Artur Jerzy Badyda

• Professor (full) PhD DSc Eng.
• Head of the Department at Warsaw University of Technology, Faculty of Building Services, Hydro- and Environmental Engineering

In this commentary, we address the environmental inequalities in Europe, specifically related to air pollution exposure and related health burden disparities between Western and Eastern Europe. We first, provide a background for the causes of these inequalities and links with socioeconomic and demographic circumstances. We showcase, in more detail,...

Purpose The study was designed to investigate the concentrations and potential sources of elemental carbon (EC) and organic carbon (OC) associated with particulate matter of diameter < 2.5 µm (PM 2.5 ) in the indoor air of nine beauty salons. The carbon matrix of these particles can carry toxic compounds, potentially adversely affecting the health...

Clean air is a requirement for life, and the quality of indoor air is a health determinant since people spend most of their daily time indoors. The aim of this study was to systematically review the available evidence regarding the sources, determinants and concentrations of indoor air pollutants in a set of scenarios under study in K-HEALTHinAIR p...

Introduction: Short-term exposure to air pollution may worsen the course of ischemic heart disease (IHD), causing acute and chronic coronary syndromes. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the risk of hospital admission due to chronic and acute coronary syndromes (ACS) after exposure to various air pollutants in Poland. Methods: In this time...

Indoor air quality (IAQ) significantly impacts human health, particularly in enclosed spaces where people spend most of their time. This study evaluates the performance of low-cost IAQ sensors, focusing on their ability to measure carbon dioxide (CO2) and particulate matter (PM) under real-world conditions. Measurements provided by these sensors we...

The distribution of mass and the number of particles is a determining factor in the respirable nature of a given particulate matter (PM), and thus in the potential health effects of breathing the air in question. One of the most popular activities during the summer months is the preparation of food on a barbecue. Barbecuing represents one of the fe...

Background Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in schools is a public health concern, given the vulnerability of children as a demographic group and substantial amount of time that they spend in (highly occupied) classrooms. Conditions specific for school buildings, as well as location and outdoor air quality (OAQ), can adversely affect IAQ and children’s hea...

In this publication, we invite you to explore the body of work compiled and presented during the Scientific Conference “Water and fires – planning, suppression, management” by selected participants. The conference took place on April 22–24, 2024, initiated by the Fire University and AQUA S.A., headquartered in Bielsko-Biała. The conference was fund...

(1) Background: Haemorrhagic strokes (HS), including intracerebral (ICH) and subarachnoid haemorrhages (SAH), account for approximately 10–15% of strokes worldwide but are associated with worse functional outcomes and higher rates of mortality, and financial burden than ischemic stroke. There is evidence that confirmed poor air quality may increase...

N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is a mucolytic agent with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. The respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is one of the most important etiological factors of lower respiratory tract infections, and exposure to air pollution appears to be additionally associated with higher RSV incidence and disease severity. We aimed to s...

This article presents the impact of vehicle traffic intensity and the closure of access roads for wheeled vehicles to selected schools in Warsaw at selected hours of the day on changes in air quality. This study focused primarily on analyses related to the pollutant typical of road traffic, i.e., nitrogen dioxide, but also took into account PM10 an...

The aim of the study was to build a corrective model that can be used in the analysed devices and to assess the impact of such a model on the values of the measured concentrations. The novelty of this study is the test of equivalence with the equivalent reference method for hourly data. The study used hourly data of PM 10 concentrations measured in...

Allergic rhinitis (AR) affects 10% of the world population, with an increased prevalence in regions with substantial air pollution, but the association between exposure to air pollutants and the short-term risk of AR exacerbations is unclear. We used a time-series approach to analyze the risk of hospital admissions due to AR over 8 days from exposu...

(1) Background: More than 1.8 million people in the European Union die every year as a result of CVD, accounting for 36% of all deaths with a large proportion being premature (before the age of 65). There are more than 300 different risk factors of CVD, known and air pollution is one of them. The aim of this study was to investigate whether daily c...

Introduction: Airborne pollutants may worsen the course of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Previous studies have shown that both particulate and gaseous pollutants increase airway inflammation, which may lead to an exacerbation of COPD. Objectives: To study the association between exposure to airborne pollutants and the risk of COP...

The aim of the research was to determine the effect of graduation towers on the aerosol concentration and its composition not only in the vicinity of the graduation tower itself, but also at a distance from it, on the example of the brine graduation tower in the Wieliczka Salt Mine health resort. Two measurement sites were selected for the research...

Featured Application The article describes the results of a project that concerned the creation of a method of using big data to build traffic models in special periods (e.g., during a pandemic) when obtaining data in a traditional way is difficult or not possible. Then, based on the comparison between those models and the typical state of the tran...

The manuscript presents an innovative and holistic approach to quantifying PAHs and BTEX emissions from the grilling process and indicates a novel driven–toxicity-based solution to recognize health effects related to BBQ emissions. The exposure scenario includes the type of grilling device, food type, and individual attitudes, but also a keen under...

Poland has one of the worst air qualities in the European Union, particularly regarding concentrations of particulate matter (PM). This study aimed to evaluate the short-term effects of air pollution and weather conditions on all-cause mortality and pneumonia-related hospitalizations in three Polish agglomerations. We investigated data from 2011 to...

Ambient air pollution in urban areas may trigger asthma exacerbations. We carried out a time-series analysis of the association between the concentrations of various air pollutants and the risk of hospital admission due to asthma over 7 days from exposure. We used distributed lag nonlinear models to analyze data gathered between 2010 and 2018 in th...

Conventional NO2 monitoring devices are relatively cumbersome, expensive, and have a relatively high-power consumption that limits their use to fixed sites. On the other hand, they offer high-quality measurements. In contrast, the low-cost NO2 sensors offer greater flexibility, are smaller, and allow greater coverage of the area with the measuring...

This paper examines the relationship between the presence of air pollution and incidence of selected respiratory diseases in the urban population of the Tri-City agglomeration. The study takes into consideration the specific character of the region, relating to coastal, and port-based shipping. Three research hypotheses formulated the study. Genera...

The aim of research was an influence evaluation of fly ash and zeolite on selected parameters of cement mortar. The scope of the research includes studies of composition and properties of fly ash itself from the thermal transformation of sewage sludge and natural zeolite (clinoptilolite). The research also included the determination of selected mec...

This study aimed to evaluate the mass concentration of size-resolved (PM1, PM2.5, PM4, PM10, PM100) particulate matter (PM) in the Wieliczka Salt Mine located in southern Poland, compare them with the concentrations of the same PM fractions in the atmospheric air, and estimate the dose of dry salt aerosol inhaled by the mine visitors. Measurements...

The aim of the study was to determine air pollution over the sea surface (North Sea and Baltic Sea) comparing to concentration in the closest land areas to examine the impact of ships on the level of PM concentration. The analysis is based on the measurements made during the two weeks cruise of the tall ship Fryderyk Chopin from Edinburg to Kołobrz...

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) contributes significantly to pediatric hospitalizations. An association between air pollution and an increased number of RSV cases has been suggested. We sought to evaluate the short-term impact of air pollutants on RSV hospitalizations in Polish children in the period 2010–2019. Daily concentrations of PM10 and PM...

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has caused huge changes in people’s daily habits and had a significant impact on the economy. The lockdowns significantly reduced road traffic and meant that many people worked remotely. Therefore, the question arose as to how the reduced road traffic and stays of residents at home affected the degree of pollution...

Ambient air pollution impairs lung development in children, particularly in industrialized areas. The air quality in Zabrze, a city located in the Upper Silesian Industrial Region of Poland, is among the worst in Europe. We compared lung function and the frequency of respiratory or allergic symptoms between children living in Zabrze and those livin...

A substantial proportion of airway disease’s global burden is attributable to exposure to air pollution. This study aimed to investigate the association between air pollution, assessed as concentrations of particulate matter PM2.5 and PM10 on the upper respiratory tract symptoms (URTS) in children. A nation-wide, questionnaire-based study was condu...

In this study Health Impact Assessment (HIA) methods were used to evaluate potential health benefits related to keeping air pollution levels in Poland under certain threshold concentrations. Impacts of daily mean particulate matter (PM)10 levels on hospital admissions due to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases were considered. Relative risk coe...

The study attempts to compare the total annual emissions of selected air pollutants emitted during occasional grilling and the emission of the same pollutants from small domestic heating installations. For this purpose, in the absence of any data on the emission of pollutants during grilling processes, tests were carried out consisting of measuring...

This article presents a long-term evaluation of low-cost particulate matter (PM) sensors in a field measurements campaign. Evaluation was performed in two phases. During the first five months of the campaign, two PM sensors were simultaneously compared with the results from the reference air quality monitoring station in various atmospheric conditi...

This article marks the first attempt on Polish and European scale to identify the relationship between urban and industrial air pollution and the health conditions of urban populations, while also estimating the financial burden of incidence rates among urban populations for diseases selected in the course of this study as having a causal relation...

Air quality is a serious problem in modern cities due to the significant impact of air pollution on the health of the population, the global environment and economy. Recent studies point to the crucial role of information about pollution on micro level, which translates into direct exposure of people to air pollutions. To provide such information,...

The aim of the study was to determine air pollution over the sea surface (North Sea and Baltic Sea) compared to the situation in ports, as well as to examine the impact of ships on the level of particulate matter (PM) concentration. The measurements, made during the two-week cruise of the tall ship Fryderyk Chopin, demonstrated that the principal s...

In this paper, energy consumption of two light-duty vehicles, battery electric and conventional with an internal combustion engine, was investigated on the basis of chassis dynamometer test results. The sensitivity of energy consumption to various zero-dimensional characteristics of the driving pattern was discussed. The results demonstrated that u...

The paper presents selected preliminary stage key issues proposed extended equivalence measurement results assessment for new portable devices - the comparability PM10 concentration results hourly series with reference station measurement results with statistical methods. In article presented new portable meters technical aspects. The emphasis was...

This article is an attempt to assess the suitability of new non-reference mobile measuring devices for the analysis of PM10 concentrations. The aim is to compare the concentration daily values measured by these devices with the concentrations obtained by the reference device. It also examines the possibility of building models that correct these va...

Reliable information on the particulate matter (PM) concentration in the air is provided by professional, reference measuring devices. In recent times, however, measuring devices using low-cost PM sensors have been gaining more and more popularity. Low-cost PM sensors are not as accurate as professional devices and can under certain circumstances s...

The SME sector in Poland constitutes over 90% of all business entities. It is a broad market for insurance products. The choice of the insurer by these entrepreneurs is conditioned by several factors, including a beneficial image of the insurer, security in terms of its solvency, an attractive amount of the insurance premium or a wide insurance off...

Many studies have shown associations between exposure to air pollutants and negative health effects such as increased number of Hospital Admissions for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases or even increased daily mortality due to those causes. To assess air quality in ambient air continuous monitoring is run in many cities worldwide. Data which...

Children exposure to PM 2.5 is associated with several negative health effects. Particulate air pollution in the ambient and indoor air could lead to exacerbation of respiratory diseases and even influence cognitive function in children. One of the methods to improve indoor air quality is to use electronic air purifiers. Such an equipment is still...

The present study seeks to define the possible cancer risk arising from the inhalation exposure to particle (PM)-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) present in barbecue emission gases and to compare the risk depending on the type of fuel used for grill powering. Three types of fuel were compared: liquid propane gas, lump charcoal, and cha...

Indoor air quality is strongly affected by the contamination of ambient air and that related to building and finishing materials and to human activity. Poor ventilation of closed spaces facilitates retention of greater quantity of pollutants. Infants and children are at particular risk of exposure to indoor air pollutants as they undergo rapid phys...

Air pollution, one of ten most important causes of premature mortality worldwide, remains a major issue also in the EU, with more than 400,000 premature deaths due to exposure to PM2.5 reported yearly. The issue is particularly significant in Poland, where there is the highest concentration of PM2.5 among the UE countries. This study focused on the...

This study evaluates the mass concentration and chemical composition of particulate matter (PM), collected in the chamber complex of the underground health resort located in the Wieliczka Salt Mine in southern Poland. Physical and chemical properties of PM were examined from the standpoint of their possible connection with therapeutic effects of th...

It is essential in pulmonary disease research to take into account traffic-related air pollutant exposure among urban inhabitants. In our study, 4985 people were examined for spirometric parameters in the presented research which was conducted in the years 2008–2012. The research group was divided into urban and rural residents. Traffic density, tr...

Air pollution, one of ten most important causes of premature mortality worldwide, remains a major issue also in the EU, with more than 400,000 premature deaths due to exposure to PM2.5 reported yearly. The issue is particularly significant in Poland, where there is the highest concentration of PM2.5 among the UE countries. This study focused on the...

A lack of rational environmental management means that the environment is not able to regenerate itself quickly enough on its own. The environment needs support and responsible behavior from all stakeholders. In order to be able to take measures to eliminate negative environmental impact, financial means are needed. Our article analyzes fees collec...

Background: Due to the widespread use of coal and wood in households for heating purposes, Poland has one of the weakest air quality in the EU. Moreover in East-Central Europe there is still relatively little evidence on the relationship between air pollution, respiratory efficiency and the occurrence of obstructive diseases. Material: 500 people...

Background: There is still no sufficient knowledge on causes, symptoms and consequences of obstructive diseases in Polish society. Spirometry Days are some of the methods to enhance the awareness of these diseases. Material: 18245 people were examined. Medical interview and pulmonary function test were completed. Information on occurrence of respi...

Air pollution, one of ten most important causes of premature mortality worldwide, remains a major issue also in the EU, with more than 400,000 premature deaths due to exposure to PM2.5 reported yearly. The issue is particularly significant in Poland, where there is the highest concentration of PM2.5 among the UE countries. This study focused on the...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is currently the third most common cause of death worldwide and the total number of people affected reaches over 200 million. It is estimated that approximately 50 % of persons having COPD are not aware of it. In the EU, it is estimated that the total annual costs of COPD exceed €140 billion, and the exp...

Background: People living in the vicinity of roads are likely to be more exposed to adverse effects of ambient air pollution. In East-Central Europe there is relatively little evidence on the relationship between air pollution, respiratory efficiency and the occurrence of obstructive diseases. Material: 3,997 inhabitants living in proximity of 7...

Background: The knowledge on causes, symptoms and consequences of obstructive diseases in Polish society is rather weak. Polish and World Spirometry Days are some of the methods to enhance the awareness of these diseases. Material: 9355 people were examined. Medical interview and pulmonary function test were completed. Information on occurrence o...

The Polish Spirometry Day is an initiative aimed at increasing awareness of the causes, symptoms, course, and effects that accompany respiratory diseases, especially asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In 2013, the second edition of the Spirometry Day was held. It gathered 180 medical centers and other institution. The final an...

The aim of this study was to investigate how atmospheric air pollutants and meteorological conditions affected atmospheric visibility in the largest Polish agglomeration. The correlation analysis, principal component analysis (PCA) and generalized regression models (GRMs) were used to accomplish this objective. The meteorological parameters (temper...

Epidemiological studies show that long-term exposure to air pollution may increase the relative risk of obstructive lung diseases such as COPD or asthma. The risk of increased obstruction is higher among residents living in close proximity to high traffic routes where there are high concentrations of PM10. The present study consists of two parts: t...

Air pollution is the most important environmental health risk leading to premature mortality, respiratory and other health problems. The aim of this study was to quantify its impact on infants and children in Warsaw (Poland), following the principles of Health Impact Assessment method. Particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) was considered as the indic...

In order to find relationship between exposure to traffic and traffic-related air pollutants, pulmonary function tests and a detailed questionnaire were conducted among 3997 selected inhabitants of Warsaw (Poland) and 988 residents of rural areas. Advanced statistical analyses (including GRM models, correspondence analysis and parametrical tests) h...

Traffic-related air pollutants have an impact on human health and have been recognized as one of the main stressors that cause mortality and morbidity in urban areas. Research confirms that citizens living in the vicinity of main roads are strongly exposed to high concentrations of numerous air pollutants. In the present study the measurements of t...

High concentrations of air pollutants are characteristic of the vicinity of urban busy roads. Numerous studies have shown that these concentrations are significantly higher in comparison with areas located in a certain distance from roads and especially those in rural areas. Inhabitants living in the proximity of roads are, therefore, likely to be...

The influence of air pollutants on visibility in Warsaw Agglomeration has been investigated. Following pollutants were considered: PM10, SO2, NO2 and O3, while meteorological parameters included: air temperatures (mean, minimum, maximum), solar radiation, relative air humidity, rainfall rates and wind speed. Initial analyses were performed with the...

The use of quantitative methods, including stochastic and exploratory techniques in environmental studies does not seem to be sufficient in practical aspects. There is no comprehensive analytical system dedicated to this issue, as well as research regarding this subject. The aim of this study is to present the Eco Data Miner system, its idea, const...