Trans boundaries Air Pollution Health Index Development and Implementation

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Real-time air pollution monitoring is now more necessary than ever before. Air pollution is one of the most significant factors posing threat to the health of people worldwide. It is associated with a range of diseases, symptoms and conditions that impact quality of human life. According to WHO, outdoor air pollution was responsible for the deaths of some 3,7 million people under the age of 60 around the world in 2012, representing 6.7% of the global disease burden while indoor and outdoor air pollution combined are among the largest risks to health worldwide. Apart from population air quality has negative impacts on natural environment and biodiversity. The main sources of air pollution at participants countries are caused by industrial activities, transportation and heating systems. Air quality problems from industrial sources mainly concern areas with thermo-electrical power stations and industrial units located close to residential areas. Other sources (e.g. transport and dust from deserts) and natural conditions (e.g. local topography and climatic conditions) also worsen urban air quality. Local meteorological conditions and topography have a major impact on air quality and contribute to the generation of air pollution episodes. Air quality is also strongly influenced by pollutants trapped due to thermal inversions caused from sea/land breezes and thermal internal boundary layers. Strategic objective of TRAP project is the creation of an ICT application integrating air quality monitoring with health impact indexes in the participating countries and Cross Border area. The project aims to evaluate current situation regarding air quality in partners’ areas, install air quality monitoring stations and create public health indexes for assessing air quality impact on human health and natural environment. TRAP will extend the already established network of air quality to both countries and cross-border area by establishing 4 new monitoring stations (2 per country). Moreover, health indicators based on the effects of air pollution on human health, will be displayed on the project’s website. TRAP is expected to go a step beyond the current state of the art in air quality by correlating air quality and health and providing an integrated air quality – health index ICT tool which will be accessible by stakeholders and general public (volnurable target groups). Information added on 2020-05-20, regarding the mitigation of the effects of COVID-19 (the corona virus pandemic that started in 2019) (English language only): TRAP project records emission sources in cross border area & as core action develops digital tool for real-time air quality monitoring system for alerting officials & the general public about pollutants, measurements & probable exceedance of limits. Various studies published during COVID-19 pandemic support the hypothesis that severity of the Covid-19 infection may be augmented by particulate matter air pollution.

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