It Pays to Be Air Aware

In light of the EPA’s Air Quality Awareness Week – running from May 1 to 5, 2023 – we have created a series of blog articles that identify the main polluting gases and highlight the importance of implementing mitigation strategies, helping to protect the environment and deliver cleaner air for future generations. Today’s article deals with air quality and health issues.

Poor air quality consequences

The positive impacts of the industrial revolution can’t be overstated. After all, it paved the way for many advanced manufacturing techniques that modern society would be lost without. However, this transformative era had a sting in its tail, leading to a sharp decline in air quality and human health. Admittedly, the developed world has come a long way since deadly incidents like the London smog of 1952 – thanks to growing awareness of the impact of poor air quality – but noxious gases, airborne particulate matter, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and greenhouse gases (GHGs) are still taking an enormous toll on human health even to this day.

Health implications

These toxic substances have been long associated with a whole host of illnesses – including strokes, chronic respiratory diseases, lung cancers, and heart attacks – and the World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that poor air quality is linked to around seven million premature deaths per year,¹ making it the single greatest environmental risk to human health. Equally alarming is the estimate that 99 percent of the world’s population breathes air that exceeds the WHO’s recommended air quality limits.²

Winds of change

Thankfully, global awareness of these dangers is increasing, with the United Nations (UN) Environment Assembly adopting the ‘Preventing and reducing air pollution to improve air quality globally’³ resolution, and the UN General Assembly taking positive steps with its ‘The future we want’⁴ pledge. This is complemented by national and regional initiatives, like the US Environmental Protection Agency’s ‘Clean air act’,⁵ which has led to significant environmental and public health benefits.

Monitoring solutions

It’s essential to accurately track changes in air quality to assess the impact of these mitigation strategies, and many state-of-the-art technologies offer real-time air monitoring capabilities. These innovative solutions employ techniques like chemiluminescence, pulsed fluorescence, gas filter correlation, UV photometrics and beta attenuation – among others – to accurately detect concentrations of the most common and hazardous pollutants. They can even trigger alarms warning that certain compounds have breached pre-defined limits, alerting industrial personnel or the general public if the air quality poses a risk to their health.

Collective awareness

Government institutions worldwide must continue employing and enforcing mitigative strategies in seeking healthier air. However, this must be combined with rigorous monitoring programs to assess the effect of these measures. For example, dedicated pollutant monitoring technologies are perfectly placed to determine the concentration levels of substances such as noxious gases, VOCs, and particulates, as well as GHGs, which are discussed in more detail in a separate blog article. Widespread data on the emission of these gases – along with tighter global, national, and regional restrictions – is imperative to solve the transboundary issue of air pollution, and foster the collective responsibility needed to create a healthier and more air aware future.

References

1. 7 million premature deaths annually linked to air pollution. (2014). World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news/item/25-03-2014-7-million-premature-deaths-annually-linked-to-air-pollution. Accessed April 4, 2023.
2. Billions of people still breathe unhealthy air: new WHO data. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news/item/04-04-2022-billions-of-people-still-breathe-unhealthy-air-new-who-data. Accessed April 4, 2023.
3. Actions on air quality report update. United Nations. (2021). https://www.unep.org/explore-topics/air/what-we-do/taking-stock-global-efforts/actions-air-quality-report-update. Accessed April 4, 2023.
4. The future we want – outcome document. United Nations. (2012). https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/futurewewant.html. Accessed April 4, 2023.
5. Overview of the Clean Air Act and Air Pollution. US EPA. (2023). https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview. Accessed April 4, 2023.