The Union with the European Respiratory Society (ERS) and partner organisations have written to the World Health Organization (WHO) to call on WHO to proceed with the rapid publication and dissemination of the 2021 update to the WHO Global Air Quality Guidelines (AQGs).
Updates to the WHO AQGs on outdoor pollution have not been published since 2005. The last guidelines offered recommendations on the pollutants particulate matter (PM), ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2), but since 2005, the available evidence on the harmful health effects of short- and long-term exposure to these pollutants has advanced significantly.
The Union and partners call on WHO to publish the WHO AQGs 2021 without delay to address this public health emergency, and we offer our support to WHO in disseminating the WHO AQG findings and policy recommendations as widely as possible.
Professor Guy Marks, President and Interim Executive Director, signed the joint letter on behalf of The Union. Read the joint letter to WHO.