Air pollution remains a major public health concern, contributing to an estimated 6.7 million deaths globally each year. To communicate changing air quality to the public, many countries use air quality indexes (AQIs) as a tool to inform about short-term air quality conditions. The WHO Regional Office for Europe has released a new report titled “Air quality indexes: key considerations and roadmaps for best practices”, offering practical guidance to bolster the ways in which air quality information is communicated and used to protect health.
Conventional AQIs often rely on regulatory thresholds for single pollutants and do not reflect the combined health risks of multiple pollutants. This new report reviews current practices and highlights the benefits of health-based multipollutant indexes, which draw upon epidemiological evidence to provide a more accurate picture of health risks.
The report supports the 2023 Budapest Declaration and the updated 2025 road map on air pollution, both of which call for stronger public communication and integration of air quality information into health systems. For countries, regions and cities, applying the report’s guidance can strengthen risk communication and improve protection for susceptible and vulnerable populations.
What’s new in this report
The new report includes a scientific review of AQIs from a public health perspective and evidence on public health benefits and limitations of AQIs and alerts.
The report also includes 21 key considerations on the development, validation, communication, further refinement and global equity of AQIs, such as:
- developing locally adapted, health-based AQIs where feasible;
- improving transparency by publishing both AQI values and pollutant concentrations;
- strengthening public communication through clear, culturally tailored messages and digital tools; and
- ensuring equity by making information accessible to vulnerable and susceptible groups.
Co-funded by the European Union and Germany, the report was coordinated by the WHO European Centre for Environment and Health in Bonn, Germany, and prepared with input from a team of international experts in a wide range of disciplines.