Regulation of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) in the Pacific Rim: perspectives from the APRU Global Health Program Chang-Fu Wu 1 & Alistair Woodward 2 & Ya-Ru Li 1 & Haidong Kan 3 & Rajasekhar Balasubramanian 4 & Mohd Talib Latif 5 & Mazrura Sahani 6 & Tsun-Jen Cheng 7 & Chia-Pin Chio 7 & Nutta Taneepanichskul 8 & Ho Kim 9 & Chang-Chuan Chan 7,10 & Seung-Muk Yi 9 & Mellissa Withers 11 & Jonathan Samet 11 Received: 17 March 2017 /Accepted: 28 June 2017 # Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2017 Abstract While the development of evidence-based air qual- ity standards for airborne particulate matter (PM) for Europe and North America is well-documented, the standard-setting processes in other regions are less well characterized. Many Pacific Rim economies suffer from severe and worsening air pollution. Particulate matter less than 2.5 μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM 2.5 ) is associated with acute and chronic health effects and is a widely used air quality indicator. This paper reports on PM regulation in selected Pacific Rim economies, focusing on PM 2.5 , and provides recommen- dations on air quality regulation to economies without current standards Through workshops held by the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) Global Health Program, experts in air pollution from eight universities in eight Pacific Rim economies char- acterized current PM 2.5 standards and monitoring in their economies, and then collaboratively created recom- mendations. A great diversity of air pollution exposures exists in the Pacific Rim. While some economies expe- rience low levels of exposure, others have PM levels that are among the highest in the world. The health effects of air pollution are a concern everywhere, but few economies carry out in-depth, local impact assess- ments and comprehensive air quality monitoring to pro- vide evidence for guidelines and standards. The devel- opment of regulations and policies addressing PM 2.5 pollution is urgently needed in many Pacific Rim econ- omies. The international literature provides a robust guide to local risks and should be used, in combination with country-specific population-directed air monitoring, to guide decisions on policies addressing this important global health problem. Keywords Particulate matter . Pacific Rim . APRU Global Health Program * Jonathan Samet jsamet@med.usc.edu 1 Department of Public Health, Institute of Environmental Health, Institute of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China 2 Section of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Population Health, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand 3 School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai, China 4 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore 5 School of Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia 6 Environmental Health and Industrial Safety Program, School of Diagnostic Science and Applied Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 50300 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 7 Institute of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China 8 College of Public Health Sciences (CPHS), Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand 9 Graduate School of Public Health and Institute of Health and Environment, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea 10 Division of Environmental Health and Occupational Medicine, National Health Research Institutes, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China 11 Department of Preventive Medicine, Institute for Global Health, University of Southern California, 2001 N Soto Street SSB330A, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA Air Qual Atmos Health DOI 10.1007/s11869-017-0492-x