Identifying harms and critical windows of combined environmental exposures to air pollutants and temperatures using integrated epidemiological and toxicological evidence.

Air pollution and climate change are compounding public health crises in the 21st century. Ambient air pollution alone is responsible for an estimated 4.2 million premature deaths each year worldwide, now surpassing smoking as the top contributor to the global disease burden. Meanwhile, climate change is accelerating the frequency, intensity, and duration of heat waves and driving both extreme heat and cold exposures. These thermal extremes were shown to exacerbate respiratory conditions and reduce lung function. The combined impact of these environmental stressors falls hardest on those least able to adapt: children, the elderly, and low-income communities, and are mediated by factors such as ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and exposure to heat. Pregnancy and early life represent critical biological windows: organ development is underway, lungs are still forming, and the immature immune and detoxification systems leave the fetus and infants highly susceptible to harm. Exposure to air pollution and extreme temperatures during these critical windows can leave a lasting biological imprint, increasing the risk of childhood asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) later in life—conditions that not only burden health systems and societies, but also widen health disparities.
To confront this urgent challenge, and in direct response to the evidence gaps identified in Vital Strategies and the Wellcome Trust’s Prioritizing Evidence Gaps: Air Pollution and Health Impacts of Climate Action report, we assembled a unique international and multidisciplinary team of experts with a strong track record of research at the intersection of air pollution and respiratory health. Our team brings together deep expertise in toxicology, epidemiology, causal inference, dose-rate and counterfactual modeling, quantitative risk assessment, policy design and assessment, and atmospheric aerosol chemistry. Crucially, we understand how mitigation strategies across sectors can alter pollutant mixtures in unintended ways.