Effects of Airborne Particulate Matter on Human Health in Urban Environments

Dear Colleagues,

Future major challenges in the development of society will soon occur due to intensive urbanization. The latest global scenarios estimate that poor air quality and population growth in urban areas will become the main environmental health risk factors in the coming decades, significantly influencing the morbidity and mortality levels of inner city residents, and consequently the development of society.

One of the most important health stressors related to air quality is particulate matter (PM), resulting mainly from industrial, traffic and domestic heating emissions. The human health effects associated with airborne PM pollution can include nausea, difficulty breathing, skin irritation, cancer, birth defects, significant developmental delays in children, and reduced activity of the immune system, which may lead to a number of acute or chronic diseases. The Special Issue seeks to condense knowledge of these health effects (symptoms and diseases) and to summarize the recent data on effect strength (research articles and topical systematic reviews). It may support the identification of knowledge gaps and help to take research in a new direction for better quality of life in urban environments. There is evidence that a long-term reduced level of PM results both in health benefits and in reduced national health costs (e.g. improving life expectancy, and diminished hospitalizations and associated treatment).

We invite papers on the following topics:

- PM health effects and effect strength (focus on epidemiologic studies) in various vulnerable groups (newborns, infants, pupils, adolescents, elders, and sensitive people).
- Assessment of urban residents exposure to PM (depending on country, living conditions, indoor, outdoor, etc.).
- Sick building syndrome, PM and health effects.
- PM health effects related to pathogenesis (e.g. inflammatory path ways, oxidative stress, genotoxicity) and research on pathogenesis.
- Cellular responses and biomarkers related to PM exposure.
- Effect strength of different types of particles (fine, coarse, ultrafine/chemistry/particle mass vs. particle number, particle morphology).
- Potentially mutagenic airborne particles as carriers of condensed semi-volatile and non-volatile organic compounds.
- Long-term and short term health effects (with respect to exposure and the effects themselves)
- Modeling and forecasting of PM health effects, costs or risks.

Dr. Daniel Dunea
Guest Editor

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