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Air Pollution and Health Effects

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Current Environmental Issues and Challenges

Abstract

The quality of the air we breathe is still a major concern to human health. Notwithstanding the air pollution mitigation efforts that have been pursued since the last half of the twentieth century, the World Health Organization estimates that more than two million premature deaths each year can be attributed to the effects of urban outdoor air pollution and indoor air pollution. This chapter addresses the evolution of knowledge on the relationship between air pollution and human health, since the first records until nowadays. It also reviews the current approaches to do health impact assessment and the common air pollution – health indicators. A particular case study based on a chain of events, from emissions to the atmosphere until health, passing through exposure and inhaled dose, illustrates how this approach can be explored, providing useful and concrete information.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of the 3rd European Framework Programme and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, through the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), for the postdoc grant of J. Valente (SFRH/BPD/78933/2011). SAUDAR study was supported by the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. This work was supported by European Funds through COMPETE and by National Funds through the Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT) within project PEst-C/MAR/LA0017/2013.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM), Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal

    Ana Isabel Miranda, Joana Valente, Myriam Lopes & Carlos Borrego

  2. Institute of Environment and Development, Campus Universitário, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal

    Ana Margarida Costa

Authors
  1. Ana Isabel Miranda
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  2. Joana Valente
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  3. Ana Margarida Costa
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  4. Myriam Lopes
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  5. Carlos Borrego
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ana Isabel Miranda .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical, Chemical and M, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

    Giacomo Cao

  2. Department of Mechanical, Chemical and M, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

    Roberto Orrù

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Miranda, A.I., Valente, J., Costa, A.M., Lopes, M., Borrego, C. (2014). Air Pollution and Health Effects. In: Cao, G., Orrù, R. (eds) Current Environmental Issues and Challenges. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8777-2_1

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