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Protecting populations from the health harms of air pollution

Policies and practices must account for the synergistic effects of different pollutants

The combustion of fossil fuel drives climate change by producing greenhouse gases, and it harms human health through air pollution, which is responsible for more than eight million deaths annually, accounting for nearly 15% of deaths worldwide.1

The linked study by Liu and colleagues (doi:10.1136/bmj-2023-075203) sheds new light on the pervasive harms of air pollution and exemplifies how climate change and the human activities that drive it multiply the risk of harm. These authors showed how two common air pollutants, fine particulate matter (PM2.5, airborne particles with a diameter of ≤2.5 µm) and ozone (O3), act synergistically to harm those exposed,2 providing compelling new evidence that both policies and healthcare practices must change to account for new and evolving understanding of the compound effects of climate change, its drivers, and its consequences on human health.

James Sullivan , Cecilia Sorensen , Air Quality Index ,