Home > environment, international, PLoS Medicine, public health, respiratory diseases > The Air That We Breathe: Addressing the Risks of Global Urbanization on Health

The Air That We Breathe: Addressing the Risks of Global Urbanization on Health

September 11, 2012

The Air That We Breathe: Addressing the Risks of Global Urbanization on Health

Source: PLoS Medicine

More than half of the world’s population now live in cities [1], and while urbanization has the potential to allow greater access to health care for all, huge discrepancies in how resources are allocated within cities result in major inequities in health [2]. Addressing these discrepancies and improving health require accurate assessment. To that point, earlier this month PLOS Medicine published a Policy Forum article by Jason Corburn and Alison Cohen that focused on the urbanizing planet and the need for health equity indicators to guide public health policy in cities and urban areas [2].

The major theme of Corburn and Cohen’s argument is that if societies are to ensure those living in the poorest urban slums have the same right to health as people living on the richest boulevards, health indicators must allow for the identification of where health inequities exist. For example, while indicators in Nairobi measure population access to communal toilet blocks, they give no information as to whether the toilet blocks are hygienic or safe to use and therefore mask inequity within the city. Such indicators, however, would have little value in cities like London or New York, which illustrates the need for context-specific measures.

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Categories: environment, international, PLoS Medicine, public health, respiratory diseases
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