Adapting to poor air quality

Adapting to poor air quality

Science Sessions are brief conversations with cutting-edge researchers, National Academy members, and policymakers as they discuss topics relevant to today's scientific community. Learn the behind-the-scenes story of work published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), plus a broad range of scientific news about discoveries that affect the world around us.

In this episode, Rebecca Saari explores potential adaptations needed for worsening air quality due to climate change.

In this episode, we cover:
• [00:03] Introduction
• [00:57] Rebecca Saari, an air quality engineer at the University of Waterloo, describes an air quality alert.
• [01:23] Explanation of the hazard of fine particulate matter air pollution.
• [02:18] Description of the study’s modeling approach.
• [03:14] Description of modeling methods. 
• [04:05] Explanation of study results and where air quality alerts may rise due to climate change.
• [04:34] Exploration of the social impacts of inequitable distribution of worsening air quality.
• [05:24] Description of strategies for mitigating the health risk of poor air quality.
• [06:27] Discussion of the costs and benefits of increased time spent indoors to mitigate health risk.
• [07:22] Discussion of the role of policy in protecting from air quality hazards.
• [08:13] Explanation of the study’s caveats and limitations.
• [09:30] Potential impacts of the study.
• [10:11] Conclusion

About Our Guest:

Rebecca Saari
Associate Professor 
University of Waterloo

View related content here: https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2215685121

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