Nuisance dust particles have emerged as a significant environmental concern within the Middle Eastern region. The principal aim of this research was to conduct an extensive investigation into the physical and chemical attributes of dust-fall particles located within the city of Sulaymaniyah, northeastern Iraq. Over a period of six months, a total of 72 dust-fall particle samples were systematically gathered from three distinct stations, with intervals of seven days. In addition to quantitative analysis, this study included detailed morphological examinations and mineralogical composition assessments, facilitated through the application of analytical methodologies, including Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD). The outcomes of these analytical procedures revealed predominantly irregular shapes of the dust particles, characterized by the presence of quartz and calcite minerals, confirming their natural origin due to wind-driven erosion originating from the arid desert landscapes of Iraq and its neighboring southern and western countries. Moreover, this investigation extended to encompass a comprehensive evaluation of both water-soluble and insoluble fractions, in addition to the overall concentration levels of alkali and alkaline earth metals including sodium (Na), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), and magnesium (Mg). Furthermore, the levels of heavy metals of manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), copper (Cu), and arsenic (As) were investigated. The extent of pollution associated with these elements was assessed through the application of the Geo-accumulation index (Igeo) which revealed that, during the study, calcium, magnesium, and copper demonstrated noticeable levels of contamination within the dust-fall particles of Sulaymaniyah city.

Black carbon (BC), by the combustion of fossil fuels and biomass, has profound effects on climate change and glacier retreat in industrial eras. In the present study, we report refractory BC (rBC) in an ice core spanning 1850–2014, retrieved from the Hariqin Glacier of the Tanggula Mountains in the central Tibetan Plateau, measured using a single particle soot photometer (SP2). The rBC concentration shows a three-fold increase since the 1950s. The mean rBC concentration was 0.71 ± 0.52 ng mL⁻¹ during 1850s–1940s and 2.11 ± 1.60 ng mL⁻¹ during 1950s–2010s. The substantial increase in rBC since the 1950s is consistent with rBC ice core records from the Tibetan Plateau and Eastern Europe. According to the predominant atmospheric circulation patterns over the glacier and timing of changes in regional emissions, the post-1950 amplification of rBC concentration in the central Tibetan Plateau most likely reflects increases in emissions in Eastern Europe, former USSR, the Middle East, and South Asia. Despite the low-level background rBC concentrations in the ice cores from the Tibetan Plateau, the present study highlights a remarkable increase in anthropogenic BC emissions in recent decades and the consequent influence on glaciers in the Tibetan Plateau.

This study investigates changes in air quality conditions during the restricted COVID-19 lockdown period in 2020 across 21 metropolitan areas in the Middle East and how these relate to surface urban heat island (SUHI) characteristics. Based on satellite observations of atmospheric gases from Sentinel-5, results indicate significant reductions in the levels of atmospheric pollutants, particularly nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), and carbon monoxide (CO). Air quality improved significantly during the middle phases of the lockdown (April and May), especially in small metropolitan cities like Amman, Beirut, and Jeddah, while it was less significant in “mega” cities like Cairo, Tehran, and Istanbul. For example, the concentrations of NO₂ in Amman, Beirut, and Jeddah decreased by −56.6%, −43.4%, and −32.3%, respectively, during April 2020, compared to April 2019. Rather, there was a small decrease in NO₂ levels in megacities like Tehran (−0.9%) and Cairo (−3.1%). Notably, during the lockdown period, there was a decrease in the mean intensity of nighttime SUHI, while the mean intensity of daytime SUHI experienced either an increase or a slight decrease across these locations. Together with the Gulf metropolitans (e.g. Kuwait, Dubai, and Muscat), the megacities (e.g. Tehran, Ankara, and Istanbul) exhibited anomalous increases in the intensity of daytime SUHI, which may exceed 2 °C. Statistical relationships were established to explore the association between changes in the mean intensity and the hotspot area in each metropolitan location during the lockdown. The findings indicate that the mean intensity of SUHI and the spatial extension of hotspot areas within each metropolitan had a statistically significant negative relationship, with Pearson's r values generally exceeding - 0.55, especially for daytime SUHI. This negative dependency was evident for both daytime and nighttime SUHI during all months of the lockdown. Our findings demonstrate that the decrease in primary pollutant levels during the lockdown contributed to the decrease in the intensity of nighttime SUHIs in the Middle East, especially in April and May. Changes in the characteristics of SUHIs during the lockdown period should be interpreted in the context of long-term climate change, rather than just the consequence of restrictive measures. This is simply because short-term air quality improvements were insufficient to generate meaningful changes in the region's urban climate.

The aim of this study was to investigate environmental and lifestyle factors affecting exposure to PAHs in the general population in a large city of the Middle East (Tehran) by measuring urinary monohydroxy polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (OH-PAHs) and establishing relationships between PAHs exposure and related factors. Urine samples were collected from 222 randomly chosen subjects who were living in the urban area of Tehran, Iran. Subjects were required to complete a detailed questionnaire aimed to document their personal and sociodemographic information, activities, cooking-related appliances, smoking history/exposure, and consumed foodstuff. Identification and quantification of six OH-PAHs was carried out using a gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The geometric means for 1-OHP, 1-NAP, 2-NAP, 2-FLU, 9-FLU, and 9-PHE for whole population study were 310, 1220, 3070, 530, 330, and 130 ng/g creatinine, respectively. The two naphthalene metabolites contributed on average 77% of the total concentration of six measured OH-PAHs, followed by the 2-FLU, 1-OHP, 9-FLU, and 9-PHE. The most important predictors of urinary PAHs were consumption of grilled/barbecued foods, smoking, and exposure to environmental tobacco smoking. Water pipe smoking was linked to urinary OH-PAH metabolite in a dose-response function. Residential traffic was also related with OH-PAH metabolite concentrations. Other factors including gender, age, exposure to common house insecticides, open burning, and candle burning were found to be statistically associated with the urinary levels of some OH-PAHs. High exposure to PAHs among general population in Middle Eastern large cities and its associated health implications calls for public health measures to reduce PAHs exposure.

PM2.5 pollution is threatening human health and quality of life, especially in some densely populated regions of Asia and Africa. This paper used remotely sensed annual mean PM2.5 concentrations to explore the spatiotemporal evolution of global continental PM2.5 pollution from 2000 to 2014. The work employed an improved Bayesian space-time hierarchy model combined with a multiscale homogeneous subdivision method. The statistical results quantitatively demonstrated a ‘high-value increasing and low-value decreasing’ trend. Areas with annual PM2.5 concentrations of more than 70μg/m3 and less than 10μg/m3 expanded, while areas with of an annual PM2.5 concentrations of 10–25μg/m3 shrank. The most heavily PM2.5-polluted areas were located in northwest Africa, where the PM2.5 pollution level was 12.0 times higher than the average global continental level; parts of China represented the second most PM2.5-polluted areas, followed by northern India and Saudi Arabia and Iraq in the Middle East region. Nearly all (96.50%) of the highly PM2.5-polluted area (hot spots) had an increasing local trend, while 68.98% of the lightly PM2.5-polluted areas (cold spots) had a decreasing local trend. In contrast, 22.82% of the cold spot areas exhibited an increasing local trend. Moreover, the spatiotemporal variation in the health risk from exposure to PM2.5 over the global continents was also investigated. Four areas, India, eastern and southern China, western Africa and central Europe, had high health risks from PM2.5 exposure. Northern India, northeastern Pakistan, and mid-eastern China had not only the highest risk but also a significant increasing trend; the areas of high PM2.5 pollution risk are thus expanding, and the number of affected people is increasing. Northern and central Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, the Middle East, western Russia and central Europe also exhibited increasing PM2.5 pollution health risks.

Toxocariasis is a neglected tropical disease of humans. Although many studies have indicated or shown that environmental contamination with Toxocara species eggs is a major risk factor for toxocariasis in humans, there has been no comprehensive analysis of published data or information. Here, we conducted the first systematic review and meta-analysis of current literature to assess the global prevalence of Toxocara eggs in public places (including beaches, parks and playgrounds). We conducted searches of the PubMed, Embase, Scopus and Science Direct databases for relevant studies published until 20 April 2018, and assessed the prevalence rates of Toxocara eggs in public places. We used the random effects model to calculate pooled prevalence estimates, with 95% confidence intervals (CIs), and analysed data in relation to WHO geographical regions. Subgroup analysis and meta-regressions regarding the geographical and environmental variables were also performed. Of 2384 publications identified, 109 studies that tested 42,797 soil samples in 40 countries were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled global prevalence of Toxocara eggs in public places was 21% (95% CI, 16–27%; 13,895/42,797). The estimated prevalence rates in the different WHO regions ranged from 13% to 35%: Western Pacific (35%; 95% CI, 15–58%), Africa (27%; 95% CI, 11–47%), South America (25%; 95% CI, 13–33%), South-East Asia (21%; 95% CI, 3–49%), Middle East and North Africa (18%; 95% CI, 11–24%), Europe (18%; 95% CI, 14–22%), and North and Central Americas (13%; 95% CI, 8–23%). A high prevalence was significantly associated with high geographical longitude (P = 0.04), low latitude (P = 0.02) and high relative environmental humidity (P = 0.04). This meta-analysis of data from published records indicates that public places are often heavily contaminated with eggs of Toxocara. This finding calls for measures to reduce the potential risk of infection and disease in humans.

This manuscript evaluates spatial and temporal variations of source contributions to ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in Israeli, Jordanian, and Palestinian cities. Twenty-four hour integrated PM2.5 samples were collected every six days over a 1-year period (January to December 2007) in four cities in Israel (West Jerusalem, Eilat, Tel Aviv, and Haifa), four cities in Jordan (Amman, Aqaba, Rahma, and Zarka), and three cities in Palestine (Nablus, East Jerusalem, and Hebron). The PM2.5 samples were analyzed for major chemical components, including organic carbon and elemental carbon, ions, and metals, and the results were used in a positive matrix factorization (PMF) model to estimate source contributions to PM2.5 mass. Nine sources, including secondary sulfate, secondary nitrate, mobile, industrial lead sources, dust, construction dust, biomass burning, fuel oil combustion and sea salt, were identified across the sampling sites. Secondary sulfate was the dominant source, contributing 35% of the total PM2.5 mass, and it showed relatively homogeneous temporal trends of daily source contribution in the study area. Mobile sources were found to be the second greatest contributor to PM2.5 mass in the large metropolitan cities, such as Tel Aviv, Hebron, and West and East Jerusalem. Other sources (i.e. industrial lead sources, construction dust, and fuel oil combustion) were closely related to local emissions within individual cities. This study demonstrates how international cooperation can facilitate air pollution studies that address regional air pollution issues and the incremental differences across cities in a common airshed. It also provides a model to study air pollution in regions with limited air quality monitoring capacity that have persistent and emerging air quality problems, such as Africa, South Asia and Central America.

With China as the study area, MODIS MOD14A1 and MCD12Q1 products were used to derive daily crop residue burning spots from 2014 to 2015. After vectorization of crop residue burning pixels and with the use of fishnet, burning density distribution maps were eventually completed. Meanwhile, the daily air quality data from 150 cities in 2014 and 285 cities in 2015 were used to obtain daily and monthly PM2.5 distribution maps with the Kriging interpolation. The results indicate that crop residue burning occurs in a seasonal pattern, and its spatial distribution is closely related to farming activities. The annual PM2.5 in China decreased 11.81% from 2014 to 2015, and the distribution of PM2.5 in China's east and north is always higher than in China's west and south. Furthermore, the changes in PM2.5 exhibit a hysteresis after crop residue burning in summer and autumn-winter. Regarding summer crop residue burning in China's middle–east, the r between crop residue burning spots and PM2.5 is 0.6921 (P < 0.01) in 2014 and 0.5620 (P < 0.01) in 2015, while the correlation coefficient of autumn-winter crop residue burning in China's northeast is slightly lower with an r of 0.5670 (P < 0.01) in 2014 and 0.6213 (P < 0.01) in 2015. In autumn-winter, crop residue burning can induce evident PM2.5 increase in China's northeast, and that is more obvious than summer crop residue burning in China's middle–east. Furthermore, when data of summer and autumn-winter crop residue burning from 2014 to 2015 are compared, we can see that the change in number of crop residue burning spots significant changes PM2.5 in these regions. Both the summer and autumn-winter crop residue burning areas presented spatial consistency with high PM2.5. By contrast, the results from many aspects indicated that the crop residue burning in spring did not cause a notable change of PM2.5.

Six years of data (2012–2017) at an urban site-Srinagar in the Northwest Himalaya were used to investigate temporal variability, meteorological influences, source apportionment and potential source regions of BC. The daily BC concentration varies from 0.56 to 40.16 μg/m³ with an inter-annual variation of 4.20–7.04 μg/m³ and is higher than majority of the Himalayan urban locations. High mean annual BC concentration (6.06 μg/m³) is attributed to the high BC observations during winter (8.60 μg/m³) and autumn (8.31 μg/m³) with a major contribution from Nov (13.88 μg/m³) to Dec (13.4 μg/m³). A considerable inter-month and inter-seasonal BC variability was observed owing to the large changes in synoptic meteorology. Low BC concentrations were observed in spring and summer (3.14 μg/m³ and 3.21 μg/m³), corresponding to high minimum temperatures (6.6 °C and 15.7 °C), wind speed (2.4 and 1.6 m/s), ventilation coefficient (2262 and 2616 m²/s), precipitation (316.7 mm and 173.3 mm) and low relative humidity (68% and 62%). However, during late autumn and winter, frequent temperature inversions, shallow PBL (173–1042 m), stagnant and dry weather conditions cause BC to accumulate in the valley. Through the observation period, two predominant diurnal BC peaks were observed at ⁓9:00 h (7.75 μg/m³) and ⁓21:00 h (6.67 μg/m³). Morning peak concentration in autumn (11.28 μg/m³) is ⁓2–2.5 times greater than spring (4.32 μg/m³) and summer (5.23 μg/m³), owing to the emission source peaks and diurnal boundary layer height. Diurnal BC concentration during autumn and winter is 65% and 60% higher than spring and summer respectively. During autumn and winter, biomass burning contributes approximately 50% of the BC concentration compared to only 10% during the summer. Air masses transport considerable BC from the Middle East and northern portions of South Asia, especially the Indo-Gangetic Plains, to Srinagar, with serious consequences for climate, human health, and the environment.

In order to determine the current levels, spatial distribution patterns, and potential pollution of trace elements (TEs) in the atmosphere of the Tibetan Plateau (TP), snow pit samples were collected in May 2016 from five TP glaciers: Qiyi (QY), Hariqin (HRQ), Meikuang (MK), Yuzhufeng (YZF), and Xiaodongkemadi (XDKMD). Concentrations of 13 TEs (Al, Ba, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Li, Pb, Sb, Sr, U, and Zn) in the snow were measured. The spatial distribution patterns and depth profiles of TEs from the studies sites revealed that the influence of dust on TEs was more significant on the MK and YZF glaciers than on the QY, HRQ, and XDKMD glaciers. The spatial distributions of TE EFFₑ values differed from their concentrations, however. The enrichment factor (EF) values and concentrations of some TEs in the YZF, QY, and XDKMD glaciers revealed that the pollution levels of these elements were significantly lower than those found in previous research. Examination based on EFs, principal component analysis, as well as the calculated non-dust contributions of TEs, revealed that dust was the principal source for most TEs in all five glaciers, while biomass burning was another potential natural source for TEs in some glaciers, such as QY. In contrast, Cd, Ba, Sr, Cu, Pb, Zn, and Sb were occasionally affected by anthropogenic sources such as road traffic emissions, fossil fuel combustion, and mining and smelting of nonferrous metals in and beyond the TP. Air mass backward trajectories revealed that potential pollutants were transported not only from local sources but also from Xinjiang Province in northwestern China, as well as South Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.