Illustrative: potential-flow streamlines around a body with tracer bands moving at the local speed and a wake that sways downstream

Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium · Course catalogue · Health and Society

Environmental and One Health

Pollution and environmental health

Pollution and environmental health, taught twice over: as the working methods of the field and as its frontier since 2024, with labs on the Academy's tools, open data and the Nexus Standards.

Core course Frontier course

The discipline

01Core course · L2 Intermediate

Pollution and environmental health: foundations and practice

This area covers air, water and soil pollution, chemicals and hazardous waste, and the pathways from a source to human and ecosystem exposure.

Level
L2 Intermediate
Study time
about 24 hours (planning estimate)
Status
In authoring
Prerequisites
An L1 course in the area, or an entry review

Why now

Documents dust as a recurring air quality, health and aviation hazard needing forecasting and early warning. World Meteorological Organization, WMO Airborne Dust Bulletin No. 10 – July 2026, 10 July 2026

Learning outcomes

  1. Define air quality index and the other key terms of the discipline and use them correctly in a written case
  2. Explain air quality and air pollution and water and soil contamination with a worked example and its source
  3. Apply the discipline's method to a documented case and explain each result with its source
  4. Analyse a named case against chemicals and hazardous waste, stating evidence, date and limits

Modules

  1. Air quality and air pollution
    • Air quality and air pollution
    • Water and soil contamination
    • Chemicals and hazardous waste
  2. Exposure pathways and dose
    • Exposure pathways and dose
    • Environmental health surveillance
    • Plastics and marine pollution
  3. Sand and dust storms
    • Sand and dust storms
    • Circular economy and waste
  4. Lab: the discipline's method
    • An annual mean concentration of fine particulate matter, an exposure-response slope per ten micrograms per cubic metre and a baseline death rate are enough to compute the share of deaths attributable to the air and the deaths per 100,000 a limit value would avoid; that computation is the method behind every burden estimate.
    • Work the method through a documented case and explain each result
    • Read the method's sources and stated values

Labs with Academy tools

Nexus Standards

Teaches

  • NRS-X12 Pollution and environmental health risk
  • NRS-H6 Hazard family: Airborne particles and low visibility
  • NRS-H29 Hazard family: Air pollution episodes
  • NRS-H30 Hazard family: Contaminated water, soil and food
  • NRS-H31 Hazard family: Persistent and bioaccumulative substances
  • NRS-H72 Hazard family: Novel entities and emerging contaminants
  • NRS-H73 Hazard family: Indoor environment hazards
  • NRS-H74 Hazard family: Noise, light and thermal pollution

Relies on

  • NS-1 The UNI and the artefact catalogue
  • NS-16 UNI application profile (how articles, documents, code, data, APIs and interfaces carry the UNI)
  • NRS-C1 Risk vocabulary and ontology
  • NRS-C2 Risk assessment method
  • NRS-C3 Hazard, exposure, vulnerability and capacity data
  • NRS-C4 Risk data model, identifiers and exchange
  • NRS-C7 Early warning, triggers and anticipatory action
  • NRS-C8 Evidence, uncertainty and provenance

Assessment

  • 40%Lab recordWork the discipline's method through a documented case and explain each result with its source and date
  • 40%Case memoApply the discipline's methods to a named place or organisation, stating evidence and limits
  • 20%Key terms checkShort answers on the key terms, marked against the definitions

Delivery

  • Self-paced online, with the labs in the browser
  • Cohort study over six to eight weeks, with a weekly lab review
  • Co-delivered with a partner institution, inside its own courses

Partner on this course

  • Co-teach a module and bring a current case from your work
  • Host a cohort for your learners, with your own schedule and review
  • Contribute a lab: a dataset your institution publishes openly, or a model
  • Review the course content and its references before it opens
  • Translate the course and adapt its cases to your region

How institutions and experts take part

In the Academy LMS

Course on the learning platform
Intermediate, 4 topics
Cohort group
A community group for each cohort of learners
Achievement
Recorded on completion of the assessed work

References

  1. World Meteorological Organization, WMO Airborne Dust Bulletin No. 10 – July 2026, 10 July 2026
  2. World Health Organization, WHO global air quality guidelines, 2021
  3. Dockery and others, An association between air pollution and mortality in six US cities, 1993
  4. Landrigan and others, The Lancet Commission on pollution and health, 2018
02Live map

Environmental exposure in India

Haze, nitrogen dioxide, dust, surface heat by day and night, and where people live, over India.

The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.

Layers 2

Environmental exposure

Latest available

NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth

Loading the latest NASA imagery.

Drag to move. Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll, pinch or the buttons to zoom; hover for the values under the pointer; reset returns to the region.

Environmental exposure, framed on India.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date. They are indicators, not assessments of any place.

Data: NASA GIBS · ASTER GDEM · Blue Marble · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Natural Earth · NASA EONETSources and licences

  • We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • MODIS and VIIRS atmosphere products, NASA LANCE and LAADS DAAC; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • VIIRS near-real-time products (flood, land surface temperature, snow cover, corrected reflectance), NASA LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • OMI nitrogen dioxide (Aura) and OMPS aerosol index (Suomi NPP), NASA; distributed by the NASA GES DISC; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • MERRA-2 reanalysis, NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office; distributed by the NASA GES DISC; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University. 2018. Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4): Population Density, Revision 11. NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). doi:10.7927/H49C6VHW. CC BY 4.0
  • NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS), VIIRS 375 m active fire product, NASA LANCE; vector tiles via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • ASTER GDEM is a product of METI and NASA (ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003, NASA LP DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). Cite as: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (2019). ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003. doi:10.5067/ASTER/ASTGTM.003. NASA open data
  • Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com. Public domain
  • © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via NASA GIBS (coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). ODbL
  • Blue Marble, NASA Earth Observatory; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • Context on the globe and flat map: coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names from NASA GIBS reference layers (OpenStreetMap data, ODbL, © OpenStreetMap contributors); Blue Marble imagery as an optional base; 3D terrain and the elevation read-out from the ASTER GDEM elevation colour index (5 m to 200 m classes, exaggerated for legibility). Boundaries are drawn as published and imply no position on any territory.
  • Globe: MapLibre GL JS 6.9.1, BSD-3-Clause, © MapLibre contributors.
  • Live events: NASA Earth Observatory Natural Event Tracker (EONET); events are indicative and keep their original source links.
  • NASA GIBS: We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
  • Air quality forecast, 5 days, PM2.5 (CAMS via Open-Meteo): Contains modified Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service information 2026.
  • Past year, daily temperature (ERA5 via Open-Meteo): Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
  • Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (https://open-meteo.com/), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
  • Optional layers (12 sources in the layer list: live, forecast, observed and context) print their provider credit on the map and here when switched on; forecasts are model output and derived indices are estimates.

Layers and dates

  • Aerosol optical depth, daily: VIIRS NOAA-20 Deep Blue AOD, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
  • Land surface temperature, day, 8-day composite: VIIRS NOAA-20 Level 3, 8-day, NASA LANCE · 14 Sep 2026
  • Nitrogen dioxide, lower atmosphere column: OMI Aura, NASA GES DISC · 10 Oct 2026
  • Surface dust PM2.5, monthly mean: MERRA-2, NASA GMAO / GES DISC · July 2026
  • Land surface temperature, night, 8-day composite: VIIRS NOAA-20 Level 3, 8-day, NASA LANCE · 14 Sep 2026
  • Population density, 2020: Population: CIESIN, Columbia University, Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (2018), NASA SEDAC, CC BY 4.0 · static
  • Active fires and thermal anomalies: VIIRS NOAA-20 375 m (FIRMS), NASA LANCE FIRMS · 13 Oct 2026
  • Flood water, 3-day composite: VIIRS Global Flood Product, NASA LANCE · 14 Oct 2026

03How learning runs

How learning runs, as a process you can run

Select a scenario and press Play: course, pathway, practice, faculty, cells and record.

04What is changing

Frontier course · L3 advanced, programme courses and standards

Pollution and environmental health: frontier methods

The methods, data, tools and studies that changed pollution and environmental health between 2024 and 2026, taught by reproducing them on open data.

Level
L3 Advanced
Study time
about 28 hours (planning estimate)
Status
Planned
Prerequisites
Pollution and environmental health: foundations and practice; Working knowledge of a scripting language (Python or R) for the labs

Why now

Documents dust as a recurring air quality, health and aviation hazard needing forecasting and early warning. World Meteorological Organization, WMO Airborne Dust Bulletin No. 10 – July 2026, 10 July 2026

Learning outcomes

  1. Explain what changed in pollution and environmental health since 2024 and cite the studies, data or rules behind each change
  2. Reproduce WMO Airborne Dust Bulletin records severe 2025 dust events on open data and state the uncertainty of the result
  3. Evaluate a 2024 to 2026 study: its question, data, method, limits and what it changes for practice
  4. Design an analysis that combines a frontier method with the faculty's instruments, and justify each choice

Modules

  1. WMO Airborne Dust Bulletin records severe 2025 dust events
    • WMO reports global dust concentrations in 2025 similar to 2024 but with large regional extremes, including China's worst dust storm in a decade and the most US-Mexico border dust storms since 1935.
    • Documents dust as a recurring air quality, health and aviation hazard needing forecasting and early warning.
    • World Meteorological Organization, 10 July 2026
  2. State of Global Air 2025 links 7.9 million deaths to pollution
    • The Health Effects Institute estimates air pollution contributed to 7.9 million deaths in 2023, 86% from noncommunicable diseases, and for the first time quantifies over 625,000 dementia deaths.
    • Keeps air pollution as the leading environmental health risk and widens the outcomes exposure assessments should cover.
    • Health Effects Institute, 22 October 2025
  3. Plastics treaty talks in Geneva adjourn without agreement
    • The resumed fifth session of negotiations on a global plastic pollution treaty ended without consensus on a text, with divides over production, products, finance and voting.
    • Prolongs regulatory uncertainty for plastics producers, users and waste systems and delays coordinated exposure reduction.
    • United Nations Environment Programme, 15 August 2025
  4. Lancet Countdown begins tracking health harms of plastics
    • A new Lancet Countdown on health and plastics launched a long-term indicator system, reporting health-related economic losses from plastics above US$1.5 trillion a year and production projected to reach 1,200 Mt by 2060.
    • Establishes recurring indicators for plastics exposure and health impacts that can inform monitoring and policy evaluation.
    • The Lancet, 3 August 2025
  5. Reproduction lab
    • Extend the discipline's method with one frontier method and compare its results
    • State the uncertainty and the limits of the result
    • Peer review against a shared checklist
  6. Technology that helps and the risks it carries
    • AI-assisted diagnostics, genomic surveillance and digital health.
    • Ransomware in hospitals, AI medical device risk, biosecurity and neurotechnology.

Labs with Academy tools

Nexus Standards

Teaches

  • NRS-X12 Pollution and environmental health risk
  • NRS-H6 Hazard family: Airborne particles and low visibility
  • NRS-H29 Hazard family: Air pollution episodes
  • NRS-H30 Hazard family: Contaminated water, soil and food
  • NRS-H31 Hazard family: Persistent and bioaccumulative substances
  • NRS-H72 Hazard family: Novel entities and emerging contaminants
  • NRS-H73 Hazard family: Indoor environment hazards
  • NRS-H74 Hazard family: Noise, light and thermal pollution

Relies on

  • NS-1 The UNI and the artefact catalogue
  • NS-16 UNI application profile (how articles, documents, code, data, APIs and interfaces carry the UNI)
  • NRS-C1 Risk vocabulary and ontology
  • NRS-C2 Risk assessment method
  • NRS-C3 Hazard, exposure, vulnerability and capacity data
  • NRS-C4 Risk data model, identifiers and exchange
  • NRS-C7 Early warning, triggers and anticipatory action
  • NRS-C8 Evidence, uncertainty and provenance

Assessment

  • 50%Method reproductionReproduce one frontier method on open data and state the uncertainty of the result
  • 30%Study reviewA critical review of a 2024 to 2026 study: question, data, method, limits, what it changes
  • 20%Peer reviewReview two other learners' reproductions against a shared checklist

Delivery

  • Self-paced online, with the labs in the browser
  • Cohort study over six to eight weeks, with a weekly lab review
  • Co-delivered with a partner institution, inside its own courses

Partner on this course

  • Co-teach a module and bring a current case from your work
  • Host a cohort for your learners, with your own schedule and review
  • Contribute a lab: a dataset your institution publishes openly, or a model
  • Review the course content and its references before it opens
  • Translate the course and adapt its cases to your region

How institutions and experts take part

In the Academy LMS

Course on the learning platform
Expert, 6 topics
Cohort group
A community group for each cohort of learners
Achievement
Recorded on completion of the assessed work

References

  1. World Meteorological Organization, WMO Airborne Dust Bulletin No. 10 – July 2026, 10 July 2026
  2. Health Effects Institute, New State of Global Air 2025 Report Shows Nearly Nine in Ten Global Air Pollution Deaths are from Noncommunicable Diseases, 22 October 2025
  3. United Nations Environment Programme, Talks on global plastic pollution treaty adjourn without consensus, 15 August 2025
  4. The Lancet, The Lancet Countdown on health and plastics, 3 August 2025
  5. World Health Organization, WHO global air quality guidelines, 2021
  6. Dockery and others, An association between air pollution and mortality in six US cities, 1993
  7. Landrigan and others, The Lancet Commission on pollution and health, 2018
05Take part

Take part in the work

Start from who you are.

06Questions

Questions, answers and key terms

Is the course free?
Yes. Every course and learning material of Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium, is free to study, self-paced or with a cohort. Ordinary participation has no fee; paid work, internships and fellowships are separate arrangements.
What does completing a course give me?
A completion record: the course, its version, the date and what was assessed, private by default and shared by you. It stacks into discipline, department and programme achievements. A record states what was studied and assessed and does not certify competence; it is not a licence, a professional title or an employment status.
Where do the data and the places come from?
Every faculty teaches on a twin of a real place built from open data; each layer carries its provider, licence and date, and every result on the Academy states its source. Maps and figures are indicators for teaching, never an assessment of a place.
How do I take part beyond the course?
Form a competence cell of three to seven people, study a shared pathway, take a supervised assignment in the National Working Groups, or bring a cohort from your institution. For organisations.

Key terms

Term

Air quality index

A scale that converts pollutant concentrations into categories with health advice.

Term

Exposure pathway

The route by which a pollutant moves from its source to a person or ecosystem.

Term

Dose-response relationship

How the size of an effect changes with the amount of exposure to a substance.

Term

Persistent organic pollutant

A toxic chemical that resists degradation, accumulates in organisms and travels long distances.

ReportsContribute

Contribute evidence from this page.

Reports is the Consortium's quarterly publication. What you know about this subject can become evidence, a case or a correction in the next edition, credited to you and published under CC BY 4.0 where it is your own work.

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