Every Breath You Take

Exploring the Science of Our Changing Atmosphere

Mark Broomfield

A leading authority in the field takes readers on a fascinating and surprising journey through the atmosphere—from our lungs to outer space—that will leave readers breathless.

With seven million early deaths each year linked to air pollution, air quality is headline news around the world. But even though we breathe in and out every few seconds, few of us really know what’s in the air all around us. In Every Breath You Take, air quality specialist—and full-time breather—Dr. Mark Broom connects the dots from the atmosphere on distant planets to the holes in the ozone layer to the particles in our lungs.

How do we measure air pollution and what on earth is an odor panel? Why are property prices higher upwind of cities? And will our grandchildren inherit an atmosphere worth breathing? With keen insights on the atmospheric effects of climate change, industrial air pollution, and urbanization in the twenty-first century, Every Breath You Take combines the latest scientific research with Mark’s personal stories to answer these questions and many more in a readable and surprising journey through the atmosphere.

Mark Broomfield has a PhD in atmospheric chemistry and has specialized in air quality, odor, and health issues since 1992. He has been a researcher for the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency and an evaluator for the UK Government’s Expert Panel on Air Quality Standards. This is his first book. He lives in Shrewsbury, England.

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Endorsements & Reviews

“With this illuminating volume, Broomfield brings readers on a ‘theoretical journey through the atmosphere’ in accessible and sometimes wry prose. Broomfield’s helpful look at the air up there, thanks to its breezy tone and solid insights, will make the links between pollution and health both tangible and intriguing to a general audience.” Publishers Weekly

"A fascinating read." Professor Duncan Laxen, Associate of Air Quality Consultants

"Written in an easily accessible style yet gets across important facts about the world and what we are doing to it." Peter Wadhams, author of A Farewell to Ice

"Just the breath of fresh air needed to lift the fog on atmospheric sciences." Piers Forster, Professor of Physical Climate Change, University of Leeds

Broomfield...reminds readers that before global warming caused by greenhouse gases became a universal preoccupation, scientists studying the atmosphere worried about air pollution. Most greenhouse gases are not poisonous. This is definitely not the case with pollutants, which cause as many premature deaths as smoking. The good news is that, unlike the case with global warming, the battle against air pollution has seen genuine progress…A useful primer on the science of air pollution. Kirkus Review