Air Pollution in Cities and Mental Health in Latin America
July 7, 2023
Editor's Note
This week, wildfires are again forcing millions of people across the United States and Canada to shelter indoors as air quality reaches dangerous levels. Our first author, Angel Hsu, assistant professor of public policy and the environment at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, writes that wildfires could finally bring attention to the more widespread dangers toxic air poses to human health. Nearly every city dweller on earth breathes air with pollutant levels that exceed World Health Organization limits, yet no global treaty on air quality exists—nothing analogous to the Montreal Protocol or Paris accord.
Countries in the Caribbean and Latin America are among the happiest in the world, but that does not mean they are void of mental health challenges. Depression and anxiety are on the rise, but treatments still lag behind. Researchers from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation explain how those countries can better support their populations' mental health and commend the progress that has already been made.
To wrap up this week, we offer a list of books that CFR staff are reading this summer.
As always, thank you for reading.—Thomas J. Bollyky, Editor
