This Topic Guide covers chemical pollutants and disease-causing agents in the home, workplace, and wider city. It also includes consideration of GHG emissions in urban areas; most are not pollutants in the sense of having a direct impact on human health or ecological resources but they are the main drivers of climate change. Most urban inhabitants in low-and middle-income nations suffer very large (and mostly preventable) health burdens from urban pollution. The main cause of this is a lack of capacity and competence within urban governments to meet their responsibilities for ensuring environmental health, waste management, and pollution control. This is often exacerbated by a lack of local government accountability to those living in their jurisdiction. Urban economies and populations have grown far faster than the needed (mostly local) government capacity.