According to World Health Organization (WHO), about 99% of the world’s population live in areas where the air quality standards have not met the recommended limits. In 2017 air pollution caused 4.9 million premature deaths and 147 million disability-adjusted life-years lost globally, making it one of the top 10 leading risk factors for the global burden of disease. Meanwhile, the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) asserted that the increase in global surface temperature, mainly caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, is 1.09 °C in 2011-2020 compared to 1850- 1900, and there is a greater than 50% likelihood that global warming will reach or exceed 1.5 °C in the near‐term. IPCC estimated that nowadays there are approximately 3.3-3.6 billion people living in areas that are highly vulnerable to climate change. Global climate change further complicates the health effects of air pollution, since the interactive effects between meteorological factors and air pollutants have been suggested and the impact of air pollution on human beings could be modified by meteorological factors. Thus, the changing climate may result in some alterations on the degree and mechanism of human exposure to air pollution and in the corresponding impact on population health.
Given the potential that the effects of air pollutants and meteorological factors on public health can be modified by each other, to date most studies have investigated the health effects of various air pollutants by controlling for meteorological factors as potential confounders, and vice versa. However, the interactions between meteorological factors and air pollutants as well as their combined effects on human beings have not been understood well, especially with the inclusion of global climate change. Besides, the fact that GHGs and air pollutants to a large extent stem from the same sources and are inseparable with each other, there is an opportunity to co-control GHGs and air pollutants and help tackle the challenges of both air pollution and climate change simultaneously. However, evidence on related mitigation and adaption measures is still lacking. Thus, research efforts are in earnest and urgently needed to address the abovementioned issues.
The scope of this Research Topic will cover all aspects related to the interactive effects of air pollutants and meteorological factors on public health. Contributions on the response measures to co-control GHGs and air pollutants and their ancillary benefit to population health are also welcome. The submitted papers could be original research and review articles (systematic reviews, meta-analysis, and scoping reviews) on these themes. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Interactive effects of air pollutants and meteorological factors on public health (morbidity and mortality).
• Quantitative overlapping or synergistic effects of specific air pollutants and meteorological factors on public health and the potential mechanisms.
• Physical modeling techniques and mathematical methods to investigate the interactions between meteorological factors and air pollutants and the combined effects on human beings.
• Mitigation and adaption measures to co-respond to or co-control GHGs and air pollutants.
• Cost-effectiveness or health co-benefits assessment of co-control measures.
According to World Health Organization (WHO), about 99% of the world’s population live in areas where the air quality standards have not met the recommended limits. In 2017 air pollution caused 4.9 million premature deaths and 147 million disability-adjusted life-years lost globally, making it one of the top 10 leading risk factors for the global burden of disease. Meanwhile, the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) asserted that the increase in global surface temperature, mainly caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, is 1.09 °C in 2011-2020 compared to 1850- 1900, and there is a greater than 50% likelihood that global warming will reach or exceed 1.5 °C in the near‐term. IPCC estimated that nowadays there are approximately 3.3-3.6 billion people living in areas that are highly vulnerable to climate change. Global climate change further complicates the health effects of air pollution, since the interactive effects between meteorological factors and air pollutants have been suggested and the impact of air pollution on human beings could be modified by meteorological factors. Thus, the changing climate may result in some alterations on the degree and mechanism of human exposure to air pollution and in the corresponding impact on population health.
Given the potential that the effects of air pollutants and meteorological factors on public health can be modified by each other, to date most studies have investigated the health effects of various air pollutants by controlling for meteorological factors as potential confounders, and vice versa. However, the interactions between meteorological factors and air pollutants as well as their combined effects on human beings have not been understood well, especially with the inclusion of global climate change. Besides, the fact that GHGs and air pollutants to a large extent stem from the same sources and are inseparable with each other, there is an opportunity to co-control GHGs and air pollutants and help tackle the challenges of both air pollution and climate change simultaneously. However, evidence on related mitigation and adaption measures is still lacking. Thus, research efforts are in earnest and urgently needed to address the abovementioned issues.
The scope of this Research Topic will cover all aspects related to the interactive effects of air pollutants and meteorological factors on public health. Contributions on the response measures to co-control GHGs and air pollutants and their ancillary benefit to population health are also welcome. The submitted papers could be original research and review articles (systematic reviews, meta-analysis, and scoping reviews) on these themes. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Interactive effects of air pollutants and meteorological factors on public health (morbidity and mortality).
• Quantitative overlapping or synergistic effects of specific air pollutants and meteorological factors on public health and the potential mechanisms.
• Physical modeling techniques and mathematical methods to investigate the interactions between meteorological factors and air pollutants and the combined effects on human beings.
• Mitigation and adaption measures to co-respond to or co-control GHGs and air pollutants.
• Cost-effectiveness or health co-benefits assessment of co-control measures.