It hardly needs pointing out that air pollution badly affects an individual’s health. But a new study reveals that radical improvements in health occurred due to reduced air pollution in a number of countries around the world.
Some of the studies have linked air pollution to a number of major and minor health conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.
Importantly, decreasing pollution cuts mortality and asthma as well.
One of the study’s key results is about the effects of outlawing smoking in Ireland. The report discovered a 14% decrease in death from any cause, a 28% dip in the incidence of ischemic heart disease, and a 35% reduction in cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Household air pollution kills a whopping 5 million people a year and tends to impact countries in Africa and Asia, where contaminated fuels and technologies are used every day mostly at home for cooking, heating and lighting.
The study also reveals the results of closing a steel mill in Utah for 13 months, where hospitals experienced reduced cases for pneumonia, bronchitis, and asthma, predominantly among children.
Shutting down the steel mill also reduced school absenteeism by 40% and cut daily mortality, while halving the concentration of toxins in the air.
Lastly, women who were pregnant during the closure were far less likely to have premature babies than those who were pregnant prior to or after it.
By the same token, when China levied factory and travel restrictions for the Beijing Olympics, lung function improved within a couple of months, with fewer asthma-related physician visits and less death rate due to heart disease.
Moreover, plummeting air pollution within the home also resulted in health benefits. Air pollution is also associated with climate change, and efforts to alleviate one can improve the other.
Why public health action is immediately needed
The research’s major author says that Air pollution is a largely preventable health risk that affects everyone.
The author also warns that urban growth, increasing industrialization, global warming, and new knowledge of the damage of air pollution are among the aspects that raise the level of urgency for pollution control and emphasize the consequences of dithering.
The author also states that decreasing air pollution can lead to quick and considerable health benefits.
Air pollution badly affects health, with one third of deaths happening from lung cancer and cardiovascular disease are because of this. Air pollution is difficult to ignore, regardless of how wealthy an area you live in. It is omnipresent, seriously affecting people’s health. Microscopic contaminants in the air can slip past our body’s defenses, permeating deep into our respiratory and cardiovascular system, damaging our lungs, heart and brain.