Chapter 76
What Policy Makers and the Public
at Large Should Know About Air Quality
Wouter Lefebvre
Abstract Poor air quality results in important health effects. However, the understanding of the problem by the public at large and by the policy makers is sometimes
severely lacking. Therefore, it could be important to boil down the knowledge on air
quality to some main points which then can be communicated to the stakeholders.
The paper present such a list and is based on interviews and discussions with several
air quality experts in the field. For the public at large, the main message is twofold.
First of all, citizens have to acknowledge that every action they take has an influence
on the quality of the air they breathe. Secondly, they have to understand the impact
of air pollution on their own health and their neighbors, without blindly relying on
rules like ‘natural/green is good for air quality’, which are often wrong. For the
policy makers, a more heterogeneous set emerged from the discussions between the
experts. First of all, policy makers have to know how much they (on their government
level) can influence the air quality, and what effect certain actions can have on the
population for which they are responsible. Secondly, they need to understand the
uncertainties on the numbers as they exist now. Finally, stakeholders are encouraged
to take action, from the local scale on, in order to get the actions at other levels
moving (act local, think global).
76.1 Introduction
As an air pollution scientist, I regularly have to explain the work I do. Furthermore, I
sometimes have to defend the actions taken by the government for the improvement
of the air quality. However, when discussing this, one finds that what we think as
basic knowledge is missing in the broader public. However, we cannot expect citizens
to have a broad knowledge on air quality, next to all the other topics where other
specialists surely would want the public at large to have more knowledge.
W. Lefebvre (B)
VITO, Boeretang 200, 2400 Mol, Belgium
e-mail: wouter.lefebvre@vito.be
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
C. Mensink et al. (eds.), Air Pollution Modeling and its Application XXVI,
Springer Proceedings in Complexity,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22055-6_76
481
What Policy Makers and the Public
at Large Should Know About Air Quality
Wouter Lefebvre
Abstract Poor air quality results in important health effects. However, the understanding of the problem by the public at large and by the policy makers is sometimes
severely lacking. Therefore, it could be important to boil down the knowledge on air
quality to some main points which then can be communicated to the stakeholders.
The paper present such a list and is based on interviews and discussions with several
air quality experts in the field. For the public at large, the main message is twofold.
First of all, citizens have to acknowledge that every action they take has an influence
on the quality of the air they breathe. Secondly, they have to understand the impact
of air pollution on their own health and their neighbors, without blindly relying on
rules like ‘natural/green is good for air quality’, which are often wrong. For the
policy makers, a more heterogeneous set emerged from the discussions between the
experts. First of all, policy makers have to know how much they (on their government
level) can influence the air quality, and what effect certain actions can have on the
population for which they are responsible. Secondly, they need to understand the
uncertainties on the numbers as they exist now. Finally, stakeholders are encouraged
to take action, from the local scale on, in order to get the actions at other levels
moving (act local, think global).
76.1 Introduction
As an air pollution scientist, I regularly have to explain the work I do. Furthermore, I
sometimes have to defend the actions taken by the government for the improvement
of the air quality. However, when discussing this, one finds that what we think as
basic knowledge is missing in the broader public. However, we cannot expect citizens
to have a broad knowledge on air quality, next to all the other topics where other
specialists surely would want the public at large to have more knowledge.
W. Lefebvre (B)
VITO, Boeretang 200, 2400 Mol, Belgium
e-mail: wouter.lefebvre@vito.be
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
C. Mensink et al. (eds.), Air Pollution Modeling and its Application XXVI,
Springer Proceedings in Complexity,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22055-6_76
481