New York : Researchers have found more evidence to suggest that long-term exposure to air pollution is a cause of premature death among older people.
The study, published in the journal ‘Sciences Advances’, provides the most comprehensive evidence till date of the causal link between long-term exposure to fine particulate (PM2.5) air pollution and premature death.
“Our new study included the largest-ever dataset of older Americans and used multiple analytical methods, including statistical methods, for causal inference,” said the study’s co-author Xiao Wu from the Harvard University in the US.
“The study shows that current US standards for PM2.5 concentrations are not protective enough and should be lowered to ensure that vulnerable populations, such as the elderly, are safe,” Wu added.
For the current study, researchers looked at 16 years’ worth of data from 68.5 million Medicare enrollees — 97 per cent of US citizens over the age of 65 — adjusting for factors such as body mass index, smoking, ethnicity, income and education.
They matched the participants’ zip codes with air pollution data gathered from locations across the US. In estimating daily levels of PM2.5 air pollution for each zip code, the researchers also took into account satellite data, land-use information, weather variables, and other factors.
They used two traditional statistical approaches as well as three state-of-the-art approaches aimed at teasing out cause and effect.
The results were consistent across all five different types of analyses, offering what the authors called “the most robust and reproducible evidence to date” on the causal link between exposure to PM2.5 and mortality among Medicare enrollees — even at levels below the current US air quality standard of 12 Ig/m3 (12 micrograms per cubic metre) per year.
The authors found that an annual decrease of 10 Ig/m3 in PM2.5 pollution would lead to a 6 per cent-7 per cent decrease in mortality risk.
The authors included additional analyses focused on causation, which address the criticisms that traditional analytical methods are not sufficient to inform revisions of national air quality standards.
The new analyses enabled the researchers, in effect, to mimic a randomised study — considered the gold standard in assessing causality — thereby strengthening the finding of a link between air pollution and early death.
The downside of e-learning
IANSlife : Although online learning has gained momentum during the lockdown, the shift to the online medium has raised many concerns among the parents.
Around half, 48 per cent of parents are worried about their child developing some health issues related to the increased screen time. Slightly lesser have concerns about technical issues (low internet speed, etc.) and reduced face time with teachers (43 per cent), says a survey by YouGov.
Data collected online by YouGov Omnibus among 1,015 parents in the country between 16th and 22nd June 2020 using a panel of over 6 million people worldwide. It is the representative of the adult online population in the country.
Although use of learning apps is not new to many families, the lockdown has triggered the use of these platforms. More than half of the parents (55 per cent) claimed their child has now subscribed to some online education app during the lockdown, although before the pandemic only 40 per cent were subscribed to these apps, highlighting the increase in subscriptions during the period of the lockdown.
Talking about the e-learning space, Deepa Bhatia, General Manager, YouGov India, said, “The current situation has increased the popularity of e-learning platforms and has opened up a great opportunity for those in online education business. In the days to come, e-learning will assume greater relevance and hence it is imperative to review the changing needs of students as well as their parents, and address their concerns in the most effective way.”
Despite 24 per cent parents admitting to their child adapting very well to virtual mode of education with no difficulties and 52 per cent claiming their child has adjusted to it now after some initial difficulties, many are anxious about their children’s mental wellness getting affected due to the absence of classmates or friends.
More than a third have other concerns such as lack of discipline due to absence of a teacher, lesser or no co-curricular activities or having a hard time in keeping the kids motivated to attend online classes.
At present, seven in ten parents confirmed their child’s reliance on online classes conducted by schools or colleges in order to educate themselves during the lockdown. Amongst these, some are dependent solely on these classes (44 per cent), while others are taking them along with home schooling (28 per cent).
The rest of the children are being home schooled without any online classes (17 per cent) or not engaging in any form of learning due to lack of resources (11 per cent).
Furthermore, close to half (48 per cent) are confident (extremely or very) about their child’s ability to independently learn from an online platform.
Nearly half of the parents are either not very or not at all comfortable with sending their children back to school as the country entered the first phase of the unlock. A quarter are �somewhat comfortable’ while another quarter, (26 per cent) are extremely or very comfortable with the return.
Parents in Eastern India are more concerned about their child’s return and more than two-thirds (68 per cent) stated their hesitation in sending them back to school.
When it comes to the future of their child’s education, parents are concerned and a majority (61 per cent) agree that the Covid-19 pandemic will end up hampering their overall education to a ‘very great’ or ‘great extent’.