Toxicity and Human Health Assessment of Air Pollutants

Air pollution has been shown to be responsible for the morbidity and mortality of a variety of major diseases. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that almost the whole global population breathes air that exceeds WHO guidelines and contains high levels of pollutants. To date, however, the key constituents of air pollution which impact health and the potential mechanisms remain largely unstudied. In addition, comprehensive assessments of evidence from in vitro and in vivo studies, high-quality cohort studies, and high-resolution model simulations of health impacts are still substantially sparse. Hence, assessing the health risks, identifying the toxic effects, and elucidating the underlying mechanisms are of great importance.  This Reprint aims to understand the mechanisms of the health effects caused by air pollution and ensure accurate exposure assessments around ambient environments and inside human bodies, including a range of approaches—from epidemiological cohorts and toxicological studies—to elucidate the linkage between air pollutant exposure and the mechanisms related to health effects. The articles published in this Special Issue can be categorized into four main research directions: elucidating underlying toxicity mechanisms, identifying critical exposure windows and vulnerable populations in epidemiological studies, exploring the impact on postoperative populations, and estimating the association between air pollutant exposure and health effects.