How can we combat air pollution in mega cities?

Dr Audrey de Nazelle, Dr John Gulliver, Professor Frank Kelly and Dr Sean Beevers

November's Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) Forum was on air pollution in mega cities and how it affects our health.

A mega city is defined as a city with a population of over 10 million.  There are currently 23 megacities in the world with that number expected to rise to 37 by 2025.  Mega cities bring many challenges including urbanisation, gentrification, homelessness, increased crime, energy and material resource problems, traffic congestion and air pollution. 

Our Non-Communicable Disease Forum this month was led by Imperial’s Dr John Gulliver from the School of Public Health and heard from members of the MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health. The Centre exists to undertake research in the fields of environment and health in order to inform health policy and the understanding of key issues affecting society.

A major area of their research involves investigating air pollution and associated health effects at local, national and international scales. This event focused on air pollution challenges in mega cities and how to assess human exposure to air pollution.

Speaker Frank Kelly, Professor of Environmental Health within the Environmental Research Group at King's College London talked about air pollution challenges in mega cities.  Dr Audrey de Nazelle from the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Imperial’s Centre for Environmental Policy addressed the issue of air pollution exposure whilst cycling and Dr Sean Beevers, Senior Lecturer in Air Quality Modelling for the Environmental Research Group at King's College London discussed the London Hybrid Exposure Model. 

Watch the full recording of the event here.

View the event photos here.

Join us

Our monthly NCD Forum aims to bring together staff and students from Imperial and afar to discuss and disseminate findings on current research and innovations in the treatment and prevention of NCDs, the world’s number one killer.

For further information and to sign up for future NCD forums, visit our website.