Seeking underestimated pathways of human exposure to atmospheric pollutants

Unregulated emission sources and underestimated pathways of exposure to atmospheric pollutants represent a hidden threat for human health, especially when carcinogenic compounds are involved. The identification of the most critical situations in terms of exposure allows the detection of the priorities of intervention to preserve the human health, which is the first step towards the definition of new criteria for an environmental regulation that respects the concepts of exposure and acceptable cancer risk. Once the priorities of intervention will have been detected, appropriate and innovative mitigation strategies must be developed and applied to minimize the impacts.