we need to strike the balance – it is important for clinicians to draw on their experience and expertise for their areas of interest public health approaches will be broader. We need both. We must be careful that clinical approaches to health inequality aren’t positioned so far downstream that some groups miss out on interventions that could benefit all people, but we also need to ensure that a population health approach does not pass certain people by because of the characteristics of their disease. The final section, section three, focuses on certain aspects of global respiratory health and possible approaches to solving these. The global burden of illness and suffering from lung ill-health is immense, and in these chapters we touch on some of the key problems at the moment, including child health [12] and TB [13]. We also recognise that environmental health differs around the world, and this in itself will drive huge amounts of illness. We are excited to share a chapter relating to air pollution in this section [14]. We close with chapters that consider broader approaches to tackling problems of respiratory inequality – namely quality improvement [15], human rights [16] and a global strategy. The ethos of these chapters is to outline that alongside interventions discussed in other parts of the Monograph, we should think creatively, societally and critically about how to drive both upstream and downstream change. For example, if we wish to improve respiratory outcomes in women, we should be considering approaches through different lenses – those grounded in quality improvement at a local and national level those which frame the issue as one of women’s rights and those which consider a global approach to the problem. We are immensely grateful for all the hard work that has gone into the preparation of this Monograph. We are excited to share the chapters with you, and are sure you will find them as stimulating and informative as we did. The list of authors is geographically and professionally diverse, and the chapters are a reflection of how much expertise there is in the field of respiratory inequalities. The people who assisted with peer review have been incredibly helpful in honing these chapters, and we remain thankful for their input. The excellent team at the ERS Monograph have continuously offered support and advice, and we are grateful to Peter M.A. Calverley, John R. Hurst, Rachel Gozzard and Caroline Ashford-Bentley, not just for their expert guidance, but also for their persistence and organisational skills in keeping such a large project on track. It has been a privilege to commission, read, review and edit the chapters in this Monograph – we hope you find them as useful and informative as we did. References 1 Strane D, Bryant-Stephens T. Housing and respiratory health: exposures, health effects and interventions. In: Sinha IP, Lee A, Katikireddi SV, et al., eds. Inequalities in Respiratory Health (ERS Monograph). Sheffield, European Respiratory Society, 2023 pp. 68–79. 2 Abrams EM. Food insecurity and respiratory ill health. In: Sinha IP, Lee A, Katikireddi SV, et al., eds. Inequalities in Respiratory Health (ERS Monograph). Sheffield, European Respiratory Society, 2023 pp. 61–67. 3 Grigg J. Air pollution and respiratory inequality: lessons from high-income countries. In: Sinha IP, Lee A, Katikireddi SV, et al., eds. Inequalities in Respiratory Health (ERS Monograph). Sheffield, European Respiratory Society, 2023 pp. 51–60. 4 Zhang X, Quint JK, Whittaker H. Inequalities in respiratory health based on sex and gender. In: Sinha IP, Lee A, Katikireddi SV, et al., eds. Inequalities in Respiratory Health (ERS Monograph). Sheffield, European Respiratory Society, 2023 pp. 40–50. 5 Tibble H, Daines L, Sheikh A. Ethnic, racial and migrant inequalities in respiratory health. In: Sinha IP, Lee A, Katikireddi SV, et al., eds. Inequalities in Respiratory Health (ERS Monograph). Sheffield, European Respiratory Society, 2023 pp. 26–39. xii https://doi.org/10.1183/2312508X.10002623