Episode 3

In April of 2021, Berkeley Earth’s air quality data was featured in National Geographic’s cover story which called air pollution the next global health pandemic, drawing attention to the nearly 4 million annual deaths attributed to poor air quality worldwide.

To mark the official launch of Berkeley Earth’s new podcast Data Points, we sit down with radiologist Dr. Vineet Khanna to discuss the growing body of data suggesting the correlation between air pollution and elevated lung cancer risk.

Highlighting research featured in his recent paper Criteria for Low Dose CT Lung Cancer Screening in the Setting of Air Pollution, Dr. Khanna discusses the questions related to air quality-related disease that still need answering, as well as the need for the global health community to consider earlier interventions for patients with significant exposure to poor air quality.

For real-time and historic air quality trends, as well as downloadable time series data, visit Berkeley Earth’s Air Pollution Overview.