Browsing by Author "A. Taneja"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2

Pesticides exposure through environment and risk of pre-term birth: a study from Agra city
(Taylor and Francis Ltd, 2019) M. Anand; L. Singh; P. Agarwal; R. Saroj; A. Taneja
Pre-term birth is an increasingly prevalent complex condition with multiple risk factors including environmental pollutants. Evidences linking organochlorine pesticides with adverse pregnancy outcomes are inconsistent for link between organochlorine pesticides and adverse pregnancy outcomes. We performed a case–control study of 50 cases of full-term births and 40 cases of pre-term births in this study. Placental organochlorine pesticides like metabolites of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane that is, (p,p-DDE, p,p-DDT and o,p-DDD) and isomers of hexachlorocyclohexane (α, β, γ and δ HCH) were analyzed by gas chromatography. Although the mean levels of pesticide were found higher in the placenta of the women with pre-term delivery cases placentas, but only α-HCH, total-HCH, p,p-DDE and total-DDT were found statistically significant. It was observed that pesticide exposed women were approximately 1.7 times more likely to deliver pre-term baby as compare to pregnant women that were not exposed to any pesticides. We also observed that increasing maternal age reduced the risk of having pre-term birth (OR = 0.99). Among all pesticides, α-HCH was found to be strongest isomer to induce premature baby birth (p < 0.001). This study found that pregnant women’s age and chronic disease, baby’s weight at the time of birth and α-HCH were important risk factors for pre-term births. © 2017, © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Variability in atmospheric particulates and meteorological effects on their mass concentrations over Delhi, India
(Elsevier BV, 2014) S. Tiwari; D.S. Bisht; A.K. Srivastava; A.S. Pipal; A. Taneja; M.K. Srivastava; S.D. Attri
Simultaneous and continuous measurements of PM2.5 and PM10 along with other co-existent pollutants viz., black carbon (BC), CO, NO and NOx were carried out over Delhi with high resolution (5min) datasets from 1st Sept. 2010 to 23rd Aug. 2012. Arithmetic mean mass concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 were about 130±103 and 222±142μgm-3 respectively during the entire measurement period, which are considerably higher than the annual averages of PM2.5 and PM10, stipulated by the National and International standards. It was noticed that the fine mode particles (PM2.5) were higher than the coarse mode particles (PM10-2.5) during post-monsoon (~89%), winter (~69%) and monsoon (~64%) periods; however, PM10-2.5 was higher (~22%) than PM2.5 during summer. Arithmetic mean mass concentrations of BC, CO, NO and NOx were about 7±5μgm-3, 2±1ppm, 17±17ppb and 30±24ppb, respectively. In the present study, highest fraction of BC (~6%) in PM2.5 mass was in winter, whereas the lowest fraction (~4%) was in summer. Relationships among PMs (particulate matters) and other pollutants indicated that the fine mode particles are highly correlated with BC (0.74) and CO (0.51). The effects of meteorological parameters on aerosols have been studied and a significant negative relationship (-0.45) between mixing height (MH) and PM2.5 has been noticed. Higher correlation was during winter (-0.55), however lower was in summer (-0.16). Relation between visibility (VIS) and PM2.5 was higher during post-monsoon (-0.85) and winter (-0.78) when the visibility was around 2km; however, it was relatively less correlated when VIS was greater than 2km during summer and monsoon. Relationship between PM2.5 and relative humidity (RH) showed a significant negative correlation (-0.56) for the entire study period. A positive correlation (0.32) was observed during the winter period with fine mode particles whereas negative correlation was seen with coarse mode particles during monsoon (-0.70) and summer (-0.51). © 2014.