380 Creating seamless clean breathing spaces for workers and communities: Impractical dream or a feasible reality?

Clean breathing spaces are a critical requirement for protection of worker and community health. While workplaces in formal sectors of developed countries are often well regulated, majority of workforce in low and middle income countries (LMICs) is exposed to unhealthy concentrations of particulates, gases and fumes. Nearly 0.5 million deaths and 11.8 million Disability adjusted life years (DALYs) were attributable to occupational air pollution in 2019, with South Asia experiencing some of the highest burdens. Further, with ninety-five percent of the world’s population lives in areas where the ambient concentrations exceed World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, for healthy air, ambient pollution was responsible for over 4 million deaths and 118 million DALYs in 2019. This makes it imperative that air pollution is addressed seamlessly across multiple micro-environments that workers and communities spend their productive years. This places air pollution near or at the top of the list of all known risk factors for ill health globally and especially in LMICs, exceeding risks from high blood pressure, tobacco smoking, child and maternal malnutrition. With competing risk factors and limited resources, the dual burden from occupational and ambient air pollution poses an enormous challenge for air quality management. The talk will provide an overview of the air pollution exposure and health risk situation with a focus on developing country workers and communities and the special challenges faced by LMICs in prioritizing air quality actions to create “seamless breathing spaces” across occupational and community environments.