Aerial image of a village in Bangladesh with markers showing arsenic concentrations in wells
Aerial image of a village in the Araihazar upazila sub-district of Bangladesh with markers showing arsenic concentrations in wells. The pins indicate that the waters are unsafe for drinking as they contain high concentrations of arsenic (50 to 500 parts per billion). Green and blue pins show wells with waters that have low arsenic concentrations (25 to 50, and 0 to 10 parts per billion, respectively) and are safe to drink. This data for this important map were collected by ten local women using a rapid arsenic detection kit. Credit: Filippelli et al. [2020], Figure 2
Source: GeoHealth

Historical and current pollution from numerous sources causes disease and death throughout the world. To reduce the impact of this pollution on human health, comprehensive and cost-effective methods are needed to identify these sources.

Filippelli et al. [2020] give an excellent overview of new ways to identify and reduce pollution-related health burdens. These new approaches include low-cost monitoring of air pollution using satellite reflectance data to measure metal contamination of soils and incorporating citizen science for data collection.

The paper stresses the need for policy makers and scientists to work together to protect human health into the 21st century. The case studies provided show how pollution science can be combined with real applications for global communities to safeguard human health.

Citation: Filippelli, G., Anenberg, S., Taylor, M., van Geen, A., & Khreis, H. [2020]. New approaches to identifying and reducing the global burden of disease from pollution. GeoHealth, 4, e2018GH000167. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GH000167

—Karen Hudson-Edwards, Editor, GeoHealth

Text © 2020. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
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