Air pollution and public health: emerging hazards and improved understanding of risk
Author(s)
Kelly, Frank J
Fussell, Julia C
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Despite past improvements in air quality, very large parts of the population in urban areas breathe air that does not meet European standards let alone the health-based World Health Organisation Air Quality Guidelines. Over the last 10 years, there has been a substantial increase in findings that particulate matter (PM) air pollution is not only exerting a greater impact on established health endpoints, but is also associated with a broader number of disease outcomes. Data strongly suggest that effects have no threshold within the studied range of ambient concentrations, can occur at levels close to PM2.5 background concentrations and that they follow a mostly linear concentration–response function. Having firmly established this significant public health problem, there has been an enormous effort to identify what it is in ambient PM that affects health and to understand the underlying biological basis of toxicity by identifying mechanistic pathways—information that in turn will inform policy makers how best to legislate for cleaner air. Another intervention in moving towards a healthier environment depends upon the achieving the right public attitude and behaviour by the use of optimal air pollution monitoring, forecasting and reporting that exploits increasingly sophisticated information systems. Improving air quality is a considerable but not an intractable challenge. Translating the correct scientific evidence into bold, realistic and effective policies undisputedly has the potential to reduce air pollution so that it no longer poses a damaging and costly toll on public health.
Date Issued
2015-06-04
Date Acceptance
2015-05-28
Citation
Environmental Geochemistry and Health: official journal of the Society for Environmental Geochemistry and Health, 2015, 37 (4), pp.631-649
ISSN
0269-4042
Publisher
Springer
Start Page
631
End Page
649
Journal / Book Title
Environmental Geochemistry and Health: official journal of the Society for Environmental Geochemistry and Health
Volume
37
Issue
4
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2015. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com. This article is distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and
the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and
indicate if changes were made.
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and
the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and
indicate if changes were made.
License URL
Sponsor
Medical Research Council (MRC)
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26040976
Grant Number
MR/L01341X/1
Subjects
Air Pollution/*adverse effects Environmental Monitoring/methods Humans Particulate Matter/*toxicity Public Health Risk Assessment "N1 - Kelly, Frank J" "Fussell, Julia C" eng MR/L01341X/1/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom "Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't" Review Netherlands Environ Geochem Health. 2015 Aug;37(4):631-49. doi: 10.1007/s10653-015-9720-1. Epub 2015 Jun 4.
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2015-06-04