The Effect of Air Pollution on Human Health

Topic Information

Dear Colleagues,

Air pollution is a serious global problem that affects the health of millions of people each year. According to the WHO, nine out of ten people breathe polluted air, resulting in seven million deaths annually. Air pollution is closely related to climate change, and efforts to reduce one can mitigate the other. The main pollutants are particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and ozone at the ground level. Particulate matter is the most harmful pollutant, while bioaerosols are also being increasingly reported as health determinants. There are two main types of air pollution: ambient air pollution and household air pollution. Household air pollution is responsible for four million deaths each year. Women and children are the most affected, especially in countries in Africa and Asia where polluting fuels and technologies are commonly used. Air pollution has a devastating impact on children, with up to 14% of children aged 5-18 years worldwide suffering from asthma linked to air pollution. Every year, 543,000 children under 5 years old die of respiratory diseases related to air pollution. Pregnant women exposed to air pollution can experience fetal brain growth issues, and air pollution is also linked to cognitive impairment in children and adults alike. Air quality in an occupational context is increasingly a concern, as a large part of the active life of certain professionals is spent in environments where the air quality is very poor, or seen from another perspective, very rich in pollutants of various natures. It is, therefore, necessary to raise awareness of this growing public health challenge, share information, and provide tools on the health risks of air pollution and its interventions. This MDPI Topic aims at showcasing some of the work on air pollution and to review the data on air quality and health. The key focus will be on techniques employed in order to more accurately attribute air pollution coming from different sources, and on the improvement of estimates of air quality and correlated health effects through the combination of the data from various air-quality-monitoring networks, atmospheric modeling, and the measurement of health effects.

Prof. Dr. Elisabete Carolino
Prof. Dr. Liliana Aranha Caetano
Topic Editors

Keywords

Participating Journals

Journal Name	Impact Factor	CiteScore	Launched Year	First Decision (median)	APC
Atmosphere atmosphere	2.5	4.6	2010	16.1 Days	CHF 2400	Submit
Earth earth	2.1	3.3	2020	23.7 Days	CHF 1200	Submit
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ijerph	-	7.3	2004	25.8 Days	CHF 2500	Submit
Air air	-	-	2023	21.1 Days	CHF 1000	Submit

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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All Atmosphere Earth IJERPH Air

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19 pages, 14182 KiB  

Open AccessArticle

Assessment of Respiratory Health Impacts of PM_2.5 by AirQ+ Software in a Sub-Saharan African Urban Setting

by Mélanie Ngutuka Kinzunga, Daniel M. Westervelt, Daniel Matondo Masisa, Freddy Bangelesa, Paulson Kasereka Isevulambire, Thierry Tangou Tabou, Benoit Kabengele Obel, Guillaume Kiyombo Mbela and Jean Marie Kayembe Ntumba

Atmosphere 2024, 15(12), 1518; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos15121518 - 19 Dec 2024

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1065

Abstract

Background: Ambient air pollution remains a major risk factor for population health worldwide. The impact of PM_2.5 air pollution is underestimated in sub-Saharan Africa due to a lack of epidemiological studies. AirQ+ is proposed to reduce these inequalities in research. The aim [...] Read more.

Background: Ambient air pollution remains a major risk factor for population health worldwide. The impact of PM_2.5 air pollution is underestimated in sub-Saharan Africa due to a lack of epidemiological studies. AirQ+ is proposed to reduce these inequalities in research. The aim of this study is to assess, by AirQ+, the impact of prolonged exposure to PM_2.5 on respiratory health in Kinshasa in 2019, and to estimate the health benefits of reducing this air pollution. Methods: Population and mortality data were obtained from the Institut National de la Statistique and the Institut de Métrologie et d’Évaluation en santé, respectively. PM_2.5 concentrations were measured using PurpleAir PA-II-SD sensors, and average annual concentration was 43.5 µg/m³ in 2019. AirQ+ was used to estimate the health effect attributable to PM_2.5 in adults aged over 25 in Kinshasa. Results: In 2019, the proportion of deaths attributable to PM_2.5 air pollution was 30.72% for ALRI, 26.55% for COPD and 24.32% for lung cancers. Each 10% reduction in current PM_2.5 levels would prevent 1093 deaths (from all causes) per year in Kinshasa. Life expectancy would increase by 4.7 years (CI 3.5–5.3) if the WHO threshold of 5 mg/m³ were respected. Conclusions: The results of this study highlight the major respiratory public health problem associated with air pollution by fine particles in Kinshasa. AirQ+ was used to assess the impact of prolonged exposure to PM_2.5 and respiratory deaths among adults in Kinshasa and revealed that this number of deaths could be avoided by improving air quality. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic The Effect of Air Pollution on Human Health)

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14 pages, 889 KiB  

Open AccessArticle

Long-Term Ozone Exposure, COPD, and Asthma Mortality: A Retrospective Cohort Study in the Republic of Korea

by Min-Seok Kim, Youn-Hee Lim, Jongmin Oh, Jisun Myung, Changwoo Han, Hyun-Joo Bae, Soontae Kim, Yun-Chul Hong and Dong-Wook Lee

Atmosphere 2024, 15(11), 1340; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos15111340 - 8 Nov 2024

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1419

Abstract

Ozone concentrations have increased in recent decades, and several studies have reported that long-term exposure to ozone increases the mortality risk induced by respiratory conditions. However, research on cause-specific mortality related to ozone exposure and respiratory diseases remains scarce. We constructed a retrospective [...] Read more.

Ozone concentrations have increased in recent decades, and several studies have reported that long-term exposure to ozone increases the mortality risk induced by respiratory conditions. However, research on cause-specific mortality related to ozone exposure and respiratory diseases remains scarce. We constructed a retrospective cohort of 5,360,032 adults aged ≥ 65 years from the National Health Insurance Service of Republic of Korea, and death certificates were obtained from Statistics Republic of Korea to determine the cause of death between 2010 and 2019. The daily maximum 8 h average levels of ozone during the warm season annually (May–September) and other air pollutants were determined for the residential district. We analyzed the data using a time-varying Cox proportional hazards model with individual- and district-level covariates, incorporating a competing risk framework to address deaths from causes other than chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma. In our single-pollutant model with a 3-year moving average, a 1 ppb increase in ozone exposure was associated with a hazard ratio (HR) of 1.011 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.008–1.013) for COPD mortality and an HR of 1.016 (95% CI: 1.011–1.022) for asthma mortality. In our model adjusted for the presence of underlying diseases and district-level variables, the HRs were 1.009 (95% CI: 1.008–1.014) for COPD and 1.017 (95% CI: 1.011–1.023) for asthma, respectively. These associations remained robust in our two-pollutant model, except for NO₂ and COPD. A linear concentration–response relationship was identified between ozone concentration, COPD, and asthma mortality. In this large nationwide cohort study, long-term exposure to ozone was associated with an increased risk of death from COPD and asthma in older Korean adults. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic The Effect of Air Pollution on Human Health)

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