Environmental health, abiotic environment and contaminating particles in the atmosphere

The industrial revolution marked the dawn of a new era of rapid environmental change in all its determinants, induced by the cultural transformation (social, economic, technological). Its extraordinary acceleration since about forty years ago has transformed patterns of health and disease in human populations, as well as the capacity of resilience of the ecosystems they occupy, reducing biodiversity, the availability and quality of water, and changing the composition and temperature of the atmosphere.

WHO recommends that the average annual concentration of particles in suspension of less than 2.5 microns (PM2, 5) should not exceed 10 microns per cubic metre, because it generates high morbidity and mortality. On a global level, estimated mortality from air pollution (outdoor and indoor) reaches 92 people per 100,000 inhabitants.

In the countries of Western Europe, the situation is better, largely due to the growing regulation and control of environmental pollutants; in Spain, for example, mortality is 15 per 100,000, but some countries in Eastern Europe (like Bosnia or Georgia) have worse situations than Asian countries.