New WHO global air quality guidelines: more pressure on nations to reduce air pollution levels (original) (raw)

The Lancet Planetary Health

Abstract

The manuscript analyzes the levels of PM2.5 in 47 cities from all over the world using data from WHO Air Quality Reports from 2014, 2016 and 2018, and compares to the previous and the new WHO Air Quality Guidelines. The purpose was to highlight the importance of the revision of the values for these new Air Quality Guidelines as well as the challenge that will mean for many cities/countries to comply with them. Cities were divided in groups of lower and higher air pollution levels. Many of the lower air pollution ones were already above the previous guidelines, while just two of them, Porto and Stockholm, already complied with the new guidelines considering 2018 data. Even in this group of cities, many will need to reduce PM2.5 concentrations between 50% to more than 70% to be under the new WHO guidelines. Among the cities with higher air pollution levels, most of them will need to decrease PM2.5 concentrations more than 90% to meet new WHO guidelines, including Beijing, Riyadh, Karachi, Ulaanbaatar and New Delhi. These new Air Quality Guidelines along with the simultaneous pressure to reduce the use of fossil fuels to mitigate climate change, with many countries stablishing goals for reduction of CO2 emissions to comply to the Paris Agreement, will sure be essential for the transition to a decarbonized world, contributing to save millions of lives.

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