History of Science World Health Organisation (2015) emphasised that the air pollution issue remains one of the global health emergencies in Sustainable Development Goals Agenda. According to statistics from WHO, over 90% world population lives in areas where air quality cannot reach the standard of WHO, while 1 in 9 deaths is caused by diseases related to air pollution worldwide (WHO, 2018).

History of Policy Not much progress has been made to govern global air quality since the introduction of the World's Health Organisation's: Global Air Quality Guidelines in 2005. Consequently, as of 2017, 57 countries have still not set any national air quality standards (Kutlar, 2017). Despite this, some regional air pollution legislative acts have been passed in the recent decades i.e. the Europe Union has set air quality concentration standards hoping to achieve “clean air for all”.

History of Moinitoring Several countries have developed monitoring systems to detect levels of air pollution. Globally, the ‘World Air Quality Index Project’ is an initiative for the monitoring of air quality. Moreover, some countries and organisations have independent air pollution monitoring system such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States and European Air Quality Index from Europe Environment Agency.

View Timeline of Major Air Pollution Events
Hide Timeline