There is increasing interest in understanding the role of air pollution as one of the greatest threats to human health worldwide. Nine of 10 individuals breathe air with polluted compounds that have a great impact on lung tissue. The nature of the relationship is complex, and new or updated data are ... constantly being reported in the literature. The goal of our review was to summarize the most important air pollutants and their impact on the main respiratory diseases (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, lung cancer, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, respiratory infections, bronchiectasis, tuberculosis) to reduce both short- and the long-term exposure consequences. We considered the most important air pollutants, including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, ozone, particulate matter and biomass smoke, and observed their impact on pulmonary pathologies. We focused on respiratory pathologies, because air pollution potentiates the increase in respiratory diseases, and the evidence that air pollutants have a detrimental effect is growing. It is imperative to constantly improve policy initiatives on air quality in both high- and low-income countries. more

La dimensión ambiental y los esfuerzos para combatir el cambio climático forman parte de la estrategia que propone la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL) para lograr el desarrollo sostenible en América Latina y el Caribe y enfrentar las trampas que obstaculizan el progre ... so: baja capacidad para crecer; alta desigualdad, baja movilidad social y débil cohesión social, y bajas capacidades institucionales y gobernanza poco efectiva. more