2018 年 22 巻 1-2 号 p. 39-45
PM2.5 air pollution at urban and regional scales is a serious environmental issue in Asia. Developing counties in South and Southeast Asia are facing an especially severe situation with urban PM2.5 pollution. Also, transboundary air pollution results in high PM2.5 concentrations over wide regions leeward of the source country. Additionally, long-range transport of Asian dust aerosols in Northeast Asia and biomass burning in Southeast Asia has resulted in regional haze episodes. This paper provides an overview of temporal trends, focusing on PM2.5 pollution in Asian region, ambient standard levels in each country and regional characteristics. It also discusses the way forward toward PM2.5 mitigation.