scenario were mainly concentrated in developed cities. This may lead to geographical inequities in environmental health. As ozone pollution in large cities with high population density is primarily VOC-limited, decrease in VOCs should be focused on in the short term to avoid more O3-related premature deaths, whereas NOx control may be more important in decreasing ozone concentrations and ozone-related mortality in the future.

Clean vehicle fleet will greatly benefit air quality and climate change mitigation. Here, we employ an integrated model to systematically investigated the contribution of combined clean vehicle policies to “emissions, exposure, and health benefits” from a regional perspective 2019–2035 in China. We find that driven by clean vehicle polices, the national vehicle CO2 will likely to peak around 2028 with about 1327 million tons, and then reduce by 7.8% from 2028 to 2035. The developed region will peak CO2 before 2030, while the developing region probably peak after 2030. In general, most air pollutants emissions from vehicles will decrease, subsequently leading to obvious PM2.5 and O3 exposure decrease. About 68 thousand PM2.5 related and 33 thousand O3 related deaths will be avoided 2019–2035 nationwide. Note that the health benefits are unequal, with higher PM2.5-O3 related excess deaths be avoided per 100000 in developed region than developing region. Besides, results show that emission standard upgrade contributes largest to emission reduction and related health benefits, followed by electric vehicles, road-to-railways and waterways, and fuel consumption regulation in general. This work is able to provide valuable information for policy makers to collaboratively reduce CO2, air pollutants and premature deaths in China and other developing countries.

Energy transition is an important way to control air pollution, but it may conflict with the economic goal of alleviating regional inequality due to its inherently different cost burdens. As one of the effective measures of energy transition, this paper takes small coal-fired boiler (SCB) upgrading as an example to explore the regional mismatch between upgrading costs and health benefits. Here, we construct a boiler-level inventory of SCB upgrades for the North China Plain (NCP) during 2013-2017 and propose an integrated modeling framework to quantify the spatial contribution of economic costs and health benefits associated with SCB upgrading. We find that although the total health benefits could offset the total costs for the entire region, the developed municipalities (Beijing and Tianjin) are likely to gain more health benefits from less-developed neighboring provinces at lower costs. These developed municipalities contribute only 14% to the total health benefits but gain 21% of the benefits within their territories, 56% of which come from neighboring provinces. Their benefits are approximately 5.6 times their costs, which is much higher than the 1.5 benefit-cost ratio in neighboring provinces. Our findings may be useful in shaping more equitable and sound environmental policies in China or other regions of the world with serious coal-related air pollution.

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5; particulate matter with an aerodynamic equivalent diameter below 2.5 mu m) and ozone (O-3) pollution has become the most serious atmospheric environmental problem in China. With the rapid decrease of PM2.5 concentration, the main characteristics of air pollution in the central and eastern regions of China have changed from soot pollution with PM2.5 as the main pollutant to regional combined pollution with PM2.5 and O-3 as the main pollutant, especially in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region. Accurate quantification of the nonlinear response relationship between PM2.5 and O-3 and their precursors (i.e., NOx and VOCs) is the premise of realizing the coordinated prevention and control of PM2.5 and O-3 pollution. In this study, the response surface model (RSM) of atmospheric PM2.5 and O-3 to their precursors emissions in the YRD region was constructed, and the synergistic response of atmospheric PM2.5 and O-3 to NOx and VOCs emission reduction in 41 cities in the YRD region in different seasons was explored. RSM model was developed while utilizing Kriging interpolation method to simulate several scenarios of weather research & forecasting model and Community Multiscale Air Quality (WRF-CMAQ). The RSM model reproduced the nonlinear relationship between NOx and VOCs to PM2.5 and O-3 with the bias less than 3.5%. Model results suggest coordinated control strategy of PM2.5 and O-3 in the Yangtze River Delta in different regions, stages and seasons. This study found that the emissions-concentration response of different cities in the YRD region has significant differences. For example, as for O-3: 40, 24 and 34 cities in winter, spring and autumn, respectively in the Yangtze River Delta are in VOC control zones, mainly concentrated in Shanghai, Wuxi, Hangzhou and the central and northern regions of the YRD region. The lowest average VOCs/NOx emission reduction ratio for reducing O-3 concentration was 1.1 (0.031.67), 0.35 (0.01-0.75), 1.3 (0.20-2.30); for PM2.5, the concentration of PM2.5 rebounded in 28 cities in winter when NOx was controlled alone. The model suggests the continuous coordinated control of PM2.5 and O-3 mainly relies on the large emission reduction of NOx especially in Shanghai, Wuxi and Hangzhou, the central part of the YRD region and the northern Jiangsu and Anhui provinces. Notably, to realize the coordinated prevention and control of PM2.5 and O-3 at the same time, VOCs control should be strengthened in spring and autumn, and SO2, NH3 and primary PM2.5 precursor control should be coordinated in winter. The model suggests the single emission reduction of NOx will bring an increase of PM2.5 or O-3 concentration in the VOC control area in most seasons such as in Shanghai, Wuxi, Hangzhou, the central part of the region, northern Jiangsu and northern Anhui. However notably, PM2.5 and O-3 concentrations could only be reduced in a coordinated way with the synergistic control of VOCs and other precursors in different seasons, if the emission reduction is insufficient. This is because different emission reduction ratios of VOCs are required especially in different seasons. However, the characteristics of NOx control zone or transition zone in central and southern Anhui Province, and central and southern Zhejiang Province makes the emission reduction of NOx and VOCs beneficial to the control of PM2.5 and O-3. In this view, the response surface model method used in this study can be adapted in other key regions in China. Thus, the utilization of RSM modeling method has a great significance in the development of collaborative control strategies for PM2.5 and O-3 in China in the future.

Since the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan was issued in 2013, air quality in China has significantly improved. But the concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) remains 3 times higher than the guideline value of the WHO (World Health Organization, 2015), and the rising concentration of ozone (O-3) that has caused premature death and economic losses neutralized the environmental benefits brought in by partial reductions of PM2.5. The coordinated control of PM2.5 and O-3, hence, has been put at the top of the agenda for China's air pollution prevention and control. Given nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are major precursors of both PM2.5 and O-3, reducing the emissions of NOx and VOCs is considered as the key to the coordinated control of PM2.5 and O-3. Focused on the common precursors of PM(2.)5 and O-3, our research conducted qualitative analysis of the effects of reduced emissions of NOx and VOCs, and suggested China's path to coordinated control of PM2.5 and O-3. The results are expected to be adopted as scientific bases by administrative authorities for relevant policy-making. Our research was based on the WRF-CAMx model and scenario analysis was used. Different scenarios where NOx and VOCs emissions were reduced to different degrees were set to simulate the changes of concentrations of PM2.5 and O-3 across China and in key areas. The indicator of sensitivity was introduced to quantitively evaluate the responsiveness of PM2.5 and O-3 concentrations to the reduced emissions of NOx and VOCs. The effects of reduced emissions of NOx and VOCs on the concentrations of PM2.5 and O-3 were revealed directly in the research. As suggested by simulation results, the reduction of NOx or VOCs emission can contribute to the decrease of the concentration of PM2.5 nationwide and in key areas. If at the same ratio of reduction, the reduction of NOx emission can lead to a larger decrease of PM2.5 concentration. The change of O-3 concentration nationwide or in key areas varies under different NOx and VOCs emission reduction scenarios. From the perspective of the whole country, a small ratio of NOx emission reduction may lead to the rise of O3 concentration in some areas, but the O-3 concentration declines on the whole, and the rate of decline rises with the further reduction of NOx emission. The reduction of VOCs emission can decrease the O-3 concentration nationwide, but the effect is less obvious than the reduction of NOx emission. For the Pearl River Delta area, the reduced emission of VOCs is more effective for the decrease of O-3 concentration. For the "2+26" cities, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Fenwei Plain, if on a small scale, the reduction of VOCs is more effective for the decrease of O-3 concentration than that of NOx. But due to the existence of natural VOCs, the proportion of artificial VOCs to the total emission of VOCs reduces as the artificial VOCs continues to decline, and hence, the benefit of the reduction of VOCs becomes less obvious than that of NOx. Sensitivity results were in agreement with the concentration changes. Based on the abovementioned results, to realize the balance of the benefits of NOx and VOCs emissions reduction between the local and global and between the short term and the long term, we suggest that the continuous reduction of NOx emission should be regarded as the focus of coordinated control of PM2.5 and O-3 in terms of both the whole country and key areas and the reduction of VOCs emission is the key to the improvement of O-3 pollutions in key areas in the short term,

BackgroundGlobal warming may increase the frequency of compound hot extreme (CHE).However, there is still a lack of studies assessing the associations between CHE and preterm birth (PTB), and the underlying biological mechanisms remain unclear.ObjectiveTo estimate the association of exposure to CHE during pregnancy with PTB, and to explore the roles of inflammatory, endothelial dysfunction, and oxidative stress in the association between CHE and PTB.MethodsAll participants were selected from the Prenatal Environments and Offspring Health (PEOH), a prospective birth cohort conducted in Guangzhou. In this study, a total of 2449 participants who gave birth from May to October in 2014 to 2017 were enrolled, and among them blood samples were collected from 311 preterm (n=43) and full-term (n=268) pregnant women at the time of delivery. A hot day/night was identified as a day when the daily maximum temperature/minimum temperature was higher than its 90th percentile in the study period, and a CHE was defined as having both a hot night and a following hot day. The meteorological data were obtained from the China Meteorological Data Sharing Service System. Anusplin was used to assess the daily maximum temperature, daily minimum temperature, and relative humidity of the participant residence. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to measure C reactive protein (CRP), endothelin-1 (ET-1), and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in maternal serum, and their results were transformed by natural logarithm. A distributed lag nonlinear model was used to investigate the associations of exposures to hot day, hot night, and CHE during pregnancy with PTB at different lag days, and a logistic regression model was used to investigate the associations of CRP, ET-1, and MDA with PTB.ResultsThe incidence rate of PTB was 6.2% in all selected participants. Compared with the non-hot day, the RRs (95%CIs) of CHE in lag 3, 7, and 14 days on PTB were 1.43 (1.12-1.84), 1.24 (1.08-1.43), and 1.17 (1.05-1.30), respectively, and the cumulative effects (% difference) (95%CI) of CHE in lag 14 days on maternal serum CRP, ET-1, and MDA were 0.33% (−0.45%-1.12%), 0.59% (0.11%-1.07%), and 0.57% (0.09%-1.05%), respectively. Compared with the Q1 (lowest quartile) for CRP, ET-1 and MDA, the RRs (95%CIs) of Q4 (highest quartile) for PTB were 1.27 (0.50-3.22), 1.51 (0.61-3.72), and 2.07(0.81-5.27), respectively.ConclusionMaternal exposure to CHE during pregnancy might be associated with an increased risk of PTB. Prenatal exposure to CHE is positively associated with maternal serum CRP, ET-1, and MDA, and the three biochemical indicators are also positively associated with PTB. However, the above conclusions still need further confirmation.

The Central Plains of China, represented by Henan province, faces a dramatic rise in vehicular stock and CO2 emissions. The refined-resolution(1 km × 1 km) vehicular CO2 emission inventory for Henan province was developed to identify emission patterns. Results show that CO2 emissions in Henan province reached 77.04 Mt in 2019, and LDGV and HDDT were the major sources that emitted 42.34% and 35.96% of CO2 emissions, respectively. Based on gridded emission, Moran's Index was used to identify spatial distribution patterns of vehicular CO2. The higher CO2 emission intensity areas were concentrated in the central and northern of the province and urban areas in each city, especially in Zhengzhou and its surrounding cities. Moreover, the analysis of the driving forces behind the differences in emissions among cities using the multi-regional (M-R) spatial decomposition model revealed that income and population-scale are significant impacts. In cities such as Zhengzhou, emissions may be dramatically increase owing to high economic growth expectations. 'Polarization phenomenon' of CO2 emission distribution should be vigilant. Findings provided insights for refined policy-making in Henan province to limit CO2 emission: (1) Take cities as transportation hubs, e.g., Zhengzhou and Shangqiu, and that in the traffic radiation circle, e.g., Jiaozuo and Zhoukou, as the critical areas for CO2 emission reduction; (2) Promote electric vehicles as replacement for traditional fuel vehicles; especially for cities with large passenger car emissions, such as Zhengzhou, and cities with large truck emissions, such as Shangqiu and Zhoukou; actively guide new consumer groups to choose EVs, especially in cities with high growth expectations such as Zhengzhou; (3) Rely on the advantages of transportation network to promote the 'road to railway' of bulk cargo transportation and mainly focus on highways with higher CO2 density, such as Beijing-Hong Kong&Macao Expressway, Shanghai-Xi'an Expressway, Da Guang Expressway, and Lian Huo Expressway.

China is confronting the challenge of opposite health benefits (OHBs) during ambient ozone (O3) mitigation because the same reduction scheme might yield opposite impacts on O3 levels and associated public health across different regions. Here, we used a combination of chemical transport modeling, health benefit assessments, and machine learning to capture such OHBs and optimize O3 mitigation pathways based on 121 control scenarios. We revealed that, for the China mainland, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and its surroundings ("2 + 26" cities), Yangtze River Delta, and Pearl River Delta, there could be at most 2897, 920, 1247, and 896 additional O3-related deaths in urban areas, respectively, accompanying 21,512, 3442, 5614, and 642 avoided O3-related deaths in rural areas, respectively, at the same control stage. Additionally, potential disbenefits during O3 mitigation were "pro-wealthy", that is, residents in developed regions are more likely to afford additional health risks. In order to avoid OHBs during O3 abatement, we proposed a two-phase control strategy, whereby the reduction ratio of NOX (nitrogen oxide) to VOCs (volatile organic compounds) was adjusted according to health benefit distribution patterns. Our study provided novel insights into China's O3 attainment and references for other countries facing the dual challenges of environmental pollution and associated inequality issues.

[背景]硒(Se)是人体必需的元素,但过量的硒会产生毒性.孕妇孕期硒暴露水平与胎儿发育的关系目前尚不明确.[目的]了解广州市孕妇孕期硒暴露与孕晚期胎儿头围的关系.[方法]所有孕妇均来自2016年起在广州进行的产前环境与后代健康(PEOH)队列.研究对象分别在孕早期(孕周≤13周)完成基线调查并建立随访档案,在孕晚期(孕周≥28周)进行随访.调查包括面对面采访的问卷调查并从医院信息系统中提取孕妇的产前护理记录,另分别收集孕早期和孕晚期孕妇各15.0mL尿液,孕晚期对胎儿进行超声检查,记录胎儿头围的生长发育情况.根据是否提供尿样及所有资料的完整性,孕早期和孕晚期分别剔除部分对象后,研究共纳入2 739名孕妇;其中孕早期和孕晚期各纳入孕妇2138、1383名,分别分析孕早、晚期孕妇硒暴露与孕晚期胎儿头围的关系.尿硒浓度(ωSe)通过尿肌酐校正(计量单位为:μg·g-1,以肌酐计,后同),并经自然对数转换为InωSe.调整孕妇年龄、受教育程度、家庭收入和孕前体重指数、孕次、孕周数、胎儿性别、二手烟暴露、钙片的摄入、肉与海鲜的摄入等因素后,应用多重线性回归模型估算孕妇硒暴露水平与胎儿头围之间的关系,并进一步分性别进行分析.[结果]在2739名孕妇中,年龄≥30岁的有1926人(70.3％),男胎有1474人(53.8％),受教育程度在高中及以上的有2313人(84.4％),怀孕期间有二手烟暴露的871人(31.8％),孕周≥37周的有2637人(96.3％).孕早期和孕晚期孕妇的硒暴露水平的中位数及第25、75百分位数分别为38.5(30.1,44.5)μg·g-1 和38.9(28.7,54.0)μg·g-1.孕晚期胎儿头围为(218.1±41.4)mm.经多重线性回归模型分析,未观察到孕早期的硒暴露与孕晚期胎儿头围的关联有统计学意义.但孕晚期孕妇尿InωSe每增加一个单位,胎儿头围减小值及其95％可信区间(CI)为7.04(3.41～10.67)mm(P＜0.001).在孕晚期,孕妇硒暴露根据InωSe的四分位数分为四组(Q1～Q4),与Q1组相比,Q4组者胎儿的头围减小19.47(12.50～26.43)mm(P＜0.001).孕晚期孕妇尿中InωSe每增加一个单位,男胎和女胎的头围分别减小5.06(0.48～9.63)mm(P=0.031)、11.30(5.32～17.27)mm(P＜0.001),且男女差异为6.24(1.69～10.79)mm;与硒暴露Q1组相比,Q4组者男胎和女胎的头围分别减小18.13(8.45～27.81)mm、21.26(11.23～31.30)mm(均P＜0.001).[结论]在本人群的暴露水平下,孕晚期孕妇较高尿硒水平与孕晚期胎儿头围减小有关.

Achieving carbon neutrality before 2060 newly announced in China are expected to substantially affect air quality. Here we project the pollutants emissions in China based on a carbon neutrality roadmap and clean air policies evolution; national and regional PM2.5 and O3 concentrations in 2030 (the target year of carbon peak), 2035 (the target year of “Beautiful China 2035” launched by the Chinese government to fundamentally improve air quality) and 2060 (the target year of carbon neutrality) are then simulated using an air quality model. Results showed that compared with 2019, emissions of SO2, NOx, primary PM2.5, and VOCs are projected to reduce by 42%, 42%, 44%, and 28% in 2030, by 57%, 58%, 60%, and 42% in 2035, by 93%, 93%, 90% and 61% in 2060 respectively. Consequently, in 2030, 2035, and 2060, the national annual mean PM2.5 will be 27, 23, and 11 μg m−3; and the 90th percentile of daily 8-h maxima of O3 (O3-8h 90th) will be 129, 123, and 93 μg m−3; 82%, 94%, and 100% of 337 municipal cities will reach the current national air quality standard, respectively. It's expected that the “Beautiful China 2035” target is very likely to be achieved, and about half of the 337 cities will meet the current WHO air quality guideline in 2060. In the near future, strict environmental policies driven by “Beautiful China 2035” are needed due to their substantial contribution to emission reductions. By 2060, the low-carbon policies driven by the carbon neutrality target are expected to contribute to larger than 80% of reductions in PM2.5 and O3-8h 90th concentrations relative to the 2020 levels, implying that more attention could be paid to low-carbon policies after 2035. Our research would provide implications for future co-governance of air pollution and climate change mitigation in China and other developing countries.

目的 了解广州市孕妇PM2.5暴露与其孕晚期尿和血中白细胞水平的暴露反应关系,明确其易感暴露窗口.方法 根据前期在广州建立的一项出生队列研究(PEOH研究),采用时空土地利用回归模型估算孕妇从怀孕前13周至其孕晚期采样周的每周PM2.5暴露水平.分别使用Cox比例风险模型嵌套的分布滞后非线性模型和分布滞后非线性模型估计孕妇每周PM25暴露与其尿白细胞阳性风险和血白细胞计数之间的暴露反应关系.结果 本次研究纳入了3753名孕妇.孕妇在第20～27孕周PM2.5暴露与尿白细胞阳性呈正相关,且在第24孕周效应最强,PM2.5每增加10 μg/m3,HR为1.030(95％ CI:1.007～1.054).孕妇在孕前第5周至第6孕周的PM2.5暴露与血白细胞计数呈正相关,且在末次月经当周效应最强,PM2.5每增加10μg/m3,血白细胞计数增加0.22％(95％ CI:0.10％～0.35％).结论 孕妇孕期暴露于PM2.5与孕晚期尿白细胞阳性风险升高和血白细胞计数升高有关,易感暴露窗口分别为第20～27孕周和孕前第5周至第6孕周.

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated the embryotoxicity and fetotoxicity of thallium (Tl). However, the effects of prenatal exposure to Tl on birth weight and placental weight and the mediating role of placental weight in the association of Tl with birth weight remain unclear. Methods: We recruited 2,748 participants from the ongoing Prenatal Environment and Offspring Health Cohort (PEOH Cohort) study, which was initiated in 2016 in Guangzhou, China. The Tl concentrations in maternal urine samples collected during the first and third trimester were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Birth weight and placental weight were extracted from maternal medical records. Results: Pregnant women exposed to the highest tertile of Tl in the first trimester (β = −42.7 g, 95% CI: −82.3, −3.1 g) and third trimester (β = −50.6 g, 95% CI: −99.0, −2.3 g) had babies with lower birth weights than those exposed to the lowest tertile. We also found significant negative associations of exposure to Tl concentrations in the first and third trimester with placental weight. Mediation analyses showed that 50.3% (95% CI: 15.9, 79.2%) and 33.5% (95% CI: 1.3, 80.3%) of the effects of Tl exposure in the first and third trimester on birth weight were mediated by decreased placental weight. Conclusion: Our results suggest that prenatal exposure to Tl is negatively associated with birth weight and that this association may be mediated by decreased placental weight.

Since the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan was issued in 2013, air quality in China has significantly improved. But the concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) remains 3 times higher than the guideline value of the WHO (World Health Organization, 2015), and the rising concentration of ozone (O3) that has caused premature death and economic losses neutralized the environmental benefits brought in by partial reductions of PM2.5. The coordinated control of PM2.5 and O3, hence, has been put at the top of the agenda for China’s air pollution prevention and control. Given nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are major precursors of both PM2.5 and O3, reducing the emissions of NOx and VOCs is considered as the key to the coordinated control of PM2.5 and O3. Focused on the common precursors of PM2.5 and O3, our research conducted qualitative analysis of the effects of reduced emissions of NOx and VOCs, and suggested China’s path to coordinated control of PM2.5 and O3. The results are expected to be adopted as scientific bases by administrative authorities for relevant policy-making. Our research was based on the WRF-CAMx model and scenario analysis was used. Different scenarios where NOx and VOCs emissions were reduced to different degrees were set to simulate the changes of concentrations of PM2.5 and O3 across China and in key areas. The indicator of sensitivity was introduced to quantitively evaluate the responsiveness of PM2.5 and O3 concentrations to the reduced emissions of NOx and VOCs. The effects of reduced emissions of NOx and VOCs on the concentrations of PM2.5 and O3 were revealed directly in the research. As suggested by simulation results, the reduction of NOx or VOCs emission can contribute to the decrease of the concentration of PM2.5 nationwide and in key areas. If at the same ratio of reduction, the reduction of NOx emission can lead to a larger decrease of PM2.5 concentration. The change of O3 concentration nationwide or in key areas varies under different NOx and VOCs emission reduction scenarios. From the perspective of the whole country, a small ratio of NOx emission reduction may lead to the rise of O3 concentration in some areas, but the O3 concentration declines on the whole, and the rate of decline rises with the further reduction of NOx emission. The reduction of VOCs emission can decrease the O3 concentration nationwide, but the effect is less obvious than the reduction of NOx emission. For the Pearl River Delta area, the reduced emission of VOCs is more effective for the decrease of O3 concentration. For the “2+26” cities, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Fenwei Plain, if on a small scale, the reduction of VOCs is more effective for the decrease of O3 concentration than that of NOx. But due to the existence of natural VOCs, the proportion of artificial VOCs to the total emission of VOCs reduces as the artificial VOCs continues to decline, and hence, the benefit of the reduction of VOCs becomes less obvious than that of NOx. Sensitivity results were in agreement with the concentration changes. Based on the abovementioned results, to realize the balance of the benefits of NOx and VOCs emissions reduction between the local and global and between the short term and the long term, we suggest that the continuous reduction of NOx emission should be regarded as the focus of coordinated control of PM2.5 and O3 in terms of both the whole country and key areas and the reduction of VOCs emission is the key to the improvement of O3 pollutions in key areas in the short term, which should be incorporated in the medium-to-long-term design of China’s path to coordinated control of air pollutions.

目的 探索孕妇孕期烧香对出生体重和胎盘重量的影响,为降低不良妊娠结局的发生风险提供依据.方法 基于前瞻性出生队列,在医院产科门诊和住院部收集资料,采用多重线性回归模型分析孕妇佛香和蚊香焚烧暴露与出生体重和胎盘重量的关系.结果 共纳入4 038对母婴.与无佛香暴露者相比,高频烧佛香的孕妇胎盘重量降低5.43 g(95％CI:-9.94～-0.91).与无蚊香暴露者相比,蚊香暴露为高频孕妇的新生儿出生体重降低56.76 g(95％CI:-110.31～-3.22).结论 孕妇孕期应减少室内烧香暴露,避免其引起的出生体重和胎盘重量下降.

Although previous studies have proposed an association between maternal exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), such evidence remains rare. Additionally, the effects of PM2.5 on glycemic control in GDM patients are poorly known. In this study, we conducted a prospective birth cohort study in China, and aimed to investigate the association between maternal exposure to PM2.5 and the risk of GDM, identify the susceptible exposure window, and quantify the exposure-response relationships between PM2.5 and fasting glucose in GDM patients. A spatiotemporal land-use-regression model was used to estimate individual weekly PM2.5 exposure during pregnancy. A distributed lag nonlinear model incorporated with a Cox proportional hazard model was used to estimate the association between maternal exposure to PM2.5 and the risk of GDM. Among the 4174 pregnant women in our study, 1018 (24.4%) were diagnosed with GDM. Each 10 μg m−3 increment in PM2.5 exposures during the 24th gestational week was significantly associated with a higher risk of GDM [hazard ratio (HR) = 1.03, 95% CI (confidence interval): 1.01, 1.06]. Compared to the lowest quartile (Q1) of PM2.5 exposure, participants with the highest quartile (Q4) during the 21st–24th gestational weeks had a higher risk of GDM, and the strongest association was observed in the 22nd gestational week (HR = 1.15, 95%Cl: 1.02, 1.28). The mean PM2.5 exposures during the 21st–24th weeks were positively associated with fasting plasma glucose in pregnant women with GDM. Each 10 μg m−3 increase in the mean PM2.5 exposure was associated with a 0.07 mmol l−1 (95% CI: 0.04, 0.11 mmol l−1) increase in the fasting glucose level. Our findings suggest that maternal exposure to higher PM2.5 during pregnancy may increase the risk of GDM, and result in poor glycemic control among pregnant women with GDM. The 21st–24th gestational week period might be the (most)? susceptible exposure window of PM2.5.

Although studies have assessed the associations between prenatal exposure with fine particulate matter (PM) with birth weight, few have investigated the effect of PM1 exposure and identified the susceptible exposure window. Additionally, a baby boom occurred after China implemented the universal two-child policy, but whether the effects of PM are modified by birth order remains unknown. The objective of this study was to estimate the effects of prenatal exposure to PM (PM2.5 and PM1) on birth weight, identify the susceptible exposure windows, and assess the modifying effect of birth order on the effects of PM exposure. All participants were selected from the Prenatal Environment and Offspring Health (PEOH) cohort conducted since 2016 in Guangzhou, China. A spatiotemporal land-use-regression (STLUR) model was used to estimate a pregnant woman's weekly PM2.5 exposure, and a generalized additive model (GAM) was used to estimate each PM1 exposure. A distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) was applied to assess the exposure-lag-response associations between weekly PM exposure and birth weight. The sample included 4086 pregnant women. The results showed that maternal exposure to PM2.5 and PM1 during the 15th to 24th and 16th to 24th gestational weeks were associated with lower birth weight, the strongest association was observed in the 19th week, during which each 10 mu g/m(3) increment in PM2.5 and PM1 was associated with a 1.47 g (95% CI: 2.49 g, 0.44 g) and 1.58 g (95%CI: 2.74 g, 0.41 g) decrease in birth weight, respectively. Compared with the first-born neonates, greater effects of PM2.5 and PM1 exposure on birth weight were observed among the second-born neonates in the 15th to 21st and 15 h to 22nd gestational weeks. Further studies tracking the health of the second-born children are warranted because they may be more sensitive to environmental factors than the first-born children.