Atmospheric Nanoparticles and Their Impacts on Public Health

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that every year around two million people die annually due to the effects of atmospheric pollution (Tranfield & Walker, 2012). These estimates are based on epidemiological studies that showed associations between air pollution exposure and respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses and deaths. Special efforts thus have been made in order to reduce air pollution on a global level (Slezakova et al., 2012) and, more importantly, aiming to reduce the adverse impacts of atmospheric pollutants. Although these efforts have been leading to a reduction of risks and effects, air pollution is still a matter of great concern, mainly to relative impacts on human health.