Journal: Current Respiratory Medicine Reviews
Guest editor(s):Dr. Mario Sznol

Introduction

Through continuous research on the relationship between risk factors and health, it has been found that air pollution, especially atmospheric particulate matter pollution, has become one of the main sources of global disease burden. From 1990 to 2022, the concentration of atmospheric particulate matter pollution has increased by more than 40%, and the health losses caused by it rank second among all risk factors. At present, atmospheric particulate matter pollution is mainly caused by particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to 2.5 μm (referred to as PM2.5). A large number of epidemiological studies have revealed the relationship between PM2.5 and human health, especially cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. However, the strength of these associations depends largely on the season and location of the study. A likely explanation is that there are temporal and regional differences in the chemical composition of PM2.5. The concentration of particulate matter and its components in the air environment is affected by many factors. Different pollution processes, the transmission process of particulate matter, the geographical conditions and climate conditions of the area where the particulate matter is located, etc., will have different effects on the distribution of particulate matter components, giving them different characteristics. This special issue collects the latest research results on the impact of particulate matter components on the respiratory system, aiming to identify the main harmful components in PM2.5 and explore the impact of exposure environment on the pathology of respiratory diseases.

Keywords

Fine particulate matter components, respiratory diseases, PM2.5, exposure environment, pathogenic mechanism