How air pollution destroys our health

Air pollution is a pressing global issue with significant implications for public health. This research paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of the impact of air pollution on public health, focusing on various pollutants, their sources, and associated health effects. Through an extensive literature review, this paper examines the current state of air pollution globally, its adverse health effects, vulnerable populations, and strategies for mitigation. Key findings underscore the urgent need for collaborative efforts to address air pollution and protect public health.

2011

Bridging the Gap from Sources to Health Outcomes," an international specialty conference sponsored by the American Association for Aerosol Research, was held to address key uncertainties in our understanding of adverse health effects related to air pollution and to integrate and disseminate results from recent scientific studies that cut across a range of air pollution-related disciplines. The Conference addressed the science of air pollution and health within a multipollutant framework (herein "multipollutant" refers to gases and particulate matter mass, components, and physical properties), focusing on five key science areas: sources, atmospheric sciences, exposure, dose, and health effects. Eight key policy-relevant science questions integrated across various parts of the five science areas and a ninth question regarding findings that provide policy-relevant insights served as the framework for the meeting. Results synthesized from this Conference provide new evidence, reaffirm past findings, and offer guidance for future research efforts that will continue to incrementally advance the science required for reducing uncertainties in linking sources, air pollutants, human exposure, and health effects. This paper summarizes the Conference findings organized around the science questions. A number of key points emerged from the Conference findings. First, there is a need for greater focus on multipollutant science and management approaches that include more direct studies of the mixture of pollutants from sources with an emphasis on health studies at ambient concentrations. Further, a number of research groups reaffirmed a need for better understanding of biological mechanisms and apparent associations of various health effects with components of particulate matter (PM), such as elemental carbon (EC), certain organic species, ultrafine particles, and certain trace elements such as Ni, V, and Fe(II), as well as some gaseous pollutants. Although much debate continues in this area, generation of reactive oxygen species induced by these and other species present in air pollution and the resulting oxidative stress and inflammation were reiterated as key pathways leading to respiratory and cardiovascular outcomes. The Conference also underscored significant advances in understanding the susceptibility of populations, including the role of genetics and epigenetics and the influence of socioeconomic and other confounding factors and their synergistic interactions with air pollutants. Participants also pointed out that short-and long-term intervention episodes that reduce pollution from sources and improve air quality continue to indicate that when pollution decreases so do reported adverse health effects. In the limited number of cases where specific sources or PM 2.5 species were included in investigations, specific species are often associated with the decrease in effects. Other recent advances for improved exposure estimates for epidemiological studies included using new technologies such as microsensors combined with cell phone and integrated into real-time communications, hybrid air quality modeling such as combined receptor-and emissions-based models, and surface observations used with remote sensing such as satellite data.

Air pollution is a major environmental health problem affecting the developing and the developed countries. Air pollution occurs when the air contains gases, dust, fumes or odour in harmful amounts. That is, amounts which could be harmful to the health or comfort of humans and animals or which could cause damage to plants and materials. Air pollutants mainly occur as a result of gaseous discharges from industry and motor vehicles. There are also natural sources such as wind-blown dust and smoke from fires. Some forms of air pollution create global problems, such as upper atmosphere ozone depletion and global warming. These problems are very complex, and require international cooperative efforts to find solutions. Industry is another major contributor to air pollution in India. By introducing better technology and industrial practices which enabled compliance with standards set by Environmental protection agency(EPA). Today, EPA is providing support and direction for companies to adopt cleaner production technology and practices. An ESP, electrostatic precipitator is a particulate collection device that removes particles from a gas stream using the force of an induced electrostatic charge. the air pollutants predictions or estimations are carried out as part of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) studies. EPA, ESP and EIA helps us to preserve our earth from pollution.

The impact of Air Pollution on Family and Children's Academic Performance, 2022

Exposure to outdoor air pollution is putting children at greater risk of: - Leukemia (incuding also lyphoblastic leukemia). - Cancer (all kind of cancer including brain's cancer). - Lung. - Germ-cell tumors. - Lymphoma (including also Burkitt lymphoma). Unfortunately, WHO (2018) found that globally, 93% of the world's children under 15 years of age are exposed to ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) levels above WHO air quality guidelines, which include the 630 million of children under 5 year of age, and 1.8 billion of children under 15 years. As a result, WHO (2018) found that air pollution is one of the leading threats to child health, accounting for almost 1 in 10 deaths in children under five years of age. Furthermore, about 600 000 deaths in children under 15 years of age were attributed to the joint effects of ambient and household air pollution in 2016. Unfortunately, exposure to air pollution can also stimulate significant cumulative life course effects. Furthermore, exposure to air pollution just before or after conception raises risk of birth defects. However, there are significant disparities that need to be taken into account. In fact, in Texas and California, maternal residential proximity to hazardous wastes and industrial sites has been associated with birth defects such as reduced length, birth weight, increased concentrations of glucose and free fatty acids in plasma, enhanced lipid accumulation in the liver, decreased endothelium-dependent relaxation of aorta, major congenital anomalies mainly for underpresented minorities including Hispanic, African Americans, American Indian or Alaska Native and Pacific Islander. Nevertheless, in Canada, Généreux M et al. (2008) found that risks for preterm and low birth weight births in relation to maternal residential proximity to highways were strongest among highly educated women and women who lived in wealthy neighborhoods. Unfortunately, as cumulative life course effects and birth defects were not enough, exposure to air pollution is affecting reproduction health. In fact, air pollution affects fertility by: - Stimulating spermatogenesis impairment (for the men). - Reducing fertility in women due to adverse effects on ovarian steroidogenesis and gametogenis-accelerating reproductive ageing and increasing the odds of menstrual cycle irregularity. Furthermore, exposure to air pollution damages men's ability to perform in the bedroom. In fact, there's a strong, significant and positive association within regular exposure to toxic car fumes with higher rates of erectile dysfunction (ED). This trend could be worsen with a simultaneous Century of Urbanization and Prosperity Age. Accordingly, the University of Wisconsin Health (2019) found that ED affects about 10% of men per decade of life. For example, 50% of men in their 50s are affected by ED. Unfortunately, as a most urbanized and prosperous nation of the World, US also seems to lead the race to ED. In fact, according to Michael Sand (2004), in one study of eight countries, the US has the highest rate of self-reported ED (22%). Furthermore, ED is also worsening the risk of Urban-related Diseases. Therefore, overall, by negatively impacting fertility and reproduction health on one hand and putting children and adults at a greater risk of Urban-related Diseases on the second hand, exposure to air pollution due to the rise of the oil-centric economy and civilization since the 18th century is affecting familiy (family structure) while increasing the high risk of demographic deficit and Health crisis in the most urbanized, industrialized and prosperous nations of the world. These above crises could be worsened by the Educational and Talents Crises. In fact, beside the high risk of Mental Health and Behavioral Disorders of the adults, exposure to air pollution impacts negatively the cognitive performance of children. In fact, many schools and students in US and around the world are at a greater risk of breathing polluted air. By doing so, high concentrations of pollutants is affecting children's learning process by exacerbating respiratory illness, fatigue, absenteeism and attention problems. Furthermore, some ecological studies have demonstrated that higher school-level pollution is associated with lower aggregate school-level standardized test scores at school, likely related to increased respiratory illnesses and/or impaired cognitive development. Moreover: - Exposure to air pollution is worsening the already existing STEM-ICTS-Analytics competencies deficit. - Exposure to air pollution is also worsening the already existing gender, racial and social educational gap. Empirically, in US, in 2011, Kerry Ard et al. (2011) investigate the positive association within exposure to air pollution and students ' poor academic performance in many schools in Michigan. They found that while 44% of white students in the state were affected, 82% of African American students and 62% of Latin students were affected, results that show that children of color are more at risk of negative effects (negative effects on health and academic performance) from air pollution than white students. Furthermore, K12-Learning Liftoff (2019) also found that when schools are categorized by students' income levels and the racial mix of families served, it's clear that the problem is more pronounced for low-income students and students of color. Moreover, beside the exposure of student-age population to air pollution and its associated negative impact on their academic performance, there's a cumulative damage of exposure to air pollution that increases the risk of "Reproduction of socio-economic inequalities" for the Peripheral Populations and Spaces because all the generations of children's of lower and moderate income workforce are at the high risk of poor academic performance due to the polluted enviroment in which they were born and grew up. Key Words: Exposure to Indoor and Outdoor Air Polluion; Children's Chronic Diseases; Cumulative Life Course Effects; Bird Defects; Disparities in Birth Defects; Reproduction Health; Erectile Dysfunction; Century of Urbanization; Prosperity Age; Oil-centric Economy and Civilization; Family; Demographic Deficit; Health Crisis; Most Urbanized, Industrialized and Prosperous Nations; Educational and Talents Crises; Cognitive Performance of Children; Reproduction of socio-economic inequalities.

International journal Environmental Analysis & Ecology Studies , 2019

Air pollution is global environmental problem that influences mostly health of urban population. Over the past few decades, epidemiological studies have demonstrated adverse health effects due to higher ambient levels of air pollution. Studies have indicated that repeated exposures to ambient air pollutants over a prolonged period of time increases the risk of being susceptible to air borne diseases such as cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, and lung cancer (WHO, 2009). Air pollution has been consistently linked to substantial burdens of ill-health in developed and developing countries. The growth of population, industry and number of vehicles and improper implementation of stringent emission standards had made the problem still worse. This mini review is an attempt to visualize what we are going to face due to air pollution in future.