Air pollution and the noncommunicable disease prevention agenda

Air pollution is a major environmental risk factor and contributor to chronic, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). However most public health approaches to NCD prevention focus on behavioral and biomedical risk factors, rather than environmental risk factors such as air pollution. In this article, Eloise Howse et al. discuss the implications of such a focus. They urge those in public health and environmental science to work together to acknowledge the shared drivers, including corporate determinants of air pollution; take a ‘co-benefits’ approach to NCD prevention; and expand prevention research through systems thinking and intersectoral, cross-disciplinary collaboration.  Read more.