Prof. Nino Thomas KUENZLI
Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), Allschwil, Switzerland
Abstract: In 2021, WHO published an update of its Air Quality Guidelines (AQG). The AQG provide science based advice to the national policy makers for the setting of legally binding national air quality standards. Compliance of air quality with the WHO AQG values will prevent adverse effects of ambient air pollution on public health. The AQG are based on the most recent scientific evidence of long-term and short-term health effects of ambient air pollutants. Since the publishing of the last AQG in 2005, a very large and strong scientific literature emerged documenting the health effects of air pollutants also at rather low levels of concentrations – in fact at levels clearly below the 2005 AQG values. Thus, this new literature forced WHO to lower the 2021 AQG values. The presentation will summarize the evidence of the health effects of ambient air pollution, the new methods of WHO to derive AQG values to protect public health, and the local and global challenges and opportunities of those new AQG values for policy makers willing to sustainably protect the health of the people.
Host：Associate Prof. Yanxia Zhang
Nanjing Normal University
Time：07:00pm Dec 12, 2022 (Beijing time)
Zoom ID: 816 9975 7155
