The Air that We Breathe: Addressing the Risks of Global Urbanization on Health

The Editors examine the lack of correlation between the size of a city and its air quality, noting that the strength of environmental laws and the accountability of the country's government have a greater impact on urban air quality than a city's size. As the association between hazardous air particulates and adverse effects on health is now well established, the Editors argue that we need to ensure air quality data are truly representative of the quality of air breathed by all city-dwellers, including those working in industrial “hot spots.” The Editors also express their concern about the effects on the quality and transparency of data that national embarrassment over air pollution can produce. Air quality data must be made available transparently if the imbalance in urban health equity is to be redressed, they argue. [Plos medicine]. URL:[http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1001301].