Reconsidering Air-Quality from Acidification to PMx Policies and the Response to New Regulatory Challenges

Different perceptions are expected to emerge about the exposure of vulnerable population groups on atmospheric pollution. Following early attempts to regulate harmful anthropogenic emissions in he atmosphere, we were focusing on the reduction of emission with cost-effective scenarios. In later efforts emission were substituted with air-quality concentrations and nowadays in the era of toxic particulate matter the concentrations were substituted and/or combined with population health effects. Unfortunately, measurements in several monitoring locations show that the proposed solutions have not lead to improvement in air-quality. New regulatory strategies are required for cities with large population densities with susceptible populations. These strategies should focus on the frequency and severity of air-pollution episodes, on the impact assessments in zones with specific population groups (e.g. children in zones with high traffic) and on the utilisation of new technologies for the attribution of air-quality concentrations on verifiable emission sources. Such technologies are already available and are of relatively small costs that allow full-scale commercial deployment.JRC.H-Institute for Environment and Sustainability (Ispra