Effects of Air Pollution on Human Health

The immediate effects of air pollution are hard to ignore. Watery eyes, coughing and difficulty in breathing are acute and common reactions. An estimated 92 percent of the world’s population live in areas with dangerous levels of air pollution and even at seemingly imperceptible levels. Air pollution can increase risk of cardiovascular and premature death.

Air pollution is almost as deadly as tobacco and it might harm you even before you take your first breath. Exposure to high levels of air pollution during pregnancy has been linked to miscarriages as well as premature birth and asthma in children. Air pollution may damage children’s brain development and pneumonia which kills almost 1 million children under the age of 5 every year is associated with air pollution. Children who breathe in higher levels of pollutants also face a greater risk of short-term respiratory infections and lung damage. Other conditions associated with high levels of air pollution include lung cancer.

Pollutants can affect cardiovascular health by hardening the arteries and increase the risk of heart attack. While air pollution is link to respiratory disease may seem obvious, its relationship to heart, brain and fetal health is less so. There are at least two possible mechanisms by which air pollution can harm parts of the body besides the nasal cavity and lungs.

When the toxic soup of chemical particles and liquid droplets emitted by cars, power plants, fires and factories known as particulate matter is inhaled. The microscopic toxic dust can irritate nasal passages and result in an allergic-type response to the pollution with symptoms like coughing and a runny nose. Scientists believe that the particles make their way deeper into the airways and into the lungs.

When you have a bad head cold, you feel sick everywhere and your muscles might ache. The same thing can happen when you breathe in pollution. Scientists also suspect that some toxic particles can escape the lungs and enter the bloodstream. Then the Question is what's stopping us? We can clean up the air and we should all have a stake in it. We need to manage it well.

Look for more on these topics soon.