Smart Monitoring of Air Pollution Across Environments and Lifespans: Linking Exposure, Biomarkers, and Policy

Dear Colleagues,

Air pollution remains one of the most pressing global health challenges of the 21st century. While the adverse impacts of ambient (outdoor) air pollution are well documented, there is increasing recognition of the substantial—and often overlooked—risks associated with indoor air pollutants. Individuals in modern societies spend up to 90% of their time indoors, whether in homes, workplaces, schools, or public buildings, yet research and policy responses addressing indoor exposure often lag behind.

In particular, chronic, low-level exposures, or “invisible exposures”, pose unique health risks that traditional risk assessment methods frequently fail to capture. These exposures can lead to long-term physiological, neurological, and developmental effects, particularly in vulnerable populations.

This Special Issue aims to provide a comprehensive, interdisciplinary platform to examine the full spectrum of air pollution exposure, spanning outdoor and indoor environments, and to assess their cumulative, interactive, and context-specific health effects. Emphasis will be placed on applied research, including the integration of biomonitoring data with indoor air quality assessments, particularly in sensitive settings such as healthcare facilities, elder care homes, and schools.

We invite contributions from environmental scientists, exposure scientists, toxicologists, epidemiologists, public health professionals, occupational hygienists, urban planners, data scientists, and healthcare practitioners.

Key topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Characterization of outdoor and indoor air pollutants (e.g., PM, VOCs, ozone, NOx, microplastics);
• Integrated exposure assessment, personal monitoring, and sensor-based technologies;
• Linking biomonitoring data with air quality data in real-world and high-risk environments;
• Health effects across life stages and biological systems (respiratory, cardiovascular, neurological, metabolic);
• Exposure scenarios in sensitive environments (e.g., hospitals, childcare centers, elder care facilities);
• Vulnerable populations and occupational risk assessments;
• Chronic low-dose exposure, cumulative risk, and exposome-informed frameworks;
• Interactions with climatic, socio-economic, and psychosocial determinants;
• Data analytics, machine learning, and predictive exposure–health modeling;
• Public health interventions, evidence-based policy, and communication strategies.

By focusing on invisible exposures that permeate our daily lives, and by highlighting translational research that connects biological markers with environmental measurements, this Special Issue aims to generate actionable insights, foster cross-sector collaboration, and support evidence-based strategies to mitigate the global health burden of air pollution.

Dr. Ilona Pavlovska
Guest Editor

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