Introduction to Spatiotemporal Variations of Ambient Air Pollutants and Related Public Health Impacts

This introductory chapter first provides an overview of spatiotemporal variations of various ambient air pollutants and broad impacts of these variations on regional and global public health. Main components of ambient air pollution and their specific roles on respiratory, cardiovascular, neurological, and other relatively unknown health hazards are discussed. Next, the chapter presents challenges in epidemiological study designs and risk assessment for understanding air pollution-induced adverse health impacts. Some potential exposure measurement errors and confounding factors are discussed with an emphasis on the problems in large-scale cohort studies. Finally, the significance of air monitoring networks and models for prediction of ambient air pollutants and major recent findings on GIS applications for understanding public health impacts of air pollutants are presented.