Exposure to environmental chemicals relevant for respiratory hypersensitivity: global aspects.

Trends of air pollutant concentrations that influence the incidence of respiratory diseases and might be influential for respiratory hypersensitivity are presented and discussed. Data for these trends are collected in UNEP/WHO's Global Environmental Monitoring System GEMS/Air which recently has been revitalized and redirected to become a tool for providing the information necessary for rational air quality management. Data are interpreted with respect to WHO's most recent air quality guidelines, which are an update of the air quality guidelines for Europe published in 1987. A WHO study on the global disease burden and the contribution of air pollution to it is discussed and global estimates of mortality resulting from air pollution through sulphur dioxide and suspended particulate matter, by different economic regions, are given. Starting from the air quality guidelines still valid at the time of publication of the update, about 460,000 excess deaths globally are due to suspended particulate matter and about 370,000 to sulphur dioxide.