Particulate matter (PM) is a complex mixture of particles with different adverse effects on health, especially on the cardiovascular (CV) risk and disease (e.g., increased risk of total and CV mortality, ischemic heart disease, heart failure, stroke, hypertension, dyslipidemia and type 2 diabetes). Since oxidative stress (OS) and inflammation are the main key mechanisms by which PM exerted its biological effects on health, several oxidative and inflammatory-related biomarkers have been measured and associated with PM; abnormalities in these parameters in relation to PM highlight the key role of this relationship in terms of adverse health effects, including CV conditions. Antioxidant strategies might prevent/reverse, almost partly, CV effects related to PM exposure, by addressing OS and inflammation, although the clinical gain of these interventional tools is not yet clearly demonstrated. This review aims to summarize PM source and composition, discussing OS and inflammatory events associated with environmental PM exposure as key mechanistic determinants of CV risk and acute event precipitation. Moreover, the modifying potential of antioxidants, especially in subjects more susceptible to the adverse effects of air pollution and/or more highly exposed, will be discussed as a promising research area beyond conventional strategies actually available to prevent the harmful effects of PM (e.g., reduction of pollution sources and population exposure, assessment of air quality standards) in order to better face this dark triad composed of PM, OS and CV disease.

Mineral dust from desert areas accounts for a large portion of aerosols globally, estimated at 3–4 billion tons per year. Aerosols emitted from arid and semi-arid areas, e.g., from parched lakes or rivers, are transported over long distances and have effects on a global scale, affecting the planet’s radiative balance, atmospheric chemistry, cloud formation and precipitation, marine biological processes, air quality, and human health. Desert dust transport takes place in the atmosphere as the result of a dynamical sequence beginning with dust uplift from desert areas, then followed by the long-range transport and terminating with the surface deposition of mineral dust in areas even very far from dust sources. The Mediterranean basin is characterized by frequent dust intrusion events, particularly affecting Spain, France, Italy, and Greece. Such events contribute to the increase in PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 concentration values, causing legal threshold values to be exceeded. In recent years, these events have shown a non-negligible increase in frequency and intensity. The present work reports the results of an analysis of the dust events that in recent years (2018–2023) affected the Mediterranean area and in particular central Italy, focusing on the more recurrent meteorological configurations leading to long-range transport and on the consequent increase in aerosol concentration values. A method for desert intrusion episodes identification has been developed using both numerical forecast model data and PM₁₀ observed data. A multi-year dataset has been analyzed by applying such an identification method and the resulting set of dust events episodes, affecting central Italy, has been studied in order to highlight their frequency on a seasonal basis and their interannual variability. In addition, a first attempt at a meteorological classification of desert intrusions has been carried out to identify the most recurrent circulation patterns related to dust intrusions. Understanding their annual and seasonal variations in frequency and intensity is a key topic, whose relevance is steeply growing in the context of ongoing climate change.