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As the COVID restrictions ease, and the world goes about its business as usual, pollution season is back – and with a vengeance.
In the short run, breathing in air pollutants can irritate your airways and may cause shortness of breath, coughing, wheezing, asthma episodes and chest pain.
Prolonged exposure can lead to serious:
Lung damage
Risk of bronchitis
Asthma, particularly in children
“I don’t remember when I last saw a pink lung in the operation theatre. And the clinical manifestation of that is the increase in the number of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) cases,” remarks Dr Aravind Kumar, Chairman of the Institute of Chest Surgery and Lung Transplantation at Gurugram's Medanta Hospital.
Mounting evidence suggests exposure to lead, PM2.5 particles, and ozone from air pollution may be a key factor in causing:
Increased risk of stroke
Cognitive issues like dementia
Parkinson's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Exposure to air pollution can increase the risk of serious mental health issues such as schizophrenia and depression, found a recent study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry.
In the short run, air pollution mainly worsens pre-existing heart conditions in the elderly and vulnerable, and ups the risk of heart attacks.
In the long run, pollution is also believed to have inflammatory effects on the heart, causing chronic cardiovascular problems.
Because the ecosystem in our guts is so complex, it can be difficult to pin down exactly what is causing a disbalance and stomach issues.
Urban airborne particulate matter (PM) ingested via contaminated food can lead to inflammation in the gut and alter gut microbiome and immune function.
In the past years, infertility has soared up, with little explanation.
However, researchers are now turning to air pollution as a possible cause for this uptick.
Strong evidence also links air pollution to a higher risk of miscarriages, and premature birth.
Air pollution has also been linked to anaemia in women in middle and lower-income countries. Every ten microgram/meter cube increases in ambient PM2.5 exposure, the average anaemia prevalence among women increases by 7.23 percent.
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