Air quality monitoring for enhanced understanding of health impacts and beyond

Overview

Monitoring air quality (for example collecting continuous and quality data) is integral and critical to detecting air pollutants and to ensuring information sharing with the public, policy-makers, and regulatory compliance.

Air quality monitoring is also one of the first and necessary steps for quantifying the health impacts from air pollution and monitoring progress towards reducing air pollution. The main pollutants (e.g. particulate matter [PM], nitrogen dioxide, and tropospheric ozone) should be monitored continuously and consistently. Sharing these high-quality and standardized data publicly is essential to raise awareness and encourage decision-makers to take action.

Air quality monitoring for enhanced understanding of health impacts and beyond highlights the importance of monitoring air quality data to assess its health impacts. The technical brief summarizes the different types of air quality data that can be used to assess health impacts, barriers and enablers to using this data and the different stakeholders and sectors that contribute to monitoring the health impacts of air pollution.

This document is part of the WHO Air Quality, Energy, and Health Science and Policy Summaries (SPS). These summaries provide concise overviews of current knowledge and evidence on air quality, energy access, climate change, and health. They aim to support decision-makers by presenting key insights from scientific research.

The SPS are developed through a multistakeholder consultation process that includes experts from WHO Advisory Groups – i.e., the Scientific Advisory Group on Air Pollution and Health (SAG), and the Global Air Pollution and Health – Technical Advisory Group (GAPH-TAG) – as well as specialists from WHO Collaborating Centres, UN agencies as well as other experts from academia and civil society.

All Science and Policy Summaries can be accessed here