Polluted air is air containing dust, smoke, micro-organisms or gases different from those from which it would normally be composed (WMO, 1992).
"},"editorialNote":{"en":["source:IPCC Glossary AR6","source:UNDRR HIPS"]},"scopeNote":{"en":["Around 3 billion people still cook using solid fuels (such as wood, crop wastes, charcoal, coal, dung) and kerosene in open fires and inefficient stoves. Most of these people are poor and live in low- and middle-income countries. These cooking practices are inefficient and use fuels and technologies that produce high levels of household air pollution with a range of health-damaging pollutants, including small soot particles that penetrate deep into the lungs. In poorly ventilated dwellings, indoor smoke can be 100 times higher than acceptable levels for fine particles. Exposure is particularly high among women and young children, who spend the most time near the domestic hearth (WHO, 2018a). Exposure to smoke from cooking fires causes 3.8 million people per year to die prematurely from illness attributable to the household air pollution caused by the inefficient use of solid fuels and kerosene for cooking. Among these 3.8 million deaths: 27% are due to pneumonia; 18% from stroke; 27% from ischaemic heart disease; 20% from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); and 8% from lung cancer (WHO, 2018a).","Air pollution is caused by gases and particles emitted to the atmosphere by a variety of human activities, such as the inefficient combustion of fuels, agriculture, and farming. There are also natural sources contributing to air pollution, including particles of soil dust and salt in sea spray (UNEP, no date). Air pollutants can be emitted directly from a source (i.e., primary pollutants) or can form from chemical reactions in the atmosphere (i.e., secondary pollutants). When concentrations of these substances reach critical levels in the air, they harm humans, animals, plants and ecosystems, and reduce visibility and corrode materials, buildings and cultural heritage sites (UNEP, no date). The main atmospheric pollutants affecting human health are particulate matter, ground-level ozone (O3) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) (US EPA, 2020a,b,c). The fine particles that damage human health are known as PM2.5 (particles with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres), which can penetrate deep into the lungs and pass into the bloodstream, affecting different organs and bodily functions. These particles can either be emitted directly or formed in the atmosphere from several different emitted pollutants (e.g., ammonia [NH3] and volatile organic compounds [VOCs]) (Air Pollution Information System, 2016; US EPA, 2020d; UNEP, no date). Ground-level ozone is an important secondary pollutant. It is a potent lung irritant and stunts growth in plants. It also oxidises surfaces with which it comes into contact, degrading the materials from which they are made. Ozone is also a powerful greenhouse gas. Tropospheric ozone is different to ozone in the upper atmosphere (stratosphere), which protects us from ultraviolet light from the sun (UNEP, no date). Nitrogen oxides (NOx) are a group of air pollutants, comprising nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and nitrogen monoxide (NO). Nitrogen dioxide is the most harmful of these compounds and is generated from human-driven activities. It impacts human health, reduces atmospheric visibility, and can play a significant role in climate change, at high concentrations. It is also a critical precursor to the formation of ground-level ozone (UNEP, no date). Particulate matter (both the aerosol that is directly emitted to the atmosphere and the secondary aerosol that is formed in the atmosphere) has a wide range of negative impacts, which depend on the chemical composition of the particles (UNEP, no date). Black carbon, which is a carbon particle produced as a result of partial combustion of hydrocarbons that contributes to air pollution, has strong negative impacts on health and contributes to climate warming (No More Planet, 2021). Aerosol has negative impacts on biodiversity in terrestrial ecosystems (especially sulphur- and nitrogen-containing aerosol), and in high concentrations impacts visibility and has a soiling effects on surfaces (UNEP, no date).","Ambient (outdoor) air pollution is a major cause of death and disease globally. Long-term exposure to air pollution (over years or lifetimes) reduces life expectancy, mainly due to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and lung cancer. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that ambient air pollution caused 4.2 million premature deaths globally in 2016, of which 58% were due to ischaemic heart disease and strokes, 18% to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and acute lower respiratory infections respectively, and 6% to lung cancer (WHO, 2018). Short-term exposure (over hours or days) to elevated levels of air pollution can also cause a range of health impacts, including effects on lung function, exacerbation of asthma, increases in respiratory and cardiovascular hospital admissions and mortality. Emerging evidence suggests that air pollution may also affect the brain with possible links to dementia and cognitive decline and may also have an effect on early life, such as low birth weight. Ambient air pollution contains a range of pollutants (particles and gases) from a variety of sources, both natural and man-made (e.g., transport, industry, agriculture). Pollutants with the strongest evidence for public health concern, include particulate matter (PM), ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulphur dioxide (SO2) (WHO, 2020). ‘Particulate matter’ is a generic term used to describe a complex mixture of solid and liquid particles of varying size, shape, and composition. Some particles are emitted directly (primary PM); others are formed in the atmosphere through complex chemical reactions (secondary PM). The composition of PM varies greatly and depends on many factors, such as geographic location, emission sources and weather. The size of particles and the duration of exposure are key determinants of potential adverse health effects. Particles larger than 10 μm are mainly deposited in the nose or throat, whereas particles smaller than 10 μm pose the greatest risk because they can be drawn deeper into the lung. The health risks associated with PM of less than 10 and 2.5 microns in diameter (PM10 and PM2.5, respectively) are especially well documented. The strongest evidence for effects on health is associated with fine particles (PM2.5) (WHO, 2018; PHE, 2019). Although air pollution can be harmful to everyone, some people are more affected because they live in a polluted area, are exposed to higher levels of air pollution in their daily lives, or are more susceptible to health problems caused by air pollution. The most vulnerable face all of these disadvantages. Groups more affected by air pollution include older people, children, individuals with pre-existing cardiovascular or respiratory disease, pregnant women, communities in areas of higher air pollution and low-income communities (PHE, 2018).","Our food, air and water expose us to a complex mixture of chemicals and materials (UNEP, no date a). These chemicals have a wide range of effects on health. In 2012, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 23% of all deaths worldwide, amounting to 12.6 million people, were due to environmental causes; with 90% occurring in low- to middle-income countries (UNEP, 2021). In the same year, the burden of disease from environmental factors related directly to pollution in terms of death, illness and disability was estimated at 345 million Disability Adjusted Life Years (UNEP, no date a). More recently, a study indicated that pollution is currently the largest environmental cause of disease and death, responsible for an estimated 9 million premature deaths globally in 2015 (Landrigan et al., 2017). With world population growing, the numbers of vulnerable groups exposed to pollutants will increase unless urgent pollution abatement policies are implemented, and actions taken at the local level (UNEP, no date a). Pollution can have a disproportionate and negative effect on the poor, the disadvantaged and the vulnerable. Pollution constitutes a significant impediment to achieving health, well-being, prosperity and the sustainable development goal of ‘leaving no one behind’ (UNEP, no date a). There is a critical need for system-wide transformations to prevent, reduce and control pollution, toward greater resource efficiency and equity, circularity and sustainable consumption and production, and improved ecosystem resilience to support cleaner and more sustainable development (UNEP, no date a).","Point source air pollution can be natural or man-made. A human generated point source of air pollution is one that emits a significant amount of an air pollutant from a fixed location such as an explosion, pollutants from a chimney stack or a tyre fire. Examples of point sources include power stations, steel works, foundries, incinerators, wood and pulp processors, paper mills, refineries and chemical production (Kibble and Harrison, 2005; Dunne et al., 2014). Point sources of air pollution from naturally occurring sources include smoke from wildfires, ash from volcanic eruptions and sand particles from deserts lifted and transported in the wind across cities and continents. Many people, particularly those in poorer populations or with pre-existing vulnerabilities, live near point sources of air pollution such as industrial sites and waste disposal operations. Point sources frequently generate speculation regarding potential association with disease clusters such as cancer, among those living in close proximity to the source location. Suspected disease clusters tend to generate significant public concern and media interest. However, there are currently limited epidemiological methods to enable effective detailed investigations into the impact of point-source air pollution and causal links with the disease of interest in identified clusters. There is a particular challenge with respect to obtaining reliable and accurate population exposure data at a very local level (WHO, no date). In many cases, the key question is whether releases from a point source result in a significant increase in exposure or whether other sources (background exposure) give rise to the dominant exposure (Kibble and Harrison, 2005). Detailed investigation of these differences requires high spatio-temporal resolution air quality data alongside incidence data obtained from accurate health information systems, such as disease registers or via case control studies."]},"narrower":[{"id":"http://connectivity-hub.com/terms/cb7030c3-e25c-4d6d-852d-ef81a98f9f14","prefLabel":{"en":"Household Air Pollution"}}],"inScheme":[{"id":"http://connectivity-hub.com/terms/","title":{"en":"Climate Connectivity Taxonomy"}}],"inSchemeAll":[{"id":"http://connectivity-hub.com/terms/"}],"@context":{"@version":1.1,"id":"@id","type":"@type","@vocab":"http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#","xsd":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#","dct":"http://purl.org/dc/terms/","dc":"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/","schema":"https://schema.org/","vann":"http://purl.org/vocab/vann/","ldp":"http://www.w3.org/ns/ldp#","owl":"http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#","title":{"@id":"dct:title","@container":"@language"},"dc:title":{"@id":"dc:title","@container":"@language"},"dc:description":{"@id":"dc:description","@container":"@language"},"description":{"@id":"dct:description","@container":"@language"},"license":{"@id":"dct:license","@container":"@language"},"issued":{"@id":"dct:issued","@type":"xsd:date"},"created":{"@id":"dct:created","@type":"xsd:date"},"modified":{"@id":"dct:modified","@type":"xsd:date"},"creator":"dct:creator","publisher":"dct:publisher","preferredNamespacePrefix":"vann:preferredNamespacePrefix","preferredNamespaceUri":"vann:preferredNamespaceUri","isBasedOn":"schema:isBasedOn","source":"dct:source","prefLabel":{"@container":"@language"},"altLabel":{"@container":["@language","@set"]},"hiddenLabel":{"@container":["@language","@set"]},"definition":{"@container":"@language"},"note":{"@container":["@language","@set"]},"changeNote":{"@container":["@language","@set"]},"editorialNote":{"@container":["@language","@set"]},"historyNote":{"@container":["@language","@set"]},"scopeNote":{"@container":["@language","@set"]},"notation":{"@container":"@set"},"example":{"@container":"@language"},"narrower":{"@container":"@set"},"related":{"@container":"@set"},"relatedMatch":{"@container":"@set"},"narrowerTransitive":{"@container":"@set"},"broaderTransitive":{"@container":"@set"},"broadMatch":{"@container":"@set"},"narrowMatch":{"@container":"@set"},"closeMatch":{"@container":"@set"},"exactMatch":{"@container":"@set"},"hasTopConcept":{"@container":"@set"},"inScheme":{"@container":"@set"},"topConceptOf":{"@container":"@set"},"deprecated":{"@id":"owl:deprecated","@type":"xsd:boolean"},"isReplacedBy":{"@id":"dct:isReplacedBy","@container":"@set"}}}