In direct response to the increased need for a community-wide procedure for reciprocal exchange of information and data relating to ambient air quality, CAIR4HEALTH was envisaged by six research institutes as a comprehensive effort to strengthen and exploit research results obtained by European and other projects related to air quality and health impact in relation to key European sustainable development action plans and strategies. In so doing CAIR4HEALTH will aid the review and horizon scanning process for key action plans including the Environment and Health Action Plan. It will examine the research and policy-related outputs from clusters, networks, projects and expert groups including those represented by CLEAR and AIRNET.

CAIR4HEALTH will examine the link between air pollution and health quantitatively and qualitatively. It is recognised that exposure to air pollutants can lead to adverse health effects. As pollution levels in urban areas are growing, for example, due to rising traffic levels, health effects in cities are of particular concern. The official figures are indeed disturbing:

• WHO reported that long-term exposure to air pollution in Europe caused 168000 (range of estimate 100000 – 400000) excess deaths annually.
• The best estimate on the reduction in life expectancy in Central Europe at about 1 year (WHO 1999).
• Worldwide, it has been estimated that 3 million people die prematurely because of air pollution (EEA 2003).
• It has been estimated that 6 % of all deaths in Austria, France and Switzerland could be associated with exposure of the population to particulate matter air pollution.
• American Heart Association's journal Stroke reported that an increase in particulate air pollution from the lowest to the highest levels raised ischemic stroke admissions by 1.03 percent on the same day and further analysis yielded similar results for levels of carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and sulphur dioxide.