A panel of experts challenged ATS members and ATS 2025 International Conference attendees to help patients and regional leaders understand and act on the increasing importance of air quality for individuals and community health during Tuesday’s Keynote Series session, “Improving Air Quality and Health: Current Challenges and Opportunities,” at the ATS 2025 International Conference in San Francisco.

Air quality advancements, the panelists added, can be done in practical and non-partisan ways that focus on proven science and shared concerns that bridge cultural and political divides.

The Impact of Air Quality

Erika Moseson, MD, MA, acknowledged that talking with people about air quality can be difficult because so many individual and community factors contribute to it, but that is also why these conversations are essential.

“Every time we take a breath of air, we are inhaling everything, all the chemicals and everything that is in that air, and it is going straight to our lungs,” said Dr. Moseson, a clinical pulmonologist with Legacy Medical Group in Portland and host of the Air Health Our Health podcast. “As respiratory health professionals, we know that there is only a tiny cell layer separating it from our bloodstream, and that whatever is in our air can circulate around our body, potentially causing illness in every organ system.”

Factoring in critical development windows, such as pregnancies and infancy, the effects of breathing polluted air can adversely affect people for their entire lives, Dr. Moseson noted.

“Air pollution is pervasive,” added Bonnie Holmes-Gen, chief of the health & exposure assessment branch in the research division of the California Air Resources Board.

She noted scientific studies from across the globe have proven that air quality has a major impact on community health and “confirm the importance of reducing pollution levels.”

Ms. Holmes-Gen’s agency focuses on several practical matters to assist the public in addressing air quality, such as rating home air filters. The board also funds research into air quality’s impact on Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and other health conditions.

Currently, the board is seeking to better understand the long-term effects of wildfires, particularly with recent increases in urban wildfires and the associated toxins they release on residential communities and firefighters.

The frontline impact is a particular focus for Kathleen Navarro DuBose, PhD, MPH, who advises firefighting teams in her work as the wildland firefighter health and well-being program coordinator at the U.S. Department of the Interior.

She said her teams have no choice but to place themselves in hazardous conditions, but she applies the same fundamental principles for them that she would advise to the public: “Risk is a function of concentration — how much is in the air — and duration — how long you are exposed to it. And any time you can reduce one of those variables, you are reducing cumulative risk.”

How to Respond

ATS members and professionals in the fields of pulmonary, critical care, or sleep medicine can offer several practical responses to make an impact, said the panelists.

Ms. Holmes-Gen encouraged California residents to examine research funding opportunities. She also said that her board provides numerous online resources for the public and clinicians.

Dr. Moseson urged the community to understand the importance of the problem, but not to give in to despair.

“If you are trying to get started on this, it can be paralyzing if you just think that climate change is happening and the world is on fire,” Dr. Moseson acknowledged.

The best way to overcome analysis-paralysis, Dr. Moseson continued, is to inform patients about small practical steps they can take, such as not cooking at home during air quality alerts or reducing exposure to gasoline-powered mowers.

ATS members can also utilize their voice and respect from their community to seek out others who are concerned, and contact city, county, and state leaders about air quality issues. This can be done in personal, non-partisan ways, said Dr. Moseson, such as emphasizing that we all want to protect the air that our children are breathing on the school playgrounds.

“The message matters, and the messenger matters,” Dr. Moseson said. “It doesn’t have to be doom and gloom, and death-is-in-the-air. It needs to be a vision of shared prosperity and shared health, because a world with less pollution is awesome, and it’s awesome for everyone.”