Air Pollution as a Major Health Threat
Air pollution has become one of the greatest environmental threats to human health. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 7 million people die globally each year from air pollution-related illnesses, primarily respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
89% of the world’s population breathes air that does not meet WHO air quality guidelines. This stark reality has prompted urgent action from the global health community. In March 2025, more than 47 million health professionals, patients, and advocates signed an appeal calling for urgent action to reduce air pollution and protect people’s health from its destructive effects.
Perspective Shift: From Treatment to Prevention
In the field of global health governance, a profound shift in mindset is underway: the focus of medical work is shifting from traditional “passive response” to more proactive “source prevention.” This shift is particularly evident in the field of air pollution control.
At the 78th World Health Assembly, this concept gained substantial support—member states jointly adopted a new roadmap for action and established clear, quantifiable targets: to reduce the harmful effects of air pollution on human health by 50% by 2040. This is the first concrete target set by the international community in the field of environment and health, marking a new stage of precision and quantification in global air governance.
This target not only provides a clear direction for action but also innovatively constructs a complete policy framework to guide countries in developing targeted protection strategies, with particular attention to the health rights of highly vulnerable groups such as children, the elderly, and patients with chronic diseases.
HEPA/ULPA technology may become a core solution.
HEPA/ULPA filtration technology, due to its superior efficiency in capturing fine particulate matter, has become one of the key technologies for addressing the challenge of air pollution. These filtration systems can effectively remove fine particulate matter from the air, significantly reducing the risk of respiratory infectious diseases.
In medical environments, the application of these technologies has demonstrated significant effects. After the adoption of ULPA filters in hospital operating rooms, the infection rate at surgical sites has significantly decreased. Studies have shown that HEPA/ULPA technology achieves a 99.999% interception efficiency for viral aerosols in the 0.1-0.3 micrometer range, providing crucial protection for immunocompromised patients.
HEPA/ULPA technology has now transcended the boundaries of medical institutions, entering critical public spaces such as schools and public transportation. Installing HEPA purifiers in classrooms can reduce student absenteeism due to illness by 25% and significantly reduce community transmission rates during flu season.
HEPA/ULPA Technical Standards and Global Harmonization
During the summit, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), in conjunction with the World Health Organization (WHO), promoted the development of the “Global Technical Specification for Air Filtration in Medical Environments.” This specification, for the first time, unifies differences among countries in filtration efficiency, testing methods, and monitoring standards. For example, traditional filter testing often uses 0.3 micrometers as the standard particle size, while the MPPS test requires scanning the entire particle size spectrum to ensure efficiency is met at the most penetrating particle size before labeling the corresponding filtration level. This precise testing method provides a scientific basis for the performance evaluation of HEPA/ULPA filters.
From Policy to Practice: Global Clean Air Action
Unified Standards: At the Second Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health, countries pledged to develop and implement stricter air quality standards aligned with the WHO Global Air Quality Guidelines.
Shared Data: The WHO, in collaboration with the Swiss Institute for Tropical and Public Health, released an updated 2025 Global Air Quality Database, incorporating standard data from approximately 140 countries, providing a benchmark for global collaborative governance.
HEPA/ULPA technology is transitioning from specialized medical equipment to public health infrastructure. Its value is no longer limited to individual patients or specific spaces, but rather forms the cornerstone of respiratory infectious disease prevention and control for the entire human society. As Trenntech firmly believes, clean air is not a luxury, but a fundamental human right, and Trenntech has an undeniable responsibility to improve the planet’s air quality.