Climate crisis poses greatest risk to people with respiratory illnesses, experts warn

Wildfires, dust storms and fossil fuel-based traffic worsen respiratory conditions and can create new ones, the experts said. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

The climate crisis may pose the greatest risks to people with respiratory illnesses, with high temperatures and changing weather patterns exacerbating lung health problems, experts have said.

Respiratory experts have called on the EU to lower its regulatory limits for air pollution in line with the World Health Organization (WHO). In a European Respiratory Journal editorial, they said: “We need to do all we can to help alleviate patients’ suffering.”