Public Health Reviews (Jun 2024)
Two Decades of Air Pollution Health Risk Assessment: Insights From the Use of WHO’s AirQ and AirQ+ Tools
- Heresh Amini,
- Heresh Amini,
- Fatemeh Yousefian,
- Sasan Faridi,
- Zorana J. Andersen,
- Ellénore Calas,
- Alberto Castro,
- Alberto Castro,
- Karla Cervantes-Martínez,
- Thomas Cole-Hunter,
- Magali Corso,
- Natasa Dragic,
- Dimitris Evangelopoulos,
- Christian Gapp,
- Mohammad Sadegh Hassanvand,
- Ingu Kim,
- Alain Le Tertre,
- Sylvia Medina,
- Brian Miller,
- Stephanie Montero,
- Weeberb J. Requia,
- Horacio Riojas-Rodriguez,
- David Rojas-Rueda,
- David Rojas-Rueda,
- Evangelia Samoli,
- Jose Luis Texcalac-Sangrador,
- Maayan Yitshak-Sade,
- Maayan Yitshak-Sade,
- Joel Schwartz,
- Nino Kuenzli,
- Nino Kuenzli,
- Joseph V. Spadaro,
- Michal Krzyzanowski,
- Pierpaolo Mudu
Affiliations
- Heresh Amini
- Department of Environmental Medicine and Climate Science, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States
- Heresh Amini
- Institute for Climate Change, Environmental Health, and Exposomics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States
- Fatemeh Yousefian
- Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Faculty of Health, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran
- Sasan Faridi
- Center for Air Pollution Research (CAPR), Institute for Environmental Research (IER), Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
- Zorana J. Andersen
- Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Ellénore Calas
- University of Paris-Saclay, Saint Aubin, France
- Alberto Castro
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Allschwil, Switzerland
- Alberto Castro
- University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
- Karla Cervantes-Martínez
- Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
- Thomas Cole-Hunter
- Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Magali Corso
- 0Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Santé Publique France, Saint-Maurice, France
- Natasa Dragic
- 1Faculty of Medicine, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
- Dimitris Evangelopoulos
- 2Environmental Research Group, MRC Centre for Environment and Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
- Christian Gapp
- 3World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Mohammad Sadegh Hassanvand
- Center for Air Pollution Research (CAPR), Institute for Environmental Research (IER), Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
- Ingu Kim
- 4European Centre for Environment and Health, World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe, Bonn, Germany
- Alain Le Tertre
- 5Regional Office Bretagne, Santé Publique France, Rennes, France
- Sylvia Medina
- 0Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Santé Publique France, Saint-Maurice, France
- Brian Miller
- 6Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM), Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- Stephanie Montero
- 7Clean Air Institute, Washington, DC, United States
- Weeberb J. Requia
- 8Center for Environment and Public Health Studies, School of Public Policy and Government, Fundação Getúlio Vargas, Brasília, Brazil
- Horacio Riojas-Rodriguez
- 9Department of Environmental Health, National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca, Mexico
- David Rojas-Rueda
- 0Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, United States
- David Rojas-Rueda
- 1Colorado School of Public Health, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, United States
- Evangelia Samoli
- 2Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
- Jose Luis Texcalac-Sangrador
- 9Department of Environmental Health, National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca, Mexico
- Maayan Yitshak-Sade
- Department of Environmental Medicine and Climate Science, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States
- Maayan Yitshak-Sade
- Institute for Climate Change, Environmental Health, and Exposomics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States
- Joel Schwartz
- 3Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, United States
- Nino Kuenzli
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Allschwil, Switzerland
- Nino Kuenzli
- University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
- Joseph V. Spadaro
- 4Spadaro Environmental Research Consultants (SERC), Philadelphia, PA, United States
- Michal Krzyzanowski
- 5School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
- Pierpaolo Mudu
- 4European Centre for Environment and Health, World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe, Bonn, Germany
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3389/phrs.2024.1606969
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 45
Abstract
ObjectivesWe evaluated studies that used the World Health Organization’s (WHO) AirQ and AirQ+ tools for air pollution (AP) health risk assessment (HRA) and provided best practice suggestions for future assessments.MethodsWe performed a comprehensive review of studies using WHO’s AirQ and AirQ+ tools, searching several databases for relevant articles, reports, and theses from inception to Dec 31, 2022.ResultsWe identified 286 studies that met our criteria. The studies were conducted in 69 countries, with most (57%) in Iran, followed by Italy and India (∼8% each). We found that many studies inadequately report air pollution exposure data, its quality, and validity. The decisions concerning the analysed population size, health outcomes of interest, baseline incidence, concentration-response functions, relative risk values, and counterfactual values are often not justified, sufficiently. Many studies lack an uncertainty assessment.ConclusionOur review found a number of common shortcomings in the published assessments. We suggest better practices and urge future studies to focus on the quality of input data, its reporting, and associated uncertainties.
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