Global Air Quality: An Inter-Disciplinary Approach to Exposure Assessment for Burden of Disease Analyses

Abstract

Global assessments of air quality and health require comprehensive estimates of the exposures to air pollution that are experienced by populations in every country. However, there are many countries in which measurements from ground-based monitoring are sparse or non-existent, with quality-control and representativeness providing additional challenges. While ground-based monitoring provides a far from complete picture of global air quality, there are other sources of information that provide comprehensive coverage across the globe. The World Health Organization developed the Data Integration Model for Air Quality (DIMAQ) to combine information from ground measurements with that from other sources, such as atmospheric chemical transport models and estimates from remote sensing satellites in order to produce the information that is required for health burden assessment and the calculation of air pollution-related Sustainable Development Goals indicators. Here, we show an example of the use of DIMAQ with the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service Re-Analysis (CAMSRA) of atmospheric composition, which represents the best practices in meteorology and climate monitoring that were developed under the World Meteorological Organization’s Global Atmosphere Watch programme. Estimates of PM2.5 from CAMSRA are integrated within the DIMAQ framework in order to produce high-resolution estimates of air pollution exposure that can be aggregated in a coherent fashion to produce country-level assessments of exposures.

Seasonal and Spatial Variations of PM10 and PM2.5 Oxidative Potential in Five Urban and Rural Sites across Lombardia Region, Italy

“…Particulate matter (PM) is one of the most critical pollutants in the atmosphere, as it has been found to be associated with increased human morbidity and mortality, mainly related to cardio-respiratory diseases [1][2][3]. Although the specific mechanisms of PM-induced health effects are still largely unknown, there is increasing consensus that they involve oxidative stress through the generation of excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) and/or inadequate antioxidant defenses [4][5][6][7][8][9][10].…”

Indoor Air Quality in Domestic Environments during Periods Close to Italian COVID-19 Lockdown

“…Nowadays, there is an increasing interest in investigating and monitoring air quality of the indoor environments, since in the world becoming increasingly urbanized, urban residents typically spend 80-90% of their time in various indoor environments, such as homes, schools, offices, and restaurants. Thus, having good indoor air quality (IAQ) in those spaces appears to be essential, since exposure to components of indoor air has a direct influence on human health [1][2][3][4][5][6]. In fact, exposure to high concentrations of indoor air pollutants has been found to cause both acute and chronic health effects, including respiratory and cardiovascular illness, allergic symptoms, cancers, and premature mortality [1,2,4].…”

“…Thus, having good indoor air quality (IAQ) in those spaces appears to be essential, since exposure to components of indoor air has a direct influence on human health [1][2][3][4][5][6]. In fact, exposure to high concentrations of indoor air pollutants has been found to cause both acute and chronic health effects, including respiratory and cardiovascular illness, allergic symptoms, cancers, and premature mortality [1,2,4]. Therefore, it is important to characterize IAQ and understand which pollution sources, housing characteristics, and occupancy behaviors have the largest impact on human exposure to pollutants present in the home environment [4,[6][7][8].…”

Editorial of Special Issue “Health Impact Assessment of Air Pollution”

“…Such global assessments would not be possible without developments of methodology of exposure assessment or of synthesis of epidemiological studies covering global populations. Two of the articles included in this special issue refer to these topics [11,12].…”

“…Precise location and time specific estimates of population exposure to air pollution are essential inputs to the health risk assessment. Shaddick et al [11] presents the modelling approach to estimate exposure of the global population to fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) in situations where air quality monitoring data is still scarce, or sometimes non-existent, in many regions of the world (https://whoairquality.shinyapps.io/AmbientAirQualityDatabase/). The initial versions of the Data Integration Model for Air Quality (DIMAQ), which combines the available information from ground measurements with that from other sources such as atmospheric chemical transport models and estimates from remote sensing satellites, have been used earlier to generate exposure estimates in the Global Burden of Disease project [13].…”