Air Pollution and Respiratory Health

Dr.P.S.Shajahan MD,DTCD

Secretary, Academy of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine(APCCM).

Associate Professor of Pulmonary Medicine,

 Govt.TD Medical College Alappuzha.

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                         Lungs are essential  for life and the very life starts with respiration and cessation of life is marked by the  last act of breathing.It works continuosly throughout life time without rest even for a second. Despite this fact we never give due importance to the care of this vital organs. Humans probably first experienced harm from air pollution when they built fires in poorly ventilated caves. Since then we have gone on to pollute more of the earth’s surface. Until recently, environmental pollution problems have been local and minor because of the Earth’s own ability to absorb and purify minor quantities of pollutants. The industrialization of society, the introduction of motorized vehicles, and the explosion of the population, are factors contributing toward the growing air pollution problem.

Air pollution, both indoors and outdoors, is a major environmental health problem affecting everyone in developed and developing countries alike and is estimated to cause approximately 2 million premature deaths worldwide per year.

Clean air is our birth right.With the increase in industrialisation and urbanization this is becoming a distant dream.How ever if we are serious about the problems  we can at least reduce the ill effects of air pollution.Many western countries have made spectacular advancements in this field. Air can be polluted in both the city and the villages.In the city, cars, buses and airplanes, as well as industry and construction may cause air pollution. In the country side, dust from tractors plowing fields, trucks and cars driving on dirt or gravel roads, rock quarries and smoke from wood and crop fires may cause air pollution.

The primary air pollutants found in most urban areas are carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, hydrocarbons, chloro fluro carbons and particulate matter (both solid and liquid). These pollutants are dispersed throughout the world’s atmosphere in concentrations high enough to cause health problems. Serious health problems can occur quickly when air pollutants are concentrated.

You cannot escape air pollution, not even in your own home. More than half of the world’s population rely on dung, wood, crop waste or coal to meet their most basic energy needs. Cooking and heating with such solid fuels on open fires or stoves without chimneys leads to indoor air pollution. This indoor smoke contains a range of health-damaging pollutants including small soot or dust particles that are able to penetrate deep into the lungs. In poorly ventilated dwellings, indoor smoke contain small particles hundred times that of out side air.Thus many a time it is more damaging than the outside environment. Exposure is particularly high among women and children, who spend the most time near the domestic hearth. Every year, indoor air pollution is responsible for the death of 1.6 million people – that’s one death every 20 seconds.

The use of polluting fuels thus poses a major burden on the health of poor families in developing countries. The dependence on such fuels is both a cause and a result of poverty as poor households often do not have the resources to obtain cleaner, more efficient fuels and appliances.

The other sources of indoor air pollution include mold and microbe-harboring air conditioning systems and ducts, cleaning fluids, cigarette smoke, carpet, paint, vinyl molding, linoleum tile, and building materials and furniture that emit air pollutants such as formaldehyde. A major indoor air pollutant is radon-222, a naturally occurring radioactive gas produced by the radioactive decay of uranium-238. Radon exposure is a cause of  great concern as it is an important factor in the developementof  lung cancer.

What are the health effects?

Air pollution can irritate the eyes, throat and lungs. Burning eyes, cough and chest tightness are common with exposure to high levels of air pollution.

Different people  react very differently to air pollution. Some people may notice chest tightness or cough, while others may not notice any effects. Because exercise requires faster, deeper breathing, it may make the symptoms worse. People who have heart disease, or lung disease, such as asthma or emphysema and older people , may be very sensitive to air pollution exposure, and may notice symptoms when others do not. Children  feel the effects of lower levels of pollution than adults. They also experience more illness, such as bronchitis and earaches, in areas of high pollution than in areas with cleaner air.

The exposure to air pollution increases the risk of pneumonia and exacerbation of asthma among children, and chronic respiratory diseases like chronic bronchitis,emphysema and lung cancer among adults. Data also suggest  an association between air pollution and adverse pregnancy outcomes, particularly increased number of abortions, low birth weight and neonatal deaths.Increase icidence of ischaemic heart disease and nasopharyngeal and laryngeal cancers,cataracts and tuberculosis are also reported with the decrease in the quality of breathing air.

We have seen the direct effects of air pollution.What about the indirect dangers? Air pollution contribute significantly to the threat of the era- Global warming.The increased menace of mosquitoes , reappearance of  the socalled controlled infections and emergence of new infections, increase incidence of skin cancers and asthma  etc are  oneway or otherway related to the effect of global warming.

Reducing  Air Pollution

Exposure to air pollutants is largely beyond the control of individuals and requires action by public authorities at the national, regional and international levels. Health education to increase public awareness   and legislative measures do a lot. The WHO has set an upper limit for various pollutants in air to protect the public from the health effects of this agents.Srict measures to monitor the industrial emissions, control of motor vehicle emissions by updating permissible amounts of various toxic agents, promoting public transport system,etc will help to curb this growing menace. We the citizens  can  also help to reduce global air pollution. Measures such as replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, walking  or bycycling  to travel a short distance instead of using a bike or car, planting  trees and avoid purchasing products that contain chloro fluro carbons will give a helping hand to the authorities in reducing air pollution.

Remember -No one is safe until every one is safe.Air pollution do not spare anybody.You can’t confine to your home and avoid the  illeffects.Bad quality air  affects not only the lungs, but the smooth functioning of other vital organs as well and makes life miserable. Earth is everybody’s home and nobody likes living in a polluted home. Together, we can make the earth a cleaner, healthier and more pleasant place to live.