An Overview of Air Pollution and Health in Australia and the World

PRESENTER: Dr Luke Knibbs (School of Public Health, UQ)

BIOGRAPHY:  Dr Luke Knibbs is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Public Health. He is interested in teaching and researching the nexus of health and the environment, with a key focus on air pollution and respiratory infections.

ABSTRACT:  People breathe about 10,000 litres of air every day, on average. Population health is particularly susceptible to hazards in the air, whether they’re inanimate chemicals (e.g. air pollutants) or biological (e.g. bacteria). They make a staggering contribution to the global burden of allergic, cardio-respiratory disease, and cancer. Outdoor fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) air pollution accounted for 4 million premature deaths globally in 2015, and indoor exposure to solid fuel smoke accounted for a further 2.5 million. The science of studying things suspended in the air is endlessly challenging and interesting, and highly multi-disciplinary.

In this talk, I will provide an overview of my research program, which is focused on understanding how and where people are exposed to air pollution, what the health effects are, and identifying how these can be reduced.