DANGERS OF AIR POLLUTION

Do you know that the air we breathe in is not always pure?

Some places are polluted with dust, noise, fumes from cigarettes, smoke stacks of power plants, gas flaring, manufacturing facilities from factories and waste incinerators, as well as furnaces and other types of fuel-burning heating devices.

Air pollution is a major environment-related health threat to children and a risk factor for both acute and chronic respiratory disease.

According to World Health Organisation, air pollution is estimated to cause 1.3 million deaths worldwide per year.

Many of us experience some kind of air pollution-related symptoms such as watery eyes, coughing, or wheezing. Even for healthy people, polluted air can cause respiratory irritation or breathing difficulties during exercise or outdoor activities. Your actual risk depends on your current health status, the pollutant type and concentration, and the length of your exposure to the polluted air.

People most susceptible to severe health problems from air pollution are:

Individuals with heart disease - such as coronary artery disease or congestive heart failure, individuals with lung disease - such as asthma, emphysema or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), Pregnant women, Outdoor workers, Children under age 14, whose lungs are still developing and athletes who exercise vigorously outdoors.

Air pollution can cause immediate health problems such as aggravated cardiovascular and respiratory illness, additional stress to heart and lungs making them work harder to supply the body with oxygen, damaged cells in the respiratory system.

While long-term exposure to polluted air can have permanent health effects on individuals. These effects are accelerated aging of the lungs, loss of lung capacity, decreased lung function, development of diseases such as asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, and possibly cancer and   shortened life span.

The World Health Organisation is providing technical support to countries in their own evaluations and scale up of promoting safer stove technologies, as well as air quality guidelines to offer global guidance on reducing the health impacts of air pollution.

NAHIMAT