AIRYOUTH

AIRYOUTH aims to evaluate the impact of current residential concentrations of air pollutants of emerging concern (APECs) on the respiratory health of children and adolescents, and to generate guidelines and tools which will help citizens, relevant professionals and policy-makers to act against these pollutants and related illnesses. It will focus on 3 APEC categories (ultrafine particles, black carbon and micro and nano plastics) and will combine: - Large-scale APEC characterization campaigns in household environments in 4 sites with different climatic and residential conditions (2 cities in Eastern and Western Europe, 1 city in overseas EU territories, and 1 African megalopolis); - Experimental research at cellular or animal level to document exposure-to-disease biological pathways for selected APECs; - Evaluation of behaviour-change interventions in populations through a platform multicountry randomized controlled trial (RCT) to assess the impact of a range of information strategies, air pollution management tools and economic incentives on households’ use of air quality guidelines, exposure to HAP and respiratory symptoms in children, adolescents and youth; - Modelling of concentration-response functions for the relationship between the 3 focus APEC categories and childhood respiratory health outcomes; - Development of information and training tools to raise awareness of APECs and to increase the adoption of relevant preventive actions against their health effects. Proposed interventions include : (a) a citizen-science intervention leveraging low-cost air quality sensors to encourage households to monitor APECs and RAPs in their residential environment; and (b) incentives to switch to electric cooking for gas stove and biomass users. The RCT will be conducted in the 4 sites selected for APEC characterization. AIRYOUTH will be implemented with a participatory approach including final interventions co-designed by beneficiaries/citizens and policy makers.