Air Pollution and Respiratory Health

Dear Colleagues,

Over the last three decades, air pollution has remained as one of the major and most immediate environmental threats to human health, causing millions of premature deaths each year and an increase in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). High-quality evidence in the literature has linked air pollution to numerous adverse health effects, including respiratory disease, cancer, cardiovascular, neurological effects, and birth outcomes. High air pollution concentrations, considered a major threat, could prime an epidemic, especially when it comes to respiratory diseases and lung health.

Exposure to outdoor and/or indoor air pollutants is strongly associated with human health, mainly with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, lung cancer, and respiratory infections, often leading to increased hospitalizations and disease exacerbations, lower quality of life, polypharmacy, more severe disease symptoms, and premature death. Even in times of the COVID-19 pandemic, air pollution has been characterized as a potential risk factor that, along with the societal and clinical factors, may contribute to respiratory health, disease prognosis, and progression.

This Special Issue aims to capture the extent of the link between air pollution and respiratory health by mapping recent and high-quality research on this topic. It also aspires to translate the findings of original researches into recommendations, interventions, and ideas for effective and targeted policy-making on air pollution and the control of respiratory diseases. Therefore, it will embrace all types of studies, including original research (cohorts, case–control studies, time-series studies, cross-sectional studies, spatio-temporal studies, genome-wide studies), interventions or related protocols, clinical research and trials, meta-analysis and systematic reviews, short reports, and commentaries. 

Dr. Dimitra Sifaki-Pistolla
Prof. Dr. Kyriakos Souliotis
Vasiliki-Eirini Chatzea
Guest Editors

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