Book excerpt: This book examines in detail the clinical implications of those diseases that either are primarily triggered by air pollution or represent direct consequences of air pollutants. The aim is to provide medical practitioners with practical solutions to issues in diagnosis and treatment while simultaneously furnishing other interested parties with crucial information on the field. The book introduces the concept that air pollution-related diseases constitute a new class of pathologies. A wide range of conditions mainly attributable to air pollution are discussed, covering different body systems and pollution impacts in subsets of the population. In addition to presenting state of the art overviews of clinical aspects, the book carefully examines the implications of current knowledge for social and public health strategies aimed at disease prevention and prophylaxis. The Clinical Handbook of Air Pollution-Related Diseases will greatly assist doctors and healthcare workers when dealing with the consequences of air pollution in their everyday practice and will provide researchers, industry, and policymakers with valuable facts and insights.