Ambient Air Pollution, Built Environment, and Public Health

A special issue of Environments (ISSN 2076-3298).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 January 2026 | Viewed by 1487

Special Issue Editors

Climate Air Quality Research Unit, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3004, Australia
Interests: ambient air pollution; cancer epidemiology; public health

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Guest Editor
Vanke School of Public Health, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Interests: building environment; green space; public health

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are organizing a Special Issue on ambient air pollution, built environment, and public health. Extensive research has demonstrated that exposure to outdoor air pollution—both short- and long-term—poses significant health risks. However, key uncertainties persist, particularly regarding exposure–response relationships for specific diseases, the vulnerability of certain populations, and regional disparities. The increasing prevalence of natural disasters, such as wildfires, has further altered air pollution composition and exposure dynamics, adding complexity to this Special Issue. In addition to concerns over air quality, increasing attention has been given to the built environment’s role in public health, with factors such as building height, population density, and access to green spaces influencing well-being. These issues are not only scientific but also social, guiding policies that shape urban living environments.

This Special Issue will address key topics, including the following:

  • Health impact of outdoor air pollution;
  • Effects of combined environmental exposures on health;
  • Impact of the built environment on health outcomes;
  • Interaction between air pollution and the built environment;
  • Novel methodologies for environmental health assessment;
  • Other related research topics.

Dr. Pei Yu
Dr. Weiju Zhou
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Environments is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • ambient air pollution
  • built envrionment
  • green space
  • natural disaster
  • public health
  • environmental epidemiology
  • vulnerable population

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 643 KB  
Article
Particulate Matter Pollution in an Agricultural Setting: A Community-Engaged Research Study
by Bonnie N. Young, Jessica Tryner, Luis Hernandez Ramirez, Sherry WeMott, Grant Erlandson, Xiaoying Li, Grace Kuiper, Daniel Alan Dean, Nayamin Martinez, Mollie Phillips, John Volckens and Sheryl Magzamen
Environments 2025, 12(10), 348; https://doi.org/10.3390/environments12100348 - 26 Sep 2025
Viewed by 624
Abstract
California’s San Joaquin Valley experiences some of the worst particulate matter (PM) air pollution in the U.S., but PM2.5 and PM10 exposures in agricultural communities are understudied. We collaborated with rural residents living adjacent to large-scale agricultural production and processing activities [...] Read more.
California’s San Joaquin Valley experiences some of the worst particulate matter (PM) air pollution in the U.S., but PM2.5 and PM10 exposures in agricultural communities are understudied. We collaborated with rural residents living adjacent to large-scale agricultural production and processing activities to assess 24-h-average personal and indoor PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations during different seasons. We visited 35 participants from 18 households during December 2023, May 2024, and the September 2024 harvest season to collect PM samples and survey data. Mixed effects linear regression models (with random effects for participant or household) assessed associations between natural log-transformed PM concentrations and regional ambient PM, harvest season, as well as participant/household characteristics. Participants were mostly female (69%) and Hispanic/Latino(a) (100%). Median household distance to processing facility silos was 633 m. Median personal exposures to PM2.5 and PM10 were 11.1 and 45.5 µg m−3. Median indoor PM2.5 and PM10 levels were 12.9 and 24.3 µg m−3. Overall, 29% of personal and indoor PM2.5 samples and 33% of personal and indoor PM10 samples exceeded WHO 24-h air quality guidelines (15 µg m−3 PM2.5, 45 µg m−3 PM10). The factors most strongly associated with personal and indoor PM were household members working in agriculture and regional ambient PM measures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ambient Air Pollution, Built Environment, and Public Health)
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19 pages, 4914 KB  
Article
Development of a Portable Calibration Chamber for PM Sensors Equipped with Wireless Connectivity Controlled by a Graphical Interface in Python
by Daniel Cuevas-González, Martín Aarón Sánchez-Barajas, Marco A. Reyna, Juan Pablo García-Vázquez, Eladio Altamira-Colado and Roberto L. Avitia
Environments 2025, 12(9), 338; https://doi.org/10.3390/environments12090338 - 21 Sep 2025
Viewed by 559
Abstract
The health impact of air pollutants has generated a trend in the design and manufacture of portable, personal and fixed PM monitoring systems to help reduce exposure to air pollutants. However, these devices still need to be improved and properly evaluated to compete [...] Read more.
The health impact of air pollutants has generated a trend in the design and manufacture of portable, personal and fixed PM monitoring systems to help reduce exposure to air pollutants. However, these devices still need to be improved and properly evaluated to compete with environmental monitors in the market. In this work, a test chamber with controlled environmental conditions and wireless connectivity is developed for the evaluation of low-cost portable and personal PM sensors. The developed system ensures rapid evaluation tests ranging from seconds to hours to corroborate prolonged operation and correct calibration. The system is controlled by a Python-based graphical user interface (GUI) and monitors PM concentration, altitude, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, illuminance, and temperature measurements. Fifty measurement tests with a duration of 10 min each were conducted to ensure robust performance and data transfer. Subsequently, four calibration tests were conducted using two SENSIRION SPS30 (SPS A and SPS B) personal PM sensors and two PMS5003 (PMS A and PMS B) personal PM sensors. The Prana Air PAS-OUT-01 sensor served as the reference to calculate the correlations and the descriptive statistics between each sensor to be calibrated. A contamination source was employed utilizing a monodispersed aerosol generator for 0.46 µm latex polystyrene particle atomization. Linear regression was applied during the calibration to determine the calibration coefficients, which were then used to adjust the sensor readings in the respective code and descriptive statistics of the sensor calibration tests were calculated. For the PMS5003 sensors, the Pearson correlation coefficients (r) after calibration were PMS A: 0.9870 and PMS B: 0.9898 compared to their uncalibrated values of PMS A: 0.9828 and PMS B: 0.9863. In contrast, the uncalibrated SPS A sensor initially had a correlation of 0.9939, which slightly decreased to 0.9917 after calibration. Meanwhile, the uncalibrated SPS B sensor showed a correlation of 0.9422, which improved to 0.9715 after calibration. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ambient Air Pollution, Built Environment, and Public Health)
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