OBJECTIVE: To summarize the main updated evidence about the health effects of air pollution, with a special focus on Southern Europe. DATA SOURCES: Literature was obtained through PubMed Central and the official websites of European Agencies and Scientific Societies. STUDY SELECTION: Recent shreds of evidence about the health effects of air pollution coming from international reports and original research were collected and described in this review. RESULTS: Air pollution is an avoidable risk factor that causes a huge burden for society, in terms of death, health disorders, and huge socio-economic costs. The southern European countries face a more threatening problem because they experience the effects of both anthropogenic pollutants and natural dusts (particulate matter [PM]). The European Environment Agency reported the number of premature deaths in the 28 countries of the European Union attributable to air pollutant exposure in the year 2016: 374,000 for PM2.5, 68,000 for nitrogen dioxide, and 14,000 for ozone. In Italy, time series and analytical epidemiological studies showed increased cardio-respiratory hospital admissions and mortality, as well as increased risk of respiratory diseases in people living in urban areas. CONCLUSIONS Based on abundant evidence, the World Health Organization, which hosts the Global Alliance against Chronic Respiratory Diseases (GARD), the scientific respiratory societies, and the patients' associations, as well as others in the health sector, must increase their engagement in advocacy for clean air policies.

This review analyzes the state and recent progress in the field of information support for pollen allergy sufferers. For decades, information available for the patients and allergologists consisted of pollen counts, which are vital but insufficient. New technology paves the way to substantial increase in amount and diversity of the data. This paper reviews old and newly suggested methods to predict pollen and air pollutant concentrations in the air and proposes an allergy risk concept, which combines the pollen and pollution information and transforms it into a qualitative risk index. This new index is available in an app (Mobile Airways Sentinel NetworK-air) that was developed in the frame of the European Union grant Impact of Air POLLution on sleep, Asthma and Rhinitis (a project of European Institute of Innovation and Technology-Health). On-going transformation of the pollen allergy information support is based on new technological solutions for pollen and air quality monitoring and predictions. The new information-technology and artificial-intelligence-based solutions help to convert this information into easy-to-use services for both medical practitioners and allergy sufferers.