Special Issue "Environmental Pollution, Climate Change and Human Health: Determinants, Impacts and Responses for a Paradigmatic Change"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sustainability and Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2022.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Eduardo Missoni
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Policy Analysis and Public Management, Bocconi University, 20100 Milan, Italy
Interests: global health; global governance; development cooperation; international organizations; international cooperation; global studies; sustainable development strategies; non-profit management; public management; governance
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Dr. Samantha Pegoraro
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Italian Climate Network, Pisa, Italy
Interests: climate change; public health; environmental health; air pollution

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to strengthen the knowledge of the impacts of environmental pollution on human health, highlighting response strategies and working towards healthier environments for all. The body of scientific evidence is increasingly showing new interlinkages between environmental pollution and human health, going beyond the traditional non-communicable diseases and encompassing domains such as mental health, maternal and reproductive health, as well as the unprecedented coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and its interconnections with losses of biodiversity.

While environmental pollution and climate change are gaining significant scientific and political momentum amid the broad spectrum of health risk factors, an additional effort is needed to put forward cost-effective mitigation and adaptation plans, prevention and exposure reduction strategies, as well as to enforce environmental laws and standards, with the aim of providing health benefits at national and regional levels. Further development of environmental health policies and interventions requires a multidisciplinary and multisectoral strategies that encompass a “one health” approach, an all-government and all-society vision, investing in the health sector as a leader of change. With a vision of societal paradigmatic change, new and emerging scientific evidence, understandings of health determinants, public health interventions, environmental health education campaigns and advocacy actions, citizen science and capacity-building efforts in the health sector are the main foci of this Special Issue.

The issue is now open for submissions.

Topics include:

  • Environmental pollution, health outcomes and policies;
  • Societal and development models as environmental health determinants;
  • Climate change and health;
  • Climate policies for health;
  • Greening the health sector (including the health sector’s environmental footprint);
  • Environmental health education;
  • COVID-19 and environmental health;
  • Citizen science;
  • “One health”, sustainable development and the path toward a society for health.

Prof. Eduardo Missoni
Dr. Samantha Pegoraro
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 1900 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

  • environmental health
  • climate change
  • air, soil and water pollution
  • public health interventions
  • capacity building
  • health sector education
  • behavioral decision-making
  • sustainability
  • education for environmental citizenship
  • one health

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
Health Impact Attributable to Improvement of PM2.5 Pollution from 2014–2018 and Its Potential Benefits by 2030 in China
Sustainability 2021, 13(17), 9690; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13179690 (registering DOI) - 29 Aug 2021
Abstract
With the advancement of urbanization and industrialization, air pollution has become one of the biggest challenges for sustainable development. In recent years, ambient PM2.5 concentrations in China have declined substantially due to the combined effect of PM2.5 control and meteorological conditions. [...] Read more.
With the advancement of urbanization and industrialization, air pollution has become one of the biggest challenges for sustainable development. In recent years, ambient PM2.5 concentrations in China have declined substantially due to the combined effect of PM2.5 control and meteorological conditions. To this end, it is critical to assess the health impact attributable to PM2.5 pollution improvement and to explore the potential benefits which may be obtained through the achievement of future PM2.5 control targets. Based on PM2.5 and population data with a 1 km resolution, premature mortality caused by exposure to PM2.5 in China from 2014 to 2018 was estimated using the Global Exposure Mortality Model (GEMM). Then, the potential benefits of achieving PM2.5 control targets were estimated for 2030. The results show that premature mortality caused by PM2.5 pollution decreased by 22.41%, from 2,361,880 in 2014 to 1,832,470 in 2018. Moreover, the reduction of premature mortality in six major regions of China accounted for 52.82% of the national total reduction. If the PM2.5 control target can be achieved by 2030, PM2.5-related premature deaths will further decrease by 403,050, accounting for 21.99% of those in 2018. Among them, 87.02% of cities exhibited decreases in premature deaths. According to the potential benefits in 2030, all cities were divided into three types, of which type III cities should set stricter PM2.5 control targets and further strengthen the associated monitoring and governance. The results of this study provide a reference for the formulation of air pollution control policies based on regional differences. Full article
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