Topic Editors

H&TRC—Health & Technology Research Center, ESTeSL—Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Saúde, Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa, 1990-096 Lisbon, Portugal
1. H&TRC—Health & Technology Research Center, ESTeSL—Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Saúde, Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa, 1990-096 Lisbon, Portugal
2. Research Institute for Medicines (iMed.ULisboa), Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

The Effect of Air Pollution on Human Health

Abstract submission deadline
closed (31 October 2024)
Manuscript submission deadline
31 December 2024
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1139

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

  • indoor/outdoor pollutants
  • air pollution monitoring
  • health outcomes
  • control measures
  • harmful air pollutant
  • control technology

Participating Journals

Journal Name Impact Factor CiteScore Launched Year First Decision (median) APC
Atmosphere
atmosphere
2.5 4.6 2010 15.8 Days CHF 2400 Submit
Earth
earth
2.1 3.3 2020 21.7 Days CHF 1200 Submit
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
ijerph
- 7.3 2004 24.3 Days CHF 2500 Submit
Air
air
- - 2023 15.0 days * CHF 1000 Submit

* Median value for all MDPI journals in the first half of 2024.


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Published Papers (1 paper)

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14 pages, 889 KiB  
Article
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
Viewed by 499
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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