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Topic · Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

Air Quality and Health Impacts

Air Quality and Health Impacts is a research topic within Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis. Science Explorer counts 84k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the health effects of air pollution, particularly related to particulate matter and its impact on cardiovascular disease, mortality, and global burden of disease. The papers cover topics such as exposure assessment, oxidative stress, and the results of various epidemiological studies.

  • Air Pollution
  • Particulate Matter
  • Health Effects
  • Global Burden of Disease
  • Cardiovascular Disease
  • Fine Particulate Air Pollution
  • Mortality
  • Exposure Assessment
  • Oxidative Stress
  • Epidemiological Studies
Research works
84k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
8.3k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+10%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
43% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Air Quality and Health Impacts

Which countries lead Air Quality and Health Impacts research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (6.6k and 3.6k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 6.6k works
  2. 2 United States 3.6k works
  3. 3 India 1.4k works
  4. 4 United Kingdom 790 works
  5. 5 South Korea 702 works
  6. 6 Italy 487 works
  7. 7 France 475 works
  8. 8 Germany 452 works
  9. 9 Spain 412 works
  10. 10 Canada 406 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 42.9%United States: 23.6%India: 9.3%United Kingdom: 5.1%6 others listed: 19.1%43%largest
China6,601 · 42.9%United States3,630 · 23.6%India1,432 · 9.3%United Kingdom790 · 5.1%6 others listed2,934 · 19.1%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Air Quality and Health Impacts research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Air Quality and Health Impacts research, followed by Peking University and Harvard University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 440 works
  2. 2 Peking UniversityChina 190 works
  3. 3 Harvard UniversityUnited States 147 works
  4. 4 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 117 works
  5. 5 University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUnited States 112 works
  6. 6 Nanjing University of Information Science and TechnologyChina 111 works
  7. 7 Fudan UniversityChina 109 works
  8. 8 Tsinghua UniversityChina 104 works
  9. 9 Sun Yat-sen UniversityChina 101 works
  10. 10 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 87 works

Who are the leading researchers in Air Quality and Health Impacts?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Air Quality and Health Impacts include Ahmedin Jemal, Christopher J L Murray and Freddie Bray.

  1. 1 Ahmedin Jemal United States 761k citations
  2. 2 Christopher J L Murray United States 583k citations
  3. 3 Freddie Bray France 550k citations
  4. 4 Zhong Lin Wang United States 491k citations
  5. 5 Rob Knight United States 468k citations
  6. 6 Simon Iain Hay United States 452k citations
  7. 7 Theo Vos United States 439k citations
  8. 8 George Davey Smith United Kingdom 435k citations
  9. 9 Ali H. Mokdad United States 429k citations
  10. 10 Walter Churchill Willett United States 411k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Air Quality and Health Impacts?

The most cited paper in Air Quality and Health Impacts is "Toxic Potential of Materials at the Nanolevel" (André E. Nel, Tian Xia, Lutz Mädler et al., 2006), with 9,332 citations. Next come "Lung Cancer, Cardiopulmonary Mortality, and Long-term Exposure to Fine Particulate Air Pollution" (8,639) and "Occurrence of the potent mutagens 2- nitrobenzanthrone and 3-nitrobenzanthrone in fine airborne particles" (8,534).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Toxic Potential of Materials at the Nanolevel André E. Nel, Tian Xia, Lutz Mädler et al. · Science 2 Feb 2006 9,332
2 Lung Cancer, Cardiopulmonary Mortality, and Long-term Exposure to Fine Particulate Air Pollution C. Arden Pope · JAMA Open access 6 Mar 2002 8,639
3 Occurrence of the potent mutagens 2- nitrobenzanthrone and 3-nitrobenzanthrone in fine airborne particles Aldenor Gomes Santos, Gisele O. da Rocha, Jaílson B. de Andrade · Scientific Reports Open access 3 Jan 2019 8,534
4 An Association between Air Pollution and Mortality in Six U.S. Cities Douglas W. Dockery, C. Arden Pope, Xiping Xu et al. · New England Journal of Medicine Open access 9 Dec 1993 8,197
5 Nanotoxicology: An Emerging Discipline Evolving from Studies of Ultrafine Particles Günter Oberdörster, Eva Oberdörster, Jan Oberdörster · Environmental Health Perspectives Open access 22 Mar 2005 7,918
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Air Quality and Health Impacts research done?

The largest centres of Air Quality and Health Impacts research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Guangzhou (China) and Nanjing (China).

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 1.7k works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 415 works
  3. 3 GuangzhouChina 405 works
  4. 4 NanjingChina 373 works
  5. 5 SeoulSouth Korea 334 works
  6. 6 WuhanChina 271 works
  7. 7 LondonUnited Kingdom 257 works
  8. 8 Xi'anChina 212 works
  9. 9 New DelhiIndia 203 works
  10. 10 TianjinChina 192 works
See Air Quality and Health Impacts on the map

Where is the best place to study Air Quality and Health Impacts?

Among universities, judged by research, Peking University, Harvard University and Fudan University score highest, combining citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%mean 15.37%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Harvard UniversityFudan UniversityPeking UniversityNanjing University o…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Peking UniversityChina 69.014.3%4.9×190 +1.0%
2Harvard UniversityUnited States 66.015.6%2.5×147 -11.6%
3Fudan UniversityChina 65.615.1%3.7×109 +35.0%
4Nanjing University of Information Science and TechnologyChina 64.613.2%14.6×111 -0.5%
5Hong Kong University of Science and TechnologyChina 63.613.5%5.2×40 +18.8%
6Imperial College LondonUnited Kingdom 63.111.5%4.2×78 +41.2%
7Sun Yat-sen UniversityChina 62.713.6%2.6×101 +37.4%
8Chongqing UniversityChina 61.823.4%1.6×32 +44.1%
9Tsinghua UniversityChina 61.016.8%2.4×104 -10.9%
10London School of Hygiene & Tropical MedicineUnited Kingdom 60.716.7%6.3×19 +1.8%

Universities only. The score blends citation excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Air Quality and Health Impacts, country by country

Is Air Quality and Health Impacts research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 10% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2022. The fastest-growing topics are Air Quality and Health Impacts.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Air Quality and Health Impacts as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.089% in 2024.

still counting0.050%0.10%0.15%Air Quality and Health Impacts0.078% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Air Quality and Health Impacts over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Air Quality and Health Impacts9.9% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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