Air quality and health impacts in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: an eye on COVID-19.

Air quality is intimately linked to human activities, climate, atmosphere and ecosystems. Many of the anthropogenic contributors to air pollution are also sources of greenhouse gases including CO2 and other short-lived climate pollutants, such as Ozone and black carbon, which greatly contribute to the climate change phenomenon and its adverse effects on human health. Unfortunately, fragile and dry ecosystems prevailing in most of our countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region may be implicated for exacerbation of this air pollution and climate change dilemma even more severely.

The dilemma of pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.

In the World Health Organization Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR), over 100 million people fall ill every year from foodborne diseases, of whom an estimated 37 000 die annually (disproportionally children). A number of studies have identified a clear relationship between occupational exposure to pesticides and a number of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). For example, respiratory symptoms were reported in 65.