Objective: To assess the status of the legal framework for air quality control in all countries of Latin America and Caribbean (LAC); to determine the current distribution of air monitoring stations and mean levels of air pollutants in all capital and large cities (more than 100 000 inhabitants); and to discuss the implications for climate change and public policymaking.

Climate change is a social justice as well as an environmental issue. The magnitude and pattern of changes in weather and climate variables are creating differential exposures, vulnerabilities, and health risks that increase stress on health systems while exacerbating existing and creating new health inequities.

Objetivo. Realizar un diagnóstico de salud ambiental infantil y un análisis de percepción de riesgos en comunidades indígenas de la Región Huasteca Sur de San Luis Potosí, México, para diseñar una estrategia de intervención acorde a sus necesidades. Métodos. La investigación siguió un enfoque mixto realizado en dos fases de estudio.

Objective. To inform policy by providing an overview of systematic reviews on interventions that facilitate sustainable energy use and have a positive impact on health. Methods. Systematic review methods were used to synthesize evidence from multiple systematic reviews and economic evaluations through a comprehensive search of 13 databases and nine websites based on a pre-defined protocol, including clear inclusion criteria.

In summary, both outdoor and indoor air pollution in the Americas, and in Peru, in particular, occur at unacceptable levels. Reducing air pollution to WHO-recommended levels requires difficult political action that must balance the potential economic cost against the current cost in human lives.

Objetivo. Analizar cómo se manifiesta la inequidad de género en contextos de pobreza en diferentes escenarios de riesgo ambiental en México. Métodos. Diseño cualitativo basado en seis grupos de discusión y 54 entrevistas en profundidad con mujeres de seis comunidades expuestas, dos al manganeso ambiental en un distrito minero, dos en un corredor industrial y dos aledañas a un relleno sanitario.

Objective Trials of environmental risk factors and acute lower respiratory infections (ALRI) face a double challenge: implementing sufficiently sensitive and specific outcome assessments, and blinding. We evaluate methods used in the first randomized exposure study of pollution indoors and respiratory effects (RESPIRE).

Objective. To describe the prevalence of “active” (self-propelled, human-powered) transportation in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region over the past decade. Methods. MEDLINE, Excerpta Medica (Embase), SportDiscus, Lilacs, MediCarib, Web of Science, OVID, CINAHL, Scopus, Google Scholar, National Transportation Library, and TRIS/TRID

Common, preventable risk factors, such as physical inactivity, unhealthy diet and the harmful use of alcohol and tobacco consumption, have long been recognized risks to health. What is less well known is that environmental factors are also main causes of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs); ambient (outdoor) and household air pollution together caused more than 6 million deaths from cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases and lung cancer in 2012.