AIR pollution is made up of many kinds of gases, droplets and particles that reduce the quality of the air that people breathe.
Air can be polluted in both the city and the countryside.
In the city, cars, buses and airplanes, as well as industry and construction may cause air pollution.
In the countryside, dust from tractors ploughing fields, trucks and cars driving on dirt or gravel roads, rock quarries and smoke from wood and crop fires may cause air pollution.
Ground-level ozone is the major part of air pollution in most cities.
Ground-level ozone is created when engine and fuel gases already released into the air interact when sunlight hits them.
Ozone levels increase in cities when the air is still, the sun is bright and the temperature is warm.
Ground-level ozone should not be confused with the “good” ozone that is miles up in the atmosphere and that protects us from the sun’s harmful radiation.
But what symptoms do air pollution cause?
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 can 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, such as angina (chest pain), or lung disease, such as asthma or emphysema, may be very sensitive to air pollution exposure, and may notice symptoms when others do not.
Fortunately for most healthy people, the symptoms of air pollution exposure usually go away as soon as the air quality improves.
However, certain groups of people are more sensitive to the effects of air pollution than others.
Children probably 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.
People with heart or lung disease also react more severely to polluted air.
During times of heavy pollution, their condition may worsen to the point that they must limit their activities or even seek additional medical care.
In the past, a number of deaths have been associated with severely polluted conditions.
The health effects of long-term exposure to low levels of air pollution are currently being studied.
You can protect yourself and your family from the effects of air pollution by doing the following:
Stay indoors as much as you can during days when pollution levels are high.
Many pollutants have lower levels indoors than outdoors.
If you must go outside, limit outside activity to the early morning hours or wait until after sunset.
This is important in high ozone conditions (such as in large cities) because sunshine increases ozone levels.
Don’t exercise or exert yourself outdoors when air-quality reports indicate unhealthy conditions.
The faster you breathe, the more pollution you take into your lungs.
These steps will generally prevent symptoms in healthy adults and children.
However, if you live or work close to a known pollution source, or if you have a chronic heart or lung problem, talk with your doctor about other ways to protect yourself from air pollution.
Long-term health effects of exposure to polluted air can include chronic respiratory disease, lung cancer, heart disease, and even damage to the brain, nerves, liver, or kidneys.
Continual exposure to air pollution affects the lungs of growing children and may aggravate or complicate medical conditions in the elderly.
Researchers say the fine particles less than 2.5 micrometres in diameter that are released into the air by the burning of fossil fuels, such as gasoline, wood, and coal, pose the greatest health risk because they can penetrate deep into the lungs and sometimes enter the bloodstream and lead to heart attack or stroke.
In addition, the risk of death from diabetes was more than two times higher in areas of high air pollution, although the numbers of diabetes-related deaths was less reliable due to their smaller numbers.
People who are diabetic may be more susceptible to day-to-day fluctuations in air pollution, they may experience a state of greater inflammation related to insulin resistance that makes their lungs more receptive to receiving harmful particles. — Own Correspondent.
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